Memoirs of a GTWS Exhibition Series

For the first time since I did that league in EA Sports WRC in the spring, That Itch to race outside of my usual confines hit me again. The announcement of another Exhibition Series for the Gran Turismo World Series Nation's Cup in Gran Turismo 7 had caught my attention, but that alone was not enough. And even with the carrot of the massive credit reward at the end of the Series being dangled, I still needed more.

I've long been disenfranchised from running either of the GTWS events, the Nations or Manufactures Cups, to their full capacity starting later on in Gran Turismo Sport's life, and through the championship's transition to Gran Turismo 7. Part way through GT Sport's life, with the championship still sanctioned by The FIA, I had a realization that the way the points payouts for the qualifying races worked in reference to the skill-based matchmaking meant that if you weren't in top split, in the very first time slot of a round and finished around the top four in those races, that you had zero chance of qualifying for the big dance. Worse still, there wasn't an ancillary reward until Gran Turismo 7 came around which made me feel like, while yo-yoing between top and second split and never having the time to do first slot, that I was ultimately doing this for nothing. There was zero equity in a system meant to work at scale and I stopped having fun.

That bonus end of season credit payout that was added to Gran Turismo 7 gave me a renewed interest in doing the races for the sake of the reward itself, as it was an additional avenue to fully enjoy the rest of the game as the automotive museum it strives to be. But a big issue that's persisted for me would come in those races that needed to be done: so many of the car and track combinations used just never appealed to me and doubly so for the Manufactures Cup, but more on that later. When I looked at the combinations for the Exhibition Series that ran last month, I had something to look forward to every Wednesday and Saturday night through October. It was one part cars I enjoy racing, and second some standout combinations that have been used previously in the game's Sport Mode or GTWS live events. With the exception of one round, these races from the onset looked very, very good.

So, on maybe a half hour worth of practice for each race, I did five of the six rounds of the championship in their last time slot. I was in it for the credits and to have a little fun, it was a Exhibition Series after all. Here were some of my lasting impressions from racing in the GTWS Nations Cup Exhibition 3.

Worn to The Cords.

Of the five races I did do, the lowest points haul I procured came in round 4; a car and track combo that if not for it's caveat I didn't fully take into account probably would have been my second biggest haul instead. The Red Bull X2019 fictional formula-style racecar is a car I've always meshed incredibly well with and I would always punch above my weight with in races. The stiff, but sharp nature on corner-entry paired with it requiring a point-and-shoot cadence on corner-exit in a aero-dependant car just works with my driving style. And come race time at the reverse layout of Grand Valley Highway 1, I was actively quicker than some of the people that started ahead of me including long time stalwart of top split GTWS races Turismo-Lester. But something felt off, something didn't quite feel right as I rallied into the top 5 before I got hooked into a spin and lost a few positions.

In these races it isn't just the car and track pairing you are contending with; there's other parameters in play that can be adjusted which dictate how the race is actually going to go. The main two are the rate in which fuel is consumed and tires are worn down, which can be multiplied beyond a normal rate. For both of these, they were operating at four times the normal usage rate though running out of fuel was not a factor. Tires, however, were the big deal for the race and for the first time I could really remember, saving your tires was a major part of the race in ways that it normally isn't in a GTWS event. It would explain the more hesitant nature of the drivers around me, especially when it came to the optimal strategy of the race itself.

The optimal strategy was to try and prolong the tire's life so the tires don't effectively turn into flat tires on the in-lap before pitting. While I would be barely on the right side of this in the opening stint of the race, I wouldn't be on the finishing stint of the race. I torched the right rear soft compound tire on my X2019 and it hit maximum wear on the run up to the final major corner on the last lap of the race, forcing a unrecoverable spin that I could do nothing about. I tumbled down the order, left to lament what might have been if I ran a more conservative strategy of splitting the race down the middle and running the medium compound twice and ensuring a blowout wasn't going to happen. At the same time, I was happy to see that a race in this capacity was dependent on how good you were on your tires and that long run racecraft actually mattered a little bit more in relation to outright pace.

Drivers that come and go in the order are an intrinsic part of the story a race should try and weave, and should be appreciated the rare time it actually matters in the world of virtual racing. I ran the race the wrong way while others the right way, sometimes that happens and that's ok.

The One I Didn't Do.

It is standard practice for a online racing event like the GTWS to have a drop score be a part of the final standings. As implied in the name, your lowest score gets dropped from counting in the standings and is a good practice to have in case people have more important things to do on a particular date, or one has a particularly bad race, or technical issues on their end preventing them from racing. Or, in my case, you look at what the race is and have zero interest in doing it.

Round 5 was a selection of Group 3 racing cars at one of the shorter layouts of the fictional Autodrome Lago Maggiore. And while it was only a handful of the GT3-like cars on offer in a bid to make balancing easier, it was always going to be a tough sell. Group 3, and additionally Group 4, just don't do it for me anymore and nor do their counterparts in other realistic racing games.

The race itself was probably fine for what it was; a mixed strategy race with an attempt at a more balanced set of cars would make for a better experience than if it was just a free for all within Group 3, but it's still not enough. The way these cars have developed over the years, plus a major Balance of Performance change in March of this year taking away a bunch of power across the board, have made these cars a bore to drive and race for me. Not enough power, plus too much aerodynamic grip and braking strength has made racing a desperate struggle to try and move forward, and at times a fruitless endeavor with how locked in everyone can be in the relative pecking order with how much these cars get used. I can't bring myself to race them, unless they're at a track that forces wheel to wheel racecraft to come to the forefront, and the absurdly short braking zones aren't as much of an issue. And similarly, it's made the real deal an ideal cure for insomnia with how much the human element has been taken out of the picture with the amount of downforce the cars now have and a forced, unnatural parity there is at the behest of the manufactures. Cars are racing, but they're not really racing in a way that ignites the soul as JR Hildebrand talked about in the introduction of his fantastic Blackbird 66.

I understand why this has become the case within the real GT3 and GT4 and unfortunately has taken Le Mans Hypercars down a similar path, but the virtual world can do better than what the real has given us. Just because we can replicate the real thing, doesn't mean we always should; especially when the real deal is just as dull as the virtual. If not even the Macau Guia Circuit can consistently make a GT3 race worth watching, then what are we doing making it the ubiquitous category for online road racing? Why should I bother racing it? Why would I then bother to do the Manufactures Cup when this is all it's ever been?

We can do better, without having to resort to nostalgia bait.

The Ugly Duckling.

My favorite car in the HD-era of Gran Turismo is undoubtedly the Nissan GT-R LM NISMO. The front wheel drive oddball never truly performed as intended against it's contemporary rivals from Audi, Porsche or Toyota, even though the underlying fundamentals behind it's design were sound and could have changed the world as we know it. Through GT6, GT Sport, and most of Gran Turismo 7's life it also did not fully perform as intended either and was often being left behind by it's LMP1 rivals. But whenever a Group 1 race showed up as a daily online race in Gran Turismo Sport, I would bring it out for the last race as a fun way to close out the week. I could see glimpses of the brilliance Ben Bowlby had penned, though the hybrid system didn't work at the same clip as it's contemporary rivals. It was spooky to see what it was capable of at the Porsche Curves at Le Mans and down the Mulsanne, before the field passed me by. Then, things changed.

In an update five months ago, Polyphony Digital updated the ugly duckling of LMP1 and modified it's car dynamics so that it drove and acted the way it was intended to at the real 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans. The battery regeneration under braking now happened at a similar rate to it's rivals and was now deployed to the rear wheels like intended rather than to the front as it had done prior. It's a blast to drive and race now if you aren't a racing sicko like I am, and was possibly the best of the four cars at Le Mans. But there was only one way to find out: to use it in the last round of the Exhibition Series.

From the practice times posted by other users, and the three laps of practice I managed, the GT-R LM NISMO was now good. Really good. In qualifying for the last slot, top split race I would go to third on the timesheets and in with a chance. After second place made a mess of a pass for the lead at the Daytona Chicane on the opening lap, I jumped on the opportunity to pass the Audi driver for second on the following straightaway using the power advantage. Then, at the end of the opening lap as day turned to night, the leader and pole sitter fumbled the last part of the Ford Chicane that completed the lap and left the door wide open. To their inside I went, and to the lead as our Nissans surged to turn one. And that was as close as the field got, second on back would fight among themselves before that Audi would try and close the gap in the last lap with the tire advantage it had on worn tires. But it was too late: I crossed the finish line first and finally won a Gran Turismo World Series top split race for the first time in the six-odd years I've been racing against North America's best. The ugly duckling I hold in such high regard turned the lights off, and carried me home.

As I admitted on Bluesky, I did cry for ten minutes after I crossed the finish line, with my head in my hands with the world going quiet. Wins, however big and small, should matter and you shouldn't be afraid or see it as a sign of weakness to let your soul go where it wanders after such a level of duress gets released. If you've been doing anything competitive for so long and finally get a breakthrough after hoping it would come one day, celebrate that. Own it. Own the fact that you just ran the best race of your life and got the result you had long chased, because it's not every day you get to fulfill the dreams of your inner child.

And to revel in a moment fully possible in the virtual world, that will never happen in the real one.

That itch was successfully scratched, and ended on a high note that I didn't expect that simply doesn't happen every day. Finishing twenty-second overall among North Americans was not bad, though much like that EA Sports WRC league I did leave something on the table. There will be another Exhibition Series this time for the Manufactures Cup, but to little surprise with the cars being used I'm not going to be taking part in that. And you know, that's ok.

It's back to the regularly scheduled programming for how I play Gran Turismo 7, and that will do just fine before Spec III and the Power Pack come at the start of December.