Rear View Mirror 7/30/12

Welcome to another fine edition of Rear View Mirror, a look back at the week in racing and what is going on in the world of Forza.

Formula One Hungarian Grand Prix  

Despite consistent pressure from a hard-charging Lotus Team, Lewis Hamilton hung on for the win, holding back Romain Grosjean early and Kimi Raikkonen in the later laps. It seems Lotus is poised to gain some ground in the constructor’s race after the August break. Raikkonen and Grosjean even fought with each other as the “Iceman” exited the pits, just barely edging out his team mate and nearly forcing him off track. Healthy competition for sure; Raikkonen was second, Grosjean was third.

On the down side of the race, seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher had a nightmare of a day. Stalling his Mercedes at the delayed start, being pushed into the pits, and starting dead last instead of in the top ten. After giving what seemed like a reserved effort, he was the first of only two cars that retired and was pushed into the garage at lap 59.

Pastor Maldonado now has the dubious distinction of five of the last six races (since his win is Brazil) in which he has forced contact with another driver.  His Williams team mate Bruno Senna had the best race of his career, managing a seventh in front of Red Bull’s Mark Webber.

Here is a video of Lewis Hamilton’s pole-setting lap one that both shows the track nicely and demonstrates why Lewis is now back in the running after a brief respite in the land of mediocrity.

NASCAR Crown Royal presents the Curtiss Shaver 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway 

He may have only won a single race thus far but Dale Earnhardt Jr’s consistency has edged out the rest of the pack. As a result, arguably the most popular NASCAR driver now leads the Sprint Cup Series.

Jimmie Johnson marked his third win of the season and his fourth at Indianapolis. Kyle Busch took second and Greg Biffle earned third. That made for Chevy, Toyota, and Ford in the top three respectively. Johnson’s victory all but assures him a spot in the Chase for the Cup. He remains the only driver to qualify every year since 2004.

The next chapter in the saga of AJ Allmendinger has his B sample providing conclusive proof of a positive drug test for “a stimulant”. Allmendinger’s business manager said the driver tested positive for amphetamines.  The Penske driver will be entering a recovery program, while Penske resolves who will be the replacement and whether or not AJ will return or be released from his contract. More details here.

Mid-Ohio Hosts American Le Mans Series and IndyCar Next Weekend 

It will be a busy and race-filled weekend for Ohio race fans with next weekend’s double-header of the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Challenge on Saturday and the Honda Indy 200 on Sunday.

The Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course will be raging with race cars of all types all weekend with practice, qualifying exhibition races and the two main events.

We will be hosting a Turn 10 Track Day to share the American Le Mans Series race with you, and celebrate the debut of the Forza Motorsport-liveried #91 SRT Viper GTS-R race car. Come hang out with us on our official Facebook page as we enjoy the race and root for our Forza-sponsored SRT Viper.

The race will be aired live on ABC in the U.S., coverage begins at 2 p.m. Eastern.

Community photo contest favorite from V Team SAKAL 

Featured Club—Up 2 Speed Customs (U2SC) 

This week Rear View Mirror is proud to feature Up 2 Speed Customs, brought to my attention by BiggLou55. BiggLou55 is somewhat new to Forza 4, having only picked it up in January but he joined this “club for average Joes” and has been getting even more enjoyment from racing in Forza 4 ever since.

From their club founder and leader Lowflyinmx3:

“The fun that we have is the exact reason why people buy video games. I also want to invite you to our forums to have a look around. I gaurantee that just browsing around in there will show you exactly what I'm talking about. Heres the Link http://u2sc.forumotion.co.uk/. If you have any questions or need any more info, feel free to ask.”

Virtual Motorsports 

Check out Edition 39 of the Virtual Motorsports Newsletter. This week covers the opening races from the Knockout Tournament, the VM Spec Racing Series 2 and the Stock Hatch Series 2 as well as an update on this month’s calendar competition photo contest.

Here is the latest video from the VM Community giving you a taste of the Stock Hatch Series 2 with Chilledheat behind the wheel.

Follow Virtual Motorsports on Facebook 

Johniwanna Want Ads 

If you have events, giveaways, contests, polls, race competitions, or other interesting community events going on, post them in the Johniwanna Want Ads.

I will be using this thread to compile content to be considered for Rear View Mirror, but beware, once the spotlight is on you, you should be ready for it. So if you are running a cool community event and want to promote it, tell me about it, I’ll see what I can do.

Modern Muscle Touring Car Championship Help Wanted 

The MMTCC is run by mopar4t4; he is about to begin a second season and wants to expand to form a European league but needs someone to host and steward the events for the European time zone.

So if you are looking for a way to contribute to organized racing, live in Europe, and are interested, check out his thread and apply within.

August DLC Clue Thread 

As a prelude to the upcoming release of August DLC—cars will be announced tomorrow and available for purchase August 7—I have been giving out clues to what the pack contains. This has been incredibly popular, evidenced by the 105 pages of guesses as of this writing. Want some insight into what cars may be in the August Car Pack? Sift through these pages to get a clue, but you will never make a list out of this chaos. You might have fun trying though! [Insert maniacal laugh here.]

The tenth and final clue is: "It ain't Tony Danza!"

Cool Car Battle video 

Check out the latest in a series of car battle videos posted by YemiTheOne. This one features the Mercedes 190E vs. BMW M3. If you love the video check out the Heavy Metal Affliction article I did a couple weeks ago featuring this car.

He also has a thread to go with it.

Dollars Per Mile? 

Community member HUSTLERSTILL, pointed out this cool thread that correlates in-game credits earned with miles driven. Pretty cool. How much have you made? Taking it a step further, what cars are your highest earners? Tell us all in the RVM thread.

51% Whaaaat???? 

Some people have jobs that are hard to appreciate, and some people are so good at those jobs they can be even harder to appreciate. Dragnet, is a moderator on the Forza Motorsport forums, a tough one, who is quite a stickler for proper forum etiquette. He is respected and very good at what he does and I think we even saw some of his sense of humor surface in this thread that jokingly asks what makes up a little more than half of Dragnet forum persona. If this doesn’t make any sense, spend some time in our forums and chances are you will see his well-known sig.

Thread author Me monkey 8 me should be thanked for the killer Lemmy art on the Transit van and for the concept for the poll. Do you have a contribution? Post it here. But be nice, there are some people you really don’t want to PO. Did I just? Aww, no it couldn’t be! Haven’t you heard of the saying “Prey On.”

Community photo contest favorite from GIFD83  

 Local Exotic Car Show 

Ahhh, the Pacific Northwest; not the greatest weather, but the cars! There is a preponderance of exotics around here, and thankfully many of their owners are happy to share them with the public. Check out this album of shots from Turn 10 team member Christian who took these at a recent show here in Redmond. Utterly untouchable eye candy!

Good Advice 

Years ago I threw my lot in with a guy doing wooden boat restoration; he was a stickler for efficiency and quality and offered me these very simple but helpful bits of advice. I have used them repeatedly to remind myself of the proper approach to many things.

“If it’s too difficult there has to be a better way”

“Make this attempt at whatever you are doing your very best one.”

What is the best simple advice you have been exposed to or came up with personally? Post them in the RVM thread.

That’s it for this week, folks. Join us tomorrow for our August Car Pack announcement! See you then!