MTCC S1R1 Review

Along with the return of fan-favourite GT series, there was also a brand new series - MTCC, or to make things less complicated, touring car series. The cars top speeds were in the 150 mph range, and the tracks were picked specifically for those slower cars. The car roster would be decently balanced too - or at least the testing showed us that. The first race would take place at CDT's City Race and it would seem like one of MCRO's most competetive races since the cars were pretty balanced.

Quali

The race would begin with both Lotuses of Agg and Sot plus Avith in the Alpine getting away well. Obli in the Ford was also really close. Despite the Alpine being a little slower on that track, Avith was in 2nd, ahead of Agg. Unfortunetaly on lap 3 he spun and crashed into a tree, causing him to quit out of frustration and start in the back. That eventually led to Sot getting pole, and Agg finishing 2nd, securing a front low lockup for Lotus. Obli finished 3rd barely ahead of his teammate in 4th. Lonel, who wasn't supposed to qualify finished P5, which is great for his 2nd ever race in MCRO.

Sprint

To some suprise, the Lotuses would absolutely dominate the opening laps, leading 1-2 and being in their own race, really. However outside of the top 2 the cars were really close to each other - Obli, Avith, Blaze and iliart were battling for P3 and iliart was doing a decent job after a 7 month break from racing, however he crashed only on lap 4 and dropped hard, but still raced. The battle for P3 was still happening, though, as Avith after pitting was making a come back, overtaking Lio and both Fords, eventually getting P3. He was doing so well in fact, that he was getting close to P2 of Agg, leading to a final lap battle for that place, where Avith somehow got P2 in an inferior car. And Sot won with a decent lead over P2.

Syrz, the winner of the GT race ran an hour ago skipped quali, and thanks to the tune and a few mistakes he didn't finish in points and was lapped. He finished P9, only ahead of afx51 in the Merc, which is the worst car in the series.

Feature

Just like in the sprint, Lotuses got away really well, leading by a big margin. Obli in the Ford tried to keep up with them, but failed. He later spun on lap 3 and dropped 4 places down. On lap 5, iliart forgot to turn after the bridge and later left the game, indicating a DNF. Possible rage quit, but I have honestly no idea. Blaze was the battle for P3 between him, Syrz and Lio. The battle was close but eventually Syrz got away with the position - but not for long, as he pitted on lap 10 and dropped to P5.

A few laps later and Syrz is back to P3, however his teammate Avith was being chased by a mysterious car that was honking at him all the time and dropped outside of points - not long after, on lap 20, Avith quits the race. Not a big loss for the Alpine team, as if he had finished he wouldn't have scored points anyway. Also, a lap before Avith's DNF, afx had "lagged out", however he was still in the race dead last.

The rest of the race was mostly Sot leading and Fords fighting for P4. Sot went to win the race, with Agg finishing 2nd with an estimated gap of around 20 seconds over Syrz in P3. Absolute domination. Blaze finished P4, Obli P5, Lio P6 for the 2nd time in a row and Michal P7. Afx finished P8 after being lapped a few times. Great weekend for Lotus and Ford who had scored a lot of points, and maybe a bit worse one for Alpine as Syrz struggled with the tune in the sprint, and Avith was being sabotaged in the feature.

Post-race

After some investigation it turned out that Avith was actually using a street engine in the sprint - as he had caught up to the Lotus of Agg on the bridge straight, despite having a car that goes 7 MPH slower than Agg's. He was then disqualified and until now the penalty wasn't revoked. That meant the Alpine team would lose 12 points from this disqualification. Also, Syrz used a custom tune in sprint, which wasn't good and he didn't finish in points, but used a stock tune in the feature race and finished P3. According to rules, you aren't allowed to switch tunes between races, so he was given a 5-second penalty, dropping him from P3 to P5, and promoting both Fords, mainly Blaze who is now P3 (Obli is P4)

And that sums up the first round of MTCC. Let's see if we will have better battles for P1 this Saturday on Foxring - will Alpine or Ford (or any other team, maybe?) strike back? Will Alpine finally get out from the rather underwhelming P4 in the constructor's championship? Will BMW Juggernaut finally discover its real potential?

PS. Sorry for the late review, I didn't have enough motivation to finish this - I started on Tuesday and I'm finishing this on Thursday night. Let's hope other reviews will be out quicker :) thanks for patience in advance