The "open grid" idea suggested by Looney worked for the World Cup, but for the other races tonight it didn't work as well. It'll be tweaked in the future.
Anyway, the first title of the year was decided on 15th April at the debuting Cowdenbeath with the 2016 World Cup. Eighteen drivers turned up for the meeting, including a full contact debut for 337 Manhire and a full LFS Bangers debut for new American driver 02 YoungGun; 307 Foster also made a return after a few months away. I was a bit disappointed that out of the top 20 qualified drivers, eight did not turn up; however, the recent forum issues may have caused this to happen so I can fully understand if people were not aware of the meeting. Cowdenbeath was a decent track and provided a lot of wrecking action... well, once the World Cup had finished!
Under the new rules for title meetings, a Last Chance Qualifier took place with six drivers in contention for a place in the final. Those six were 02 YoungGun, 83 Jordan N., 312 Mr. T-Bone, 337 Manhire, 474 Miniman and 919 Macca. The most experienced of these drivers made it through but a battle for second produced an unexpected result:
Last Chance Qualifier: Miniman, YoungGun, Mr. T-Bone, Macca, Manhire, Jordan N.
Miniman, who somehow failed to make it onto the World Cup grid itself, took the LCQ win with ease with the American debutant YoungGun in a fabulous second place in his first ever LFS Bangers race and only one second behind the Dutchman!
So the fourteen drivers who competed in the 2016 World Cup were as follows:
997 Rik - - - - - - - - 27 Cap
960 Pepino - - - - - - 125 Gildo
228 Splat - - - - - - - 870 Looney
616 Jam - - - - - - - - 97 Jake W.
779 Luke - - - - - - - - 238 Kane
307 Foster - - - - - - - 606 Jon
02 YoungGun - - - - - 474 Miniman
The newly introduced "no oppo at any time" rule did make it a rodfest, but there were some hits here and there. One driver who has been on fire all season got out front and stayed there:
WORLD CUP:
1st: Rik
2nd: Kane
3rd: Foster
Other finishers: YoungGun, Cap, Pepino, Miniman, Looney, Gildo, Jake W., Splat, Jam, Luke
The current Banger World Series champion adds another title to his collection with the World Cup crown. Admittedly, being on the front helped Rik a fair bit given the other big rodders were further back, but multiple title winners Kane and Foster showed their experience and ability by fighting through to take second and third respectively. There was another great performance from YoungGun with fourth and, as always, commiserations to the other drivers who completed the 22 lap race but didn't finish in the top 3.
The World Cup was the fourth of twelve Champion of Champions qualifying meetings; however, Rik wasn't the one who qualified for the Champion of Champions, as will be revealed below...
There were also a number of races held after the World Cup, all of which were non-points:
Heat 1: Cap, Rik, Jake W., Jam, Foster, Jordan N.
Heat 2: Kane, Foster, Jam, Cap, Gildo, Macca
Heat 3: Kane, Mr. T-Bone, YoungGun, Cap, Jam, Luke, Macca, Looney, Rik
Heat 4: Gildo, Manhire, Kane, Jordan N., Splat, Cap, YoungGun, Rik
Heat 5: Kane, Rik, Cap, Mr. T-Bone, Gildo, YoungGun, Splat, Luke, Macca, Looney
Heat 6: Cap, Rik, Gildo, Jon, Jam, Splat, Jake W.
Final: Looney, Cap, Jam, Kane, Luke, Jon, Jordan N., Gildo
DD: Jake W.
CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS QUALIFIER
The Champion of Champions qualifier from the World Cup meeting is the winner of the World Cup race.
Rik won the World Cup race, but had already qualified for the Champion of Champions meeting after winning the qualifying race at Metal Mania. Per the rules, this means the qualifier from the World Cup is the next best non-qualified driver, so the World Cup Champion of Champions qualifier is...
238 Kane
Kane's place on the CoC grid is the INSIDE of the THIRD ROW.
It was inevitable that Kane would get on the Champion of Champions grid at some stage, but maybe he would have wanted to do it as a winner and not as a "next best" qualifier, with his second place in the World Cup getting him into the big season closer at Birmingham.
That said, he did have three heat wins on the night so I guess that counts for something. Cap had two heat victories, Gildo just the one, Looney had the meeting final win and Jake W. took the DD.