Rooftop Racing kicks off its inaugural season this Sunday with the Beaumont Championship. The season will be made up of four Championships: Beaumont, William Sheridan, East Village, and 435, for an anticipated 122 points. New to the sport this season, drivers will all be racing vehicles from the same manufacturer, Lamborghini. This comes after Rooftop Racing awarded an exclusive contract to Lamborghini for the season earlier this month.
The cars we will see are: a Kelly Green Lamborghini Huracán Performante driven by Aristotelis Ambatzidis, a Grey Lamborghini Sesto Elemento for Charles Humenry, a Red Lamborghini Sesto Elemento driven by Andre Kaplan, and Lucas Kelly will be driving his usual Orange Lamborghini LP670.
The move has sparked some push back from the community, with concerns that drivers have not had adequate time to make the transition to their new vehicles, and some saying that Kelly, the only driver not switching cars, has an unfair advantage. When asked if his familiarity with his car would give him a leg up this season, Kelly responded, "I just like to win. I love it. It's the best. Man, you better believe it!".
We spoke with Kaplan on how he was weathering the change. Kaplan, who normally drives a Mercedes SLR McLaren, told us, "it's definitely a challenge. These vehicles are complex, and it takes a while to get them tuned perfectly to a driver. Unfortunately, I don't think we've really had the time to get there with this one. But I'm not going to let that stop me. I still plan on being in contention for the Grand Championship".
Fans of the sport are split on the move. Critics argue that by excluding the other manufacturers from the sport, RR is seriously reducing the competition over engineering a winning vehicle––a critical component to racing.
Proponents of the move, however, argue that keeping the cars consistent places greater emphasis on the drivers' abilities. We will see more interesting races this way, some believe. As one fan told us, "before you would get races with one driver all the way in the backfield for no fault of their own, just because of issues with their car. I don't think we'll see that this year, and that's a plus."
While fans may be divided on RR's move, they are certainly united in their excitement for the season to start.
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