VTCC Friday Night Spec - The Resurrection

Thankfully for the majority of the rest of the field had better entertainment during the evening and heres a few more photos not featuring a battered #16 Opel Kadett.













The full collection from this series as well as all the previous series can be found on the VTCC Facebook Page or the Wheelwash Racing Media Facebook Page

Well, its safe to say that the Forza Servers tried to destroy Round Five at Rio Coastal Loop, even with the big guy looking down from Sugarloaf Mountain. Race one was fine, but then the gremlins started to move in and in the end, race three became void and turned into a Demolition Derby, of which hopefully Kev gets a few pictures as he was the only member of the VTCC staff that didnt get disconnected and those of us spectating the event, well it made up for the lack of being able to race.



With at least one round now deducted from the entire table, the final standings are close, with the top three cars in Mikebrfc, PLOW tubbi and Speed Dem0n 64 covered by just nine points.





















Next week and a trip to Lime Rock Park, which is never a bad deal. It will be the West Chicane Circuit and not a confetti cannon in sight.

The full collection from this series as well as all the previous series can be found on the VTCC Facebook Page or the Wheelwash Racing Media Facebook Page

Rules & Regulations

An Introduction

The Nissan GT-R has been around a while, you may well have noticed just in the last series held here on the VTCC the popularity of the 1971 version amongst the competitors in That 70's Show, which certainly took the staff at VTCC by surprise as we thought it was going to be a bit heavy on the shorter circuits in the series. The Skyline name actually goes back as far as 1955 and wasnt even a Nissan at that point.



In 1989, the Nissan Skyline and the GT-R name were revived and like the Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth was taking the European Touring Car Record books and shredding them, the Nissan Skyline GT-R R32 did exactly the same in Japan and Australia.

The car was not only popular in Japan, the only country is was made, but worldwide as the import markets went through the roof in the United Kingdom and North America. Films like Fast & The Furious, the worldwide drift scene expanding, the Nissan Skyline GT-R has become the only true supercar from Japan, all available at a low price compared with other cars with the similar performance.



So for Season Six of the revamped VTCC, we have the 1993 Nissan Skyline GT-R V-Spec R32, the small twist for this series, very limited tuning, with just tyre pressures, gearing, braking and diff available to tune on the car. The Anti-Roll bars can be adjusted as well, as the difference between sport and race doesnt change anything.

For this season, all six events will have race one in the daylight, and race two at night, which with the Reverse Ten grid will provide an extra challenge for the competitors, well except Moo, as he is a strange nocturnal creature thats rumoured to have night vision goggles for eyes.

Qualifying

Qualifying will be starting at 20:00 UK Time, invites will be sent out from 19:45 so a quick response would be appreciated. Qualifying will be over just three laps, and as always, clean laps count above dirty laps, so no pressure then on the new configurations. The lobby will be set to 5 laps. Lap 1 will be your outlap, Laps 2, 3 and 4 your flying qualifying laps and after completion of Lap 4, if you could pull over at Turn One of Lap 5 so the lobby host can gather the times.



The Races

There will be two races per round, the first race will be set on the qualifying times and be a rolling start, the line up getting in position during this initial lap. The rolling lap speed will be 50mph and cars will be lined up in a single line rolling formation. The Pole Position winner will also be in charge of the start.

In a similar way to the starts in NASCAR and the restarts in IndyCar, there will be two designated points in the race day thread, the man in pole position can start anywhere between these two points and DOES NOT have to announce to the rest of the field when to go, theres no Green Green Green, 321 Go, the start is solely on the man in pole position.

Race Two will be a reverse ten grid, thus meaning the driver that finished 10th in race one will be in pole position for race two. If you lagout of race one, you will have to start at the back of the grid in Race Two.

The start for Race Two will also be a 50mph rolling start, the difference this time being single file, again the man in pole position is in charge of the start, he can go at any point between the designated point given in the race day thread. There is NO OVERTAKING before the start finish line, if the single file line stacks up from eager beavers you can pull out of line to avoid a collision, but must not pass before the start finish line.

Theres NO RESTARTS in any VTCC Events, unless in an extreme circumstance of a huge lagbomb. The restart rule on many sites have become a bit of a joke, the call is usually placed on a lobby host that may not see an incident, so we have a simple No Restart policy. In the real world of motorsports, accidents at the start of races, happen, its not nice if your the innocent victim, but it happens. With the cars being repairable in the pits and the points for places counting, every position may matter in a title challenge, so bite the bullet, get fixed up and aim to make a few position back up. Luck is a two way thing and your downfall may be a welcome positive for someone else, its swings and roundabouts as the saying goes.

We will however come down hard on any revenge tactics or bad sportsmanship, these events are aimed as some light hearted racing to enjoy for an evening, we dont mind banter during a race, endless conversations, no but a good rival exchange during a battle on the track, yes. If your mind set is i must win everything, this is probably not the right site for you. Points Dont Make Prizes Here!!

The penultimate round of Season Five, That 70's Show, saw the teams descending on Lime Rock Park, for three races around the West Chicane layout, the tight tricky layout, especially around the west chicane section making it tough on the selection of cars, especially if your called Moo, who spent most of the evening lying in the tyre barrier having seemingly forgotten on the simple task of how to drive a car on a pad.

The three way scrap at the top of the table was down a man this week, as unfortunately Speed Dem0n 64 had a prior commitment, but with PLOW tubbi taking two wins and mikebrfc also taking a win, just two points seperate them before the grand finale next Friday at Bathurst.

We shall start this week's photo collection with Slider S15, sporting a gold paint on the RS1800 on the 6th anniversary of a series victory on his home site at TORA, a brave man running a gold paint with so many Scots in the field, who of course would have it stripped and weighed in before sunrise!!















This week's acid tab paint scheme goes to XB6 Broomzke, who is not only mad for racing at 3am, but judging by his paint scheme on the replays last night, had slipped back to 1989 and dancing in the middle of the field to the crazy vibes.









Next Friday sees the Grand Finale to Season Five, 25 laps of Bathurst, so to celebrate, we are all turning up at XB6 Broomzke's pad and throwing Moo on the barbecue for a beer and burger night, Happy Days!!

The full collection from this series as well as all the previous series can be found on the VTCC Facebook Page or the Wheelwash Racing Media Facebook Page

The Grand Finale to Season Five saw 15 drivers in the Bathurst Pits for a 25 lapper around Australia's premier motorsports venue. Being the last round, a small twist with the Championship Points scored so far leading to a one hundred foot gap on the starting grid, which basically gave the Championship leaders a bit of a task to gain maximum points from this round and it came down to a maiden win for ShortyGoFast, holding off the pursuing power of PLOW tubbi by just three seconds, which starting the race 8600 feet apart, was an amazing chase down.



Small consolation for PLOW tubbi is taking the overall Championship, ahead of mikebrfc who certainly won story of the night and who knows, it may even be on the Twitch feed from JBBTHEFOX, just make sure the kids arent listening.

The Bathurst owners would like to thank all the drivers for keeping the pits clean and tidy, they just need an extra pair of hands or two to pick up all the bloody tyres from the tyre barriers before the Bathurst 1000, a trend which started as early as Lap One from ENS Cerberus.





















A big thank you to everyone who took part in the series, the regular pieces of media from JBBTHEFOX and Slider S15, some amazing paints on display, the PG Tips from Paul299 being a particular favourite of mine, XB6 Broomzke seeming to have a different paint every round Flyin Mikey J went all out on while organizing his own series on TORA.



We hope you enjoyed the series, from the team behind the scenes here at the VTCC, it ran just the way we intended when we decided to make a return last September, a group of friends having some good clean racing with a laugh and joke added along the way. So thank you to each and everyone of those that took part and we hope to see you back again soon, we run the majority of Friday's trying all sorts of different ideas and series.

The full collection from this series as well as all the previous series can be found on the VTCC Facebook Page

You could hear a pin drop in the night race, last night, i know i was in the zone so sorry if anyone wanted any info after the green flag dropped, i was concentrating that hard that i didnt even notice my wife had gone to bed as she had to be up early this morning. A great wee twist for the series, a few photos from the opening round.

















The full collection of photos which features all the daylight shots from Race One, can be found in the VTCC Season 6 Album on Flickr as well as the VTCC Facebook Page

Unfortunately the body decided that having fun on a Friday Night was going involve lying in bed listening to some Five Finger Death Punch, so not a complete loss. It did however mean that i missed out on Daytona International, again!!

So as treat, because i only watched as far as lap two in the replay before the tv was taken over by Nickeloden Jr and my youngest son, heres a load of pretty pictures.















and then in race two as the lights came on and action really started and an appearance from XB6 Broomzke, celebrating the joys of Aussie Racing with a 4am start time for the racing, commitment, you cant fail to admire it!!

Round Three of the Skyline Series saw the first opportunity to hit Le Mans Circuit de la Sarthe in the month of June, rumour has it theres a big race held their in a fortnight, thats outside in the real world or the virtual version on TORA next weekend.

Qualifying was a one lap shootout for the ten drivers in attendance this week, and of those ten, only two managed clean laps, thus meaning they shared the front row of the opening sprint race. Slider S15 must have had an appointment somewhere in between races as he simply disappeared out in front as the rest of the cars grab there battle heads on, ShortyGoFast ran a distant second popping herself on top of the championship standings, with ATP Ginge rounding out the podium in the four lap sprint.













This weeks failing in the random drug test was ENS Cerberus, who's blue white and pink Wakos paint is usually not very hard to miss, but for the opening race, carried the acid tab colour scheme which seems to happen at least once every week. Thankfully, the problem had gone for the Night Time feature race, which of course being at Le Mans meant nobody saw it due to the lack of lighting on the Circuit de la Sarthe.









Daytona Dreams and ATP Ginge had a slight coming together heading into Mulsanne on the opening lap of the night race, mainly as one of them completely forgot to brake, while the other was used as the brake and did a fine impression of a Curling stone in somehow missing the rest of the field while sliding across the track into the gravel area.



This did leave ATP Ginge with a problem for the remainder of the opening lap



yes, your right, no front lights, which around Le Mans does give you a slight issue of not being able to see where he was going, hurting his championship form being only able to recover back to sixth place after an emergency pit stop.

ShortyGoFast taking the win, from Paul299 picking up his first VTCC Podium, with Slider S15 rounding out the top three.

Next up, Nurburgring GP next Friday, if you would like details of this series or just a look back at the previous series, check out the VTCC Forum or the VTCC Facebook Page which has loads of photos, the odd video and sometimes, words attached.

Nurburgring GP faced the competitors involved in Season Six of the VTCC Spec Skyline Series, which saw Slider S15 taking the lead in the overall standings with another 1st & 2nd performance, while ShortyGoFast had a trickier evening mired back in traffic after a disastrous qualifying session which saw all three laps dirty and ATP Ginge who was stuck in traffic in the real world thats outside the window (yeah, yeah, watching soccer!!).

Congratulations to Mikebrfc and Slider S15 on the race wins, Moo has received a drug testing kit this morning after finishing third in race one, including a clean lap during the race of 2:11:439, should be interesting peeing into a virtual cup!!

























Next up, Sebring International next Friday, if you would like details of this series or just a look back at the previous series, check out the VTCC Forum or the VTCC Facebook Page which has loads of photos, the odd video and sometimes, words attached.

Last Friday saw the penultimate round of Season Six in the VTCC Skyline Series as the R32's hit Sebring International. Unfortunately due to the unique way in which Forza Motorsports 6 and saving replays go together as well as Chocolate Cake and  Weight Watchers diet plan, we not have many images to enjoy this week. Thankfully the racing worked alot better with ATP Ginge and Mikebrfc taking the wins, the second race being a cracking battle with ShortyGoFast and AgileAdam rounding out the podium in the night race feature.













Next up, the Grand Finale to Season Six and Yas Marina Full, the Championship sees the top two seperated by just a single point, will it be Slider S15 or ShortyGoFast lifting the virtual trophy, if you would like details of this series or just a look back at the previous series, check out the VTCC Forum or the VTCC Facebook Page which has loads of photos, the odd video and sometimes, words attached.

The Grand Finale to Season 6, a Championship down to a two way fight with just a point separating Slider S15 and ShortyGoFast, with Mikebrfc and ATP Ginge battling it out for the final step on the podium. The night started bad for ShortyGoFast, as a late crash in Race One meant the slight advantage passed across to Slider S15, who took the race win in a real battle with Mikebrfc. The small consolation for ShortyGoFast was the battle back to 10th place meaning pole for race two with the reverse ten grid.



Race two and Slider S15 needing an eighth place finish to take the title in a race that ShortyGoFast had to win, and win she did, from pole it was ShortyDisappearingOutFront, for Slider S15, an early collision in the mid pack melee meant an emergency pit stop at the end of lap one and with the field unlikely to need a stop, an impressive chase down on the field was the order of the day.

Its safe to say the bit was between his teeth, making up +4000 feet to catch the pack and eventually by the end of the twelve laps, a fifth place finish, meaning the top step of the podium and a first Championship on the VTCC.















.......... and so Season Six comes to an end, a mighty fine series all the way through and the last series before the summer holidays on the VTCC, with The Halfords Cup packaged and ready to go at the beginning of September, a series paying homage to the Boy Racer in all of us. But dont think thats theres nothing running throughout July and August, we dont take breaks on the VTCC, we are here every Friday at 20:00 UK Time and for the next nine weeks, we have the VTCC Summer Party, nine, one off specials, including Limo's, Transit's and our take on the Brickyard 250, involving a Formula Ford built to challenge everyone.

If you would like details of The VTCC Summer Party or just a look back at the previous series, check out the VTCC Forum or the VTCC Facebook Page which has loads of photos, the odd video and sometimes, words attached.

Better late than never and a big thank you to AgileAdam, who is a rare creature in that his Night Time replay saved while the rest of us were saying a range of very naughty words that arent big or clever. So heres a small selection of after hours action, kicking off with your Season Six champion in Slider S15