Welcome to another season of League racing, our second season in GT6 and still we are plagued with teething issues. The 'pit glitch' still remains, and now there seems to be an issue with taking photo's in the replays. Once again, a record breaking turnout for entries for our racing series, with at least 12-13 racers expressing interest in each of the 6 divisions. We also have some new reporters joining the team this season. We welcome them aboard and look forward to hearing their reports. Round 1 was held at Fuji GT circuit, a track not used for quite a while in the league races, but provided some great racing all the same. So without further ado, we will start at division 1 as always, here's warrior2167: Welcome to season 2 of the raceonoz.com GT6 League Division 1 Championship. The car of choice for this season is the Mclaren F1 GTR. Producing 630 BHP and weighing in at 1050 Kg, this car is sure to be a mighty challenge to drive. Any small mistake will turn into a big one very quickly and supreme concentration is needed to keep it on the road throughout the season. The first race of the season is being held at the Fuji Speedway GT circuit, the track itself is gonna be a tyre killer with the many long radius corners putting incredible strain on the tyres. A strong field of 10 drivers which included 2 new talents took part in the opening qualifying session of the season, the 1st being Optimus, who is making his debut and the 2nd being N64, who is promoted into the top division after winning division 2 last season. Mustafur claimed first honours with a pole time of 1:26.3. The rest of the grid was as follows : warrior, Mint, Zampli, Anon, N64, thestig, Cyber, Optimus and fastboy. 32 laps was the distance and a clean start by all drivers sees Mustafur maintain the lead as he exits turn 1. Mint is able to pass warrior around the outside as the field heads to turn 2, neatly slotting into single file. Lap 2. Mustafur's time at the front is only brief as his right rear runs off the kerb and touches the grass at the fast right kink, careening him onto the opposite side of the track and into the weeds. It's a lucky escape as he only drops back to 4th while Mint assumes the lead. By lap 8 Mustafur has been able to move back into 2nd place and was now slowly eating into Mint's lead. warrior was just happy to sit back at this stage, still conserving tyres while not letting the leaders get too far ahead. Lap 8. The front 3 have opened up a decent 6 second lead over 4th Zampli and 5th Anon. Anon however has been moving back through the field after being shuffled back to 8th earlier in the race. He moves into 4th with a spectacular overtake around the outside of the final corner. Lap 15. After a solid qualifying effort and early start to the race, N64's race had figuratively gone down the toilet with a couple of spins and a malfunctioning throttle. Later on though his race literally went down the toilet and was unable to complete all the laps. (edit eeww!!) Halfway Positions & Intervals. 1. Mint 2. warrior + 0.827 3. Mustafur + 5.278 4. Anon + 11.173 5. Zampli + 12.715 6. fastboysmith + 17.001 7. Cyber + 21.390 8. Optimus + 22.597 9. thstig + 23.210 10. N64 + 1 lap Lap 20. After a failed overtake on the last lap, this time warrior makes it stick into turn 1. His earlier strategy is now paying off and he is able to stretch away at the front by a second a lap. Lap 23. Optimus and Cyber find themselves in 8th and 9th. A few small errors have cost them some time. The car is real handful and will take time to extract the most out of it. Optimus did show some great pace setting the 4th fastest lap of the race, however his car was eating it's tyres much too quickly. Lap 30. Fastboy has gained the most positions from the start, after starting from 10th. Being in 6th is a great result and he will look to better this performance in the coming rounds. Final Lap. Starting this season where he finished off the last was warrior by taking victory with a dominant performance. He also picked up the bonus point for fastest lap with a 1:26.425. Coming home in 2nd was Mint and rounding out the podium was Mustafur. Full Race Results 1. warrior 46:36.450 2. Mint + 15.679 3. Mustafur + 27.710 4. Anon + 28.967 5. Zampli + 39.959 6. fastboysmith + 46.309 7. Cyber + 53.527 8. thestig + 55.016 9. Optimus + 60 10. N64 + 9 laps RACE QUOTES: warrior2167 (1st): What can I say about my race, everything went to plan and I don't think I could have driven the car any better apart from one moment where I had to hold my breath and I was pretty surprised with how much I could save the tyres over the rest of the field. MINT_GTR (2nd): What a start to the season. Was really happy with qualifying 3rd. Got a great start and was able to jump warrior into the 1st corner. Then a spin from Mustafur placed me leading the div 1 pack. I tried to push early to get away but i paid the price as my tyres got chewed up. As a result, warrior caught and passed me with little effort. From then I just tried to conserve my front tyres right to the end to finish 2nd. mustafur (3rd): Another display of warrior making his tyres last much too well, thought something was going up in the first few laps when he was driving pretty slow and then caught on but by this stage my tyres where pretty worn and there wasn't much hope. Kept missing my braking lines in this race and then in the last few laps I spun when I accelerated too quickly off a curb. Anon666 (4th): I ended up embroiled in a tough pack at the start and had a few little half spins and dropped back. Thankfully, a few guys fell off the track and I keep on trucking for a lucky 4th. Good race with Z, few seconds between us for about 20 laps. Zampli (5th): Warrior... Your tyres...I don't even lol.... Great race tonight, love this thing, closest thing to season 9 gtrs (in a way). Feels very instinctive to drive, something I couldn't find last season. fastboysmith (6th): My strategy was to be consistent and not make big mistakes. Worked well except for one spin when catching Zampi. 2 mistakes all race, 1- the spin and 2 - exiting to pit lane at the end of qually while in the chat menu. Started from 10th ended up 6th what could have been. OptimusAteMyBaby (9th): I didn't get to qualify, when we reset the track i lost sound and wasn't able to get on track, I had to reboot ps3 by the time I got back the qualifying was over. Started at the back and pushed too hard for ten laps to try make it to the middle pack, the front left was burnt to shreds by lap 20 as a result. Found the slippery part of the outside curb twice and said Hello to the wall was asleep at 730pm should have had a coffee to try focus after that mission of a weekend... Not a good idea to try race when you're totally wrecked... N64TheStig007 (10th): A terrible effort from me last night, after a great start getting up with the top 3 and following them closely, I became another victim of Tilke's lunacy and spun into oblivion. More terrible driving from me followed, and I fell way back. That being said, the throttle started to cut in at specific points on the track, I'll have to find out if this was a glitch or my G27 is stuffing up. I think Mustafur had a similar issue. I started to feel really nauseous towards the middle when I was, at this point, screwing around, but then at the end, I did a Webber Fuji '07, thankfully not on my wheel or in my room. Great work there warrior2167, and congratulations on your win and fastest lap. Well done also to MINT_GTR and mustafur for the final podium positions. Now we will move on to Division 2. Neither of our reporters could get a good look at the replay with the glitch, so Stuart170773 submitted this weeks report. Round 1 of the season saw a very competitive grid line up on the technical Fuji circuit. After the ten minute qualifying session it was stu who managed a lucky pole position, with a few drivers setting faster times in practice. Never the less, a 1:27:3** was fast enough to take the top spot on the grid, with razor, firewind, T-B Williams, greasy, cob, natman, bernsy, motorsports560, joe and leeboy all taking their place behind. When the lights went green it was firewind who got an absolute cracker start and made it to turn 1 first, but with a slight slide, razor had taken advantage to slip through for the lead, with stu in second, firewind in third and TB in fourth. By the exit of turn 2 it was razor, TB, fire and stu, and unbelievably by turn 4 it was razor, TB, stu, cob, 560 and firewind in 6th after a momentum killing slide in turn 3. Undoubtedly, the biggest mover was lee who had made 4 spots to now sit 7th. The biggest loser out of the first lap chaos was greasy who had been the victim of a slight touch and had fallen to the back of the field. At the end of lap 1 it was razor and TB in a battle for the lead, stu 1 second further back and the pack nose to tail behind. At the end of lap 2, 560 had a huge moment coming onto the front straight and fell back through the pack from 5th. Stu was closing in on the leaders and greasy was in recovery mode, gaining on the pack in front. Lap 3 would prove crucial to the outcome of the race, after razor touched the grass on the exit of turn 2 and had a spin, coming across in front of TB who was following closely. The collision cleared a path for stu who managed to miss the chaos and take a 1/2 second gap from the rest of the field and slowly eke out an advantage. Razor had fallen to 7th after his crash, while greasy had managed to get past both joe and lee to sit in 9th, coming fast at the pack ahead. By lap 7 the race had settled down, with stu comfortable out in front now with over a 2 second lead. The action was further back in the pack where some of the drivers had made small mistakes dropping them down the field. TB had slipped from 3rd to 7th, natman had fought his way to 3rd and razor had made 3 spots from his lap 3 incident to now sit 4th. By half race distance the field had spread a little, with the yellow #17 now out in front by 5 seconds from razor who had recovered well, natman, cob, greasy who had recovered brilliantly to sit 5th, bernsy, TB, firewind, 560, joe and leeboy who was battling a misfire from before the race started !! Lap 20 and there were some little battles developing throughout the field, with razor and natman fighting for second, and cob and greasy jostling for 4th just 1 second further back. Lap 23 saw a spin from 2nd placed natman on the exit of turn 1, which let razor and TB past into 2nd and 3rd position, and put greasy and cob on his tail into turn three. Unbelievably he ran wide again on dirty tires and spun again, losing another 3 spots to now sit 7th. With 8 laps to go the running order was stu, who was leading comfortably with a 10 second gap back to razor. TB was third just .2 behind, greasy continued his great comeback to be sitting 4th, with cob, firewind, natman, 560, joe and lee rounding out the field, with bernsy retiring his car from the race. The final laps saw TB and razor swap positions a number of times with some great close racing. firewind took advantage and passed cob for 5th, while joe and 560 were having a great scrap for 8th position. Lap 32 saw stu take the win with an 8 second margin in a mistake free drive. 2nd was TB who had a great recovery and the final podium spot went to razor who also battled back from a few spins. Greasy finished 4 in what was probably the drive of the day after being dead last after the first corner, and he was followed home by firewind who got over the top of cob by an incredible .001 of a second for 5th and 6th. Natman came home in 7th, motorsports560 8th, joe 9th and lee and bernsy finished with their cars back in the trailers for 10th and 11th. It was an action packed race, with many of the drivers looking to show their real pace at the second round at Laguna seca. With frzn, faine, crunch and comeandgetme added to the grid, it should make for a cracking race. RACE QUOTES: Stuart170773 (1st): After the crap run i had with lag punts last season, i have to say that was quite enjoyable to get through without getting belted! A good finish was just the icing on the cake !! I had a reasonable qual run, doing a low 7.3, enough to get pole. My start was reasonable, but firewind had an absolute cracker and we went 2 wide into the first corner, not quite sure what happened after that, but I came out of turn 1 in 3rd behind Razor and TB, then I took turn 4 very narrow as someone was on the outside. After things had settled down on lap 2, I was closing in on TB and Razor and had the gap down to a second, then they came together and the race just opened up for me. Cob pushed me for the next few laps, but I was able to make .2 or .3 each lap while those behind fought amongst themselves. When I got the gap out to about 6 secs I just tried to be gentle on the tires and maintain the gap. A few more issues behind, and from what I could see some good close racing, saw it move out to about 10 seconds with 4 to go so I just made sure I hit my marks and brought it home. Bad luck to the guys that had issues. Greasy was the victim of wrong place wrong time, and I know there are a lot of guys that will be bloody quick in the races to come. Its so different to drive to the BRZ, people could ring its neck to get a lap time, but with my "driving Miss Daisy" style it might just suit the macca a bit more. razor4797 (3rd): After all the PD bulls**t in the lobby, we managed to start the race, 25 minutes later than expected. I qualified 2nd. Got a decent start off the line. Firewind got a brilliant start and was side by side with Stu in an instant. I outbraked them both into the first corner and snuck underneath. I was in the lead until lap 3, where I spun coming out of the tough left hander of turn 3(?). Apologies to TB for that spin because unluckily for him, it threw me straight into his path, and I believe he copped a collision penalty. Back down the field. I slowly crawled my way back, taking every opportunity I had. I was up into 2nd by about half-race distance. Stu had great pace at the front and I knew he would have to make a big mistake for me to catch him. So I tried to settle myself in and have a mistake free run to the finish. TB put in some quick laps and managed to catch my draft. We had a battle which lasted a fair few laps before he snuck past after a little mistake of mine. I got in right behind him and even beside him but I could not stick the McLaren in front. A very happy 3rd place finish for me. Couldn't have asked for a better way to start my Div 2 season. Congrats to Stu for an absolutely flawless race and to TB for a well earned 2nd. motorsports560 (8th): ...just didn't adapt to the track like everyone else never mind hopefully that can be my drop round all of the other tracks I have pace at so watch out for next race. TTR_joe90 (9th): I never had enough pace to be up front but it was still a great battle for last place - Little brain farts made it harder than it needed to be and i would get close enough to challenge Motorsport then throw it all away with too much right foot. Need to see the replay to see who was lag warping around the track - probably Jono in Div1 (stupid game! lol) leeboy910 (10th): I got shoved off the track and spun which killed my race. Fuji is probably the track you need a rhythm most at, once it's gone, you're gone. I ended up about 30 seconds behind everyone and didn't see any point in continuing. Will watch the replay to get a better look in case it was a lag punt, but I don't think it was. Nice work there stuart170773, and congratulations on your pole and victory. Well done also to t_b_williams and razor4797 rounding out the podium. Stay tuned for Part 2. Division 1 Reporter/Photographer: warrior2167 Division2 Reporter: Stuart (stuart170773) Tables: DRZ-Hatfield Editor: Jamie (Ad2mny)
