*****Jaguar I-Pace eTrophy Rd. 1: Ad Diriyah*****

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I woke up from a short nap for this, but for some reason I've been looking forward to this. The race is on FS2. That's Channel 618 for those of you with DirecTV.

 

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Simon Evans has the pole and here's the starting lineup.

Row 1: Simon Evans, Bryan Sellers
Row 2: Sergio Jiminez, Caca Bueno
Row 3: Stefan Rzadszinski, Bandar Alesayi
Row 4: Alice Powell, Ahmed Bin-Khanen
Row 5: Katherine Legge, Celia Martin
Row 6: Tao Wang, Yaqi Zhang

 

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Katherine Legge enters this series after finishing up a successful 2018 campaign in the WeatherTech SportsCar series where she picked up a couple of wins and finished 2nd in the GTD Class standings.

 

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Pace laps now and the track looks a little damp from some earlier rain.

 

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As one could probably guess, all competitors are racing the Jaguar I-Pace, some street legal sportscar rides that rock the battery instead of fuel.

 

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Something that's not a big deal here, but kind of a big deal in Saudi Arabia. Women are part of the audience for this, along with being part of the race.

 

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We have a standing start. Green Light! This race and this series is underway.

 

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This race is operating under a 23 minute time limit.

 

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These cars sound like a group of screaming ghosts.

 

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Not much room on the track for passing.

 

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These cars need wider courses to work on. They might work for the FE rides, but these cars look a lot thicker.

 

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Great move by Alice Powell to move up to 6th.

 

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Inside 15 minutes remaining in the race.

 

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Powell moves into the Top 5.

 

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Evans has maintained the lead with Sellers unable to get around him.

 

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Legge, who didn't have a good practice session which coupled with the rain pretty much screwed her for qualifying has been one of the faster competitors so far. All that speed has gotten her up to 6th.

 

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Evans has been the most impressive in terms of defensive driving. Powell and Legge have been the most impressive in terms of pure speed and passing people.

 

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This race has been green light for the duration. After the time limit is up, there'll be a white flag lap tacked on to it.

 

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Radzinski is going backwards in the order. Wang and Zhang both get by him and he drops to 11th. Celia Martin, the lone French entry is in last. This is not the debut she was hoping for.

 

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Martin completes the frustration for Radzinski, passing him for 11th and putting him in last.