The Daily Races for week commencing the 30th of May see a double trip to Daytona International Speedway, as well as a Gr.4 race on the Dragon Trail’s Seaside route. Polyphony Digital has continued with Balance of Performance (BoP) races yet again, but at least this week we get to drive legendary Group C cars.
After last week’s update, Polyphony announced that they would be trialling “Daily Race events that will not affect a player’s Driver Rating (DR) and Sportsmanship Rating (SR)”.
As a result, in this week’s calendar of Daily Races, Races B and C count towards players’ Driver and Sportsmanship Ranks, (DR and SR) but Race A does not. Ideal for newcomers to online racing, or those simply unwilling to risk their high DR and SR.
Race A is a straight-forward slipstream battle on Daytona’s Tri-Oval layout, while Race B provides players with their weekly dose of Gr.4 action – although for both races there seems to be one standout car to pick.
Race C is a Group C prototype battle on Daytona’s Road Course layout, with night-time running providing a hit of endurance racing nostalgia.
Since the v1.15 update, Sport Mode also plays host to bi-weekly Lap Time Challenge events. This week, we have a time trial at Suzuka Circuit using Gr.3 cars. The car and track combination will change next week.
Our first race takes place at the United States’ Daytona International Speedway. We’re not using the Road Course layout however, but the full Tri-Oval. The race is strictly for American Gr.3 cars, which narrows down your car choices to the Corvette C7, Ford GT Race Car ’18 or the Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R ’15.
Our car of choice here is the Ford GT Race Car ’18. Built to celebrate the marque’s famous 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans win against the might of Ferrari, the latest Ford GT won the great endurance race won on its debut.
It didn’t fare so well in the Daytona 24 Hours however – Ford had to wait another year before claiming America’s most famous twice-round-the clock race.
The fictional Dragon Trail track is our venue for Race B, and we’ll be using the Croatian circuit’s Seaside configuration.
The Dragon Trail Gardens layout was last used in GT7‘s Daily Races w/c the 28th of March. That race was also for the Gr.4 class, and we commented on the tight and twisty nature of the track suiting four-wheel drive cars.
This hasn’t changed, and the Subaru WRX is particularly effective. Other solid choices include the ‘old favourite’ Mazda Atenza Gr.4 and the Toyota GR Supra Race Car ‘19.
We travel again to Daytona for Race C, this time the Road Course layout. This race is a bit of a nostalgia-fest for Group C prototype enthusiasts, seeing some of the most iconic endurance racing cars of all-time going head-to-head.
With cars like the insane Nissan R92CP, Sauber Mercedes C9 and Jaguar XJR-9 to choose from, players are literally spoilt for choice. If you aren’t fortunate enough to own any of these in-game, this is a great chance to take them for a test drive too.
And let’s face it – all these cars are 1,000,000 Credits+ from the Legend Cars dealership, so not terribly easy to access at the best of times.
One car stands out however, and that’s the Mazda 787B. This screaming banshee of a car features an ear-piercing exhaust note and was the first rotary-engined car to win Le Mans outright. With 4x fuel consumption and 3x tyre wear enabled however, it’s worth keeping an eye on strategy.
The new Lap Time Challenge is a simple time trial mode where you compete against other players to set the fastest time on the leader board. As has been the fashion lately, this event is subject to BoP conditions.
The first Lap Time Challenge competition is for Gr.3 cars on Suzuka’s GP layout, and there are plenty of GT3-esque racers to pick from. You could pick Gr.3 stalwarts like the Mazda Atenza, Subaru WRX or Volkswagen Beetle, but why not lean into Suzuka’s place on the Super GT calendar and go for the Subaru BRZ GT300 ’21?
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