We saw a great qualifying round yesterday in which Red Eye secured pole position for Crazy Cat’s Eyes. A win today will put the CCE out of reach for all other teams and guarantee them a championship in this season of Marbula One. Remember, they did not participate in the first season. Can they do it?? Or will the Savage Speeders pull off a hometown win? Or maybe someone else gets on the top podium? Let’s see!

Speedy stumbles out of the gate, losing ground to Ocean and Shock while Red Eye keeps a hold of their pole position. Minty Drizzle sees an opportunity as well to move up early to get into the top 4. In the middle of the pack is Yellup, Starry and Momo all trying to get off to strong starts and take advantage of other marbles stumbles. Stormy and Ruzzy are among those to lose the most ground in the early going. Minty Drizzle shoots themselves in the foot by going inside of the split on the second lap; allowing Ocean Speedy and Prim to all gain ground but by the end of lap 2 they’re back on the heels of Red Eye. Starry is moving up, setting the early mark for fastest lap. Prim is the story of lap 3, mounting a great series of moves to get up into second place and getting within a single marble’s length of Red Eye. They’re neck and neck down the final stretch of the course and cross the finish line almost together (separated by only four hundredths of a second) but an unfortunate bump from behind by Prim bumps Red Eye a few spots higher on the conveyor belt. Prim now has the fastest lap time but at what cost?

Ocean, Minty Drizzle and Speedy round out the top 5 here but are all close to a second or more behind Red Eye and Prim. Prim might be shaken up by that little collision, they lose ground and are overtaken by Ocean (who also snags ahold of fastest lap time) falling nearly two seconds behind Red Eye. Speedy and Smoggy round out the top 5 with Minty Drizzle and Starry continuing to lurk. Billy of the Green Ducks might be starting something as they have crept up to 8th place. Speedy makes another move and briefly overtakes Ocean and the two of them are trading second place back and forth. Red Eye grows out their lead though, after 5 laps they have a 2+ second lead. Prim and Minty Drizzle are battling for 4th until Minty Drizzle makes another mistake and finds themselves down in 8th. Smoggy, Starry and Billy are now all gaining on Speedy. Meanwhile Red Eye keeps growing out their lead, they’re 3.76 seconds ahead of Ocean after 8 laps. Far enough ahead that by the series of turns in the middle of the Speedway they have no one in their rearview. After ten laps Red Eye’s lead is now at nearly 5 seconds ahead of Ocean. Prim, Smoggy and Starry are rounding out the top 5. In fact after 10 laps the top 9 marbles are all in the same spot they were after 9 laps. Snowstorm has moved up into 10th after lagging in the lower third for a long time but will they be able to do anything? In that spot they’re 9+ seconds back and everyone from 11-16 is even further (sorry to any Limers fans we might have but 17 seconds back with 5 laps to go isn’t pretty).

Red Eye is running away with this. With each lap they’re adding additional tenths of seconds to their lead. Ocean, Prim, Starry and Speedy are battling to grab a piece of the podium. By the end of the 13th lap Red Eye is all but uncatchable looking. Did I mention they took fastest lap away from Ocean too? Yep, Red Eye did that. Final lap begins with Red Eye nearly 8 seconds up. Ocean looks to be pulling away from Starry, Prim and Speedy. Lemon-Lime is 21+ seconds back for those keeping track. While Red Eye is finishing up their final lap the drama takes place in the tight series of turns in the middle of the Savage Speedway as Starry jumps up and gets neck and neck with Ocean for silver. And it will be Starry pulling off the second place finish, but still over 8 seconds behind Red Eye. Ocean will settle for third, Prim in 4th and Smoggy rounding out the top 5. The hometown fave Speedy ends up in 6th place, just under a full 10 seconds out of first.

Notes

• Red Eye does hold onto fastest lap to get the full 26 points in this race.
• Starry jumped up 8 spots for their second place finish, a great effort by them but one that’ll certainly be overshadowed when this race is looked back on.
• Not to be outdone but Smoggy made a 10 spot jump from 15th to 5th.
• Ocean and Prim meanwhile finished right where they started the race.
• Not only did Red Eye capture this title for Crazy Cat’s Eyes but their finish here (according the Greg Woods’ unofficial math) gets them the individual title for best performance in Marbula One this season with one race to go (and Yellow Eye scheduled to race).
• I didn’t find Roldo but I’m also not very good at that.

Congrats to the Season 2 champion, Crazy Cat’s Eyes!