You can now download the videoclip with the best and worst moments of FTS, the WS Ace Constructors Champion team, during the 2005 season!
The video created by Christian Smirnoff, featuring the fantastic FTS-P5 car design from Ireneuz Ciaglo, shows the best overtaking moves, battles, spins, crashes, mechanical failures and more, all the most exciting moments of the season packed on a videoclip! Enjoy it!!

Download here!!

Sharing the prize with Virtual-Games.com, Ireneusz Ciaglo's FTS-P5 car design was awarded the "Nicest Car 2005" trophy in the FSR WC Awards 2005! Thanks!

March 2005. Melbourne was approaching. Faster Than Speed's WS Department had one main goal: the WS Ace Constructors Championship.
November 2005. Bahrain has passed. The dream is now a reality, we are the champions!

WS Ace Online: The World Champions!
The WS Ace Constructors Championship was without doubt, the main aim for the 2005 season in the team's WS department. With Wolfgang Weber and myself racing for the team, we thought we had good chances and we were determined to fight for it. Unfortunately, Wolfgang's season was tough, as he was very unlucky in many races (unable to race from pole after race delay in Australia, taken out in T1 from pole in Malaysia, hit stalled car in Imola, last lap engine failure while leading in USA, etc) combined with a few mistakes and then his loss of connection. For many races we struggled to find a driver to replace him, finally Glyn Cooper did, until he decided to switch to Kiwi Racing after a missunderstanding, but he made two solid races. Adam Huculak took the second seat and drove very well in Brazil until his brakes failed. Gabriel Garivaldis took the seat for the last two races and also did exactly what was needed. We also had Ravee Ramcharan onboard in Monaco, he did a fantastic race which he won by almost a lap but was considered void due to a disconnection that made him disappear from the timing screens. As for myself, I really had a fantastic season, back in March I wouldn't have dreamt to have the season I had. I gave myself the plessure of winning my first race in FSR when we got a fantasic 1-2 with Wolfgang in Canada, and achieved 7 podium finishes, and had the great feeling of leading the Drivers Championship for most races of the season.

In the end, it was just not possible to take the Drivers Championship, Denis Kiriakopoulos did, deserving it completely. He was as consistant as I was but with better pace and even if I tried my best it was just not possible to beat him, he was just better and so I'm calm about it. My most sincere congratulations to a fantastic driver, thanks for the challenge and the fun and I feel proud of having been able to battle for it with you. Now that I know that we are the Constructors Champions, I don't feel disappointed about it, but of course, even if I don't want to have the illussion that as I battled for it this year I'll be able to do it again in 2006, I definately want to have another shot at it!
But on the other hand, we are the Constructors Champions! It's an unbelievable feeling and a very important achievement for us, as the heading says, a dream come true! I want to thank Spyrox Competition and Virtual-Games.com Junior Team for the battle we had, it was a lot of fun, we really enjoyed to fight with these teams, who presented a big challenge but always played it fair. So thanks and congratulations for a great season from both teams!

WS Amateur: So close to glory!
In the Amateur category, Swaraj "Sunny" Shergill fought hard for the Drivers Championship until the last race. Having no points in the first three races, it was always going to be very hard to win the championship, but Sunny took an amazing 9 victories, with 1 Pole Position and 12 podiums in the process. A connection problem which didn't allow Sunny to submit his result in China was what destroyed his chances, but he still fought it hard, winning the last race dominantly even if that was not enough. Last year, I was the one awarded, but this year, I take myself the opportunity to hand this award (without even asking Gab!!) to Swaraj Shergill, mate, you were the FTS Driver of the Season! Congratulations!

His team mate David Gonzalez also had a very successful season despite his feeling that he could do more, but a season with 3 wins, 6 Pole Positions and 5 podium finishes is not something you would consider poor, would you?

So in total, FTS won 12 of the 19 races of the season, Sunny achieving 2nd in the Drivers Championship and the team 3rd in the Constructors Championship, but showing that Sunny and FTS were the class of the field. Despite this, David Turner did a fantastic season and he completely deserves being the World Champion, as Keith Doherty and other drivers did too. So thanks to all the drivers that gave Sunny and David tough and fair competition and congratulations to David Turner and Little F1 Devils for their double World Championships!

FTS' best season in history!
This 2005 I had a double challenge in the team, to be both the team's WS Department Manager and WS Ace Driver, so this highly succesful season gives me double satisfaction. With the WS success and our best ever WC position achieved by Gabriel Garivaldis and Allan Jensen, 2005 will be a season we will never forget, although we still hope to match it and improve on it in 2006!

I want to very specially thank Gabriel Garivaldis for his vote of trust in my commitment to the team and for being a great manager. I really enjoyed contributing to the team's success. I also want to of course thank Alex Consentino, and every driver that raced in WS for FTS this season, some had better results and more luck than others, but everyone's effort was highly appreciated. So my thanks go to: Swaraj Shergill, Gabriel Garivaldis, David Gonzalez, Wolfgang Weber, Adam Huculak, Glyn Cooper, Ravee Ramcharan, Manolo Gonzalez and to other team members that didn't race in WS this year but were still very important: Allan Jensen, Dani Falco, CJ Marin, Andrey Lovchy and Ireneusz Ciaglo, and of course to all the rest of the team's members, either active or inactive. I also want to thank the league admins, we could sometimes agree or disagree with them, but they were always pushing for the good of the league and their effort is really appreciated, so thanks to Dennis Hirrle, Petros Mak, Joel Roux, David Warren and Steve Holgeth. And of course thanks to all the fellow drivers and teams for the fun and challenge!

Thanks to everyone!

Christian Smirnoff
Faster Than Speed WS Department Manager
Faster Than Speed WS Ace Online Driver

With 7th place for Christian Smirnoff and 8th for Gabriel Garivaldis, FTS scored more than the 240 points needed to claim the WS Ace Online Constructors Championship. Main rival Virtual-Games.com Junior Team decided to try an interesting strategy, placing four cars on the grid, and taking them to the first four places in the race, but FTS did what was needed and in a very conservative race by both drivers the team got the hardly fought and much desired team trophy!!

Gabriel Garivaldis started from P7 on the grid (1:27.662), while Christian Smirnoff qualified 9th (1:27.885). The team ran a solid race, without taking unnecessary risks, despite a communication issue that made Christian wait in queue for his pitstop while Gabriel was refuelling and being provided of fresh tyres, and the fact that a refuelling problem didn't allow Gabriel to cross the finish line, as his tank got empty just 100m away from the checkered flag. As Gabriel was well over the 90% of the race distance, this was not a problem and it just inverted the team mate order.

Adam Huculak also made his comeback to the cockpit after his health problems. He qualified 5th with a time of 1:27.205 and ran a very solid race despite loosing his front cone and having to recover from the back. Unfortunately, despite finishing in the points due to covering over 90% of the race distance, a brake failure put Adam out of the race in the final stages of the Grand Prixa, although he was still classified 9th.

Drivers Championship runner-up Christian Smirnoff commented after the race: "WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!! Yes, I'm very happy. And also feel relief because after a very succesful season I feared not winning anything, but we did what we had to do and won it. The race was ok, didn't make mistakes, although I didn't push very hard either, just kept a decent safe pace. Lost some time behind my team mate as we both entered the pits at the same time, but today I just cared about taking the championship and we did. Thanks to Virtual-Games.com Junior Team and Spyrox Competition teams for the friendly and fair competition!"

Team mate Gabriel Garivaldis also showed a big smile on his face when interviewed: "Ran out of fuel on the last lap... (laughs). But I don't care because.... WEEEEEE AREEEEEE THE CHAMPIONSSSS!! Well done Christian on a stunning year... Woohoo!"

In the WS Amateur category, David Turner (Little F1 Devils) claimed the Drivers Championship while Little F1 Devils took the Constructors title. Our Swaraj Shergill did his job and took his 9th victory of the season, the 12th out of 19 races for the team, in a dominant manner, beating 2nd placed David Turner by over 45 seconds. Swaraj had started the race from 2nd (1:27.407). Despite the victory, with David Turner 2nd, it was not enough to take the championship, but he secured 2nd on the Drivers Standings, with the record number of wins, 9, 7 of them in a row. Swaraj commented after the race: "Well I knew I had to win this race to have any shot at the championship... I tried my best and I won but David (Turner) did what he had to do and finish no lower than 4th. Job well done buddy! I was hoping some of the faster qualifiers would finish in between me and David (Turner)... hehe. Anyways congratulations to David (Turner) for an amazingly consistent season and it was a honour to be a part of this awesome league!! Kudos to my team mates from FTS who helped me along the way!"
Team mate David Gonzalez qualified 3rd (1:27.532) but exceeded the overall time limit and was then not able to complete the race.

With the 2 points Gabriel Garivaldis scored for 7th place, Faster Than Speed secured its best ever WC Constructors Championship position, 6th, with 40 points. The best previous result was 7th position in 2003. Despite Petter Kasaa's (Glam NetRex) 4th place finish, the team only needed 1 point to claim the championship position.

Both Gabriel and Allan Jensen had to start the race from the back. But they had very different fortunes.
Allan Jensen was collided from behind in the first turn of the race, sending him off track. Unfortunately, the engine stopped, so his race was over very early. He wasn't particularly happy when he returned to the pitbox, so he just said these few words: "I got pushed around in the first corner by Dennis Hirrle, and stalled the engine. So that was the end of my final race."
Gabriel, instead, was able to stay out of trouble and score the point-scoring position needed: "I'm sorry about what happened to AG (Allan Jensen), it would have been nice to have had both FTS cars finish but I am very very very happy that FTS has beaten Glam NetRex to 6th in the team standings. FTS has never been as high as 6th in the team standings so it's a big achievement for us. I'm really happy for this."

In the Drivers Championship, both Gabriel Garivaldis and Allan Jensen finished on par with 20 points each, sharing the 11th position.

In the Ace Online category, the FTS cars of Gabriel Garivaldis (1:29.889) and Christian Smirnoff (1:31.049) started the Chinese Grand Prix from 4th and 8th respectively.
Gabriel did a solid job on his first World Series race in his career, despite not being happy with his race pace, and finished in 5th place. He commented after the race: "I don't get it, I was lapping 1 second a lap slower than I should be, than I was in testing. This is bizarre, and I hope it doesn't occur again in my WC race tomorrow. Congratulations to Denis for the Drivers World Championship, you deserved it!"
Christian had a race to forget, as his two-stopper strategy with the harder tyre compound didn't work out, worsened by an early spin that obliged him to pit for a new front cone and the fact that he never felt comfortable enough with the car's setup. Despite the difficulties, Christian still crossed the line in 7th position: "My weakest race of the season. Never really found the track and I wasn't confortable with the setup all week, plus I had little testing time so I knew it wasn't too promising. On top of that, the 2 stopper strategy with hard tyres didn't work out too well, and I ruined it more by spinning and loosing the front wing on lap 14, making me pit together with the 3 stoppers and having to fuel up for a 23-lap second stint. So in general, it was pretty tough race, not switching to a 3 stopper after the mistake was a good decision as it allowed me to stay in front of Petros Mak, but I'm not happy as I was uncompetitive today. Denis, congratulations for winning the Drivers Championship. I tried to keep trying but you did a fantastic job man. Completely deserved championship. I'm not too disappointed as I knew it would happen sooner of later, but I'm calm that I tried my best and you were just better. Well done mate!"

With this result, Denis Kiriakopoulos (Virtual-Games.com Junior Team) claimed the Ace Online Drivers Championship with one round left. Faster Than Speed would like to congratulate him for his achievement. Despite the disappointment of not being able to win it after leading more time than anybody else, the team is looking foward to fight for the Constructors Championship. In Bahrain, Christian Smirnoff and Gabriel Garivaldis will need to score 240 points to be 481 clear Virtual-Games.com Junior Team and be crowned World Constructors Champions!

In the Amateur category, it wasn't a great weekend. David Gonzalez started from 9th in the grid after having his best time removed, while Swaraj Shergill missed qualifying and had to start from the back.
The race would prove even tougher. David Gonzalez did a solid race to take 5th position. After the race he replied when interviewed: "Taking into account I didn' test much and that this layout is new for me, I'm more than happy to be able to finish without a problem, and with a consistent (but slow) pace around 1:31-1:32 every lap."
But the one who had a forgettable weekend was his team mate, championship hopeful Swaraj Shergill. After arriving to Shanghai late due to moving to a new house, "Sunny" started the race with just enough time to take the checkered flag, but a connection problem didn't allow him to finish on time, causing him to get no points despite reaching the race finish.

Swaraj still has chances to claim the Championship, but will need to win the Grand Prix in Bahrain and hope David Turner (Little F1 Devils) finishes in a position lower than 4th. Another driver with championship chances is Keith Doherty (Hernj Grand Prix).

Just as in Japan one week ago, both Gabriel Garivaldis and Allan Jensen took their FTS-P5 cars to the top-8 in the Chinese Grand Prix. Gabriel started the race from P12 (1:31.325) but he could climb up to 7th by the end of the race.
Allan had to start from the back, but was also able to reach the point-scoring positions despite an extra pitstop for repairs. He finished in 8th place. This were his comments after the race: "8th was the best I could hope for. I made a good start and ended up behind my team mate the first half of the race. Shortly before my 2nd stop I went wide at the final corner, got over the grass and hit the wall. I lost my front wing and had to do a very slow lap until I could get it fixed. I'm happy for my point here since I was way off pace. "

This result leaves FTS in very good shape to round up the season 6th in the WC Constructors Championship, a position never achieved yet by the team, the best being 7th in 2003. Let's see what happens in Sakhir!

After a bad turn of events that saw Adam Huculak get sent to hospital due to severe food poisoning, and having to miss the last race at Suzuka, the team has decided to let him rest for at least one more race weekend. Short on options the team did not know who to turn to and with 2 races to go and holding the lead in the Constructor's Championship, the team does not want to take any risks and start the race with only 1 driver, so WC driver Gabriel Garivaldis will take driver seat number 2 alongside Smirnoff.

Gabriel was able to comment on his first drive in the World Series, "We had no other choice, and we did not want to risk running just 1 car. I mean what if for some reason Christian gets a DNF, and VG or Spyrox both score double finishes? Then we will go into the final race with pressure, something we don't want. I will not be 100% prepared for this race due to my dedication to WC but I will aim for a race finish which is all we need."

If both Garivaldis and Smirnoff finish the race this Saturday in WS-Ace, the Constructor's Championship will be looking very good for them going into the last race at Bahrain.

Christian Smirnoff finished 4th in the Japanese Grand Prix held last Saturday at Suzuka. After starting the race from 5th on the grid (1:38.937) under the rainy conditions, Christian took P4 after loosing out the podium to Geoffrey Veenings who secured the position after making one less pitstop than planned. The race also saw Christian defending his position for a long time against fellow racer Marc Van Huffelen in an exciting battle. After the race, Christian commented: "I knew it was going to be a tough race as I lost race pace from my first laps on Tuesday and I don't know why, had little testing time and wasn't able to fix it. Still, I pushed hard on that limited pace and made no mistakes, just had a moment in Degnar but saved it. A podium was possible as I ran 3rd for most of the race but I needed to be quicker in the 2nd and 3rd stints to be able to beat Geoffrey Veenings' 2 stopper."
Team mate Adam Huculak was unfortunately sent to hospital due to food poisoning and was unable to take part in the Grand Prix. But due to Spyrox Competition's double retirement, the team still retains the lead in the Constructors Championship, now trailled by the Virtual Games.com Junior Team.

In the WS Amateur race, David Gonzalez and Swaraj Shergill started from 2nd and 3rd in the grid (1:38.560 and 1:38.664 respectively). Swaraj's 7 consecutive win streak was unfortunately finished by rival Keith Doherty who achieved his maiden victory. But "Sunny" was still able to finish in P2, trailling Keith by just 5 seconds at the end of the race.
Team mate David Gonzalez was less fortunate, as he lost control of the car after the famous S-bends and had to jump out of the damaged car and abandon the race.

Both FTS World Championship drivers finished the Japanese Grand Prix in the top 8. Allan Jensen eventually finished 5th, but was relegated to P6 due to a post-race 15 seconds penalty due to missing qualifying. Gabriel Garivaldis also finished the race, finishing in 7th position.

With the double point-scoring finish, Faster Than Speed regains 6th in the Constructors Championship, aiming for it's highest ever position in the WC, being 7th in 2003 the team's best yet.

FTS WS-Amateur driver Swaraj "Sunny" Shergill continued to demolish all records by claiming his seventh victory in a row, his eight of the season, and the team's 11th in the Amateur category. The Brazilian Grand Prix started in a very good way for the Amateur drivers, as they achieved an all-panther first row with David Gonzalez in Pole Position for the 6th time this season (1:08.051), followed by Swaraj in 2nd (1:08.189).

In the race, Swaraj showed impressive pace to win by almost 45 seconds over 2nd placed David Turner (LDSR): "Everything went fine. Had a 1 stop strategy, stopping on lap 18. On lap 14 I just touched a backmarker and damaged my front wing but it didn't break so I was lucky to keep going and the car felt fine. Backmarkers were a problem after my first pitstop, so I had to lap someone almost every lap in the second stint which lost me some time but I kept pushing and tried to be consistent. Thanks Christian for the awesome setup!"
David Gonzalez was not as lucky, as a problem with pit limiter issued him two stop n' go penalties for exceeding the pitlane speed limit. A solid recovery took him to P6: "I missed the pitstop line twice by braking at the semaphore instead of the line, so my stop, and 2 stop&go in 3 laps. I went out 14th and finally won the race against the AI but finding traffic every lap. A pity I didn't practice the pit entry, cause my laptimes in a test before race showed good pace (1.08.0 in race trim). If only I would have practised those pitstops."

In the WS Ace Online category, Adam Huculak made his debut for the team in this category, after competing in the first Pro 100 race in Australia back in March. Adam qualified 8th (1:07.671) and was running to a very solid 3rd position when a brake failure destroyed his chances of a maiden Ace podium. Despite this, a good effort by Adam allowed him to finish the race, although 4 laps down, but scoring very important points for the Constructors Championship, in 7th position.
Team mate and championship leader Christian Smirnoff only managed 10th in the grid (1:08.149) but was able to climb up to 5th by the end of the race: "Pretty good, I knew my pace wasn't great here but at least it was better than in qualifying. No mistakes or big troubles, just lost time with Blair Disley in the first stint although I was able to pass him in the pitlane. Then tried to beat Glyn to 4th as I realised he was on a 4 stopper but it seems he decided to change and do a long last stint so he managed to stay ahead. Just a pity that Adam's brakes failed with 10 laps to go as he was 3rd, but still he finished and scored important points."
The battle with Spyrox Competition for the Constructors Championship is still completely open so both Christian and Adam will try to go for another double-car finish in Suzuka!

Allan Jensen made solid job in the WC Brazilian Grand Prix to get to the checkered flag in 6th position. Coming from P10 in the grid (1:08.532) the FTS driver ended up happy with his race: "I had a quite uneventful race besides a couple of close moments with cars spinning in front of me. Again a race from me without major mistakes, which is quite an improvement in my driving style (laughs). I'm very satisfied with 6th place, I could not have hoped for much more. "

Gabriel Garivaldis suffered from mechanical problems and was not able to score after starting from 14th (1:09.926). Gabriel finished the Grand Prix in 10th place, but knowing that without the mechanical issues, much more was within reach: "Had strange screen freezing for the whole race making me not be able to push. I was lapping over a second slower per lap then what I was in testing."

Allan Jensen also spoke to the news reporters about the rummor that leaving FTS was within his plans, but he rejected it completely: "I was utterly surprised to read that I see no future in the FTS team. It's completly untrue. I might been having thoughts of leaving the FSR WC after this season, but that is due to personal reasons. It has nothing to do with my current team or it's members."

Swaraj "Sunny" Shergill has once again performed incredibly to take his sixth consecutive win in the WS Amateur category, despite failing to set a qualifying time and having to start from the back of the grid. A fantastic performance under the difficult track conditions caused by rain which left a wet asphalt for the Grand Prix, took him to his seventh victory of the season, and FTS' tenth in the Amateur category. Sunny commented after the race: "I started on Intermediates with fuel for 10 laps, climbed my way up to P1 by end of lap 1, had to be very careful with AI cars because they were on Wets, the track dried out really fast and I kept putting in best laps each lap for the first 10 laps until I pitted, took Softs and started doing some good laps with track conditions improving each lap but I went offline at Pouhon and slid off loosing 6 seconds, luckily I suffered no damage and just took it easy to the end."
Team mate David Gonzalez didn't have the same luck and had to retire from the race after a collission with a backmarker: "Oh well, my race was perfect, maybe even for the win, when I made my pitstop and on exit a backmarker crashed on my rear when trying to overtake another guy. Race over. Congratulations to Sunny again."

In the WS Ace Online category, Christian Smirnoff climbed back to the podium, finishing in 3rd place, after starting from P6 on the grid (1:43.744). Dispite a worrying final laps, stedy improvement during the wet section of the race gave Christian the chance to be back in the top 3: "Happy to be back at the podium. Everything went fine in the wet, although I lost quite a bit of time in my first stint with wets, but with the intermediates and then the dry tyres I managed to keep the pace and the car felt good. But had a few mistakes in the end, and had to pit for a new front wing with 3 laps to go. Without the mistakes I would have been able to finish in the lead lap, but still in P3 so it didnt have big consequences, just the worry."

After a double top-10 grid position, with Allan Jensen 7th (1:45.578) and Gabriel Garivaldis in P10 (1:46.612), the team was hopeful of doing a good job under the wet weather conditions the Spa-Francorchamps circuit presented.

Gabriel Garivaldis ended in 7th place, scoring two points for the team, but with the feeling that more was possible: "Race started off good for me, but it went downhill 2 laps after my first pitstop. Had my race not been full of mistakes I'm sure at least 5th was possible, maybe more. But anyway Im lucky to have scored points with such a disastrous race, I guess Ím happy to have finished."

Allan Jensen, meanwhile, left even more disappointed with his race, as a secure 6th place slipped away after a mistake in the tricky conditions: "I have different feelings for this race. I started with a minnimum of wet track testing. I could see absolutely nothing at the first lap. I got pushed from behind twice and lost a lot of positions there, luckily no damage. Towards the end I was in a secure 6th place driving right behind Koek when I got my left side soft tyres onto the wet braking for the Bus Stop. The car spun and the engine stalled! I could not believe it."

FTS would like to congratulate Dennis Hirrle from Twister Racing for claiming the 2005 FSR World Championship title. Well done!

Swaraj "Sunny" Shergill continued his amazing run of victories, claiming his fifth consecutive win in the WS Amateur category, after crossing the line first in Monza.
The team filled the first row of the grid, as David Gonzalez qualified on pole with a time of 1:19.198 while Swaraj started 2nd, having set a 1:19.550, and from there dominated the race: "Well after qualifying I knew it would be very hard to beat David and Faisal in the race but I got my race setup right I think. I was running a bit aggressive with the radiator and brake duct settings so I am glad it lasted the distance. Thanks for Christian and Gabriel for their help with my race setup!".
David started the race with a non-stop race in mind, but the strategy didn't work due to a small mistake, which left David in 5th place.

In the WS Ace Online category, Christian recovered from a difficult qualifying where only P11 was possible in the grid (1:19.911) and finished in a fine 4th place, after a first corner incident which obliged Christian for a first-lap pitstop for a new nose cone. After the incident Christian managed to recover from 14th to finish in a great 4th considering the circumstances: "Very happy with P4, as I lost my front wing in lap 1 after touching a car that suddenly stopped in the middle of the first corner, and had to recover from 14th. Had a few problems, but in the end I benefited from playing it safe with the brakes and got a 4th I never expected after the first lap. Great result after my terrible qualifying".
Adam Huculak was all set for his WS Ace debut but unfortunatelly he wasn't able to climb into the FTS-P5 race seat, but we will fortunatelly see him in action in Spa Francorchamps!

We wish Glyn Cooper good luck in his departure to a fellow team for which he has already raced in the past, Kiwi Racing.

After a qualifying that left both Allan Jensen (P9 - 1:21.125) and Gabriel Garivaldis disappointed, Allan drove a very good race to finish in 6th place and score another valuable 3 points for the team: "Great for me. My 2 stop strategy worked out quite well. At one point I was running in 2nd place. That's a new experience for me".

Gabriel, instead, jumped out of the car upset after having to retire following an accident on lap 6: "Well that was upsetting. I passed Fausto for position and he ghosted straight back into me coming out of the turn, I couldn't see where I was going and crashed into the wall, race over".

FTS driver Andrey Lovchy, currently on loan to the Glam NetRex team, didn't end up happy with his race, but he crossed the finish line in 11th position, getting good and necessary experience.

Indian driver Swaraj Shergill took his fourth consecutive victory in the WS Amateur category, starting from last in the grid, and dominated the race despite this difficulty. "I went into the race knowing that most of my competitors had made mistakes in their races so my job was to keep it on the track. I had a good race setup thanks to David and lapped consistently throughout the race. I was very cautious while lapping backmarkers and while pitting. Starting P20 wasn't easy and my plan was to overtake a couple of cars every lap and not to take any unnecessary risks and it paid off. I feel very bad for David who helped me a lot with the setup but had bad luck in the race".
Swaraj's team mate David Gonzalez started the race from pole position after setting a time of 1:04.239 but then unfortunatelly ran into problems and ended the race in a disappointing 10th place.

In the WS Ace category, Glyn Cooper (1:04.516) and Christian Smirnoff (1:04.690) started from 8th and 10th respectively in the grid. Glyn Cooper lost the chance of going to the podium after a few mistakes and some lost time after a collission with a competitor, but still finished in 5th place.
Christian Smirnoff was in line for that position at the end of the race, after a difficult race due to a wrong strategic decision, but a car stalled in the middle of the racing line ruined Christian's race with few laps to go, eventually loosing a lot of time in repair work and finally colliding with a rival while defending his position with an ill car. This collission didn't allow Christian to cross the finish line, but he was still classified in 8th position due to the number of laps he completed.

In the FSR World Championship, Allan Jensen took his FTS-P5 to 7th place, although he finished disappointed not to be able to finish in a higher position in his comeback. Allan commented after the race: "I'm a bit dissapointed to only get 7th place. I lost 2 places in the final 3 laps. Ferry and Dejan were too fast to keep at bay any longer. I maybe could have finished 5th if I didn't loose so much time behind a backmarker. I guess he couldn't see me. Anyway great to be back racing again. I had a lot of fun". Allan started the race from P9, after qualifying with a time of 1:06.109.

Team mate Gabriel Garivaldis was also back after his holidays, but he failed to score points. "It definitely is good to be back to racing again, unfortunately my pace was not fast enough for points today I only got to practise properly 1 hour before the race so considering this, 9th position is ok. Monza is a track I love and I think things will be better for me and the team there".

In the WS Amateur category, Swaraj Shergill and David Gonzalez achieved a 1-2 finish in the Hungarian Grand Prix! This was Swaraj's fourth victory, the third one in a row, and the team's seventh win of this fantastic season! David Gonzalez started from 2nd on the grid (1:15.868) while Swaraj was third in qualifying (1:16.335).

In Ace Online, it was also a successful weekend for the team. Christian Smirnoff and Glyn Cooper ran together throughout the whole race, until a problematic last pitstop delayed Christian and inverted the order. Glyn Cooper ended the race 3rd while Christian Smirnoff ended up disappointed with 4th after starting from P6 on the grid. Despite the pit problems, this result is the team's second best in the championship, after the 1-2 achieved in Canada by Christian & Wolfgang.

The team now looks foward to recharging bateries before Austria and return ready to go for another successful result!

Swaraj "Sunny" Shergill, achieved his second consecutive victory in the World Series Amateur category, claiming the top step of the podium after starting from P2 (1:11.658). This win is his third of the season, and the team's sixth in this category. His team mate David Gonzalez, meanwhile, had different fortune. After mechanical problems that handicapped his race completely, the time limit was exceeded so his race was considered void.

In the WS Ace Online category, Christian Smirnoff went from 7th in the grid to a 4th place finish, missing a sure podium finish when collided by another driver in the first lap.

FTS driver Swaraj "Sunny" Shergill, won his second race of the season, and the team's fifth in the World Series Amateur category. Swaraj had a fantastic drive, coming from P20 in the grid and taking the win by just 0.004 seconds over LDSR's David Turner, while the 3rd positioned driver finished just 3 tenths of a second behind! Most probably the closest finish in FSR's history! Swaraj's team mate David Gonzalez, had to pit for a wing change but still managed to finish 5th, scoring very important points that take the team very near championship rivals LDSR and Hernj GP.

In WC and WS Ace Online, FTS didn't have the same luck. Allan Jensen wasn't even able to start in the World Championship race, while Christian Smirnoff had to abandon the World Series Ace race after being collided by an opponent, his first retirement of the season.

WS Amateur driver David Gonzalez set a time of 1:13.167, and will start the Silverstone race from Pole Position. Team mate Swaraj Shergill clocked a time good enough for 2nd, but his time was unfortunatelly stripped off due to exceeding the time limit allowed for the session.

In Ace Online, Christian Smirnoff was the sole FTS qualifier as Wolfgang continues with hardware problems. Christian qualified 7th with a laptime of 1:14.108.

Andrey Lovchy completed succesfully his first World Championship race. Despite not being able to score, the driver from Belarus who is replacing Gabriel Garivaldis, achieved a race finish in his first WC experience, after crossing the line in P11. Andrey will be in action again in Hockenheim.

In WS, Christian Smirnoff was 3rd in Ace Online, despite having to pit for a new nose in lap 9, but an agressive drive saw him reaching the last podium spot and some nice overtaking manouvers. Glyn Cooper had to retire after starting the race with problems, while Wolfgang Weber was not able to participate due to hardware problems.

In the Amateur category, both David Gonzalez and Swaraj Shergill had difficult races, but still achieved P4 and P5, with a gap of just over a second between them. Swaraj had suffered a long pitstop and a stop-n-go penalty for speeding in the pitlane while David had a difficult race due to personal problems.

Belarus driver Andrey Lovchy, will take FTS car 20 replacing Gabriel Garivaldis in the WC French and German races. In his first qualifying appearance, he took P16 on the grid, after qualifying with a time of 1:13.720.

In the World Series, David Gonzalez and Swaraj Shergill achieved an all-FTS front row in the Amateur category, with times of 1:11.448 and 1:11.898 respectively. In Ace Online, Glyn Cooper was the only qualifier, but his time was unfortunatelly stripped off due to failing to send the necessary files.

In the Ace Online category, the United States Grand Prix held in Indianapolis gave mixed feelings to the FTS drivers. Christian Smirnoff eventually finished 3rd, his fifth podium in eight races, after battling hard in the end but finishing behind Denis Kiriakopoulos by 1.1 second. Wolfgang Weber was set to take a dominant victory, but his engine let him down on the main straight after starting the last lap of the race! After a fantastic drive, Wolfgang was still classified 6th 1 lap down, but that was little consolation for him. Glyn Cooper spun out of the race and failed to finish the Grand Prix. Christian and the FTS team continue leading both championships.

In the Amateur category, FTS enjoyed a great result once again, with David Gonzalez taking his third win of the season, the fourth for the team, while Swaraj Shergill finished 3rd despite running out of fuel in the last lap, which caused him to finish the race almost crawling.

Allan Jensen was the only FTS car that took part in the FSR World Championship USGP in Indianapolis. Coming from 9th in the grid, Allan did a solid job but suffered an incident with Dejan Stankovic, who sent Allan off the track into the barriers. After recovering from that incident, Allan had another incident and had to pit once again for repairs. So after such a difficult Grand Prix for him, 8th position and the final point is good consolation.

Swaraj Shergill and David Gonzalez achieved for the second consecutive time, altough in inverted order from Canada, an all-FTS front row in the Amateur category. Swaraj will start from pole position for the first time, having clocked 1:08.084. David Gonzalez will start alongside, after setting a time of 1:08.193.

In Ace Online, Wolfgang Weber was the quickest FTS driver, qualifying in 2nd place with a time of 1:07.436. Glyn Cooper was 9th in 1:08.187 while championship leader Christian Smirnoff failed to set a laptime and will start from 13th on the grid.

Faster Than Speed enjoyed its best ever World Series weekend, as Christian Smirnoff and Wolfgang Weber in Ace Online, and Swaraj Shergill and David Gonzalez in Amateur, achieved 1-2 finishes for the first time in FTS' history. Christian's was also the team's first ever Online win, while Swaraj joins David as Amateur race winners this season.

In Ace Online, it was a triple point-scoring finish. Christian Smirnoff and Wolfgang Weber ended the race with a photo-finish with both cars crossing the line almost together. Glyn Cooper, meanwhile, was doing a very strong race but he suffered a brake failure with 2 laps to the end, altough he still managed to end the race, in 8th position. With this result, Christian enlarged his championship lead, while the team is now leading the Constructors Championship for the first time. Wolfgang and Glyn scored their highly-deserved first points after suffering from bad luck in the first races of the season.

In Amateur category, Faster Than Speed could also enjoy a 1-2 finish, with Swaraj Shergill completing the race less than five seconds faster than team mate David Gonzalez, giving him his first win and the team's second in Amateur this season. As a team, FTS starts to get into the championship battle.

A really fantastic Canadian race for FTS, which left the team full of smiles and motivation!

Gabriel Garivaldis finished the World Championship Canadian Grand Prix in 5th position, scoring 4 important points for the team in the championship. Coming from 9th on the grid, Gabriel achieved his best result of the 2005 season.

Allan Jensen was running a very strong race when unfortunatelly the front brakes failed in lap 49, forcing him to retire the car from the race.

In the WS Amateur category, David Gonzalez and Swaraj Shergill drove fantastic qualifying runs, as they qualified for the Canadian Grand Prix in 1st and 2nd places respectively. With great expectations for the race, the pair gave Faster Than Speed its first full first row appearance of the season. David clocked 1:12.012 while Swaraj stopped the watches in 1:12.429.

In Ace Online, Christian Smirnoff equalled his best qualifying result of the season, 4th, with a time of 1:11.734, while Glyn Cooper will start 6th, after clocking 1:12.166. Wolfgang Weber had a mechanical problem that didn't allow him to run the qualifying stint, and as a consequence, will have to climb from the back of the field.

After a delay from the original race date, Faster Than Speed cars took part in the World Championship race in the Nürburgring.

Allan Jensen scored three points for the team with a 6th place finish despite having to start from the back of the grid. Gabriel Garivaldis qualified in 7th place but unfortunatelly had to retire after just a few laps due to a software failure.

Both Gabriel and Allan are sharing 6th place in the standings with 7 points each.

Faster Than Speed achieved two podium finishes in the World Series European Grand Prix in the Nürburgring.

In Ace Online, Christian Smirnoff finished 3rd, scoring his third podium of the season and retaining the championship lead. Unfortunatelly Wolfgang Weber was leading the race when it was time to refuel, but a brake lock-up caused Wolfgang to miss the pit entry and rejoin the track in a very dangerous way, having the bad luck that Glyn Cooper found him there and a collission was unavoidable. So both FTS cars had to retire that lap, Wolfgang due to a broken rear suspension arm, and Glyn for an engine failure caused by overheating for driving without the front wing.

In Amateur, David Gonzalez visited the podium for the second time this season after a 2nd place finish, missing the win by just over three seconds. David's team mate Swaraj Shergill, also scored in P8, dispite fuel shortage in his last stint which obliged the team to pit before the final lap of the race. Their combined performance was better than the one the team got in Monaco, and starts fighting for the important places of the Constructors Championship.

Update (04.07.05): Swaraj Shergill was disqualified for failing to submit files, but as the winner was also disqualified, David Gonzalez takes his second win of the season in the Nurburgring.

Wolfgang Weber (Ace Online) and David Gonzalez (Amateur) qualified in 2nd position for the Nürburgring race, sixth round of the WS championship, with times of 1:25.800 and 1:26.606 respectively.

In Ace Online, Christian Smirnoff qualified 7th with a time of 1:26.282, while Glyn Cooper will start from 10th, after setting a time of 1:27.264. Swaraj Shergill will start the Amateur category race from 5th position, having clocked 1:27.577.

Gabriel Garivaldis took the FTS-P5 to 7th position in the World Championship Monte Carlo race, scoring 2 points for the team, result that takes him to 6th in the championship, shared with Johann Coerper (Twister Racing) and Greg Barber (LDSR). The team also maintains 6th place as constructor.

Allan Jensen unfortunatelly was not able to score as he hit the barriers in the tricky Tabac corner in lap 4 and had to retire from the Grand Prix.

Ravee Ramcharan, who was replacing Wolfgang, did a fantastic race winning in Ace Online around the twisty streets of Monte Carlo, and giving the Constructors lead to the team, but due to a timing problem admins decided to consider his result void, even if the files showed all the correct information. The team has yet recieved no answer on the team's appeal.

In the same category, Christian Smirnoff finished in 4th place, keeping the Drivers Championship lead. Glyn Cooper was unfortunatelly unable to finish the race.

In Amateur, David Gonzalez and Swaraj Shergill had difficult races, but were still able to take P4 and P8, picking up more points as team than any other in this race.

Ravee Ramcharan, replacing Wolfgang Weber this weekend in Ace Online, took pole position in his first World Series qualifying session, with a time of 1:11.045. Team mate and championship leader Christian Smirnoff qualified in P6 with a time of 1:12.647. Glyn Cooper was not able to do his qualifying run becuase of software issues.

In the Amateur category, David Gonzalez achieved the fastest time, but his pole-setting laptime was unfortunatelly removed since wrong files were sent to verifiers. Swaraj Shergill will also have to start from the back as he went over the time limit allowed for the session. Both drivers did good performances and even though they will start from the back they will for sure make up for the lost ground in the race!

In the WS Ace Online category, Wolfgang Weber dominated the race with great pace, but unfortunatelly, a misscommunication with the pitwall meant he did not come in for refuelling when needed, and he had to walk down to the pits as the car stopped in the middle of the circuit because of fuel shortage, after more than 50 laps of leading.

With better luck, in the same category Christian Smirnoff took 4th place after a race with some difficulties, but enough to let him take the Ace Online Drivers Championship lead.

In Amateur, Swaraj Shergill enjoyed a podium position in his first finish after ending up 3rd, while team mate David Gonzalez was let down by mechanical problems that didn't allow him to start the race, something very disappointing for David in his home race.

In Monaco, Ravee Ramcharan from Netherlands will be replacing Wolfgang Weber in Ace Online. The German will be back at his first home race in the Nurburgring.

Gabriel Garivaldis finished the Spanish Grand Prix of the Formula SimRacing World Championship in 8th position, after starting from the seventh row of the grid, in P14, as his team mate Allan Jensen, who started from P13.

Allan finished in front of Gabriel but was unfortunatelly handed a post-race penalty for a incident in the first lap of the race, which dropped him out of the points.

Wolfgang Weber qualified his FTS-P5 in 2nd position with a time of 1:12.511, just 0.050 slower than poleman Denis Kiriakopoulos in Ace Online. In the same category, Christian Smirnoff qualified 8th with a time of 1:13.152 while Glyn Cooper was in P12 with 1:14.044.

In the Amateur category, Swaraj Shergill was not able to qualify due to mechanical problem that we hope will be sorted out for the race, but David Gonzalez delivered a very good lap time of 1:13.518 to start the race from 2nd.

The team is hopeful for a good result in the Spanish Grand Prix, more news after the race!

Faster Than Speed driver David Gonzalez took the top step of the podium in the FSR World Series Amateur San Marino Grand Prix, giving the team its first victory of 2005! A really fantastic drive by David!
To add to the World Series success, Christian Smirnoff was 2nd in Ace Online, finishing just between 11 seconds of the leader, and giving him the second championship spot behind Ronald Gilchrist.

Despite these great results, not everyone in the team was happy after the Imola race. In Ace Online, Wolfgang Weber had a great pace on his strategy, but unfortunatelly had to retire after colliding with a car that spun after an incident in the main straight, leaving him very eager to take his first points in Barcelona. Glyn Cooper was also doing a great drive when his engine let him down with few laps to go.
Swaraj Shergill was also doing a fine job in Amateur category, but suffered from a mechanical problem that left him out of the race.

The team is now looking foward to Barcelona hoping to build on David's win and try to score with more than one car in Ace Online, to start battling for the top spot of the Constructors Championship!

Faster Than Speed didn't leave the Imola circuit with a smile, as the team failed to score any points. Allan Jensen qualified his FTS-P5 in a well deserved 5th place, starting from the third row of the grid, but unfortunatelly had to retire after loosing control of the car on lap 27. Team mate Gabriel Garivaldis couldn't post a qualifying time and had to start from the back, but despite finishing the race, he did so in P9, just outside of the point scoring zone.

The team is now looking for a much better result in Barcelona, hopefully with both cars in the points.

The three cars Faster Than Speed entered in the WS Ace Online category qualified in the top 10, with Glyn Cooper in 4th place with 1:16.595, Christian Smirnoff in P7 with 1:16.810 and Australia and Malaysia Poleman Wolfgang Weber in P9 with 1:16.843. The team is confident of achieving good results and seeking for strong points for the championship!

More news on Saturday after the Grand Prix!

Faster Than Speed WC driver Gabriel Garivaldis shows us an onboard lap around the Imola circuit over the FTS-P5 car, commented by himself. The team will be taking part in the World Championship race on Sunday and both Gabriel and Allan are expecting better results than in the first races.

Download the video from here.