Season 6, Week 2 preview

International Affairs - The first international class race of the season is full of old favorites with a good smattering of exotic rookies. A few cars like the Mercedes and the 928 haven't been seen in a while. The Porsche is heavy German so seeing it reach the third round wouldn't be too much of a surprise. The Austin Healey and Ferrari 308 are the elephants in the room with their proven performance. The 308 got snuffed last week...could this be the tournament where it finally gets retired? However, a new Ferrari along with a pair of Lamborghinis could keep players on the fence with their picks. The Ferrari 512M is an all-metal mold and we all know that Ferrari has a great record around here. One for sure thing is that one Lamborghini will make it out of the first round. The Diablo has a weight edge on the Countach so science is in its corner. Half of this bracket should fall in line with past picks, but the other half is really up for grabs and could go either way.

Moving Illusions - This tournament is full of young guns and old friends. Sweet 16 and Side Kick are some of the heaviest cars in the class, while Blvd Bruiser showed it can really race on the Redline Derby track after last week's display. A promising battle between Twin Mill and Brit Speed will challenge your first round, and I suspect the Split Vision and Prototype will be closer than you might think. The Retro-Active came in to the league with a little hype behind it, but didn't really live up to expectations, and the Honda FTE is sitting 50/50. And while I like seeing the (Keaton) Batmobile go down the track, its record is less than worthy of Gotham City's favorite son. Some first round match-ups are an easy pick this week, but the majority are pretty tight...yet I think it's a safe bet to have one of the heavy weights in the final round.

I'm happy to see a lot of new cars in both of these tournaments. Some of the non-rookies might not have many races under their belt, but don't discount their ability to cruise to that finish line in short order.