GTP Forums: The Rolex Sports Car Series on GT5

[Storm_SP17]

GTPlanet Forums: The Rolex Sports Car Series on Gran Turismo 5

The Rolex Sports Car Series is a motorsport event that was established in 2000 after taking over from previous events similar in their setup, and was originally under the Grand American Road Racing Championship name when it began. The series itself runs a mixture of racing prototype machines and Grand Touring specified sports cars over a series of different tracks across America, each being an endurance style format across roughly a three hour length, with the exception of Daytona Road Course, which is a 24-hour event. Using elements of this well known series as a base, members of the GTPlanet Forums, polarbear345 and james6653, have decided to create a racing series on Gran Turismo 5 that can be participated by any and all who are interested, regardless of skill level. Since the event is only a namesake of the original Rolex Series, it does have its own differences in structure, ruling and regulation aspects.

The basic layout of the GTPlanet Rolex Series is that there are eight different tracks, each of them having a set number of laps hoping to last within the duration of an hour and twenty minutes. The number of laps varies, depending on the length of the track itself and tested lap times set by the cars involved, though many of the races length are similar in distance. Each track chosen is a well renowned race course from around the world, but will include tracks mainly from North America, in an attempt to keep as close to the original series’ entirely American layout as possible. A total of 16 drivers can compete in the event, which is evenly split so that eight drivers race in the Daytona Prototype (DP) class, while eight race in the Grand Touring (GT) class.

The cars used in this series try to remain as close to the mark as possible, but on a game such as Gran Turismo 5, the use of the Daytona Prototypes is impossible, therefore Le Mans Prototypes are used instead. The Grand Touring class is comprised of a number of premium model sportscars that are tuned to racing specifications, and given aerodynamic parts to improve cornering and downforce. For the Daytona Prototype class, the Bentley Speed 8, Toyota GT-ONE and two Peugeot 908 (Team Oreca and Team Total) race cars are used. As for the Grand Touring class, the Audi R8 4.2 Quattro, the Ferrari 458 Italia, the Dodge Viper SRT10 and the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 are used for this event.

Rules and regulations play a big part to any racing event, and this is no exception. Rigorous testing has been applied to each and every car involved, with overwhelming feedback from many drivers. There were cars that originally were going to compete in the series, but could not keep up with the ever changing regulations, either through falling short of competitiveness, or failing to meet certain criteria. As it stands, the Daytona Prototype class has been issued with a weight limit of 970kg for all cars included in the class. However, their power limits have reflected testing, and thus the power limit has been set for around 580bhp, give or take, for each prototype, which is surprisingly good. The GT class has seen the most dramatic testing, and thus has the most dramatic settings of the series. Cars here have been set to a weight limit of 1280kg, while the power limits range from 460bhp, to as high as 510bhp.

The procedure for the each race is just as important, as there are cars of greatly varying performance levels competing together. Before each race, there is a qualifying period, in which the Daytona Prototype cars will emerge first. They will have ten minutes (which may vary per race) to perform their fastest lap around the circuit in order to get the best possible grid start. Once their allotted time is up, the Grand Touring class cars will emerge, and the Prototypes must come into the pit area and standby for the race. The GT cars follow the same allotted time limit, in which they will qualify for position on the grid also. Once the GT cars have used up their time, the race countdown timer will commence, and soon the race will follow.

At the start of the race, the Prototypes will begin first, and get into their respective position on the formation lap, and around 30 seconds later, the Touring class will join the formation lap. The cars are limited to 75mph on the formation lap, which will only cease once the class’ respective pole sitter reaches the line or the pace car pulls into the pits. After the race is finished, each class will be awarded points depending on where they finished in their respective classes, with 1st place achieving eighty points, and each place after that awarded ten less points. For the series, there will be not only a driver’s championship, but also a constructor’s title. This will determine just which manufacturer from each class is the best overall.

Now that the introduction is almost at an end, I would like to wish each driver currently participating in the GTPlanet Rolex Sports Car Series (GTP RSCS) the best of luck in the competition. I will now introduce each manufacturer, and their respective drivers:


Toyota:
GT-ONE Race Car {575 bhp & 970kg}
~ unrealanthony
~

Bentley:
Speed 8 Race Car {565 bhp & 970kg}
~ w1nner101
~

Team Total (Peugeot):
908 Race Car {575 bhp & 970kg}
~
~

Team Oreca (Peugeot):
908 Race Car {585 bhp & 970kg}
~ adeadsnipermatt
~ Pepsimaxcrew

Chevrolet:
Corvette Z06 (C6) {500 bhp & 1280kg}
~
~

Audi:
R8 4.2 FSI R tronic {465 bhp & 1280kg}
~ james6653
~ ColinJDM

Dodge:
Viper SRT10 Coupé ’06 {510 bhp & 1280kg}
~ StormPacer17
~

Ferrari:
458 Italia {460 bhp & 1280kg}
~ polarbear345
~ nitrorocks

Note: You may have noticed that there are spots open for certain classes. PM polarbear345 or james6653 if you have any intentions of joining. The next race is scheduled at Daytona on Saturday 21st of April, with practice on the Friday. Each week, I will be writing up a pre-race review of the track, detailing the layout and other information regarding the track. There will also be details on how testing is being handled mid-season, as well as write a full practice, qualifying and race review. I will also be having talks with certain participants on how they think the season is shaping up for them, and what they aim to achieve through the first season.

I officially welcome all to the GTPlanet Rolex Sports Car Series on Gran Turismo 5!!! Let’s Race!!!

https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/showthread.php?t=248934

 

[Storm_SP17]

Pre-season: Testing

The pre-season testing, be it privately or amongst the competition, always has its fair share of apprehension and excitement. On one hand in the private sessions, the excitement of getting to the track, seeing how the car handles and making changes that eventually result in improvements in performance and lap times. On the other hand, the apprehension that the other teams are doing exactly the same, and not knowing where the car’s strengths and weaknesses are in relation to them. Amongst the competition, there is apprehension as to whether it is the driver or the car that is responsible, and whether making changes will disturb the synergy of the two or improve it. However, there is that excitement of understanding how the field is shaping up, and the strength and weaknesses of the each car and driver, giving the strategists and engineers the ammunition to sit back and think of the next course of action.

The pre-season racing gives each team a complete map of everything they need to know, and everything that needs considering under race situations. Essential information such as tyre wear, fuel depletion, mentality and consistency of the drivers is crucial, as it allows unique and complex tactics to bubble to the surface. The element of surprise plays its part in events, and tests the adaptability of each team in an ever-changing environment above all, because the wrong choice at the wrong time could spell disaster, and let the current grip on the race slip ever so suddenly. Again, there is that sensation of excitement and anxiety which, oddly, seem to intertwine frequently because, in a race, there is only one shot at claiming the best results possible, and the wild unknown is there to be discovered.

A lot of pre season testing had been performed by the teams, some more than others, and many regulation testing procedures had been undertaken by some teams lucky enough to have the access and funds to test a number of the cars in the series to maximise feedback. Much of the early testing initially took place on the Daytona Raceway in Florida, where the first official race of the calendar is set to begin. However, after a number of unsuccessful practice sessions and scheduled races at the track, the series had to delay starting officially until later. The Prototype class had surprisingly few teams and members showing up, for one reason or another, but the feedback on the regulation analysis was satisfactory despite the setbacks. The Touring class, which at this time included the Nissan 370z, BMW M3, Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro SS ’10 in the line-up, saw much better results. While the field only managing a rather quiet and lacklustre pre-season race, they receive enormous feedback from the old 450bhp / 1285kg regulations, which saw the weight lowered to 1280kg, and allowed the max power limit to vary depending on the car used, so that the field was relatively even.

After the current regulations were addressed and finalised, a new date for the season’s opening race was scheduled, and the testing moved from Daytona to Laguna Seca Raceway in California on the 6th of April, 2012. Again, the Daytona Prototype class disappointed once again for the most part, lack of attendance being the haunting issue, while the Grand Touring car class maintained consistency. The new regulations in place proved to ensure that all GT cars competing were rather close in their lap times; the only defining feature in the equation was the driver skill, and that alone. This was very exciting indeed, since it appeared to show only slight differences in skill, evident within the ever punctual Team Ferrari; the team of nitrorocks and series founder, polarbear345. Another regular to the GT class sessions was Team Dodge member StormPacer, who up until the end of the Daytona testing was actually part of the Team Audi roster, before an unexpected change allowed ColinJDM to pair up with the series co-founder, james6653. This change meant that StormPacer was now jeffpothead420’s new partner. In the Thursday evening before the Friday practice, GTPlanet’s reporters managed to grab a few words with StormPacer with regards to the sudden jump to Dodge, and how he thinks the series is running.

GTP: “Hi there StormPacer.”

SP: “Hello! Storm is fine.”

GTP: “Ok. So Storm, tell us about how you think the RSCS is progressing in your eyes.”

SP: “Well, it’s actually going well considering it got off to a bit of a rough start. The testing at Daytona and Laguna has been enjoyable. Tough, yes, but that’s what you expect in the pre-season, in fact all season really, but you have a laugh with the other drivers along the way.”

GTP: “I see, I see. And how are things going with you and your new partner, jeffpothead420?”

SP: “Erm.... I hardly say much of anything to Jeff actually! He keeps to himself and his side of the Dodge team working on the specs of his car in preparation for the start of the series, which you can’t blame him for and let’s face it; it gives me fewer distractions from testing too.”

GTP: “Do you see the two of you cooperation through the season?”

SP: “Yeah, at some point. I think right now the priority is to get our respective cars sorted to our liking, so we can take it to the track and see how the first race shapes up for us. Hopefully the two of us can strike a bond and work together.”

GTP: “That’s good. Now.... the burning question on people’s lips is the change from Audi to Dodge so late in the campaign.”

SP: “I figured it would at some point.”

GTP: “So is there an underlying issue there?”

SP: “No not at all, I worked really well with the Audi R8 for quite some time, and had been testing the Corvette and Italia in between to gather information for Polar and James. Towards the end of the Daytona pre season period we had ColinJDM show interest in the GT class, and Audi in particular. At first I was a little agitated by the guy ‘cause of the work I had already put in, and only had a couple of days to work with the new rules on the car, but I took that as a chance to start a new venture, and saw that Dodge had one slot open, so I jumped at it.”

GTP: “Speaking of the Dodge, how is it performing?”

SP: “It was performing very well around Daytona. The setup of the car needed a lot of tweaking to tackle the first corner better under braking and driving through the turn, but it worked out really well and I ended up setting a similar lap time to what I had achieved in the Audi a week prior. It helped I knew the track very well by this time too.”

GTP: “And Laguna?”

SP: “I did run into some major issues around Laguna Seca, since the corners highlighted the understeering problem it has being a car with a front mounted engine and rear wheel drive. I think I’ll considering some changes to the suspension, but since I know Laguna Seca very little, I’ll need more time on the track with the car in order to figure out how best to drive it.”

GTP: “So it’s more driver error than car trouble?”

SP: “That’s fair to say, yes.”

GTP: “Now we know you have a bold choice of colour for your cars, does the Viper have the same lavish green and carbon spread as the Audi R8 you had?”

SP: “Oh my, funny you mention that.... yes it does!! The Viper has the black carbon hood, and rear spoiler like the R8 had, while I found a similar green colour to the one I chose for the Audi, and used it on the rest of the bodywork. It’s a trademark of mine, I guess.”

GTP: “Great! So one final question: How do you think this weekend’s race will go?”

SP: “Honestly? Not the slightest clue...” *chortles* “I’m hoping it goes well, but since I don’t know how the other GT cars are performing in their private testing, I’ll have to hope I have the car and track all figured out by Saturday.”

GTP: “Thanks Storm, good luck this weekend.”

SP: “Cheers.”

Following his talk with GTPlanet, StormPacer was ruled out of Friday’s practice due to connection issues to the host of the lobby, and fatigue played a part in further putting him out of the session, as his GMT time zone is ahead of the majority of competitors. However, one person that did make Friday’s practice session was the organiser, polarbear345. GTPlanet decided to have a few words with him the following day on his thoughts of the season ahead.

GTP: “Hello polarbear345, it’s great to see you. Tell us about how the Rolex Series is looking so far, from your viewpoint.”

PB: “I think that so far things have gone better than I expected. We have had great drivers sign up from around the world... this may not be great for connections however... but we’ve got lots of people and they all seem to have done something like this before, and those people have been a great help to me, and James both. I think that we have a good calendar of tracks lined up, with the possible addition of a Barber Motorsports Park lay out for the last race of the year, there is lots of potential for lots of fun!”

GTP: “Sounds promising. I heard that previous attempts at an official start to the season had to be put off, until now, due to some serious considerations to both car classes and their regulations, as well as less than consistent attendance to the events. Does this mean that there may still be changes to regulations mid-season?”


PB: “The only changes I can see happening are the Corvette getting a horsepower reduction. Also the qualifying will be switched so the GT cars will go first. Maybe little tweaks here and there, but nothing too major...I think!”

GTP: “That will be a relief to many. Now, we had the Friday practice yesterday, and I was hoping you could talk about how that went, both in your paddock with the Ferrari, and overall from both the DP and GT class.”

PB: “I’d say it went fairly well. I think I have a pretty solid setup, and am looking forward to the upcoming race. The Ferrari Paddock was fairly quiet; not much conversing between drivers, but hopefully that will change in the coming weekends!

GTP: “Great! Now, you're paired with nitrorocks this season for Ferrari. Have you had much bonding time with him at all? Do you plan to share information of your cars to one another?”

PB: “We've chatted here, and on his leagues thread and the continental tire series thread. I plan on us sharing info between us, though I'm not sure how well it'll work. Only time will tell.”

GTP: “One more thing before we go. Are you using the time in today's race for some ideas?”

PB: “Yes, as it's a pre-season race I will try some things I wouldn't on a normal weekend, I may try some odd things with the pit strategy and suspension I’m not totally used to; to see if they will work not only at Laguna Seca but in general too!”

GTP: “It sounds like a riveting season is set to unfold. Thanks for your time, Polarbear345!”

So, that concludes the report on the goings on at the eve of the pre-season race at Laguna Seca. Unfortunately we had run out of time this time around to talk with other competitors in the series, especially james6653, but we’ll have plenty of time to gather his and other thoughts as the season nears its first official race day. Coming up in the next report will be the pre-season race at Laguna Seca, so stay tuned!

 

[Storm_SP17]

GTPlanet RSCS: Pre Season Race at Laguna Seca

We bring you a report of the GTPlanet Rolex Sports Car Series on Gran Turismo 5 once again, and this time we will be bringing you coverage and a full race report of the pre season race at California’s Laguna Seca Raceway. This track is currently 2.238 miles (3.602km) in length, and is home to the famed “Corkscrew” Chicane, which resides a turn eight of this eleven turn wonder.

On Saturday the 7th of April, a pre-season race was held amongst the Prototype and Touring classes, in order to check the progress of each machine during testing and practice. Unfortunately, unrealanthony was the only DP class racer to join, in a field that only saw a further 4 GT runners; polarbear345, nitrorocks, StormPacer and ColinJDM. Hoping to have more members of the series show quickly after the lobby had been established, Polar decided to get underway with the qualifying, which initially saw the lone unrealanthony go first, only to be the sole DP driver for the remainder of the ten-minute DP qualifying session. Next to go out was the four GT drivers, with Nitro setting the fastest lap time of the four in the 458 Italia, with Storm in the Viper SRT10 coming into second some five tens behind the pace. Third and fourth place in the GT class were occupied by Polar in the sister 458 Italia and Colin in the Audi respectively, rounding up the ten minute qualifying with no other drivers turning up.

Funnily enough, Colin managed to race in the wrong Audi R8, mistakenly opting for the 5.2l instead of the lighter 4.2l, but neither Polar nor the rest of the field were too bothered by this. Despite waiting for at least a couple more DP drivers to turn up, none did, and Anthony decided to jump into an ‘overqualified’ ZR1 RM Corvette (GT regulations stated it had to be the Z06 model without the race modifications), starting at the back of the grid.

The cars set out on their first lap; a formation lap that saw them all weaving in true tyre-warming fashion, preparing for the thirty laps of racing ahead of them all. As Nitro got to the line to start the race, ColinJDM rushed past Polarbear345’s Italia through Turn 1, zipping up the inside of Storm’s Viper at turn 2; the Andretti Hairpin. Colin dipped the nose of the Audi nicely behind Nitro in first, but Storm saw a gap on the inside and forced his way through to reclaim second, giving Nitro a love-tap to the rear of his Ferrari as if to state that he was back. Anthony and Polar had a bit of a run-in on Turn 2, which saw Polar’s Italia run wide on the exit, losing yet another place. Coming up the inside of Storm once again was Colin, who seemed to force the unyielding Viper to run sideways out of Turn 3 and lose some time, as well as second place again. Polar saw fourth spot briefly into Turn 3, but Anthony took it straight back off him on the exit. Turn 5 saw lockups, fishtails and wide runs from Colin, Storm and Anthony respectively, while both Italia’s remained poised. Colin lost time through the entry to the Corkscrew after an error in braking, followed by an unhealthy exit, but not enough to see Storm close him down before the end of lap 2.

At the start of lap 3, there was a 1.8 second gap between Nitro and Colin in second, Storm was 2.22 second behind the leader in third, while Anthony and Polar in fourth and fifth were roughly 3 and 4 seconds behind, respectively. A rotten run through Turn 1 saw the Audi run onto gravel, strike the wall and suffer temporary issues with the right side of his vehicle, momentarily rejoining the track only to be dragged off midway through Andretti Hairpin due to the problems, gifting all the drivers a one-place rise and the space to attempt an attack on Nitro in first. Throughout that lap, the chasing pack in second, third, fourth made use of the space, with all barring Colin posting new fastest lap times. Nitro managed a 1:25.361, while Storm cut the lead to 1.478 second with a 1:24.618, Anthony going faster still with a 1:23.831, some 0.449 seconds behind the Viper in third. Polar accomplished a brilliant 1:24.755, some 3.8 second behind the sister Ferrari in first. After that incident in the first sector, Colin was now 15 seconds off the pace with a 1:38.653.

Lap 4 saw more action, as a nice piece of defensive driving saw Storm hold second place against the mightily fast Corvette in third through Andretti Hairpin. Nitro, who had been consistent with his driving until now, ran very wide into turn 4 and jumped onto the gravel and ended up in fourth place as a result, behind his Team Ferrari partner, Polar, still adrift of the battling American cars ahead in third place. A mistake and a bump into Anthony into turn 5 saw Storm slow down slightly while running the unfavourable outside line as he gave the Corvette the lead. Not only that, Polar had taken a clean, sweet line through there and looked to size the Viper up for a pass very soon. Unable to keep his cool through the Rainey Curve at Turn 9, however, Polar saw his prancing horse heading for the grass after an inside manoeuvre collected oversteer upon exiting the curve. Nitro quickly closed the gap, and smartly overtook on the inside of turn 10. The leader by the end of lap 4 was now the ZR1, driven by Anthony.

Crossing the line for lap 5, the ZR1 was 2 seconds ahead of Storm’s Dodge Viper in second place, with Nitro and Polar battling for third some 3.7 seconds adrift of the current leader. ColinJDM was having a difficult time of things, as his battered Audi crawled around Turn 11 and up to the line. Even as Anthony, aware that his car was exceeding normal regulations but still keen to have a race with the rest of the field, kindly slowed to allow Storm the lead for the moment, the Audi was 36 seconds adrift, and subsequently retired from the race. For the remainder of the lap, the cars remained in single file racing, and by the start of lap 6 there was less and a second separating the top 3, with fourth behind by over 1.7 seconds from the leader. It was Storm in first, Ant in second, Nitro third and Polar in fourth.

At the Andretti Hairpin on lap 6 was a lockup from Storm, which allowed Anthony to slip past on the inside. This mistake was almost capitalised on by Nitro looking to take second, but at the exit he cut the left front tyre onto the gravel and fought the back-end briefly after it decided to slide under acceleration. Anthony allowed Storm to retake the lead after turn 4, but looking to pounce again on the Viper’s forced release of the throttle to prevent rear-ending the ZR1 was Nitro and his Ferrari. With the speed advantage, Nitro dived smoothly down through Turn 5 taking the apex, but Storm cleverly positioned his car for a different entry point, allowed the overtake, but powered through the turn on the inside of the Ferrari, taking first place back in the blink of an eye. However, Nitro wasn’t finished yet, and at the Corkscrew, took the inside line again and made it stick, but lost control of the Ferrari through the Rainey Curve, sailing the red machine into the gravel on the outside line. That mishap put him back into fourth, leaving Storm, Polar and Anthony to come through to start lap 7 in first, second and third. The lead was separated by an astonishingly close 0.353 seconds between first and third, with Nitro behind by 2.873 seconds.

Lap 7 saw yet another overtake; this time was Anthony moving past Polar. Storm came under pressure from both the Ferrari and the Chevrolet, as each tried to take a line either side through Andretti Hairpin. Storm shut both attempts off completely, though cutting the Viper’s nose in front of the 458 Italia brought on some oversteer that needed correcting upon exiting the hairpin. However, this move meant that at Turn 3, Anthony had the car poised to run neatly on the inside of Polar’s Italia to take second. A skid through Turn 5 by Storm let Anthony slip past into first place, but casually gave the rest of the cars a clean run into Turn 7 before the Corkscrew by moving out of the way. Polar looked unsure of what line to take around Turn 11 in order to pass Storm, and despite taking the inside line, Polar remained behind in second place, left to the mercy of his team-mate, Nitro, as Lap 8 began.

Tyres were really wearing out now for the Dodge Viper, who was running on considerable more worn tyres than both Italias, but miraculously remained competitive despite this obvious worry. Nitro took Polar on the outside of the Andretti hairpin, and found pressure on his rear from Anthony in the ZR1 taking the inside line. Starting to feel the bite from the lack of grip in the tyres, Storm ran Turn 3 very slowly, losing a place to Nitro’s Ferrari through Turn 4. In a battle on Turn 5, Storm clipped Nitro’s back end, and nearly took the Ferrari onto the grass, but not before some masterful correction put the car back in control. However, Anthony proceeded to clip the already unstable Viper, which forced the car sideways, and blocked all but a tiny section of road off to Polar who just slowed down enough to pass safely. The collision left Storm trailing in fourth, Anthony being sent onto the sand to re-emerge into third, and both Polar and Nitro running in clean air in second and first place approaching turn 6. A slight overhang on the outside sand running after Turn 6 caused Anthony to crash heavily into the tyre barriers opposite, subsequently retiring from the race in that instant. Using what could only be seen from masters of D1 Drifting, Storm stopped his car from losing control through the Rainey Curve by pulling a sublime drift on the now completely worn rear tyres, burning rubber and kicking up smoke through the turns leading into the pits; some 27.2 seconds behind Nitro. Polar lost control through Turn 11, having to take the Ferrari very slowly off the sand and gravel to complete his lap time 6.8 second behind the new race leader.

Lap 9 saw nothing major happen, but worth noting was how Storm’s lack of racing experience on the fresh Racing Medium tyres affected his outlap after the pits. Turns 5 and 6 were… sloppy, to say the least, and an unintentional corner cut onto the gravel of the Corkscrew proved that Storm had performed insufficient testing with the car, especially on the medium compound tyres. Meanwhile, it was clear that the Ferrari was brilliant at keeping the tyre wear to a minimum, showing an even degradation on front and rear tyres in both the competing Ferraris, probably still able to run laps for at least another 2 laps more on the soft compounds compared to the Viper. Despite this, Nitro and Polar decided (individually) that it was probably safer to pit on lap 9, rather than risk Storm closing the gap on his fresh tyres; whatever the pair thought they were going to be. They both opted for Racing Softs again; seeing no need to change to a more durable tyre when the car was running smoothly on the better gripping tyres anyway. As it stood, when both 458’s emerged from the pits, Storm was only 8.9 seconds behind Nitro, and 4.5 seconds behind Polar. However, the gap between Storm and Polar closed quickly, since Polar was still under pit lane protocol, so the question now was whether or not Polar could emerge from the pit lane ahead of Storm.

The answer was… no. The Viper stormed past Polar’s 458 just as its new racing softs reached the race tarmac, intent on mounting a solid charge on Nitro’s prancing horse out in front. He must’ve felt relieved with having gotten out ahead of Polar, but by now was probably aware that if they both opted for softs, it would be a hard fight to not only fend off Polar, but somehow catch Nitro in doing so. By the end of lap 10 is was clear that Polar was hell bent on making Storm’s race difficult, racing with his Ferrari’s nose firmly behind the Viper’s rear wing the entire lap, and even into lap 11, where both cars were separated by 0.35 of a second. Polar’s 458 looked to take the inside line from Storm on Turn 3, but a late braking manoeuvre from Storm closed the door shut for the time being. For the remainder of the lap, the second place Viper and third place 458 Italia were a car length apart at most, on a lap that saw all three competitors running a 1:26.1. It was a testament to the testing and driving ability of all three drivers.

Finally, on lap 12, there was a breakthrough for Polar as an error on the Rainey Curve opened up an opportunity to overtake. In a move that forced Storm to yield, Polar took the inside racing line into Turn 10 and made it stick, although Storm was more than happy to remind him who he was dealing with on lap 13, missing a chance to keep hold of second place through the action packed Andretti hairpin. However, the pressure was relieved at the Corkscrew, as a braking error meant that Storm had to abort his overtake attempt, losing time in the process. As if that was not painful enough, the 1 second gap between Polar and Storm further extended at the closing turn of lap 14; Storm running heavily wide into Turn 11, having to slowly rejoin the start/finish straight some 10 seconds behind Nitro in first, and almost 5 second behind Polar.

Polarbear345 managed to slide off the track coming out of Turn 3 on lap 15, while further ahead Nitro had to swiftly correct a slide brought on by his mistake, which saw him sprawling on and off the track, costing him some time. Luckily enough it didn’t seem to affect the gap too much. Polar was to suffer yet another drastic error at the Corkscrew, the exit catching him out, sending the 458 Italia sideways in the middle of the track, just as a charging green Viper SRT10 was hot on his bumper. Storm noticed the skid and safely manoeuvred through the gap that was still open to him, taking second place once more. Lap 16 saw the fight for second place heat up again, Polar diving into Turn 3 on the inside, only to be shown the door by Storm’s Viper. The Viper oversteered through Turn 5, but the time lost was minimal. The tyres were looking rather worse for wear, and a heavy error into the Corkscrew not only added to it, but saw the Viper career side on at speed into the barrier across the sand, handing the second place to Polar.

Damage was picked up by the Viper in the crash, and played havoc with the handling into the Rainey Curve, where the problem pulled the machine wide and onto the sand. Amazingly, the damage wore off before the end of the lap. The gap between the cars on lap 17 was now 14.362 seconds between Nitrorocks and Polarbear345 in the two Italias, and 18.670 seconds between Nitrorocks and StormPacer. However, the 4.2 second gap between Polar and Storm diminished when Polar ran severely wide through Andretti hairpin, but not enough for Storm’s Viper to capitalise. Both had to correct their slides through Turn 5, which showed the level of intensity between both drivers. Even Nitro had to correct the slide in his car, which was much further ahead, through Turn 5 and 6 earlier on. Their tyres were wearing thin now, and it was clear that it was going to be a case of who slips up first before the next round of pit stops. Unfortunately, that person was Polar. From StormPacer’s roof camera, a minor slide correction from Polar actually plants him towards the sand, and upon trying to return to the track, the car takes a wild slide into the path of Storm, who just narrowly misses T-boning the Ferrari. That incident saw to it that Polar had to pit, and paved the way for Storm to try and close the gap on Nitro, who by lap 18 was 19.7 seconds ahead.

Instead of trying to last on the clearly worn tyres, Storm pitted at the end of lap 18, this time switching back to Racing Soft tyres. Nitro decided to stay out, as his tyres were just enough to last him at least one or two more laps. Polar seemed to get hit car into all sorts of trouble while trying to gain on the pitting Viper; his Italia cut across the gravel on the Corkscrew and spun out midway into positioning for Rainey Curve. Needless to say, the spin did nothing to help the tyre wear. Lap 19 saw the beginning of a brave charge to catch up with Nitro, but since Storm was still emerging from the pits, the gap increased slightly from 43 to 45 seconds. Polar was going nicely through lap 19 without a problem until the final turn to the home straight, a slight mishap in braking forced Polar to slow to a crawl to avoid coming off the track, but still managed a respectable 1:27.895 in the process to cut the gap from over 1 minute to 59.2 seconds.

Things ran smoothly for the cars through lap 20, although it was clear that the Ferrari of Nitrorocks was losing race pace with a 1:31.222. StormPacer set the fastest first, second and last sector of the lap, clocking a 1:25.096. This pace cut the gap from 45 seconds, down to less than 39 seconds. Polar set the fastest third sector of the lap, and overall just 0.203 seconds slower with a 1:25.299, which cut the gap to 53 seconds. With Nitro’s tyres wearing very thin, and the lap times falling far short of the cars on newer tyres, this surely had to be the lap to pit. A clean lap here was essential, in order to stop the charge that both second and third place were on from putting the comfortable lead in jeopardy. Unfortunately, on the Rainey Curve on lap 21, Nitrorocks was about taste the bitter side of lady luck’s magic. The car ran under heavy oversteer upon cornering, and with the tyres worn as much as they were, Nitro’s masterful correction prowess was never going to succeed. The back-right tyre had worn completely, with the rest not far behind it, but Nitro calmly drove off the grass on Turn 10 to emerge into the pits. At this point, there was no telling what that incident had done to the time, but both were determined to come out first on lap 22. Which one emerged? It was…..

…. StormPacer.

Putting in one hot lap after another, Storm had passed the pitted Nitro 3 seconds before he had crossed the line to emerge out of the pits for lap 22. The Viper had already clocked a 1:25.096 and a 1:24.986 in the previous two laps after coming out of the pits, with the pace of the machine looking to remain incredibly fast despite being worn in slightly. Nitro was hoping to take advantage, but a late braking point saw his Ferrari take to the gravel on the Corkscrew, and proceed to skid wildly at the bottom. The errors cost Nitro a lot of time, with the gap on lap 23 widened to 13 seconds, with the sister Italia driven by Polar only a few seconds behind him now. Despite a little run onto the sand out of Rainey Curve, Storm set a very quick 1:26.306 to end lap 23, with Nitro doing a 1:25.495 in response to show that he was racing hard too. Polar pitted in just before the start of lap 24, the strategy looked like a lasting race to the end on fresh tyres. Lap 24 saw Storm running wide into Andretti’s Hairpin, which had gave Nitro some precious time back, but amazingly was still able to pull off a near-identical lap time to the Ferrari; 0.005 of a second behind the 1:26.035 Nitro posted for that lap.

It was clear that it was now a race to the finish, with each car on different levels of tyre wear. StormPacer’s Viper had run 6 laps on the soft compounds by the time lap 26 came around, while the rubber-friendly Italia of Nitrorocks had been on the same compounds since lap 22. The gap between the pair was 11.349 seconds at the start of lap 26, with Nitro biting chunks out of Storm’s lead with each sector. Polar was 41 seconds behind the current leader, but his lap times were amazingly fast on the fresh tyres; a 1:24.916 was clearly the fastest lap of the three cars at that time. Fortunately for Storm, a mistake by Nitro again at the Corkscrew relieved a bit of pressure, although it was clear his car was struggling by lap 27. A loud honk was heard at Turn 11 from Storm’s Dodge Viper; a honk that somehow acknowledged some kind of fatal flaw in the plans for this race. Sure enough, the tyres were now at the cliff, and having gone past the pit lane at the precise moment the car struck that cliff, the Viper was quickly losing a whole chunk of time through the sectors, and became easy pickings for the Ferrari as the Viper sailed off at Rainey Curve; forced to pit to give at least some fight to Polar, who would undoubtedly pass him on lap 29, regardless of whether he pitted or not.

Storm hopelessly watched Polar take second place on the other side of the pit wall, and while under pit exit procedures, was forced to watch the second Ferrari effortlessly tackle Andretti’s Hairpin. By the way the tyres were looking on the two Ferrari cars, it wasn’t impossible to catch them, but Nitro and Polar were determined not to lose their positions, despite the drops in their lap times. It was essential for both Ferrari’s to run consistently without fault, but Nitro had problems in his first sector of lap 29, running shamefully wide through Andretti’s Hairpin and losing several seconds of time. With two laps to go, Nitrorocks held a 17 second lead over second place Polarbear345, while third place StormPacer was 19.6 seconds behind the leader. Aside from a miracle, neither Polar nor Storm looked to be able to take first place from Nitro now, but second place was definitely up for grabs with just two more laps.

The two drivers in second and third could definitely be seen as future rivals, as once again they both had to drive to the limit. The ominously powerful green Viper must have looked frightening in Polar’s rear view mirror, while Storm must have been wary of the poise and regal presence of the red Italia in front. Neither of these drivers was willing to give up, and a heavy nudge in the rear from Storm saw the Viper take second place heading to the line and into Andretti’s corner for the last time. However, a very bold overtaking move on the inside from Polar briefly saw the Ferrari back into second place once more. Sadly, the Viper’s power and fresher tyres saw it leapfrog the Italia into Turn 3, where Storm proceeded to romp away from Polar. Meanwhile, Nitrorocks hugged the pit wall in celebration to his pit crew, as he gracefully took the win, just as Storm and Polar came through Turn 11. Second place went to StormPacer, who despite the setback late on finished 11.3 seconds behind. Polar valiantly took third place, finishing 14.5 seconds behind the sister Ferrari in first.

 

[Storm_SP17]

Rolex Sports Car Series Race 1: Daytona

Unfortunately, the race at Daytona will not be reported in full. When details of the race are gathered, a racing report may or may not be written.

I can announce, though, that the standings after Race 1 were as follows:

DP Class, Drivers:

1st Place: W1nner101 (Bentley) – 80 pts.
2nd Place: Carnby7 (Bentley) – 70 pts.
3rd Place: Unrealanthony (Toyota) – 60 pts.
4th Place: James6653 (Toyota) – 50 pts.
5th Place: Adeadsnipermatt (Peugeot Oreca) – 0 pts.
6th Place: Pepsimaxcrew (Peugeot Oreca) – 0 pts.
7th Place: N/A – 0 pts.
8th Place: N/A – 0 pts.

DP Class, Teams:

1st Place: Bentley – 150 pts.
2nd Place: Toyota – 110 pts.
3rd Place: Peugeot Oreca – 0 pts.
4th Place: Peugeot Total – 0 pts.

GT Class, Drivers:

1st Place: StormPacer17 – 80 pts.
2nd Place: MrMelancholy15 – 70 pts.
3rd Place: Polarbear345 – 60 pts.
4th Place: Nitrorocks – 0 pts.
5th Place: ColinJDM – 0 pts.
6th Place: N/A – 0 pts.
7th Place: N/A – 0 pts.
8th Place: N/A – 0pts.

GT Class, Teams:

1st Place: Dodge – 80 pts.
2nd Place: Audi – 70 pts.
3rd Place: Ferrari – 60 pts.
4th Place: Chevrolet – 0 pts.

Tune in to the second race of the season, where the teams will be heading to Italy, battling it out at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza! Will Ferrari be triumphant in the GT Class on its home turf? Can Bentley pull off another brilliant one-two finish? Find out!

 

[Storm_SP17]

~~~ deleted content. ~~~

 

[Storm_SP17]

Rolex Sports Car Series Race 2: Monza

Round Two of the Rolex Sports Car Series on GTPlanet is to be held at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza in Italy; known mainly for its involvement in the FIA Formula One roster, and as the home of the Italian Grand Prix. The track itself is 3.60 miles long, and is considered a very high speed track since the track is comprised of long straights broken up by three chicanes; two of which are quite tricky and tight in the earlier part of the lap. Upon the long start/finish straight, the first of the chicanes comes at the end of Rettifilo, and is a very tight right-to-left that requires very hard and stable braking. This leads onto the high speed Curva Grande, and onto turn three, the left-to-right chicane. After that, turns four and five are medium speed right handers collectively known as the Lesmo Curves. After the sharper of the two Lesmo turns, the drivers go up a gradually inclining, slightly angled turn six, with the straight leading onto turn 7; a sweeping, high speed, left-right-left chicane. Another long straight follows therafter, and takes a fair deal of braking into the start of turn 8; the Parabolica Curve. The curve gradually lessens off into a straight just before the pit lane, and remains straight up to the line.

The Race:

Two new arrivals to the series decided to compete in the GT class for Chevrolet; Anirishnirvana and Freshseth83. Once again, the Prototype Class had a severe lack of attendance, with only james6653 making an entrance. Aside from Colin JDM and Nitrorocks, the rest of the GT field were raring to go. In Saturday’s Qualifying session, It was the Audi of Melancholy and the Corvette of Seth took the front row of the grid, with Polarbear’s Ferrari and Storm’s Dodge occupying the second row; Nirvana took the third row, and started, oddly, in front of an all-but-preoccupied James. As the race began, Seth and Melancholy charged ahead, leaving Polar, Storm and Nirvana to wrestle between each other. Storm broke away from the Italia and Corvette to mount a charge on the front running Corvette and the R8 in second place. It wasn’t until the pits where Storm got his moment to gain ground, as it became clear that he had not only started the race on Mediums, but decided to qualify in them too. Storm switched to softs, and almost immediately the Viper saw it gaining on both front runners, passing Melancholy just a few laps after pitting. At around lap 20, Seth’s hug gap of 18 seconds over Storm was being eaten away at, but unfortunately a disconnection from Polar halted the race at that point. Seth in first, Storm in second, Melancholy in third, with fourth and fifth awarded to Polar and Nirvana. James, the sole driver in DP to attend, was sixth. Since he was hardly driving, James was awarded points as if he were a GT runner.

There was a major debate at that point, as to whether the race should be continued from that point, or whether it should be abandoned. StormPacer, feeling a strong sense of being denied what he perceived as a potential win for him given the flow of the race, wanted the race to be stopped and rescheduled for the following week. However, Polarbear345 (the creator) decided to restart with 15 laps in a gradually raining scenario to finish the race. Storm, livid, refused to partake in the race at that point, while the rest decided to continue. The race started, with Seth and Melancholy getting off to another great start, this time with Polar making a stronger start. Strangely, as the track got wetter, Melancholy decided to stay out on his Racing Hard tyres, while the rest of the pack pitted. Polar pitted, switching directly to Rain tyres despite being only 30% wet on the track’s surface. Seth pitted and put on Intermediates, while Nirvana also went to rain tyres. Storm, watching the race, was worried about whether Nirvana and Polar were being wise on switching to the full Rain tyres so early in the race, as he knew the tyre degradation they underwent in comparison to the intermediates was extremely quick, and their level of grip in the situation was almost definitely inferior to the intermediates at that level of water on track.

Sure enough, Nirvana was struggling on both parts, but Polar stood surprisingly well on them. Seth however was charging out in front. The water level refused to stop rising, and eventually Melancholy had to pit, switching to rain tyres halfway through the race, and took 3rd place from the Corvette of Nirvana a couple laps later, after some questionable implications at the first chicane where Nirvana ended up being unintentionally pushed off onto the grass at the exit. In the dying parts of the race, Seth switched to full rain tyres, but had been passed by Polar in the process. With the car’s tyres looking ready to run out, Polar was left trying to fight Seth off just a couple laps from the end, with Melancholy catching them both too. Eventually Seth passed, and scored an impressive and comfortable win. Storm reckoned that Polar would hit the cliff before the final lap was out, but surprisingly, Polar managed to hold out, comfortably taking second and beating Melancholy in third. Nirvana took home fourth, while James.... well, James didn’t really race again, but took 5th place over Storm, who was still counted despite not actually racing. There was a debate over how the points were to be given, until Storm decided that it’d be best to give everyone half the points from the point where the race was stopped, while half was given for when the race was restarted. This way, Seth was awarded the full 80 points for finishing first in both races, and Melancholy was given 60 points for coming third in both races.

Here is how the points were given:

1st Place: freshseth83 (finished 1st in both races) = (80 + 80) / 2 = 80 pts.
2nd Place: MrMelancholy15 (finished 3nd in both races) = (60 + 60) / 2 = 60 pts.
2nd Place: Polarbear345 (finished 4th in Race 1, 2nd in Race 2) = (50 + 70) / 2 = 60 pts.
4th Place: StormPacer (finished 2nd in Race 1, 6th in Race 2) = (70 + 30) /2 = 50 pts.
5th Place: Anirishnirvana (finished 5th in race 1, 4th in Race 2) = (40 + 50) = 45 pts.
6th Place: James 6653 (finished 6th in Race 1, 5th in Race 2) = (30 + 40) = 35 pts.

So how does this affect the standings, well....

DP Class, Drivers:

1st Place: James6653 (Toyota) – 85 pts.
2nd Place: W1nner101 (Bentley) – 80 pts.
3rd Place: Carnby7 (Bentley) – 70 pts.
4rd Place: Unrealanthony (Toyota) – 60 pts.
5th Place: Adeadsnipermatt (Peugeot Oreca) – 0 pts.
6th Place: Pepsimaxcrew (Peugeot Oreca) – 0 pts.
7th Place:
8th Place:

DP Class, Teams:

1st Place: Bentley – 150 pts.
2nd Place: Toyota – 145 pts.
3rd Place: Peugeot Oreca – 0 pts.
4th Place: Peugeot Total – 0 pts.

GT Class, Drivers:

1st Place: StormPacer17 – 130 pts.
1st Place: MrMelancholy15 – 130 pts.
3rd Place: Polarbear345 – 120 pts.
4th Place: freshseth83 – 80pts.
5th Place: Anirishnirvana – 45 pts.
6th Place: Nitrorocks – 0 pts.
7th Place: ColinJDM – 0 pts.
8th Place: N/A – 0 pts.

GT Class, Teams:

1st Place: Dodge – 130 pts.
1st Place: Audi – 130 pts.
3rd Place: Chevrolet – 125 pts.
4th Place: Ferrari – 120 pts.

Sadly, this will be the last entry for the Rolex Sports Car Series on GTPlanet for this season. The effort I (StormPacer) was willing to apply doesn't match the numerous complications and let-downs in some aspects of the series. This will return next season, where hopefully the woes of this year will be gone, and I can bring lots of coverage from both classes, not just the GT Class.

 

[Furinkazen]

Some very detailed good reports here 👍

 

[james6653]

Some very detailed good reports here 👍

I agree I really enjoy reading his point of view about the races I know mine but i like to here someone elses sometimes 👍 👍

 

[ITCC_Andrew]

I agree I really enjoy reading his point of view about the races I know mine but i like to here someone elses sometimes 👍 👍

Yeah. I agree with everyone here so far. There are some first season glitches to be worked out. (The least of which is my bladder. O.o)

I also know that Storm does a great job of this series report. Season 2, I think Storm and I (perhaps) should resurrect this. I would enjoy summarizing qualifying...

 

[Storm_SP17]

Thanks a lot people! I'm glad you enjoy it, but unfortunately for this season's racing I'm giving it a miss. I would like to capture more of the Prototype side of things, but unfortunately with the lack of attendance in the Proto Class, all the action is GT orientated.

 

[james6653]

Nothing for this weeks race?

 

[ITCC_Andrew]

Thanks a lot people! I'm glad you enjoy it, but unfortunately for this season's racing I'm giving it a miss. I would like to capture more of the Prototype side of things, but unfortunately with the lack of attendance in the Proto Class, all the action is GT orientated.

Nothing for this weeks race?

I'm not even going to explain.

 

[james6653]

I'm not even going to explain.

Oh I guess I missed that

 

[Storm_SP17]

Yeah, so it's clearer.

Not doing race reports until Season TWO

I hope I haven't blinded anyone with the font colour.

 

[ITCC_Andrew]

Yeah, so it's clearer.

Not doing race reports until Season TWO

I hope I haven't blinded anyone with the font colour.

Haha, I prefer red for the ITCC, but, that green REALLY does catch the eye. It's somewhat tacky though. Now, ironic emote time!

 

[freshseth83]

How about each of us give our own little race report in a type of official manner? I'll start-

Freshseth83's Audi R8 Race Report:

General Summary; Fuji is one of the most picturesque tracks in GT5 with a majestic Mount Fuji in the backdrop overlooking the home track of Toyota in the land of the rising sun, Japan!

Strategy; For round 6 a compromise must be made in terms of setup. Do you run low downforce for a high top speed on Fuji's infamous 1km+ straight, or run higher downforce to gain precious tenths in the high speed turns? I chose a setup of medium-high downforce, sacrificing some top speed for better cornering. This proved beneficial for me as I was able to pull a nice gap of some seconds over the other GT members in the opening stint. For reduced tire wear I lowered the differential of the forward 4wd bias as the 4wd cars like the Audi tend to use front tires up faster than the rears.

Race Report; Even though tire wear seemed a bit better than usual in terms of laps able to be ran on the same set of tires, the performance rate dropped off mightily after 5 laps. To counter this, I chose to do 8 laps for the first stint as that's when fuel is heaviest. With no need for refueling the next stints were easier on the tires. 9 lap stints were my goal, and even though the times dropped from high 35's to 39's at the end of the stint, I felt it was worth it. There was no real challenge after the disconnects from the competitors, but towards the end of the race I put on conservation mode with the tires to make them last to the last lap. By my calculations, I figured GT would be down 3-4 laps on the DP guys, so that way we would be able to take a gamble on tire strategy and still have life left at the end of the race. My plan worked but almost backfired as I realized we had 3 minutes left after the DP's finished! This meant at least 2 laps would be completed in addition so we would technically only be down 2 laps from the DP's instead of the 4 that I calculated my strategy for!

Race Results and Afterthoughts; To win for the 5th time in 6 races and to take 4 straight is more than I imagined. With this result I've helped Team Audi clinch the constructors championship in GT, and boosted my standings in the drivers championship taking 2nd place from the Dodge Viper or Storm. Now there's only 20 points separating me from my teammate 'MrM' as I like to call him, from 1st to 2nd place. It was a good battle in the closing stages of the race with the other Audi, even though our philosophies on tuning may differ, and our engine parts and tuning- the end result is 2 tenths after 30+laps at one of the fastest tracks on the circuit! On to round 7!