All credit for the original photo goes to Dibbz
Welcome one and all to the second season of NeoGAF's Gran Turismo 5 Super GT League, presented by the NeoGAF Super GT Committee (SGC) and the NeoGAF Racing League (NRL).
Whether you're a returning competitor from Season 1, or someone who wishes to get amongst the action, know that you're in for an exciting ride. This series features some of the most action-packed racing on a wide range of famous venues that exist in the real world and in Gran Turismo. As you're no doubt aware by now, the League features the Super GT racing series and its pure-bred racing machines. Super GT is Japan's most popular motorsport spectacle and pits the country's most famous car manufacturers in a year-long championship. Constructors such as Nissan, Honda, Toyota (nowadays under its Lexus sub-brand), Subaru and more all compete in fierce races across Japan and beyond to decide who truly is the king of Asian touring cars. While these track weapons are based on production models, the finished product is unlike anything you'd find in a dealership. All competing vehicles have been radically modified for the purpose of just one thing: pure speed. With this single-minded goal in mind, it's a pleasure that the Gran Turismo series (and many others) have allowed those with a passion for cars to live their dreams and their fantasy's that normally wouldn't be possible. With GT5, we are able to live the same dream of those like us in the form of the Super GT League.
The NeoGAF Super GT League uses a team format. This means that each car consists of two drivers who will share that car for the season. Each driver is expected to compete in half of the scheduled races. If a driver can not compete for any reason their position will filled by their team mate, or failing that, a substitute driver which will be provided for them. In the case of having their team mate or a substitute racing in that persons place, no points will be awarded to that drivers personal standing, but points will still be counted towards their teams points standing. In addition, no driver may compete in more than 2 races in succession.
In addition to the range of Premium Super GT models available, for Season 2 we will be including their Standard counterparts as well. This increases the overall selection pool to 34 cars. Here's how the selection process will work.
Potential entrants will have to first find a team mate willing to drive with them, and a name for that team. From there, team must decide on what car they would like to compete in from the following selection pool:
Car Selection Pool
Honda
Lexus
Nissan
Toyota
Bold/Highlighted denotes Premium Model Cars
Duplicates
If another team has already picked a car with the same model/livery, the duplicate will be removed from the selection pool.
Example: Team GT-R selects the Xanavi Nismo GT-R '08 from available pool of cars. This means that it's sister model, the Xanavi Nismo GT-R '03 will be removed from the list of available cars, to avoid any confusion.
This rule applies to the following cars:
Bold/Highlighted denotes Premium Model Cars
New for Season 2
In order to qualify to race for a particular scheduled event, drivers must undertake each of the following:
-Drivers wishing to compete in a scheduled event must attend at least 1 public practice session during the week leading up to the race. These sessions will be announced in advance in the main Super GT League thread, so keep an eye out for times and dates. By definition, a public practice session is an event which has at least 3 attendees at any one time and a Super GT League official in the presence of the session at any one time. However, we will make an exception for those with uncontrollable circumstances such as work, etc.
-Drivers wishing to compete in a scheduled event must also register beforehand in the main League thread or by contacting a Super GT League official via PSN, PM or other means so that we know who we expect to show up on race day. Drivers must register a full 24 hours in advance of race day or they will be excluded from that weekends event. If a registered competitor has to pull out or change the driver that will race for the registered team, they must post in the main Super GT thread or contact a Super GT League official no less than an hour before that weekends scheduled event, or face a points penalty.
There will now be a weight ballast system introduced for high finishers. For the next race that driver competes in, they will require to add an extra 100, 75 or 50kg to their car if they finished 1st, 2nd, or 3rd, respectively. The added weight will be tied to the person who earned the ballast and not the car/team.
Example: Team Raybrig driver Mush finishes 1st, he will be required to add an extra 100kg of ballast to his car at the next race he competes in. If his team mate competes in a following race and finishes outside the top 3, he won't have to add any weight to his car, and won't inherent any weight from Mush.
Two new assists will be available for drivers to use: Rigidity Improvement and Traction Control. These will be entirely optional and up to the individual to use them as they see fit.
Over the course of the race, drivers must have take at least one compulsory pit stop for tyres and fuel.
In order to maintain a fair balance among the cars, the Lexus cars are eligible for a boost in power to make them more competitive. Those who wish to use any of the 4 Lexus models available are entitled to install a Stage 2 (and only Stage 2) Turbo from the Tuning Shop.
Where do I sign up?As well as this, ALL MODELS will be set at the following power/weight ratio: 502BHP/1100KG. If you are competing using one of the following vehicles that are already over the weight, and receive weight ballast from scoring a top 3 finish, you will only have to add weight adding up to 1200kg, total.
Example: Epson Racing scores a 2nd place finish at an event, and would normally be required by the regulations to add 75kg of ballast for the next race. However, because their car weighs 1150kg by default, they will only be required to add 50kg of ballast, adding up to the 1200kg limit.
Here. Just fill out all the required fields and you're good to go. In the case of any clashes between teams wanting the same car, we'll contact you.
We? I thought it was just you, Mush.
Sort of. Over the course of Season 1 in became increasingly clear that I wasn't always able to keep on top of things. So, for Season 2, there will be two familiar faces from Season 1 that will be helping to keep things on track.
Introducing the NeoGAF Super GT Committee (SGC)!
The Committee is composed of myself, UFRA and Angst.
The beauty of this group is that we're all in different time-zones as this detailed diagram shows:
Yes, humorous isn't it.
If you have any issues or burning questions, feel free to contact either one of us three via PSN or Private Message, or simply just post in here.