News archive: July to September 2009
2009-10-05 03:00 Lucretia: Final Report
The floating roads of the third round saw Mark L. Rivers deploy the Jaguar to extend his winning streak on The Southern Cross Stunts Trophy to three races. With the leading time bonus point, that allowed him to increase his gap to fourteen points… don’t be fooled into thinking he had an easy ride, though! Mingva, ever his challenger on this championship, had a strong lap, and remained within three tenths of the Italian until the final combo.
Lucretia was marked by a number of new faces in the contest. SuperBrian debuted with a solid race (with auto-gears nonetheless) and achieved a valuable third place, helping to keep Damage Inc. hopes afloat on the team championship. Less fortunate was Reiger - the legendary Dutch racer aimed at taking the fifth place away from AbuRaf, and would have succeeded weren’t it for a rule violation (overshooting the tunnel roof near the finish). Since there was an unrelated issue with his previously submitted lap, he will recieve no points for the race. In any case, his effort was included in the replay pack of the round. Finally, PedroAntonio staged a comeback to Stunts competition and proudly stands for Spain in the scoreboard.
Preparations for Round 4 are nearly done; however I may have to delay the second half of the update a bit. Everything should be ready by today’s afternoon, though…
2009-09-28 00:45 On the last few days, AbuRaf got closer to the leading four. Also, I’m glad to announce two debuts - welcome to Reiger (AKA Roy Wiegerinck) and PedroAntonio! (BTW, please warn me in case you prefer other abbreviations for your names)
2009-09-23 22:50 With a little delay in updating, two new laps, from SuperBrian (who takes third place so far) and AbuRaf.
2009-09-20 21:25 Mark overtakes again - reports suggest he might have taken the lead once and for all, but the gap seems irresistibly short…
2009-09-20 01:25 As for this Saturday, we have further steady improvement from AbuRaf and a double shot by Mingva, who keeps driving the target time downwards.
2009-09-18 17:15 I wasn’t even able to close the editor before Mark submitted a reply… :D
2009-09-18 16:15 Mingva keeps up his challenge, taking another second from the leading time.
2009-09-17 01:00 A rather busy Wednesday this one was. Mark improved his time twice and denied other challenges to the leading spot. AbuRaf made some additonal progress, while SuperBrian mantained the top spot within close range and Duplode started racing at a pace close to that of his European peers.
2009-09-16 01:50 Later in the day, AbuRaf started to improve his time, Mingva took the lead and last, but not least, a debut - we welcome SuperBrian, who joined the pack with a competitive auto-gears lap.
2009-09-15 14:35 Two recognition laps for starting things up, one by AbuRaf and the other by Mark.
2009-09-14 23:25 Third track is finally open! On Lucretia, you will deploy the Jaguar to bolt your way through forbidding landscape. As usual, you can comment on the current race through the forum topic. Have a nice ride!
2009-09-13 05:30 Battery: Final Report
The second round of the tournament ends in another Mark L. Rivers victory, as the Italian racer once again pushed his car a step beyond his rivals - with a particularly thrilling run through the final third of the lap. Congratulations! Behind Mark we have Mingva, who showed to be at ease with slow-car IRC driving and did a fine job in challenging Mark for leading time through the early stages of the race. Zak completes the podium in another consistent display. Behind this trio there are Duplode and AbuRaf. Finally, Krys TOFF made a welcome final-day apparition, attaching his lap to the scoreboard. All these laps are already available from the archives
Overall this was a pretty silent race; hopefully we’ll have more contestants around for the next round. On the other hand, the Battery results induced an awful lot of draws on the scoreboars, which can make things interesting on Stage 3. Speaking of it, there is some stuff to be done so the round can be started; don’t worry, though, as all will be sorted out within today (Monday).
2009-09-12 02:00 Just one new replay so far, from ever trusty AbuRaf…
2009-09-05 22:00 After a long silence, Zak steps forward and closes the gap to the leaders, while his fellow crewman Duplode improved a bit as well.
2009-08-31 17:15 Mark answers again! This time the bar is set half a second higher.
2009-08-30 14:30 Leading times are fixed once and for all, and from now on I’m keeping an automated OpenOffice spreadsheet to keep track of them adequately.
2009-08-30 03:30 Yet another big step, from Mingva this time of course. Wonder where are we going with this…
2009-08-29 14:40 The main news this time is that a YouTube demo of driving rules is now available from the rules page. Also, Duplode used the opportunity to land an initial replay.
2009-08-28 17:15 Guess what - immediate reply from Mark…
2009-08-28 02:00 Yesterday morning, innaugural winner Mark joined the race with a major leap ahead, breaking the 80 seconds barrier. Less than a day later, Mingva followed suite by delivering his promised improvement and taking the lead… this is getting interesting!
2009-08-26 04:30 Quick advancement from two racers: Mingva takes the lead and AbuRaf cuts off most of his gap.
2009-08-25 03:30 Battery starts with three progressively stronger replays on the first day: first AbuRaf, then Mingva and finally what seems to be a strong opener by a motivated Zak McKracken…
2009-08-24 04:40 On to the second round! The track title (or title track if you prefer) was chosen in celebration of the return of Krys TOFF… ;) Battery it is, and expect quite a different experience compared to Round One when racing it - for starters, you’ll be racing it with the lovely Audi… use this link to the track topic to flame me however you wish, but give it a shot anyway!
2009-08-24 04:10 Force Ten: Final Report
Mark L. Rivers becomes the first winner of a Southern Cross race! The Italian ace seized at once the opportunity of demonstrating his OWOOT racing skills by using every available inch of track in a powerful lap. Mark’s final day flying lap put him just ahead of the valiant efforts of Zak McKracken, who got a very good result with his positively solid performance all around. Zak overtook the other Hungarian racer in this round, CTG, who seized the leading time bonus with a strong early-race lap but was not heard of ever since…
Below the podiumers, we find Duplode and a very familiar name not seen in a while: Krys TOFF! The ever-popular Frenchman returns to the tracks in the most Krystoff-ish way possible: with a flurry of hotlaps a couple hours before deadline… which managed to place him ahead of the heated competition for the fifth place. AbuRaf, who shares a long history of OWOOT duels with Krys, finished only a few tenths behind. Next, we have someone with a pivotal role in the history of no-shortcut racing: Mingva. He landed in the scoreboard on the final day and ahead of Chulk, who, still with this race-opening replay, ended up in the final points-paying position. Finally, we have Cas, who returned to racing after a long while with a lap that shows he definitely can follow the pace of the rest of the pack. Unfortunately, a minor irregularity in his replay means his time can’t be added to the official ranking. Tough luck - but don’t let that put your spirits down! ;)
Both the pack with all the replays and the final scoreboard are available from the newly-opened Archives section. That’s all for now - but of course this was just the beginning! The Round 2 opening update will be online shortly, so stay tuned!
2009-08-23 00:55 AbuRaf chops off another second as we approach the deadline… (*tense silence*)
2009-08-21 03:40 Just as I was set to provoke the drivers into having a shot at the positions above them… Zak pops up with a new leading time by a hair’s breadth!
2009-08-19 03:40 Rather quiet weekend - the only other replay was from AbuRaf, getting about a second closer to Zak and the third place. One slightly annoying thing I still couldn’t fix the deadline counter, so I’m turning it off for a while to avoid misunderstandings. And final week, everybody!
2009-08-15 16:35 Mark fires things up by taking the lead of the race - even if a few hours late for fighting for the bonus point. Duplode updates his time as well.
2009-08-13 17:10 Zak McKracken becomes the seventh racer to join, taking the third place already.
2009-08-11 20:35 Three new replays over the last few days: AbuRaf took the third place from his team mate, Cas submitted his debut lap in this contest (welcome back!), close to the pace of his Argentinian fellows and finally Mark L. Rivers, always a strong contender, reappears with the first real threat to CTG’s position.
2009-08-06 16:35 Only one new lap for now - AbuRaf improved a lot, approaching the second place fight.
2009-08-04 23:30 The lead changes hands for the first time, as CTG debuts with what appears to be a strong lap at this early point of the race. By noon, AbuRaf had entered the contest as well, and Duplode decided to show up with the would-be pacesetter lap, had it not been obliterated by the leading time…
IMPORTANT: Thanks to AbuRaf, I spotted a rule mistake about corks u/d. As it does not affect this race, I ammended rule C.3 at once to clarify the fact that you must follow the yellow line on them as well.
2009-08-03 15:20 And the first brave racer to send a lap is… Chulk! A very reasonable opening drive, BTW. Let’s see how long he will stay in lead…
2009-08-03 00:00 Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines! The first track, Force Ten is already available (get it from Active Race page), and thus the contest has officially begun. As for the track, it is not a difficult one at first, and you’ll be perfectly able to enjoy the roar of your Indycar as you drive it. But, as we know, completing the track is one thing; pushing to the limit is a different experience altoegether… now, down to the racetrack! *fireworks blasting at background*
(please note that the deadline timer at the right margin is wrong by a couple hours; I will try to fix this ASAP)
2009-08-02 05:50 Initial update in the making, it seems things will be ready on schedule.
2009-07-28 20:56 Hurried update just to say that depsite my absence (due to connection problems) the planned schedule has not changed at all - at most, the first track release will be delayed from Sunday night to Monday afternoon. Speaking of the track, it’s nearly done… ;)
2009-07-13 16:30 At last, the innauguration! The site is mostly ready, but it is still most definitely a beta - and, to complicate matters further, I have no web access from home for uploading files, so I can’t fix stuff in realtime. Therefore, I will be thankful if you report any errors, layout, problems, etc. either via scrstunts_AT_yahoo.com.br (replace _AT_ with @) or by the forum. Anyway, I hope you’ll enjoy the stay ;)