The Championship Decider at Interlagos

The final round of the UK&I Skip Barber League’s first season of 2015 was at Interlagos for a championship deciding race.  With Sebastian Job and Tom Ward separated by just two points, the man who could finish the race ahead of the other would likely become the first champion of the year.  Job took pole with a 1:51.851, Ward sat in third, and Wojciech Swirydowicz sat between them.  On the word go all but one of the nearly three dozen Skippies shot off the line and accelerated toward Turn One.  Fahim Antoniades remained stationary on the grid and became an obstacle until he was struck at high speed and taken out of the race.

Richard Avery went on the attack immediately from fifth position, going around the outside of Rob Cain in fourth position.  With the inside line for the second part of the Senna ‘S’, he moved up just behind Ward before heading into Curva do Sol.

Avery makes a move for fourth at the outside of Turn One on Lap One.

Swirydowicz was the next to draw blood with a move on Job down the Start/Finish straight.  Swirydowicz got such a boost in speed that he flew by Job and went through Turn One in the lead of the race and uncontested.

Swirydowicz initiates a battle that would last the rest of the race.

This was the first of many moves the pair made on one another.  Job counter-attacked later that very same lap, and the two continued to trade blows for lap after lap while Ward lurked behind in the final podium position.

Job shows Swirydowicz that winning won’t be easy.

The battle was briefly over-shadowed by an incident behind between Avery and Graham Carroll on Lap Five.  Carroll had the inside line on Avery for the first corner, but contact between them in the middle of the Senna ‘S’ sent Avery off the circuit.  When he rejoined the circuit there was contact with them once again with Carroll coming off worse for wear.

Avery and Carroll are magnetic.

After a dozen laps of nearly relentless battling between Job and Swirydowicz it was Job who was leading the charge on the 14th and final lap of the race.  With a very long run out of the final corner to the Start/Finish line he knew Swirydowicz had a real shot at taking the win, but with Ward a couple of car lengths behind Swirydowicz the championship was likely his.  Swirydowicz did indeed get a great run out of the final corner, and with a strong slipstream coming from Job he began to make gains before they even reached the pit entrance.  Swirydowicz ducked out of the tow and moved to the right of Job and hit the wall of air outside of the slipstream.  His gains began to taper off, and with Job getting the shorter run to the line the job wasn’t done yet.  As they screamed across the finish line the speed difference between them was just two miles per hour, but Swirydowicz finished half a tenth ahead of Job.

Swirydowicz wins by half a tenth.

Swirydowicz had won the race, just barely, but Job had won the championship (just barely).  Ward finished in third, and less than a second behind Swirydowicz, but never really threatened for the lead of the race.  The final standings were Job with 238 with Ward on 232, while Swirydowicz’s win elevated him above the 200 point barrier and closer to the top two, with 212 points total.  Interestingly enough, all three of the top three drivers won three races this season, and the only other person who won a race was Paul F. Grillo this season.  This is Job’s second championship title with the UK&I Skip Barber League, having won the 2014 Season Three title, he became only the seventh person to win the championship in the league.

The final championship standings at the end of the season.

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