GPRO Season 30

20th March 2012 saw the start of GPRO's 30th season, and what a season it would line up to be.. Forum frequenters Mark Webster and Keri Lovell took their places in Elite, 3 time champ Zdnek Hladik went down from Master to Pro, record breaker quad-champ Justinas Smysliajevas had lost his driver and would have his biggest challenge trying to mount a defence for this season.
And of course, I've promoted from the murky depths of Rookie into the shining light of the upper levels of GPRO, meaning my standing in the forums must be going up, yes?

So I figured now might be a good chance at resurrecting this old thing. There's a lot to talk about, and I've had various suggestions already, some more controversial than others.. Keep your eyes posted on the forums, and we'll see what happens in this pearl anniversary season of GPRO!

Issue 0

So, here we are at the start of Season 29, and I thought it would be a good opportunity to look towards the first half of the upcoming season, which takes us straight through the F1 off season (With Melbourne as the last race of this season coinciding with the F1 season opener on that weekend).
This season sees 4 previous champs (Justinas, Toygun, Leandro and Heidi) with 10 championships between them. Triple champ Zdenek Hladik has fallen into negative money and has been demoted to Master, robbing him of a chance to build on his record 50 Elite race wins which he reached last season.

This season also sees Leandro’s 450^th Elite Race, Leandro has been in Elite since season 3, and was helping test the game in its Beta form pre-season 1. This has obviously no doubt helped him, but he has also capitalized on this where other managers have seen mistakes cost them through the tiers. He has never finished outside the top 10 in any championship, and has been in the top 5 since season 21. Can he add to his championships from seasons 11 and 17? 

Only 5 triple champions exist in the GPRO archives, and last season Justinas became the 5^th name on the list after a thrilling battle between him and Toygun was decided on the first lap of the penultimate race. He and Toygun are now the only consecutive triple champions (Toygun having won seasons 18-20), can Justinas make it an incredibly 4 in a row? His influence on the forums during the off season (leading to the experience change in the game engine) has certainly put him amongst some of the best all-round managers GPRO has seen.

Toygun should also be celebrating his 300^th Elite race this season; he is currently the 4^th most experienced driver (in terms of Elite races) in GPRO history and is looking strong once again for a 4 title. 

Also back in Elite is our double champion Heidi Aareskoski, who convincingly won her Master group last season and has been tipped by some people as one to watch. I personally can definitely see Heidi adding to her 2 championships in future seasons, but this season will be a chance to show us what’s to come with Vladimir Islentiev and Jari Aareskoski also coming through the tiers (Both managers are currently in Pro) 

It would be foolish to place money on who will win the Season 29 championship, and maybe the biggest record of them all could be broken with a quadruple champion? Only time will tell.

Meanwhile, in this preview issue, we hope to give you a tiny bit of an insight into what we can offer, and what this season has to offer.

This issue's articles are
S28 REVIEW by Scott Robinson (S28 review)

S29 TRACKS PREVIEW by Serge Girard (Features)