A Vintage RTA Fight as Smyth Puts Distance To Title RIvals - RTA F4 Nurburgring Review

By : Evan Dalton for RTA Virtual Motorsport


Jordan Kelly and Jason Smyth both took victories in Round 7 of the RTA Virtual Motorsport F4 Championship at the Nurburgring, as Smyth took a large step towards securing the championship victory. 


Smyth took both his ninth and tenth race victories of the season, as title rival Doherty suffered another plagued evening. 


Kelly once again was the dominant force in qualifying, taking his third podium of the season. Both Kelly and Doherty were within a tenth of a second, and it boded nicely for the evening ahead. 


Heat 1 

The initial jump went the way of Doherty, but Kelly defended into the first corner. The opening laps first appeared to be calm, but out of nowhere both Doherty and Smyth attacked the race leader. 


What followed was five minutes of synchronized pandemonium from the top three. Overtake attempts left, right and centre, but all squeaky clean. Doherty got in front with two minutes to go. 


In the meantime, soon to be Irish Formula Vee rivals Sean McClements and Conor Melia made contact into Turn 1. A late braking maneuver from McClements went wrong, and caused him to hit Melia and break his rear wing. 


On the last lap, Kelly managed to get the run on Smyth in the final sector and went for move into the final corner. Doherty was also on the outside, and made contact with Kelly’s rear left wheel, sending him into the gravel and dropping him down the order. Smyth crossed the line in first, mere tenths ahead of Kelly. Jason Cooper inherited third.


Heat 2 

Smyth led the opening lap ahead of Kelly, with Rory O’Shea getting a fantastic launch and initiating battle with Dylan McClements. This was short lived for O’Shea however, as heading through turn 4, he spun around all on his own. Kevin Joyce got collected in this spin, sending him back to the pitlane. Simon Hutchings had a separate issue later in the lap that dropped him down the order also. 


Smyth and Kelly managed to pull away from the chasing pack and give themselves a buffer. Kelly did not fancy another high octane battle however, and tactically stayed behind Smyth, even ‘bump drafting’ at various moments. 


On the last lap, Smyth held Kelly behind through sectors 1 and 2, and looked as if he had enough to take the win. Both drivers however made mistakes through turns 11 and 12, running wide, with Kelly even ending up in the gravel. 


However, with a move straight out of Colin McRae’s book of tricks, Kelly kept it flat across the gravel and got the run on Smyth. With Smyth being close to picking up a drive through, through iRacing’s ‘off track penalty’ system, he backed out and opted for second place points. This gave Kelly a miraculous win. Sean McClements came home ahead of his brother in third. 


Heat 3 

Finlay Melvin started on pole position for Heat 3, and it was elbows out from the offset. Melvin made contact with Sean McClements and Doherty early on the race, and then unfortunately crashed with Rory O’Shea through the ‘Schumacher S.’ 


Dylan McClements took an early race lead ahead of Brandon McCaughan. They were hunted down by Smyth, Cooper and Kelly however, with Smyth making a move for the lead almost immediately. During this move, Cooper made contact with McClements and sent him spinning. McClements recovered almost instantly, but still dropped down the order. Cooper came into the pitlane three laps later.


It became a two horse race out front with two very familiar jockeys. Smyth versus Kelly. Kelly increased the pace in the last two laps and put an enormous amount of pressure on Smyth but he persevered. There was no 100-1 upset today, the favourite came home on the bridal. 


It puts Jason Smyth in an incredible position at the top of the championship with one round remaining next week. The famous Circuit Spa Francorchamps awaits next Tuesday night at 9pm on GantryTV. 

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