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rFactor 2 CMS Takes To The Road At Elkhart Lake

The CMS community in rFactor 2 is worth checking out for great sim racing. Having recently visited Elkhart Lake, the series has its race report.

If you own rFactor 2 and want to join a great league community, CMS (Champion Motorsports) is well worth checking out.

With a great bunch of enthusiastic motorsport and sim racing fans, you have a league that is well organized and different series of racing to choose from.

Recently the league visited Elkhart Lake Wisconsin. Here we have the full race report by Matthew Overton, with the broadcast by Ross “Tnadz” Smith and picture credit by Jerry Chen.

CMS Official Race Report

Sept 2 2021

21 teams (10 LMH and 11 GTE) jetted back across the Atlantic to land in the beautiful state of Wisconsin and the always entertaining Road American circuit at Elkhart Lake for Round 9 of the NARS VMSC Championship.

With only four events left in the season, every opportunity to score points, or the inability to take advantage of mis-steps, started to loom over the heads of each of the competitors

Qualifying

Nissan fans were pleased to see Jason Whited take his G-TR to the head of the LMH PRO field for a second time in a row, posting a 1:47.778, and Ferrari Tifosi were equally enthusiastic when Matthew Overton took his FXX-K to the top of the AM field with a 1:49.372.

PROs Norm Graf and JT Tami took second and third within a Ferrari and McLaren respectively, while the Nissan of Ross Smith took second then the McLaren of John Maher third in AM.

PRO Jon Uyan and his Ferrari 488 took top honors in the GTE field, with the Porsche 911 RSRs of Jerry Chen and Sahil Mustac chasing him in PRO.  On the AM side, it was Stuart Barge with a 2:03.538 in another Ferrari that paced the GTE qualifying field, with Morgan McCalister qualifying ahead of the Porsche of Gilles Lalonde.

LMH

With a clean start out of T3, Whited led the LMH field down the back straight with everyone negotiating the tricky T5 lefthander with little incident.  The drivers quickly settled into their rhythm with almost the full LMH field remaining with 15s total through the first 10 laps.

Graf was able to grab the lead from Whited on L8. By L13, three distinct groups had emerged with Graf and Whited locked together, then Brian Hall leading Tami and Overton with Smith leading Lanny Hall, PRO newcomer Brian Hasett and John Maher; all told the groups separated by about 10s.

Brian Hall, clearly on a 2-stop strategy, started the pit cycle at L14 which then saw a steady procession of LMHs moving through the pits until the end of L17.

The early pit almost turned into the race lead, with Tami coming out of the pit just ahead of the charging Hall, early race leader Whited haven fallen off the pace and is now 54s behind the race leader.  In AM, a calculated risk in not taking tires put Lanny Hall into the class lead, 5s ahead of Overton.

Ross Smith, always a threat, held the lead briefly mid-race before a penalty and then a serious off at T2 with significant damage ended his race prematurely.

Having raced to some very strong positions, by the final third of the race it all began to unravel for the Hall brothers.  First, Overton was able to reclaim the AM lead on L23 when Lanny Hall slid wide at T5 after a late pass on a GTE, and then Brian Hall was obliged by his 2-stop strategy to give up on his hunt for the race lead, pitting at L26 and then having to suffer a penalty for track cuts, pushing him well off the pace.

As the race wound down to the checkered flag, additional drama unfolded as first Graf and then Lanny Hall ran out of fuel and then Whited, who had driven some superb recovery laps to return to third overall, was awarded a drive through for track cuts on the final corner of the final lap.

In the crowd, confusion reigned supreme – the outright win of Tami was not in question, the finishing order of the next few positions took the stewards some time to sort out.

The official announcement put Overton as overall P2 and AM class winner, with Whited P3 and P2 in PRO, with Maher P4/P2 in AM.  The Hall brothers claimed P3 in their respective classes, with B Hall just edging out Hasett at the line.

GTE

If there was any doubt about the determination of Jon Uyan to take advantage of every race, his performance at Road America put paid to them.  While pressured hard by Jerry Chen deep into the race, he kept his head, and the lead, from start to finish, ending well over 20s ahead of his closest rival.

Behind him, the fight was intense, with Chen leading a closed up pack that comprised Barge, McCalister, Lalonde and the very fast Sahil Mustac.  Further behind, Erik Jacobs led David Anderson, Tom Nasella and Tony Boynton in another good battle through the opening laps.

Lalonde found himself falling out of contention early when a lock up at T5 sent him into the wall heavily and then the first round of pit stops saw the remainder of the field start to spread out.

By the time the pit stops had been completed, after Uyan and Chen, it was Maher who had made up several positions, as had Mustac and Anderson.  Both Chen and McCalister found their races undone, however, as they were obliged to pit a second time, clearing the way for Mustac and Barge to move ahead.

Despite the best efforts of the hard chasing Chen, McCalister and Nasella, they were not able to overcome the gap, despite the increasingly worn tires of Barge.

At the checkered flag, it was a highly competitive race for the spectators with the final results as Uyan, Mustac and Chen on the podium for PRO and Barge, McCalister and Nasella taking the top three places in AM.

Post Race

In a highly entertaining race, it was the magic performed by GTE PRO driver Sahil Mustac to run a strong pace on only one pit for his Porsche 911 RSR that captivated the attention of the knowledgeable and appreciative crowd.

In the paddock, both the Ferrari and McLaren factory representatives were practically glowing with delight, with Ferrari the more so for having three class wins to celebrate of the four contested.  It was a stark contrast to the Nissan contingent, who were clearly put out that their recent successes seemed to have already run out of steam.

In the overall results, the class leaders remain the same but there was some slight jostling of positions to note.  In LMH, PRO Jason Whited moves into third overall although it is JT Tami moving like a freight train as he approaches the podium spots and AM John Maher also moved into third.

In the GTE tables, PRO Jerry Chen has profited by the absence of James Walker to almost completely eliminate the gap, making a fight of it for third while AM Stu Barge has moved into second with Morgan McCalister jumping into fourth over Paul Ibbotson, absent for his second race in a row.

On a final note, this week, the “Top Mover” honors were shared by John Maher and Sahil Mustac with them both moving up 4 spots from their grid start.

The next race in the VMSC will be a leap to the West Coast and the 60 Minutes of Laguna Seca on 16 September.

Race Broadcast (courtesy of Ross Smith!)

LiveRacers

https://cmsracing-com.liveracers.com/Results/Result/e4ca0f75-55e0-4731-b1b1-d43b375475db

CMS offers a variety of racing throughout the week across a number of racing sims. The NARS chapter races Thursday nights (North American timezones) featuring concurrent championships with PRO and AM driver classes with a live broadcast on Youtube.

Find out more about CMS and NARS at https://www.cmsracing.com .

Join us on Discord at https://discord.com/invite/4ckmjPX or watch us on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7Kdp07PvIeW47f0_sM0emw .

CMS is a league partner with simrace247.com: CMS Community Sim Racing League – SimRace247

 

About rFACTOR 2

rFactor 2 is a realistic, easily extendable racing simulation from Studio 397. It offers the latest in vehicle and race customization, great graphics, outstanding multiplayer and the height of racing realism. rFactor 2 features mixed class road racing with ultra realistic dynamics, an immersive sound environment and stunning graphics, perfect for top-level esports and a rich single-player experience.

Race against a field of AI cars, or in multi-player mode against others. rFactor 2 supports a full day-night cycle as well as dynamically varying weather conditions such as rain which dynamically builds into puddles. Tracks feature “real-road” technology that changes the grip as more cars drive on it. You can run full 24 hour endurance events and in multi-player mode, driver swaps are also supported. Everything can be customized by the community, including adding new tracks and cars, and a wealth of add-ons are available on-line.Working with several partners, rFactor 2 has been used in hundreds of esport championships all over the world – in particular McLaren’s World’s Fastest Gamer and Formula E.

rFactor 2 is also an evolving product, which will be updated and added to for many years, so the list of features will expand!

 

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