Gran Turismo World Series 2024 Begins 17 April

[icycls]

well that was epic. Two out of the five audis were in the lobby, hi @A_Higher_Place ! 190 points I think?

I never would have survived or thrived without the collective mind of this forum, thanks everyone!

Qualifying looked like rain on flying lap, so nursed inters through the outlap. I had quite a bit more wear than my practice this morning, maybe because my outlap was sunny and I had practiced with cloudy? Rain didn't show up until about a third through the flying lap and the inters were already cooked. Rain was hard, but I brought it in for a Q5 at 10 minutes!

Same weather for race. First lap hards, pit for inters. I stayed out on inters and had fuel for 4 laps because of the rain. Bar 2/3 full for nearly the full four laps, when I got a chance, went to TC5. Traded places with just about everyone multiple times and I let anyone and everyone by me if they wished. I was just trying to get though it. This lobby was good, only the leader ran away from everyone.

Moving along, I might have had a chance for a crb, until the final lap; I have an off at the first carousel. Nooooo! Because of the pace of the lobby, I went from P5 to P11 in the blink of an eye. Finish out the race for P11. P3 though P12 finished within 10 seconds! Well done @A_Higher_Place !

The P11 doesn;t bother me too much, but the minor error bugs me A Lot! Still, not sure I can manage my nerves though another race later, we'll see.

As much as I might complain about the squirreliness of the Audi, I really enjoyed driving it throughout the series. Except for bathurst and this error, I did reasonably well with it at my dr rating.

 

[Pfei]

I had a disaster first slot in GT1.

Hit the wall while avoiding someone who had crashed, sending me into the wall with damage. That caused me to lose focus and I crashed again later. Rain coming on the radar so I pit end of lap two for inters. Just a drizzle, nothing on the rain gauge. Pit end of lap 3 for hards. Radar still all rain but dry track. Half of the last lap was a bit wet. Finished 12th.

Gonna try again now.

 

[JDMKING13]

I had a disaster first slot in GT1.

Hit the wall while avoiding someone who had crashed, sending me into the wall with damage. That caused me to lose focus and I crashed again later. Rain coming on the radar so I pit end of lap two for inters. Just a drizzle, nothing on the rain gauge. Pit end of lap 3 for hards. Radar still all rain but dry track. Half of the last lap was a bit wet. Finished 12th.

Gonna try again now.

Yea I had a disaster race as well I’m going for another one!

 

[Spider-Racer]

This race was insanely stressful. The split loaded and it was 2nd Split in Slot 1. I basically qualified way above my paygrade because just me and a couple of other people apparently looked at the radar before the race: it was clear that it would rain heavily on qualy flying lap. I qualified 4th.
After the start, I overtook someone who for some reason started on Inters. He was a good blocker then to give me a little bit of a buffer 😅

I chose to pit again on L3 for new inters because mine were 50% worn and I knew I'd die on those.... Quake did the same and we moved through traffic relatively well while people were dying ahead on worn inters.

Almost everybody ahead died, too. Only 2 survivors…which risked and gained: they finished P1 and P2...Quake P3 and I was P4.
For 323 points? That's amazing! I'm extremely happy with that…and the overall season. In every race I got a 300+ score!

Livery is an adaptation of work from @RacingGrandpa ! Thanks once again for making these available!

 

[Canucks_9419]

I just noticed something and was wondering if it is a glitch or normal activity. I saw this same thing when the Nation's Cup ended. When I exited the game there was no more Manufacturer's icon to select (expected this (I think) as I ran the last race in the EMEA region) but how do I get to see my final results and get the credits I might have earned?

I can see how I ranked (except I was not in the top 97 of the VW rankings) but how would I know how many credits were awarded?

I do not believe that any credits were awarded to me for the Nation's Cup series. Wondering if this is going to happen again.

On a different note - was not today's race really fun? I love running those tracks!

It will likely take a few hours to calculate the results across the world, so rewards should come by tomorrow. As for seeing your results, you have to find them in the Race History (?) Tab beside where the daily Races are.

 

[tmtk]

That was actually a good day for me at the Schleife.

Race 1 in the morning was all dry, qualis and race. EMEA, GT2, low B/S

Spoiler: Spoiler 1

A cautious lap in qualifying (8:13) gave me P6.
After start I survived the first corner and only lost one position in the Sprint section.
The Ferrari is not good on speed, made some time over twisty sections, but got butchered on all the straights (and there are plenty), besides its behaviour on worn tires is twitchy and, oh, how it hates those elevated curbs, so later I couldn't even make up time in the corners.
Small incident with Interemptor at the end of lap 1, but we talked about it post-race, agreed on its nature and moved on with racing.
Funny thing that the leading car pitted from the lead at the end of lap 2 when there clearly wasn't any reason to. So I was P5 for half a lap, but he was coming fast from behind on fresh rubber, so I tried to let him go after Brunnchen, but I left space on the right and lifted, he was trying from the left so I held him for a small moment.
Finished P6, no points for me (should be 1st or 2nd to make them count).

For the second race I decided to wait for later in the afternoon.
Got 75 points lobby with wall of something coming up (something because I can't read the intensity of the wet, I know there's lighter/darker colours but even the light green area has sometimes full spray from the wheels and that is proper rain in my book).
Looking at various weather patterns earlier I read that there will be rain in the timed lap, sooo decided to gamble.

Spoiler: Spoiler 2

Put on wets and waited in the pitlane as long as I can. Left the pits at 9-something mark, looong space of free air ahead. Out lap was really slow but no tire wear worked in GT2. Timed lap I started ok, but ofcourse waited for my conditions. First rain came after Aremberg, started catching backmarkers before the Karusell. The downhill sections after Hoche Acht was the real slaughterhouse, people running on grass, spinning, ghosted on pause. I quickly saw that there was one other who gambled as his time of 8:39 was very solid. Couldn't match it in the end, but settled for second with huuuge space to third.

Start went well, but still in the Sprint section the pole sitter hit the brakes very early and I punted him slightly into the right hand hairpin. He slid a little wide but stayed on track, I lifted not to overtake him, he exited first, but a stream of cars caught with me and 3 of them passed, fourth leveled with me and tried to push me to the gravel on the left. So I was P5 (pole sitter boxed in the wall at the entry to Nordschleife). Overtaking on this circuit proves to be problematory for me (at least trying to be clean about it), so I mostly followed the stream of cars ahead.

Saw an error of German McLaren and a chance for me to overtake after Pflanzgarten - I took it.

At the end of lap 1 all the cars around me (except the now leader, Swiss Supra - the one who tried to push me into gravel) pitted for inters. Two additional cars from the back also decided to stay on slicks - big mistake. Past Bergwerk where the rain intensified, they were sitting ducks.

Two Porsches and me were picking them one by one.

But I had problems of my own, my rear inters were totally shot after Karussell. On the downhill section I was struggling to keep myself on track. There was no question, I had to stop for tires before last lap. I was really surprised that I was the only one to pit, but reviewing replay later I found out how easy the Porsche, McLaren and AMG were on those tires, they really had half of the tires or even better usable before the last lap while I had no rears and just a handful of pixels on the fronts.
Shocked how short the life of inters were on the Ferrari I went for full wets hoping they would last longer and the second part of the lap won't be as hard as on inters. Emerged from pits as 7th car and exactly 24.8 seconds behind the leading Porsche.

That last lap I was on a mission: gonna pick as many of them up as I can.

Pick 1

Pick 2

Pick 3

Pick 4

At Hoche Acht, just before the downhill section (track was seriously wet in this parts) I was 3rd and beyond the McLaren in 2nd I was seeing the spray from the leading Porsche. That's when I believed it is possible.

Pick 5

Pick 6

Went on to win this with 16 seconds advantage. 75 points for the win here bested my Deep Forest result and increased my points tally.

2 stops strategy on a 3 laps race and a win. Who would've thought it's possible? Not me!

The last lap, I couldn't help but record, puts big smile on my face

 

[Dep Fishtail]

Slot 1 gr1 na.
Saw a thin band of what looks like light rain in the distance so tried qualifying on rh with @JDMKING13
We almost made it, but we didn’t 😂 spinning to get back to the line and landing q5.

Race went off well and moved up to p3 by 2/3 way through lap one and I grabbed just a bit of curb at the wrong time and spun into BarryR. Dropped back to p11 and met everyone in the pits.

Grabbed IM and filled fuel incase it stayed wet enough for the tires to last.
Lap 3 going down the finish straight found me in too much water for inters and I spun out many times getting going once again.
Clawing back what I could finished p8 and not enough points to count. Was an awesome race and thoroughly enjoyed the hard racing and having to figure it out on the fly.

Final lap I had a lag event that was nuts. I’m the 911 and this guy that was passing then shot backwards ran out of fuel invite final straight losing two or three places.

 

[Canucks_9419]

My day at The Ring was quite soggy, but I still pulled an excellent result!

GT1 NA Slot 1, Lower A/S Lobby with 155pts up for grabs. I decided to use @Stevdretti 's advice and use qualifying to prioritize mapping out how the start of the race should go, since I'm incredibly slow at this track anyways. From this Quali information there was a massive wall of dark blue/light blue blotched storm on the way by the time one would reach Carousel on the flyer, or Lap 2 of the race.

Starting from P15 (Last), I manage to keep the nose (sort of) clean and work my way up to P8 by the end of Lap 1. I duck in to change for Heavy Wets, which would be the call of the race as the surface water bar wouldn't go below 2/3rds full from Lap 2 onwards! The Alfa 4C managed to pull 4 Laps out of the fuel tank as well, mostly due to how slowed everyone's pace was due to the monsoon weather. This One-Stop strategy landed me a 5th(!) place finish and 129pts!

I don't know what was in my diet this season, but between both Nations and Manufacturers this has been the best season results wise I've ever had!

 

[JDMKING13]

Man what a second race!! My first race was crazy I made a mistake and put my inters on… so the first lap I had inters on a completely dry track they burned by the last long straight. Lost crazy time by the time i got to the pits. Being in last place, I start driving like a madman.. I eventually caught up to the pack however, I caught damage in the front from a Porsche who pretty much stopped on the Apex… it was a racing incident because of the rain. Having the heavy damage in the front my car was just uncontrollable ending me in P9 behind @Dep Fishtail. With everything still happening in the race was so fun!

My second race went a lot better even though I still crashed during qualifying I landed a P6 The rain came at the end of the track and it was so crazy. Once the race start, I believe like the grid wasn’t the real grid, so I kind of jumped out in front and got lead! What, help me big-time was my last stints I used wets and got a great lead on everyone. Granted the track dry out towards the end and my wets were cooking so I let first and second passed me smoothly and just took the third place. What a race 217 points let’s go!!!

 

[Pfei]

Had maybe the best race of my life in GT1 slot 2.

The track got wet near the end of the flying qualy lap and people must have messed up because I got pole!

Started on hards, knowing I would pit end of lap 2 for inters. Kept the lead those two laps somehow even though I suck at the Nord. There were two guys right behind me as we came out of the pits. I held them off while planning my next move. Radar showed no rain for what would probably be the final lap. I was torn between finishing on inters or pitting for hards for the last lap.

I was so torn, contemplating two possibilities where neither was ideal. Shredded inters on a drying track, or fresh hards onto a drying track but still damp?

Anyway, while I was racking my brain the inters were getting a bit hairy and I was driving very conservatively and got passed near the end of lap 4. I was thinking "whatever he does do the opposite". When I saw him continue into the final lap I chickened out and followed him.

He binned it a quarter way through lap 5 and I got the lead back. With no one in my mirrors I thought I had the race in the bag. The track was now dry and my inters were shredded. The Audi was a real handful and I had some scary moments but kept it pointed in the right direction.

Then headlights appeared in my mirrors. Two guys closing fast. I was in no condition to fight and they got by in the second banked turn before the final straight. My only hope was that they collide fighting for the lead, but no, we brought it home and I finished 3rd, only six seconds back, for 195 points.

My final lap was like 8:40 so in hindsight doing the final lap on hards probably would have been better.

Still elated for a podium at what is by far my worst track. I still don't have it fully memorized and I am truly ecstatic for this result. The win would have been better, but this feels like a win anyway. Happy to report that I am no longer afraid of the Nord.

Qualy:



Race Results:



Points:



Podium:

 

[Talon16]

Y'all gonna get my race reports in pieces (two today, two tomorrow).


Race One: AO, Jag


Checked the weather for qual and it seemed to be far enough out to be able to do two laps on the slicks. And it was… barely… for about four of us. Thankfully I was able to get out early and push (which kinda sticks on an outlap as you can’t really leave space to get a clean lap). By the end of the second lap, the rain had come in and the bar was right at the first tick mark. Ended up putting the Jag on pole.

While waiting the additional four minute for the qualifying clock to count down, the AI was spinning the Jag all over the place. We call this a clue. If the race is the same as quali, best pit at the end of two for IMs.

There was a Porsche nipping at my heals for the most of lap one, but by lap two I was able to inch away… a tenth here and a tenth there. At the end of lap two the grip meter had basically mimicked qual as predicted, so into the pits for IMs; Porsche that was in P2 does the same. A brave BMW drive decides to stay out. As I come out of the pits, he is ~20 seconds ahead, but every turn that delta is dropping like crazy. Caught up to him at the start of the Nord and shortly-thereafter he goes wide from loss of grip.

I was a little nervous because of how good the Porsche is in the wet, but the delta stayed as it was. GGs

---

Race Two: US, Lexus

This time the weather forecast was clear, with a small patch quite far away and never even thought about coming towards the track. Qual was clear and the race was clear; very straight forward. Qualed Q2 behind a Brazilian in a Porsche.

Race starts and Porsche driver gets lose coming out of T2 so I was able to go up the inside into the tight left. Up to P1. Porsche driver was quick and was just behind me up until the carousel when on exit he lost the rear. Kept the car off the wall but that gave me ~3 second lead which stayed pretty consistent until Dottenger on lap two where he fell back quite a bit more due to a pending track limit pen. Dropped down to about six seconds back.

I took it pretty easy on the last lap, but not as easy as the time delta drop would’ve indicated as when we crossed the line he was ~2.5s back, so he made up ~3.5s on the last lap… but no matter, race over. GGs

---

Next two AARs coming tomorrow. The two of the craziest races I've ever been in.

 

[Timm Sheehan]

Manufacture’s Cup, Round 4, Nürburgring Endurance

Race 1 NA Server

Running the Thrustmaster Hyundai Genesis on RH tires which I pulled out a very slow 12th for qualifying.

This race was good (actually awesome but the wife says I use that word too much), no big issues as everyone made it through turn 1 without going off. I don’t think I saw any casualties until a good mile or two onto the Nord. No penalties this race and everything went fine (didn’t use awesome (thank you thesaurus) for the rest of the entire race. I had maybe 2 slide offs but nothing that was not easily recoverable. A few punts or punt attempts (I have to take that sticker off the back of the car that says “use me for braking). I just hung around mid field looking for my overtakes. I am saying it now “The Hyundai Genesis GR3 is an awesome beast!”. If you ever seen me out on the track during the Manufacturer’s Series you know Hyundai is my manufacturer.

Again no rain – come on PD, GT3 league can handle a little water!

Finished P8, 5 season high points with a slight DR change (upwards). I did fail on my race goal (CRB) but there is always next race.

 

[ElectricNaz]

I'm so happy / proud. My UK rating is clearly better than my EMEA ranking but still. Top10 in the UK for GT2.....love.

Hampshire rating doesn't count because it's me vs a A rated driver based on his points.

Not felt this happy with life for a while!!

 

[fardoche]

GT1 slot 10pm, only attempt for me. Had a quick glance at the messages board here, should expect drops of rain mid lap...okay, I keep that in mind..

Looking at the radar, not too sure which way it will go, so I pick IM... It ends up dry for the 2 laps I was able to do, tires were done.... Q14.

For the race, I start with RH, I stays with the pack, I reach P12, still unsure of the weather...
End of first lap: Last second decision, I do like the 2 cars in front of me and I pit for IM.

The whole 2nd lap ends up dry, tires are not looking good...I pit again for RH before end of 2nd.

The third lap, light drop of rain show up in the windshield, on the final super long straight, the tire water level is going up to the first bar..
I pit for a 3rd time to put back brand new IM.

End of 4rd lap, I overtake 3 cars that were in the pit, I will finish P9 with 104 pts.

3 pit stops, no accident, I stayed in control the whole time.
Lame race, but I made a lot of progress mastering the nurburgring.

I wish there was a crew chief telling us when to pit, I am not good at monitoring and analyzing a weather radar system while driving on the most difficult track on the planet.

 

[CobraMJD]

I was doing good for my own surprise, battling for the 2nd place in lap 1. But suddenly I got the worst enemy, no drive here is so bloody as him.

The Ceratopogonidae

These guys appears in Full Moon and suck blood and it's way worse the regulars mosquitoes, that ruined my race, Nurburg needs full attention when I started to do a lot of errors, ended in 8th, actually still a good place for my lobby but another could be better feeling. I was to tired to try again on last slot.

 

[dazdilly75]

Y'all gonna get my race reports in pieces (two today, two tomorrow).


Race One: AO, Jag


Checked the weather for qual and it seemed to be far enough out to be able to do two laps on the slicks. And it was… barely… for about four of us. Thankfully I was able to get out early and push (which kinda sticks on an outlap as you can’t really leave space to get a clean lap). By the end of the second lap, the rain had come in and the bar was right at the first tick mark. Ended up putting the Jag on pole.

While waiting the additional four minute for the qualifying clock to count down, the AI was spinning the Jag all over the place. We call this a clue. If the race is the same as quali, best pit at the end of two for IMs.

There was a Porsche nipping at my heals for the most of lap one, but by lap two I was able to inch away… a tenth here and a tenth there. At the end of lap two the grip meter had basically mimicked qual as predicted, so into the pits for IMs; Porsche that was in P2 does the same. A brave BMW drive decides to stay out. As I come out of the pits, he is ~20 seconds ahead, but every turn that delta is dropping like crazy. Caught up to him at the start of the Nord and shortly-thereafter he goes wide from loss of grip.

I was a little nervous because of how good the Porsche is in the wet, but the delta stayed as it was. GGs

---

Race Two: US, Lexus

This time the weather forecast was clear, with a small patch quite far away and never even thought about coming towards the track. Qual was clear and the race was clear; very straight forward. Qualed Q2 behind a Brazilian in a Porsche.

Race starts and Porsche driver gets lose coming out of T2 so I was able to go up the inside into the tight left. Up to P1. Porsche driver was quick and was just behind me up until the carousel when on exit he lost the rear. Kept the car off the wall but that gave me ~3 second lead which stayed pretty consistent until Dottenger on lap two where he fell back quite a bit more due to a pending track limit pen. Dropped down to about six seconds back.

I took it pretty easy on the last lap, but not as easy as the time delta drop would’ve indicated as when we crossed the line he was ~2.5s back, so he made up ~3.5s on the last lap… but no matter, race over. GGs

---

Next two AARs coming tomorrow. The two of the craziest races I've ever been in.

I admire your commitment to test multiple regions. That's good honest work right there.

 

[Pfei]

Well, I finished #1 for Audi in the Americas GT1 league. It's a GTPlanet 1-2-3! Great competition guys @icycls and @A_Higher_Place!

I really enjoyed the Audi. It reminded me of driving the R8 in a Assetto Corsa Competizione league a few years ago. I will go back to Subaru for the main season since I drive a WRX in real life and also have two other Subies in the garage.

My results:



Team Audi's GT Planet 1-2-3:



Here is my Nord race in VR:

 

[Zenwarrior]

Did the manufacturer cup yesterday. It was the last race and the only race I participate in this cup. I forgot to buy wet tires, it was a disasterous race but I managed to stay until the end but didn't finish the race. And today I was rewarded with 2.400.000 credits. Nice!

 

[GlockPants]

Pretty good showing this season. I only dropped a few places Regionally after the final round, but P2 in a popular Manufacturer is good. Finished with 297 points.

I'll be in GT1 next season. That is, if there's a race slot that fits my schedule.

 

[Spider-Racer]

Extra proud of this season. All 300+ points, 3 podiums, 2 of which were wins.
26th overall in Americas and P3 for McLaren (first non alien).

I'll have to check EMEA later on the console itself

 

[Moose78]

Things went really well for me this season:

The payout was pretty good, too:

Those 1st places look really impressive until you realize that they are filtered by manufacturer. There were only two other drivers in Canada that signed with VW. I'm a little miffed that my 3rd place in VW wasn't enough for a gold payout, but that's what I get for picking an unpopular manufacturer.

Speaking of which, VW turned out to be a surprisingly solid choice for this season. I wasn't sure what to expect going into the season, but the Scirocco and Beetle, with their recent BoP buffs, proved they could keep up with the other cars on the track no problem.

I had a lot of fun at the races, and even got to race with some other GTPers, which was a great bonus.

Thanks to everybody here for making it that much more enjoyable with all the discussions and race stories.

As for next season, I'll be heading into GT1. Can't say I'm thrilled about it, but I'll give it a shot. I see that this season nobody in Canada GT1 picked Citroen, Dodge, Hyundai, Renault, or Suzuki. Looks like I have my short list of makes to start testing.

 

[Talon16]

Warning, wall of text incoming.

Race Three: EMEA, McLaren


Qualifying was… interesting. Like some of you experienced, the track was dry for the whole out lap and most of the push lap, right up to the point where it wasn’t. Most of us got caught out and were flopping around like beached fish trying to limp back to the S/F line. I was hoping none of us would make it as I was the #1 board and assume if no one qualifies then we’re just put in DR order. Regardless, didn’t happen that way. I don’t recall what pole was but a couple of people guessed it right and had IMs. I think I crossed the line ~2:30 after pole. Q10.

Dropped a couple places at the beginning to what I’d describe as overly aggressive driving; nothing dirty per-say, but definitely some pushing/bumping. Then lost another place due to a skill issue shortly after entering the Nord. I was right on the bumper of the car in front and couldn’t see the turn coming up so I went a bit wide, putting two tires off.

By the time lap one was over I’d made up a few places and was getting ready to pit for IMs since we all got caught out during quali. Again, that is what we call a clue… despite the track being 100% dry we use the qual session as some foreshadowing. Thus, I was very surprised to see how few people pitted. I’d guess only half of us did.

Pit for the IMs and refuel (because why not?). Come out on a bone dry track but let’s just see how this plays out, so onward we [slowly] go. Sure enough, it started raining a couple minutes into the lap and by about the first carousal the grip meter was in the IM territory. And sure enough, I start seeing the yellow flags flying.

The same group who just got caught out in quali thought they could outrun the weather in the race… no dice. Shortly after coming up to the slick runners, I was able to pick off a Ferrari who had the same strat as me, but his rears were way more worn because Ferrari. Easy passes we made on the slick runners until a guy in a Genesis clipped me as I was going by him (just before the part of the track where you can airborne) who pushed me off the track and into a glancing blow with the barrier. Great… front end and left wheel damage. And the Ferrari gets back through. As they say, you never want to be featured on someone else's poster... sorry guys.

At that point the IMs were almost half dead thanks to running them on a dry track for four mins so I decide to pit again, put on new IMs, refuel, and fix the damage. The radar showed no signs of rain slowing up so I figured this would be my last pit. Even had I not gotten damage I would’ve likely had to pit again anyway for fuel (I didn’t test to see if the McLaren could do four laps on fuel, even in the rain).

From there it was a wet race to the end. All the wet driving practice really paid off as I was able to reel in the drivers ahead and quite an alarming pace… to the point where I assumed they had bad damage, dead tires, or something else was up. The radar wasn’t lying as the rain continued to come at an IM level. It was nice to be able to not have to worry about it anymore, or fuel, or pitting again, or anything. Time to just put my head down and go with my mint sent of IMs and see what we can do. Came out of the pits in P6 and passed four cars on that lap alone.

Now in P3 trying to bring in the McLaren (pole sitter) in P2 and a Supra in P1… which was happening pretty quickly. Supra pits at the end of lap three. Now P2. By the time we entered Nord on lap four I was on his butt. Just trying to look for an opportunity while trying to be patient. On a track that’s difficult to pass on the best of conditions, it’s obviously exacerbated when it’s wet conditions. Thankfully I wouldn’t need to; at the first carousal his car got lose on him and he went off track. P1.

By the time I got to the best sector(s) in any track ever I was in P1 with a lap in change to go. What, what?! I qualified P10, was down in P15 at one point, put for IMs on a bone-dry track, got hit and damage on my out lap, pit again, and now with a lap and change to go I am winning this race?! And, by a pretty healthy margin to boot, about 11 seconds if I recall! The only cars in contention at that point – as far as I could tell – was the McLaren who just spun (which my wet weather pace was better than his) and the Supra who pitted at the beginning of the lap just ahead of us (so even he was a whole pit stop back).

The sim racing deities have given me an opportunity here! Finish lap four and get one more lap without messing anything up and it’s Champaign and grid girl smooches for me! That being said, the rain was still falling so the grip meter was now getting to the second rung. But that mattered naught as lap five, by no means was fast, was clean. Kept that beautiful McLaren on the black stuff and brought home a P1! (No Champaign or grid girls, though.)

 

[flip6981]

GT2 Driver High B/S driving the Aston Martin.

Race one NA 8p slot. I went out with slicks in quali and it race on the hot lap, so not time. I started 10th? In the race I survived the first lap amd checked the radar. Didn't pit when everyone else did. Basically hit the rain by turn 1. It got to be too much by the time I got to the Nord and umm ZI had a forced disconnect.

Race two NA 9p Slot. Checked the map for quali and it would be dry. Set a time of 8:09.234, good enough for P5. The race went good enough and I finished p4 for 136 points. My poor aston didn't have the top end on the long straights. So even with slip it wasn't gaining ground. Welp no points improvements so lets go again.

Race 3 NA 10p final slot. I once again looked at the radar and decided inters. Well the rain never came and I quali P15. The race ended up dry as well. I worked my way through the pack. Had some good clean racing with moonracer but eventually got by when he mad a mistake. End result was P6, up 9 places for 126 points.

Final results for the season. I would have had to win last night to add any points and I slid from p6 to p12 but I could not be happier with the results. And with that last race, I graduated to DR A.

 

[Talon16]

Race Four: US, McLaren

Just when I thought this race combo couldn’t get any crazier… I look at the pre-quali radar and it’s the lightest color but it’ll be over the track likely half way through the out-lap so I put IMs on and start out. Do half a lap and the clouds just aren’t coming quickly enough… so I bail and have to start over. Now I have to push like mad to get in two laps to even put in a time. Horrid time, Q8.

Over the first couple sectors I drop a handful of places. I have a bad habit of being too careful at the beginning of races in heavy traffic; oh well, I’d rather lose places than take someone out. Start making them back up little by little, back up to P9. Half way through lap one, a Lexus in front of me loses it and clobbers me; I then go flying into the barrier... literally flying as the car was completely airborne. So much damage it was blinking red in places I didn’t even know existed. Welp, race ruined! Already frustrated as I've only done one race on this account to this point so this will be my second set of points... already planning on having to go again but really didn't want to.

So I either pit to fix the damage adding a pit stop, or deal with it. So I drive around the next 1.5 laps with a dead car that can barely even do 150 down Dottenger, dropping time like it’s free. Pit at the end of lap two, refuel, new tires, and fix the six seconds worth of damage. 1:20 behind P1 and 25s behind the next car up. There is still someone behind me so at least I had that going for me.

At this point I am just going to do laps and finish this one out. It’s still sprinkling and at some parts of the track the grip meter still shows nothing, but at certain points it moves up but never above the first bar. So we [all of us] continue on RH tires and all is good… or is it? After a few more lonely laps I guess all of the sprinkling added up because about half way through the last lap the grip meter is now right on the first rung. I start seeing yellow flags and cars having trouble.

We’re all in the same boat. All of us are on slicks. All of us are sliding around. Thankfully the bar never got much higher than that first rung, but it was enough to be driving like old ladies. Luckily, I am used to driving like an old lady and was able to pass cars left and right as they were sliding off the track: losing the rear, can’t stop, can’t turn… you all know how it is.

Made up like five positions to finish P5! From Q8, to P13, to destroyed car, to basically last, to finishing P5 in the last half of the last lap. 271 points. DONE! My thought right after crossing the line were full Clark Griswold...

 

[tankuroded]

For funsies, the top 12 live finalists would end up like this if the 2023/2024 exhibitions were official seasons:
(P) indicates a partner manufacturer.

Season 1
1. Subaru
2. AMG
3. Nissan
4. Toyota (P)
5. McLaren
6. Genesis (P)
7. Porsche
8. Mazda (P)
9. BMW
10. Peugeot
11. Renault
12. Chevrolet

Season 2
1. Nissan
2. BMW
3. Genesis (P)
4. Mazda (P)
5. Subaru
6. Lexus
7. AMG
8. Toyota (P)
9. Porsche
10. Peugeot
11. McLaren
12. Lamborghini

Season 3
1. McLaren
2. AMG
3. Lexus
4. BMW
5. Porsche
6. Mazda (P)
7. Renault
8. Chevrolet
9. Genesis (P)
10. Subaru
11. Honda
17. Toyota (P) -- bumps out Aston Martin.

 

[A_Higher_Place]

well that was epic. Two out of the five audis were in the lobby, hi @A_Higher_Place ! 190 points I think?

I never would have survived or thrived without the collective mind of this forum, thanks everyone!

Qualifying looked like rain on flying lap, so nursed inters through the outlap. I had quite a bit more wear than my practice this morning, maybe because my outlap was sunny and I had practiced with cloudy? Rain didn't show up until about a third through the flying lap and the inters were already cooked. Rain was hard, but I brought it in for a Q5 at 10 minutes!

Same weather for race. First lap hards, pit for inters. I stayed out on inters and had fuel for 4 laps because of the rain. Bar 2/3 full for nearly the full four laps, when I got a chance, went to TC5. Traded places with just about everyone multiple times and I let anyone and everyone by me if they wished. I was just trying to get though it. This lobby was good, only the leader ran away from everyone.

Moving along, I might have had a chance for a crb, until the final lap; I have an off at the first carousel. Nooooo! Because of the pace of the lobby, I went from P5 to P11 in the blink of an eye. Finish out the race for P11. P3 though P12 finished within 10 seconds! Well done @A_Higher_Place !

The P11 doesn;t bother me too much, but the minor error bugs me A Lot! Still, not sure I can manage my nerves though another race later, we'll see.

As much as I might complain about the squirreliness of the Audi, I really enjoyed driving it throughout the series. Except for bathurst and this error, I did reasonably well with it at my dr rating.

That race was really something. Having everyone that close for that many laps resulted in a lot of small contacts and bumps off the racing line. In hindsight, I would have taken W instead of IM tyres during my second pitstop. Multiple times was I punted from 5th or 6th down to 10th or below. I managed a lucky switcharoo on the second to last corner to squeeze up to 6th place. After being 11th earlier in the lap, I'll take it! Like you, my nerves when through the roof during that last lap!

Really glad to be paired in a lobby with you again, my friend! I always know there's room for the two of us when we're racing.

Congrats @Pfei on your top spot with Audi. Kinda neat to have a GTP 1-2-3! I think your DR is a bit high for me to be paired with you just yet, but both @icycls and I are coming .

 

[Roman_GT23]

...Made up like five positions to finish P5! From Q8, to P13, to destroyed car, to basically last, to finishing P5 in the last half of the last lap. 271 points. DONE!...

I'll do you one better on that finishing position.........by one 😂

GT1, A+ lobby, Americas, Slot 2

I WAS A VERY VERY LUCKY BOY LAST NIGHT!!!! (on the game at least )

After 2 failed attempts at the iRacings 12Hrs of Sebring, which also had rain, I found I had just about an hour to prep for the Nurb on GT7. Grabbed the Renault Tractor and went to the green hell. This was was completely wild and I still can't comprehend what happened.

Qualifying I made a complete disaster. Started on hards but then my wheel felt very weird, like I took the FFB chip from the back of the fanatec off. I reset then decided, mmmm it's gonna rain I should probably go to intermediates. Reset on Intermediates. I booked it not paying any attention to the tire wear. I think about halfway through the outlap my rears were half way worn . Reset again and went on Hards, Rushing to at least start my lap, I crashed . Decided to take the time left to not only get in front of people that reset in the pits and stayed there, but to get some wet practice. As a result I started 13th.

At the drop of the lights I immediately went on the attack, the tractor is quite good on cold tires in relation to the others, so I started picking off people one by one #theresdatdangRomanagainwithisoutsideovertakes!. Literally 3 outside overtakes just on the GP section of the track alone! Then I almost threw it in the kitty litter. Then one McLaren I literally saw wipe out and get heavy front damage decided to squeeze me and made me make a tough decision. I wasn't playing the stupid games roulette so I wedged myself on the inside into the fast left kink on the back straight and forced him to make a tough decision, unfortunately, he chose wrong and we both got tangled, I got some rear damage, but he had dirty tires. Then I watched him spin out behind me a few corners later at the exit of the famed karoussel, justifying getting around him ASAP to not get caught in an accident was the right call. At the end of lap 1 we all pitted as rain was on the near horizon, I picked IM for some reason, but wound up being the right call. I took it easy, learning from my qualifying mistakes. I also decided this was a good time to save some fuel as I would be just short. This is where it started getting crazy. In the window that Intermediates were the call, I was slow compared to others. Then when it was near hydroplanning conditions, despite that I was on Inters, I was the fastest one and picking off the people that were passing me. Then I saw people pit twice which was throwing me for a mental conundrum pondering if 2 stops were required. I just followed some of the guys that pitted on the same lap I did and kept going. I went from like 15 seconds down, the 26 seconds down, to then seeing the leaders potentially fighting for 2nd, to then 5th - 6th. Also being that I wasn't as sharp as I normally am, from stomach bug to waking up at 7am for iRacing's race. I put the TC on and let the car do the work for me. Solid choice if I say so myself.

So fast forward to the long straight before the finish on the last lap (I'll let you guys watch the video to see what happened in between, there was A LOT). 4th was on the cards but not likely. Lambo in front, Lexus Nexus in the rear, (and a straight line advantage over us). I was planning to stay tucked behind the Lambo and hopefully the Lexus stalled when it gets to the wall of air. To my surprise, the Lexus bumped drafted me. It was so strong I went Ricky Bobby and sling shot by the Lambo with ease. Then I saw the Lexus fighting the Lambo and I said, you know what, he scratched my back, I'll scratch his in return, pulled in front to give him the slip, He got by the Lambo, then at the kink, I lifted and let him by me. I was content with 5th. But then............ the Lexus overcooked the entry and hit the wall. I had a very minor window to get by, for the first loser to the podium. I got by and claimed 4th.

Usually 4th is meh for me, and it does break my podium streak, but considering where I started and how much of a sissy I usually am at the ring, that's a win for me. 273 points in the bag it was goodnight for me! In terms of Manu, I literally did 2 races total. Like 1 race R1 and 1 race R4 and that was it! 564 points. 2nd in Renault to some Argentine alien, and 56th in North America. Can't complain.

 

[Nakano219]

So, now we have some downtime before the official schedules come out - what combinations are people hoping show up for official Manu/Nations/TGR, and which combinations are you all hoping stay off the schedules?

 

[Eggstor]

I have to thank the relative unpopularity of the bowtie brand for my 2,550,000 Cr. in GT3. I got first by default in my metro area, 2nd in my state for silver, and the 2nd Nurburgring run also got me into silver for the Chevrolet standings. I wasn't quite good enough for silver regional though.

 

[Lewmatic]

Off to a messy start. Got rear ended in qualifying and cooked the IM tires so I just decided to not record a time a start from the lower end of the grid. Forgot to change my tires for the race so started on IM's and I didn't notice it until existing the GP portion of the track. After lap one got a fresh set and waited for the rain to kick in, I was making go time even with a few driver errors. A lot of other drivers were very slow in the rain and a few of them spun so I managed to finish on the podium from starting in 12th. Happy with my finish so didn't bother doing the other slots. Love driving this car in the rain.