TXT Racing Series Summer 2012 - 7th race!

(race of 7/21/12)

I got back home just in time to fix the fan once and for all and go to the Track 2, where practice was already on the go.
Yesterday night, Tudy Araw, the builder of the track, found out with a hepl of one of racers there was a bug at the track and she literally patched it, what added some difficulcy to the course. Surprises were expected, and not for nothing.
Before the race, there were rumors several other great racers are going to join us - the scoreboard was displaying some really amazing results set by racers we've never seen before at 2RAW (including Miku Hatsune from Racers Island).
They did not show up though, and the other names were unfamiliar for others, too. So it's still a mystery who are those drivers... There were only all kinds of assumptions, from logical to crazy ones. Everyone was suspected to be Annie, the mysterious racer I never happened to meet in person in Second Life, though racers claim she was nearly the best racer in Second Life before she left.
Well, the ones who competed yesterday were not worse at all!
Grosmanteau DeCuir set the practice time record - 30.372. Sharon Densmith, who fully dedicates herself to racing, was second with 30.492, also Brave Ashbourne set a close to hers result - 30.526. 
Pomponia decided to test her other sences and drive with a blindfold, what didn't help her a lot - she finished 5th, like a week ago. Actually all the racers have finished at the same order they did a week ago, at the other track. 
As always, intensive battle took place at the start and there were even victims - well, one victim, Millennium Sands. I've missed the moment (was camming at other racers), but, according to what Ashbourne said after the race, she even has passed him, but - tough luck! - she flew off the track. Only at 2RAW... She recovered pretty quickly, got a new car and joined others 3 laps down (others' dream about Grosmanteau DeCuir, by the way).

DeCuir photobombs

What was happening in front of her? At the very first laps, DeCuir pulled ahead, and Ashbourne, Densmith and Eagle Clawtooth started the battle for the 2nd place. Densmith even was ahead at the first, then they were going side by side during few laps - but the turns have no mercy, one bump, and you're left behind. That's what happened to Densmith. Well, to other too, but that wasn't so fatal.
Basically, racers have established themselves closer to the middle of the race, though Clawtooth kept on making efforts to catch up with Densmith. But one bump rule worked for him either.

Ichtyo is that mesh huge something
with the headphones

After the race was the usual ceremony, but there was a little surprise to all of us - we've got a special guest. Ichtyo Broome is a vehicle scripter, and his scripts are unique. I mean what I say - it's not a simple copy-paste with a few changes, he wrote the script by himself. Cars bodies are not his though - he collaborates with other creators for them. But all the scripting is his merit. Also, he's a very pleasant person!
His cars are not cheap, but they're worth every linden - just like Haru Motors. Feel free to give it a try in the mall at 2RAW and see for yourself! And thanks for coming, mr. Broome... and everyone! See you next week at the race, and come practice anytime!
Next race - at the 6th track.

The grid:

Pole Position. Grosmanteau DeCuir  30.377
P 2. Brave Ashbourne,  30.905, -0.528
P 3. Sharon Densmith,  31.305, -0.928
P 4. Eagle Clawtooth,  31.983, -1.605
P 5. Millennium Sands,  33.162, -2.784
P 6. Excess Lemmon,  35.113, -4.735




Final Results:
1st. Grosmanteau DeCuir, 25 laps. Total Time : 778.179
2nd. Brave Ashbourne, -12.761 seconds.
3rd. Sharon Densmith, -27.394 seconds.
4th. Eagle Clawtooth, -1 laps.
5th. Excess Lemmon, -3 laps.
6th. Millennium Sands, -5 laps.
Fastest race lap: Grosmanteau DeCuir, 30.375

TXT Racing Series Summer 2012 - 7th race - the points

7th race of the series - 7/21/12:
Grosmanteau DeCuir - 50
Brave Ashbourne - 45
Sharon Densmith - 40
Eagle Clawtooth - 36
Ρσмρσηία ﾚεΜσгţ (Excess Lemmon) - 32
Millennium Sands - 28



Total series points (up to the present day,  7/21/12):
Millennium Sands - 296
Ρσмρσηία ﾚεΜσгţ (Excess Lemmon) - 180
Grosmanteau DeCuir - 150  
Brave Ashbourne - 135
Sharon Densmith - 112Cameron Geordie - 102
PhiloSophical Vervain - 81
flea Fang - 81
Eagle Clawtooth - 72Dalton Aiten - 45
Durron Sockington - 40
Rosie Varnish - 40
Stoney Maloney (Hagbard Hyx) - 32

TXT Racing Series Summer 2012 - 6th race!

(race of 7/14/12)

Oh jeez, what a day it was yesterday! First, I forgot to save the chat log before logging off. Second, when I started looking for pictures - turned out the unfinished process (some media player I've decided to try out) messed up the file system and all the pictures were lost! Switching back to VLC - it never screwed up my precious pictures. (Don't ask how the hell it's connected, I don't have a clue.)

Eagle Clawtooth

But what could I do without the amazing estate manager and simply a good person, known by all of you as M? She passed me the chat log and send some pictures she took. So, without her there wouldn't be any article here - I can't thank you enough, M!

Millennium Sands

OK, enough sentimentality - let's move to the biggest race of the series so far, and I would even dare myself to call it the most competitive one. I've dropped by 2 hours before the race, and rejoiced the vision of some racers practicing. Have to say, Sharon Densmith has put a lot of work into that track - most of the time, when I was at the sim (other days) I've seen her at the radar. At the Track 10. Practicing.
One of the noticeable faces was Eagle Clawtooth - yes, that legendary competitor of R.I.R.! Told by Sharon, he came over yesterday, too, to add some heat into the race.

Sharon Densmith

Also, there was another newcomer, but she got unknown for us problems at the qualifying round and quitted.  However, there were 7 competitors: 4 of them are legends of the grid and other 3 are 2RAW patrons you can remember since the very first races.

Ρσмρσηία ﾚεΜσгţ (Excess Lemmon)

Also, I can't skip the practice, when Grosmanteau DeCuir set 56.501 seconds, Brave Ashbourne got under 57 too (he was driving the pink car today - maybe it's faster indeed?), Densmith got very close - obviously lots of practice helped.
Clawtooth got 59.275 during the qualifying round - not so bad for the first time.
So, after a few inconveniences, we made it to the race.
DeCuir expectedly pulled ahead, but Ashbourne, despite his 2nd position on the grid, messed up a little and let Densmith pass him by. Meanwhile, behind them was a great battle for the 4th place, and Cameron Geordie was left behind by the pack - was hitting walls too much at the turns...

Brave Ashbourne

Clawtooth won the 4th place at the 2nd lap, but LeMort promptly caught up with him and didn't let go. Millennium Sands, current leader of the series, was a bit aside them, at the 6th.

Cameron Geordie

Ashbourne kept on catching up with Densmith and got her at the 6th lap. Clawtooth settled down at the 4th place, LeMort dropped far behind getting into the competition with Sands and - guess! - winning it. They were staying close to each other at first, then Sands got stuck very bad in the wall and lost plenty of seconds. They have spreaded out at the 10th lap.

Grosmanteau DeCuir

At the 15th lap happened something I was pretty surprised to witness - Clawtooth got lapped by DeCuir. So, the final positions became totally obvious - they should have been a miracle to change anything. But the drivers were going pretty much the same, and none fatal accidents have happened during the last 8 laps. Brave stood a chance I believe... but DeCuir was too good at this. He, along with Densmith, have spent plenty of time here at the Track 10, and it was showing pretty well. The lap time record also goes to him - 56.485 at the Lap 14, how do you like to repeat that?

That concludes yet another race here at 2RAW. Another competition, another driving skills comparing. Sharon Densmith got her first 2RAW trophy yesterday - congratulations, Sharon, it's well-deserved! Congratulations winners, and thanks everyone for coming!
Points for the race and the total scores are available in this post.
Hope to see everyone next week! Don't forget: it's Track 2 next time, it's already set up, car vendors are there.

I bet you want to see the stats now. Here you go!

The grid:

Pole Position. Grosmanteau DeCuir  56.731
P 2. Brave Ashbourne,  57.348, -0.617
P 3. Sharon Densmith,  57.801, -1.070
P 4. Eagle Clawtooth,  59.275, -2.544
P 5. Millennium Sands,  61.334, -4.603
P 6. cameron Geordie,  61.857, -5.125
P 7. Ρσмρσηία ﾚεΜσгţ (Excess Lemmon),  63.527, -6.796



Final Results
1st. Grosmanteau DeCuir, 25 laps. Total Time : 1443.378
2nd. Brave Ashbourne, -11.910 seconds.
3rd. Sharon Densmith, -38.596 seconds.
4th. Eagle Clawtooth, -1 laps.
5th. Ρσмρσηία ﾚεΜσгţ, -2 laps.
6th. Millennium Sands, -2 laps.
7th. cameron Geordie, -3 laps.

Fastest race lap: Grosmanteau DeCuir, 56.485

TXT Racing Series Summer 2012 - 6th race - the points

Yes, I've decided to count them before writing the article about the race today, guess it will be so from now on - writing articles takes a lot of time, just don't want to keep you waiting. Here you go!


6th race of the series - 7/14/12:
Grosmanteau DeCuir - 50
Brave Ashbourne - 45
Sharon Densmith - 40
Eagle Clawtooth - 36
Ρσмρσηία ﾚεΜσгţ (Excess Lemmon) - 32
Millennium Sands - 28
Cameron Geordie - 25



Total series points (up to the present day,  7/14/12):
Millennium Sands - 268
Ρσмρσηία ﾚεΜσгţ (Excess Lemmon) - 148
Cameron Geordie - 102
Grosmanteau DeCuir - 100 
Brave Ashbourne - 90
PhiloSophical Vervain - 81
flea Fang - 81
Sharon Densmith - 72
Dalton Aiten - 45
Durron Sockington - 40
Rosie Varnish - 40
Eagle Clawtooth - 36
Stoney Maloney (Hagbard Hyx) - 32

TXT Racing Series Summer 2012 - the points

5th race of the series - 7/7/12:
Grosmanteau DeCuir - 50
Brave Ashbourne - 45
Millennium Sands - 40
Ρσмρσηία ﾚεΜσгţ (Excess Lemmon) - 36
Sharon Densmith - 32



Total series points (up to the present day,  7/7/12):
Millennium Sands - 240
Ρσмρσηία ﾚεΜσгţ (Excess Lemmon) - 116
PhiloSophical Vervain - 81
flea Fang - 81
cameron Geordie - 77
Grosmanteau DeCuir - 50
Brave Ashbourne - 45
Dalton Aiten - 45
Durron Sockington - 40
Rosie Varnish - 40
Sharon Densmith - 32
Stoney Maloney (Hagbard Hyx) - 32

TXT Racing Series Summer 2012 - 5th race!

Newcomers always bring something new to the race. Especially when newcomers are professional racers.

Yes, today we've had some new faces! They are new only for the series. Well-known racers you can remember by other racing associations came over to try to compete at one of the toughest tracks at 2RAW, famous by its two chicanes - Track 10.
Lots of bumping walls!!!
Ouch, let's start with the qualifying. We've got 2 participants you know already - it's Millennium Sands, our current leader, and Ρσмρσηία  ﾚεΜσгţ (Excess Lemmon) who's currently on the 4th place. Grosmanteau DeCuir, Brave Ashbourne and Sharon Densmith - I bet you've heard those names before. They were the ones who brought the competition to the 5th race of our series!
I was expecting everything - those cars most probably were pretty new for our new participants. However, even though there were a couple of accidents with a flight mode we totally forgot to remove (I bring my apologies to all racers who had any inconvenience with that - you have my word, it will be removed by the next race!). Brave found the perfect way out - hitting all the keys helped to turn it off! (I recommend all the racers to write it down, who knows what kind of cars you'll have to deal with next time?)
Newcomers began their way of conquering the leadership from the practice - Sands, who always took the pole position, if you remember, had started 4th this time.
And then the competition began! DeCuir and Ashbourne were extremely close to each other, along with Sharon Densmith, who was 3rd at the start. Sands and LeMort simply couldn't keep up the competition! 
And - never without accidents. Densmith turned on the flight mode by accident and, while managing to turn it off, dropped down onto the 5th position at one of the first laps. Meanwhile, there was 2 fights - for the 1st place, between Second Life Grid legends and for the 3rd place, between TXT Racing veterans.
Nevertheless, Densmith started catching up with girls while Brave was getting rid of the flight mode - he lost a few seconds, but Densmith and others were too far away even for a chance to take advantage of it.
Lap 10. DeCuir remains 1st, with Ashbourne catching up and losing time, then catching up again. Densmith hit the flight mode again and couldn't turn it off - so she decided to drop out of the race. Sands began pulling ahead of LeMort.
Closer to the end of the race, they all have spread out - DeCuir on 1st, Ashbourne on 2nd, Sands on 3rd, LeMort on 4th - gaps between them were huge enough to exclude any changes.


What I have to say, that was the real competition, really exciting and interesting - especially with such a track where bumping walls is such a usual thing. If there weren't a problem with a flight mode, possibly the results would be different... Well, there won't ba any flight mode next time. Thanks everyone for coming, that definitely was fun - and hope to see you next week at the same time and most probably at the same place!


The grid:

Pole Position. Grosmanteau DeCuir  56.353
P 2. Brave Ashbourne,  57.760, -1.406
P 3. Sharon Densmith,  58.222, -1.868
P 4. Millennium Sands,  62.069, -5.716
P 5. Ρσмρσηία  ﾚεΜσгţ (Excess Lemmon),  63.591, -7.237


Final Results
1st. Grosmanteau DeCuir, 25 laps. Total Time : 1451.909
2nd. Brave Ashbourne, -10.427 seconds.
3rd. Millennium Sands, -1 laps.
4th. Excess Lemmon, -2 laps.
5th. Sharon Densmith, -16 laps.

Fastest race lap: Grosmanteau DeCuir, 56.368

And all the racers:

UPD 7/10/12: Sharon corrected me a little about an important moment of the race I've missed - thank you very much Sharon, highly appreciated!