At the start of this year Race Green Events presented the brand new concept of racing where racers got their cars for each round drawn by randomizer from a pool of several different and yet performancewise balanced cars. The test race was successful and we launched full series straight away,setting it in the "free" tuesday left between RTFR and RTFR XL races. During the 1st season cars list grew from 17 to 26,diversifying the cars field even more - cars power ranges between 196 and 337 horsepower,while weight varies from just under a ton to almost twice the weight. From all possible engine/drivetrain layouts only the rear engined/all wheel drive is missing from the list,ironically car with this layout being voted 2nd twice and will be in voting for next addition again. Attendance was quite high,exceeding 30 for first 3 rounds with at least 21 drivers in all others except in round 8,where attendance suddenly dropped to 12. Still the average attendance of 25.7 is higher than in any other RGE's regular leagues.
The online randomizer had it's mood swings and did not draw cars very evenly - T.Soini got the same car 4 times out of 10,while 3 other drivers got the same car three times,with plenty of double draws through the field. The car drawn 4 times to single driver was also drawn most between all - Imprezzive B2 was drawn a total of 29 times out of 447 overall (6.5%),closelly followed by Talot,which was drawn 28 times - both cars made on the manufacturers podium.
RandomCar 2023 Drivers Champion: S1DUS*R.Kardol
The seasoned dutchman has plenty of success in most RGE events and also other leagues,so it wasn't a surprise of him topping also RandomCar's chart,however the way to top was steep as he did not attended the 1st round,spending the whole season in chasing position and taking over standings lead only after final round of the season. R.Kardol gathered up a total of 2 race wins,1 2nd place finish (all in the last 4 rounds) and 2 3rd place finishes - both on his first two attendances. He set the fastest lap of the race once,but never qualified better than 2nd,repeating that 3 times however.
2nd place in overall standings Nosle finished on podium just once (3rd place finish),however earned the season's runner up position with consistency by finishing outside top8 just once. The driver from "home team" representing Luxembourg put himself into league's history as the 1st ever pole position owner,being also the 1st standings leader with the 3 extra points for that. RD2 made the "home team" being represented on 2 of 3 final standings podium positions,however he started the season as individual racer and joined the RGA just before round 9. The bulgarian was the 1st to get the "supercar" and used it to start 2023 series with race win,finishing 2nd in round 4 where he get the same car again - in both of these races he set the fastest lap of the race. Even if he never finish higher than 7th in any other round,it was enough to defend the 3rd position in standings.
A total of 8 different drivers scored a race win,interestingly keeping the different winner each round trend alive until Thehemuli scored his 2nd race win in round 9,while also round 10 had a repeated winner. Besides the 8 drivers,winners list includes also 5 different teams,6 different nations and 6 different car models.
RandomCar 2023 Teams Champions: Race Green Autosports
With 7 drivers representing the "home team",it was clear it will do strong also in competition for being best team,even if with some struggles where RGA had an ups and downs withing top3 of the chart,season finale brought the decision towards them to become 1st teams champions in history of this new league,despite being the only team in the top4 without a single race win. Born to Race used last rounds double points rule to jump into 2nd position in final standings,being the winningest team through season with 3 wins,scored by 3 different drivers. Despite having drivers champion on their side,the communities one of the most successful teams in recent years finished just 3rd in standings - Team S1dus finished the season with a deficite of just a single point to 2nd place,having champion's 2 wins as their only top achievements.
RandomCar 2023 Nations Champions: Finland
The nation that has probably won every single nations based competition in LFS was on top also in RandomCar,however their story is similar to drivers champion's story - Finland was in chasing position since the season start and only round 8 brought them in standings lead,which despite closest rival's efforts was kept in the final with the tiny 3 points advantage. Both wins under finnish flag were scored by 5th place in drivers standings - Thehemuli. Lithuania scored most points between all nations in each of 6 first rounds,however being scoreless in next 2 rounds destroyed their built on advantage and the last dash in final round was just too little and too late,but just like champions also the other baltic country scored 2 race wins,each from a different driver. With sole effort of drivers champion,Netherlands is placed 3rd in nations championship,also bringing home 2 race wins,where the last one was the one helping to climb up to podium position.
RandomCar 2023 Manufacturers Champions: URC1
With many different cars being involved in the new league,RGA presented a brand new award - manufacturers champions title. The Ultimate Road Car 1 started the season with 4 consecutive race wins,earning even higher ballast weight,still being rated as unbeatable until round 5 in Aston,where it finally was beaten (7th place finish). Still the built up advantage was enough to keep the lead through 2 scoreless rounds and the 5th racewin in season finale put a dot under exclamation mark of their performance statement. With relativelly consistend points scoring through the season,2nd best car is the Talot Suns Lomis,which is based on a british hatchback's from late 70ies rally version,the small RWD car produced 1 race win and 3 second place finishes. The all wheels driven Imprezzive B2 made 3 different layouts on the manufacturers podium by being the 3rd best car of the season. Despite being complained about lack of top speed,the road legal version of late 90ies rally legend still finished one race as a winner,scoring 2 third place finishes - the 3rd place in final standings was kept despite not being even drawn for the double points season finale.
On january RGE will start preperations for the 2nd season of RandomCar,which is planned to start on 1st tuesday of february. Currently no major changes are planned,only car performances have to be rechecked and couple recently LFS approved cars can be added to the ever growing cars list,including also voting for one in our Discord server. The biggest change will include Manufacturers championship - the scoring has to be reworked as with bigger cars pool,chances for all cars to be drawn are decresing,damaging the chance to find out the best performing car instead of the "luckiest" one. Most likelly we will go for the same season format - 9 races set with lapcount to exceed 30 minutes with 1 hour season finale with double points to keep the finale intriguing.