Dirt Track Racing (DTR) is a motor sport that enjoys a very reasonable popularity in South America. It consists of oval dirt tracks, where powerful (~ 500 hp) winged cars do their best, on relatively short runs. The difference on this competition, is the way the car must be driven, to lap fast: most of the time, the steering wheel will always be trying to compensate a running tail and consecutive left turns. Basically, the only reason the cars don't slide and back collide with the walls, is their immense power, that literally burns the tires to the wire.

This sport's rules don't allow the total repair of the vehicle between races... and there are many race events, from the initial qualifying session, up to the main challenge - the "A final". In the worst case scenery, a driver must climb his/her way, from the "D race", to the "C race", to the "B race", up to the "A final". Doing so will surely stress your chassis, thus requiring an intelligent approach to the competition, as a whole.

DTR puts you inside one of these dirt monsters, that roll like no other car, when things go wrong... I've been playing DTR in career mode, PRO level. You start with just enough money to buy a modest car, and you must do well in order to attract sponsorship, spare on repairs, and rise your competitiveness up to the point when you can challenge the richest series.

DTS is surprisingly enjoyable and hugely fast on 3DFX's Glide (also on D3D, but I prefer Glide). Graphics, sound, and interface are all top notch, but it is its unexpected strong simulation side, that catapults it to the sparsely populated arena of singular titles. This is the only game, that I know of, that simulates DTS and does so with such a care, that the amount of tweaking and setup options, make GP3 blush! Of course that GP3 is kind of a fraud (GP3 = GP2 + a poor 25fps 3D update), mainly fed by some UK press, but nevertheless it does feature respectable options, often left out of today's racing titles.

Camber, wings, tire cuts, suspension travel, tire pressure and plenty of other you-are-not-used-to possibilities, are here to explore, should you decide to. However, you won't probably need to mess with such richness (you can even adjust the car's wing inclination, *while running*), because the default setup performs well enough for you to win PRO races, at least after some practicing :).

So, imagine the old Indianapolis 500 lasting 5 minutes, on a dirt track. Now, picture it on an extremely polished software product, and you have the enjoyable DTR.

I love DTR. It is highly addictive, the car handles perfectly, the graphics are un-reprehensible, and it is original. This is a very welcome racing title.