At the weekend Formula G headed to Santa Pod to kick start the season with a double header. We were excited to welcome back seasoned FG drivers, drivers who were new to gymkhana just last year, novices who came through our Learn to Gymkhana! day, as well as complete newbies! A good mix of new faces and old brings a real buzz to the paddock, and we are all about the positive vibes!

We welcomed Pitstop Social, a group focused on creating a community of like-minded petrolheads and tackling mental health issues, for our first ‘Gymkhana and Coffee’ (it’s a working title…), and were also honoured to have a visit from Shanice Green, who we are supporting this year in her fundraising efforts for East Anglia Children’s Hospice. You can support her journey here.

The Saturday started off with everyone eager to get out on track and give it a crack. We gave the drivers a track which required them to focus more on the technical aspect of their driving than outright speed, but still flowed well. By the lunch break everyone had mastered the track and the times were coming down quickly.

Qualifying showed how tight the competition was going to be this year — but it was Ged Lankutis and Mantas Sliogeris in Street and Pro respectively who really gelled with the track and made their intentions for 2023 crystal clear, setting laps a couple of seconds faster than their nearest rivals.

On to battles, and it was Pro up first. With 7 drivers, Mantas earned himself a by in the Top 8 battles. Dmitrij Sribnyj and Alan Dryburgh faced off first — both returning this year in 2WD cars instead of their usual AWD Subarus. Dmitrij progressed after Alan went the wrong way in the second battle.

Up next, Ryan Milton took on newcomer Jon Stevens. Jon had taken to gymkhana like a duck to water and was doing a sterling job of staying in contention, but was no match for Ryan’s many years of experience and a mistake in the second leg sealed his fate. Jon had, however done enough to secure the Fastest Novice award.

`Out in the Top 8 battles, but Jon proved himself worthy of the coveted Fastest Novice award`

The last of the Top 8 battles was between Stephen Gretton and Matt Holder. Stephen had been struggling with his diff not locking, but was still keeping pace with Matt. A penalty for Stephen and two clean runs for Matt meant Matt went through.

While the Top 4 drivers prepared to battle, Stephen was under his car removing the diff in a bid to get to Nispro Performance before they closed for the day to re-arrange the clutch packs for more locking and a better chance at a podium on the Sunday. The race was on!

On to Top 4, and Mantas and Ryan, close rivals and close friends, took to the track first. Ryan was struggling with finding grip on the tyres he had; Mantas had no such issues however and took the win and went through to the final, while Ryan would battle the loser of the next race for third place. Dmitrij, running in 2WD with a 2.5 swapped mk3 MX5, lined up against Matt in his turbo 1UZ 3-series compact — two incredibly different cars, and on paper Dmitrij was massively outgunned. Matt took a 0.9s lead after the first run, but then on the second run Dmitrij pulled together a perfect run, finding a whole 2 seconds and setting his PB for the day, sneaking the win and securing his spot in the Final against Mantas.

Matt went straight in to the Third Place battle against Ryan, and two tidy runs back to back saw him secure his first podium for the season.

Next up, the Final between Mantas, 2022 2WD Champion, and Dmitrij, 2022 AWD Champion. Again, massively outgunned in terms of power, Dmitrij fell behind in the first leg, but took the fight to Mantas in the second, sticking with him and finishing just a tenth of a second behind. However, it wasn’t enough and Mantas’ combined time was just shy of 2 seconds faster, netting him his first win of the year!

`Mantas displaying the kind of precision needed to take the win`

On to the 2WD Street class battles and, with ten drivers, 6 would go straight through to the Top 8, while Augustinas Stanapedis battled Kacper Bochniarz, and Paulina Ruszkowska battled Lauren Caffell to take the last two spots. Augustinas, a total novice, driving a near-stock mk2 MX5, versus Kacper, a gymkhana novice with a lot of drift experience, in an E46 330ci, was a real dichotomy of technique and style — Augustinas keeping it clean, tidy and safe, and Kacper with big entries, angle and style. Not as far apart as you might imagine, but Kacper took the win convincingly and progressed. In Paulina and Lauren’s battle, experience won the day as Lauren’s year in Formula G with her mk2 MX5 helped her to victory over novice Paulina in her E46 330ci.

In the Top 8, Ged first took on Sarah Price, a Formula G novice. Ged’s mastery of his mk2 MX5 shone through, and Sarah could not keep pace and a penalty meant an early exit. That said, we could all see that with time Sarah would be a formidable opponent in the future… Kacper then took on Gabe Krunkauskas in his mk3 MX5. With a freshly welded diff after a failure in the Practice session in March, Gabe’s control of the car has really stepped up a notch and pulled a 14 second lead over Kacper across the two runs. Leve Bozoki, returning in his 350Z cabrio after a solid 2022 campaign, versus Daniel Bougourd in a mk3 MX5 up next and Leve really showed the other Street class drivers what they will be up against this year, setting some of the fastest times in the battles so far and defeating Daniel. The last Top 8 battle was between Lauren and Martynas Lavinskis, and Lauren wasn’t able to replicate the speed of her Top 16 battle, giving Martynas the advantage in the second leg, which he fully capitalised on.

On to Top 4, and the first battle between Ged and Gabe was settled decisively in Ged’s favour after Gabe picked up a penalty for going the wrong direction. Gabe would battle for third place against the winner of the second battle, between Leve and Martynas. This was to be one of the closest fought battles of the day, with Martynas gaining a 0.5 second advantage after the first run. But in the second, Leve put in another quick lap and Martynas, having gone wide on a couple of obstacles, lost by 2 seconds and Leve took the other spot in the Final.

The Third Place battle was all drama. Martynas jumped the lights, instantly picking up a DNF for the leg, leaving Gabe with the task of putting in a clean second run to take the podium. However, Gabe took a wrong turn and DNF’d while Martynas, knowing from his experience in 2022 that anything can happen and there is always everything to play for, put in a clean and quick lap. With each driver picking up a DNF each, the winner would be determined by the one clean run they managed, and Gabe took the win by just 0.5 seconds.

In the Final, neither Leve or Ged could find their previous pace, but both drivers pushed hard and it was to be Ged who came out ahead, taking the win by a comfortable 4 seconds. Leve’s lightning reaction times were not enough to claw back the time Ged saved getting around the barrels!

`Ged pushes on for his first podium of 2023`

And so concluded an extremely exciting first round of 2023. Could Round 2 get any better? Well, as it turned out, yes…

Sunday was an equally beautiful day at Pod, and the drivers were greeted with a considerably harder track to learn, with slightly longer straights, a lot more speed, and a lot more to remember! It was one of those tracks that really felt right when you got it right, but boy did it feel wrong if you went the wrong way!

We also had a couple of additional drivers for the day - old timers Darren Huxley and Kraigy Haughton, competing in Pro, were hoping to show the new kids how it’s done! So while they signed on, Stephen, who had been successful in his quest to rebuild his diff the night before, refitted the diff with the help of a couple of the drivers and FG team members.

Practice saw a lot of DNFs for wrong direction, and some drivers really struggled to click with the course. And just when they thought they’d nailed it down, a wrong turn threw them back to square one. It was pushing the limit of the timing system, too - being a drag racing setup, it’s not so good at recording times of over one minute, and the Street class, with generally less power, were there or there abouts… It was going to be a testing day for all!

After lunch, it was on to qualifying, and it was even tighter than the day before! In Street, just one second separated the top three (Ged, Gabe and Leve), and in Pro it was just 0.8 seconds (Mantas, Ryan, Matt). With such tight margins, we knew it was going to be no mean feat to take the top step. It was shaping up to be an exciting afternoon!

This time, it was Street battles first. With Paulina and Kacper unable to do the Sunday, and Augustinas and Dan pulling out with car troubles, just six Street class drivers remained. With Ged and Gabe earning a by, the first Top 8 battle was the ‘Battle of the Zs’, with Martynas in the 350Z coupe facing off against Leve in the 350Z cabrio. Two clean runs from each driver, but a decisive win in each run saw Leve through to the Top 4. Up next, Lauren was to battle Sarah. The first run saw Sarah pull a lead on Lauren, and in the second run her Top 4 status was confirmed when Lauren took a wrong turn and DNF’d. Sarah just had to finish her run cleanly, and keep it clean she did.

Up first in the Top 4 was Ged versus Leve. With considerably more power from his 3.5L V6, Leve was able to outdrag Ged from the lights but once things got tigher, Ged managed to pull things back and finished both runs ahead of Leve to progress to the final. Leve would battle the loser of the next Top 4 race to determine third.

Sarah took on Gabe next - Gabe winning the first leg by just 1.3s, leaving Sarah everything to fight for. Unfortunately for her a couple of little mistakes lost her some time around the course allowing Gabe to storm home first again and earn his right to face Ged in the final.

Before that though, Sarah and Leve had to battle for third. Sarah’s reactions off the line were lightning, giving her a couple of much needed tenths over Leve, who then demonstrated what a year of experience is worth and finishing 0.8 seconds ahead of Sarah. What Sarah didn’t know at that time was that Leve had picked up two penalties for nudging obstacles, giving him an additional 4 seconds on his time. As such, Sarah once again got the jump on Leve at the lights and pushed hard. Leve pushed harder though, getting his car in front and gaining a few lengths to finish 2.3s ahead. It wasn’t enough though, and Sarah was amazed to learn she had won third place!

`Keeping it clean and tidy earned Sarah third place overall at Round 2`

The final between Ged and Gabe, mk2 MX5 versus mk3 MX5, started with Ged reacting faster at the lights and getting an early lead over Gabe. In to the first long corner though, Ged’s tyre de-beaded leaving him stranded. Gabe finished his run cleanly, while Ged opted to DNF rather than risk his wheels and invoked the Five Minute Rule. Given the number of DNFs so far, there was every chance that Gabe would make a mistake and Ged might be able to sneak a win. Waiting in the pits, the other drivers were ready with jacks, rattle guns and wheels to Ged back out there before his five minutes expired. He was ready and staged with two minutes to spare! Despite only having to complete his second run cleanly to take the win, in true Formula G spirit and not wanting to win without a fair race, Gabe opted for the 11/10ths approach instead to show he deserved the top step, and managed to beat Ged on that second run by 0.6 seconds. A worthy winner!

`Gabe took the win on his own terms in the Round 2 2WD Street Final`

After a short break, the Pro drivers took to the track. In the first Top 8 battle, Mantas saw off Alan comfortably after Alan picked up penalties in both runs. Watching though, Alan definitely had more fun - he had only just clicked with the track in qualifying after struggling with the layout all morning, and went out there and had a blast!

Next up, Ryan faced Jon and Ryan took no prisoners, storming ahead on the first run but with the car sounding off. On arrival at the stop box, Ryan requested a time out to check it over as it appeared to have a major boost leak. Once again, the other drivers leapt in to action to assist and Ryan was back at the start line in a jiffy. Now with full boost, Ryan was able to go even faster (two whole seconds, in fact!) and left Jon with something to aim for!

Darren versus Matt ended in a bittersweet victory for Matt. Despite being consistently the fastest out the gate all day, Darren took a wrong turn on both runs and DNF’d, gifting Matt the win.

The last Top 8 battle saw Kraigy battle Stephen. With more than double the power, Stephen managed to gain a two second advantage over Kraigy in the first run. In the second run, however, disaster struck when both of Stephen’s rear tyres de-beaded, putting him out of the race. Now Kraigy just had to finish the lap cleanly, but the hands of fate weren’t finished yet and Kraigy entered an obstacle the wrong way, which left him with a DNF as well! With both drivers receiving a DNF in the same run, they are deemed to have tied — and so Stephen took the win and made it through to the Top 4.

Fortunately for Stephen, the first Top 4 battle was Mantas versus Matt. Mantas set a blistering pace for Matt to do all he could to keep up with, but this ended with Matt picking up a DNF after his hydro handbrake linkage failed, leaving him with no handbrake. Rather than try to fix it, Matt decided to try his hand at ‘Original Dorifto Style’ gymkhana (for want of a better description), Scandi-flicking his way around the course — slowly, and smokily, but having a whale of a time! Of course, Mantas took the win and went through to the Final, and Matt had a few minutes to find a way to get his handbrake working again for the third place battle!

The next Top 4 battle between Ryan and Stephen started with Stephen invoking the Five Minute Rule as he needed a few extra minutes to sort his rear wheels out. Without any other spares, Matt lent Stephen his wheels to get him back on track but, being 18s, they didn’t fit. Not being one to let something as minor as major body surgery stop him from competing, Stephen got the angle grinder and freed up some space for the wheels! Amazingly arriving at staging with a minute to spare, it was ultimately for nought as Ryan set a blistering pace that, after picking up a penalty in the first leg, Stephen was unable to match.

Well, not quite for nought — as Stephen was now in contention for third, and so he lined up against Matt to see who would take the third step. Matt with an iffy handbrake, Stephen running Matt’s wheels on the rear… No one could have predicted how this day was going to go! Stephen was able to throw together two, clean, fast laps that Matt, still struggling with handbrake issues, just wasn’t able to compete with and so Stephen was delighted with his first podium of the year.

`Stephen takes third place after a rollercoaster of a day`

The final between Mantas and Ryan was to be no less dramatic. Ryan got an early lead in the first run, with a reaction time of just 0.08 seconds (which, interestingly, wasn’t his best reaction time of the day!), but Mantas was able to take that ground back during the course of the race. Then, at the second to last obstacle, a POP and the tinkling of glass — Mantas had clipped the tyre with his wing mirror after getting too close and, although he had crossed the line first, the two second penalty left him chasing Ryan in the second run. After switching sides, Mantas’ reactions were on a par with Ryan’s this time, but Ryan managed to piece together the perfect run to cross the line ahead of Mantas and take the win.

`Ryan’s perfect second run secured his position at the top of the podium`

As I sit here writing this, my heart rate is still high from Sunday’s racing — the drama, the action, the camaraderie all just add up to make a great day out and throughout the weekend we saw loads of examples of just why Formula G is so fun. To see competitors work together to get each other back out on track, even if they ultimately help them to victory over themselves, is something to be nurtured and, frankly, the main reason I wanted to be involved with Formula G in the first place!

A couple of other points to note if anyone is still reading this!

At Round 2, we had three 'Five-Minute Rule' time-outs called, two of which were in-between battles, which caused a little confusion amongst the drivers. According to the regulations, between battles the time-out is not permitted unless an Official deems it a health and safety issue. One of these time-outs was deemed necessary due to health and safety to the driver, because it would have been worth the risk to run given the potential for a DNF from the battle opponent. The other was for the safety of the vehicle - while not strictly a risk to the competitor, the last thing we want is for drivers to go home with serious engine damage for the sake of a few minutes. Therefore, in order to simplify the rule and remove any confusion, we have decided to remove the rule prohibiting the Five Minute Rule between battles. Calling a five minute time-out will now be permitted for ANY reason, before or between a battle, in return for the usual five championship point penalty. The updated regulations can be read here.
We attempted a live stream this weekend which, given the challenges of getting decent reception at Santa Pod, was fairly well received. We will certainly look to do this again and hopefully in a more professional manner than just a bloke with an iPhone! If you’d like to check out some of the action (in an albeit patchy fashion!), head over to our Facebook page, here.
Huge, huge thanks to our sponsors GizFab for making our trophies and to Giz Motorsport for hand delivering them!