Exclusive Interview with TPTCC Founder Jan Kohl

By Christian Roy

Chris: How do you feel about the switch to a non-Papyrus sim after 5 years of using them exclusively? Any pros or cons?

Jan: I toyed with the idea of what to do next with TPTCC even before we ended the summer TPTCC season. It was obvious that continuing with NASCAR 3 as a base was a dying effort, we were getting fields of about 12 cars, and while we were having a good time, (and there are plenty of tracks about) people were getting tired of it. So when I saw the DTM mod put out for NASCAR Heat, and heard the rave reviews about it, I tried it myself...and liked it. Therefore, with a few votes from the drivers (which were about 95% in favor of DTM-Heat) we pursued the testing plan to see if it would work ok online.

We've had quite a few changes to endure with swapping to a new simulator, for one, this time The Pits was not involved at all with the making of the mod, therefore we couldn't go back ourselves and correct problems, or have the detailed knowledge about why something wasn't working. However, I think it's going well, as the drivers have all been happy with the online racing, and despite a few flaws with the way NASCAR Heat scores competition and a few other things, it's been pretty successful. It's going to be a fun league to run this winter/spring.

Chris: How can you explain the popularity of TPTCC and DTM Heat?

Jan: The DTM-Heat TPTCC league has been pretty popular for several reasons...first one is that the DTM mod came out at the right time. We were actually very late with the NASCAR 3 version of TPTCC, which was somewhat to it's undoing...most people had already progressed past N3 by the time we got the TPTCC mod out, therefore there wasn't that much interest in running it.

The second reason is that there are many drivers out there who want something else besides a NASCAR or Formula 1 sim. It has been the bane of the sim-racing community that there has not really been a GOOD game that simulates other series besides those two. SCGT was ok, but it's online playability was poor. It's proof from our TPTCC patches that people out there want something besides NASCAR and Formula 1 games, even now people still download our patches...even the NASCAR 2 version. Maybe someday someone will come up with a good roadracing sim, in the meantime, we have to make do with what we can modify.

The last reason, I think, is the fact that The Pits has always stood behind "quality" products, including our racing leagues. When people hear that we're doing another road-racing league, using a more popular sim platform, those that want a challenge want to try it. They know they are not going to get a shoddy race administration, but some professional people who really want everyone to enjoy online racing...and has done it for a few years. We still may have a few stumbling-blocks while setting up with a new sim, but we'll work through our problems and insure that the end result comes out right.