Reporting on ZCT229

Exciting times at ZakStunts! Leo's track for August, hidden in dense forest, has seen the highest participation for this year, and an intense battle for the lead. Actually, two battles!

After the initial uncertainty—is it a Carrera track? IMSA maybe?—the Lancia Delta took the lead on the scoreboard, with Heretic, Seeker1982, then CTG and Marco vying for the top step of the podium. But soon after the end of the public days, out of nowhere, FinRok appeared and put a full stop to this part of the race, leaving Marco 4 seconds behind. His result would remain unchallenged for the rest of the race, giving him the victory and 230h of leading time.

However by the time FinRok posted his result, the battle (and the drama!) had already moved to the GAR competition, which puts strict limits on the driving style, and only accepts laps driven without interruption. The competition between Seeker1982 (current GAR champion) and Marco (proud Lancia expert) heated up with concerns about cheating. Duplode jumped in with a few strong laps, and Seeker sealed his result shaving off another two seconds from his time. All this back and forth brought along a bunch of racers on the GAR scoreboard! Unbelievable effort from everyone: NoRH driving requires skill, effort, and a lot of patience.

As mentioned above, the race closed with FinRok in the lead. Behind him Duplode, and Marco. Alan Rotoi picked up the sixth place with a strong result, followed by Stringray86 and Heretic (two thirds of Traction Faction), Overdrjif, and the rest of Rolling Stunts, who are still lagging behind Cork's Crew on the teams scoreboard.

ZCT229 also sees two new entries on the tarmac: we welcome KyLiE from down under, and Straycat from Hungary! 🎉 Extra surprise, Zak himself reappeared after two years away from the races, enticed by Marco's live streaming sessions. Hi Zak, we missed you! 🥰

Yes, all this in only four weeks. Where are we then, with August coming to its end in a couple of days? There are four races left in the season, and Duplode holds the lead several points ahead of Seeker1982... but not that many! Seeker has collected a good number of LTB points, which can balance his weaker results. And because the three lowest scores of the season are ignored in the final sum, these LTB points could be really important to decide the championship.

—dreadnaut