by LZR Harmonic on Sun 4 Dec 2016 - 17:30

With the final race of the 2016 TEC season coming to a close, there are many, many things that need to be said. As always, thanks are due to those who kept the event running for the whole 24 hours, and the event took place mostly on schedule, so that’s a plus! I offer my congratulations to the class winners and podium drivers for a job well done. I also commend those I battled in TCC for some spectacular racing and excellent racing etiquette. Unfortunately, my positive feedback ends there.



There’s no beating around the bush on this one… Some drivers exhibited absolutely appalling behavior on track, and quite frankly, they should not be allowed to race here anymore. The back markers of GT continuously interfered with the TCC leaders and sometimes the whole pack, and it caused many unnecessary incidents that significantly changed the results for quite a few teams. Here are the following names, in no particular order, that I noticed were interfering with TCC cars:



MAB170294

Mad Bull Ben

LMP Dragon

LMP Phantom

Capirossi22

ruthlessrelik

FIA ARROYUELO78

DarkGunner40

camo496

Tachyon Racing

Windcharger8199

FIA Jose Team



I’m sure there are a couple more that I’ve missed, but either I, my teammates, or rival TCC teams in my stints had issues with AT LEAST 2 of any of the above drivers. These drivers clearly have not read the rules, and they are not experienced enough (and in my blunt opinion, intelligent enough) to be racing here. This isn’t an issue of driver skill or pace… That had almost nothing to do with the issues that were caused. If you’re not the quickest guy in the field, that’s perfectly fine, but for Christ’s sake, if you’re running at the pace of the class BELOW you, you need to make sure you aren’t serving as a disruption to the race going on in that class. If you ARE a disruption, you should be in the lower class, or you should just not be driving period. I observed only ONE driver that made sure he did not interfere despite being off pace - Dr CHAIR PHD, I thank you for this. The rest of you, your behavior on track is inexcusable. If you are that uncertain on how to drive this course without going off the track, you simply shouldn’t be racing in this event. I would expect something along the lines of a 107% rule, maybe even stricter, to be implemented for future events. Catering to a few crybabies who have absolutely no clue how to behave themselves on track ruins the racing for everyone else that has actually put time, effort, and discipline into it. Staff, take note – if you want to hold yourselves to the slogan “As Real as it Gets”, cater to those who know HOW to race.



I have been racing here since 2013, and I have noticed a slow yet steady decline of the quality of the events here. I used to look forward to waking up at odd hours of the night to bring the car home and see if we could pull off a great finish even when at a disadvantage. Now, I had almost no initiative to do this race, and after the abhorrent etiquette exhibited by the aforementioned drivers, I don’t have any initiative to continue. I have made countless suggestions to marshals, stewards, and staff over the course of my participation here, but none of them are considered, and then we experience the very issues my suggestions would’ve addressed. I did 90% of the work on Dev Team, and people still complain about balancing (even when it’s the closest it has been all season) without lifting a damned finger. It’s a shame that I can find better GT endurance racing in a Modern GT hopper than here on TORA. It’s a shame that I can find better multiclass racing in an ABCS lobby than here on TORA. Finally, it’s a shame that I can find more competitive AND clean racing on ESL than here on TORA.



I didn’t think that ANOTHER post of this nature would be necessary after the recent one supposedly knocking some sense into the staff, but apparently that’s not the case… TORA needs an overhaul, plain and simple. Until something major changes, I don’t see any reason to continue on here. I will be removing myself from Dev Team, and I will be transitioning over to iRacing. If things look better in the future, I might show up here again, but until then… Good luck to all of you who choose to stick around.



Regards,

David

