Season 1: Race of Champions A few months ago, the best of the best of Season 1 lined up at Trial Mountain to do battle in the first Race of Champions for GT6. Each driver had either won their division's championship in the supreme BRZ, or had won an event satisfying eligibility. This was the ultimate showdown, and would prove just who was the top dog in ROOZ. Grid: 1st Bruce 2nd @DoogleDave 3rd @emmo46 4th @Hatfield 5th @Bluemoon 6th @garyw61 7th @BERNSY001 8th @Tovey_4saken 9th @t_b_williams 10th @N64TheStig007 11th @Mustafur 12th @Anon666 13th @warrior2167 Lights out, and away we go! Bruce sets off on his own, needing to make no mistakes to keep his pursuers behind. 14 seconds after him, DoogleDave, emmo and Hatfield set off after him. 15 seconds later, evil, Bernsy and gary left the grid to chase. The extremely fast Tovey set off 7 seconds later. 9 seconds afterwards, the feisty Div 2 duo of N64 and TB joined the battle. Finally, a whopping 67 seconds after Bruce had left, the aliens Mustafur, warrior and Anon set off. The race was on. Drivers quickly realised that Bruce out in front was well and truly out performing all expectations, as the gap fell only marginally. The Div 1 guys were nose to tail, with Anon leading the way. N64 and TB were battling hard, but the former broke away and began to catch the pack ahead. Doogs was in a very fast mood, swarming all over the back of emmo. On lap 3, Doogs went around the outside of emmo at the long turn 8 in an incredible move. Emmo was trapped, and Hatfield flew past as well. Bernsy was piling on the pressure with gary, but gary held firm. Anon and warrior were battling extremely hard, but their fierce fighting meant they were not gaining on those ahead. Doogs was pulling away from Hatfield, and looked like Bruce's main challenger. Emmo lost it before the first tunnel on lap 8 and all hell broke loose. Despite being a ghost, the unlucky gary collided with emmo, and lost massive amounts of time. In his efforts to avoid emmo, evil smashed into the inside wall and his left front wheel was damaged. Bernsy, Tovey, N64 and TB benefited enormously. Lap 10: 1st Bruce 2nd Doogs +13.0 3rd Hatfield +15.6 4th Bernsy +22.6 5th Tovey +23.0 6th gary +29.3 7th N64 +29.5 8th evil +33.2 9th TB +34.6 10th emmo +39.3 11th Anon +47.2 12th warrior +47.6 13th Mustafur +51.1 Bruce seemed very unlikely to lose this one. He had made no mistakes and Doogs had only taken one second out of his lead. Elsewhere on lap 10, N64 was giving it everything, and drafted gary down the back straight to take 6th. TB was on a charge too, moving past evil into 8th a lap later. Desperate to keep up, gary ran wide at turn 3, and had a colossal clout with the barrier. He fell to 11th after another spin, his 12th lap a disaster. Emmo didn't want to hold the aliens up, so he waved them through. N64 had broken well clear of TB, and was now catching Tovey and Bernsy at an alarming rate. Bruce was now taking it easy. With 4 laps left, the gap was now down to 10 seconds. Those desperate began to make their moves. N64 caught Tovey napping at turn 8 to move up into 5th. Hatfield had made a mistake at turn 1 on lap 14, and was taken by Bernsy. Being pinned to the outside, Hatfield was stuck, and shut the door on a charging N64 at turn 3, however, there was contact, despite N64 hitting the brakes. Hatfield ran wide and lost 5th to Tovey. Warrior had broken clear of Anon, but in his efforts to stay within warrior’s grasp, Anon struck the outside wall on the last corner and lost 9th to Mustafur. N64 was the man on the move, and his next target was Bernsy. Faking a move at the tight turn 12, he catapulted alongside, and Bernsy was forced to concede at the final chicane. The plucky Tovey surprised Bernsy around the outside of turn 1 for 4th. He fought back, but to no avail. With N64 on a huge charge, it was still unlikely that Bruce would be denied. Setting his personal best on the penultimate lap, he still had Doogs to contend with. Bruce's 9 second lead was very comforting. N64 drafted Doogs on the back straight, and dived up the inside of turn 8 to take 2nd. N64 was praying for an error from Bruce. But it was not to be. Bruce produced one of his best ever drives to win by 6 seconds. The top two were outstanding, as was Doogs in 3rd. Tovey performed well for 4th, Bernsy and Hatfield left frustrated with 5th and 6th. TB was left a little dismayed with 7th, but held off warrior in 8th. Anon blew it on the final corner, giving Mustafur the 9th he had just taken back. Gary was 11th ahead of evil and emmo was a dismal 13th and last. This would be Bruce's greatest triumph during his time at RaceOnOz.com, before he sadly left us to tackle the big race track in the clouds. A well deserved winner, you can be sure, that while there will always be a different champion of ROOZ, no one will ever forget who the winner of Season 1's edition was. In forthcoming seasons, the event will now be known as the "BJH Memorial Race of Champions." It is only fitting, that Bruce carried his red hot form into Season 2, dominating the first half of the season before his unexpected death. It is a true testament to his massively improved ability, that he eventually took out the Division 5 title posthumously. He entered the world as a boy, he left the world as a true champion. Rest In Peace mate. Reporter and photographer: Jono (N64TheStig007) Help: Jamie (Ad2mny)
Great write up Jono. Lol It was his dominance / improvement that led to the slight change in how the handicaps are worked out. Massive improvement on his part, well deserved win.
