Hello,racers!

The year 2023 has already started and now in slight short term fashion here's the main information of the year. Why such short term? Simply because not much has changed - only some numbers,the racing still is going on and best racers will receive some monetary awards for their efforts,kindly sponsored by World Class Lions. Full details can be found in Sponsorship document.

For season standings the same points system will be used as in the evergoing rating system - for full details hower mousepointer over rating sheet's green colored title bar,here are the links to both spreadsheets: RTFR and RTFR XL.

What stays same and what changes:

* RTFR is again split in 2 seasons - same as last year. The change is amount of races allocated to seasons - 2023 season 1 will consist of 12 races,starting from the 1st RTFR of the year,held on 3rd january. 6th june will mark the end of season 1 as the 12th round of it. Then we go back to casual racing - for 3 rounds RTFR will return to old times,where the racing was done simply for fun and winners glory,no standings,no awards. The 2023 season 2 starts on 1st august and will be just 10 rounds long to finish on 5th december - the 19th december RTFR will be just a simple year end race,which probably might end up as something different in terms of car/track combo while keeping the standard format.

* Practically no changes in RTFR XL - all 12 races of the year are a part of 2023 standings and just like last year only 10 best scores will count towards those (fun fact from last year - just 3 scores were not counted into standings as they were not between best 10 of the respective scorer). As always RTFR XL is set to have a race each month,meaning there cannot be 2 races in same month. This usually leads to a 6 weeks gap between races at end of year - this year this big gap will be between october and november races.

* Points system stays the same - each event has it's own system,both however are very similar. RTFR keeps the base of 20 points for winner based on 20 (or less) starters,where each 3 starters more than 20 adds 1 point to winner's gain. RTFR XL has own attendance based base score increasement,which last year reached the same 20 points for winner - if 5 races in row have more or less attendees than current base score,it get's increased or decreased by 1. Not affecting the yearly standings which leads to money prizes is the ever going rating,which until this year used to be 10 race rating for both event versions - this will be changed slightly. RTFR will have 15 race rating,slowly expanding from 1st race of the year,where oldest 5 scores will count only half as much,but in RTFR XL it will turn into 12 races rating,where also oldest 1/3 will count only half.

* User created cars will be also a feature in RTFR and RTFR XL - there will be a slight increase in mods usage frequency in RTFR (used to be every 3rd race in standings scored races),which means the frequency will shuffle between every 2nd and 3rd race,occasionally having back to back races. Couple of most popular cars from last year might have a return in schedule this year. RTFR XL however will keep mods ban for selection in race after mods race,which basically means mods cannot be used 2 races in row. A spreadsheet "RGE approved mods" has been created to keep track of cars that can be used in our events,however the unused (new) mods tracking was given up at some point as it was increasingly difficult to follow them. In case RTFR XL winner wants to select and is not sure to which car class it belongs,simply ask for feedback.


Both events have been entered into lfs.net racing calendar,where the combos will be updated as soon as possible - the currently set "XFG at BL1" is simply a placeholder. Info about each event will be posted in this forum subsection as it was always done previously in the information threads.


For past 2 years RTFR and RTFR XL were honored by having a great promotion through livestream by the best broadcasting company around LFS - Sim Broadcasts. With sponsors support,the broadcasting will continue also for 2023,giving a great chance for people not in race to follow the action live and to racers in the race - relive the action from the spectators view. SB.tv will broadcast by availability all races that are part of standings,taking a break in summer when the 3 non-championship races will be held.

Additionally you can visit SimBroadcasts.tv for their full streaming schedule and contact,or their lfs.net forum thread for local updates.

Last year in the annual crashfest once again there were left plenty of wrecked cars lying around,but few best survived to battle out for event win to become the champion of the 12th This is Crashmaaas !!! This year the attendance "shrunk" to 44 drivers,but just because most of the attendees kept the connection alive - only one driver left after setting laptime in qualifying,leaving his name unused in his heat. A total of 3 previous winners attended,including both 2-time champions,but only one of them made to final,without reaching the finish though.

Being fast is surely an advantage if you get in safe distance to pull away from competition. This year 6 of best 10 qualifyers made into final,but the polesitter was taken out after completing half of the Last chance run. However his majesty the defending 2-time champion Meaddie obviously had a blinking neon arrow over his car after all the pre-event talks,so he was a huge target for the "peasants" masses - he finished 5th in his quarterfinal heat and just 13th in his relegation run,retiring early frome the battle and laying down his crown.


With 2 champions not reaching the final and the 3rd one being taken out with 4 laps to go,it was 100% clear there will be a new addition to the glorious list of champions - the 10th one! Twincam is the 1st driver from B2R team to reach this glory,his way to it however wasn't that easy. The irishman qualified 23rd and was drawn into only 6-driver QF heat (due to non-attendance of Atian),where he finished 2nd behind driver who set the fastest laptime of the evening A.Laipnieks,collecting his SF ticket right away. The semifinal wasn't that successful as he finished just 3rd,being pushed to the nailbiting Last chance run. With all the physical battles he was a bit lucky to snach the last 4th final ticket from the LCR,meaning he will be standing alone on the 4th row for the final. His last to first mission succeeded with huge help of his teammate - Twincam finished the final run with rather little amount of car damage to become the 10th winner of this traditional event,being 2nd hailing from British Isles.

A countryman of 1st three event champions finished 2nd this year - A.Rozītis had to go longest way possible to reach runner up position. He qualified 2 positions behind the new champion,finished dead last in his quarterfinal heat,but won his relegation run to reach semifinal. In his semifinal heat he got too involved in battles,being relegated out of track boudries,so he also had to battle for ticket in the last chance run,where he finished 3rd,less than 2 seconds ahead of the new champion. The 3rd place finisher however never saw a single relegation run - E.Blixt used andvantage of his pace as he qualified 4th and won both his quarter and semifinal heats. Maybe it was lack of battle practice,which caused the swede being held up by backmarker,eventually losing fight and also leading position which he held for 12 laps,still he rescued at least a podium finish.

It was planned to make a bit simpler layout for the Bonus run this year,however seems like the last jump was not properly tested as it caused way more retirements than most skilled wreckers. Incredibly how many fell for the wrong direction arrows - lack of experience made them an easy victim for the little organizer's prank. Also the good old "minefield" (tyre stacks,where some have hidden pillars) caused plenty of havoc,but eventually the remaining drivers got used to the track and started the exhausing survival,most of them with highly damaged cars. The joker of the Final run Upsas was on top of the game in this chaos,leading the last 8 laps to finish 1st in the bonus run. Only 4 drivers managed to complete all 20 laps.


There were few problems this year - the new button clutch app proved to have an imperfection,as it does not allow to grid up drivers in gridding screen (since the car isn't actually on track,it cannot check settings). Also the Airio managed to hang up when many drivers simultaniously found out about info available in !opt menu (it's hosted on a very basic machine,probably a combination of being remote and being slow caused the hang) and the event organizer messed up count of drivers,promising top4 being promoted from each relegation run,which was one more than actually available - 2 drivers were dissapointed that their secured semifinal ticket was actually invalid. But at the end of the day the event produced plenty of fun and drama as it supposed to be,and all of that was visible live on broadcast,thanks to the SimBroadcasts.tv effort - the usual crashing motivator and previous champion Pete was substituted by Jonathan and Miika in the virtual commentary booth. You can rewatch the action in the Youtube link few posts above if you already have not.

This year in the Rony's Tuesday's Crashmas Race on tuesday the 26th december - there will be an event using XRG on the small Fern Bay Bullring,featuring many races to qualify themselves for final,which will decide who will become the winner of 13th annual X-mas derby "This is Crashmaaas !!!" Aditionally a new idea has been born (and probably used if not forgotten),between final and bonus run there will be a new race introduced - the Battle Royale! The idea of it is to set up all attending event champions (including a new one) against each other to battle out for the pride of being best in actual head to head battle.

Weirdly - same here now. Can scroll how I want and try reproduce both options that caused crash - nothing.
Bugs don't fix themselves and I had no updates of anything. I wonder if that had to do with some event infos/logos that aren't in list anymore.

(unserious note - no more Crashmas in event list,no more crashes of LFS )

Quote :

- New vehicle categories such has Muscle Cars, actual Rally Cars (with point to point rally tracks of course), Trucks, and the list could go on

Please check the mods section - the list is slowly filling up with many different vehicles already. It will take some time to have quality cars in each category,but community guys are surely working on it.

Quote :

- Weather so we could face more challenges like visibility being limited, road conditions like aquaplaning

Devs are currently working on graphics update,which will bring real time lighting with changing conditions (day-night),that will replace current simple pre-baked lighting. Let them finish that first and see what's coming in future,but that's surely a step towards changing weather conditions,including rain and realistic wind.

Quote :

- Driver suits could have the same treatment like liveries and helmets

True,that would be a nice addition,wondering why it wasn't done already before,should not be too much work compared to more complex updates coming in future.

Quote :

- Driver animations is not exactly a problem, but, could the feet and shifting animation be present by option?

That would be problematic as software does not know when you will shift! You could program that driver animation would put hand on shifter when closing to shift point,but how would the software know when you plan to stretch as you're closing to turn already or if you would short shift. Reacting on already done shift would but just too late and unrealistic. So I don't see a way to show correct shifting.

Quote :

- Pre made AI (Having already AI drivers present in game besides creating ours)

Huh? What do you mean? Names? I'm sure that would be the lowest priority update anyway as AI is just a practice buddy for casual offline training,as online mode is the focus of this sim.

For the 12th year in row the very first league's raceday of the year brings AWS racers to South City for the NewYear City Challenge. It has been run mostly with FXR,but for 2 races the slower RB4 took over the duty of racing in South City. This year it's again a GTR car,but a different one - the compact PZG GTR,which is made on base of a simple 3 door hatchback. Similar to our well known XFR,this car is also very light,bringing the scale just a tick over 900 kilograms,but with all wheel drive system it's deffinitelly much quicker out of the turns,while the short wheelbase makes it very agile also entering turns and aerodynamic downforce will help a lot through faster turns,making the car just couple of seconds slower than LFS GTR class despite it's power of "just" 355 horsepower.

After round one there are just few clues about tendencies in terms of championship,but everything can change in the remaining 7 rounds as the season is quite long compared to most. Everyone can still join AWS and make a bid for the champions title,as drivers in 1st round did not gain that much advantage to run away from everyone. However current trends show that if will be unlikelly for anyone else challenge current leaders for Nations cup.

Round info:
Track: South City City Long (SO4)
Laps: 27 (109km)
Car: PZGG (configuration "Police" is not allowed to be used)
Previous winners : YES V. Laguckas (2022; 2019 & 2017 / FXR), S1DUS*Botsi (2021 & 2020 / FXR), B2ﾏ FasT (2018 / RB4), A.Valta (2016 / RB4), CoRe A.Laipnieks (2015 / FXR), 22 S.Jurvansuu (2014 / FXR), CoRe V.Pitkänen (2013 / FXR), spdoFade (2012 / FXR)


Server info and password will be PM'ed during sunday (european time) to all entrants,until then server remains publically accessible:
AWD Winter Series

AWS 2023 signups thread
Race Green Discord

You will access all the available mods via garage screen - above the currently for demo user available "cars" there will be button "mods",clicking on it opens mod selection screen,which automatically downloads selected mod.

Edit: Oh,lost to the kart.

Quote from Scawen :

Better not get too bitter about losing a race though.

Well,he did not lose just a race,but whole reign of being king of the crashers...

Le roi est mort, vive le roi !

As you can read in previous posts,there has been a change in reign. Full results in the upcoming week,but you can see all the action either in classic LFS replay mode (attached to this post) or via commentated livestream - link in post above (#13).

Server is now password protected,password is in 1st post right under the section everyone should be familiar with - rules!

Please DO NOT post server info in random places without leading info to this thread - otherwise too many people join who have absolutely no clue what's this event is about and what is it's format! (and leave after setting qualifying time,thus taking away chance to race from those who want to race)

Event live results sheets for heat tracking purposes:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1o0WnhWzf8xW40ElXAgPUkVVsUomAIYnnVlDvODuL4e0/edit#gid=0
(this is where everyone can see in which heat he is,I can't answer everyone personally during the event)

Quote from nikopdr :

You can stack the current armcos but it would take 3 object spots for 1 "full object"

And it does not level itself with road surface like a single armco does as you can merge 3 in one only when raising or lowering.

I wonder if some lighting objects are planned to be included in layout editor? Once the big update is released and night is possible,surely some custom lighting will be required,either to light shady areas or tunnels made out of concrete objects.

The year comes to it's end and with it also the active racing in RTFR is over - this year was halved into 2 seasons,each with own final standings and each with own standings winner. First let's look at some figures - during unscored summer break the attendance in RTFR dropped significantly,but raised back a little with start of 2nd season. The average attendance in the 10 season 2 rounds was 30.5,which is 9 less than in season 1. Three of the rounds had 37 drivers qualifying,but there were never more than 36 on grid - peak was the FOX race at Fern Bay. 81 drivers managed to score at least 1 point in standings (decrease of 18 compared to season 1),5 of them were allowed to enter victory lane.

RTFR 2022 Season 2 standings winner: S1DUS*GáboR
The 2020 RTFR standings winner Gábor returned to the top of the list at the 2nd part of this year. He started the scored season with his only non-top5 finish,raised the performance after that by winning next 2 races. Even if he never won another race again,the hungarian scored 5 more podium finishes. His 4 pole positions and 4 fastest laps tops the chart of each. In season 1 he scored 3 wins,but finished just in 5 of 10 races,taking 7th in standings.

R.Kardol was chasing hard his teammate through the season,but at the end came 2 points short by scoring same points in last round as his rival in the nailbiting season finale. With 4 wins he was the winningest driver,but failed to score top5 finishes in 2 rounds. It's still 2 positions progress compared to season 1. Unite finished 3rd in final standings to ensure S1dus clean sweep - the finn topped 4th place finishers chart with 4 entries in it,scoring one win in the season. At least he repeated the final standings position from season 1.

There are only 2 more racewinners in this season - S1dus Monkey won 2 races back to back,but did not join season finale to try his luck for 3 in row. But the historic race at Westhill was won by TJ,who got the win awarded as higher finishers could not be bothered by track limits and got penalized.




Race Green Events now goes into short holidays and the relay is taken over by Race unGreen Events for the yearly Crashmas on the coming monday. The RTFR racing resumes right with the 1st tuesday of the year,where one of the street legal cars will be run. Also the upcoming year will feature the 300th RTFR in middle of the february. As always the combo will be decided by public voting,which will start later in january. RTFR XL will start on 24th january and will keep the usual 1 race per 4 weeks schedule until november where it will make 6 weeks break to avoid having 2 rounds on same month.

Quote from via Google translate :

I can't recover lfs pro password
lfs pro website is not sending password recovery email

lfs.net IS NOT accociated with that piracy website! If you want to support game,use the legal verson available here in downloads section - either free of charge demo or with payed licenced content. And delete your account in that other website,uninstall the client/launcher from that other website to avoid your computer potentially infected with malware!

Additionally - same happens if you scroll down to bottom and click "Exit". Does not even need to be scrolled down fast.

Quote from ELSB666 :

can't find it

This should explain: https://www.lfs.net/forum/post/2028209#post2028209
(Cannot say anything about reasons though)

Showcase with this car running in classic Aston National in video on demand:



I'm sure Lorenzo won't mind if you use his mass pictures from the race as mod preview pictures: https://www.lfs.net/forum/post/2028070#post2028070

And if you want an addidional public skin to mod,feel free to add the RTFRpromo skin attached,seems like the Wild Cat skin above is also well made.

Qualifying:


Race:


Winner:


Race statistics / RTFR .mpr folder / Event rating and other statistics (will be updated later this week)

Quote from ZFRL•LG-mies via RGA discord :

RTFR #296: Lap 1 Turn 1 (braking)
#7 JUSTIN made a sudden move towards the inside line from the outside line when there were cars inside him, causing a contact and chain reaction multiple cars to spin out

#7 JUSTIN obviously did not check perimeter before such sudden line change,which causes multiple car incident.


* PENALTIES :
JARMOLO - receives a WARNING for multiple avoidable contacts on lap 1 - driver joining a race without proper practice should be extra careful and get used to car handling and size before going for close racing. Additionally he will not be allowed to start without qualifying anymore.
#7 JUSTIN - receives a WARNING for incident approaching 1st turn of lap 1. Future incidents will lead to actual penalty or even race ban.

- - - - - - - - - -


GTR racing in the Aston National is quite a classic of LFS - high speeds through curved straights,precise cornering through the fast first turn and tricky last chicane and throttle control exiting all 3 hairpins. Don't need much more to test drivers for a wide skillset. Additionally the drivers got a new and for most rather unknown GTR car - the midengined Lillia-X in performance wise between stock FZR and XRR,but does not have years long developed setups,meaning drivers had to create something out of the simple base setup. Intensity raised when a total of 36 cars were approaching 1st turn with speeds well over 250km/h - even if most survived unscared,one incident still took place,which was just one of two big ones in this race.

With sights on standings win,R.Kardol started from outside of front row and took over race lead when entering 1st hairpin,despite a greeting from Fatal in 2nd hairpin,he kept the lead through rest of the race to take home his 16th RTFR race win - that is 3rd most in all time stats. He also set the fastest lap of the race (or rather repeated as he set the time 1 lap later,but achievement still counts),which is his 11th,while the 67th top5 finish allows him to tie his teammate Botsi for 3rd most top5 finishes. Gábor was the fastest in qualifying,where he was the only one to break the magical barrier of 1:40 - that's his 14th pole position in RTFR. Starting from there on track with quite long run to 1st turn was not really an advantage - he lost lead early and was just the 1st chaser through whole race,finishing 2nd 5 seconds behind his teammate,but he also scored the fastest lap of the race,which is his 14th,but the top5 finish is Gábor's 37th. To make the S1dus podium complete once again,this time Altsu took over from other teammates in his 2nd event visit this year - he started 4th to finish 3rd,which is his 15th top5 finish. TJ was the best of the rest in this race by finishing 4th,that's 5th top5 finish for the surprise winner of previous non-standard cars race winner. A.Valta finished 5th to make the top5 complete just from previous race winners - that's his 12th top5 finish.

VOD at Youtube:


With this the RTFR racing this year is finished! RTFR XL final standings have already beed posted,during this weekend also standings of RTFR 2022 S2 will be posted. This year only one event is left from RGE side - the dozen edition of annual X-mas derby "This is Crashmaaas !!!". Unfortunatelly it's very unlikelly to continue the new tradition of broadcasting this event in livestream and hear drivers screaming in glory,but that won't make the event less...ehm...crashful? RTFR and RTFR XL will return next year with same schedule,but more information of standings format will be announced before 1st race.

Server is now online!
Unfortunatelly Airio tends to corrupt the stats files when using mods,only solution is to clear them - that means the laptimes from old times are vanished...

AWS has started the dozen season with the lightweight "formula offroad" - this race recorded 1st ever AWS race with car lighter than 1 ton. And that was not the only record that fell this monday - this was the 1st ever Blackwood RXGP with 41 laps distance (first two seasons had 2 laps shorter distance) to be completed under 40 minutes! This car was actually built with breaking records in mind,even if it was a tick slower that last year's XF eGTR version,the lack of need for pitstops lead to new race distance record. What wasn't breaking any records was the attendance - with 13 drivers attending in season opener,it was pretty much average attendance of this round (13.4 before this season).

The 2016 series champion A.Valta returned to series for the 1st time since his championship season and did it with style - he was significantly faster in qualifying to secure the pole position and led all 41 laps to score his 4th AWS race win. Interestingly this was his 1st ever Blackwood RXGP as 2016 was the only year when this round was not held. Last year's rookie of the year Thehemuli stole the fastest lap of the race from race winner,which is his 1st such achievement in this league. Still he had to work hard to not allow both green cars in his mirrors grow bigger,eventually pulling 4 seconds gap over finish line to finish 2nd. The closest green car was Lorenzo,who started from outside of the 3-wide front row - he kept the 3rd position through whole race to score his 1st AWS podium finish. Note to add here - top6 drivers finished in same order they qualified,there were couple position changes at the bottom end of it during the race.

After 1st round as always the standings positions are same as race results of round 1 - A.Valta is leading standings by 3 points over Thehemuli,Lorenzo is 3rd with another 3 points gap. Same situation is in the Cross Challenge table,there are 2 more rounds to go for this award,both on the 2nd half of the season.

Currently there is just a single rookie in points standings,therefor this award might not be awarded if no other rookie finishes a race during the season (no point honoring someone as best if there was no competition).

Situation in teams championship is quite competitive after 1st round - the series hosts and 5-time champions RGA are leading by 2 points over Zafiralis (the rivalry continues from VERL),3rd is MRc with 5 points gap from leader. Nations cup is currently led by defending champions Finland,which scored maximum possible 39 points in this round. Czechia is 2nd with 19 points gap to leaders,followed by Italy another 5 points back.

As always in the 1st raceday of the new year,AWS holds the NewYear City Challenge - a tradition that has not been broken through whole league's history. What's changing is the car - before it was switched between the well known FXR and RB4 (the latter had just 2 appearances though),this year the relay is taken over by a smaller GTR car - the PZG GTR has just a bit more than half horsepower of FXR,but weights only 900kg,making it very agile through the winding turns of the urban track. This year the longest standard configuration City Long will be used for 27 laps race.

Reproduced - scrolled down and LFS crashed during scrolling up.

Today this car will be used in 296th RTFR!



Event info: https://www.lfs.net/forum/thread/101743-296th-RTFR
Livestream starts 18:50 UTC: https://www.twitch.tv/simbroadcasts

Quote from RevLeon :

I'm having steeting issues with the g920, the wheel doen't want to stay straight it snaps either to the left or right.

Because front wheels have just 1.6° caster. Normally cars have around 6° caster.

Since creators of many mods don't have FFB wheel,they don't even notice such things.

Teasing the users with new lighting system where objects also have shadows...
Anyway - semaphore without wheel base is a welcome addition,was always a headache to hide the wheelbase. Now we will be able to build much better starting lights constructions.
The new bale looks better. Wider speedbumps will surely come handy too.

Qualifying:


Race:


If you want to make a protest,please include all neccesary information.
Template:

Quote :

Session:
Lap/MPR time:
Involved drivers:
Description of incident:

Deadline for protests - tuesday,21:00 UTC

Quote from sinanju :

how unrealistic it looks when tyres deform on heavy vehicles while cornering hard.

Question is - how realistic was the tyre pressure at that situation? If I'm not mistaken,trucks are running with quite high pressures on the road.