The 250 Testa Rossa Series went off without a hitch and was enjoyable from start to finish, with good clean* racing and a high level** of competition. My only regret is fewer people joined up than I had hoped.
As mentioned from the first post, I kept the lobby open rather than private as (1) I didn't have everybody from GTPlanet who may have wandered into this thread on my buddy list and (2) I hoped maybe some quick racers scanning the lobbies might decide to join in. The result was both positive and negative for reasons I will discuss later.
Onto the Events:
1. Monza - 5 Minutes - Dry - Open Practice
Having a practice round at Monza allowed everybody to get comfortable with the car without fear of losing points. At GMT 20:10, the lobby consisted of:
jjaisli
PiotrB_23
GTP_SimcoeAce
mhm66
GTRP-Flinx
I sent out a few last minute invites to people I knew on-line who don't necessarily view GTPlanet. But by 20:15, there were no takers so the race started. Monza was a bit of an eye opener with a little crashing and banging as drivers settled into the car. We agreed to keep two wheels on the track at the first chicane but allowed the 2nd chicane to be cut as allowed to maintain a proper flow.
Although this first round didn't count for points, and although I neglected to mention this, I decided to use the current
Formula 1 points system of:
10 8 6 5 4 3 2 1 for the top 8 points scoring positions, with
an additional point awarded for fastest lap*. The only exception was the final round at
Spa where I doubled the points. For the record, the finishing order at Monza was:
Flinx, jjaisli, PiotrB, mhm66, SimcoeAce, with
PiotrB taking the fastest lap with a
2:20.50, more than a second faster than the next fastest driver. The rest of us in the lobby put in laps which were <.75 seconds
apart, showing just how competitive the rest of the field would run.
* This was a trend which would continue for the rest of the event with PiotrB showing unbelievable speed and impressive consistency that the rest of us just couldn't match. But that's OK. He's an Alien.
2. Hockenheim - 10 minutes - Dry
Hockenheim is where the event really started. Several mistakes marred the positions and lap times of for a number of the drivers. Finishing order:
PiotrB, mhm66, SimcoeAce, jjaisli, Flinx with fastest lap of
2:15.77 going to
PiotrB--enough to break the track record (previously held by yours truly) by more than a full second.
3. Misano - 10 minutes - Wet
At Misano, we had two additional visitors in the lobby, two Spanish guys,
Utopia07 &
akenathon. Both players were a bit inexperienced and ended up being lapped by the entire field--in Utopia07's case, we lapped him twice. Unfortunately, neither saw fit to stay to the side while they were being lapped and made a bit of hindrance of themselves, costing several of us valuable seconds while trying to maintain or decrease the gap to the car in front. But dealing with back markers is part of real racing too (although one would suspect they would have been shown black flags long before blue). None the less, Misano in the wet with this car presents it's own unique challenges and lapping traffic is just one of them. All in all, a good race. The finishing order:
PiotrB, Flinx, jjaisli, SimcoeAce, mhm66 with
PiotrB taking the fastest lap with a
2:07.74.
Utopia was disqualified and
akenathon brought up the rear.
4. Redwood Park - 10 minutes - Dry
Perhaps it's because of my frequent visits to the Canadian Grand Prix but for whatever reason, I've always enjoyed Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and have managed good pace at Montreal in most of my races in Ferrari Challenge. I figured if I had any chance at a win it would be here. Starting near the back of the field and in the middle of an Iberian sandwich ended any chance within 10 second of the start with one driver ramming me from behind and the other side swiping me as he left and rejoined the track. Discounting these two, I had only Flinx behind me and was nearly 10 seconds behind Biggles when I rounded the first corner. I put my head and the pedal down and did my best to crank out laps as fast as I could with a clear track in front of me.
And I managed to do just that (knowing it's a track that SimcoeAce doesn't particularly like). But I found to my dismay that I had great difficulty following closely behind biggles once I had reached him. Every time I narrowed the gap to 1 second or less, I had a hard time maintaining my braking points and kept understeering off the track at key points. I don't know if this was just overzealous driving on my part of it had something to do with lag but I hadn't experienced it quite in that way before. At various times I tried to stick my nose into a gap in an all together sloppy way. (Sorry Biggles) and I finally managed to get past on the last lap but was too far behind mhm to make a run. Final order:
PiotrB, mhm66, jjaisli, SimcoeAce, Flinx, akenathon, utopia DQL and
TTKKTT (joining for this round) also DQL. I actually managed to pull the fastest lap this race with a
2:07.54.
5. Mugello - 10 minutes - Wet
Again a wet race and again, several uncharacteristic mistakes managed to shuffle the field from it's original order. To be honest, much like Hockenheim, this race is a bit of a blur to me so feel free to pipe in if anything stands out. I know I was side by side with Biggles(?) on the first lap between Savelli and Arrabiatta, but I put the power down too hard in the wet and oversteered right off the track, leaving me in last place. I think Flinx also went off the track at Palagio allowing me to get by again. But I can't remember getting by Biggles? Finishing order:
PiotrB, mhm66, jjaisli, Flinx, SimcoeAce, akenathon with
PiotrB taking the fastest lap with a
2:30.76, nearly 2 seconds clear of the field. Apparently he was the only one who thought to bring rain tires.
6. Spa - 20 minutes - Dry - FINAL RACE - Points Double
The final everybody was waiting for at the world's greatest race course. In truth, this race went by so quickly, I now wish that I had made it 30 minutes instead of 20. However, considering this race ended with Flinx literally breathing down the back of my neck at the finish line, it would likely have resulted in a different outcome had it gone another 10 minutes. In fact, in a confusing twist, the leaderboard actually listed him AHEAD of me, although we both believed I had crossed the line first, but just barely and by hundreds of a second. But one thing that probably wouldn't have changed, was PiotrB taking the lead on the first lap and maintaining it throughout the race.
For this last race we were joined by
GTRP_greyhound. Without a doubt he was at a disadvantage entering the lobby late and not having the benefit of over an hours running with this car.
Try as I might, I couldn't hold off SimcoeAce and a few small errors here or there in succession allowed him to draft me on the Kemmel straight. Once by, I thought I would be able to maintain the tiny gap and get by him again, but much like Montreal, I found I was having a difficult time driving behind him, missing my braking points and understeering in places that I shouldn't have been. Perhaps it was the reflection of his maple leaf license plate.
For two laps I was able to hold the gap at <1.5 seconds but a mistake through Puhan drove the gap up to >4 seconds. With one lap to go I realized I probably wouldn't catch him and I eased my pace. Big mistake. Flinx was on a charge and cutting the time between us. I didn't realize until I was going through Blanchaimont and boy was I sweating. Coming into La Source, a small misjudgment on my braking point allowed him to almost touch me. Ineed, it seems the game decided to award my lack of judgement by awarding him the win. But so long as we both agree I crossed the line first, I'll take it. Final order:
PiotrB, SimcoeAce, jjaisli, Flinx, mhm66, greyhound, with the fastest lap going to
Piotrb at
3:02.64 - enough to smash the previous record by Sarrinen69. Out of sight!!!
So, adding up the points, (and I checked this twice) I couldn't ask for a more perfect, storybook finish:
1. PiotrB with 64
2. a THREE WAY TIE between SimcoeAce, mhm66 & jjaisli!!! with 36 each!
5. GTRP_Flinx just 5 points behind at 31
6. akenaton (although, he'll never know it)
7. GTRP_grehound.
Once again, I wanted to thank all the participants in this event. I had a fantastic time both putting this event together and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the racing. At some point in the next few weeks, I'll try and put a similar event together - perhaps with either the 250 GTO or 365-GTB.
And with any luck, this enthusiast account of the afternoon/evening will motivate others to join the next one. 👍 Hope to see you all again.
, I'm probably in for Saturday Evening.
However, in this case, I would prefer to see a larger compliment. If I had any hope of it being stable, I would open a full 16 car lobby. Obviously I don't so that's not an option. Even an 8 car lobby may be pushing things. 
. 
But that's how it goes. 
On the other hand, everytime I go online, I see a bunch of my GTP friends online in GT5P, running the same freakin' track for the nine millionth time! 
