Mirfee

I recently joined and raced in an event with Race 2 Play (results in following post). They're a sim-racing community partnered with the National Auto Sport Association. NASA is a real world racing organization similar to the SCCA (Sports Car Club of America). Check out the above links to for detailed info, as I'm going to talk more about what they have to offer us as racers at TG.

I joined for one reason alone... big races. Full fields of cars in championships and fun runs alike. GTL. GTR2. rFactor. That's not to say I'm the least bit inclined to reduce my commitments to TGRL. On the contrary, in fact. This is a step up to national/international competitive racing (not to mention that part of the cooperative effort of R2P/NASA is to draw more sim racers to real world racing, something I am intensely serious about for myself).

I see R2P as a high level competitive field... the Big Show, if you will. In this regard I see a terrific opportunity for those of us in TGRL who wish to push their performance further, as well as increase the competitive experience to a higher level. However, I don't intend to keep pushing individual competition... every man for himself... as this just isn't the TG way.

When I joined R2P, I formed a TG Racing team. Anyone here who joins the team will have their point awards (earned in championship races only, not Fun Runs) figured into the overall team ranking. This encourages teamwork among team members, both before, during, and after an event. Very TG indeed!

TGRL will continue to operate as it already has. Regardless of any further R2P participation, I'm still dedicated to helping newer drivers here gain knowledge and experience. I'm also eager to resume our own in-house seasons again when drivers feel they're up for the competition. In fact, I'm thinking it would be beneficial to model our own TGRL championships on R2P's example.

Anyway... there's no cost to join R2P. They're a lot like TG in some regards. Free membership gets you in. You can't register for a race til a week before, thereby giving premium members earlier opportunity. Supporting memberships are $8 and $10 / month for increasing benefits; namely sign ups 2 weeks and 3 weeks in advance. The higher level allows the creation of teams, so most TG folks wishing to join don't need to spend the extra dough just for that... I've got it covered.

So... if'n you're eager to mix it up in a high level of competition with full fields of cars, with your TG buddies all on the same team, sign up for a free membership and join TG Racing. Give a race a whirl and see if it's your cup of motor oil.

And if this just doesn't appeal to anyone, no worries. I personally intend to keep at it as... well... racing is the ONLY gaming I do now. TGRL is good for me on one level, and R2P feeds a different hunger.

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Mirfee

Results from my first Race 2 Play event.

Series - Historic GT (GT Legends).
Track - Nuerburgring Sprint
Class - GTC-65
Field - 24 cars
Laps - 20

Results - Drivers have to use their real names... no screen names. So... Mirfee is unmasked as Pete Schlough.

Replay File - if you want to watch the whole thing, just download this (~21Mb) to your Replay folder and watch it in game from the Replay viewer.

Summary - I drove the Ferrari GTB, a favorite of mine for it's smooth blending of torque, horsepower, and handling. It's very well balanced and predictable, which I need given my talent for lacking consistency and losing concentration.

I qualified 17th out of 19... even less impressive given that 2 cars didn't post qualifying times at all.

I finished 12th out of 15... 4 drivers had DNF from damage or malfunctions, etc. Still, I'll take the result. That's 4 championship points for me and for TG Racing!

All in all, I finished better than I expected. Key word being finished! And only 1 lap down (slightly less than half the field finished on the lead lap, the rest finished 1 down). I survived without wrecking, or being wrecked, though there were a couple close calls, not to mention some minor contact (aka just trading paint) here and there with blame being equally shared. My biggest embarrassments were a couple solo spins, but they were quickly recovered and resulted in no damage for myself or others.

I'm clearly a rookie at this level of racing. But it's amazing good fun, and the serious attitude really helps cement the overall simulation experience.

Also, the GTL series follows a rather unique method of balancing cars. In addition to drivers earning championship points based on their result, they also earn 'rental' points which are spent on a car in a given event. The higher you finish in a race, the fewer rental points you earn for the next event, while the inverse holds true for those finishing lower. This means that for the next race, the winner who earned one rental point is going to have a tough time purchasing a dominant car (which may have been key to winning the previous event). Lower ranked drivers will have more points to spend, and so may purchase a better car, thereby potentially balancing out the field and reducing the likelihood of single drivers running away with the series.

Check here for the exact details. It's really cool, and I think a neat system for us to consider for our own events.

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Chappie

Hey Mirfee!!,

That really looks cool bro!!! I've been toying with the idea of getting back into some driving...I just might join you..

I was looking at the R2P site..very nice. I'm not sure what series I would join. I'm actually looking at the Nascar 2003 Historics right now..I've always loved the old stock cars...hmmm...

anyway, I should be joining you guys on the TGRL server sometime in the near future...

thanks,

Chappie

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"I am the prettiest african-american, vietnamese..cong..person." -SugarNCamo 3/22/06'

Mirfee

Great to hear, Chappie. Looking forward to seeing the grid fill up some more.

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Mirfee

Just an FYI for anyone interested in this...

R2P doesn't seem to send me a notice that I've received a private message. So if you send me a message asking for an invite, please just PM me here at TG so I know. I'll send the invite to your R2P name and then send a PM here to tell you I've done so.

I try and check R2P a few times a day, but it's possible I might miss a new request, message, etc.

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Chappie

Mirfee,

I'd like to join the team...however, After looking at the different series I can't find a timeslot that works right now...

They need to open a series early on either a Saturday or preferably Sunday morning...say around 7:00 am...that would be perfect...

Anyway, I'm going to keep checking and try to join a few races..

thanks,

Chappie

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"I am the prettiest african-american, vietnamese..cong..person." -SugarNCamo 3/22/06'

Mirfee

If we get enough people on board, I bet we can make some requests/inquiries to that effect. In the meantime, I hope something opens up in your timetable. Either way, good to have you in.

You, me, Squid. Starting to shape up. Now, where's Rocket?

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Chappie

Got it bro...

thanks

Chappie

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"I am the prettiest african-american, vietnamese..cong..person." -SugarNCamo 3/22/06'

Gillespie

I notice this is a dead topic, but sim-racing is my lifeblood. If you all are still running in R2P, let me know. I've been a member of that community since before it was R2P (tmcarthur.net GTR Endurance league), and it'd be good to have some members of the other big community I'm part of (TG) racing alongside me.

Mirfee

You must be Ray. I don't go by Mirfee at R2P. I'm Pete Schlough. There is a TG Racing team there, but it's been inactive almost from the beginning. I haven't raced at R2P in a long time... too frustrating for me. Great quality, but I've finally accepted that I'm not going to perform at the level I want and have fun doing it. I may warm up to it again though. Good to see you here though.

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Gillespie

Oh, hey, Pete! I remember you from that time we tested the... Panoz mod? at Sebring Intl. Good times.

Check back at R2P in the coming days. Tim's planning on opening an "Amateur Division" of sorts for those that choose to partake in it. It'll be limited by rank to give racers who don't want to race in the rest of the league a chance to run up front.

Mirfee

Yeah, I've been following that development for a while (I still check the boards there every day). An Am Div, depending on the format, is what would likely bring me back.

And I remember the Panoz at Sebring. I'll have to go check out that replay again .

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