Season 7 post-season write ups

Season 7 marked another huge season at Race2Play. Though the racing seasons are now 15 weeks long, more events and series are packed into a tighter schedule. With almost 400 events in just 3 months everyone had their fair share of races and potential championships. When all the dust settled at the end of March, 32 new Driver and Team championships were decided. Some were re-claimed by the veteran champions while others showed new talents rising as first-time champions.


OPEN WHEEL

The Open Wheel championships proved to be some of the toughest to achieve, even in the lowest Open Wheel ranks. With four divisions The Sim Racing Alliance Formula Trainer series crowned three first-time driver champions; Richard Johnstone, Ivan Iglesias, and Scott Berube. Steve Blankenship is no stranger to a driver's title after three titles in Season 6 and adding another in Formula Trainer. Global Racers Group Limited captured two of the Formula Trainer titles on their way to three Open wheel championships in Season 7. Steve did not have it easy however, with both Chris Melton and Tommy Christian within 4 points at the end of the series. ProSimRacing Inc and CT Racing both picked up their first Race2Play team championships as well.

Formula 3000 was no picnic, to say the least. The season started with a bang, but ended with little more then a crackle as many drivers found the cars more difficult to handle then the previous season Formula 3 and Formula BMWs. Allen Cotton and Tristan Bayless stuck it out however, and both claimed their respective division drivers championship. 28CD MotorSports claimed an easy Team championship with the 5 race wins in the European division. Global Racers Group Limited won 7 of 8 events in the American division to win that Team title.

The second season of the Scuderia Internazionale ChampCar Series wrapped up much the way the first season did; with George Sandman leading the pack. Six wins in 7 events gave George a 43 point lead over all other competitors. This is George's second CCWS driver's championship in as many seasons. Only Tristan Bayless was able to steal a victory from George. The series displayed a tight battle among three teams though out the season. Scuderia Internazionale came out on top of Global Racers Group Limited and last season's team champion's LMTC MotorSports. The top-10 drivers in this series were invited into the 2008 Championship of Online Auto Racing later this year.

The VindexWorks Formula 1 series completed its fourth season at Race2Play with more drama and excitement then the previous seasons. Tristan Bayless ran full time to challenge reigning champion David Fisher for bragging rights of being the top driver in the top Open Wheel series at Race2Play. David and Tristan traded blows through out the season but Tristan came out on top after the season closer at Monza. Stanislav Gorbunov proved he was capable of winning, scoring his first two Race2Play wins in Season 7 Formula 1. No surprise to anyone running in Formula 1, the factory backed VindexWorks Team came away with their fourth team title in as many season. The top-10 drivers in this series were invited into the 2008 Championship of Online Auto Racing later this year.


TOURING CAR

The Veritgo Challenge season was put in place to fill a small gap int he schedule at mid season. With only a few races in each division, drivers could not afford to make mistakes or miss races. Croatian Enis Dauti was the only driver to compete in all 5 events in the European Vertigo series, easily taking the top drivers championship position in the process. The team points were a bit closer due to Team Shark Online Racing fielding multiple drivers in the three races ran. Team Shark won the team title by a single point over CoDa Competition. The American championships were much the same with Steve Blankenship competing in all 5 events to claim the title. Fellow team mate John Mueller also participated in all 5 events to finish 3rd with Barry Hedrick between the two UK-NL drivers. UK-NL did finish 8 points ahead of all other teams for their 7th team title since season 5.

Valley Motorwerks of Sacramento California sponsored the Spec e30 series as VMWerks is a sponsors of the real NASA Spec e30 series, and fields multiple cars in the Northern California region of NASA. Much like the real e30 series in which the budget of both money and time to run in all events can decide a championship, the online series suffered the same factors. Only one driver competed in all 6 events in the European division, Nick Phillips, and finished a healthy 4th in the points. Allen Cotton laid claim to the title even without a single win in the series, though a pole did prove his speed. Scott Michaels ran and won four events, but the 4 race domination was not enough to secure the top spot. 28CD Motorsports held a wide margin in the team championship as the only team to field two drivers in their races. Rob Ainscough pursued the American Spec e30 drivers championship by participating in all 6 events and even winning in two of them. 25 points separated Steve Blankenship in 2nd with only 5 events run. Team Venom Racing won the team championship with brute force; most race wins and tied with the most pole positions.

The rFactor Touring Car Challenge has proven to be one of Race2Play's most popular series with regular fields exceeding 30 cars. Three different car types on track at the same time make for exciting racing no matter where you are on track. Even with the use of default rFactor cars, this series attracted some big guns to the races. Six time driver champion Scott Michaels ran undefeated in four races, outscoring the reigning champion Chris Melton by 4 points for the ZR championship. Newcomer, Mike Miller, scored his first Race2Play championship in the Hammer cars which made their debut at the start of Season 7. Tristan Bayless won 5 of 6 events in his Howston H6 to dominate that championship. Team championships went to ProSimRacing Inc (H6), Bad Voices Racing (ZR) who scored their first ever Race2Play championship , and E Racers Anonymous (Hammer) who also scored their first ever Race2Play championship.

The World Touring Car series is sprint racing to the extreme. Fast paced races with an inverted start for the second race at each event makes for a challenging championship. Scott Michaels came into the European division and tromped all over the competition. 7 wins in 13 races guaranteed him the championship even with his two nearest rivals competiting 3 more events. Scott also ran in 6 of the USA events scoring 6 wins in 6 events. This did not stop Conor McCarrell from taking the championship in the USA division however. Team championships followed suit with the driver championships. Renown 4 Racing (Michaels) and SoCal Motorsports (McCarrell) won their respective division. The top-5 drivers in each division were invited into the 2008 Championship of Online Auto Racing later this year.

The premiere Touring Car series at Race2Play is the V8 Supercars series (GTR2 addon). Without a doubt some of the most difficult Touring-style racing a sim driver can do. Long events paired with high tire wear and big motors make it challenging to say the least. A heated battle between rivals Joco Gorenc, Darren Adams, and Season 6 champ Janko Glavac raged all season long with each driver scoring their fair share of race wins. Janko's chances fell short after a missed race leaving Joco and Darren to duke it out for the top spot in the final round at Sandown. Joco needed only to finish in the top-10, but finished in 2nd behind Darren to finalize the championship. The Apex Predator Racing Team took the team title with all three of their drivers competing and finishing in the top-10 in points. This is Apex's first team championship. The top-10 drivers in this series were invited into the 2008 Championship of Online Auto Racing later this year.


STOCK CAR

The Stock Car racing at Race2Play was still limited to the rFactor TPSCC addon until late in the season when Race2Play began running some exhibition events using the new ARCA sim. The TPSCC events still managed to draw the crowds even to the final events making for some great racing. This season even the Europeans got some ol' fashion oval racing in with the European Shootout Series. Pete Bunce led the points all season long until a mishap with lapped traffic took him out of the hunt in the final round. Tom Malanga went on to win the championship by 7 points over Pete who did still get the honors of having his Over the Hill racing Team win the team championship. This is Tom's first Race2Play championship, though he also won the drivers championship in the Grand National Independent Chapter the same week. The USA Shootout Series also featured Tom Malanga but this time as the bride's maid to Dan White by 8 points! It is rumored that this is not only Dan's first Race2Play championship, but also his first ever online racing championship... ever. Fitting that Team DBF won the USA team championship for the second season in a row.

The Stock Car Challenge series features longer length races with cautions and all the strategy that comes with pit stops. A top notch driver lineup gave this series some of the best oval racing we have seen to date. Michael Lilley won the championship with consistent finishes and a single race win. Conor McCarrell finished second in the points but scored 3 race wins. Past champion Larry Anderson did not score a win this season but still put his car on the podium. Goulds Pumps Racing ran the show when it came to the team points, finishing on the top with 3 wins and 4 pole positions.


SPORTS CAR

With RACE '07 came some new cars to race, namely the Radicals in the Radical Cup. Very fun cars to drive and quick races kept everyone smiling for these early week events. Joco Gorenc won the European drivers championship over Pete Bunce while Kevin Savoie and Rob Ainscough fought for the USA division. Kevin came out on top in the end even with one less race then Rob, for his first Race2Play title. Scuderia Internazionale chalked up another team championship in the European division, and so did UK-NL in the USA group.

Five seasons running the Historic GT (GTL) series has proven it's stamina. Drivers have to master many different cars and track combinations across the season based on budgeting rental "credits". The better a driver finishes in a race, the lesser a car he can afford in the next races. If there is a single driver that has been due to win this championship it is Enis Dauti. Enis has finished 2nd in the points twice in the past, both times losing the top spot in the final race of the season. This season, Enis finally claims his championship in GTH that he has challenged for over many seasons. Enis even took his team, CoDa Competition, to a championship this time around.

GT-Open was going to sit the season out, but made a quick comeback (5th season) with a spot on the schedule opening up early in the season. GT-Open is the only multi-class Sports Car racing at Race2Play beside the Independent Chapters that also operate multi-class races. Tolga Incekaraoglu made it look easy in the G2 class by winning the championship without winning a single race in class. No different in the G3 cars with Johan Nilsson running away with the title and scoring 3 wins in the process. Johan happens to be a three-time GTO champion from Seasons 4, 6, and now 7. Over the Hill Racing and Scuderia Internazionale both scored yet another team championship in GTO.

Even with all the controversy regarding car restrictions the "Extreme" series' still ran strongly. Each of the GTR2 car classes run their own single-class racing series using restrictions for the top-5 drivers in points. While they are forced to use 'slower' cars, the rest of the field is allowed to play a little catch-up keeping the points battles very tight all the way through the final races. Pete Bunce and Scott Michaels showed just how close it can be in the Euro division of Extreme G3, with Pete winning over Scott with a single point to spare. The USA division ended with only a 4 point gap between eventual champion Rob Ainscough and Maciej Bekas. MOB APR Racing scored their first Race2Play championship with Team Venom Racing reaffirming their first with a second.

The Extreme nGT series lineup can be called an "alien-fest" with many high-ranking drivers competing against each other in hour long races with fuel stops. Many found out early on that to win, you were forced to run the entire distance on the same set of tires making tire conservation highly important. Ari Nieminen has his fair share of drivers championships at Race2Play, but he adds another to his stats in the European division of nGTx and Matjaz Plotajs backs up his Season 6 Elise challenge championship with the USA nGTx title. Both Over the Hill Racing and CanAm Racing continue to rack up team championships in their respective divisions of nGTx.

With regular grids exceeding 25 cars and pure alien blood, the Extreme GT series easily laid claim to the premiere Sports Car series at Race2Play. With 75 minutes events to weed out the "young ones" the championship table displays some of the highest ranking Sports Car drivers, even well done the order. Even with the highly disliked car restrictions Ari Nieminen found a way to be the only driver to have more then 1 win in the season and won the championship by 18 points, proving the car restrictions may not be enough to keep this driver from being on top. Pete Bunce placed himself well enough in all 7 of his races to finish 2nd in the points even without a single race win while Donato D'Amico finished a respectable 3rd in the championship in his first Race2Play outing. Over the Hill Racing and Scuderia Internazionale finished within 3 points of each other in the team championship with Scuderia Internazionale placing higher at the end. The top-10 drivers in this series were invited into the 2008 Championship of Online Auto Racing later this year.

The second season for the Fabcar Championship ended with one man taking all the glory. 8 races, 8 wins, 8 poles... complete domination.... Tristan Bayless is the first Race2Play member to complete the hat-trick. No other driver in the series saw the lead of a Fabcar race with this juggernaut of a racer making the races. Jerry Chen ended the season with his best ever championship position of 2nd with Dennis Morissette close in tow to finish 3rd. SoCal Motorsports drivers finished well enough to hold back the other teams for another Season 7 championship. The top-10 drivers in this series were invited into the 2008 Championship of Online Auto Racing later this year.

Special Thanks to the thousands of participants in Season 7 and to the sponsors who support the events.

Season 8 begins on April 8th, join in the run at http://www.race2play.com