The final round of the GTR 2010 series was held last night at Kyoto. Despite not winning a race since round
 3, VTRacing was well in front going into the finale, he only needed to finish to complete the series win.  He did that in fine style, starting 4th and finishing less then half a second behind the race winner, Travy. VTRacing finished with 4 wins from 12 races, and scored 2 poles. He has now won 3 series in a row. The next series is a sprint series, and with half of it on dirt, the rally expert is the hot favourite to win again. Russ took the other podium spot after earning the pole position.

In Division B, DJ Saxy proved too strong for the rest of the field. Two Bees, Chook and Threeps, followed him home cosely. Interestingly, all three top finishers drove ARC Russ' FXR setup.

In the Team Championship, Female Body Inspectors were the winners by a big margin, followed by Lone Rangers 1 and Pacfica Racing.

Thanks to all the drivers for racing in the GTR 2010 series. Also, thank you to the server providers ARC Russ and Games.On.Net. 

Top Five - Round 6

1. LR1 - Travy - 300
2. AR - VTRacing - 279
3. FBI - Russ - 263
4. FBI - Pete - 240
5. FMR - Peteynut - 222

Top Five - Driver's Championship
1. AR - VTRacing - 1499
2. LR1 - Travy - 1233
3. SCR - Doso - 1091
4. PR - Astro - 1057
5. FBI - Benson - 1028
 
Top Five - Team Championship
1. Female Body Inspectors - 3719
2. Lone Rangers 1 - 2453
3. Pacifica Racing - 2380
4. Filthy Minds Racing  - 2347
5. What The F#%$ Racing - 2307

Schulzy from Nfinity Esports won the round at Blackwood although he started racing with poor setups. In an interview after the racing he informed the media he had to change the setup on the fly in race 1 as he tried to control the powerful XR GTR. He finished with a win, 3rd and 6th after taking pole position by the narrowest of margins. Benson took the other spot on the front row, missing out by only .02 of a second. The entire Division A field was a tight encounter, with all drivers finishing less then a minute behind the leader in race 1 and 2 and only Travy failing to do the same in the 3rd race. Astro took 2nd for the round and Benson 3rd.

In Division B it was the Harky and Phoenix show. After qalifying 1st and 2nd, the team mates repeated the order for race 1 and also for the reverse grid race 2. Race 3 didn't go to plan though, with Phoenix getting into early trouble and Harky tangling with another team mate in the chicane, as seen below.

The Diver's championship has been all but closed out with VTRacing a clear 287 points ahead of Travy. Second place is still as tight as it has been all series, with 2nd through to 6th within 100 points. Southern Cross Racing's Doso, after starting in Division B has climbed up to 3rd in the championship with some very conistent and fast performances.

FBI are still in easy control of the team championship, they are now out of reach and have secured yet another MNR title. Second place can be won by the next four with only 59 points splitting them. Next week we complete the GTR 2010 series at the Kyoto Ring for a 90 minute enduro. Two mandatory stops and a tough circuit on tyres should make things interesting.

Top Five - Round 5
1. nFinity - D.Schulz -  259
2. PR - Astro - 240
3. FBI - Benson - 237
4. AR - VTRacing - 196
5. FBI - Russ - 194
 
Top Five - Driver's Championship
1. AR - VTRacing - 1220
2. LR1 - Travy - 933
3. SCR - Doso - 917
4. FBI - Grease - 860
5. PR - Astro - 853
 
Top Five - Team Championship
1. Female Body Inspectors - 3027
2. Pacifica Racing - 1999
3. Lone Rangers 1 - 1956
4. Filthy Minds Racing  - 1950
5. What The F#%$ Racing - 1940

 The tight city track, big powerful GTR's and reverse grids make a perfect recipe for carnage, and last night MNR baked up a feast that would have impressed any Masterchef judge. Both divisions featured action packed and tense racing, with a pile up the normal feature of lap 1. With all the challenges, wins were hard to come by. From the three races, no driver won two races in either of the divisions. Only one driver in each division was able to get on the podium twice. Schulzy in Division A and Bwaaarcode in Division B.
 
The FXR was again the preferred car, 32 from 38 starters took the 4WD option. A total of 163 cars have started the first four rounds and the FXR has been used 58% of the time, the FZR 31% and the XRR only 11%. With only two rounds remaining the FXR will surely be garaged by a few drivers because of the series requirements. The current series rules state, "Must drive at least two of the GTR Cars twice. ie FZ50 GTR 3 rounds, XR GTR 3 rounds." After the completion of round 4, only 8 out of 59 drivers have completed that requirement.
 
In Division A, a pole, a win and a 3rd placing secured the round win for Schulzy. 2nd place went to Doso and in 3rd, Russ and Astro shared the honours. The series leader VTRacing finished the round in 9th but continues to enjoy the fresh air up front with a 164 point lead over Grease. In Division B Kojack was the best with 148 points.
 
The team championship is all but over. FBI has been dominant this series and currently lead by 837 points. It is hard to imagine any team closing the massive gap. The battle for 2nd place is well and truly alive though, with the next 5 teams within 103 points of each other. OzB drops from 3rd to 6th after having no Division A drivers in round 4. PR climb to 2nd from 5th.
 
Next week we are at Blackwood, with three races, two of which are reverse grid. The forecast is for a clear and sunny day.
 
Top Five - Round 4
1. nFinity - D.Schulz -  249
2. SCR - Doso - 224
=3. FBI - Russ - 201
=3. PR - Astro - 201
5. FBI - Grease - 200
 
Top Five - Driver's Championship
1. AR - VTRacing - 1024
2. FBI - Grease - 860
3. LR1 - Travy - 848
4. SCR - Doso - 728
5. PR - Astro - 613
 
Top Five - Team Championship
1. Female Body Inspectors - 2419
2. Pacifica Racing - 1582
3. Filthy Minds Racing - 1576
4. Lone Rangers 1 - 1569
5. What The F#%$ Racing - 1494

Fern Bay was the scene of Round 3 of MNR's GTR 2010 series. The Black configuration was used for 2 races, each 13 laps.
 
VTRacing blitzed the Division A server. He scored pole position by nearly a second and then won race one and two by big margins. FBI Russ was easily the next best, finishing 2nd in both races after qualifying in on the other spot on the front row. Third place for the round was won by Glen. After a long spell with a broken steering wheel, he was the highest climber in race 1, gaining 8 positions to finish 4th. In race 2 he went one better to get 3rd place.
 
In Division B, Greggy showed the early pace, getting the only sub 2:20 in qualifying. From pole he was unable to win a race, finishing 2nd in the first race and failing to finish the next. The best performer was Kojack, he started 2nd and won both races. Also of note was Bundyroy's second race performance. He achieved 3rd place after starting at the rear of the grid.
 
In the Driver's Championship, VTRacing has a commanding lead at the midway point. Behind him is a three way fight for 2nd. The team championship is now dominated by FBI, with FMR a massive 565 points behind.
 
Next week we have three races in what could end up a last man standing event. The South City Chicane is sure a nice circuit to drive, but once more then 20 GTR cars are battling it could well turn into a destruction derby. Chaos will win unless some extreme patience is shown. There aren't a lot of passing opportunities and the 21 lap distance in each race will be testing for both the tyres and drivers. If the circuit wasn't challenging enough, two of the races are reverse grid. The championship race could look a lot different after round 4.
 
Thank you to ARC Russ and Games.On.Net for providing our driving arenas.
 
















Top Five - Round 3
1. AR - VTRacing - 205
2. FBI - Russ - 186
3. LR1 - Glen - 166
=4. FBI - Grease - 148
=4. PR - Ynot - 148
 
Top Five - Driver's Championship
1. AR - VTRacing - 865
2. FBI - Grease - 660
3. LR1 - Travy - 655
4. FBI - Benson - 602
5. SCR - Doso - 504
 
Top Five - Team Championship
1. Female Body Inspectors - 1828
2. Filthy Minds Racing - 1263
3. OzBee-Racing - 1180
4. What The F#%$ Racing - 1145
5. Pacifica Racing - 1099

South City never fails to provide drama. The Division A event was won by VTRacing after the two cars in front of him ran out of fuel, one on the penultimate and the other on the final lap. oops.

Still, we can't take anything away from Austra Racing's star driver's performance. He was the only driver in Division A driving the XR GTR and he drove it with poise and precision. Except for the major drifto action as seen to the right. He was as low as 18th at one stage during the race but by lap 16 he had completed his two pitstops in tidy fashion and had a 22 lap stint to eventually finish nearly 4 seconds in front of consistent rival Travy. Benson continues his great performances, taking the other podium position. Both Fizzle Snips and Russ can only think about what might have been if they took another litre of fuel. At least Fizzles scored the bonus points for pole.

In Division B there was more drama. A returning banned driver snuck past the guards and successfully raced to victory with the fastest laps seen in either division. He has been banned again. It is easy to see why he wants to race again. MNR provides the only organised LFS league racing in Australia, and does it extremely well. Racing in MNR though is not a right, it is only available to those that respect the aims of the league and also respects the other participants.

Because of the disqualification all drivers from 2nd place downwards in Division B were promoted one position. This gave yours truly the race win, followed by Cursed and new driver Neo. Clarkie scored the pole bonus points.

In the championship chase, VTRacing now holds the lead with a narrow gap back to Benson and Travy. In the team championship, FBI has pulled away from FMR. Pacifica Racing has jumped into equal third place with WTF, OzB rounds out the top five.

Next week the MNR circus travels to Fern Bay, with two half hour races. Finally, it looks like some good weather with the forecast being clear skies. Don't forget to pack your bikini.

Round Two Drivers Top Five
 
1. AR - VTRacing - 300
2. SR - Travy - 279
3. FBI - Benson - 258
4. FBI - Grease - 240
5. PR - Astro - 222

Driver's Championship Top Five

1. AR - VTRacing - 660
2. FBI - Benson - 602
2. SR Travy - 587
4. FBI - Grease - 512
5. SCR - Doso - 419

Team Championship Top Five
 
1. Female Body Inspectors - 1373
2. Filthy Minds Racing - 1040
=3. Pacifica Racing - 951
=3. What The F*#% Racing - 951
5.  OzBee-Racing - 884

Screenshot credit: VTRacing

Aston National Reverse was the course for the start of the Unleash The Beast series. Sixty one drivers signed up to make this the biggest MNR field for a long time. Luckily, the Games.On.Net server was up and running in time so that we could host all MNR drivers.
 
With the return of Duck to MNR, came the return of everyone else racing for 2nd place. He won the pole position with a time of 1:40.65. With ample warning of the pending race one start, Duck was casually chatting with the grid girls. With one minute to go he still had not donned his helmet. As the lights started to go red he rolled his green FZ GTR onto the back of the grid. Starting from the front is too easy for Duck, when asked about the incident he replied, "I was excited for the challenge". He went on to race for the top spot and err late in the race to finish 2nd. He also earned a win in the 2nd race to clinch the round win.
 
"Good to be back in MNR it was a blast!" - Duck
 
The other podium places for the round went to AR's VTRacing in 2nd and FBI's Benson scored 3rd.
 
In Division B an old hat returned to LFS. Southern Cross Racing's Doso requested an entry into the lower tier and blitzed the field with a clean sweep, winning pole, race 1 and race 2. It will be interesting to see how he fares with the faster crew in Div A next week at the city.
 
The team championship is a fight that will surely go to the wire. After the first round, the current champions, Female Body Inspectors are locked on equal points with the reinvogorated Filthy Minds Racing.

Next week we are racing the South City Long configuration. It is a single 38 lap race with two pit stops required. One for 4 tyres and one for at least 10% fuel. Conditions: Overcast

Round One Drivers Top Five   1. FMR - Duck - 391 2. AR VTRacing - 360 3. FBI - Benson - 344 4. LR1 - Travy - 308 5. grease - 272 Round One Team Top Five   1. Filthy Minds Racing - 755 2. Female Body Inspectors - 755 3. OzBee-Racing - 496 4. What The F*#% Racing - 481 5. Austra Racing - 440

The MRT series ended at Kyoto last night with the longest MRT5 race held in MNR history. A single 20 lap race around the GP Long circuit produced an hour of fun racing ofr most drivers. Five drivers still had a mathematical chance of being crowned the champion.

Qualifying in Div A was tight at the top, with BitB in front until Travy pounced and set a blistering 2:49.09. The time secured pole and made sure that VTRacing understood the series would be fought all the way to the chequered flag. It was half a second faster then any other driver.

The race started in an exciting way, with a three wide and four way fight for second place going into turn 2. VTRacing came out the other side in front of the others and set out to chase down Travy. After he caught him the battle was fierce and tight for a couple of laps. Then, on lap 9, Travy went wide on the final turn and clipped the grass. As he was spinning he watched VTRacing race away for a comfortable race, round and series victory. The final margin was 35 seconds. VTRacing is the first driver since 2008 to win back to back MNR titles. 

In Division B, Clarkie grabbed pole with the only sub 2:51 lap. In the race however he had an early spin, crippling his chances at a race win. He managed to fight back and grab the last spot on the division B podium. OzBee-Racing's Durrie won the race, less then a second in front of WTF's Cabby. After the race Durrie summed up his race, "Quickly jumped Clarkie, but he got all excited and it was all over a lap or two later.........     Hung on by a bee's dick and eventually crossed the line to great sighs of relief."

In the Team championship, there was no position changes in the final round. FBI finished the series more then 700 points ahead of the Lone Rangers. The Bees ended up a mere 20 points further back in third.

Thanks to the server suppliers for this series, BitB and ARC Russell. Also thank you to the judiciary and admin teams for their continuous work behind the scenes. Last but not least, thanks to the drivers for turning up each week and racing with great respect for each other.

Next week the MNR machine goes to Aston for the first round of the popular GTR series. Click here for the sign up thread if you want to be involved.

Round Top Five 1. AR - VTRacing - 300 2. SR - Travy - 284 3. FBI - Benson - 258 4. Pete - 240 5. OzB - r8response - 222 Drivers Championship Top Five 1. AR - VTRacing - 1133 2. SR - Travy - 1082 3. FBI - DJ Saxy - 889 4. FBI - ARC Russell - 799 5. FBI - Benson - 704 Team Championship Top Five 1. FBI - 2748 2. LR1 - 2025 3. OzB - 2005 4. WTF - 1928 5. AR - 1855

Benson outraced all competition in the Division A server at Fern Bay. With a fourth and two first placings, he certainly displayed brilliant pace and remained consistent for the entire evening. VTRacing was his closest rival, and if it wasn't for a mechanical failure with three turns to go in the last race he would have finished a mere point behind Benson on overall round points. The failure to finish ended up seeing VTRacing finish well down the order in seventh. It also tightened the championship race with one race to go, the gap to second placed Travy is now only 35 points. After the race, VTRacing said, "I am still really grumpy about that disco; stupid bloody Telstra...". Perhaps he should have gone with Internode.

The third round of the MRT Meltdown series produced some of the closest racing so far seen in this competition. In the top tier, the first 19 drivers were within a second of the pole position lap time. SR's Travy took the top spot with a 1:29.30, a hundredth of a second in front of VTRacing. The Bees took second place for the night with r8's Div A performance netting him 241 points and the final podium spot was shared between SR's Travy and FBI's Russ with 217 points.

In Division B, Boxhead proved he still had more then enough pace and consistency to compete with the higher tiered drivers, scoring an impressive 205 points from a second and two first placings.

Next week we head to a very long Kyoto GP Long circuit for a single 20 lap race to sort out the eventual MRT Meltdown placings. The top spot is still up for grabs in the drivers championship but it appears the team championship has been secured by the very impressive FBI drivers. VTRacing's DNF caused Austra Racing to drop two places to fifth.

Round Top Five 1. FBI - Benson - 280 2. OzB - r8response - 241 =3. SR - Travy - 217 =3. FBI - Russ - 217 5. AR - Boxhead - 205 Drivers Championship Top Five 1. AR - VTRacing - 833 2. SR - Travy - 798 3. FBI - DJ Saxy - 685 4. FBI - ARC Russell - 640 5. FBI - Russ - 535 Team Championship Top Five 1. FBI - 2127 2. LR1 - 1538 3. OzB - 1441 4. WTF - 1391 5. AR - 1366