Background/History
In 2021 Japanese sim-racer Ziggy Katsuya (@zKatsuya) and NORA community leader and myself crossed paths in the most unfortunate way when I was attempting to unlap myself in an impatient move during an 8hr Misano race.
SKIP TO 4:31:10
After the conclusion of my stint I endeavoured to reach out and apologise to Katsuya where he kindly invited me to take part in his NORA community, since then we have tried our best to organise an interleague competition but with the work life and time zone differences between countries it has been a difficult task…
…that is until now!
With the shift to winter time for NSW and Victoria (Yes, we know the rest of Australia… shhh) we have managed to set some preliminary dates for a 3 races series that will hopefully allow for the highest level of participation from both communities, our initial target is to have 20 drivers/teams from each league for a 40 car grid in each race and since there are 3 races there will should be opportunities for drivers from all different speeds and skills to participate.
The provisional schedule that we have discussed for the 3 race series can be seen outlined in the table below:
Current Discussions
In the discussions I’ve had with Katsuya I did let him know that it’s not possible for the races the races to finish too late as many people in ROOZ need to work the next day, conversely people in the Japan/NORA appear to often finish work later and so generally prefer later races. Having weekday sprint races that finish by 11pm AEST was a key part of organising this series and this will appear to work reasonably well for both of our communities.
The 3rd race will be a team race which will require driver swaps and will be a 2-4hr endurance race but since this will happen on the weekend the times will be much more flexible when we finally schedule the event.
Representation and Sportsmanship
One of the most important things about this competition is that it is a ‘just for fun’ series, we’re all racers and love to be competitive but there are no stakes in these races, just bragging rights. If you’ve been involved in any ROOZ race before it should carry the same spirit as one of our events: fun, competitive but most importantly respectful. I’ve had the great fortune to have had many fantastic battles with some of their drivers and can confidently say that they race with the same respect in NORA that we do in ROOZ and if you want to represent ROOZ in these races it is important to maintain this respectful and polite standard. Some of the drivers in NORA are exceptionally fast and skilled, they will give our best drivers some strong competition but equally there should be good competition right down the field as well.
Feedback
Now that you’ve read this, what do you need to do? Let us know if you have any comments on this series and if you’re interested in participating. There will be a lot more information released later as we start discussing the details but we’re looking forward to what will hopefully be a fun competition!
Discord
NORA is Japanese community and so it should be noted that their discord is mostly in Japanese and only a few of their members are confident in communicating in English, Katsuya is very proficient in English and is very happy to help communicate what is happening with regards to their events and often posts in English as well to help accommodate.