Season 6 post-season write ups
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Formula Trainer
In the European division, Scott Michaels maintained a huge lead over his closest rival Roberto Massa, who missed an event earlier in the season. Scott scored 4 wins and 3 pole-positions in seven events on his way to his first Race2Play title. Dave Ellis, with only 3 Formula T events, put himself on the championship podium with 2 victories. Not surprisingly that Scott's own team Renown 4 Racing was able to capture the team title also. In the American division, Tristan Bayless also held a margin over Steven Blankenship who completed in one less event of the course of the season. Tristan won 5 of 8 events and scored 6 pole positions in the process of the championship. Ryan Ansoon stole the final championship podium position in the final round. The Team title was still up for grabs going into the final round at Birmingham. Separated by a single point, Global Racers Group Unlimited and Eagle Race Team had a top-notch show down at Birmingham. With Tristan's win in the final race, Eagle Race Team did get the team title. ----------------------- Formula BMW
The European division ended with drama filling this circuit. Scott Michaels had it all in the bag with a healthy lead over Milan Milicevic. All Scott needed to do was "nothing stupid" and bring the car home in one piece and in the points. Scott qualified on the pole with Milan on the 2nd row of the grid. As fate would have it Scott spun all on his own on the very first lap of the race, followed by no less then 2 more spins through out the race. While Scott was at the rear of the field and all championship hopes lost, Milan was fixed in a battle with the top-4. As the race came to a close, Milan finished 2nd but Scott had made his way back up to 7th to score just enough points to win the driver's title by a mere 2 points. Scott now has two Race2Play championships in as many days. Nick Phillips finished 3rd in the drivers points. Only two driers competed in all 7 events; Milan and Peter Valkovic who ended 6th in points. Renown 4 Racing just squeaked out the team title over Racing For Serbia by only 3 points but the real story was the tie between Team Shark Online Racing and Over The Hill Racing that resulted with Team Shark winning on the tie-breaker (more events) to take 3rd in the team points. In the American division David Banta had secured his FBMW drivers championship before the season finale. This is David's 4th Race2Play drivers title, with past championships in Formula 3 and two Historic F1 titles. With Tristan Bayless not appearing for the finale, Peter Valkovic was guaranteed a 2nd in the championship and Ryan Ansoon had the opportunity to steal 3rd as well but missed by a single point. Banta and Tom O'Gorman battled for most ofthe race, swapping the lead while pulling from the rest of the field until Tom' fell back into the clutches of Peter and Chris Melton. David went on to win the race (his 3rd in 7 races), followed by Peter, Tom, Chris, and Ryan. This order would end up playing a role in the team championship. CanAm Racing easily earned the team title but 2nd in points was heavily contested amongst Eagle Race Team, iDT Racing Team, and Global Racers Group Unlimited with only 5 points separating the three teams. With Peter and Chris both in the top-4, Global Racers Group Unlimited launched into 2nd in points.
Formula 3 Maybe you have heard this name before; Scott Michaels. Scott won the driver's title in Formula 3, his third Race2Play drivers championship in as many days; Formula T, Formula BMW, and now Formula 3. Scott was largely uncontested in the points considering he won every Euro-F3 race he entered. Six for six is a heck of a track record. 2nd in points was still up for grabs with Roberto Massa, Peter Valkovic, and Denis Doronin each having the chance. Peter did not attend the final event leaving the battle between the other two drivers. Massa DNF'd early on and it looked as if Denis would score the points needed to leap-frog Roberto. As fate would have it, only a few laps later Denis too joined he DNF ranks, scoring only 2 points for the race. Massa still finished 2nd in points with Denis' 2 points giving him 3rd over Peter. Kevin Inkman and Thomasz Krol had a fantastic scrap for 2nd and 3rd in the final race with Thomasz coming out on top for his first Race2Play podium ever. With Scott's domination in the series, his team Renown 4 Racing easily held onto the team-points lead with Kamrad Racing not too far behind just waiting for a slip up by Scott. In the American division Steve Blankenship also only competed in 6 of the events, but his 3 wins and six podiums secured his title hopes early on. Esteban Guiterrez and Rob Ainscough marked their territory on the final two podium positions in the championship. While Esteban only ran 3 of the events, he did win and qualify first in all three of them to overtake Rob who also scored a win and pole during the season. Of the top teams in the points, none brought a serious contingent of drivers to any race. UK-NL won the title even with only a single driver ever competing. Though Thirteen Twenty Motorsports had the occasional 2-car race, they simply could not score enough points to finish any higher then 2nd in the points.
ChampCar Special thanks to both rFaction.net and iDT Racing Simulations for the co-sponsoring of this series.
The inaugural ChampCar season had it's ups and downs as is standard for any new series with such a difficult car. The mod itself evolved a lot over the course of the season as well as ISI's v1255 patch throwing yet another wrench into the mix. Needless to say, while the series had some growing pains, the racing itself was top-notch for those that took the time to practice in these cars. Right from the get-go a few drivers rose to the top to prove they could handle these difficult car and track combinations. George Sandman, Jeff Stibling, and Craig Hattingh fought tooth and nail for each event pole and win. Many times, the three would spend the entire race nose to tail with the races being decided in the final laps and within very small margins of victory. While George came out as the fastest single-lap driver in the series with 4 pole positions, he did have problems going the distance and DNF'd in two events. Even with the short-comings, George was able to stay on top of the standings by only 7 points. Jeff quietly charged forward in the standings without a single win or pole. Jeff's consistency with 5 podiums and no DNFs paid off, earning him the runner-up spot in the final standings. Dennis Morissette struggled at times with 3 DNFs but persistance in attendance allowed Dennis to over-throw Craig on the championship podium. Craig, with only 2 poles, scored the most wins (3) but failed to appear at the final race costing him dearly in the standings to finish 4th only a few points behind Dennis. The LMTC Motorsports driver trio (Jeff, Craig, and Steve Smith) made sure to take the team championship by doing anything and everything they could from the first day this series was announced. LMTC drivers could be seen testing just about any night of the week and their efforts were rewarded with a dominating... domination of the team points. Scuderia Internazionale and CanAm Racing both did well to finish off the team podium.
Formula 1 Special thanks to VindexWorks Inc for the title sponsorship of the Formula 1 series.
The S6 Formula 1 season started off with a small crackle, but by mid season the roar of 20 Formula 1 cars on the grid was heard loud and clear. Tim McArthur would attempt to defend his title over the increasingly tough competition, but early season mechanical failures would kill his title hopes. David Fisher, always one of the quickest drivers in the field, made his mark by winning the first four races of the season while Tim floundered with shoddy brakes and engine performance and one horrific starting grid wreck at Bahrain. Kirill Izotov went on to win the next two races at Monza and China, and finished off the calendar with a third win at Barcelona. Scott Michaels was the only other race winner in his one and only event at his home track Silverstone, with brother Sam Michaels finishing 3rd. David Fisher was able to run away with the championship points and had the title secured after only 5 of the 8 race schedule. In fact, David did not bother to compete in the final 3 rounds. The fight for 2nd in points raged on all season long between Aubrey Windle, Todd Weiss and Leon Coxen. Aubrey failed to run the final race of the season allowing Todd's podium finish to place himself ahead of Aubrey in the points. Aubrey had to settle for 3rd in the points just ahead of Kirill who over-took Leon for 4th in the last race. The heart-break story was Tim McArthur's dismal performance all season long. Montreal ended with a brake failure late in the race. Bahrain ended before turn-1 with both front row starters tangling off the grid. Indianapolis ended in a plume of smoke as the engine expired. Nurburgring ended with a suspension failure. Monza ended with two fractured legs after a 200mph impact with the barriers. It was not until the 6th race of the season that Tim scored his first podium in Season 6 at China. Tim followed that podium up with a 2nd at Silverstone but bad luck would catch up to him at Barcelona. After taking his 3rd pole of the season, Tim was disconnected from the server with only seconds remaining in the final warmup session and missed the start of the race. On a more positive note, Todd Weiss' consistent performance drove the VindexWorks Team into its 3rd straight team title in F1. Leon Coxen and Bob Fay were the only two drivers to compete in all 8 races of the series. Leon finished 5th in the points with a solid podium finish to add to his stats. While Bob did not score his first podium yet, he put his car in the points enough times to score a few and climb out of the "mid packer" crowd. Special recognition goes to rookie Steve Wood who only just began his sim-racing career and found himself launched into an F1 seat. Steve finished in the top-10 in 5 of his 7 events for a very respectable first season in F1. ======================
Spec Rhez Spec Rhez's history began well before even the concept of Race2Play. It was developed as a series for many of us at TM.net to 'release some tension' and have some door-to-door racing without the consequences of high-speed impact. A low powered car with a good amount of grip allowed for some fantastic door banging action. Because of the car configuration and sprint race format, bent sheet metal has always been an accepted aspect of this series. The points payout reflects this by paying the same points to multiple positions instead of the norm for auto-racing. It takes the right mix of aggression and know-how to compete for a race win or championship in these little buggers. In the European Spec Rhez, Scott Michaels showed and dominated the majority of the events he ran in. 11 events and 8 of them ended in him winning. In the events he did not win, he still put his Rhez on the podium. With an average finish of 1.36 there was no competition to Scott for the driver's title. Allen Cotton, Brian Farley, Roberto Massa, and Simon Melhuish all challenged for the second-best positions and finished the championship in that order. The team championship turned out to be much closer then anticipated with a three (yes THREE) way tie for points between 28CD MotorSports, Kamrad Racing, and Renown 4 Racing. The tie breakers were stretched beyond their normal means to determine which team was awarded the championship. Due to 28CD MotorSports bringing more drivers to each race, they were awarded the team championship. Kamrad finished 2nd with Renown in 3rd. However, congratulations are in order to all three teams for the primo points battle. The American Spec Rhez division was not as cut-n-dry as the Euro division. Tom O'Gorman lead the drivers title coming into the final race at Birmingham, but did not attend the events. This gave Rob Ainscough and Chris Melton the chance to catch up and even potentially pass Tom in the points. Rob did all that he could, winning both of the Birmingham races. Chris Metlon did not need to win, he just needed a couple solid mid-pack finishes to tie Tom in points and let the tie-breakers do the rest for him. Melton did just that, ending tied with Tom for 1st in the points but the tie breaker (more events) gave Melton the drivers title. Global Racers Group Unlimited, E Racers Anonymous, Critical Mach, and Team NVIDIA all had a fighting chance at the team title. The brute force of Global Racers Group Unlimited did its job and secured the title with 4 wins and 3 pole positions.
Elise Challenge In the Euro division Jon Moore claimed the driver's title with four victories and poles to this name. This will be Jon's first race2Play driver title. Jon did not even need to attend the final race at Estoril as he had a 34 point margin over the hotly contested battle for second in points. Marko Jozef and Darren Adams had only a single point between the two so it would come down to whomever finished ahead of the other at Estoril. Both drivers finished 1st and 2nd, but Marko was able to finish ahead for his 2nd win and 2nd in driver points. Darren, the only driver to compete in all seven events, did finish 3rd even without a single win or pole to his name. The team title was a season-long battle between the two main rivals of Team Shark Online Racing and MOB Rules Racing. Team Shark buttoned up the points lead a few weeks back, but the MOBsters still put on a great show and finished 2nd in the team championship. In the American division, Matjaz Plotajs had already sealed the title after only 5 races. His average finishing position of 1.6 made easy work of the rest of the field and secured him his first Race2Play driver championship. Leading into the final race, the battle for 2nd was still raging strong. Mark Peeler, Franceseco Zargani, John Mueller, Steve Blankenship, Maciej Bekas, and Heinz Petzold all had a stab at the final podium positions. An epic battle between Matjaz, Steve, and Maciej for the top spot at Estoril ended with Matjaz winning and Steve only a few tenths back, securing him a 2nd place in the driver championship and Mark Peeler holding onto 3rd. The team title was locked up by UK-NL Racing with only one other team, CT Racing, really challenging for team points through out the season. Team venom Racing finished 2nd in the points even with light attendance numbers for the team.
Megane Cup Special thanks to Cannon Simulation Technologies for the title sponsorship of the Megane Cup series.
A battle between two aliens. That is what the final CST Megane Cup race came down to. With Roberto Massa and Milan Milicevic separated by only 5 points, Roberto needed just finish on the podium to win the drivers championship. Milan qualified on pole, positioning himself for the race win, but Roberto was on the front row too. By lap-5 of the race the two were in the same order but both had a large gap to 3rd place, not what Milan needed. As the race progressed Roberto did only what he needed to do to secure his second career Race2Play championship by finishing 2nd to Milan. Bas Zwartenbol did not attend the final race, but still was able to hold on to 3rd in the drivers points. Kamrad Racing and Racing for Serbia were both in contention for the team title. Kamrad had the edge with better attendance to the series, but Serbia was not far behind. Even with Milan's win for Serbia, Massa's 2nd for Kamrad sealed the deal for the Kamrad Racing team title. The American division of the CST Megane Cup was dominated by one man, Samuel Kruger. Sam participated in 7 events, winning 6 of the 7 and scoring 5 pole positions to boot. His margin of victory was a whopping 36 points to runner-up Chris Chappell. Even though Chris did not capture the other race win he did still maintain the second best average finishing position with 4 podiums. Ryan Ansoon, S5's rFTCC driver champion, took 3rd in the championship by competing in all 7 events. The team points looked very similar to the driver points with GTNDC (Samuel) finishing in front of Feint Motion (Chris). The only other team to score a victory in S6 was UltraForce Racing, but it was also the only event they competed in.
Tourig Car Challenge The rFactor Touring Car Challenge has finally gotten the credit it deserves. Fast paced, mixed class, 'touring' events using some very fun and simple cars included with the stock rFactor made for some great racing in season-6. In the Howston H6 class Simon Melhuish out-classed his competition by winning 5 of the 7 events he participated in. Still, Michael Bush didnt make it easy for Simon. By competing in all 8 events and consistantly scoring points, Michael finished in 2nd by only 8 points to Simon. Oleg Boreyko also ran all 8 races and took 3rd by the same small margin of 8 points to Michael. Oleg had lost his 2nd place in the championship in the final race at Leinz. Oleg's early retirement from the event allowed Michaels podium finish to overtake Oleg in the championship. Simon also retired on lap-2 of the race. Michael came very close to taking the championship points lead due to that mistake. In the ZR championship Chris Melton led coming into the final race but fell from the race on lap-2. Luckily, Chris' lead in the points allowed him to retain the points lead no matter what the Erickson brothers did. Barret Erickson and Mike Erickson came into the final round with little hope of gaining any positions to each other. It really came down to just driving the cars home to an dual Erickson-podium (finishing 2nd and 3rd in the final race) to secure the championship podium positions. Two newcomers to the series, Thomasz Krol and Jon Weal, proved they had what it takes to win in th series, taking 3 victories between them. Unfortunately, their late entry in the season prevented them from finishing any higher then 4th and 5th in the championship. The H6 Team championship was contested only by Global Racers Group Unlimited. No other team brought the required drivers to the events to compete against GRGU. While there was an actual team battle in the ZR class between Global Racers Group Unlimited and Bad Voices Racing, GRGU did what was needed to win here as well. GRGU team drivers won 9 of the events to earn both team championships.
V8 Supercars The V8 Supercars series finishes off yet another successful season. Just as in the past, the racing was fierce all the way to the final round. Janko Glavac and Rory King showed early on that they were going to be the guys to beat. Rory had already proved as much, as he is the reigning V8 champion from Season 5. Between the two, they won 6 of the 7 races on the schedule. Darren Adams proved he too had what it takes to compete with the big boys when he won at Hidden Valley. Coming into the final round, Janko and Darren were tied in points with Rory and Mark Peeler close on their heels. The pressure was high, knowing that if either driver had a bad day their hope of a championship would be lost. When the race began, the top-4 in points where the top guys on track. Janko was leading, but that meant little until the final lap. Darren and Rory gave good chase until the worst happened to Darren. A disconnect ended his championship hunt and ensured Janko as the V8 Champion. Even worse, Rory finished well enough to overtake Darren in the championship to claim 2nd. Even though the two were tied in points, the tie-breaker rules were extended to their max to determine Rory ahead of Darren. Congratulations to Janko on your first Race2Play drivers title! The iDT Racing Team did what they needed to do to win the team title. Attending all the races with the drivers needed, four wins, and the best average finish result of all teams. MOB Rules Racing took 2nd in the points, which is great considering the stiff competition in this series. ======================
Extreme G3 Ari Nieminien needed only to finish 12th or better to win the G3x drivers championship. The race for 2nd in points was still between just about anyone in the top-10 in points. Joco Gorenc, Darren Adams, Heinz Petzold, and Pete Bunce were the favorites, but were stuck in the slower car. Roberto Massa was the main threat as he had his pick of cars to choose from and could overtake everyone for 2nd if things went just right for him. Sadly, Massa did not attend the final race. Darren, Pete, Joco, Ari, and Heinz all qualified in the top-10 and on fairly equal lap times. Who would come out on top amongst these top-5 in points would be determined in the race. Darren, Pete, Ari, and Joco raced nose to tail for 3rd through 6th but Heinz lagged behind in 10th. After a few minor slips, Ari fell to 11th with all his rivals ahead. Joco and Darren still needed to win the race to have any chance that the points lead, but two Vipers were well ahead preventing that. All finished in the top-8 but a few positions changed in the points battle; Darren overtook Joco for 2nd and Pete overtook Heinz for 4th. Over The Hill Racing pretty much had the title buttoned up before the final round at Spa. Though a fluke accident or disconnect could allow MOB Rules Racing to overtake OTHR, it was a very long shot. Both teams campaigned for the team title all season long, bringing 2 or more drivers to each event. In the end though, OTHR's better average finish would do the trick and give ol' timers yet another team title. In the American division, three drivers are tied for the points lead; Tom O'Gorman, Steve Blankenship, and George Pol. To top that off, any of the top-11 in points can still win the drivers championship. The top-3 have the advantage but Garret Diduck and Rob Ainscough could easily top the three drivers in front. Heinz Petzold and Les Lamont could still do it if the guys ahead have a really bad day. Pol started back in 25th, O'Gorman was involved in a lap-1 accident... both drivers effectively out of the championship. Steve and Garret were stuck in mid-pack with Heinz leading and Rob in 3rd. After the 3rd lap, the title was up for grabs between Rob and Heinz! Steve would miss it by a single point and Garret by a few. As the race progressed these three drivers would swap the points lead back and forth until Steve Blankenship was able to work himself up into position (5th) to regain the points lead. Esteban Palacio, who was 2nd in the race, retired after an accident putting Rob in 2nd with Heinz still leading and Steve was passed by Mark Peeler to maintain 5th position. Points, if they finished in those positions would be Steve (69), Rob (68), and Heinz (67). On the final lap Peeler continued forward to pass Rob for 2nd, then Steve made a pass to put himself in 4th securing his championship! Whew On the Team side of the championships CanAm Racing and UK-NL Racing are the only two teams still in the hunt. CanAm leads by only 4 points coming into the final race and also has the advantage of the tie-breaker. Each team had two finishers and two drivers not score points. The two UK-NL drivers finished directly ahead of the two CanAm drivers to score more points. But, after all was said and done, CanAm held onto the hard charging UK-NL drivers by only 2 points!
Extreme G2 Extreme G2 was full of controversy over the car restrictions before it's first event was ever run. As we neared season end, the complaints fell aside to the outstanding points battles both between the drivers and the teams. The European division proved that and old guy in an underdog car can show up all the young hot-foot drivers at Race2Play. Pete Bunce spent over half of the season in either the Mosler or Morgan, yet consistantly placed in the top-5. So consistent in fact that his main rival Heinz Petzold was a full 18 points behind at the conclusion of the season. Darren Adams, another driver stuck in inferior cars all season long, finished off the championship podium. Amazingly enough, neither of these drivers won a single race during the season and only have four podium finishes between them all. Consistency and mature driving served them all well. Pete scored his 4th career Race2Play title. The team battle was a bit closer between Over The Hill Racing and Mob Rules Racing. Each team made sure to field at least two drivers at all the events for maximum team points. With Pete Bunce dominating the driver's points, his Over The Hill team edged out MOB for the team title. The American division ended with as much drama as an entire week of daytime soap operas. Coming into the final race, any of the top-12 in points had a shot at the driver's title, though the main battle would be fought out between the top-3 drivers; Steve Blankenship, Heinz Petzold, and Tom O'Gorman. Steve had only an 8 point lead over Heinz and Tom who were tied for 2nd. In the early stages of the race Heinz and Tom were ahead of Steve who needed a 4th place or better to secure the title. Heinz lead early on while Steve was stuck in 7th, but as some drivers began pitting Steve stayed out. Tom followed Steve's lead but Heinz entered pit lane for fresh tires. As all the pitting sorted out, the 3 drivers would finish the race within sight of each other... But Steve was still ahead of Heinz and Tom. Heinz got past Tom on the final lap to score 2 more points then Tom. The final points standing showed Steve in the lead followed by Heinz then Tom. Congratulations on your first Race2Play drivers title Steve! CanAm Racing and UK-NL Racing were separated by only 4 points in the Team championship. Each team brought 4 drivers to the event in an all-out street fight for the Team points championship. CanAm put three drivers in the points, finishing 5th, 6th, and 7th. UK-NL drivers finished 3rd, 8th, and 11th. The consistency of the CanAm drivers allowed them to hold a 2-point lead at the end of the season. This is equal to 2 positions on track for any one of the team drivers at any time in the season.
Extreme nGT Special thanks to Tom Rue and ZacharysHope.org for the title sponsorship of this series.
Not that it is much of a surprise that Claus Juel had an almost certain grasp on the European driver's title. Claus is a many-time driver champion at Race2Play and TM.net. Still, Claus needed to complete this race without a major mishap. 11th or better was all that is required which should be easy enough considering Claus has finished outside the top-10 in only 3 of 98 Race2play races. At Estoril, Marko Jozef claimed the bonus point for pole position so Claus only needed a top-12 at that point. With only 14 cars showing for the final race of the Euro nGTx season, it seemed in the bag. The larger points battle was for 2nd down. Five drivers had a chance at claiming the bridesmaid positions in the drivers championship but Janko Glavac was the favorite. Joco Gorenc, Darren Adams, Pete Bunce, and Heinz Petzold chased Janko thorugh the early stages of the race, but as the race progressed Janko fell back. Joco and Janko ended tied in points but the tie-breaker (more events) went to Joco who does finish 2nd in the driver championship. Darren and Pete also finished tied in points with Darren winning out on the tie-breakers. iDT Racing Team pretty much had the team title wrapped up going into Estoril. All that was required was a few points which were easily obtained witht he smaller then normal field. Over The Hill Racing and GTNDC were separated by only 1 point for 2nd and MOB Rules Racing was only a few further behind. With only a single GTNDC driver in the race, there was little hope of competing against the dual-driver OTHR team who did go on to claim 2nd in the team points. In the American division of nGTx the points contest was much closer. Samuel Krueger and Kent Welker had only 2 points between them for the points lead. But, the championship battle would end before the race even started, void of any climax. Kent did not attend the final race leaving Sam free to claim his championship uncontested. The excitment was then left up to George Pol, Heinz Petzold, and Rob Ainscough in the fight for 3rd in points. Of those three drivers, only Heinz showed up for the final race and reaped the rewards to finish 3rd in points. Nothing interesting to say about the team title. GTNDC walked away with the points with no real challenge. UK-NL Racing, Team Venom Racing, and CanAm Racing were all in a tight skirmish for 2nd in points and CanAm pulled it off by bringing 3 drivers to the final race.
Extreme GT While it is no surprise to hear that Claus Juel has won another GTR2 championship, it is not common to hear that he only won 2 races in that series. Over the eight races in the series there were eight unique pole-sitters and six unique race winners proving that the car restrictions put in place did exactly what was intended; to prevent domination by any single driver. When you look at the standings in this series, you see a address book of 'aliens'. Claus, Darren, Krueger, Janko, Joco, Pol, Heinz, Rus, Jozef... the list goes on and on. Claus has always proven himself to be the alien-of-aliens season after season. His consistency in placing his car up front by the end of the race earns him more crowns then he can count. Claus' patience in passing for position, and when lapping others, may lose him a second or two but he gains yet anther win or podium every time. You simply can not overlook Claus' ability to keep his car running and in one piece at the end of his race. Only 5 DNFs to his name, 64% win rate, and 88% podiums speak for themselves. Yes, Claus won the driver's title but Darren Adams finished a well deserved 2nd in the points even without a single race win for the series. Samuel Krueger has always had to speed to win but simply did not run in enough of the races. Sam had to settle for a 3rd in the points. Janko and Joco (not related but they do double as birthday clowns in the off season) also only competed in a few of the events but both scored top points to place 4th and 5th. Not to be overlooked are George Pol and Heinz Petzold. Both of these racers attended the majority of events and raced very well. While neither scored a win or pole, they placed their cars int he top-10 very regularly and it shows. There are more aliens, and even more non-aliens, in the field that could be mentioned. Each of them at the very least had the guts to run in one of the biggest alien infested series Race2Play operates, and for that I say Congratulations to you all! Four teams regularly brought 2 or more drivers to each race. GTNDC, Scuderia Internazionale (formerly iDT), MOB Rules Racing, and ROED Team Racing. Obviously with Cluas and Krueger both on the drivers podium the GTNDC team wins yet another team championship. "How many is this?" you may be asking. 19 team championships easily puts GTNDC as the most-winning team at Race2Play. Scuderia Internazionale and MOB teams both performed well to finish 2nd and 3rd in the points.
Historic GT Special thanks to Sim Racing Tonight for the title sponsorship of the Historic GT Series.
Historic GT completes it's 4th full season using the same format of earning and spending rental credits to keep the racing close while diversifying the car selection at the same time. The formula has been proven many times over to keep the championship battles very tight, and each season the title fight comes down to the last race of the series; Spa. Season-6 was no different but did show the largest lead in points in this series' history. Joco Gorenc's consistancy in attendance paid off. Competing in all 12 events gave him the advantage of a full 28 points over 2nd place. Of course, the 2 wins and 2 poles helped a lot too. Enis Dauti finished 2nd in points, besting his two-time 3rd in points in S3 and S4. Enis did match Joco's two wins, but a missed race and a DNF prevented a serious challenge for the title. David Ulmer races at Race2Play specifically for the GTH series. In S5 he finished 2nd in points. This season he finishes 3rd with a win and a pole added to his stats. Another long-time GTH racer, Donnie Yourth, made a return to Race2Play racing for S6 to finish 4th in the points though only scored a single podium in the series. The real points fight was between the teams. CanAm Racing and Scuderia Internazionale finished the season with only 3 points between them. CanAm was crowned the champion though Scuderia Internazionale could have easily taken it if they had brought more drivers to the races. It was only at the final race of the season did two Scuderia Internazionale drivers attend to make a final lunge at the title.
GT-Open GT-Open has a long history already, spanning 4 seasons and 11 different champions. Only two things are a constant in GT-O; 1) Ferrari's have won all 4 GT titles, and 2) Porsche's have won all G3 titles. That is not to say that the other cars are not competitive however as even the Corvette and Viper have victories under their belts. The Vipers and BMWs in G3 also have some wins. Still, some car just get used more then others and tend to rack up more stats because of it. The GT drivers championship crowned a new champion this season. S5 defender, Dennis Morissette did not fare as well in S6, combined with a missed race the best the reigning champ could muster was a 4th in the points. George Pol also missed a single event but did well to get 4 podiums through out the season while driving cars other then the Ferrari's. Corvette's factory driver Conor McCarrell did his GT-I testing in the GT-O events. While the car held him back from getting and wins this season, he had his fair share of podiums and near wins in the under-dog car. About the only man that was simply unstoppable was Milan Milicevic in his Ferrari 575 with 4 poles and 4 wins. In fact, all four of those wins were in a row between the 2nd and 6th rounds. Milan was also the only driver to run in all 8 races and a deserving champion he is with an average finish of only 1.8! Jan Larsen and Brian Fairley scored single wins during the season (Monza and Birmingham) but did not attend enough of the races to go after the top spots. Claus Juel made only two appearances, both in the Lamborghini and both times finishing first over the other GT cars (Imola and Spa). Surely Tom Ostry deserves to be mentioned after running 7 or the 8 events. Bad luck ruled his races with 6 DNFs, but he never gave up on the season. With Milan nearly doubling the points of the 2nd place driver his team, Racing For Serbia scored their first ever team championship. Two names come to the top when nGT is spoken of; Marko Jozef and Samuel Krueger. Between just these two drivers are half of the poles and half of the wins over the season. However, Marko in the RSR was just unstoppable with 6 podiums in his 7 races. Krueger put up a good effort but his Ferrari failed him more then once leaving Sam with 3 DNFs. Charles Hodges quietly and patiently ran in 6 events, never even making an appearance on the podium until now. 3rd in the points once everything was tallied is a fantastic finish for Charles, and a personal best championship result in his 100+ race career at Race2Play. This has the be the drive of the year if it were up to me to decide! Scott Michaels, Matjaz Plotajs, and Agustin Canapino all won a race or two but failed to compete over the entire season so ended up further down the order. It is no surprise with GTNDC winning another team title, but the fact that Racing for Serbia came within 4 points of that title is a nice surprise. Again, a lack of full team support kept Racing for Serbia from easily taking the title away from GTNDC. The G2 series saw great action at all the races. 5 different race winners and 6 different pole sitters. Only 1 driver ran all 8 events, Dan Ortega. Unfortunately Dan scored only a single podium in those races, but his attendance earned him a 5th in the final points standing. Newcomer Courtenay Smith ran 5 events and even scored a pole and win, but the low attendance and inconsistent podiums prevented anything better then 4th in the season-end results. The Cinderella story in G2 belongs to Barry Kennedy; 7 races without a single pole, win, or podium, but be brought that car home to an average of 5th to score enough points for his second championship podium in GT-O in as many seasons. Pete Bunce competed in only 4 of the early GTO events. Why he stopped no one knows, but Pete had a 100% win ratio in S6 GTO. 4 events and 4 wins and he retained 2nd in points even with 4 missed races. Team-mate to Pete and G2 class series Champion is non other then Craig Hattingh. This is Craig's first Race2Play championship, but Im sure it will not be his last. An average finishing position of 2.0, 3 poles, and a win scored him the title. Congratulations Craig! Between Pete and Craig scoring 5 of the race wins, their team Over The Hill Racing scored the most points and claimed the team title. SoCal Motorsports and Global Racers Group UNLIMITED brought the number of drivers needed to the races, but the points just did not flow. They finished 2nd and 3rd respectively. Johan "Im retired" Nilsson and Matej Ahacic both ran 7 of the 8 G3 races. Both had 3 wins to their names. Both had 0 DNFs! But, Johan would top Matej for the title with just a few more points at the end of the season. 1 more pole and 1 more podium finish wrapped up the season long battle between these two drivers. While Matej had to settle for 2nd in the points he did still finish ahead of veteran Garry Hedrick (3rd) and Cladiu Ciocanau (4th), both of which are more then capable of winning races. John Dixon made only a few appearances, but did get 2 wins and 2 poles in the process. This would play a vital role in the team title. You cant get much closer then the battle between the two teams UK-NL Racing and Over The Hill Racing in G3. Both teams consistently fielded 2 drivers and both won their fair share of races. UK-NL's 2 additional victories, thanks to John Dixon, just edged out OTHR by a single point for the title. ROED Team Racing also fielded enough drivers and held onto 3rd in the standings.
Panoz Le Mans Series Special thanks to Image Space Incorporated for their support with the Panoz Le Mans Series.
A second season of PLMS has been completed. Initially the PLMS was to be a series in which endurance was the key. Originally slated for 2.5 hour races, they were eventually tuned to 90 minute events. The challenge was still there, sometimes to the extreme with the difficult cars and still lengthy events. The die-hard fans of the Panoz cars stuck it out and it was worth it. The GTR-1 drivers championship had one man up top all season long, Roberto Massa. The only driver to compete in all six events in GTR-1 and with 3 wins in the season, it was an easy championship win. Allen Cotton missed one event and it cost him any chance at challenging for the title. Still, with 3 pole positions in the season, Allen proved that he is a contender. Maurice Claessen finished 3rd in the points even though only running 4 of the events. Maurice did score a win and pole at Brianza and had the second best average finishing position in the series. Surely, and PLMS season review can not leave out Bob Fay who consistently attended the events finishing in the top-10 in all of them. With only one team bringing enough drivers to the events over the season, 28CD MotorSports shut out the single-car teams to claim the title. Kamrad Racing still had a good showing to finish 2nd, but the lack of team support cost them any hope. The GT2 class had some real drama over the season. Tommy Christian and Tristan Bayless finished 1 - 2 just about every race they both ran. The rivalry between the two top drivers would rage through out the course of the season. Tristan collected 4 wins and 4 podiums in the process while Tommy collected only a single race win. But, with Tristan's absence at Nuerburg the points battle was back on for the final round at Leinz. Tommy still had his work cut out for him though as anything less then a 2nd place would be costly. Tristan did win at Leinz, but Tommy finished 2nd, ending with a tie in points between the two drivers. Race2Play tie-breaker system gives Tommy the championship as he competed in more events then Tristan. Two other drivers ran all six events; Jim Barisoff and John Onofrey. Both challenged each other for podiums in the races and in the standings. Jim's 3 race podiums would do the trick, leading John by 8 points in the season standings to claim 3rd over John. The team title was up for grabs between a large group of single-car teams. In fact, not a single team brought multiple drivers to any event leaving the team standings mirroring the driver standings. Tommy's Feint Motion MotorSports topped Tristan's Eagle Race Team by a very small margin. This is Feint Motion's second Panoz GT2 championship in as many seasons. ===================
Shootout
The Mr Injector Shootout series started as simply a place to get some fast paced stock car action. Forget all the pit strategy and fuel runs and focus only on the final laps of a stock car race. The Shoout series emulates the closing laps of a longer race where the driver with the biggest... muscles claims the prize. This was no easy season with a lot of different drivers learning the hard way about the TPSCC tires and damage model. Conor McCarrell showed he had the right stuff through out the season winning 6 of the 8 events. Dmitry Tsarev showed that even the non-USA drivers could go fast in circles and won his first ever outing in a stock car. Michael Lilley made sure to take advantage of a rare mistake on Conor's part to steal one checkered flag over the season. But, when push came to shove, Conor was the alpha dog in the Shootout races and won the championship by 86 points. Tom Malanga knows just where to put it... keeping his car up front enough times to hold onto a solid 2nd in the drivers championship. Michael Lilley, with a single race win, took home 3rd in the points only 12 points behind Tom. The team title was a fierce fight between Team DBF and SoCal Motorsports. Even though SoCal claimed all but 2 of the race wins, Team DBF brought the drivers to the events that were needed to go after a team title. 1 win and 3 pole starts was all that was needed to claim the team championship. Congratulations Team DBF! Can I get an "Amen"?
Stock Car Challenge The Stock Car challenge is where the big boys strut their stuff. Long races with the full challenges of a Nextel Cup style race. In the past three seasons of Stock car racing at Race2Play, only one driver has made the name equal to no other; Larry Anderson! Larry has been the dominate force in R2P stock car racing since it's debut. Since then he has taken the drivers title in S4, S5, and now S6 too. Though only scoring a single win in Season-6, Larry consistantly placed in the top-5 and has a 90% ratio of top-10's. Tom Malanga and Michael Lilley gave a valiant chase to Larry but the 'man' is the man is the man. Crash Test Dummies (Larry and Michael) ran a fantastic season to the team's first Race2Play championship. CT Racing and SoCal Motorsports did their rightful duty in chase to CTD but were held off by the two Trump drivers in CTD. Special recognition to Greg Carrier for helping everyone get 'up to speed' (literally) in the TPSCC mod. Not only was Greg amazingly helpful in organizing this series, he also helped tutor most of the drivers with his vast knowledge of setup and driving techniques. Thanks Greg!
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