2012 Round of France

2012 Round of France
Date	April 15, 2012
Location	Circuit Thierry Sicotte, Bordeaux, France
Laps	30
Polesitter	Arto Kekkonen
First	Yuliya Nosova
Second	Jose Luis Martinez
Third	Scott Steudler
Cautions	0
Race Results

The 2012 Round of France, the fifth of 20 rounds in the 2012 TM Master Cup season, was held at Circuit Thierry Sicotte near Bordeaux, France.

Pre-race storylines

Power Steering, Incorporated called up two drivers to fill the seats of Anthony Griffith and Kurt Plissken, who were both suspended after the Round of England. Jacques Bouvier, the third driver for Majestic Motorsports, took over the No. 08 car for Griffith, while ARLA up-and-comer Libby Bell made her Master Cup debut in the No. 16 car in place of Plissken.

In other news, Team Saar USA chief Peter Keyes went on record complaining that the manufacturer-backed teams were getting the short end from the Master Cup officials in favor of the privateer teams. Lance Andrews speculated that Keyes's complaints might be a case of sour grapes, especially in light of the looming 2012 Karjala Grand Prix.

It was also announced that Manticore Engineering, a new team that would be attempting the Grand Prix with its own car, would use some of the Calton-Morel Altair test data and would also be using Hodges-Walter Racing engines in their cars. Manticore also announced its driver lineup for the Grand Prix – Erik Bohlender, the Norwegian driver that qualified third in 2011 en route to a ninth-place finish, and – surprisingly – former two-time Master Cup champion, current V8 Champ Car driver (and defending Grand Prix champion) Alexis Rainsford. Both drivers have ties to Calton-Morel (Bohlender drives for Calton-Morel in the Swedish touring car series, and Rainsford's Champ Car uses C-M power), which explains how Manticore secured each driver's services.

Results

For the complete results, click here.

Position	Number	Driver	Sponsor	Team	Car	Points
1	8	Yuliya Nosova	Arotel	Katzev Engineering	Katzev KE03	60
2	7	Jose Luis Martinez	Jjaro/Tecate	Katzev Engineering	Katzev KE03	55
3	74	Scott Steudler	Hershey's	Mitchell & Sons Racing	Tremwell Knight	45
4	3	Luciano Soveral	Vodafone	Hodges-Walter Racing	Calton-Morel Altair	40
5	20	Mika Tervo	Angry Birds Space/Finnair	Finntech	Omecha MA03	40
6	37	Tom Delgado	Five Guys Burgers & Fries	Star Team Nemoto	Nemoto Respetti	30
7	5	Zack Duff	Dyelated Paints	Xenos Racing	Xenos Claymore SH	28
8	19	Avery Holtzmann	Ender Construction	BlackDiamond Racing	Omecha BDM3	26
9	17	Louis Kingston	Chicago Cubs	Star Team Nemoto	Nemoto Respetti	24
10	9	Arto Kekkonen	Gessler	Gessler Richter MC Team	Gessler MTW12	22
11	08	Jacques Bouvier	Kleffer Media	Power Steering Incorporated	Tonare Surge	18
12	11	Ryan Matthews		Majestic Motorsports	Gasnier Spahi	16
13	67	Morgan Hamburg	Gold Star Security/Rutgers University	MRD Motorsports	Omecha MA03	14
14	10	Mathias Taube	Red Bull/Gessler	Gessler Richter MC Team	Gessler MTW12	12
15	25	Yamino Tenchi	Nintendo	DeGarmo Enterprises	Juneau S2	10
16	42	Vijay Pushanda	HP	Scuderia Tutino	Tutino T12	8
17	55	Zelda Ashby	Nintendo	DeGarmo Enterprises	Juneau S2	6
18	44	Michael Sykes	Launch	FLASH Racing	Inglesby Sonicboom	4
19	30	Charlie Waters	Delano	James Dalton Racing	Dalton Blackbird	2
20	50	Dan Mackay	E. Hill Security	Scuderia Tutino	Tutino T12	1

Points

For the complete points standings, click here.

Adrien Devereux left France with the points lead, but he saw his lead shrink to one point over Arto Kekkonen by virtue of Kekkonen's 10th place finish (Kekkonen was originally shown as 6th in the finishing order and the points leads, but was given a 30-second active time penalty after the race for an incident with Michael Sykes). Luciano Soveral is third, 30 points behind Devereux. Race winner Yuliya Nosova and Zelda Ashby round out the top five.

Penalties

• Packer Carroll – start in the rear for the Round of Sweden
• Libby Bell – 15 points for causing an avoidable collision
• Charlie Waters – 15 points for causing an avoidable collision AND start in the rear for the Round of Sweden