The One Where the Race Director Shouldn't Have Phoned It In
Race Director's Notes: I wildly underestimated just how seriously this racing series was being taken. Gran Turismo 7, freshly released, sure looked like it was sucking up everyone's attention. It had never entered my mind that anyone would seriously be testing and tuning on all four of the Dragon Trails track configurations, and I certainly saw no evidence that was the case in the intervening weeks since round 6.
As I wrote in the run-up to Round 7, my overwhelming desire was for the final round to exemplify the kind of close, competitive racing we'd seen previously this season. Dragon Trails seemed like a good choice when the schedule was originally published, but neither Dragon Trails circuits are particularly well suited for anything more than high-speed follow-the-leader in these N200 cars. The tracks are wide, and there's no real race-craft required. They're all about who's got the bigger set of attachments, and that only makes for good stories about amazing saves. It's not good racing.
Wednesday afternoon before the race begat Wednesday evening before the race, the deadline for announcing the venue was looming, and I was even less close to making a decision than when the season began.
It was Wednesday evening, after dinner, when I was digging out a 4-sided die I could roll to choose the course when I decided. In what I can only call a spur of the moment impulse, I simply decided that changing the circuit would have the best chances of producing the kind of racing I was seeking. This choice was entirely mine, without any advice or input from anyone else. No one had any advance notice this was happening. The racing that resulted was what I'd hoped for. It required guile and race craft over raw speed or testicular fortitude.
Could I have done a better job of communicating? In retrospect, yes, but venue change wasn't without precedent. The Winter 2021 series saw a last minute change from a published venue, and that change was accepted in the light-hearted spirit it was intended. I had no reason to suspect this time would be different.
DDRS has never been a serious series like GTSport's Nations Cup, or the FIA races. From the get-go, I've viewed it more as a kind of fantasy role playing game that revolves around racing. That's why this website, the race back stories, the cheesy "trophies", all of it exists.
The focus has been close, respectful racing with a great group of drivers. Exactly the kind of racing you don't normally see in the officially sanctioned GTSport events. I think we achieved that goal quite well. There's not a single driver that's competed in the series that I wouldn't want to go wheel to wheel again. On track and in the chats, the DDRS competitors have been a great fit with each other, all up and down the grid.
To the Winter 2022 Series competitors, let me say Thank You to each and every one of of you for a great series. Congratulations to MR2RAT and PRG-MBURG23 for what was a hammer and tong battle right up to the end. Congratulations to PRG_TheJudge for a hard fought battle for the final podium step, ultimately decided by a single championship bonus point. It didn't exactly go his way, but it was phenomenally close and literally decided in the penultimate corner of the final race.
My compliments to edminus1 and his 1-point margin over 6th place normal804. If the DDRS had a Most Improved Driver award, it would have gone to him. He scored his first win this season, got his first pole position, and became a surprisingly strong all-around competitor. More impressive is that he's doing it all on a controller. Well done! Plus, kudos to SDJ_19 for scoring some lap-lead bonus points, PRG_FastWilly for being annoyingly quick at times, and normal804 for being the guy that consistently snuck his way up to the front of the field race after race.
And a final note... Following up on my thoughts on GT7 a few weeks ago: the Winter 2022 series is the last that I plan on running in GTSport. Round 7 is the end of the line. It's possible I may pick the series up again in the fall on GT7, but it will depend largely on whether some of its major flaws can or will be fixed.
Round 7 Results
| Race 1 | Race2 | Race 3 | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Driver | Tire | Ballast | Qual Time | Grid Pos | Race Pos | Lead Lap? | Fast Lap? | Tire | Ballast | Race Pos | Lead Lap? | Fast Lap? | Tire | Ballast | Race Pos | Lead Lap? | Fast Lap? | Points |
| itc42 | S | 99 | 02:33.768 | 1 | 1 | x | x | H | 100 | 3 | M | 99 | 3 | 53 | ||||
| MR2RAT | H | 100 | 02:36.441 | 5 | 5 | M | 98 | 2 | S | 99 | 1 | x | x | 50 | ||||
| normal804 | M | 97 | 02:36.254 | 4 | 3 | S | 99 | 1 | x | x | H | 100 | 7 | 46 | ||||
| edminus1 | S | 98 | 02:34.424 | 2 | 2 | H | 99 | 4 | M | 98 | 4 | 43 | ||||||
| PRG_TheJudge | H | 98 | 02:37.148 | 7 | 7 | M | 97 | 5 | S | 98 | 2 | x | 38 | |||||
| SDJ_19 | S | 96 | 02:34.916 | 3 | 4 | H | 98 | 6 | M | 97 | 6 | x | 34 | |||||
| coriracer7 | M | 97 | 02:36.603 | 6 | 6 | H | 97 | 7 | S | 97 | 5 | 30 | ||||||
