Firestone Grand Touring World Championship

I'm having all kinds of trouble tuning for the next race. Despite trying several tyre/power combinations, I still haven't beaten my C class LB time. And that was done in a 414 PI Micra (26 less than the Supra)

The All Wired up M3 is perfectly suited to both Nurb layouts thankfully, good job too as it's our home race.

* Race Event - In Germany, everyone wants a fast car.

While the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft makes its seasonal visit to England, the Firestone Grand Touring Championship makes their first trip into the Fatherland. Before also heading off to Silverstone for the British Grand Prix himself, the two-time Formula One champion and current points leader for Williams-Renault, Alain Prost, offered his opinion on the season unfolding to French magazine Le Monde M Magazine. He tipped English driver Andrew Ogden for the GTWC championship, but was evasive on speculation about his chances to join the Williams team as a test driver next season.

The All Wired Up team is not without controversy though. Inspection following the event at the Iberian Circuit last week reveal some inconsistencies in the fuel mixture used by the BMW. The GTWC governing body is still reviewing these findings, but has chosen to withhold the race winnings until their report is completed.

Regardless, the M3 E30 has proven to be a formidable machine this season, and the BMW teams are eager to prove themselves again on home soil. Executives from the factory have been seen all over Nurburg this weekend. The manufacturers are hopeful to make a big first impression on the exploding German car market, and are bringing a host of new parts and research into this round. Their practice times appear to be off the charts. BMW has the most to gain from this event, as they compete with Mercedes, Porsche, and Audi at showrooms all over the country.

SnippetyOggy86 - 1991 BMW M3 E30
Fuel Mixture Review = - 5 PI Points

(Your crew chief has been in contact with the home factory, and the team has a lot of new parts developed just in time for this race. While all drivers received an additional 10 PI for their upgrades, BMW drivers get +15 in an effort to bring victory to Germany ).

To clarify, if you already received a bonus from the results of the previous race, this week's "breaking news" bonus will stack with that. Additionally, if you got a bonus from week 1 and missed week 2, you can still carry that bonus into week 3 now, plus the extra 10 or 15 from the breaking news above.

The lack of aero around Nurb Short is really noticeable. My car is all over the track and trying to get consistent lap times seems impossible at the moment.

Edit: I changed the build and the car is a lot more settled now. Those extra 15 PI sure helped.

A very familiar trailer pulled up earlier this morning sporting a MTN Dew logo and a 7 on the side, which meant the return of the ever loving Robert Thomas. Thomas, who gets out of his rental car behind the trailer, looking refreshed(and sporting a new haircut) walked into the conference room and sat down to answer a myriad of questions including "where was he last weekend?".

Thomas: "Me and the BMW Factory Team could not organize a flight for me to get from my home in Lititz to the track in time, I eventually did get to the track, but I got there about 1 1/2 hours after the race had already concluded, I was not happy with them as I told them that if they want me to be a representative of their team, they should get me to the tracks in time before the race".

All of a sudden, the door opens and walks in Steve LeTarte, Rob's former crew chief who led him to his first career wins back in 2010, and sat down right next to Rob, looked at him and said "sheesh you got here early" followed by laughter from the press. 

"I am also here to announce that Jason Ratcliffe is no longer my crew chief, our relationship was irreparable after Camino Viejo, we only conversed once since the race and that was when I told him that I was moving on with another crew chief, I wanna thank Jason for helping me get this BMW off to a good start, but the performance just was not to my expectations and I should have did better, Steve and myself have a great relationship on and off the track, he's lead me to wins and I am excited to announce that he is now once again my full time crew chief, I am also here to announce that I am no longer sponsored by Efficient Dynamics, and that MTN Dew, with their Diet brand, will sponsor the car for the rest of the year, I have been with MTN Dew in 1 way shape or form my entire racing career and I am proud to have them back on as my main sponsor, I wanna thank Efficient Dynamics for being a great sponsor and I will love to work with them again in the near future"

MTN Dew has been Thomas' sponsor since 2010

Bad luck was the term of the day for the Mazdaspeed Motorsports team. Driver x DeadTaco x was prepped and ready for racing weekend at the Nurburgring GP circuit in Nurburg, Germany, when he received a call from Mazdaspeed Motorsports chief engineer David Smith, who revealed to x DeadTaco x that the #11 Mazda RX-7 was not ready for the weekend, as issues with parts, due to their allowance of more parts from last week, caused the car to not be ready in time.

Much to x DeadTaco x's dismay, he was then forced to remain at home in Minot, ND, and miss the esteemed race at the Nurburgring GP circuit. When asked for his opinion on what happened at the garage with the car, he simply remarked, "As irritating as it is, there is always next week, so no harm done."

Firestone Grand Touring World Championship Magazine-
"We are happy to report that Team Camaro will be showing up for their first race at Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The team has had several problems getting the car ready, and you would think being a factory based team, they would have the best parts, Chevy Racing has come out and said that with the development of newer technologies for 1993 that they are having to retest the parts to configure them to the correct specifications allowed in both the GT Lights and GTWC racing series. The cars which look very similar painted, with the GTWC paint being inverted from the GT Light variant, are finally within specifications to race this weekend. It will be a great showing if they can manage to beat the home-team, the Germans. Of course everything will be up to the race conditions and happenings in Germany this week. I have heard that the Head of the GTWC will be giving a full race report for the weekend here in the next few days, and we will definitely be looking out for that." -Reported by Amanda Ryes

"To win here at Nurburgring, in a BMW, where for 60 mins I passed BMW signs and went underneath the BMW bridge, I dedicate this win to all of them amazing workers and the trophy will gladly go into BMW's Motorsports Trophy case"

Those are the words of a very joyous Rob Thomas said to Firestone Grand Touring World Championship Magazine writer Amanda Ryes. Thomas, who started on Pole and won Sunday's race, had a very dominant performance, but admitted to Amanda that at one point he was very nervous.

"When I saw Andy in the other BMW catching me, then all of a sudden I look in my mirror and he was gone, and the rumors was that it was internal with the car, I got scared because the difference b/w our 2 cars is that the paintjobs, I gotta meet up with him sometime before Hockenheim next weekend and see what went wrong and see if my team can give any assistance."

When asked how does it feel to end the 2 year winless streak, as his new crew chief Steve Letarte walked over to embrace him, he replied "This man right here" pointing towards Letarte, "This man is the biggest cheerleader you can possibly have, he kept telling me that my laptimes were consistent, they were quick and I was stretching out my lead, it was a great feeling to be leading a race and know that the only thing that can stop you would be a divine intervention, I sorta know how Andy feels on a regular basis, but this whole team deserved it, they have been with me through thick and thin, I am so enjoyed to finally have a win under my belt and I will make sure this win last a long time."

He turned around, gave a kiss to his girlfriend, and went to celebrate with  his team as a very joyous Rob Thomas celebrates his win in the GTWC race.

Now the main question is, can Rob go back to back and win at Hockenheim? He seemed confident, but only time will tell

Congrats on the win team MTN dew, unfortunately we suffered an ECU failure which ended our race prematurely. Yes we were catching ever so slightly but passing would have been hard with our old spec cars. You drove well and thoroughly deserved the win, well done.

Dom, why hasn't this been updated ???

* Race Event - If at first you don't succeed...

 
The Firestone World Touring Championship made its first stop in Germany last weekend at the Nurburgring GP circuit, where BMW dominated from flag to flag.  The #01 All Wired Up team topped the field in the GT Lights race ahead of Toyota's first podium appearance of the series.  After an apparent ECU failure took him out of the running for the lead in the GTWC event, Robert Thomas was able to glide to victory in his BMW for that team's first win.
 
Despite the local publicity, the series has thus far struggled to attract enough teams to support a full season.  For the upcoming race in Hockenheim, Firestone signed a partnership with Volkswagen to run their Golf Cup during the GTWC event, which will put the Golf GTi 16v Mk2 alongside the race tuned machines on the same track.  Despite the lackluster profile of the series, the manufacturers participating still need to make an impression while in Germany, and so Ford and Mazda are expected to make another push before leaving the country.
 
(Teams that did not finish on the podium at Nurburgring will receive +5 PI for Hockenheim.  Multiclass race will take place during the GTWC with AI cars on track.)
 
GT Lights
1. Snip - 45 points
2. Ripped - 33 points
3. Dominic - 29 points
4. Badboy - 21 points
5. Bobbo - 10 points
6t. Retpetty - 7 points
6t. Taco - 7 points
8. Om3ga - 6 points
 
GTWC
1. Ripped - 33 points
2. Snip - 30 points
3. Dominic - 30 points
4. Badboy - 24 points
5. Bobbo - 23 points
6t. Retpetty - 8 points
6t. Taco - 8 points
9. Om3ga - 6 points
 
- Driver PI Adjustments -
 
Ripped - 1992 Nissan Silvia CLUB Ks
GT Lights: Fail to beat Toyota OR Mazda in class: +5 PI points
 
BadBoy - 1992 Toyota Supra 2.0 GT Twin Turbo
GT Lights: Fail to win in class: +10 PI
GTWC: Fail to win in class: +10 PI
 
Retpetty - 1993 Ford Mustang SVT Cobra R
GT Lights: Fail to win in class and Fail to Podium at Nurb GP: +10 PI
GTWC: Fail to win in class and Fail to Podium at Nurb GP: +10 PI
 
Dominic Mako - 1990 Mazda Savanna RX-7
GT Lights: Fail to finish top two in class, Fail to beat Toyota OR Nissan in class, Fail to Podium at Nurb GP: +20 PI points
GTWC: Fail to finish top two in class, Fail to beat Toyota OR Nissan in class, Fail to Podium at Nurb GP: +20 PI points

Quick question,

"1992 Toyota Supra 2.0 GT Twin Turbo
* Toyota is the sleeping giant, capable of shoveling in huge amounts of cash at any given moment, but lack the motivation to turn any racing success into sales.  Can you prove them wrong?
- Fail to win in class: +10 PI
- Fail to beat Nissan AND Mazda in class: +5 PI points",

Does this mean I get 15 for the lights and 20 for the GTWC in total? The post above says 10 for both (not including the "non podium" bit, I take it)?

I answered in the shoutbox, but to clarify for everyone else, Badboy is getting +10 in both because he was on the podium for both races in Nurb, he only lost to Nissan (and not to both nissan AND mazda), but he failed to win either race.  This gave him the +10 bonus.

Well done again, Bobbo. You sure are on a roll

Week four of the Firestone World Grand Touring Championship provided two exciting event, as Mazda and BMW dueled for the lead down to the final flag.  BMW proved to be too much for the competition yet again, sweeping every race to date.  The results are listed below.

GT Lights
1. bobbo
2. dominic
3. ripped
4. badboy
5. family

GTWC
1. bobbo
2. dominic
3. ripped
4. badboy
5. family (dnf)

With the series traveling to Japan, Nissan, Mazda, and Toyota look for the opportunity to shake the Bavarian stranglehold.  Unfortunately, tragedy has struck.  A magnitude 7.8 earthquake off Hokkaidō, Japan launched a devastating tsunami that killed 202 on the small island of Okushiri, Hokkaido.  As a result, the race organizers are expecting a very small showing and ticket sales.  Both the GT Lights and WGTC races will take place on the shorter Twin Ring Motegi East.  There is pride in Japan as they rally around the victims.  All Japanese manufacturers get +5PI.

Badboy - 1992 Toyota Supra 2.0 GT Twin Turbo
GT Lights: Fail to win in class, Fail to beat Nissan AND Mazda in class, Motegi boost - +20 PI
GTWC: Fail to win in class, Fail to beat Nissan AND Mazda in class, Motegi boost - +20 PI

Ripped - 1992 Nissan Silvia CLUB Ks
GT Lights: Fail to beat Toyota OR Mazda in class & Motegi Boost - +10 PI
GTWC: Fail to podium in class, Motegi Boost - +10 PI

I came 3rd in both races, so make that +10 PI in the GTWC.

Weird, I wonder why I wrote the result down incorrectly. Oh well, I'll adjust that above.

Supra and S13

Congrats again, Bobbo. Another great double win.

I think it's fair to say my extra PI showed in race 1. Although I couldn't keep up with Bobbo, I had a comfortable 2nd place. Also, I'll be the first to admit, earned me a position in the GTWC race as well. The Toyota's were battling the whole 45 mins (with me running last, but I'll gloss over that   ) with an obvious power v. handling thing going on. Don't think the distance ever went higher than the 200's and we were within 10-50 on average (excepting the start/finish straight). That was an epic race, MSMX6, look forward to more of the same

I thought the PI was still stacking like it was in previous races. Anyway, I had some good racing, the first race especially.

Race #1 Results
1. bobbo
2. badboy
3. msmx6
4. ripped
5. dominic

Race #2 Results
1. bobbo
2. dominic
3. ripped
4. badboy
5. msmx6

MSMX6 - 1992 Toyota Supra 2.0 GT Twin Turbo
GT Lights: Fail to win in class: +10 PI
GTWC: Fail to win in class & Fail to beat Nissan AND Mazda in class: +15

Ripped - 1992 Nissan Silvia CLUB Ks
GT Lights: Fail to podium in class & Fail to beat Toyota OR Mazda in class: +10
GTWC: Fail to beat Toyota OR Mazda in class: +5PI

Badboy - 1992 Toyota Supra 2.0 GT Twin Turbo
GT Lights: Fail to win in class: +10PI
GTWC: Fail to win in class & Fail to beat Nissan AND Mazda in class: +15

Dominic Mako - 1990 Mazda Savanna RX-7
GT Lights: Fail to finish top two in class & Fail to beat Toyota OR Nissan in class: +15PI

The weather has been cloudy and drizzling all week. As a result, the track will be slightly damp but drying. The GT Lights race only will have a 5% grip handicap at Tsukuba.

It's doubtful I'll make this Sunday, I've got a birthday dinner to attend.

If you're able to make the next event, the bonuses you have from this week will carry over into that event.