Daily Races are the most common form of racing in Gran Turismo 7’s Sport Mode: they’re easy to enter, and available at all times. Ideal for a quick racing fix, they are also your way into climbing the ranks and preparing for official competitions.
The Basics of Daily Racing
First of all, to access Daily Races, you must unlock and complete Menu Book n°9 in the GT Cafe section of the game – we advise you however to go further than that and make sure you’re more comfortable with your driving before tackling Sport Mode races. Check our beginners guide here for all of the help early on in your career.
Once you’ve built a bit of confidence, go into Sport Mode from the main screen to get access to the Daily Races. Unlike the name may let you think, these events rotate on a weekly basis: the 3 options on offer change every Monday at 7:00 AM UTC. From that point, the standard is race sessions happen every 20 to 30 minutes, while you can qualify freely at any time and have that time with you for the event.
The maximum number of drivers in a race is 16, so each session will be divided in different splits through an ELO based matchmaking process. Your Safety Rating (SR) and Driver Rating (DR) are both taken into account, with SR being looked at first, then DR to match the closest players in terms of pace among a defined SR bracket. Your results will affect your DR, while having incidents or not will modify your SR.
The highest rank is S for SR, and A+ for DR (S rank being reserved only for World Series live events participants), but every newcomer is given an E rating for DR until they have taken part in 5 races – after which D in the lowest rating you can fall into.
Registering For A Daily Race
Registering for a race is pretty straightforward. After selecting your race of choice, all the parameters and regulations will be shown to you, and in the vast majority of scenarios, you will have the ability to pick a car from your personal garage, or rent an eligible car if you don’t own one (or want to try a car you don’t have). In the rare cases where it’s a non-BoP event with fully open tuning, any car eligible is guaranteed to be available in one of the used cars dealerships, so you don’t need to worry about being left out.
Once you have selected your ride, the menu will give you some other options aside from registering for the next session and qualifying. You can access your setup sheets and buy any required tyres from there, check all lobby parameters in full details, have a look at the global qualifying times ranking and download top 10 ghosts and replays.
Qualifying for Daily Races is done outside of racing sessions, with unlimited time, and works exactly like Sport Mode Time Trials. The best strategy if you want to progress quickly is to spend some time in qualifying to get a good time, as your best lap will determine your grid position in every race session you enter. If you don’t have a lap in and register, you will be put at the back of the grid – if multiple drivers don’t have a qualifying time, they will be sorted by highest DR first.
The Key Differences Between Races
Daily Races will always offer you 3 different choices: Race A, B and C. While the combos always vary week to week, the format of each is generally consistent, with deviations being rare exceptions.
Daily Race A:
Is the more experimental option, often using road cars or classes that aren’t as common as Gr.3 and 4. While it wasn’t the case at first, nowadays Race A generally doesn’t affect your DR, which is good if you just want to have some quick fun without hurting your ranking. Be careful though, your SR rating can still be affected (for instance, it is at the time of writing), so make sure to still race clean. The race itself will be around 10 minutes in total, the extra 5 minutes indicated on the selection screen accounting for matchmaking and waiting times.
Daily Race B:
Is similar in length to Race A, but with a more serious approach, as DR and SR are always affected. Most of the time, Gr3 or Gr.4 cars will be raced, although alternatives are sometimes used instead. Race B is good if you want a sprint race where your only concern is going as fast as possible: there is not strategy element to worry about as tyre wear and fuel consumption are turned off.
Daily Race C:
Is often seen as the flagship Daily Race, as it boasts a longer format of 20 minutes, and introduces strategy with tyre wear, fuel, and sometimes mandatory tyre changes with specific compounds, much like what is done in Formula 1. Be careful though as qualifying for Race C is still done under a no tyre wear, empty tank and fixed weather conditions, so the way your car behaves can vary quite a bit between qualifying and the race. It also means one car might be best for qualifying, but be outmatched by others in race conditions due to strategic elements.
Race C is more often than not using Gr.3 cars under BoP, and is generally the most popular option among players, meaning the splits are more homogeneous in terms of drivers skill. But this is not true 100% of the time, and all 3 options always remain valid, so don’t be afraid to explore the one you like the most.
Racing Against Others
You are satisfied with your qualifying time, have registered for the next session and are ready to race. What to do next?
First off, know that if you registered in advance, you can still enter qualifying mode and drive while you wait. A timer will appear on your screen to show you the remaining time before the race session starts – and don’t worry, there’s no need to back out, you will be pulled into matchmaking automatically as soon as the timer hits 0.
Once you’re in, there is about a minute of warm-up before the race actually starts. You can go on track during that time to check if your hardware is working fine and get a feel for track conditions, or simply use the text chat (always be nice to others if you don’t want to get punted).
As soon as the green flag hits, all that remains for you to do is try your best, while being respectful to others and race as cleanly as you can. Getting and maintaining a good SR rating is essential to a good experience, so make sure to avoid drama as much as you can until you’re up to S rank.
