ROOZ NEWS Season 16 (GT6 Season 3) Rd 1 Deep Forest (part 1)

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Welcome to Round 1 of Season 3 ROOZ League races, coming to you from Deep Forest. A mostly full throttle circuit in the Roadster TC, with only a few hard braking corners, it should provide some close racing.

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In part 1, we have the Division 1 and 2 reports. We will start with Division 1, brought to you by warrior2167:

Welcome to season 3 of the raceonoz GT6 League Division 1 Championship. The car of choice for this season is the Mazda Roadster TC. It's relatively low power combined with it's extreme lightness is really going to keep the field tight and the racing very close. This season will also feature at least 2 stops in every race making choosing the right strategy critical.

The first stop of the 7 round series is at Deep Forest Raceway. The scheduled distance was for 34 laps around this 3.6 Km bumpy fast flowing circuit.

The 10 minute qualifying came down to the final seconds. Warrior claimed pole position, 1:18.575 just ahead of Mint. Then came Dholland, ROTOR, Smithy, Bond, Anon, thestig, Cyber, faine, Mustafur and N64.

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Lap 1. As the lights go out, everyone gets a decent start down to turn 1. Apart from some minor panel rubbing it's a clean opening lap.

Lap 2. A much earlier end to Mustafur's race comes when he is disconnected just after starting his second lap.

Lap 3. From 6th place, Anon has a massive accident colliding side on with the pit wall. His car lost control after dropping 2 wheels over the kerb. While trying to rejoin the track he goes into the pits.

Lap 4. Almost a mirror incident, except this time Smithy spins straight into the pits. The extra stop ruins what would have been a great result, being in 4th at the time.

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Lap 5. Some great action in the opening laps throughout the field and it's on display when N64 goes from 9th to 7th in 1 corner, passing both thestig and faine. Unfortunately, a HDMI problem shortly after forces him to retire.

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Lap 9. DHolland has closed down a one second gap to warrior and applying as much pressure as he could. The pair were 2.7 seconds ahead of Mint and ROTOR.

Lap 10. There's nose to tail contact between the leaders as warrior is attempting to enter the pits. The slightly slower exit speed plus a small lag spike results in DHolland receiving a 5 second penalty. He falls back to 4th. Cyber is also in and warrior is held in a bit longer to avoid an unsafe release.

Lap 11. Mint, ROTOR, Bond, Holland and faine are in. All their crews perform flawless stops and send them out in same order. The stig stays out for 1 more lap and is now in the lead.​

Coming out of the pits, Mint has ended out on top and is in the lead on corrected strategy. The small hold had cost warrior. Fastboysmith did however jump all the leaders, even with his incident. It showed that he really did have the speed today, but he would still need 2 more stops from here.

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Lap 12. thestig is in and completes the first round of stops. That now puts Mint into the lead, but only briefly as warrior has a run and makes the move going into turn 1. The gap opened by warrior also invites ROTOR through. Meanwhile in 4th, Mister_Bond has been patient and incident free thus far. He's ready to make his move.

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Lap 15. An incredible race for 2nd is taking place. Bond has moved into 2nd by taking both Mint and ROTOR into turn 1. Mint's pace in the 2nd stint has been slower and is revealed that there was a miscommunication in the stop. The crew had filled it back to the brim after Mint had asked for none. He is carrying 30 odd more litres than his competitors.

Halfway Intervals.
1. warrior
2. Mint + 2.604
3. Bond + 2.896
4. ROTOR + 3.091
5. DHolland + 7.575
6. Cyber + 16.335
7. thestig + 23.345
8. faine +25.713
9. Smithy + 33.947
10. Anon + 44.752

Lap 19. ROTOR has come out on top of one of the most amazing 3 way battles for second you will ever see. For 6 laps ROTOR, Mint and Bond were all over each other. ROTOR now has his sights on warrior and is closing him down over half a second a lap.

Lap 21. warrior is in, followed by an extremely fast DHolland. Cyber is also in and crucially warrior has increased his margin sufficiently over him to clear his car on pit exit. faine is also in for his final stop.

Lap 22. ROTOR, Mint and Bond are in. With no issues they come back out in the same order. Being on fresher tyres warrior has added a second to his previous advantage, and must now make his tyres last for 13 laps.

Lap 25. The race has mostly calmed down now. The final stint will be the longest for most and saving tyres, especially the right front is critical. ROTOR is now 1.5 seconds behind warrior and is slowly catching him.​

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Lap 29. Thestig had been closing the gap to cyber and was within 2 seconds. Cyber was pushing the limits in order to stay ahead but pushed too hard and spins coming onto the main straight. thestig drives through a cloud of smoke and into 6th place. He will also jump DHolland, as he will need to stop again after miscalculating his fuel.

Lap 30. ROTOR is now under a second to warrior. Mint is still trying to hang on and is a second behind.

Lap 32. ROTOR is now 0.5 behind warrior, however their tyres have now equalised and maybe slightly now in the favour of warrior. It's still not over though, absolutely no room for any mistake now.​

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Final Lap. warrior crosses the line 1st and is able to hold off the very impressive late charge from ROTOR. The final margin was just 0.7 seconds.

Results:
1. warrior 46:07.919
2. ROTOR + 0.737
3. Mint + 3.713
4. Bond + 5.840
5. thestig + 33.967
6. DHolland + 36.695
7. Cyber + 41.135
8. Smithy + 48.177
9. Anon + 53.760
10 faine + 1:01.562
11. N64 - DNF
12. Mustafur - DNF



Race Quotes:

warrior2167 (1st): Cheers everyone. That was such an awesome opening race, and if this is the precedent set then we're in for an amazing season. Well done ROTOR, you really had some insane race pace. Also now hearing that you were driving 1 handed Mint, that's a top effort mate, maybe you should get double points. Hopefully you can make it back for the final races. I'm really happy with my pole lap and It was really crucial to have track position. My race started well I was trying to go flat out for the first 2 stints. I wasn't actually happy with my driving, I was missing quite a few apexes and taking too much from the tyres, but at least my strategy was keeping me out in front except after the 1st stop when I had to wait for cyber to get in his box. The 2nd stint was worse than the 1st and towards the end ROTOR was gaining so much time. I was always planning a longer final stint, but the gap wasn't as big as I had hoped. At last though I was in my comfort zone of having to manage the tyres to the end. I nailed every single apex and I was back in form. Still ROTOR was making me very nervous and it was only just enough at the end.

ROTOR-AU86 (2nd): Congrats on the win WARRIOR, and a good start on a high yet again to another season on track for your 8th straight league championship! Thanks mate, it was a tough race! Yeah MINT had done extremely well to be a pain in my backside in the middle stint, and started to scare me a little towards the end of the last stint!! Where to start... Qually? I wasn't too happy with Qually... I got caught in traffic on my second run and could only manage a 19.1 which only netted me 4th... I guess it wasn't too bad? Was just a little annoyed at myself for having doing a 18.6 the night before on a prac run.. But I was still happy to be at the front of the field. The start, wow... Everyone got off to a good start! Warrior lead the field with MINT just behind him and Holland in 3rd I was tucked in 4th behind them waiting for a mistake up front! That didn't take too long for me to capitalize, on lap 3 just before the tunnel Dan (looked) to be out of shape and possibly cut the corner a touch to get a 3 second penalty? (I'm not sure) however he went into a ghost and I had a great run on the outside, taking the advantage I was able to get past. A lap or two later Dan had caught back up and something happened with MINT and before I knew it I was behind Warrior for a few laps until I ended up making a mistake and letting Dan through, and then fell behind MINT as well... This stayed like this for the first stint, until the first pit stops... Something happened with Dave and Dan, from my point of view it just looked like a lag glitch (such bad timing) when Warrior was pitting... Dan had damage and it allowed MINT and myself to pass.. We both pitted on lap 11 just behind MINT which he had a about a 2 sec gap on me however fully filled up his tank! Silly boy! By lap 15 I finally caught back up to MINT for the pass then out of nowhere Mister Bond dived up the inside and took us both! Was actually a very good move! This is just not what I needed in this second stint having known I had more race pace... Having a fierce battle with MINT and Mister Bond until about lap 19-20 I was able to clear and pull a 2-2.5 second gap, while I was pulling that gap it looked like I was pulling in Warrior at .5 a lap (I was thinking, he must be playing with me.... lol) Cutting the gap to Warrior down to around 2 seconds I was thinking wow.. OK maybe, just maybe... Warrior pitted on lap 21 and I was a lap after, Dave must of had an awesome out lap as he had pulled another second on me out to 3... My final stint was to push hard! And that is what I was doing... Pulling in Warrior in between a steady .1-.3 a lap I was cutting down the time, MINT was also pushing very hard, but I think he blew his tyres out towards the last few laps? (and his wrist would of been giving him grief) I finally got the gap to Warrior down to .9 tenths I got a little excited! Running wide on the sweeping left hander up the hill, it went back out to 1.1 with MINT nipping at my heels. I put my head down and got it down to .7!!! I think if there was another 2-3laps it would of been a good finish All in All it was a great opener, I hope to be challenging up the front more. Once again Congrats Warrior on the win, and must be noted a good race from MINT having had a bung wrist, Also to Mister Bond for a strong first league race well done mate! And of course, bad luck to Dan.. These things happen, but I’m sure we will see you fight at the front once again

MINT_GTR (3rd): I came into tonight with a righthand wrist injury that has been giving me trouble for the past week so I converted to 1 handed driving before the race and honestly was just hoping to finish. I was extremely surprised to qualify 2nd but I new that had little bearings on my actual race pace that was to follow. I had a good start and settled behind warrior for the first opening laps. Soon after, mistakes followed and I found myself back in 5th. With a reverse entry unwanted pitstop from fastboy and a mishap between dan and warrior at pit entry, I somehow found myself back in the lead going into my 1st stop. My plan was to run no fuel but pd had other ideas as I selected no fuel but when I left my pitbay I was full again?!? So I became a sitting duck for warrior to regain the lead and then soon after rotor and mister bond joined the party where we enjoyed an awesome battle all the way to the final round of stops. I came out just behind rotor and warrior was just up ahead in the lead. I was content holding onto 3rd to the finish as I enjoyed watching rotor commence is hunt on warrior for his possible maiden league win. Crossing over in 3rd was a very rewarding result for me. A big congrats to warrior on a commanding win, you really pushed those tyres to the limit on that last stint so well deserved and to 2nd place rotor, well done mate, you were super consistent and gave it all on your last stint, look forward to seeing you on the top step in this league soon After tonight's one handed run, I am aware I was very lucky to not take anyone out and I know next time I may not be so fortunate. So at this stage I will be stepping back from gt6 for a while and giving my wrist the rest it needs to recover. I am saddened by this but I know it's in the best interest for this season with a car that is destined for close racing. I wish all the div 1 guys a massive good luck in the remainder of the season

Mister_Bond_747 (4th): For some reason during the race I couldn't see Dan racing at all. When I checked the replay I actually drive right through him, receiving mechanical damage on way through!?! Kind of glad I couldn't see him actually as he was flying up behind me on a number of occasions. Smokin' pace Dan!

GTP_DHolland (6th): Race ended for me on lap 10 with a pit glitch F### up. 'not like this' was going through my mind waiting for the 5 second penalty plus the terminal damage to go away. What can ya do. Also dc at start of quall and then had a strange gear box failure first flying lap. Congratulations to podiumers. Well deserved. ;-)

N64TheStig007 (11th/DSC): I'm almost considering packing it in after that, someone at Sony really, really doesn't like me. After plaguing ROOZ for 2 seasons with horrific lag, I was keen to put it all behind with a new router. But Sony had other ideas. I knew where I was losing time, so I thought with one final go I could knock on the door of the top 6. But on the warm up lap, the signal cut out, and I forfieted my place in the grid so I didn't impede anyone. The initial part of the race was so much fun. Just after clearing stig and faine, I tried to hunt down Cyber. 25 seconds later, BOOM! No signal. I'm so disappointed to have had this happen, and of all the nights. Thank goodness there's a drop round!

Nice report warrior2167. Congratulations too on pole and race victory. Well done also to ROTOR-AU86 and MINT_GTRfor the final podium positions.

Sounds like some good battles so far. Let's see how Division 2 fares, with the report coming from BeauAlbert6:

The grid was set for Round 1 of division 2 at Deep Forest Valley. Leading the field away would be CobMcCool after setting pole position with a 1:19:609, he would be joined on the front row by Crunch360.



The 5 red lights were out as fast as they came on, it was a fairly even start between the front row as they battled into Turn 1. 15 little miata’s all jumping on the brakes for the tight left hander. Thankfully all was kept clean, but out of turn one it was CobMcCool who lead the field.

The entirety of the field spent the entire first lap beating and banging doors with each other, but all fair and clean racing for all. By the end of the first lap, Cob has pulled a 1.1 second lead over the battling trio of Crunch360, BeauAlbert6 and Motorsport560. Motorsport had a look at Albert into T1 but he decided to stay in line.


At the end of the second lap Come_and_Get_me7 had a huge slide out of the final turn, barely keeping the car out of the pit wall. He'd had a much worse exit giving F1R3W1IND a look into Turn 1, however F1R3W1ND missed his braking spot and went sailing into the grass.


Motorsports would put the move on Natman into turn 1 for third, but this battle was far from over. Then the battle took a turn to the pits, as the two stoppers played their strategies. On the 11th lap, Cob, T_b, Natman, Crunch, and Whiteracer put their faith in the mechanics. Beau had inherited the race lead from motorsports and Tovey_4Saken, but ran wide at turn 5 and let both through, and they would pit at the end of the 12th circuit.



After the second stint the field had been split up and allowed everyone to get into a rhythm before the 2nd stops took place. Crunch360 had gotten into a faster rhythm than anyone else, and was now finished attacking Cob’s lead and started attacking his rear bumper on the 21st lap. Heading into the final 3 kinks, Crunch had already made the move with a much better exit out of turn 10. The Hunter was now the hunted.



At the end of Lap 23, Crunch, Cob and many more hit the pit lane, and crunch would exit with a huge gap back to cob. Yet again there were 3 cars who stayed out of the pits, T_B_Williams who had a gap back to the battling duo of Beau and Tovey. Crunch would regain the lead as the cars exited the pits, but it was no longer the just Crunch and Cob show. T_B_Williams had joined in, and boy what an entrance he made on lap 28, with a sensational pass on CobMcCool down at turn one under brakes.

Meanwhile Beau and Tovey remained locked together for the 4th spot on the track, with multiple passes being made between the two. In the end, Tovey would pit for the third time and leave Beau to steal the 4th spot away. As the cars begun their penultimate lap of the circuit, T_B had the throttle hard to floor and was closing the gap rapidly to Crunch. The entire field could see this was going to be an absolute cracker to the end!

As the cars begun their final tour 9 tenths separated the two quickest cars on the day, however Crunch was struggling with tyres, T_B was working his way around the problems.


And through the final corner it would appear to be Crunch who would take the win, but T_B had a major slingshot out of the final turn. It wasn’t clear cut anymore, it was an absolute drag race! As the cars went up the hill for the final time, it would actually be T_B_Williams taking the chequred flag in an absolute stunner of a race. One of the closest races in ROOZ history, if not the closest. A huge congratulations for your podium, T_B_Williams, Crunch360 and CobMcCool, with your winner, T_B_Williams taking the flag by .023 of a second!





Race Quotes:

t_b_williams (1st): Surprised to take that one out. Was disappointed with my qually results as I got a phone call before having set a fast lap. Managed to get of the phone just in time to put down one lap, but it wasn't fast. So started 8th. This put me in the pack and knew I was loosing time fighting with others there, but was great racing. Made a few passes finally and was gifted a couple with some spinning in front. Went into the pits for the first stop in front of Nat but I must have had a bad stop and he a great one, as he came out in front. Leeboy managed to sneak in between us having not stopped yet and spent a couple of laps behind him before I got a chance to battle with Nat again. Got past and put my head down and tried to close the gap to the top two. Going into the final stop I had made some time and saw the top two pit and decided to carry on, not wanting to get baulked in pit lane. Had a really slow in lap and thought I had blown any chance of making up ground. But when I came out of the pits I was actually closer to Cob, but again lee was there to make things interesting. Got past lee and Cob not long after, which left only Crunch to hunt down. Didn't think I had the pace to close the gap but when we went across the line for the last time, I was just .9 behind. Gained a few tenths in the first two sectors but it was the second last corner that gave me the win as Crunch was slow there and ran into the last corner with a fast corner exit speed and right behind in the draft. Pulled out and just prayed it was enough by the time the flag dropped. Unlucky not to get the win Crunch. Now to see if another miracle can happen at GVER. Not on the pace their either.

crunch630 (2nd): Well, that's far too much excitement for me to start the season off with. I just hope I could replicate next week, because I have a sneaking suspicion that it is just the track. That was a brilliant win, t_b! You came out of nowhere, especially from where you qualified. And thanks to Cob for being my rival throughout =P Now that I think about it, we're meant to be teammates!!!

BeauAlbert6 (4th): I had a pretty good race, started third, held that for a while but got put into a wall by motorsports, dropped a few spots, made a couple of places up, pitted L12, probs not the greatest decision, came back out in 8th, fought on, to 4th before my final stop, came out 5th but under attack from tovey, a good little scrap, I had to be ultra defensive from the much faster mazda, about 6 laps later he pulled into the pits and i was able to secure a 4th position, if I had better tyres I may have been able to just get onto the back of third, but can't be disapointed with the result! Good Race, i enjoyed it, clean for 99.9% of the time how it should be! Bring on GVER.

COME_AND_GET_ME7 (5th): What a race for the tortoise. Qualified 12th with a near PB full tank lap of a 1:20.3XX. I knew from the start I couldnt afford a crash if I wanted anything other than the wooden spoon. In the chaotic opening few laps I chose not to put up a fight with those behind me, giving them plenty of room to pass when they chose to come out from the comfort of my draft. Once things settled down the leaders had pulled away by 10-13s. I decided to run my own race and try and put out some slow but consistent laps, easing off with the slightest inclination of running wide rather than going full throtttle and holding your breath you wouldnt be mowing the lawns or giving the walls a new coat of paint. I decided to pit lap 13 trying to avoid going in behind someone who had a pit bay before mine which would have slowed me down. Over the course of the race many people had incidents allowing me to cruise up the field. Trying to loose natman from my rear bumper I decided to take an early 2nd pit and pit on lap 22. Unfortunately natman followed me in millimetres behind me and somehow exited the pits 2-3s clear. Going into the last few laps I found myself in 6th with tovey and beau battling it out on the mini map 5-10s clear so it was looking like I would have to settle with 6th till tovey must have realised he wasnt gonna make it on fuel gifting me 5th. Not bad considering I was 13th based on outright pace. The tortoise will be there for sure next week parked at the back of the grid where I'm sure if I can replicate my performance last night I can achieve another mid pack position as theres no way we're going 39 laps without a major incident at turn 2 or a car spining around on the high curb inside the tunnel

leeboy910 (6th): I think everyone just needs to remember that this isn't NASCAR...I'll see if I can start a bit further up the grid at GVE as being in the pack just leaves you open to incidents!

Motorports560 (7th): I was actually suprised to qualify 6th place out of a very strong 15 car entry. Got a good start by the end of the first lap I was fourth and in a battle with beau natman and tb and tovey for a little bit for the majority of the first stint constantly then things started going bad while the group I was battling tb and natman pitted on lap 11 beau myself and tovey stayed out on rubbish tyres. When I came in next lap I slowed down way too much to get into the pits and tovey ran straight into the back of me (sorry mate) I must have lost 5 odd second to that group then. I battled with a very over aggressive whiteracer who really liked divebombing. I fought with him then on lap 16 I took to much curb at the final corner, fired off into the fence and crashed, While trying to recover whiteracer flat out nailed me. Also a bunch of others got by comegetme stu lee and some others got by. Decided to stop on lap 22 to possibly allow for the mistake I made first stop, however everyone else nicked my idea and despite not refuelling I still came out where I was before. Determined to get a result I pushed hard and did some quick times. stu and lee pitted. I got by whiteracer and then by natman, who spun at turn one. I look comfortable for 7th when tovey pitted with 3 to go. Assumed he ran out of fuel but I had a hard charging lee flying behind. On lap 33 2nd last corner he went for it and I didnt bother contesting it,no point throwing away a race like that. Eventually held on to 7th but probably would have been 8th if there was one extra lap cause stu was flying. Congrats to tb and crunch for the epic finish and I apologize for the two parts my screen went all wierd. The best part was getting to the results screen and than disconnecting perfect timing lol. I'm happy with 7th, good points for the start of the season. Cya next week.

stuart170773 (8th): My race.......shocker !!! I pitted with 4 mins to go in qual and on my second flyer was .06 off the pole time coming up to the tunnel when my HDMI cable decided to cut on me, which gives the black screen and a car into the outside wall. was hoping for a top 4 start, but ended up starting 9th, and made the dumb call to change to a 3 stop. My PB through the week was only a 19:2 so i knew i was going to struggle to hold on to the fast guys, decided to pit on lap 8, but the difference in pace for me wasnt enough to make serious ground come the last stop. Had a few good battles with tovey, natman (made ground on him everytime he ran wide on the last turn !) and leeboy (had great pace and he would have been up the front if not for the 3 stop). Anyway, on to Grand valley where we should get some great racing if we use our brains !

natmanscoop (9th): Yeah I seemed to have a battle with half the field at some point last week!! Was doing OK too until I found the clutch on new(ish) G27 instead of brake pedal into T1. That cost me 17 seconds and a whole pile of enthusiasm. :-( Roll on GVE-R, looking forward to the crossovers & re-passing in /after T1/2/3 when 2-wide only works out for one car.. . .

smokinscotty (13th): Didn't do much practice as I had every intention of playing down the back of the pack. It didn't help that all of my practice was on the wrong suspension setup either. Did have a great dice with razor, and while both of us made mistakes, we kept each other honest throughout the race and had a ball. When Leeboy and Stu and came up in the rear view I just let them by, as I knew I didn't have that kind of pace and thought they were amidst a pretty good battle.

Well that race didn't let us down in the excitement stakes. Congratulations to t_b_williams on his win and fastest lap. Well done also to crunch630 and CobMcCool for rounding out the podium.

Stay tuned for part 2!

Division 1 Reporter/photographer: warrior2167
Division 2 Reporter/photographer:: smokinscotty
Tables: DRZ-Hatfield
Editor: Jamie Ad2mny​