Q4 2018 results

Brian Ackerson - 8th (Qualified: 7th)

• Drivin' Brian had his worst event for the entire year. He started by qualifying in 7th. This means he had an extra race to get his way into the Winner's Bracket Quarterfinals. He got the win by beating Kei Hattori who was unable to race. The victory meant he had to go up against the 2nd best qualifier in Stephen Trigueiro. He didn't really stand a chance as Stephen put in only 1 (fast) lap to put Brian one loss away from being knocked out. His next match up was against Cooper Bright in the Loser's Bracket 2nd Round. This was a great battle where Brian put in 13 laps (including all 3 of his optional extra laps) in 3 turns but couldn't get the best from the Lamborghini to finish a disappointing 8th place. This was Brian's worst result to date and after finishing 4th at one event earlier this year, he has been following a trend of going backwards. He will hope to regroup in the off-season and turn things around for the 2019 season.

Cooper Bright - 3rd (Qualified: 5th)

• Cooper Bright put in an inspired performance. He qualified 5th which put him into the Winner's Bracket Quarterfinals and a tough match up against Greg McKeever. Greg missed the Q3 2018 event, but in the first two events for the year, he finished in 2nd place each time. Cooper couldn't figure out the Ford Mustang Gr.4 and Greg ended up only needing 1 lap to secure the win. This meant Cooper had a long hill to climb as he needed to win 5 match ups in a row to make the Grand Finals. He started the climb by getting a win against Kei Hattori who couldn't race in the Loser's Bracket 1st Round. In the next round he ended up beating Brian Ackerson. This put him into the Loser's Bracket Quarterfinals where he was matched up once again against Greg. This time though, after 3 turns and 12 laps, he was able to knockout one of the event favorites in the Subaru WRX. Greg would not go down without a fight though as Cooper had to use one of his optional extra laps to get the dub. With his confidence high, he took on Mike Force in the Loser's Bracket Semifinals. With a shot at the podium on the line, he was really in the mood and won his 4th straight match up. Now in the Loser's Bracket Finals and one win away from getting into the Grand Finals, he had his biggest obstacle yet in going against Mike Hansen. Cooper was looking like he was on his way to the upset, when Hansen put in a blinder that left not enough meat on the bone for Cooper to rebuttal. Cooper even decided not use his extra optional laps (2) to try even though a loss here meant he would be knocked out. This stopped a great run through the Loser's Bracket and Cooper ended up finishing 3rd for the 2nd time in his career. He will be disappointed to not get into the Grand Finals, but he can be proud of his 4-2 event record and takes home $10 for his efforts.

Greg McKeever - 6th (Qualified: 4th)

• Greg "Greggor Dale" McKeever was one of the favorites going into this event. I'm not sure if it was rust from not participating in the Q3 2018 event, but by his standards and previous results, this event could not be considered anything but disappointing for Greg. Greg started out good enough as he qualified 4th. He has qualified there before and was able to pull out a 2nd place result at the end of the event, so there was no need to panic. This feeling had to be confirmed after beating Cooper Bright in the Winner's Bracket Quarterfinals pretty easily as he only needed 1 lap in the Ford Mustang Gr.4. I guess that trash talk about his brother owning a Mustang got into Cooper's head. This put him one win away from another podium spot but to get there he had to go up against his rival Mike Hansen. This was the closest result between these two yet as the difference ended up only being 0.176 seconds. Alas, after Greg put in 3 turns and 7 laps, Hansen ended up on the better end of the result. Greg made a head scratching decision by not using one of his 3 optional extra laps in the match up seeing how close he was to setting a new fastest lap. The loss meant that Greg got dropped down into the Loser's Bracket Quarterfinal and another match up against Cooper. This was one of the match ups of the event as there were 7 different seat changes & 24 total laps between the two. Cooper was able to dig deep and upset Greg to knock him out at a surprising 6th place. Once again Greg decided not to use any of his optional extra laps to extend his chances and left the event with all three still in his pocket. Greg will still be proud of what he was able to prove in his first year of the GP Cup by finishing 2nd place in the overall table.

Jeff Meisenzahl - 7th (Qualified: 6th)

• Jeff "Gordon" Meisenzahl came into the event with a shot of finishing 2nd place in the overall table for the inaugural GP Cup Championship. With only 1 point between himself (in 3rd) and Greg (in 2nd) at the start of the event, Jeff was feeling good about his chances. He qualified in a somewhat disappointing 6th place after qualifying 2nd in the previous two events. This was still good enough for him to make it into the Winner's Bracket Quarterfinals. His first match up was against Mike Force. These two have battled it out at the most recent two previous events with each person able to get victory against the other. This was their rubber match and neither competitor wanted to go down. They competed in the first ever city circuit match up and penalties were hard to avoid as hitting the walls would basically negate your lap. After 7 seat changes and 10 Laps (including 1 of his 3 optional extra laps) from Jeff, Mike was able to best of the circuit and car to secure the win. This unfortunate result put him in the Loser's Bracket Round 1 against Preston Woods. Jeff was able to make it through Preston and a match up against his former roommate Travis Roof awaited. This one was a match up for the ages as there were the most seat changes (9) and tied for the most laps (24) between the two. After almost an hour, Travis was able to exact revenge against Jeff after their first meeting in the Q1 2018 event. Jeff used his remaining two extra laps in this match up to find a result but was unfortunate to not use them to their full potential and get the victory. To add salt to the wound, Jeff went from a podium spot in the overall Championship to finishing in 4th. This was still a great year for Jeff and he will look to build on it for future seasons to come.

Kei Hattori - 10th (Qualified: 10th)

• Kei "The Purple Shadow" Hattori qualified a non-surprising 10th after not racing since the first event of the year and failing to show up before the event to get some practice in. Unfortunately after qualifying, Kei had to leave for personal reasons and was unable to compete in his Winner's Bracket Round 1 match up against Brian. Same thing for his Loser's Bracket Round 1 match up against Cooper Bright. This left him in 10th place for the event and he will be focused on trying to prove his skills next year as he never lacks confidence in himself.

Mike Force - 4th (Qualified: 3rd)

• Mike Force will be happy by qualifying a personal best 3rd for the second time. This put him up against a budding rivalry with Jeff Meisenzahl in the Winner's Bracket Quarterfinals. He was able to get the victory to move him to the Winner's Bracket Semifinals and one win away from getting on the podium. The same result he had when he qualified 3rd previously. He had to get through one of the favorites in Stephen Trigueiro to get there though. After a super entertaining 18 lap battle in the Jaguar F-type Gr.4, Force just missed out by less than a tenth (0.076 seconds)! You could tell he wanted the victory badly as he decided to use all three of his optional extra laps in this match up to no avail. He had to quickly regroup mentally though for his Loser's Bracket Quarterfinal match up against Travis Roof. I'm not sure if Travis was mentally exhausted after his last battle, but Force was able to win relatively easily. This put him one win away from making the podium through the back door. In the Loser's Bracket Semifinals he went up against Cooper Bright. Unfortunately for Force, Cooper knows how to win in Chevrolet Corvettes against Mikes. He proved that skill once again to knock Force out in a respectable 4th place against the strongest field to date.

Mike Hansen - 2nd (Qualified: 1st)

• Michael George Hansen was easily the favorite to win the Q4 2018 event as he won the previous three events in the 2018 season with the two previous events being absolutely dominated with his performances. This meant that for this event only, Hansen would have a handicap while the others competed under normal circumstances. He would have to use the "JC" method which meant he had traction control set to zero and would have to use the cockpit view every time he was in the seat. Even with the handicap, Hansen was looking hard to beat as he qualified in 1st place for the third event in a row. In his first match up, he went up against Travis Roof who beat Preston Woods in the Winner's Bracket Round 1. Even though Hansen didn't dominate as he has done previously, he still was able to win after putting in 4 laps. This matched him up against an event favorite and rival in Greg McKeever. This being the Winner's Bracket Semifinal meant that he only had to get the victory to get yet another podium. He was able to squeak past Greg to secure his 4th podium in a row, his 4th win in row against Greg, and extend his match up winning streak to 15 in a row! Truly remarkable numbers. In the Winner's Bracket Finals, he went up against another event favorite in Stephen Trigueiro who he beat two times in the last event. Hansen does not like Chevrolet Corvettes as he lost for only the 2nd time in his career (also while driving a Corvette) to snap the winning streak. He even used an optional extra lap for the first time in his GP Cup participation history. There was finally a crack in the armor as the other driver's started to gain confidence. This was true as Hansen had to go up against Cooper Bright in the Loser's Bracket Final. Cooper was looking set to give Hansen a second loss and a third place finish, but Hansen would not go quietly into the night. He put in an absolute masterclass lap that was just too good to be beaten. This set up another rematch with Stephen as a new rival emerged. In the Grand Finals, Stephen was able to come to grips with the Dodge Viper Gr.4 just a little bit better than Hansen and beat him again to make their head to head record 2-2. Mike decided like Cooper to not use any of his remaining extra optional laps even though he had two left. His logic was it would take away from his winnings, but you have to ask yourself, would you rather take home the 2nd place winnings or go for the win and more money at the risk of losing a few more dollars? It will be exciting to watch what happens next season with these two both marking themselves as favorites. Hansen had an amazing year where he took 95 out of a possible 100 points and finished the year as champion by 47 points (next closest was Greg at 48 points)! For his efforts this event, he took home $33 with a yearly total winnings of $106.

Preston Woods - 9th (Qualified: 9th)

• Preston "Featherfoot" Woods came into this event the most prepared he has been yet. He qualified in 9th place which put him up against Travis Roof in the Winner's Bracket Round 1. In the same car and track as the qualifying he put up a good fight as his best lap time would have qualified him in 5th. Unfortunately he was bested after 10 Laps. You could tell Preston really wanted his first match up win as he used 2 of his 3 extra optional laps. The loss knocked Preston to the Loser's Bracket, which pitted him up against Jeff Meisenzahl in the Loser's Bracket Round 1. Once again he had a nice standoff but after 7 laps this time (including his last extra optional lap), he still couldn't find that elusive victory. Preston will look to break into the match up winner category next season and plans to work harder than ever in the off-season to make that happen. You still can't take away his heart and tenacity to compete.

Stephen Trigueiro - 1st (Qualified: 2nd)

• Stephen Trigueiro came into this event as a favorite after finishing 2nd in the previous event. Greg was the only other driver to reach those heights up to that point in time. Determined to get the best of the field, Stephen qualified a personal best 2nd place which was less than a tenth off the pole position time. He was matched up against Brian Ackerson in the Winner's Bracket Quarterfinals and showed he was ready for any challenger by only needing one lap to dispose of him. His next match up was against Mike Force in the Winner's Bracket Semifinals. After 6 seat changes between the two he squeaked by in the closest match up of the event to secure a 2nd straight podium. It was time for the most anticipated battle of the evening with the 1st place vs. 2nd place qualifier squaring off. Stephen started slow and it was looking like Hansen was going to make another Grand Final's through the Winner's Bracket. Stephen had to use 2 of his extra optional laps, but he found something. He ended up pulling off the improbable by beating Mike Hansen in the Winner's Bracket Final and snapping the longest match up win streak in GP Cup history. This put him as favorite in the Grand Finals as he once again had to go up against Hansen. This time Hansen had to beat him two match ups in a row to get his 4th straight event win. Stephen proved his win against him earlier was no fluke as it only took him 4 laps to dispose of the Champ. This was an impressive event for Stephen as he finished with a 4-0 record and took home a GP Cup event payout record $87 for his 1st place finish. Combine this with his 2nd place from the previous event and he claimed a nice cool $115 this past year.

Travis Roof - 5th (Qualified: 8th)

• Travis "Fire Crotch" Roof had only one goal heading into this event. That goal was to finish higher than 6th place which he has had a strangle hold on since the beginning of the GP Cup. He has finished in 6th place every event so far in the 2018 season. He didn't start out well by qualifying in 8th place. This meant he had an extra match up to obtain his goal as he had to compete in the Winner's Bracket Round 1 against Preston Woods. He put in a great lap time in the same car and track as the qualifying course which would have qualified him on pole position if he only was able to pull it out earlier. The prize for his victory, a match up against the three time (in a row) event winner Mike Hansen. Hansen was able to get the win relatively easily which dropped Travis in a precarious position if he wanted to reach his goal of higher than 6th. Still all he needed to reach his goal was to win one match in the Loser's Bracket 2nd Round. He was matched up against Jeff Meisenzahl and what transpired over the next hour was the longest battle of the night. Jeff wasn't going to let Travis get the win easily, but at the end of this titanic battle when the dust settled, Travis was the last one standing. HE DID IT! TRAVIS WAS GOING TO FINISH HIGHER THAN 6TH! He then moved his goal to finish as high as possible. In the Loser's Bracket Quarterfinals he went up against Mike Force, but because of mental fatigue or otherwise, wasn't able to put up much a battle. Travis used all 3 of his optional extra laps against Force. Still though Travis finished 5th which is improvement. That has to be encouraging for him going into the off-season as he looks to continue his ascension into joining the conversation as a favorite to win an event.

FUN FACTS:

Number of Turns

• Highest number of turns (Match up) - 9 Turns: Race #12 (Jeff Meisenzahl vs. Travis Roof)

• Highest number of turns (Individual: Event) - 17 Turns: Mike Hansen

• Lowest number of turns (Individual: Event) - 1 Turn: Kei Hattori

Number of Laps

• Highest number of laps (Match up) - 24 Laps: Race #12 (Jeff Meisenzahl vs. Travis Roof) & Race #13 (Greg McKeever vs. Cooper Bright)

• Highest number of laps (Individual: Match up) - 15 Laps: Jeff Meisenzahl (Race #12)

• Highest number of laps (Individual: Event) - 38 Laps: Mike Hansen & Cooper Bright

• Lowest number of laps (Individual: Match up) - 1 Lap: Stephen Trigueiro (Race #6), Greg McKeever (Race #3), Cooper Bright (Race #9), & Brian Ackerson (Race #2)

• Lowest number of laps (Individual: Event) - 3 Laps: Kei Hattori

Margins

• Closest match up - 0.076 Seconds: Race #8 (Stephen Trigueiro vs. Mike Force)

• Biggest blow out - 2.615 Seconds: Race #6 (Stephen Trigueiro vs. Brian Ackerson)

Link to Bracket

More Info on the Car/Circuit Combos

Final standings of the Q4 2018 GP Cup Event: