2015 24 HOURS OF DUBAI - A Special Kind of Dubai

#2 Black Falcon SLS AMG piloted by Arab Abdulaziz Al Faisal, German Hubert Haupt, Dutch Yelmer Buurman and English Oliver Webb that took this year's outright victory in the 2015-running 24 Hours of Dubai. (Image: Autocar India)

Finally the first legitimate post of my blog in 2015! I know, it's technically the second post of 2015, I just put that for the sake of randomness. Randomness aside, though, the first wave of events have passed. You have the Dakar rally that has recently finished hours ago at the time of this post, and then there were award shows like People's Choice Awards and Golden Globe Awards, yet there also was the 2015 24 Hours of Dubai, the tenth running 24-hour race event involving grand tourers, touring cars and endurance specials, battling it out for class victory. The race was won by the #2 Black Falcon SLS AMG driven by Arab Abdulaziz Al Faisal, German Hubert Haupt, Dutch Yelmer Buurman and English Oliver Webb, with the team's other success is the 1-2 in the 997 class, with the lady luck weren't on last year's winner Stadler Motorsport's favor due to an accident that eventually ended their run with 61 laps of mileage.

Yet, the more I think about the Dubai 24-hour race, I felt that there's more to the competitors and cars than in the race alone. I mean, they almost had everything in screaming colors; fireworks? Check. Competitors with interesting traits? You can check this post. A Corvette? Check. A big number of starters? Check. Rather than posting the race recap since I didn't stay up for full 24 hours, following the good 'ol Rendy's Blog tradition, this post will be dedicated to some of the unique things present in this year's race.

Still Alive, Even Until September Ends

Mind you, my real life has been brutal for the past weeks: college organization works, college life, and even some things that aren't meant to be done as I am unable to manage which stuff I have to work on first that I almost not give an update to this blog unlike past months where I used to post three to four posts a month. Granted, I've got my ammunition back, and the ammunition in question is of course my internet subscription. There have been lots of things for the past thirty days since the last blog post; Team [R]GARAGE being August's Team of the Month in GeneRally World Ranking, my return to MiniRacingOnline, and changes that I'd like to do for both my site and this blog.

Activity is very important, and being inactive is okay as long as you post a blog post explaining what happened that you missed your daily blogging antics or a social media post. Wonder why I said those things? Two words: GeneRally Sequel; for GeneRally 2 unfortunately, its progress is in an utter uncertainty, being less active on the social media and blog post, leaving most of its anticipated fans with question marks and speculations, even its last post explaining what happened to Kimmo, the car designer for the game, post Kickstarter failure didn't help that much, and not even its Twitter is update either. It is sad to see your highly-anticipated sequel of your favorite game lost its lights to keep its fans feel the hype, and hopefully they learn these mistakes to make its fans always certain on its progress.

Having my internet renewed and knowing that this is September, I don't think this blog needs Evan Rachel Wood where she'd wake me up when September ends. I'm standing on my own!

FAST FORWARD: Tapio - The one that almost made it

Were this year's Le Mans race recap posted no later than a week, I could talk about this around... well, probably a week after the post, but once again, I had a brutal Software Engineering final project that needed to be finished at that time. Nevertheless, this post is born regardless when actually. The sheer lateness of the previous post sums up why "Fast Forward" is in the title.

This post brings up my recent GeneRally track Tapio, a small race track that crosses the park and the city streets, spelling "technical" to its name. The reason why I post this late is because that as the track was released, it was nominated for Track of the Month, raising its prestige more albeit its simple environment, but failing to get the podium was hard, even if your track finished fourth. Despite of that, the track itself is really good, and the concept is nice.

TWO CITY STYLES IN ONE

The reason why I named it Tapio because it just flew on my mind while trying to make up a name for this track, such that it isn't related to either "tapir" or "tapioca" at all. The city, in its GRIF thread, is described as "New York and Los Angeles set to 'liquefy' to make a busy city with a park, recreational buildings, and a beach where everyone can have varied choices of taking their leisure times". In essence, the fact that there are lots of recreational places makes up for how citizens of Tapio City are pretty much relaxed living in this city, unless they want a trip to any recreational places located on a mountain that is or they want to go to their relatives who live far away from the city. The thread also states that Tapio City is also one of the highly sought-after destinations for vacations. For your information, one of the city's biggest malls is located 5 kilometers southward from the track, and it has pretty much anything, even a department store that occasionally holds big discount events, and if a shopping mall isn't your fancy, a beach can be accessed northwards, approximately 10 kilometers from the track.

But where's the "New York" in this city? Yup, this is the downtown Tapio City used for racing, full of New York-inspired buildings and a park that looks like a carbon copy of Central Park. The bottom right building is in fact given a New York building feel. The downtown of the city is heralded as its busiest part of the city, with corporate buildings almost everywhere, alongside stores and stuff. Because of how busy this part is, don't be surprised that there's always traffic jam, even on Mondays. Don't let the "attractions" posted in its GRIF thread fool you, but don't let the fact that it's always congested consume you further; these one-way roads used for racing is actually a solution to this whole enchilada. These changes were made from its initial state after a series of complaints filed to the city's mayor regarding to the roads always being subject to standstill traffic.

No matter how much they hate the city, Tapio City Park is always a refresher for every citizen living there. The park itself has been a long time there and is an irreplaceable landmark of the city, complete with its park roads and greeneries, and don't forget the lake located inside the park.

FROM PARK, TO THE STREETS AND BACK

"A good mixture of street track and a regular track." -RobertRacer99

The track takes parts from the City Park and link it to the two one-way roads with hairpins made out of a turning road and a crossing zone, eventually entering the park once again for "the Snake", the track's own series of tight turns which lives up to its name.

The opening part's 90-degree corner takes you to the park's exit, entering the one-way road portion. Taking this corner requires avoiding the sunk tires planted inside the corner, especially if you're racing with AIs. They would "fly" from that corner and chaos can ensue right away. The course then proceeds to the turning road, which you can pass the New York-styled buildings as you drift the hairpin.

There's a small chicane that utilizes the supposed parking lot of one of the buildings, and it then takes you to the track's second hairpin which is actually the road's crossing zone, and then it takes you yet again to the park entrance, once again a 90-degree turn as opposed to the first turn, this time it's less chaotic than the first turn does. Actually, there is a small crossing zone at the bottom-right part, right below the first hairpin, so technically there are two crossing zones. Yet, the above one leads to a street complex with lots of stores around it, while the small one is... well, a normal crossing zone.

"It's a very well made track. The layout is what I really like in it -especially the section between 1st turn-2nd hairpin- and the "snake" section is really tricky to take it well. Lmap is really good too. I think, I race this track many times." - david999

The park section is where the action actually starts, with a series of tight turns dubbed as "The Snake", talk about being true to its name. The Snake consists of four consecutive turns (if you also count the right hander after the entrance) before leading to the final turn. The last two turns of this section has a gravel runoff, which, although I felt that it might be impossible for the cars to be thrown off track while snaking through these last two turns, makes up the circuit feel of the track. Also visible are the straight wall outside the first The Snake turn which was initially to follow the second turn's shape (the straight wall is a suggestion by Mad Dan actually :D ), the walkway inside the third Snake that makes up the "Central Park" feel, and the house that leads to the first gravel run-off. It's projected as a small house made of wood actually, even though that there is only ONE house shape in GeneRally (mind you), and we thought we just leave it as it is; we don't even know whose house it is...

The last section lies after the Snake, which is actually a fast left hander that you can take even without lifting your throttle if you're able to figure out the right exit line from the last Snake turn, and of course the pit stop which only consists of three pit stations. Mind you, the pit stations might look a little too "oblique" as you look at the pit lane and the pit crew, but it's just my awfully-perfectionist eye.

Last but not least, though, is the paddock section. Yup, it's not a raceable section but this one's essential, very essential. Every good track has one, right? The object here is that the paddock has to be filled with a couple of buildings, and the two visible buildings are my work of art... More like "mix and match", but both terms are perfect. The paddock also had problems with the density of "Person" objects, yet I'm able to overcome this one easily. Overall, the paddock is good, although certain things looked "oblique".

BEST GR TRACK OF MINE, YET ALMOST A ToM PODIUM...

During my GeneRally days, my tracks have never tasted a higher place than this track does. I had Frappe Snowland track which unfortunately ended up last in May 2013 ToM election, even with two votes, then there's Cilandak Town Square with no votes in July 2013. Last but not least my newer release Grupard has 2 votes and ended up 16th out of 19 tracks. This time, in April 2014, the track is placed higher than all my tracks combined, I thought this track is my best so far because I had plenty of passion while making this track. Despite that, it finished seventh out of fifteen tracks, sporting eight votes, with six tracks that snatched that month's podium, with Dragon's Rontemey with 12 votes as the victor, Maciej1's Pau-Arnos with 11 votes and a 10-vote 4-way tie with david999's Dusty, Areen's Sepang, AeroWiewiur's Termas de Rio Hondo, and Maciej1's Yahuarcocha. Full results here.

Despite not getting the podium, I've finally had a joy making tracks, and able to execute it right away, unlike most of my WIPs where I had a couple of doubts putting things here and there. But if I were to rework them once again and make all of them published, why not? Trackmaking in GeneRally never sleeps and is always evolving as the time goes.

CURRENT GENERALLY ACTIVITIES

GRID Hat-trick @ Audru Ring competition marked my first 2014 compo after a long hiatus from All In One Championship S2 due to my Typhus, and that I joined NAGRCA GT Series Management Competition before this even though that not only was I outbid on the drivers, but also short on cash and didn't score a good result (the only best result would be Matias Maldonado reaching the Last Chance Dash in the final round, which should be Round 5 of 10 but shortened due to the host's, puttz's, real-life activities). My run on GRID Hat-trick sadly was full of awful bad lucks, starting from how I forgot to save my game at the Hotlap, how my laptop didn't charge throughout my trying to submit Time Trial session files that it eventually died, and how my pace was slower than my practice races. My teammate ACM, however, did score a better result which should be enough to counter my bad luck. Full results go here.

In the end, I had to suck my bitter pills of bad results, and probably scored a black mark in the history of Team [R]GARAGE, but even every good team can have a black mark too, like the Swedish DoTA 2 team Alliance in this year's The International 4 for instance. Being the champion of last year's the International, the team unfortunately didn't pass the qualifying phase due to series of subpar plays and had to say its second title goodbye, even Natus Vincere (Na'Vi), its Ukrainian rival that fought the Swede team last year and is the first season's champion, is also subject this. I guess I shouldn't vent my bad results online next time... orz

This time, Team [R]GARAGE entered two competitions; GR Formula Cup Season 4 by zgr, and GeneRally Touring Car Challenge Season 3 by Marcinho. In GR Formula Cup Season 4, Team [R]GARAGE plots its open-wheel revenge in the non-login competition after the bad luck that struck the team in the previous open wheel race, which, in return, is actually the GRID Hat-trick race, with the Polish driver Marcinho taking the second seat. The livery I used may look like Hispania Racing Team's livery due to the similarities of the theme colors used. Thankfully, I leave certain parts with 0-4 colors so that each driver's car is different. Performance-wise, I am able to snuggle in for a couple of test laps and races to see how fast I could go, especially with the fact that it's fast yet somehow hard to control, requiring every driver especially me to think more of the perfect racing line while dodging the AIs, plus the perfect pit strategy due to the fact that the fuel settings make the car deplete the fuel faster than how Queen Elsa makes her castle from ice.

[R]GARAGE Pandawa RTC. RTC in its name stands for "Racing-spec Touring Car"

GeneRally Touring Car Challenge also marks the team's second Touring car competition venture after GeneRally Touring Car World Cup. Upon the team's entrance, I decided to make the team's new car: [R]GARAGE Pandawa RTC, the touring car racer that looks like Nissan Skyline GT-R V-Spec II Touring Car from Gran Turismo 6. Not only that, I also give RobertRacer99 the teammate's seat for this season, hoping for a good result in the competition's fourth season (if you count Season 0 that is). Here's my car's description as written on the competition's thread:

"After a long hiatus, Team [R]GARAGE returns to the GeneRally racing scene once again, bringing its creation to the play, this time in the world of Touring cars. The team initially planned to use its SST Sports R to the competition but it is far from being eligible, so for the last 40 days (including holiday breaks), the staffs worked on a new touring car that can be competed in GRTCC's third/fourth season. While the team already expanded its ventures to open-wheel races, its closed-wheel business continues here with the arrival of its new touring car racer: Pandawa RTC. The name Pandawa is taken from Mahabharata, a Hindu epic text in which Pandava (the car's originated name) are five acknowledged sons of Pandu, whose names are Yudhisthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva. The RTC in its name is short for "Racing-spec Touring Car", which is an obvious nod to the car itself and is based on GRTCC regulations, with the car's aesthetics look similar to Nissan Skyline GT-R V-Spec II touring car. A road going version of the Pandawa will be released shortly to comply the regulations."

Semester break is long enough, but it feels like the days are numbered as the new semester approaches, plus I'm unable to manage ALL of my social media and the site plus my game add-ons before the break so hopefully I could manage all of them in style, yet I owe myself skins from variety of racing games (including TMUF and GTR2) and learning some PHP coding so in case [R]GARAGE has to use a new look, it deserves one. In the end, I have to treat everything as if I'm making an application using RAD Programming method.

~[R]

What I learned from 2014 Dubai 24 Hours...

Image courtesy of Dailysportscar.com

Endurance racing has never been so exciting. Imagine witnessing a race under the night lights, with Grand Touring cars speeding down the environment at 250 kmh+, overlapping each other, testing each driver's skills under the dark skies while making sure that they drive through the night with their cars free of scratches and technical failures. The race starts from the bright skies in the afternoon, then continues as the sun gradually sets and night comes, and as the sun goes up the next day the race to the finish line is near. That is if it's a 24-hours endurance, with easy mentions such as Daytona 24 Hours, Le Mans 24 Hours, Nurburgring 24 Hours, and Dubai 24 Hours.

Image courtesy of Auto123

This year in January, the round-the-clock endurance racing season kicks off with Dubai holding its 9th edition of its Dubai 24 Hours race, where Grand Tourers and Touring cars race together and try to be consistent and have their cars failure-free throughout one day. What makes it unique is that the series pits together GT cars owned by Pro and Amateur teams, with touring cars of varied specifications, and some road cars that are eligible to race there. This allows for a big number of racers in the race, even bigger than Le Mans that pits Le Mans Prototypes and GT cars does offer, which in this year's case is seventy seven. Yup, I'm not joking, 77. But I'm pretty sure I missed out some more participants that compete on the main race, but based on what I saw in a live timing site, it's 77. You know it's a real deal when there are more competitors than all the circuit's pit garage can hold :p

An SLS AMG GT3 car driving down Dubai, driving in one of the A6 classes. A6 cars are none other than FIA GT3-spec cars with the class once again split into two subcategories of Pro and Pro-Amateur based on the driver lineups. Image courtesy of Dubai 24 by Priocept.

I knew I've posted an article of last year's Le Mans race which was notorious for Allan Simonsen's death after just 14 minutes of race if you look at the endurance racing topic, but this time it's not a recap thingy as I learned two things that are new to me: Code 60, and refueling procedure that's unique to Dubai 24 Hours...

And I thought they were retiring from the race. It turned out they weren't and were refueling their cars... *headscratch*. Image courtesy supplied.

CODE 60 - What's that?

To simply put, Code 60 is a code where all drivers drive no faster than 60 kmh prior to the time the code is given. There's a set lap time for this case, which is 5 minutes and 29 seconds. So why there's a set lap time given prior to Code 60? The answer is if any driver sets a time faster than the mentioned time while Code 60 is still in effect, that driver will be given a penalty. It is a substitute to Safety Cars for this year's Dubai 24 Hours, and would be a potential alternative Safety Car method in the upcoming Le Mans race so to say.

Image courtesy of drivemeonline.com

Here's a complete excerpt of Code 60 from Dubai 24 by Priocept:

"Creventic, the organisers of the Dubai 24 Hours, pioneered a method of neutralising their races in the event of an accident or other safety issue, without having to put a safety car on circuit. This is called “Code 60″, so named because it requires all cars on track to drive at 60km/h.

In the event of an accident or other scenario that requires marshalls or service vehicles to go on track, drivers will see purple Code 60 flags waved at all marshall posts. The Code 60 is also notified to the teams via the timing screens, and can be relayed to drivers via pit-to-car radios.

Once a Code 60 is activated, all cars must slow immediately to 60km/h from their current position and must not pass other cars. The Code 60 may last for less than a full lap, or might last for half an hour or more in the event of a large incident.

Since 60km/h is exactly 1 kilometre per minute, and the track length is 5.39 kilometres, a full Code 60 lap will take 5.39 minutes (5:24). Any cars posting a lap time under this during a Code 60 will receive a drive-through penalty.

How to Drive a Race Car Slowly

Driving a race car at a steady 60km/h is not as trivial as it sounds. Most race engines and transmissions are not the smoothest, or most efficient, at low RPM and low throttle. The top teams have special Code 60 engine maps to switch to, helping with this and reducing fuel consumption to a minimum during the Code 60 period.

The top teams will be aiming to drive each Code 60 lap at 59.9km/h. Expect to see some frustrated GT3 drivers intimidating other drivers into speeding up if they are “only” driving at 55 or 56km/h, as the cars are not allowed to pass during a Code 60 even if a car in front is driving below 60km/h.

Once a Code 60 period ends, cars are immediately free to accelerate flat out from their current position, which makes for some interesting drag racing. There is no coordinated restart at the start/finish line as there would be when a safety car pits. Drivers may struggle to maintain tyre temperature during a long Code 60, and cold tyres can lead to incidents on the restart.

Code 60 Refueling and Repair
The final consideration is refueling and car repair, both of which are allowed during a Code 60. Refuelling during a Code 60 costs about a lap to the rest of the field, compared to 2-3 laps during full race speed. So a huge advantage can be gained by doing a fuel stop under Code 60. But there’s a catch. All refueling at the Dubai 24 Hours is done at a central refueling station, not at the team garages. So this tactic can backfire if a car has to queue at the fuel station because too many other cars had the same idea and all the pumps are in use.
Teams can also use a Code 60 to perform repairs or scheduled maintenance on their cars with minimal loss of position. Many cars will need a full brake change (new discs and pads) at some point in the race, usually around the 12 hour mark, and this takes several minutes. So expect a flurry of mechanics activity and cars back in their garages if a Code 60 occurs during the night or early hours."

REFUELING METHOD

Also unique from other round-the-clock races, refueling is done on the pre-determined refueling station which resembles your everyday gas station where you refuel your car. Although for nine seasons this kind of refueling is no stranger if you follow the Dubai 24 Hours before I do, I thought it's interesting to show a different way of refueling in endurance races...

By no question this race has to be the most unique series with refueling procedure has its own place. I don't know if Nurburgring 24 Hours also do this because I haven't watched one but until I checked on Nurburgring 24 more, I can say that the refueling in Dubai is the most unique. It's like your run-of-the-mill gas station where everything is usual except the customers are race cars, grand tourers and touring cars, and refueling there is free of charge.

Glad that I caught the Dubai 24 Hours's Live Stream albeit I don't do it on frequently basis due to my limited quota (and the fact that I can't even bother to do big download antics from afternoon to 23:59 as I only have 1 GB there aside from the usual 11 GB from midnight to 11:59). While this is the first time I could catch an endurance race Indonesia cannot into (Indonesians are just into random twerks tbh -_-), I could learn new things that other endurance races don't.

Image courtesy of Dubai 24 Hours by Priocept (same link as the previous one)

Congratulations to the #20 Stadler Motorsport who managed to take their win after 603 laps throughout 24 hours, and please don't eat your heart out #2 Black Falcon Racing a.k.a the one with Jeroen Bleekemolen a.k.a the last year's victor, completing the podium behind ALL-INKL.com Munnich Motorsport isn't all bad ;)

And congratulations for all participants who survived this race albeit numerous reparations and most importantly teams that clinched their individual classes' podiums and win, especially GT Academy (yay Ordonez!) teams and Racing Divas (the Dutch all-girl racing team).

Further Readings:
Motorsports.com article
Dubai24 by Priocept's article, complete with podiums for each class
7 Reasons why this year's Dubai 24 is the best @ Crank and Piston.com
Speedhunters article from a person's PoV

~[R]

[R]GARAGE does GeneRally Touring Car World Cup! A Season Review...

4 Races...


7 Login Sessions...


Lots of Drivers...


Tons of Teams...

Touring Cars and Kit Cars all season long! Welcome to Lukeno94's GeneRally Touring Car World Cup where GeneRally drivers around the world battle it out in their touring or kit cars in a chase for a coveted title of "GRTCWC Champion" plus the trophy! Throughout four races at four different circuits in four countries with each race has qualifying and race sessions but Race of Taiwan.

There are lots of teams competing in the Team's Championship and drivers who hunt for Driver's Championship, and one of the team is none other than Team [R]GARAGE, a team led by yours truly, consisting of three drivers: Myself, resir014 (which we had previously teamed up in GRC seasons), and Bird (The German Garuda, he joined the team so that's why :lol:). Throughout four races and three qualifying sessions, I and Bird strive to produce best results for the team, while resir014 just did one qualifying and no race.

Here I will recap the full season as well as Team [R]G's progresion throughout four races.

Race of Germany - Street Circuit of Aach

The first race took place in the city course of Aach (aka Race of Germany), the qualifying session took place with all drivers try to set their best time within three laps. The #27 red Alfa Romeo driver Alonso slayed all racers with a time of 29.20", and his teammate scaramanga finished a place within Hedo from Panthers Kart Racing team with 0.77" behind him. It seems Croatia Racing Team is out for rampage there...

Bird became the front man in my team even though he qualified 10th out of 20, while resir014 is five places ahead. And guess who forgot to took his savegame that he decided to DNQ himself to avoid BOP???

Well, either not saving results or BOP doesn't make difference anyway, sans the +5s penalty...

Well... The first race goes with a bang and everyone tried to tackle this street circuit. Many drivers crashed at one section or two while they were trying to find their best line. The race is attended by 17 drivers out of 20 qualified, and resir014 is one of the absent drivers... Though I managed to drive the race and this time didn't forgot how to save the game :v

In the end Alonso and Scaramanga snatched 1-2 while Krisu from Scarlet Devil Raceworks completing the podium. I, however, finished 11th just more than eight seconds behind Haruna from the Scarlet Devil, and if I did go fast enough I'd complete Top 10 by now but well, just consider it a running joke where I either flopped the top 10 or worse, though there are times where I could get it, though most probably because another driver is penalised for something...

Bird completed the race behind the likes of Lukeno94 and Marcinho, myself included, yet his best lap was better than mine. Then again, it's all about consistency...  In the end, it wasn't a sweet result for the [R]Gs as none of the drivers were in the top 10, and resir014 didn't race, but it wasn't the most bitter either...

Qualifying results

Click for full resolution. Listen to this round's commentaries for both qualifying and race. (Props to Lukeno94! :D)

Race of USA - Deserted Heat of Diamond Valley

The second round travels west to the States where drivers are challenged in the heat of the Race of USA. Though it was hot temperature-wise, I managed to score eighth in the qualifying, and the same place at the race. This gotta be the best result throughout my racing career in GR; I've never been on Top 10 before in the past, but when I did it was because one messed up his submission/settings... Ahh, GRC days...

Sadly though I am the only one driving for my team as Bird didn't race in this round despite he qualified tenth just 0,01 seconds ahead Lukeno94 and behind Marcinho. Top runners on the qualification were Hedo, Alonso, Senna, kuba, and scaramanga, with all of them scored 26,xx lap time. At this point, it's a romance of four teams between the privateer Senna, Panthers Kart, Destiny Racing*, and Croatia Racing Team.

* = Destiny Racing is NEITHER. FREAKING. WAY affiliated with ZAFT or Shinn Asuka nor is funded by them so to say :lol:.

But it was a deadly duet of Alonso and scaramanga who finished first and second respectively, cashing in big points for Croatia Racing Team while Hedo dropped to third after all the jostles between these three for the P1, though Hedo didn't lose with nothing as his time of 27,78 made him the man with the fastest lap, followed by Alonso's 27,85 and my 28,08 mark. Meanwhile it was another big gap finish as ahead me was Jim451 who was to finish fifth but got a penalty for starting from pole; he actually qualified in ..., and the rule stated that you have to start from P1-P5 grid if you're qualified in that position, and the rest is P6. This can be done via SaveGameMerger or a "Points, reversed" Starting grid setting in-game.

A little moment for my race though; it was actually done when I was home from my grandparents' house, and that I don't bring my laptop. It was very staggering for me as I had to do college matters at the time the race's login is still in effect. After I got home at evening (exactly as evening as 19:00 Jakarta Time), more bad lucks happen as I had to login using my Nokia C7-00 smartphone. With all the remaining quota I have, I went straight to the login page, but accidentally logged in for Round 3 qualifying, and didn't realize that there was a login for the second race for those who requested the Extra Time. Though using 3G connection, it was slow as hell, and I forgot my strategy of opening my mail client first for sending my files.

That being done, my race occurs and seconds later my connection (which was switched to GSM shortly after the race finishes) is unbearable, it can't open the mail client and upload my submission as fast as I could hoped. So, I was forced to send my submission by my smartphone and turns out that this IS the first case of late-submit, though Lukeno94 understood my connection thus no penalty is given to me. Good result, bad connection. Hate the connection, not the race...

Qualifying session. Click for full res

Click for full res. Commentaries for this race's qualifying and race sessions are available

Race of Spain - Bumps, Jumps, and Tricky Elevations at El Huracan

Third race of the season returned to Europe with the race taking place in Spain for a race at a track with crazy elevation changes that's El Huracan. At one glace, this race isn't my strong point because I wasn't good enough at negotiating corners here, especially that between turn seven and turn eight where there's a bump between them. Most drivers marked times between 25,xx-26,xx , and I was the one in the 26,xx, scoring 26,71 at qualifying. At training, I had 28,xx ++ which could boot me to the last of the grid if I posted this time without proper training. I just am grateful that I qualified ninth, while Bird had difficulties on the course and unfortunately started last. There are no penalties seen...

For the race, I took fought my hardest for eighth place. This leads into a battle for P8 as I fought Lukeno94 Sports's new driver NathanW. We've got into battles and we've had mistakes due to AIs' aggressiveness. For most of the time, P8 was mine, until the last lap mistake that costed me a fight against NathanW. So, Nathan wins the P8 joust and I was an "Okay" rage face. But the crash... It should be a "FFFFFFUUUU" face...

Alonso won, Hedo on podium, and boblopette scores Croatia RT another podium. No surprises.... As for the [R]Gs, our performance is subpar but it's enough to complete Top 10. I and Bird did a great job in completing the top 10 puzzle, and P8 SHOULD BE MINE IF I DIDN'T CRASH AYAYAYAYEEEE!!!!

Qualifying session. Click for full res.

Click for full res.
Commentaries for this race's qualifying and race sessions are available

Race of Taiwan - The Rage Face-imminent Final Race of Doom!!!

The final round of the season took the racers to the one and only Eastern race held in Taiwan Motorsports Park, a race course with crazy elevations, even crazier than El Huracan, and was so crazy one raged due to bad racing lines that costs him very much. And THAT was from my team, though the person in question wasn't yours truly. I was optimistic that I would score 6'22.xx" or better but due to me drifting too wide at the fourth lap that I was forced to get in the pits, thus making a pit that not only costed me my race but also my strategy.

Taiwan, to be honest, is THAT one round where, while you're jostling with the AIs, you have to tackle all those elevations in correct speeds and lines. This fourth and final race was also the only one that got the special treatment in which there was no qualifying session, but in turn everyone had to start from pole, which means perfect start and a good speed and line in the first lap are one of the main keys here. In the middle of the race, consistency and correct pit strategy would affect one's run, and lapping the AIs isn't an exception.

Had I got a run that's better than my training runs, maybe 6'21.xx" or a second slower, I could be around Lukeno94 Sports drivers (sixth or seventh, ahead of Lukeno94), yet once again my run was screwed thanks to the early accidental forced pit stop. Once again Croatia Racing Team slayed with both Alonso and scaramanga scored the same fastest laps, but Alonso has it all; consistency, speed, and whatnot. Meanwhile my teammate Bird was dumped at the last position and once again resir014 didn't make his race, but that was because he had college stuffs to be done.

Bird, No~!!!!

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In the end, everything was crystal clear, it doesn't need a description...

Even though it was already predictable due to the top runners' oft-repeating best results, my result in this competition was no thumbs-down; a ninth place finish in the standings sure gave me lemon teas with two Lukeno94 drivers tailed me just a point. Bird ended up 14th while resir014 was one of those four who don't race at all. :(

This makes a clearer picture for the Team's Championship as well; Team [R]G was the last place dweller in the standings, while we already know CRT would slay. The problem was we weren't good enough, we finished in subpar positions. Though since the competition ended, for what we are crying for?

That doesn't describe us well enough...

So there you are, a great coverage of Lukeno94's competition GeneRally Touring Car World Cup! Hopefully I could start a competition of my own. But not only that because this is just one of the series I'm in right now as I am competing in two other GR compos. I just hope I could snatch Top 10 positions again... :)

~[R]