Fuji Speedway, nestled in the scenic Oyama, Shizuoka, Japan, played host to a thrilling display of motorsport prowess during the THR 5-Year Anniversary Grand Prix. The historic 1968 GP layout, stretching 5.884 kilometers, challenged drivers with 65 grueling laps. The event was graced with a diverse lineup of classic 1967 race cars, including the lone Honda RA300, six Ferrari 312s, four Eagle T1Gs, thirteen Lotus 49s, and a Cooper T81B.
The Starting Lineup
The grid was a showcase of talent and machinery. Florian Masse, in his Lotus 49, secured pole position, setting the stage for an epic battle. Close behind were meisterJäger in an Eagle T1G and Tim Muttram in a Ferrari 312, ready to pounce at any opportunity.
The Battle on the Track
As the race unfolded, it became a test of skill and endurance. Despite no rain, the wind speed of 7.0 kph added an extra layer of challenge. Each lap told a story of intense rivalry and strategic maneuvering.
Florian Masse, starting at the front, faced a rollercoaster of positions, dropping to 18th on the first lap but clawing back to 2nd by the end, showcasing remarkable resilience and skill. MeisterJäger, initially holding a strong 4th position, experienced a dramatic shift in fortunes, eventually retiring prematurely from the race.
Tim Muttram's performance was a spectacle of consistency and speed, maintaining a top 3 position throughout and ultimately seizing the lead. Other notable performances included Davide Saiu, who battled from the back of the pack to a commendable 9th place, and Pete Bondurant, who remained in the top 5 for the majority of the race.
Pit stops, though unplanned and due to technical issues or repairs, added a twist to the race's strategic dimension. Notably, meisterJäger's pit stop on lap 60 and Nik Likar's crucial stop just a lap earlier were moments of high drama.
The Fastest Lap
Amidst the intense competition, Florian Masse clocked the fastest lap of the race, a blistering 1:40.246, underscoring his exceptional talent and the Lotus 49's capabilities.
Conclusion
The THR 5-Year Anniversary Grand Prix at Fuji Speedway was more than just a race; it was a celebration of motorsport history, a testament to driver skill, and a demonstration of the enduring allure of classic race cars. This event will be etched in the memories of participants and spectators alike, as a reminder of the passion and excitement that defines the world of sim racing.
3DRap was so kind to offer THR a Mod 312 Wheel, which we raffled short after we finished our long (nearly 2 hours) and exhausting 5th Anniversary Race at Fuji.
(Eligible to participate in the raffle were all drivers who finished the 5th Anniversary Race and had already raced in at least 4 THR Main Events [Sunday-Races].)
Look who has won!
Many thanks to all drivers which participated in the anniversary race today. Also many thanks to all community members. You make THR as good as it is. A deep thank you goes also out to the THR Orga members, which help running THR in a stunning way! And last but not least, many thanks to 3DRAP for the opportunity to raffle this awesome wheel.
It's unbelievably great that we've been able to do an anniversary race for the fifth time. Many thanks to everyone!
P.S.: We have to work on recording these raffle videos in an adequate way 😉 Better sound would be desirable. And I also need to prepare myself better. But it's not so easy to be completely in shape after an almost two-hour Grand Prix 😉
We plan to celebrate the 5th anniversary with a full length GP (65 laps > approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes)at the FUJI Speedway.
3DRAP is so kind to offer THR a Mod 312 Wheel, which we will raffle short after race end. (Eligible to participate in the raffle were all drivers who finished the 5th Anniversary Race and had already raced in at least 4 THR Main Events [Sunday-Races].)
On Saturday the 15th of December 2018 we had our first THR race. This means that THR will be 5 years old in a few days and we have experienced a lot in these four years:
First Race
Our first race was held with the GPL Mod at Silverstone and we had 4 Racers on track. Our race format in the first weeks was to run as many 20-minute races in a row as we were able to. Our first regular driver was Ben Barson. Thanks a lot for showing that the community idea was not that bad.
Our AC server
The first races were hosted on Duderei's home server. But we quickly moved to a professional hoster. The first entry in our STracker Database is from 2018-12-25. After that we changed the hoster 2 times until we moved to a rented LinuxMachine (thanks franglais) which runs the ServerManager and 5 AC-Servers.
Cause of lag spikes we decided to switch to another hoster and rented a more powerful server, which is our home since 2 years now.
Races in THR
Over the 5 years, 1,180 different drivers have raced on our servers. We have driven tens of thousands of laps and countless kilometers.
We had around 220 official events, 94 weekday races and many fun races. We have completed 22 championships and the next upcoming are already planned. Our former champions can be seen on the Wall of Champions.
Discord
The Discord Server has been set up on 2018-12-07. Our first member besides Dude and me joined on 2018-12-14. Currently we have 1,988 Members. Some of them are very quiet or bots, but no matter what time of day, there are always more than 200 members online. What I find crazy is that I have written nearly 28,000 messages in our THR Discord. The number of PMs are also high, but I can´t count them.
Website
The Website followed a little later. The first entry is from 2019-01-17. It contains 210 pages and 318 news and I wrote more than 121,240 Words. Funfact: You will need nearly 8 and a half hours to read them all.
To represent our races we have made around 300 posters. Our Website has more than 195,000 visits and more than 722,000 views.
Nearly 1 year after our foundation we started our Youtube-Channel on 2019-02-17. At first we started with a short PromoVideo which was made by Bo Stamper. Another year later we started to stream our races and with the help of Klopstick and Ted we produced another brilliant PromoVideo which has been watched 1.422 times since then. To celebrate the start of our fifth GPL championship, Greg produced another stunning video which has been watched 679 times until today.
Evgeny deserves a lot more subscriptions. If you haven´t done it already hop over and subscribe his channel. And if you like, you can do the same with our THR channel.
The channel contains more than 273 videos/streams and has 530 followers. It was visited 44,000 times and more than 4.100 hours of our videos were viewed. The most successful Live-Stream was the one from our 3rd Endurance race at the Deutschlandring, which is still a blast to watch.
Social Media
Besides of the above we have a Facebook site, which get not much attention from our side, but has 344 followers, cause of the website news which get posted on Facebook automatically. Also an unused Twitch Channel, an equally unused Instagram Account and some other cool things which I might have forgotten.
Shop
We opened our own THR Shop on 12/21/2022. The idea behind the store was to send prizes to our championship winners / participants.
Since the opening we have donated 37 prices to our members and on top of that sold around 25 products. It doesn't sound like much 😉 but those who have ordered are very satisfied with the quality of the products.
I want to send out a very special thank you to the members of the Orga - Group. margar, Flashor, Flow, franglais and Valentin. I appreciate our meetings and the decisions we make. You take work from me and you also support in balancing, track testing and many other things. You are a great help for me!!!
I would also like to thank the members of THR Race Control. A few weeks ago we have changed our format, which reduces your workload significantely. It's great that you guys took and still take the job so seriously!
A special thanks also to Evgeny for creating such great THR videos last year. I have watched the cinematic a dozen times and I am really looking forward to the cinematic about the F1 1991 championship!
And I bet I forgot to mention other supporters. Therefore, I thank everyone who has supported THR's work.
The most important part of THR > YOU
But the most important thing is the community that has grown up around THR.
Thank you all for being members of THR and for making THR what it is!
It is also nice to see, that you help each other in Discordand that you respect each other. I appreciate that very much!
I would also like to thank those who have made a donation via Paypal or started to be a Patreon of THR! That's phenomenal!
Your [THR] pitman
Full Length GP at FUJI
We plan to celebrate the 5th anniversary with a full length GP over 65 laps at the FUJI Speedway.
3DRAP is so kind to offer THR a Mod 312 Wheel, which we will raffle short after race end. (Eligible to participate in the raffle were all drivers who finished the 5th Anniversary Race and had already raced in at least 4 Main Events of THR.)
THRs 5th Endurance Race
And in January we will have our 4th Endurance race (6hrs at Le Mans) featuring the biggest and most anticipated Mod AC has to offer in 2023.
