Community photo contest favorite from Maciek1125

 

Disappointment for Fernando Alonso and Ferrari, as Alonso slipped from second all the way back to fifth when their tire-conservation gamble failed. Another chapter in the letdown that is Michael Schumacher’s 2012 F1 season was concluded, when his DRS wouldn’t disengage, bringing his Mercedes to the garage mid-race for another DNF.

 

Overall, it was a well-driven race with minimal drama, only a couple spins and no real contact to speak of.

 

IndyCar Firestone 550 at Texas Motor Speedway 

The three-race, short-oval, mini-series within the IndyCar championship season has kicked off to an exciting start. A new aerodynamics package was introduced and made for a lively nail-biter of a race that forced drivers to truly drive their way to a win. Reduced downforce made car handling, tire management, and survival real factors in this high-banked 1.5 mile oval track race.

 

Justin Wilson won the race after Graham Rahal said “hello” to the wall with just two laps to go. Rahal settled for second, and Ryan Briscoe took third. Points leader Will Power was penalized late in the race for blocking Tony Kanaan and suffered a drive-through penalty which pushed him back to eighth place. Power was positive after the race and summed up his feelings about the new aerodynamics package. ''This is the best racing I've ever had on an oval, you had to lift, you had to look after your tires, you had to really drive the thing - it was moving around. That is just the sort of racing that we need at these sort of tracks.''

 

 

Community photo contest favorite from No0naME 

 

NASCAR Pocono 400 

Pocono is unique in that it is a tri-oval, with each turn being different. This makes it an anomaly for mechanics; because they cannot define an optimum overall set up, a compromise must be made. Some say Turn Three is the most crucial; others say each corner is equally important. Adding to the equation this year was a newly paved surface which further vexed tire compound decision makers. One thing is for sure, managing speed in pit row has never been more difficult for the NASCAR elite. A record 22 penalties were issued for speeding on pit road. So many, one might think the Pocono po-po was trying to recoup some funds for that fancy re-pave.

 

An astounding five days of testing, practice, qualifying, and racing showed everyone that 22 year old Joey Logano in the Home Depot #20 was worthy of the win. He dominated Pocono by topping the practice sheet, claiming pole, and being the first pole-setter to claim victory in almost a year. This was his first full length race win and second of his career after winning a rain shortened event in 2009. This guy has quite a story, and is worth reading up on. He has been in NASCAR driver’s seats since the tender age of 14.

 

Forza Motorsport and the 24 Hours of Le Mans 

Forza Motorsport is now a sponsor of the world’s most challenging endurance race, the 24 Hours of Le Mans. In celebration of this partnership we will be offering several Le Mans-specific events to participate in. We will have a four hour Game with Devs on Saturday, a 24 hour Turn 10 Track day as well as Rivals modes and special hoppers. You think you’re tough, try 360 laps at Le Mans. I’d like to hear how anyone thinks they will conquer that. Post your ideas in the RVM thread.

  

“Oh, what a feeling” Kenan is the Bounty 

Well, it’s almost over but we had a lot of fun with this one. Turn 10 Community Team member HTKenan has laid down some pretty mean lap times as the bounty in the “Oh, what a Celica” Monthly Rivals Event. Mean enough that I gave up trying to keep pace with him and had to focus on work. He has been trying to beat his last time of 1.06.400 but is hard pressed to improve any more. He promises to let his time stand as of 5 p.m. Pacific.

 

You may know from his Community Bounty thread that if he was bumped out of the top 5,000 he would pose for the classic Toyota slogan pic. Well thanks to all your efforts, he is somewhere around 5,700 out of around 20,000,so we went ahead and got the shot of a lifetime, which  along with these words from him truly express Kenan’s love of this opportunity to compete with you all.

 

“A bet is a bet, and I lost. Now I will honor that loss with, ‘Oh what a feeling!’”

 

 

This pic is so egregiously simple in its ability to make you laugh, that it has in fact spawned an upcoming Photoshop contest to be announced soon.

 

Also take a look at this video submitted by Forza 4 Community member SatNiteEduardo. If this doesn’t motivate you nothing will! The Community Bounty for this week ends at 8a.m. Pacific Tuesday.

 

 

 

Feature your Club? 

So, we have been featuring racing leagues, but I know a lot of you race in clubs, so if you want to be featured in an upcoming edition of RVM post about your club in my thread. I’ll do a short feature on your club, but I need something to work with, a little history, something unique about your club, how good (or how bad) you are. Provide a good reason to pick you and get your club in the RVM spotlight. Who knows, I might even gift the whole club a unicorn for lending itself to RVM.

 

TORA The Online Racing Association 

TORA is an online Forza community that is an officially recognized as a governing body of virtual motorsports by FIA National Sporting Authority and the MSA (Motor Sports Association). They even have real sponsors like GT Omega Racing and Lygo World. They have also been noted in the Guinness Book of World Records-Gamers Edition. They feature GT racing, touring cars and multi-class Le Mans Championships. Due to their sponsorships are able to award big prizes to the winners of their championships and events.

 

Their website is very well designed and they have several championships to participate in.

 

Their upcoming 24 Hours of Le Mans event will be running Saturday the 30^th at 2p.m. and end at 2 p.m. Sunday. The event is run in 12 two-hour sprints, easing the pain of this massive endurance race.

Check out this promo video to get a feel for it and check out their site for more information and how you can participate.

 

 

 

Virtual Motorsports 

Virtual Motorsports is a premier online racing site for Forza Motorsport fans. Each week they offer high quality racing in organized championships. If you’re looking for somewhere to compete globally, check them out. Here are the results from this weekend’s competition.

 

VM Classics Series

This week the VM Classics series travelled to Spain to compete on the twisting, turning curves of Catalunya. Thirty laps and 59 cars across five rooms raced one another in the sunny summer sun.  In the top seeded room, #321 VVV Axiom took the win in his Lamborghini Muira. Congratulations VVVAxiom! Full race results can be read here.

 

VM GP2 Series 2

The VM GP2 Series 2 features the FWD SEAT Leon Supercup. Round six takes us to Mazda’s Laguna Seca, home of the infamous and challenging corkscrew. These super low SEAT’s were scraping and sparking while clawing for traction in this 12 lap sprint followed by a 17 lap feature race. #26 VVV FlexyB took his pole position to victory in race one and #440 VVV Amarth followed suit by winning both pole and the race in race two.

 

VM Super GT 2

Returning to the island of Japan for the fifth race in this series, #266 EZT Gambit blew the competition away in both qualifying and the race. His qualifying time was over a second and a half faster than the nearest competitor. EZT Gambit took the race by nearly the same expansive margin. Someone get this guy a sponsor, he’s ridiculously fast.

 

VM Spec Racing Series 2

Seventy-five drivers are getting ready for the first race among S class Subaru Legacys at Mugello tonight. Who will come out on top, we’ll find out next week, or you can check the VM site for details later.

 

 

Tastin’ and Racin’ 

I attended an event this past weekend that was all about food and hydroplane racing. It was a beautiful day as my sunburned scalp keeps reminding me. Legends Car Club brought about 50 cars out and added a cool car show to the race festivities. In retrospect I should have taken more pictures but this GT40 was a must-capture opportunity. The other was a 1940 Chevy Deluxe Coupe almost exactly the same as the 1940 Ford De Luxe Coupe from this month’s Meguiar’s Car Pack. I hope you enjoy them. Can anyone call out the details that make the Ford and Chevy different aside from the badging?  Talk about it in the RVM thread.

 

100 Best Video Games of All Time 

While watching last week’s E3 coverage I saw a barrage of advertising for G4’s 100 Best Video Games of All Time, airing this week on G4. I’m taking bets on where Forza falls into the mix. I know with the Forza Faithful, it’s pretty close to #1 but, given all the great games going back to Pong, I am hoping to see it in there somewhere. Any guesses on where any of the Forza games will land? Post your guess and other favorites of all time in the RVM thread. For me, it started with Asteroids and Night Driver in the arcade. Getting into console games I was a Gameplay Counselor for Nintendo and enjoyed 8-bit masterpieces like Blaster Master and Days of Thunder. On Playstation 2 I don’t think GTA ever came out of the machine. On Xbox 360 it has been all about GTA4, Rock Band and of course Forza 2, 3, and 4. How do you rank your favorites?