At the end of each year, Monday Night Racing hosts what's called a Driver Swap Challenge (DSC). This 2006 challenge was to be the second of its kind, with the first ever Driver Swap Challenge being held in 2005 with PR racer 'Charles' placing first overall in with his 'Team Explosion'.

This year, Pacifica Racing was able to field a team of its own. Charles once again put his hand up to participate with J_luo88 not far behind (being regular MNR racers.) SpoonSports was the designated third driver, but due to unforeseen circumstances, he was unable to race in 2 of the 4 roudns and hence, YnoT and Cetram both made appearances in MNR to fill the third drivers' spot.

Round 1 (XFG+XRG @ SO5R) - Team PR's XFG car, qualified by J_luo88, started on pole and had no problems finishing a comfortable first. Our XRG car, qualified by Charles, started in third place but with a good start off the line, Charles was able to jump to second and only dropped back to third breifly when the car came into the pits. Team PR was able to score maximum points for R1.

Round 2 (XFG+XRG @ AS2) - Qualfiying the XFG again, J_luo88 was able to make the first grid position with Charles int he XRG not far behind joining him on the front row. From the lights turning green to the checkered flag, the XRG had no problem passing our own XFG car off the line and then cruised to victory miles ahead of the next car. This next car happened to be our XFG car, but this second place did not come easily. J_luo88 had a small incident with r8 during his XFG stint which caused the XFG to drop down to 6th momentarily, before YnoT hoped into the car and made up numerous spots back to second. Luckily, Team PR was able to score maximum points for R2.

Round 3 (XFG+XRG @ FE2) - Once again, Team PR was able to qualify both cars on the front row. The XRG took off far into the distance, passing the XFG off the line. Our XFG car struggled a bit with some tussling with the DUR XFG, but still managed to finish second, behind our blazing XRG car. Once again, maximum points for R3

Round 4 (XFG+XRG @ BL1R) - Maximum points for Team PR was not to be in the final race of the series. New recuit OzB.r8 qualified just ahead of our XRG car, but was unable to hold off the vastly experienced Charles who overtook him on lap 3. Our XFG car also had a stroke of bad luck as while Charles was in the car, he lost a moments concentration and flipped the car on T1. This allowed OzB.Blowtus, in the XRG to pass and place second. Team PR managed a first and a third placing without the qualifying bonus point.

At the end of the series, Team PR was able to lift the trophy (figuratively) with a comfortable lead over the second placing team. Well done to everyone that raced, Go PR!!! =]

Pacifica Racing entered this never before seen event on Australian soil with high hopes. Team PR was able to get two cars onto the 12hour grid with a FZR team, which would be driven by Cetram, Charles, J_luo88 and Y-noT, and also a FXR team, which would be driven by CLP, Pixelboy, Somebloke and Sp33dracer. The FZR car would start 3rd on the grid while the FXR car would start in 7th.

As the clock strikes 10am on a beautiful Sunday morning, Pixelboy (acting as the pacecar) leads the field around a full lap of the Aston North circuit, which will play host to 12 gruelling hours of intense racing between 9 teams.

Offical Results here!

Live Discussion here!!

The AustralAsian League (AAL) followed on from a very successful GTR.06 series by introducing a new series titled 'Mini Madness', which would see the UFR and the XFR go head to head in a battle of 4 rounds.

Round 1 was to be held at Blackwood with Cetram finishing as the top PR in 3rd position in Division A. Charles finished 16th, Y-noT 17th all in Division A. J_luo88 managed a 1st in Division B, as Sp33dracer and Somebloke finished 11th and 13th respectively. Pixelboy finsihed 6th in Division C.

Fern Bay Green Reverse would play host to Round 2 of the Mini Madness series. With it's deadly chicane, many were expected to perish. Charles finsihed very strongly placing 3rd in Division A, with Cetram closely behind in 5th. Y-noT received points after deciding to spectate after being stuck just on the exit of the chicane and placed 17th, while Sp33dracer's internet dropped and DNF'ed. Pixelboy also DNF'ed in Division C.

Round 3 would be fought at Aston Club Reverse. Cetram again did very well and placed equal 2nd. Charles finished equal 7th, while J_luo88 after having a bad race 2, finsihed equal 13th with Y-noT. Sp33dracer was the last PR in Division A and placed 19th. Pixelboy in Divison C placed 6th.

In the final round, Charles and Cetram would pair up, while Y-noT was forced to pair with Bugle after Sp33dracer suffered from an ear infection. J_luo88 and Spoonsports also made their appearance in Division A. Pixelboy and Somebloke paired up once more to compete in division C. Cetram suffered a championship costing disconnection but Charles was on the ball and quickly jumped in to keep Cetram's championship hopes alive. In the end, Cetram/Charles managed to do 227 laps in 3 hours which was good enough to place them 4th for that round, with Y-noT/Bugle completing 226 laps (6th), J_luo88/SpoonSports completing 222 laps (11th) and Pixelboy/Somebloke completing 215 laps (20th).

With a 4th place finishing in the final round, Cetram was able to come equal 1st in the Mini Madness Series. Well done!!! but we mustn't forget the other PR drivers. Charles finished an awesome 5th, only 3 points from 3rd. Y-noT finished 9th after a bad round 2. J_luo88 finished 26th after only competing in 3 rounds. Pixelboy finished 38th, Sp33dracer 45th after only competing in 2 rounds, Somebloke finsihed 50th after similarly only competing in 2 rounds and SpoonSports finishing 62nd after just competing in the final round with J_luo88.

Pacifica Racing as a team finished 3rd in the Team Championships which is a great effort for us after not being very active in the earlier part of the year. Now Team PR has the AAL 12 Hour to look forward to within a weeks time. Go PR =]

After a long 6 round series which involved the RB4 and the XRT, Charles from Pacifica Racing was able to lift the winners trophy. It wasn't all smooth sailing for Charles though, having to overcome a strong challenge from .OzB.Blowtus and [SCR]Bugle, but a poor final round from the both of them and a very strong final round from Charles saw him beat his opponents. Well done to you Charles =]

Final Standings: Charles 1199 points; Blowtus 1175 points; Bugle 1168 points

J_luo88 finished 8th with 912 points after missing the 5th round, which would be his worst round and hence dropped, but also the final round which was required in the points calculation.

This round of the MNR series brought us back to Blackwood reverse. With Charles still competing for the championship, he was expected to race hard and fast and did so for all 3 races. He placed equal fifth overall for the round with 59 points.

J_luo88 had a similar race with good pace in race 1, but was very noob at the reverse grid and hence dropped back a lot of places in race 2 and 3. He was fortunately able to regain many of the lost places as racers ahead of him crashed. J_luo88 was able to finish 8th for the round with 55 points.

Next round will see the UFR's take on Aston Club Rev.

AAL ran one of it's Once Off races last Wednesday titled the '3Hr Turbo Tussle'. With the car selection set at TBO cars and the track of choice being the newly config'ed Aston North Rev, the eager AAL racers took to the track. Pacifica Racing was able to have two teams in the Turbo Tussle with Charles and Cetram running together in Div A and Pixelboy and Somebloke teaming up in Div B.

In Div A, Charles took the lead very early on with everyone else battling behind him. He outlasted most of the other racers as they all came in to pit around the 30 lap mark, but Charles kept at it. Unfortunately, Charles kept at it for too long and ended up blowing his tyre on lap 43 as he was just about to come into pits. This lost a lot of team for Cetram/Charles, with Cetram taking over in position 3.

With Cetram chasing hard to try and regain second position, he overheated the tyres and was unable to put in fast laps, but as the tyres cooled down, he hammered down the laps and briefly took over second place from Tassie, but this was not to last as Cetram unfortunately disconnected due to internet problems. Charles was luckily able to react to this quickly and came out of the pits and attempted to put in a few more laps to ensure they still placed well. Overall, it was a chance wasted, but team Cetram/Charles was able to walk away with 6th.

It was a completely different deal with team Pixelboy and Somebloke in Div B. Starting in second, Pixelboy drove a very consistent race exchanging positions with the DUR racer, but coming out on top by lap 15. After briefly losing a position as Somebloke took over Pixel in the pits, Somebloke was able to drive very consistently and win the Race in Div B. Well done boys!!! That placed Somebloke and Pixelboy 8th on the overall standings.

Post Race Discussion (Div A) <<-- Click Me
Post Race Discussion (Div B) <<-- Click Me

Round 3 of the MNR series brought Charles Westhill International circuit. With a championship to claim, Charles set a time of 1.45.45 in qualifying to put him 4th on the grid. The race format for this round was two races of 14 laps each with the second race having reverse grid.

Charles was able to make some good use of his 4th place qualifying position by finishing 3rd in Race 1. Having then to start 3rd last on the grid, Charles was unable to make up the positions and only managed to finish 7th. The combination of these results placed him 6th for the round result and sent him up from 24th to 15th. better luck next time Charles =]

Next round will see the UFR's tackle good old Blackwood but in reverse. J_luo88 will make a minor comeback to MNR but will unlikely to challenge for the title.

Round 8 of the AAL F1GP was held on Sunday with a field of 12 racers heading to the Kyoto Ring Grand Prix track. With the number of laps set at 40, there was the chance for racers to choose a one stopper strategy. Viperosi was able to qualify in a very respectable 4th place behind Reppo and the SCR duo of Bugle and Scottie.

Viperosi was able to steal 3rd coming into the 1st corner. With Viperosi unable to adjust comfortably to the setup, he soon spun around lap 4 where his tyres became extremely hot. This dropped him down 4 places down to 7th. Over the next few laps, Viperosi was able to crawl back up to 4th on lap 6, and then back up to 3rd on lap 11.

After pitting on lap 20, Viperosi was on a mission to catch StanDaam in 3rd. Within the last 5 laps, Viperosi was able to catch up to StanDaam and shadow him for the next few laps. "I was full throttle through the esses just before the last corner and passed Stan on the outside and we both came flying down the inside of Russel, I went a touch too deep, Stan got the inside and we went side by side before slipstream hit my car and I lost a heap of time on the exit as I almost was thrown off the track by it."

On the last lap Viperosi pulled off one final attempt to grab 3rd place from StanDaam and it pulled off as Viperosi crossed the finish line one hundredth of a second before StanDaam. Well done Viper =]

Post Race Discussion <<-- Click Me

After missing Round 1 of the new MNR racing series hosted by OzBee-Racing, Charles returns with great success finishing 6th in Race 1 & 2 and an amazing 2nd in Race 3. This put him up in equal second for the round with 64 points.

Charles currently sits 24th in the overall standings, but not to worry as after round 6, the worst result will be dropped which will hopefully see our Charles skyrocket up the standing list.

Next Monday, the UFR's hit Westhill.

The AustralAsian League's MHR Series has just run its last race at Fern Bay Green in the front wheel drive FXO's. Chaz had 1st place of the overall leader board covered, unless he DNF'ed, but the real battle was between 2nd and 3rd (Bugle and Charles) Charles had to beat Bugle in this final race by 10 positions to claim 2nd spot but this wasn't going to be.

Charles unfortunately made a mistake early in the race which put him near the rear of the field and fighting to catch up the main group (excluding Chaz and Scottie) and put a big gap on Bugle. By the end of the race, Charles managed to gain a few positions back but failed to give himself enough of a gap to Bugle as Charles finished 9th in Division A. Also in Division A was J_luo88. Not much of a final standing's threat, he finished 6th in Division A. During the daytime race, Cetram was able to blitz the opposition and come away with a win.

Final Standings:

1st - Chaz -SCR
2nd - Bugle - SCR
3rd - Charles - PR

21st - Cetram - PR (Completing mainly the day races with less points)
32nd - Pixelboy - PR (Completing 4 of the 6 races)
38th - J_luo88 - PR (Completing 3 of the 6 races)
41st - Funleashed - PR (Completing 3 of the 6 races)

Well done to Charles for his great success in the AAL. We'll see you in the next series - GTR.2006!