Just as City Liga's 15th season has finished there was a possibility to take part in a small championship, actually a cup with MRT. Now, notoriously I hate this little car for it's snappiness. However, there was one of my teammates on the server training for the first race of the season and I joined the training just for fun. I gave this little car from hell another chance and this time it surprised me rather positively. As we were racing on flat surface of autocross the car has lost it's ability to ever so often snap away from me into a terribly unsavable oversteer as the only bumps you could find were speed-bump type curbs which rather launch the car in the air.
So, there I was with a fun challenge ahead of me and immediately I was on pace, which surprised me quite nicely again, as most of the guys drove this car far more than me as this was their second season. Still, it was prove to be a proper challenge. I qualified 4rd on the grid 0.13 down on Koreny, Ulrich and Heinonen, but was promoted to 3rd on the grid as Koreny got a penalty for cutting the track and soon I was in 2nd when Heinonen spun out. I put on a strong chase to close in on Ulrich, but was never to catch him as my front left tire gave up on me and rather had to defend my 2nd place from Heinonen for second part of the race. Still, the result was pleasing for my first ever karting race.
For the second race, the lesson was clear. Improve the tires management. The qualifying didn't go too well this time, loosing pole position by 0.01 to Ulrich. But, the race start was extraordinary for me and I managed to get grips on the lead shortly in lap 2, still though I was immediately repassed as the cold tires cost me running little wide. This proved to be my only opportunity, as again tires got too hot, this time in last third of the race. And for the next round I was going to make sure they last the distance.
By now the success ballast system worked in my favor. 30kg vs 20kg, Ulrich vs me. But, he got the holds of fastest lap extra points, so this was a very difficult position for me. In round 3, his teammates Tanskanen and Karakus occupied the front row ahead of me. And Ulrich was down in 6th. It was going to be a thrilling race. As Karakus had more pace they swapped places early on and I as well managed to force Tanskanen into a mistake and get in the chase for the lead. This time the tires were spot on for me, which couldn't be said for Karakus and I cought up with him with 15 laps to go. However the track as always was insanely difficult for overtaking and after a number of laps there still was no chances. Join me for a thrilling ride as the race approached final 7 laps.
So it was my first victory of the season, however Ulrich still held the
points lead even with 4th place finish and weirdly enough, he had 5kgs
less ballast for the next race as well.
Nevertheless, I grabbed the pole position for race 4, ahead of Tanskanen, Ulrich and Terzić who joined the race as guest driver. After a good start Ulrich was soon on my tail for a race of attrition. 20 laps of intense racing, nose to tail is what followed. He never got a clear chance for a move and soon enough he got frustrated and careered into the barrens ending his race and virtually his own championship hunt when he retired few laps later.
For final race of the season, 6th gear members didn't show up after their head driver suffered a heavy crash and virtually lost any chance of the title. Still, we carried on with the race, where imol took some training, but wouldn't race. Surprisingly, I matched his pace with 40kgs extra ballast. It looked like an easy race for me after a pole position, but in last part of the race non-balasted season 1 champion and teammate Ahlers made return and used better tire situation in last laps of the race to take the victory.
This was an interesting journey into the unknown for me with a lot of good racing along the way to stay in my memories for a long time and I'm proud to say I'm the champion of a karting cup and I welcome anyone who can take on this extraordinary challenge.
This year I've took on a challenge with the league that's been around since S1 days. It's the league where I had my very first international league race. Of course I'm talking about The Original LFS League. To give you a glimpse of their history, just go to their Hall of Fame. You'll find n1lyn, RudiTurbo, as well as couple of old school cyber guys and even Piirste from f1rst all as champions, more recently Jarno won the last season which was dominated by single seaters for the first time in OLFSL history.
Back in '08 I had raced the first half of the season, but thanks to my unstable internet back then, I was unable to fight for championship, so I refocused on MoE instead. Hugo used to race back then as well, but was stopped in championship hunt with disconnects too. Speaking of some old legends, bawbag is still holding the record for most race wins, though he never won the season.
Anyway, let's move on to this season. Every year OLFSL staff comes up with something new. Named From tortoise to hare, this year it's a double races per event, starting of with UF1 and moving all the way up to GTR cars and even a single seater for season finale.
The league is always highly competitive, holding a number of grids. Long time LFSer, Romanian GTS Ady, top class OWRL F1 Russian racer rsg077 and a new name to me, Italian R4F Enkidu are proving to be my main competitors in bid for race wins and ultimately the title.
We have had six of ten events so far before this summer break, so let's recap some of the highlights.
I was lucky enough to take pole position in first two events posting PB's with UF1 and XFG from Ady as closes chaser. The races were pretty straightforward from pole to wins, interrupted with disconnect in 2nd race of UF1 event only. Funnily, JPeace was attending first two rounds as well, until disconnect in 2nd round left him too angry to continue his season. I took time off for for family obligations that weekend as round 3 went by. Franky defended TRR colors scoring 4th in points respectively. JHolmes attended qualifying for that round posting 3rd quickest time,
but never showed up for the race for unknown reasons to me. Enkidu took on a RWD charge winning both races from Ady.
Back on for round 4 and my very first event with RB4. rsg077, a man very well known from OWRL F1, who was already on pole position in LX4 event took his 2nd pole position of the season. I was close second on the grid. Tight fe1r track and good drive from rsg gave me no chances to challenge his lead, so we finished in same order we started. Next on, it was FXO and yet again rsg took a pole position, 3rd consecutive. But, this time with the long fe4 track I was sure of being able to challenge him. Join me onboard for highlight battle of the season.
The last round before summer brake finally gave me a chance of rwd taste. From pole to two wins, highly challenged from Enkidu, until he and rsg ren into each other throughout race two. My teammate Kasper had his OLFSL debut in this event, taking on impressive 4th and 3rd as race results and 2nd in points for that round.
I approached this summer brake with 65 and 111 points lead over Ady and Rsg when we drop one round out. It's a good place to be, however I have to keep on pushing. OLFSL's points system is unforgiving and I'll make sure to keep my concentration for remaining of the season.
The season turned in a straight battle between Schuhti and myself for the championship since the last report in these last four rounds of the season. I was as determined as I could ever have been to give it everything.
Round 7 was one of the most difficult races I have ever experienced. The combo itself was as immense as it gets. Fastest car of the season (FO8) on one the tightest and the longest tracks we have in LFS (fe4r). Just to give you the picture how hard it can be. You start from 2nd on the grid against your main rival. You have huge dirty air everywhere and you do not have a single passing opportunity unless the fellow slides off track in front and chances are much greater that you will. But, thankfully there were mandatory pitstops and there was hope. I was on about 3-4second gap before the stops, when Schuhti made one of his rare mistakes on his inlap and I got right onto his tail. Running five laps longer I easily exited the pits with comfortable margin to win the race and close the championship gap next to virtually nothing.
Round 8 and we head of to South City for third and the last time, this time in ultimately fastest cars with the roof, GTR's obviously. As predicted Schuhti goes for the easier choice with FXR whilst I'm in one of my favorites, FZR with my second pole position of the year by a 0.6sec margin on so5r track. The things are looking great as passing was never easy on South City, pole is an excellent place to be at. Naturally FXR had a far better launch of the line and Schuhti was lined up with me into the t1, nonetheless I was on the inside, however he decides that he doesn't want to go long way around and as the cars rub each other and we're both sent into a spin. Schuhti saves it easily with 4wd drift and on contrast I'm stuck in 15th, fighting my way back up to final spot of the podium by the end of the race. The accident was deemed as racing incident eventhough Schuhti said himself that he regrets the move and there I am stuck with a huge points gap in championship with two rounds to go.
Round 9. This time we're heading off to a final Aston race and a final open wheelers race in little MRT. Notoriously, I hate this car. I just hate it's snappiness with all my guts. I have no idea how on Earth I produced the best qualifying performance of the season back then, posting a PB in process to be denied of pole by a hundred of a second. Schuhti amazingly took it in the last corner of last qualifying lap, after loosing the entire session and entire lap until that point, by a single hundreth of a second. Alright, no big deal, it's quite easy to pass in MRT. But my gearing is not the best off the line and I'm down to 3rd and then I got cought up by the happy tail and down to 4th even. I pull myself together quickly and get up the inside, but to my big surprise the car just snaps over the curb as I took the line only slightly different to what I usually do and I'm all the way down the grid again. I fought back so many times, spinning the much hated car few more times in process before I finally retired from the race. Schuhti had won the championship now officially, but he had won it in T1 of Round 8 already anyway.
Round 10, the final race of the season. No pressure, just a race and possible victory to vindicate myself from all the trouble and bad luck that season had thrown at me. Beautiful race track (ky2r) in combination with TBO cars was always going to be enjoyable. Again, Schuhti goes for an easier choice with FXO, as I take XRT for pure pleasure of driving even though at first tests it seamed that FXO was faster with restrictions in place. However I found enough pace in process and with Schuhti's rubbish lap in superpole I was easily on pole by a 0.4sec margin. Hart in mouth moment came at the end of lap 1 when buggy curb trew me into the wall out of the last corner, brushing it only just and defending place from Patrick who was soon overtaken by Schuhti after his FXO start and it was a straight fight from then on, between me and the champion. Race of attrition, of great struggle with tires for both of us. The gap was constant on 1-2sec as the pace was virtually the same until the bad luck interfered again. Evil gods of internet decided that my season wasn't going to end on a high and I was out of the race with DNF as a result of internet disconnect. Maybe it's better that way, leaving me hungry for the next season.
Looking back at it now I can easily see so many missed opportunities. For example, if I had figured out to overclock my CPU before Round 2 perhaps I wouldn't have finished the race in 4th from pole position. Or, perhaps if I knew how bad luck can be vicious I would have trained harder for Round 6 and finished the race on podium instead on the roof. The two dropout rounds had me way too relaxed or way too aggressive at times. Many more points could have come out of race two in Round 1 if I hadn't risked that start so much. Having any of these done better I might have been in a completely different situation in Round 9 and most likely I wouldn't have to had pushed the car so madly back then.
There is another way to look at it as well. There were three race victories. Flawless races, even though I started those outside the pole position. All in all, I'm fairly happy with my rookie season in City Liga. I'm thrilled with
great new rivalry, the lovely community and determined to improve on
mistakes for the next season.
Schuhti is no longer underdog, he's a deserved champion in my eyes. Not only that the luck was on his side thru this season, he made fewer mistakes and I congratulate him for taking the title in his 10th season. A result worth admiring.
I've had an amazing fun in past three months racing around LFS without a team support discovering all sorts of cars and tracks through City Liga and some other leagues and public servers, however I couldn't race in team events, even though doors to 3id have been open to race as a guest driver at any time I believe it just wouldn't be right, nor for myself or for them, as there is just a single team league out there requiring two drivers only.
We all known of top six finishers in round one of GT2 World Championship and thru the years I've developed quite a strong rivalry with them. Interestingly, non of their drivers took the challenge to race with City Liga when they opened doors to international drivers and I missed some of that action, even though it can be a little bit too intense at times.
So after the peak with My3id Gaming last year winning 24hours of Aston GP in MoE and GT2 World Series title, I'm joining a fairly unknown team, Team Rock Racing in search of a new challenge. They've recruited Tommy Osgtaard a couple of months ago, who was eager to team-up for GT2 World Series. A good bloke I know for a while. He seems to like the GT2 class very much and I believe that we can achieve a podium throughout the season and maybe even fight for an odd victory at some point.
As I'm very familiar with GT2 cars and since Tommy is quite good at setting them up and the races are month apart, there is still a lot of time left on my hands to race City Liga and all other sorts of events that I enjoy with the rest of my new team mates, since Tommy might be busy doing real life racing to do those as well.
Other than these obvious reasons, Team Rock Racing has been very successful at attracting sponsors and as they successfully run their own league for years now it just gives me a good confidence in leadership of the team.
With seven rounds of 15th City Liga's season behind us I've got to known the competition a lot better than before round one. I've barely ever had a chance to race any of these chaps, so I had no idea what to expect. But thru trainings and the races I've got to see ups and downs of some of them.
Pärschke - Man that shines on odd occasions
He wasn't tipped as a favorite before season by City Liga. Nonetheless, he stepped onto the podium twice thru the course of seven rounds. He usually qualifies in the midfield, but that doesn't stop him to make his way up the grid by the end of the race. His first podium finish was in round 5 when we raced on streets of South City Long reversed in UFR. The qualifying once again didn't go too well for him as he started lowly 13th. But he shone in race passing one competitor after another to finish 3rd and take his first podium of the season. Pärschke would repeat his best result in last round on infamous Fern Bay Black rev with FO8. He went for a strategic move to qualify on less fuel in order to get himself out of the midfield to 4th on the grid. After ziomm crashed out in front of him he was already into 3rd by the end of lap one from where he would take his second podium of the season.
It seams that the most difficult combos suit his style rather than a specific type of car.
Patrick - Double champion missing a spark this year
It just seams like the qualifying isn't going his way this year. In round 1 from 17th on the grid in he wouldn't score many points in FOX around South City Classic. As he also doesn't like fwd very much, not many points came out of demo combo in round 2 for him and then he missed an UFR race. But he showed a glimpse of brilliance in round 2. From 10th on the grid he worked it out all the way up to 3rd passing one opponent after another. We saw him on the podium again in round 6. This time he started from 6th lunching himself into 4th on the opening lap, but after a spin few laps later he was back all the way down to 10th. Once again he would just turn it on and pass his competitors on a near impossible passing combo to finish on final step of the podium. Will he find his old magic as the season closes, we're yet to see.
Basti - Fierce fighter
His only podium finish came in round 5. He fought hard with Paddi and myself, but after we both retired he took an easy second to score his only podium of the season. I had a rare occasion to fight him on track in round 2 after I had dropped some places with FPS drop on start and from that experience I can tell you this man goes to the limit. Inch perfect whilst side by side at 200km/h and even making slight contact is as hairy as it gets, but not to crash himself or anyone else. After the race he said "Can't do that fight with everyone, but I know it was possible to do with you." Perhaps the man is right. He had couple of race incidents in other rounds. However, they were more of result of bad luck than anything else.
Max - Man of consistency
The double podium finish came for him early on in round 1. In first race he was denied of victory by Daniel when they finished in same order they started the race. In second race, with reversed grid race, he made a good progress early on, but by that time he got up to 2nd, Paddi was already way into the distance. 7th, 4th and 8th in rounds two to four was a good bag of points for him. After he missed round 5 bad luck struck him in round 6 when the connection issues put him off the good course to another podium finish as he was in 3rd at the time. And in last round his LFS must have minimized as he went head on into the wall to damage and damaged his car badly later to retire from the race. I hope he turns his luck around in remaining of the season.
Paddi - The Charger out of title chase
Man who came short of the title in last season went onto a great start taking victory in race two of opening round of this season. He used my fps drop very well in round two to take another victory and the championship lead. Not lacking anything in fwd cars either he nipping it on pole position in round 3, but finishing only 3rd after a lovely battle in opening laps with Schuhti and myself. As he missed the fourth round of the season he would have just another dropout left, which unfortunately for him came straight in the next round when his wheel failed him from another podium finish. The wheel wasn't repaired in time for next round and he's out of the title chase. It's a great shame as we had some great close racing together. I'd love to see him come back doing some more races just for fun.
Daniel - The FOX specialist
He took his only victory of the season right at the very beginning. From pole to race victory in round one. He had a good battle with Paddi in opening laps of round two, but was outpaced to race victory. Round 3 showed us that he might not like fwd cars very much when he took only 9th on the grid. Nonetheless, he took good points from 5th place. This was later to be confirmed when he missed round 5 of the season. In round four I had a rare chance to have a battle with him. He nipped it onto his second pole of the season and took yet another podium finishing second once again. RAC and it's snappiness did him no favors, so he managed 4th only in round 6. However, he was still very much in the title chase before round 7 when an odd mistake in qualifying saw him last on the grid. Once he repeated the mistake he was out of the race, scoring his second dropout. With 66 points deficit he is still in the game, but it's going to be very difficult for him.
Schuhti - The underdog
Two time championship runner-up didn't go onto the best start to the season. Scoring medicare points in round one and missing round 2, he would have to show a very strong outing in remaining of the season. He took his first podium finish in round 3 with second place and continued with third in the next round. Around South City on what seamed to be his favorite combo of the season he took flag to victory race from his first pole position in UFR. His smooth style was very suitable to RAC when he nipped it onto pole position once again, but this time only by a 0.01sec and he took his second straight victory sustaining all the pressure to take the championship lead. The smoothness worked well for him in FO8 as well, outqualifying me by a margin of 0.02sec this time. After being leapfrogged in the race he kept his cool and took good points with second. With marginal lead of 2 points there's a long way to his championship. Interestingly, he likes to do most of his practice offline.
It's quite remarkable how much things can change in just two rounds. Two straight wins can launch you from quite a big gap into the championship lead or the other way around, couple of bad results can loose you one.
Round 5, UFR and South City Long rev. The combo received no love from anyone but Schuhti. This car has seen a lot more interesting tracks and whilst this track is great fun in some other cars, it was devastating in this one. Barely noone trained enough and I myself not much either. Schuhti took an easy win with clearly lot of training and pace advantage to get back in title chase. Paddi ren into troubles with wheel which put him out of league for now and Daniel didn't race the given round. So midway thru the race all alone in 2nd place the boredom started to set in and I relaxed too much only to end up in the first wall and on the roof. At the time I didn't think it would be too much trouble, until I realized how bad were two opening rounds for me. So I dropped to 3rd in standings behind Daniel and Schuhti at that point.
That really fired me off to give my best in next round and so I did, but I lacked luck this time. The grid was set by tracker again and in the very last minutes Schuhti took pole position away by disappointing 0.01sec. I'd give it best in 3 lap sprint race that determined the final grid, but it only made me realize that my thoughts were right before when I thought that RAC doesn't pick draft unless the guy in front slides out of the corner. Not even on a track with straights of the sort ky32 has. And there I am then sitting for an entire hour behind him trying to find a way, force a mistake, anything, but all to vain as he just sits on the apex every time I come close making sure he doesn't make the slightest mistake on the way out. Therefor Schuhti takes on the lead in championship and I'm the chaser now with only a 14 points to haunt down. Daniel had a relatively poor round as Patrick beat him to 3rd place.
The decision and the goal now is to win the next two rounds and not only regain the championship lead, but to make a vital gap, preferably over 30 points to closes chaser, before we head to closing stages of the championship. This is especially important since the next two combos are Schuhti's weaknesses. Both high-speed, wing helped, slick driven machines on tracks where overtaking won't be even as close as possible as in RAC was where qualifying will be everything and with proper qualifying.
Our only visit to Westhill this season was to have one good long LX6 race. The car that demands ultimate patience and the track that demands ultimate patience made for a very intriguing combo. Amazingly Paddi, myself, Patrick, Phil, Daniel and Schuhti were all squeezed in only 0.11sec in prequal with top 4 beating the previous world record.
Two sessions of 7min quali promissed to shuffle the grid for sure. In first 7 min session top 7 that made it thru to second quali session were myself, Schuhti, Phil, Pärschke, Daniel, Basti and Patrick. Quite a bit different from the prequal results you might say. Importantly Paddi skipped this race due to personal obligations of his, but he can always count on two worst round dropouts. Quali 1 results
Second quali session saw again a different formation and this time it was for the final positions on the grid in following order Daniel, myself in second, Patrick, Schuhti, Phil, Parschke and Basti. I myself had to abort my first flying lap and made one small mistake in second run, nevertheless it's always good to start the race on the front row. 37 lap here promised plenty of time to work my way back as I had over an hour to race for it. Quali 2 results
The race was hugely intense and I don't want to spoil it for you. Instead check out my so far longest video of the longest battle of the season.
A lot of the guys also had a fantastic battles all thru the field. Race stream replay<-- very worth checking out.
I'm pleasantly surprised by Daniel and Paddi thru these four opening rounds. Both extremely quick racers no doubt there, but what really amazes me is their race craft. The way they deal with pressure and the gentleman clean racing is always very welcome.
Championship standings
Admins have calculated one round dropout already to make things look even more equalas quite a few racers missed a round already.
I'm proud to announce that these two victories have ensured current lead in the championship standings. However Daniel and Paddi are still extremely close and for sure I'll keep on pushing. For next round we're going back to South City. This time on the longer layout than we've been at round 1 and with a FWD car to make sure the race is completely different to round one, admins made it a 90min long which is the longest distance of the season at that point and I'm very positive that Schuhti is going to put a strong race in his beloved FWD car.
