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!

R.I.R. Build Your Own Car Series @ Moto GP Raceway

R.I.R. website
Moto GP Raceway in-world

My awesome readers! Please tell me: will you believe if I say that Eagle Clawtooth won this race? Okay, then next question: will you believe me is I say that Eagle Clawtooth won this race absolutely unexpectedly?

ZZ Bottom

Because that's exactly what I witnessed yesterday, at Build Your Own Car race at R.I.R. The race was so exciting, I kept forgetting to take pictures! No, this doesn't mean I haven't brought you some :) OK, I can't wait to tell you everything about it!

As always, I was enjoying myself, camming the cars - some of the racers have redesigned them, not mentioning the reconfiguration of car settings... but who can resist a little car show? Saphyre Cyberstar, always accurate in her cars design, was driving the stylish convertible with the beautiful summer-style paintjob. Badguy Boozehound was driving Porshe this time. ZZ redesigned her car too. 

But the new design is nothing if you can't prove it can beat others in action either! 

The qualifying times were impressively close - you'll see them in the race stats, nevertheless Badguy took the pole position. What, of course, doesn't mean anything, neither it did at this race. Badguy dropped out of the competition for the 1st place on the very first laps, and Clifford Market pulled ahead and joined the challenge  - unfortunately, not for long, his opponents were way more experienced in this. 

ZZ, Cyberstar and MidnightRambler Frostbite were going close to each other crowding at the turns, and obviously it couldn't go absolutely without consequences - eventually ZZ has dropped behind (fumbled at the turn), and Frostbite jumped into the 1st place with Cyberstar on his tail. ZZ, however, kept up with them at her 3rd place, successfully continuing Sharon Densmith's business in keeping Eagle Clawtooth away from the 3rd position.

But Clawtooth wouldn't have been Clawtooth if he haven't surprised us. But can we call it a surprise that he was bit by bit, but catching up? Frankly, I could. His opponents are not a bunch of spring chickens, too! Frostbite held his 1st position perfectly, not giving Cyberstar even a little chance to pass by and ZZ not giving up. What Eagle was doing? He was consistent and patient, but when he got a chance - ZZ was left behind. Syberstar didn't last too long on her 2nd place in the competition with Clawtooth either.

Frostbite, however, was as consistent as Clawtooth and kept him behind himself. Meanwhile, that were the last laps, Clawtooth was catching up... and it happened. One turn on the 46th lap let them switch positions.

Clawtooth finished 1st. After Frostbite remaining 1st almost through the whole race!

That certainly can't be called a jump. That was a considered catch-up through the whole race. 

Great job, Eagle!

The grid:
Pole Position. badguy Boozehound  18.579
P 2. 'ZZ Bottom' (foneco Zuzu),  18.602, -0.022
P 3. Eagle Clawtooth,  18.694, -0.115
P 4. Saphyre Cyberstar,  18.991, -0.411
P 5. MidnightRambler Frostbite,  19.227, -0.647
P 6. shishi90,  20.070, -1.490
P 7. Clifford Market,  20.150, -1.570
P 8. fredricks,  21.871, -3.292


Final Results
1st. Eagle Clawtooth, 50 laps. Total Time : 957.654
2nd. MidnightRambler Frostbite, -1.666 seconds.
3rd. Saphyre Cyberstar, -6.424 seconds.
4th. 'ZZ Bottom' (foneco Zuzu) , -10.711 seconds.
5th. badguy Boozehound, -1 laps.
6th. Clifford Market, -1 laps.
7th. fredricks, -31 laps. (retired)
8th. shishi90, -35 laps. (retired)

Fastest race lap: Eagle Clawtooth, 18.117

Some car designs you havent' seen before:

fredricks - that was his 1st or 2nd race

Saphyre Cyberstar. Don't you want it?

shishi90 - new color

'ZZ Bottom' - dare to guess what it's going to be next time?

badguy Boozehound. Everyone agrees this car suits him!

The race:

 The winners:

R.I.R. Challenge Cars @ Moto GP Raceway

R.I.R. website
Moto GP Raceway in-world

Yesterday R.I.R. perfectly proved me wrong in its consistency. I like it when you come somewhere with several expectations, but you get something what you could only assume instead. But honestly, I didn't expect such improvement from Sharon Densmith!

I've missed the last week race and didn't review the race that took place 2 weeks ago (due to the lack of the race log - I just crashed in the middle of it), you'll have to believe my words, and they are simple - DeCuir and Clawtooth get the winning positions regardless. Badguy might join them, might not to join them.
Densmith was showing some good results before, but they were not good enough to compete with aces like DeCuir or Clawtooth. Yesterday's race is a great example what can happen when you take something serious. Who can believe she can leave Eagle Clawtooth behind?


She was a star since the practice, and I bet she has practiced a lot through the time I haven't been able to pay a visit to R.I.R. events. Next, she's got a pole position - Grosmanteau DeCuir was 2nd with 0.289 seconds down! Through the race, she kept on going close to Boozehound and DeCuir who were ahead keeping Clawtooth away from the 3rd position she successfully finished on!

Another improvement I couldn't ignore was shishi90. I'm not going to lie, I didn't have any hopes about him and racing, but apparently I was wrong again. He definitely got ahead in racing - got 5th grid position with 1,5 seconds behind the leader and greatly remained 5th halfway keeping up with those who were leading taking advantages at the right times at the right places. He finished 7th - Garth Moonites and MidnightRambler Frostbite have showed that experience still rules. But at least now we can see what determination can drive to. Keep on going, Shishi!


Such surprises are absolutely normal in racing, but they never grow old - simply because you never can predict who will it be. And how it's going to end up for him or her.

The grid:

Pole Position. Sharon Densmith (#35) 22.144 
P 2. Grosmanteau DeCuir (#32) 22.433, -0.289
P 3. badguy Boozehound  22.877, -0.733
P 4. Eagle Clawtooth (#22) 22.953, -0.809
P 5. shishi90 (#00) 23.621, -1.477
P 6. MidnightRambler Frostbite (#17) 24.002, -1.858
P 7. Garth Moonites (#1) 24.228, -2.084
P 8. Christo Follet (#111) 24.447, -2.303

Race overview:
In the lead there were Grosmanteau DeCuir and badguy Boozehound in a competition for the 1st place, at first taking it from each other, then, after a couple of failed laps, the gap between them has grown. Sharon Densmith was going 3rd through the whole race, keeping Eagle Clawtoth on the 4th one, who tried to catch up, but just lost a few seconds instead. 5th pleace was shared between Shishi90, MidnightRambler Frostbite and Garth Moonites - between Shishi and Moonites at the beginning of the race, then Shishi got into an accident and Moonites pulled ahead to finish 5th with Frostbite on the 6th position. Christo Follet seemed to be not very good on this track and finished last.


Final Results
1st. Grosmanteau DeCuir, 50 laps. Total Time : 1140.505
2nd. badguy Boozehound, -12.094 seconds.
3rd. Sharon Densmith, -15.051 seconds.
4th. Eagle Clawtooth, -17.386 seconds.
5th. Garth Moonites, -2 laps.
6th. MidnightRambler Frostbite, -3 laps.

7th. shishi90, -4 laps.
8th. Christo Follet, -4 laps.

Fastest race lap: Grosmanteau DeCuir, 21.874

Racers Island - Drift Series - Round 8 @ Streamline Track

Racers Island Raceway blog

Racers Island Drift Results blog

Racers Island in-world (+TPer to all tracks)

(Race of 7/05/12)


And we're back to the streamline track, but now - to find out who's the best in handling their cars skidding!
Recers Island racers are apparently the most competitive ones on the grid - every their race is definitely not about the easy win, and each of them knows that. So it's going to be my huge pleasure to restore everything I've seen yesterday in my memory and tell you about.
Zev Titanium got 20.600 during his qualifying - he was one of first. So others were trying hard to catch up with him, but nobody did - the difference between racers wasn't bigger than 0.1 seconds, but as we know, everything counts. (You can see the qualifying results at the Racers Island Drift blog).

They were doing 2 races: Race B and Race A, the scheme that seems to be used frequently there and that was described in the previous race article, so I'll skip this part and move to the standing of the Race B:
P 5. Biggs Braham
P 6. Andrea Von Brokenhymen (Scottie Easterman)
P 7. Shaft Laval
P 8. Eddie Mathieson
P 9. Nella Boccara
P 10. 2cul4scul
Everyone noticed Mathieson at the 8th place? According to what I've heard from racers when they were chatting, Mathieson practiced a lot and they expected better results from him at qualifying, but... we've got what we've got. More important what we get out of the race, isn't it? 
Everybody was going close to each other after the start, with  Braham leading and Mathieson in the end - plus 2cul4scul half a lap down. Never without bumping the walls and other racers - they caught up, they lost their positions, they caught up again...
Was that a result of a good practicing, or good luck - nevertheless Mathieson didn't caught up with Braham, but instead he simply took the 2nd place from Von Brokenhymen when he pushed her into the wall - that has happened at the 5th lap. Then he kept up with Braham who was going ahead without getting crazy, but doing accurate and fast laps - and successfully finished 2nd, what provided him the moving up.


And the standings for the Race A were:

Pole Position. Zev Titanium
P 2. Yuriko Nishi
P 3. Miku Hatsune (Doll Kabuki)
P 4. Brave Ashbourne
Race B P 1. Biggs Braham
Race B P 2. Eddie Mathieson

This one wasn't as successful for Mathieson as the previous one - on the 2nd lap, he hit the wall very badly and dropped onto the last place with a hopeless 6 seconds gap that was just growing through the race. That wasn't a lucky day for  Titanium either, who eventually dropped onto the 5th position (obviously, it's a big difference when you drive all alone and when there's a bunch of other cars cutting you off and doing other things that aren't supposed to help you win - I can conclude that according to Titanium's average lap time that has decreased after he dropped behind everyone and got some room, and particularly the fact that the fastest lap of the whole race has beed performed by him also).

What was going on ahead of them? Miku Hatsune has took the lead without any big efforts - great reaction on turns, great speed handling. Others behind her were losing seconds fighting for the 2nd place: Nishi, Ashbourne, Braham and Titanium. Then Titanium backed out, the rest got some room due to permament catching-up efforts making that turned out to be mainly just a seconds losing. So they remained their position till the end of the race.
All the racing results are available at Racers Island Drift blog. Feel free to check them out and compare.

Thanks all the participants! Looking forward for the next race!