MTCC S1 R2 Review

Just a week after Race 1, the new Touring car's 2nd race was held around Michal's Foxpark. Expectations weren't high, everyone expected the 2 Lotuses to dominate. But few hours before the race, CDT received an update which enabled users to modify their vehicles with Turbo upgrades. Now, the BMW M4 GT3 which competed in the GT series was allowed to use an upgrade, people were hoping for something similar to come about for MTCC but nothing of that sort came around for MTCC that weekend thanks to time constraints.

The race was hosted by Vark thanks to Mat being unavailable. Despite low expectations there were quite some surprises during the race.

Quali

To no one's surprise the lotuses of Agg and Sot got away well, with Sot having a decent gap by the end of turn 3. Michal momentarily hung on to P3 but failed to fend of the Mustangs of Obli and Blaze, the former qualified P3. Some mistakes put Blaze back in P6 handing P4 to Syrz and P5 to Dhen. Michal after losing positions managed to find enough pace to stay ahead of Lio, the latter qualified in P8. Lexi in P9 While the Mercedes qualified last. Sot was on pole with Agg in P2.

Sprint

Sprint race had an interesting feature where top 5 positions from quali were reversed. This meant that for the first time in his career, Dhen started from pole position followed by Syrz, Obli, Agg & Sot (the rest of the grid started from the same position they finished at). Blaze couldn't start the race due to unavoidable circumstances which allowed few ppl to start further front. Sprint was go and it was a dash to the lead for the Lotuses and Obli in the Ford. The 3 put up one of the most phenomenal battles we've seen in MCRO history for the lead. Battling all the way from start to finish with each driver leading for sometime. This went on for so long that the fate of their race would depend on their pit stop, both the lotuses pit a lap ahead of Obli who decided to pit at the very last moment. Sot being on PC had a quicker pit stop than Agg who fell behind by a bit. After the pit stops, Obli was ahead of Sot by just a bit, the latter was giving everything he could to try and pass Obli on the final lap. To his delight Obli made a mistake, he grazed one of the containers while exiting docks which slowed him down more than he would've wanted to. This gave Sot the lead and eventually he won. Obli came in P2 followed by Agg in P3. Michal was driving for his life away from Syrz to come home in P4. Lio had disconnected mid race and the Mercedes decided to not finish.

Race

Drivers now started from the place in which they qualified, this meant that the Lotuses started on the front row. It was lights out, Obli got away better than both Lotuses and there was already a 3 way battle for the lead with few drivers tagging along. Syrz in P4, Lio in P5, Dhen P6 and so on. A mistake from Blaze made him drop to the last spot. This battle went on until an early mistake from Sot saw him drop behind his teammate and Obli to P3, Agg and Obli were still battling for the lead with Agg staying ahead by a small distance, Obli however took the lead at some point but as soon as he did, Obli made a mistake which made him drop behind. Sot was now in P3 just behind Obli while Agg was leading with a cushion. Behind all the action, the rest of the grid was left in the dust. Quite a distance away from the top 3. They were in a race of their own, Blaze was making his way up the grid, passing Lexi and Michal and was now chasing Lio for P6. Some mistakes from Lio and Syrz meant that Dhen was now running in P4. Further mistakes from Syrz promoted Lio to P5 who was now fending off a 2 time WDC. Lio was under immense pressure from Syrz. Meanwhile up front, Sot was now battling Obli who was pushing like a madman. They were both established drivers and were on the limits of their skill but eventually Sot made the pass. He was still leading by the skin of his teeth. Pit stops didn't see much changes and everyone retained their positions. Agg decided to pit from the lead on lap 18, he was now down to P3 behind Sot and Obli. Sot and Obli pit at the Very last moment, Sot once again had a small advantage in the pit lane, he came out right ahead of Agg. They kept the positions until the end, but to everyone's surprise Sot let Agg through just before the finish line on the final lap. This gave Agg his 5th and much deserved win after leading for most of the race. Sot came in P2, Obli in P3. Dhen managed to avoid mistakes, tho he was nearly 30s behind Obli he finished in P4. Not far behind, Lio defended with all his might and it paid off as he finished in P5 followed by Syrz in P6.

Post Race

It was one hell of a race, perhaps one of the most interesting races in MCRO.

But it later turned out that Obli had used Turbo upgrades, which lead to him being penalized. Under normal circumstances this would've been a DSQ, however Obli, who has been driving since S1 of MCRO has not violated any major rule. This was his first violation, which lead to the penalty being lightened to a 30s time penalty. This pushed him 3 positions behind in sprint and 1 position behind in the race.

Syrz also received a 15s penalty for cutting one of the slowest sections of the track entirely, however it didn't cost him much since he finished well over 15s ahead of Blaze in P7.

Obli getting penalized meant Michal and Dhen, the two Juggernaut drivers got their very first podium (non hypercar) in their MCRO career. Michal's valiant battle against Syrz paid off. The "underdogs" were finally on the podiums.

After all of this, will we see upgrades coming to MTCC? Stick around and find out!