Here are the results, replays, and photos from the first round of The Fourth Oppositelock Endurance Championship. In addition, a post race analysis is in this post, as well as a few notes for the next round.
THE RACE
If you missed the race, check out the streaming list. All of the replays can be found there. Special thanks to everyone who streamed. There was plenty of action on the track throughout the (mostly) clean race. A classic endurance and strategy run.
RESULTS
Here are the results by class, as well as a picture of the car used by each driver.
PHOTOS
Here are some more photos from the race. If you have any pictures from the race that you want to share, post them in the comments. Special thanks to PHOENLX 8 for some of these photos.
POINTS STANDINGS
Here are where the current championship standings will be for all classes once they are completed. A MASSIVE shoutout to DDM Law for helping to setup the points sheet, which is no easy task given the class structure in this series. He deserves all your praise and love. But hey, it’s only round 1. Points order is just the finishing order of this race. So all is well.
THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS
This was a hell of a way to start out the season. The amount of interest the series got surpassed anything I expected or could have hoped for. People from all over the online Forza community saw the original race post and expressed their interest. It was great to see so many new faces racing, and racing well. Thankfully though, we had just under 24 people, so there was no awkwardness regarding people sitting out. Racing for the most part was very clean. There were a few on track incidents but thankfully nothing worthy of a caution. Just how it should be since no one is perfect. BoP was a bit of a mixed bag though. SP1 and SP3 I felt were good, but one car in particular got through in SP2. That’s on me and will be addressed for the next round. Also, I’m going to need a massive F in chat for the entire TCR class, which had no finishers lmao.
Also some of y’all made post race summaries, which I’m posting below.
JA 37 Viggen:
P5 For GPX Racing in Season Opener
The #15 GPX Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R came home to finish in fifth place under the stars and fireworks at the Yas Marina Circuit for round one of the Oppositelock Endurance Championship. The Dubai based team finished second on the GT3 Am podium.
Porsche Customer Racing driver JA 37 Viggen, was pleased with the result. “We started towards the back of the overall SP1 grid and initially decided to set our strategy on charging as far forward as quickly as we could. Our Porsche GT3 R really suited the track and allowed us to maintain consistency during a stint. As our gap to the leaders and those behind us grew, we decided to alter our strategy towards maintaining track position during the pit stops. Taking second place in the GT3 Am class is a major stepping stone towards the goal of securing the class championship.”
The next round of the Oppositelock Endurance Championship will take place in Italy at the Mugello Circuit, where JA 37 Viggen will be behind the wheel of a Dinamic Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 R.
Corey CC97:
Scuderia Oppo Clinches Overall Win in Round 1 of Oppositelock Endurance Championship
After starting towards the rear of the SP1 grid, the Life is Strange sponsored #97 Scuderia Oppo Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo, a brand new chassis for the team, managed to battle through the other SP1 cars to challenge for the lead within the first hour of the race. Despite numerous electrical issues, the Scuderia Oppo team used pit strategy and raw pace to prevail over efforts from fellow VAG manufactures Porsche and Audi. This was the team’s first win since the campaign in their Ferrari 250 LM for the historic sportscar series, and first overall win since their successful Toyota TS040 LMP program in 2016.
Team owner and driver Corey CC97 was thrilled with the outcome. “This was our first race ever in a Lamborghini chassis, and the driving dynamics of the car couldn’t have been better. The car really allowed to push faster and faster as the race went on. The electrical issues were a bit unexpected, though. We never got them fully sorted, but we patched them up well enough to get us to the end. And I am so thrilled that Square Enix and Life is Strange have partnered with us for a second year in a row at Yas Marina, and I am so thrilled this year we were able to bring home a win for them and the team.”
When asked about plans for the next round of the championship at Mugello, it was revealed that the team does not plan to use their new Huracan GT3 chassis again in the championship. Instead they have acquired an older Reiter Gallardo FL2 chassis. “Our current plan at the moment is to continue our partnership with Square Enix and Life is Strange with the Huracan for a few races in the TORA British GT championship, as we did last year with our 911 GT3. But we still want to continue using a Lamborghini chassis, so we also have a Reiter Gallardo, which we plan to use for the foreseeable future in OEC”, Corey CC97 informed us.
After their success in round 1 and interesting decision to field a much older GT3 car for future races, all eyes will be on the current championship leader at Mugello, which is expected to be held sometime this April.
Now onto Round 2 at Mugello! And we are in a hella interesting scenario. Coronavirus has shut down the planet, which means my schedule is wide open for running races. Therefore, I am considering moving the Mugello race up to April instead of May as I originally planned. I am also considering running it on a Friday rather than a Saturday and/or moving the start time up to 7 PM EDT. Let me know what you think about those ideas, and before you know it we’ll be racing again.
With how that race went, I am confident future races will be equally memorable. See you in the next round!