2020-21 Africa Racing League

[Klon]

Yeah, remember how I said I was dropping this series? Didn't work out like that, lmao.

The Africa Racing League returns - 2020-21 will be a plug-and-play season before more gameplay will be introduced next season (this time for real).

For 2021, the series will use a newly-designed Dallara chassis, the Dallara A21 (for visualization purposes it's basically just the F3 chassis that never saw the light of day in canon with slightly less downforce at the front end) paired with the proven Gibson V8 engines.

AFRICA RACING LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP

ARL Point System:

1st: 10 points
2nd: 8 points
3rd: 6 points
4th: 5 points
5th: 4 points
6th: 3 points
7th: 2 points
8th: 1 point

Team entry criteria:

- Teams must be based in Africa. These can be existing teams racing with an African license, a subsidiary of an existing team, or a new team.

- Users are kindly requested to pick a team that previously competed in the Africa Racing League, though it is not a must.

- Teams may run one, two or three cars each. Please note that there will be a team championship and that championship will be decided by average qualifying and race positions (retirements are seen as the equivalent of the last finishing position), so more cars may not be an advantage.

- The plan is to have at most 16-18 entries. Users that reported interest in the 2019-20 thread will be given preferential treatment.

ARL Calendar
Kyalami Racing Circuit - 22 November 2020
Phakisa Freeway - 6 December 2020
Autódromo do Estoril - 27 December 2020
Circuit International Automobile Moulay El Hassan - 10 January 2021
Kinshasa Circuit Triomphal - 31 January 2021
Autódromo Internacional de Benguela - 7 February 2021
Tony Rust Race Track - 21 February 2021
Kyalami Racing Circuit- 7 March 2021

ARL Lineups
Falik Arrows (TomWazzleshaw)
#1 Danny van Rijkens
#2 Naas Botha
#3 Sani Morgan

Ratel Sport with McEwan (Aislabie)
#19 William Alatalo
#92 Barrister John Warosa

Scuderia Tripoli (NickyDustyOwl)
#25 Egide Ngendandumwe

Équipe Afrique de l'Ouest (Klon)
#31 Marcel Agyemang-Badu
#32 Abdel Genazzi/Jesús Castell

Automovel Monastir by MarchSixteen (Hermann95)
#81 Malik Zidan
#82 Wulfric Wombesi

Vodacom Africa Super Sport (Dom_Wings)
#86 Ricardo Teixeira
#96 Shane Skeelenberg

Écurie Mediterranéenn (novitopoli)
#94 Rayyan Amirmoez

[Aislabie]

I would like to enter as Ratel Sport with McEwan if that is possible please, with our driver () William Alatalo.

If Pinkd approves, we would also like to run a second car for Barrister John Warosa, and brings sponsorship from the Benin Republic Gaming Board.

[Pinkd56]

Agreed ^^^

[Hermann95]

MarchSixteen would like to show their interest in taking over an existing team (doesn't matter which one really) and rebrand it as "[Whatever the team was called] by MarchSixteen"

Further, we would like to offer Malik Zidan and Wulfric Wombesi a seat. If they, for whatever reason, decline, we'll look into other driver.

[novitopoli]

Tunisian outfit Écurie Mediterranéenne would like to return to the series, with Rayyan Amirmoez driving the #94 car.

[CaptainGetz12]

MarchSixteen would like to show their interest in taking over an existing team (doesn't matter which one really) and rebrand it as "[Whatever the team was called] by MarchSixteen"

Further, we would like to offer Malik Zidan and Wulfric Wombesi a seat. If they, for whatever reason, decline, we'll look into other driver.

I approve of Zidan racing for another season and have another shot at the title for the 2020-21 season, as it won't intrude on his soon-to-be Formula 2 drive starting in March.

He will continue to use the number 81.

[NickyDustyOwl]

If possible I would like to enter as the owner of Scuderia Tripoli continuing as a one car

[Klon]

If possible I would like to enter as the owner of Scuderia Tripoli continuing as a one car

That is perfectly fine. Pick a driver and you are ready to go.

[NickyDustyOwl]

If possible I would like to enter as the owner of Scuderia Tripoli continuing as a one car

That is perfectly fine. Pick a driver and you are ready to go.

In that case, I'll offer Egide Ngendandumwe to take the seat

[TomWazzleshaw]

Prince Falik will make his glorious return to racing with his eponymous Falik Arrows squad based out of Nigeria. We will enter two main cars with Danny van Rijkens and Naas Botha as drivers

If we're allowed to enter a third car, we'd like to bring in one-time F2RWRS driver Sani Morgan, who's presumably been in exile doing South African Touring Cars/TCR/whatever it is drivers with more money than talent do

[Dom_Wings]

Vodacom Africa Super Sport based out of South Africa would like to send a couple offers:

Adrian Zaugg - the South African ex-F1 driver hasn't driven competitively since 2018 and we would like to know if he's interested in taking part.
Luís Sá Silva - the Angolan hasn't driven competitively in god knows how long.
Ricardo Teixeira - same as the fellow Angolan Sá Silva
Denis van Walwijk
Shane Skeelenberg

Car numbers #86 and #96.

[Klon]

Automovel Monastir Take 1-2 in Debut of Dallara A21

Günther Steiner was all smiles after the two Automovel Monastir drivers made his journey to South Africa worth the effort. Wulfric Wombesi beat Malik Zidan to the flag in to take the first victory with the new Dallara A21 chassis. Heavy rain affected the qualifying session in the morning, allowing Zidan to take a dominant pole position. A masterful lap saw him beat everyone by over a second.

At the start of the race, however, the track had dried up and despite the still-grey sky, the rain remained perfectly dry. Zidan covered first ARL champion Marcel Agyemang-Badu at the start and left the door open for Wombesi to take the lead on the outside through Crowthorne. Soon, the two Monastir cars proved untouchable, the team had really managed to set the car up well.

Aforementioned Agyemang-Badu soon stopped trying to keep up with Wombesi and Zidan, leaving them to decide P1 between themselves. Wombesi was faster early in the race, getting his advantage up to over three seconds with ten laps to go. Zidan, who had managed his tyres, was quicker in the last stage of the race - resulting in his fastest lap on lap 24 - but Wombesi used his veteran savvy to keep Zidan out of DRS range until the end of the race.

Fourth place went to a surprising candidate: Ricardo Teixeira impressed in his first race since 2017, taking advantage of the chaotic qualifying to start fourth and then managed to maintain that position throughout the first laps. Afterwards, he did not manage to attack the podium spots but did manage to expand his lead to defending champion Danny van Rijkens. No small feat by any means.

The new feature of the Dallara A21, the Drag Reduction System, saw a bit of use in the early stages of the race and allowed the most dramatic event on the final lap: 28-year old Sani Morgan managed to use the new system to pass Egide Ngendandumwe on the last run towards the Mineshaft. With this move, the Nigerian doubled his points total and got an amazing reaction out of the crowd at turn 13.

Race Result:


Driver Championship:
1) Wulfric Wombesi (Republic of the Congo) - 10 pts.
2) Malik Zidan (Egypt) - 8 pts.
3) Marcel Agyemang-Badu (Ghana) - 6 pts.
4) Ricardo Teixeira (Angola) - 5 pts.
5) Danny van Rijkens (South Africa) - 4 pts.
6) Shane Skeelenberg (South Africa) - 3 pts.
7) Sani Morgan (Nigeria) - 2 pts.
8) Egide Ngendandumwe (Burundi) - 1 pt.

Team Championship:
1) Automovel Monastir by MarchSixteen - 1.750
2) Vodacom Africa Super Sport - 5.250
3) Équipe Afrique de l'Ouest - 6.000
4) Ecurie Méditerranéenne - 8.000
5) Falik Arrows - 8.667
6) Scuderia Tripoli - 9.500
7) Ratel Sport with McEwan - 11.250

-> The Team Championship is the average qualifying and race positions of a team's drivers rounded to to its nearest thousandth value. For the purposes of this championships, retirements, disqualifications and any other form of race result that is not a classification is considered a position equal to the number of entrants for a race + 1 or a P18, whichever position is worse.

[Klon]

Marcel Agyemang-Badu Dominates at Phakisa Freeway

After being shown up by the Automovel Monastir drivers, Marcel Agyemang-Badu gave one of the classic answers of motorsport interviews: "It's only one race". It only took two weeks to prove his point. The Équipe Afrique de l'Ouest driver arrived in Welkom in excellent form. After a dominant pole position he barely maintained the lead into turn 1 against a fast-starting Malik Zidan

The momentum was reset by an early safety car. Barrister John Warosa's car just about managed to complete one lap before the fuel pump of his car gave up the ghost. Eventually, his broken car was removed and the race continued. Zidan fell asleep at the restart and Agyemang-Badu ran away into the distance, racing unchallenged to an important early-season victory.

Zidan, who experienced a poor safety car restart, found himself behind last year's champion Danny van Rijkens. However, he quickly got back past the South African using DRS and then managed to keep van Rijkens at a safe distance. In the last stage of the race, van Rijkens had to focus more on defence, so Zidan took a second second place and is now tied with the race winner in the standings.

The man who put the pressure on van Rijkens, Wulfric Wombesi, had a race of two halves. After a mediocre qualifying, he dropped outside the top 10 on lap 1. For the first part of the race, he only slowly made his way ahead. However, he saved his tyres excellently and was unstoppable in the last dozen laps, putting in fastest lap after fastest lap and eventually passing Rayyan Amirmoez for fourth on the last lap.

Spanish Moto2 driver Jesús Castell made his four-wheel racing debut after he had to miss the season opener to take a podium in the Moto2 season finale; he performed well after being slow in qualifying. Eventually, he just barely missed on the points. Falik Arrows continue to struggle on their return, only Danny van Rijkens being as competitive as the team would like.

Race Result:


Driver Championship:
1) Marcel Agyemang-Badu (Ghana) - 16 pts.
2) Malik Zidan (Egypt) - 16 pts.
3) Wulfric Wombesi (Republic of the Congo) - 15 pts.
4) Danny van Rijkens (South Africa) - 10 pts.
5) Ricardo Teixeira (Angola) - 7 pts.
6) Shane Skeelenberg (South Africa) - 6 pts.
7) Rayyan Amirmoez (Lybia) - 4 pts.
8) Sani Morgan (Nigeria) - 2 pts.
9) Naas Botha (South Africa) - 1 pt.
10) Egide Ngendandumwe (Burundi) - 1 pt.

Team Championship:
1) Automovel Monastir by MarchSixteen - 2.875
2) Vodacom Africa Super Sport - 5.250
3) Équipe Afrique de l'Ouest - 5.750
4) Ecurie Méditerranéenne - 6.750
5) Falik Arrows - 7.917
6) Scuderia Tripoli - 10.000
7) Ratel Sport with McEwan - 12.000

-> The Team Championship is the average qualifying and race positions of a team's drivers rounded to to its nearest thousandth value. For the purposes of this championships, retirements, disqualifications and any other form of race result that is not a classification is considered a position equal to the number of entrants for a race + 1 or a P18, whichever position is worse.

[Klon]

Marcel Agyemang-Badu Denies William Atalato Shock Win

The sole non-African round of the Africa Racing League promised a real challenge for the new Drag Reduction System: with two long straights allowing drivers to make the absolute most out of the added velocity. To get to the point: the system proved its worth, the race featured an ARL-record amount of overtakes.

Before the race, however, came qualifying, and the qualifying session was affected by a sky that was indecisive on whether it was going to open up. It did in the middle of the session, just long enough to catch out Rayyan Amirmoez. The rain wore off and Marcel Agyemang-Badu's first banker lap eventually was the pole lap.

Badu, however, could not make the most out of his good starting position: a bad first lap left him in fourth, behind Shane Skeelenberg, William Atalato - whose start was twice as amazing as Agyemang-Badu's start was poor - and Malik Zidan. Those four formed a DRS train, just like a few others did, trading positions.

Eventually, the train broke apart a bit, Atalato in third and Agyemang-Badu in fourth could not hang with the pace of the others and then got around three seconds apart from each other. In the same way the train from P5 to P8 fell apart, Naas Botha and last season's champion Danny van Rijkens got away from Ricardo Teixeira and Egide Ngendandumwe.

Eventually, however, the battle for the lead took an ugly turn. Malik Zidan had the lead just after half the race. Shen Skeelenberg tried to go for the lead, Zidan defended over-aggressively and ran into Skeelenberg, taking himself out and dropping the South African down the order. The stewards gave Zidan a suspended 5-place grid penalty.

This left Atalato to inherit the lead, however, Marcel Agyemang-Badu showed patience and very slowly wore down the Ethiopian-Finn's race lead. With five laps to spare, he got into DRS range and a clean straight-line pass gave him the lead with three laps to go. Atalato remained close, but not close enough to re-take P1, but with the poor season Ratel Sport with McEwan has had so far, both team and driver were quite happy.

Race Result:


Driver Championship:
1) Marcel Agyemang-Badu (Ghana) - 26 pts.
2) Wulfric Wombesi (Republic of the Congo) - 21 pts.
3) Malik Zidan (Egypt) - 16 pts.
4) Danny van Rijkens (South Africa) - 15 pts.
5) Ricardo Teixeira (Angola) - 9 pts.
6) Shane Skeelenberg (South Africa) - 9 pts.
7) William Alatalo (Finland) - 8 pts.
8) Naas Botha (South Africa) - 5 pts.
9) Rayyan Amirmoez (Lybia) - 4 pts.
10) Sani Morgan (Nigeria) - 2 pts.
11) Egide Ngendandumwe (Burundi) - 2 pts.

Team Championship:
1) Automovel Monastir by MarchSixteen - 4.333
2) Équipe Afrique de l'Ouest - 5.500
3) Vodacom Africa Super Sport - 5.083
4) Falik Arrows - 8.000
3) Ecurie Méditerranéenne - 8.667
6) Scuderia Tripoli - 9.000
7) Ratel Sport with McEwan - 10.583