GTPlanet’s Weekly Race Series Time Trials are celebrating our 15 year anniversary! On this date in 2003, the first Weekly Race Series Time Trial was posted on the GTPlanet forums. We’re proud to carry on the tradition of those humble beginnings, as we feature weekly Time Trial Events for our registry members to participate in at their leisure.
We posted our first event about 19 months after the release of Gran Turismo 3 on the PlayStation 2. So our Time Trial events have spanned three console generations and six game title releases over their 15 year history.
WRS Online Events
Of course, gaming has changed dramatically in those 15 years, with the advent of online play. This feature was first introduced to the GT series with the Spring 2008 release of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, nearly 10 years ago.
As the games evolved to introduce online play, we’ve adapted. In the Prologue era, we hosted several online special events, which featured head to head battles in an elimination format.
Following the release of Gran Turismo 5, we introduced WRS Online Events, which are a combination of weekly races that use the same car and track combination as our Time Trial, along with periodic special events.
Nürburgring Special Event
What good is a celebration without something truly special? Our celebration begins today and will last for two weeks, culminating in a 2.4 Hour online special event at the 24 Hour layout of the Nürburgring on Sunday, March 4.
First up is our GT Sport Week 13 Time Trial. We’re welcoming Porsche to Gran Turismo in a big way, as we utilize all of its race cars that are currently available in the game. Participants will have their choice of race cars from three classes: The Gr.4 Cayman, Gr. 3 911 RSR, and the Le Mans winning Gr. 1 919 Hybrid.
Participants should choose their car carefully, as the Time Trial is simply practice and a precursor to our first Online Special Event of the GT Sport era.
On Sunday March 4, WRS Online will host a 2.4 hour multiclass sports car race at the Nürburgring 24. Participants have their choice of vehicle, with winners recognized in each class.
On Reflection
I’ve personally helped organize the WRS for over 10 years. My first event participation was in June of 2007, and I began helping with organization in the fall of 2008.
The entire history of the Time Trial series can be found in our archive. WRS is about the participants, first and foremost. It’s about providing a platform of fair play, competition and continuous improvement to our registry members.
With all of that said, I would be remiss without recognizing my predecessors in organization, and all of the staff who have helped this come to life in the new era of online gaming. If you helped with this in a significant way and I’ve missed you, I apologize.
In our history, the main organizers of our Time Trials have been: boombexus, Kent, CFM, Tedehur, MisterWeary, Sphinx, and Sjaak. Vaxen has been the results master since I took over as main organizer, and we would be lost without our leaderboard master, JoostBaksteen.
Meanwhile, the leaders of our online event organization have been Gravitron, WRP001, and Hydro. And we’ve had a lot of help in that space over time, but PASM and MadMax continue to support significantly, and have been with us since the Prologue days. We also have several stewards who are not part of the site staff – we could not do what we do without them.
Long live the WRS!
What Next?
You’ll need to be a registry member before you can participate in our upcoming special event.
New to WRS and our Registry? Check out this thread to learn how to participate.
Have questions? Anything related to the registry can be discussed here.
Hop over to the forums and check out the Time Trial and Online Event threads to learn more!
See more articles on GTPlanet Registry, Online Competitions, and WRS.
