Coming Full Circle - CMS Fun Series & What's Next

[davidan]

Although the roots of the Champion Motorsports community go way back to the late 1990's the current version of the community and site you see here today really all started in 2005 with our Fun Series. It started when a new little game shipped in the simracing world called rFactor. The game at the time was hot with attention and certainly lots of debate. There were people for it, people against it, and people on the fence. At CMS we latched on to it and started our fun series with it. The very first thing we ran at the time was one of the very early and first released mods for rFactor called the MEGANES. It really was a hoot and so much fun, and was the beginning of what launched the fun series into what it's become today, a key part of the CMS community and culture.

Over the years there have been many people involved in fostering the fun series, no more important and valuable than Phil Elmore. When Phil first came to CMS, he expressed an interest in wanting to help where he could. Together we agreed the fun series was a great spot for him to help, and boy did he. Phil has been the backbone of the fun series the last several years and his efforts have been tremendous. Also in the last 18 months or so Kevin Barnes has stepped up as well to be a great addition to the admin team and helping Phil with the series.

With Jim Counter moving on (our head DDP admin), Phil stepped up and volunteered recently to bring back the CMS DDP program. Of course when he volunteered for this I jumped all over it because the DDP is another very important part of CMS and our culture and I can think of nobody better or more passionate than Phil to help take it to the next level. He's going to be continuing to work on DDP stuff with Paul Hamilton as well. Paul has been a tremendous asset for the DDP program. Now, with Phil and Paul focused on DDP, you may ask what about the fun series? Don't worry about it I am going to step up and help Kevin and we are going to continue ensuring it gets the attention it deserves. We'll also be looking for anyone interested to help us along the way, so if you would like to volunteer to get more involved with the fun series on the back end let myself or Kevin or Phil know.

So, why am I posting this? Well, earlier today I just recently went back and looked at all the stuff we've done in Fun Series History and updated it. It's an impressive list of sims and mods we've run and there are some great memories in that list. If you look at the list, you'll now understand why I titled this post Full Circle. The reason for full circle is because our next planned fun series will be using the soon to be released rFactor 2 BETA platform with guess what --- ---- yep the MEGANES, so we'll be starting our rFactor 2 exploration here at CMS back to where it all started the same as rFactor.

I expect this to be just as is was before. Some of you are probably super excited about it, some are skeptical and some are not so sure. My only ask is look where we've come with the recipe and know we are going to use the same ingredients to help move things forward again and keep it all rolling and funner than ever. This does not mean we'll be exclusively running rFactor 2. We'll continue to run whatever sounds fun, has interest from our members and looks like a good investment for the fun series. That will surely include rFactor 2, but will also include where appropriate SimBin games, original rFactor, and other sims we may choose to bring to the show.

Thanks for all of your support of the fun series, I've always maintained that if everything else had to go at CMS and we only did one thing it would be this series, it's that imporant. This is where it all started and looking forward to seeing you all on the track for 2012, starting with our annual Daytona 2.4 which has grown into a site wide Gold Series event, but make no mistake about the fact that it has fun series roots written all over it.

Rock on -- DA


PS, since we dont have exact release of rFactor 2 yet (could be any day and probably will be) we may fill some open slots and dates with some one-off fun events with a variety of cars,tracks, Kevin has some great stuff queued up we havent been able to get to yet. So stay tuned.

[David Kessler]

I've only been with CMS for the last two fun series (Spec Miata and Race On), but hats off to Phil and Kevin for running them -- I've had a blast

I was really skeptical about this last Race On series (should I buy a whole new sim AND have to install Steam just to run fun races?!). But looking at my usage in Steam today I noticed that I've put over 40 hours in on Race On. Given the bargain basement price for Race On and the add-ons, it turned out to be an awesome value. The series wasn't entirely free from technical gremlins. Steam authentication reared its ugly head after the last Race On patch, but the CMS admin team worked through it while volunteer hosts kept us racing.

I'm sure som have similar reservations about the rFactor2 Beta Fun Series. There is certainly a lot of uncertainty surrounding rFactor2. When will the software be released? How stable will it be? How intrusive/broken will the online mod management system be? How long will it take to get decent content from the modders? All questions we'll eventually get answers to (some undoubtedly the hard way). However, the one question I don't have is "will it be fun?" Based on my recent experience, I'm thoroughly convinced that the CMS admins and members will find a way to make it fun ... no matter what technical obstacles stand in the way

So I say bring on the rFactor2 Fun Series! No amount of "beta" issues will stand in the way of me being slow

[Phil E]

David

Thanks for writing this. I've been meaning to rite something to the Fun Series folk about my moving over to the DDP, but it was to hard to say goodbye I guess. Its not really goodbye in the sense that I'll still be joining you all as much as I can, but my time will be aimed at making the DDP the way new simracers can get into the hobby, and a place where even simracer vets can learn some new stuff.

That said, its been a pleasuring hosting the Fun Series for the last 3 years. David's updating of the history reminded me of alot of good times (David, I think you missed the Club Racer series ), and alot of great racing. For those new, I joined and eventually took the reins of the Fun Series when we first run the Power&Glory cars. I remember Dave S, Eric E, and Russ where all fast friends with me based on that series, and they are too this day. Lots more came too, like Stu and Val and Glen and Vern and Chris Snow and more and more (I can't name you all or I'd be writing for days). I'm going to miss the "run what you brung" attitude of the Fun Series, where we could really explore alot of neat, boundry pushing mods and games. Not sure if you all knew, but I was always a little worried I might push things too far, especially times like the American Muscle (but that turned out to be a hoot).

So not a goodbye as much as a passing of the touch to the good hands to Kevin and David!

[davidan]

Ahhh, good catch Phil, I thought I had missed one but wasn't sure, do you know exactly where that Club Series, fit in on sequence, was it just after Power and Glory? I thought so but couldnt remember ... -- DA

[Phil E]

I think between rds 24 and 25, Fall 2010
Announcing the CMS National Runoffs

[Kinst Vonsterga]

...

So, why am I posting this? Well, earlier today I just recently went back and looked at all the stuff we've done in Fun Series History and updated it. It's an impressive list of sims and mods we've run and there are some great memories in that list. If you look at the list, you'll now understand why I titled this post Full Circle. The reason for full circle is because our next planned fun series will be using the soon to be released rFactor 2 BETA platform with guess what --- ---- yep the MEGANES, so we'll be starting our rFactor 2 exploration here at CMS back to where it all started the same as rFactor.

...

PS, since we dont have exact release of rFactor 2 yet (could be any day and probably will be) we may fill some open slots and dates with some one-off fun events with a variety of cars,tracks, Kevin has some great stuff queued up we havent been able to get to yet. So stay tuned.

Thanks for the writeup ... and I enjoyed the history you posted on the Fun Series legacy!
Neat stuff indeed!