Hello one and all. Welcome to the latest edition of TORA news.
It’s been a while since we’ve released a written article like this so I do hope you guys will enjoy this as much as I have writing it. But I do personally want to thank the staff of TORA for giving me this fabulous opportunity. And I hope to do you all justice when it comes to publicity.

We kick things off first with the TORA photo competition which is drawing ever nearer to its conclusion. This time, we’ve asked the community to produce some offroad themed pictures. We’ve had some fantastic entries this time and many thanks to all those who have entered for the great prize of in game credits & DLC codes for Forza Motorsport 5.
You guys (and girls) have until May 28th to submit your votes so be quick. You can submit your votes via the link below:

http://forums.theonlineracingassociation.com/t13358-photo-competition-05-vote



After the cancellation of the very short lived GP Classic Series on Forza 5, XPR Devil is organising the modern equivalent in the TORA Grand Prix Championship. This will be a 6 round championship which begins with the opening round on June 29th from Catalunya GP & finishes on September at the Yas Marina circuit. The car of choice will be the Lotus Renault E21.
From the entry list so far, this series seems to be more popular than the ill fated Classics. So if you’re a massive fan of Formula one and would like to enter, please register with TORA first (if you haven’t already) and then for the series via the link below:

http://forums.theonlineracingassociation.com/t13202-msa-tora-gp-series-registration

Just to tempt you, here’s the brilliant little teaser created by the series organiser, XPR Devil





Starting with all the action on Forza 5, we kick off with the fourth round of the TORA GT Championship from the Sebring International Raceway. As is typical with the Florida weather, Sebring was a bask of hot weather, bright sunshine all the way through the race weekend.
Qualifying was extremely close with the Aston Martin Vanquish of AR Forbidden taking pole position by just under two tenths of a second. The top 6 cars were covered by just under half a second. But in the race, it was the Virtual SRT Motorsport 2 Dodge Viper of XPR Devil who claimed victory for the American brand on home soil. The final two podium positions were filled by another two Aston Martins of ONR EagleEye and HotRockin.
In the drivers standings, ONR EagleEye still holds the top spot with a 164 points advantage ahead of XPR Devil with Blacky Mojo a further 10 points back. Screw The Pooch Racing lead the teams championship by 140 points from Virtual SRT Motorsport 2 and Black Death Racing are sitting third, but are a distant 542 points from the lead.
The next round of the series will be the championships penultimate race from Spa Francorchamps on Sunday June 1st.



Speaking of Spa, we move on now to the Pro Endurance Championship which was hosted at the world famous Belgium circuit on May 17th. Unusually for this part of the world, the weather was absolutely pleasant for the drivers as they had to tackle this monster of a circuit, but also take on one of the most difficult and challenging corners on earth, Eau Rouge.
The Audi Sport Jamaica of I Ricky Tan I set a blistering pace in qualifying session to take overall pole position by just under 8 tenths of a second from the three Red Sonja cars of F4H Rosso,  F4H Chrisupra and F4H Trash. In the GT class, V12 SCHIWO was the front followed by BG Smithy and XPR EGGY. The latter two drivers were covered by an astonishing three thousandths of a second.
However, in the race, things changed dramatically when Ricky was forced to retire in the race leaving the way to Red Sonja team to take all three steps of the podium in LMP. Rosso claimed the victory from Trash in second and Chrisupra third. In GT, BG Wumba was victorious ahead of F4H Ghost and XPR Devil.
After the first round, it’s a little early to determine who’s gonna shine out as the victor in this championship. As you are all too aware, anything can happen in racing and it usually does.
The next round of the Pro Endurance is this Saturday May 31st from the Road Atlanta circuit.



We move on now to some Forza 4 action by starting with the recently completed third round of the TORA Tascar championship, the Bacardi 151 from the Sedona Circuit.
In this famous Ford vs GM battle, this race definitely belonged to GM as the Chevrolets filled the three podium finishes with XPR ChicaiN taking the chequered flag from his team mate XPR Soundwave and the Ax4x Hailfire Racing machine of VAMR Wilson finishing a fine third.
Because of the points system, the championship is extremely close with Soundwave leading the way with 445 points, just 5 points clear of his team mate ChicaiN and a three way tie for third with LMR DarthMario, IBlueIJaBBRexI and VAMR Wilson all on 438 points.
Round four will be hosted this Saturday May 31st from the Infineon circuit.



The second round of the TORA US GT Series was held at the Suzuka circuit on Sunday May 25th. After two hotly contested races, it was the Corvette Racing Team LMR pilot of LMR Deftone MX who claimed two overall victories in Lobby A. Koenigsegg R, who claimed second in the overall points for this event, finished second in the first race followed by a third place in race two. Rainonef1 claimed the third podium position in race one and wowTHATSgarbage placed himself into second position in the second race.
After the second round, LMR Deftone MX is the overall leader in the series with a 13 points advantage from Koenigsegg R and third place currently belongs to LMR WARSPITE.
Round three will be hosted on Sunday June 8th from the Infinion Raceway (Long Course configuration).



Finally, we bring you the TORA Spec cup. This is now the second incarnation of this series in 2014 with the drivers contesting in the rather interesting Hyundai Veloster Turbo. Four rounds have now passed with only two remaining. And the current leader of the series is HCR Hamish with 400, 19 ahead of LMR Mad Friday and HCR Bellmond is lying in third place in the points table. The top 5 in the championship are separated by only 50 with CarbonViper93 fourth and THO Shooter in fifth.
Be sure to find out what will happen in this fiercely contested championship as the penultimate event will be hosted on May 28th from Sebring International Raceway (Short configuration).

And that’s it for TORA news folks. Many thanks for taking the time to read this. Be sure to stick around for the next edition.

For now, Happy Racing!

Author: Daniel Austins (ATR DAN)