We can’t tell you how many hours and dollars we have wasted grasping for the next racing title to hit our consoles. There are some real gems out there: Need for Speed Porsche Unleashed, Forza Motorsports 6, GTR-2, DIRT, the Need for Speed Underground Series, Gran Turismo 2 and admittedly even iRacing. But for every diamond, there are 4 turds that come out alongside them, for instance: Horizon, WRC Rally, Project Gotham, Viper Racing, Ride, Project Cars, Ridge Racer, Test Drive: Unlimited … the giant digital swirly goes on and on.
After debut, Forza 7 (FM7) was headed “down the tubes” – plagued with issues, bugs and constant patches. It was nearly unusable in multiplayer mode. Some would argue it was really “Forza 6 – Service Pack 2” — a very typical Microsoft strategy. In retrospect, for all its faults, Forza 6 (FM6) was a strong offering, solid and reliable.
Early in Series I the commissioners had almost committed to ditching FM7 and returning to FM6 for the duration of the winter. Since October 2017 when FM7 hits the shelves it’s been consistently upgraded and stabilized, is it perfect?, No… but much like high performance driving in the real world, we adapt and overcome.
Series I – “the Super Bowl Series” was our first foray into FM7 with an organized league, building off our experience and past successes with the FM6 league. Series I was designed to be “the Greatest Hits album” of all the previous series we had completed, giving folks a taste of what it’s all been about. After a while, there are only so many combinations of races and gimmicks one can devise to keep people interested and engaged in a long running program like this. We needed something new.
With that said, Series II – was no small undertaking. Having learned some very meaningful lessons about league management from “the Glencident” during the 2017 season, having a “series based on real life” like the ALMS/Tudor was now considered taboo. Admittedly, we lost a lot of good racers during that time, but the desire to try again has always been there.
After attending the Rolex-24 in Daytona in early 2018, the commissioners decided to revisit the idea of “simulating a real world racing schedule.” Rolex or maybe the lack of sleep that weekend gave them hope and inspiration it could be done. Soon after, they began to develop the “Ultimate Motorsports Series” — promising to keep it new, fresh, and full of competition. The premise of the series was to host/score FOUR independent Tiers of racing classes in one event, while minimizing confusion, incidents and fostering some really good racing – just like IMSA.
Without getting too scientific about how the series works, the four tiers break down in their simplest forms as :
- Tier X – Unlimited Class / RWYB (Run What You Brung)
- Tier 1 – Prototypes / LMP
- Tier 2 – GTLM / GT2
- Tier 3 – GTE / GTC / GT3 / GT4
Despite the ever growing rule book for our League, the commissioners were able to revisit and create rules that really helped everyone stay engaged in the series despite work/travel schedules getting in the way. One of the biggest improvements we’d like to highlight is the concept of a “Phone It In.” Modeled after similar configurations found in a Bowling League, participants that can’t race live have a set period of time to complete/submit their results so as to not take a Zero for the week. Many people leveraged this option and we’re rather proud of the success. Not to mention the tension it brought to the Tiers – not knowing where/when points would appear for an absent racer.
But enough, jibber-jabber about the way the series was run, let’s move on to how the series ended – now for the results…
The color coded nightmare that was multi-tier scoring, we’ll move on to the results.
>drum roll<
Tier 3 – GTE / GTC / GT3 / GT4 (aka “S-class”)
Congratulations Tier 3! – in 3rd place was Kerwin W using a wide assortment of Open-Wheel Racers. Kerwin held 1st in Tier 3 for more than three quarters of the series before Parker and Tania made their final push. Jumping to 2nd place was Parker H with his Polestar Volvo S60 and stealing the lead in 1st place… Tania M with her Rotek Audi S3.
Tania M – 2014 Rotek Audi S3 (left), Parker H – 2014 Polestar Volvo S60 (right).
Tier 3 was arguably the most contested Tier in the Series, with the points gap staying within a few points of separation until the very end. The final spread was 139 (1st) – 125 (2nd) and 117 (3rd). Good work Tier 3, we know it was a tough battle for the drivers and we enjoyed every minute of the action. #GonnaHaveToWait. #10minuteracetimer.
Tier 2 – GTLM / GT2 (aka “R-spec”)
Congratulations Tier 2! – In a surprising 3rd place finish was Sam H, running with enough fuel to finish 50% of the series! In 2nd place was Brad N flipping between BMW and Mercedes as his weapon of choice. And in a true underdog / “come-back-kid” story, starting mid-series was new comer and long time friend of Sam H, Don C, leveraging his Lancia Beta MonteCarlo for his 1st place finish. Well done! #smallgastank
Don Corso – 1980 Lancia Beta Montecarlo (left), Brad N – 2014 BMW Z4 GTE (right)
Tier 1 – Prototypes / LMP
Congratulations Tier 1! – Flip, then Flop – Flip, then Flop. That’s the story of Tier 1. Swapping and Battling from week to week. 3rd place went to Peter B in a variety of vehicles, while a battle between Mazda and Mercedes boiled. In the end, 2nd place went to Ben S with his killer tri-rotor 787B Mazda and 1st place to Eric M in the ground thumping V8-turbo Sauber-Benz. #groundeffects. #ismelldiesel. #pitlanefinish. #realracersdriveprototypes.
Eric M – 1998 Sauber-Benz C9 (left), Ben S – 1991 Mazda 787B (right)
Tier X – Unlimited Class / RWYB (Run What You Brung)
“By the end, everyone will be in Tier X,” we heard frequently. This class was dominated mostly by Formula 1 cars with staggering speed and equally ballistic lap times compared to the rest of the field. But we have to tip our hats to the Tier X drivers for being some of the most respectful out there to the lower classes, waiting for “point bys” … even if their Autopilot post-Race Drones are jerks 😉 #dronesarelive.
3rd place in Tier X went to Peter B. With a huge push to make up points after leaving Tier 2 – and giving Doug some chase, 2nd place went to Brad N. To “Mr. Renault F1” the spoils of war – 1st place was Doug T’s to lose!
Doug T – 2017 Renault R.S.17
> and now… for the overall championship <
We have to give a big shout out to Parker H (Tier 3) for his last minute rally – jumping into 5th place overall with 79 championship points! In 4th place with 115 points Eric M (Tier 1), in 3rd place… Brad N (Tier 2) with 120 points. A last minute leapfrog into 2nd place by Ben S (Tier 1) with 128 pts …. and our newest Forza Series Champion… with 152 pts out of a possible 200. please join us in congratulating Doug T (Tier X) as Series II champ!
Congratulations DOUG!
> rabble, rabble, rabble — applause <
Doug T was quoted in a post-championship interview via Facebook as saying “I’d like to thank faster cars and sake. Without both I couldn’t have achieved greatness. I’m the best there ever was. I basically wake up and piss excellence.” #onlyDoug. #thatKYassASSin22
… oh and one last minute shout out to Brad N for putting up with a lot of grief during practice, it’s going to be hard for him to live down “the Miranda Lambert Concert…” but he does deserve some praise for being the highest combined points earner across all tiers with a massive 290 pts. Looking back over the entire League, but with FM7-Series II specifically, we feel we finally got the recipe right, and really feel this series was a lot of fun. The boffins back at the lab will definitely have a hard time topping this one – So What’s Next? Well, to quote one of the most memorable lines of this series…
Thank you ALL for participating, without members like You, none of this would be possible! #WhenDoesForza-8-Debut?
