News archive: October and November 2009
2009-11-16 06:00 Season wrap-up
Innaugural champion and Alpha Crux racer: Mark L. Rivers. The Italian master deserves all accolades after dominating the competition completely, winning every single race of the tournament, always against highly qualified opposition. Alongside with his previous triumphs on WSC and JACStunts, the title further confirms Mark as a major force incontemporary(TW)OWOOT racing. Congratulations!
The remaining podium places go to Duplode and Mingva. It can be argued that Duplode only inherited the second place because of Mingva having a major drop of activity from Round 4 onwards and thus declining to fight for the second position. Either way, Mingva’s performances were the closes thing to a real, steady challenge to Mark’s title.
On fourth place we have AbuRaf70, who fought through all of the tournament with very high activity - he was the only other racer besides Mark (and Duplode) to have raced on all tracks. His efforts were crowned by a fine drive on Cydonia which saw him seizing LTB and his final spot on the standings.
Outstanding revelation of the tournament: SuperBrian. Although Brian is far from being a newbie at this stage, he is stuck on a sui generis position among the current Stunts racers, from which he is expected to pull off a big brekthrough someday. On this tournament, once again, he demonstrated having all of the conditions to pull it off, with two rock-solid podium places and a spetacular, eyebrow-raising even if illegal final lap. And it must be mentioned: for all of his reputation as an “auto-gears wonder”, his Cydonia heroics were performed on manual transmission…
I would like to thank all of the above mentioned racers as well as Bonzai Joe, Cas, Chulk, CTG, Gutix, Krys TOFF, PedroAntonio, Reiger and Zak McKracken for contributing with their racing and motivation to this championship. By the community, for the community! I am wholly satisfied with the show we had here along these last few months, and it would be fair to say it deserves a reprise - some day, some day, some day… DOMINION! Comes a time …some day, some day, some day… DOMINION! Some say prayers, some say prayers - I say mine.
Again, thank you all! Hasta la vista!
2009-11-16 05:59 Cydonia: Final Report
The closing pages of this contest gained an additional element of drama by the late entry of the Argentinian multi-champion Gutix. Determined to display his outstanding skills in IRC-style racing, Gutix seized the lead immediately, and followed his intial replay with a last-day shot that, at 1:36.75, opened a significant gap over his rivals for a track which naturally led to close racing. A very plausible winning lap candidate, indeed.
And then, with two hours remaining to the deadline, Mark L. Rivers sends his final effort… 1:36.70 . A minimal-gap victory. Two of the most accomplished on-road racers dueling over a handful of centiseconds on the final racing day. No better script could be hoped for!
Unfortunately, there was a sad tale of heartbreak running parallel to the action thriller. SuperBrian mantained a splendid performance throughout, dominating the leading times sheet for the better part of the racer and finishing it off with a very strong 1:37.85 lap. In fact, after the jump chain/slow chicane combo near the beginning, that lap was on the level of Gutix and Mark’s efforts! But it wasn’t to be. Brian’s Indy left the track completely at the chicane faux-straight section (~46.90) in both of his last-day laps. In addition, retroactive inspection of his older replays shown other off-road incidents, leading to the cancellment of all but his very first lap. That means he not only lost the podium place, but also the LTB point… and, as a consequence, the fourth place in overall standings. =( In any case, Brian’s cancelled final lap is included on the replay package so you can see what it might have become.
SuperBrian’s partial disqualification turned the leading time sheets into a real mess, with several racers close to the 150-hour mark. In the end, though, the bonus point was awarded to… AbuRaf! A well-deserved reward to his intense activity which led to a solid final result, breaking past the 1:40 barrier and keeping the podiumers within sight. And finally, to round off the scoreboard we have Duplode, who inherited SuperBrian’s podium place (as well as the second place in overall standings thanks to Mingva’s absence…), and Reiger, who unfortunately couldn’t build upon his opening replay.
2009-11-10 04:10 Insomniac updates are back… ;D SuperBrian boldly defended his lead during the afternoon, but later on things were further stirred by a high-flying new entry: the top spot is occupied by none other than Gutix!
2009-11-09 16:45 We truly have a race here! Mark L. Rivers became the first to get under 100’’ and has taken the lead - but SuperBrian remains within touching distance!
2009-11-06 22:10 Update time! Some interesting things happened mid-week, with AbuRaf leading through most of it, until SuperBrian reacted a short while ago. Meanwhile, Reiger and champion Mark started their races. And, as a finishing touch, Duplode is currently drawn with the leader! (BTW, I didn’t mentioned it explicitly on the rules, but co-leading does not count towards LTB) The racing is getting close…
2009-11-03 06:20 AbuRaf keeps advancing, and is now really close to SuperBrian.
2009-11-01 16:50 AbuRaf improved on Friday, getting under 1:50. And since then nothing… guess people were busy enough with Z100, but now c’mon folks!
2009-10-28 23:25 The race at Cydonia begins with two double submissions, as AbuRaf and SuperBrian strive to get the feeling of the track.
2009-10-27 05:30 And now, the grand finale! This time, the mission will lead you to previously uninimaginable reaches… Cydonia is the destination; and the vehicle is arguably the best substitiute for a spaceship available, our dear Porsche March Indy. As usual, share your first impressions on landing by the forum topic. Fasten your seatbelt!
(P.S.: Two observations. First of all, Southeastern Brazil has entered Daylight Saving Time about a week ago. Since deadlines are relative to GMT -3, and not to Sao Paulo, nothing will change if your country is not on DST. Otherwise, feel free to postpone the deadlines in one hour in accordance to your clocks. Also, Mark’s generously contributed analysis for Solsbury is already available at the archives.)
2009-10-26 04:30 Solsbury: Final Report
We had some nice activity on the final racing days on Solsbury, with nearly everyone improving their times and even a couple additional entries. It is rather surprising, then, that there was little change on the final standings. At the end of the proceedings, Mark L. Rivers secured another dominant win. Mark’s usual rival, Mingva, found himself quite disgusted with the track, which accounts for him pushing no further than a fifth place. This time, Duplode was the main challenger on the final days, being the only other racer to get under two minutes - not a serious threat to Mark anyway. Other highlights include the Danish contestants: SuperBrian adds another consistent third place to his tally, and Bonzai Joe joined the competition with a nice quick attempt. AbuRaf also improved on the final days, ending up just shy of taking sixth place from Reiger.
Mark’s fourth victory means his gap to the second placed racer (for the moment Duplode) has grown to nineteen points. With one race to go, that means the title race is alredy decided - congratulations Mark!. But let us leave any festivities for a while longer and focus on what is left to claim on the final race. A mere point separates second and third placed racers; fourth and sixth are similarly within a range of two points. That may provide some extra background for the last challenge on this contest… and speaking of the final track, the preparations are a bit late; most likely all will be sorted out by Monday evening, though.
2009-10-23 04:50 Last week went by under a deafening silence, only broken by SuperBrian legally attaining his formerly invalid 2:01.85 and snatching provisional second place.
2009-10-15 23:10 Oops! I did quite a mess while updating Brian’s time yesterday, reading from the wrong file. He went on to help dissipating the confusion by further improving today and actually getting pretty close to the ficticious time I posted yesterday - even if not taking second place thus far.
2009-10-14 22:40 On a somewhat late update, three new laps. AbuRaf entered 2:0x range and was promptly followed by Reiger, in what can become a nice duel. SuperBrian then got things rolling with a very interesting opening time. Things seem more lively now :)
2009-10-11 22:40 Double improvement by Mr. Rivers, going under two minutes and finally ousting Duplode from the lead…
2009-10-09 00:40 Another large step by AbuRaf, overtaking Mark - and with auto-gearing, it should be mentioned.
Reminders: The cork up/down is supposed to be driven regularly, following the yellow line through the whole extension of the spiral, without jumping over the walls or exploiting bridge wall trickery. By the way, on the “highway” multi-way section that comes before that cork all paths that stick to the road(s) are valid, as long as you do not dual-way switch of course.
2009-10-06 23:16 Never too late for a (very significant, BTW) improvement by AbuRaf… :)
2009-10-06 23:15 Two racers fancied doing a patrol around Solsbury Hill so far: AbuRaf and Mark. Duplode, oddly enough, followed them and took the lead.
In other news, the post-race analysis contributted by Mark over the past three races were appended to the scoreboard archives. Thanks Mark! ;)
2009-10-05 16:30 The fourth track of the season is open for your exploits. First of all, you’ll be racing Solsbury with a custom car, the time-tested Alan Rotoi’s Melange. In case you do not have the car, just get this zip and unpack it in your Stunts folder. While that makes for two IMSA races in a row, on Solsbury you’ll be in for a much more scenic ride, as you explore the winding roads beyond the city limits. As usual, you can share yout impressions through the forum topic. Have a nice ride!
(P.S.: I removed part of the old news in this page to make it less cluttered. From now on old messages will gradually be sent to the archives page.)