Racers Island - Drift Series - Round 12 @ Oasis Drift

Racers Island Raceway blog

Racers Island Drift Results blog

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

A beautiful green track, surrounded by beautiful palms, with a blue sky above it - this magnificent place has been chosen as a place to have the last event of the Drift Series. And the racers today have revealed the most hidden vibes of competition and brought them up to the track!
After dealing with/causing a couple of problems, I finally managed to get to the track, let it rez and just relax and watch the practice. The track was full, but racers got rooms, what allowed them to set some great lap times, such as Shaft Laval's 20.935, Miku Hatsune's 21.027 or Biggs Braham's 21.067, other racers didn't hang behind too. Then, of course, Brave Ashbourne showed up - and the best lap time of the practice (and actually of the whole event) went to him with his 20.858.
My attention was attracted by a furry racer I haven't seen here before but who was doing very decent laps - his name is Sinedd Landfall. After the race, I got to ask him a few questions, and turned out he's been brought at Racers Island by Laval, who also did his car's paintjob and showed him the basics of the racing. He's going to perform in the next season under another name though. Welcome aboard!
And we're moving to the qualifuing session where, suprisingly, Ashbourne successfully got the pole position, unlike the rest of the season, when usually it has been taken by Yuriko Nishi. That was not a very big, but a first surprise for me. Apparently, his new method of qualifying worked well - he happened to take the 2nd gate, and instead of starting right after the gate has been opened, he politely waited for Landfall (the racer he has been qualifying along with) to pass about half a lap and only then started. Getting himself a room worked out greatly, and Nishi got the 2nd position on the grid.
There were 9 racers - so 2 races in total.

And the grid for the race B has been formed by:

P 5. Biggs Braham,  21.334, -0.357
P 6. Shaft Laval,  21.377, -0.400
P 7. Sinedd Landfall,  21.870, -0.893
P 8. Nella Boccara,  22.624, -1.647
P 9. domilyon,  22.912, -1.935
At the first laps, there was a very spectacular battle for the 1st place between 4 racers - Domilyon slept at the start and lost a few vital seconds and any chance to catch up with the rest.
But the rest seemed to get a fever for the competition - even the new racer got onto the 1st position once (has been passed by Nella Boccara after a few turns. At first, they were continuously trading places: turn after turn, walls at every hairpin (I've counted at least 4 at the track, and there's one more turn that looks suspicious too) were touched by at least one racer of the pile at almost every lap.
That lasted 7 first laps (it's approximately 2,5 minutes), then Laval and Braham pulled ahead after a smart pass, and racers have spreaded out: Braham and Laval were in intensive fight for the 1st place, there seemed to be some action between Boccara and Landfall too - Landfall successfully took the advantage and pulled ahead when Boccara hit the wakk at another hairpin, and kept the leadership (3rd place I mean, the leadership over Boccara) till the end of the race, even catching up once with Braham and Laval who were going ahead of them.
Braham and Laval kept on competing hard, with Braham winning but Laval on his tail permanently. But, after the 18th level, Braham began making less and less mistakes, so Laval got left behind, losing time a bit, but constantly.
And that was the order they've finished in.
Ought to say, that was an amazing start for Landfall - even though he didn't make it to the Race A, 3rd place and a hard competition against Braham, Laval and Boccara is something I'm pointing out at with a great pleasure!
So, Braham got the 5th position on the grid (and also set a very close time to Ashbourne - 20.868 that became the fastest lap time of the racetime), and Laval - 6th. Race A promised to be tough - but it brought up some things I couldn't expect at all!

Let's see the grid first:

Pole Position. Brave Ashbourne  20.977
P 2. Yuriko Nishi,  21.138, -0.161
P 3. Eddie Mathieson,  21.247, -0.270
P 4. Miku Hatsune (Doll Kabuki),  21.334, -0.357
Race B P 1. Biggs Braham
Race B P 2. Shaft Laval
Nishi confessed after the race she started at the first gear - happens to every racer at least once in a lifetime, doesn't it? 

Lap 8

Guess there's no doubt that Ashbourne successfully headstarted. Mathieson promptly shaked off the pile fo competitors and caught up with him - only to give up his place to Braham, who definitely has been in the zone today. Mathieson was left to lead the pile, then - to join the pile, then - to be left behind the pile, where a few mistakes costed him a chance to get even at the 5th place.
Meanwhile, Ashbourne was leading, but Braham kept on troubling him staying right behind him with 1 second and less gap. When it seemed that he's about to be left behind - he fixed the situation within the next lap. Others were more spreaded out with Miku Hatsune leading (3rd place).
Getting on Ashbourne's nerves seemed to work out - at the 16th lap Braham began to catch up, at the 18th lap he got to going side by side with him. One successful manoeuvre - and Braham leads the race! Ashbourne, of course, wasn't going to give up easily, but, according to what Braham said after the race, instead of passing a couple of turns accurately, he t-boned him, and not once, but twice. Ashbourne commented it that his car went left and didn't turn right for 2 seconds. Lags are so usual racers companions...
Back to the race. So, there the toughest battle of the race has been formed, between Braham and Ashbourne, at the 18th lap. They were so busy with that (me either - watching them, that was extremely exciting), that nobody noticed Hatsune, who caught up with them at the 21th lap and joined the battle. Nishi didn't waste her time too - she joined them at the next lap.
However, Ashobourne managed to get out of the battle, so there were 3 competitors involved: Hatsune, Nishi and Braham, in the following order. Braham lost it and dropped down at the 4th place, so Hatsune and Hishi got the opportunity to fight for the 2nd place, what they were doing with a rage I've seen once already - the drift race that took place a month ago, Round 8, also known as Canada's day. That was another time I've seen Nishi and Hatsune competing as hard as it was today!

Lap 29

Starting from the 26th lap, Hatsune began increasing the gap between her and Nishi... And then it happened. The greatest drifter of the Racers Island has lost his lead at the last but one lap - and not only to Hatsune, who was leading, but to Nishi at the 2nd position too! I'm not going to lie - this moment made me totally speechless. I just was looking at the local chat and hardly could believe my eyes.
The remaining lap couldn't change anyhing, so the racers finished in this order.

Like it happened at the last Stock Car race, I can say the last race of the season is a huge success. It seemed to be predictable, but who could guess it would turn out like this? I barely managed to take pictures - was afriad to miss a single moment of it.

Competitions are over!

As always, all stats are available in the Racers Island Drift Series blog - I bet you're interested what the exact  results are! The link is found in the head of this post.

And this is a conclusion of the summer Drift series. I would like to thank all the racers for the courage they perfectly expressed through the season, and of course for your competitive spirit that brought you together and made you best of the best friends off the track and the toughest competititors at the track. And, of course, congratulations to the winners of the series - Brave Ashbourne on the 1st place, Miku Hatsune (Doll Kabuki) on the 2nd and Yuriko Nishi on the 3rd!
Have a good rest before the next season, but, of course, don't let your driving skill get lost. See you at other racers, and... you all have something you can be proud of!

Racers Island Battle Car racing is ON!!!

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

It's not like regular racing. It's not like racing with pitstops. It's not like derby racing.

It's something you've never seen before, and that's why you got to come and see. Next Tuesday is okay - yes, this event will take place each Tuesday from now on, at 5 PM SLT. And this is a great way for everyone, from a beginner to a pro racer, to vary your racing life.

At first,I was going just to watch, to take pictures and notes, as always - but when I've seen the track, it became obvious that it's going to give you an experience you'll never get anywhere else. Inspired by Mario Carts, it is an exact replica of a Mario Carts track that Eddie Mathieson, who confessed he had the idea of bringing Mario Carts kind of racing into Second Life for many years, has built by himself. There also was an announcement about another track that is still under construction - it's going to be more of a big field, and the conception of the race itself will be different too, closer to demolition derby.

And Yuriko Nishi, one of the best scriptors you could ever meet in Second Life, who does all the scripting at Racers Island, has built amazing toying cars for that. Nella Boccara, one of Racers Island hosts, kindly escorted me to the mall where I, like most of racers, bought a fatpack that contained all the cars (when you see them, you realise you want to try them all). After unpacking, of course, I've tried a couple. 

So, the point of the race is basically to find the best use for the power-ups you're picking up at the track, to use the boost pads and avoid the obstacles. Typical arcade race - well, nobody makes you take it serious, but still, you'll figure out that some strategy has to be developed. My personal favorite power-up is a rocket that you can shoot right to your opponent's back, and if it caught him, you never know what effect it will cause - but it will, and trust me, it's so much fun to watch him while passing him by! The problem is that this power-up makes sense only if there's someone ahead of you in a visible area, also requires a good aiming skill - otherwise you better drop it and pick up another.

And of course, this kind of racing is not for setting up the best time, or finish first - it's for fun at the first place! And the company of positive, cheerful racers is just what you need. It's not about the points, about the  grid position - like Eddie stated, "it's the race you don't have to win". It just can't be the other way!

I could hardly resist the desire of joining them in the first race, but this event deserved shapshots - so I've joined them after 2 races. And I have to say, it's way different from what I got to know about racing during my pretty short second life. There's no such a rage, such a competition you usually feel during the race - and when someone passes you by, you just laugh and say aloud: "Well, you just hold on, I'll get your ass in no time!", it will be said with a friendly smile. It's not about calculating when and where it's best to leave a puddle of a suspicious green goo just to drive in the same one right behind the next turn. After the race, everything will be laughed out together, and the point will be reached - to have a good time with people you never knew before, but you can swear they're the funniest ones to be around! 

Get a car yourself and see you next Tuesday - you won't regret!

UPD 8/1/12: forgot about adding who built the cars - self fix is done!

Racers Island - Drift Series - Round 9 @ Nitro Drift Track

Racers Island Raceway blog

Racers Island Drift Results blog

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

(Race of 7/12/12 - sorry for the huge delay again guys, got sick yesterday, heh, tell me about getting under the pouring rain when you're hafl an hour away from home)

Who gets into the battle today? That's the question you ask before the race, if you're a patron of races at Racing Island (doesn't matter - a participant or a spectator). It's obvious the battle will be, and a hot one, and apparently not the only one, and between different racers...

The practice session

There's a place at the track I haven't seen a racer who haven't had problems with - the first hairpin, to be exact. Without exaggerating, this was the most crusial part of the road - if there were any position changes, most of the time it was caused by how racers passed it.

That hairpin and how Ashbourne
took advantage of it over Mathieson

Only 3 of the racers got under 22 seconds during the practice: Miku Hatsune (Doll Kabuki), Brave Ashbourne and Yuriko Nishi who set the record of the practice - 21.784. Eddie Mathieson got very close with his best time of 22.012, too, but the qualifying round wasn't successful for him -  5th position on the grid, however it was an advantage for him - he got the pole position in the Race B.

Brave was making predictions about the race: that Nishi will take the pole position since Zev Titanium didn't show up, that Laval and Mathieson will make it to the Race A.

How could it be otherwise though? With their position on the grid:
P 5. Eddie Mathieson,  22.318, -0.351
P 6. Shaft Laval,  22.428, -0.461
P 7. Andrea Von Brokenhymen,  22.471, -0.504
P 8. Nella Boccara,  23.073, -1.106
P 9. 2cul4scul,  24.870, -2.903
that wasn't a problem at all for them to do a headstart. Then there was a racelong battle for the 1st place with Laval pressing Mathieson through the whole race. Also, what happened behind them kept on taking my attention too - the competition for the 3rd place, that basically didn't mean anything for the race itself, but was so exciting! Andrea Von Brokenhymen and Nella Boccara were going side by side most of the time, with the 2 seconds gap between them and Mathieson with Laval.
In the middle of the race, Shaft lost a few seconds at the turn failed to drift through, and Mathieson expanded the lead. But it has changed on the 21th lap, when Laval caught up with Mathieson - thanks to the hairpin mentioned above (though Mathieson has showed the amazing skill of quick recovering again, he still was losing seconds there), and Laval gained the lead. Von Brokenhymen started closing on Mathieson... but that was the last lap, and there was a 1,5 seconds gap, so Mathieson finished 2nd and, along with Laval, moved to the next race, Race A, which I find the most competitive one among all I've seen before.


First, the grid:

Pole Position. Yuriko Nishi  21.967
P 2. Brave Ashbourne,  22.077, -0.110
P 3. Miku Hatsune (Doll Kabuki),  22.168, -0.201
P 4. Biggs Braham,  22.300, -0.333
Race B P 1. Shaft Laval
Race B P 2. Eddie Mathieson

Mathieson pulled ahead at the start and got into a battle with Ashbourne for the 1st place - Nishi, despite her pole position, wasn't as good in cutting off as others, and dropped behind, but the pack in the tail was competing hard for the 4th place, so she caught up with Mathieson and Ashbourne on the 3rd lap. The hairpin slowed Mathieson down again - Ashbourne took the lead almost in no time. 


Meanwhile, Hatsune sneak out of the battle behind and took the 3rd place from Yuriko, expanding the gap between them lap after lap. Same was happening with Mathieson, until he reached Hatsune.

And they started the thrilling battle for the 2nd place. Never could assume anyone would be able to compete with Miku Hatsune, keeping her down during 15 laps - 5,5 minutes! Of course, sometimes she was taking his position, but was losing it as fast as she took it. Impressive one, Eddie!


A little remark is needed to be done: Nishi caught up with them on the 15th lap and there was a battle of 3 for the second place won by Nishi on the 18th lap. So the following fight between Mathieson and Hatsune was for the 3rd place. Won by Hatsune.


Braham and Laval were remaining in the end of the pack - the hairpin had no mercy. However, Laval got a chance closer to the end of the race and used it to get ahead of Mathieson. There was a battle, not a long one though - race has finished.


All the final positions, best times and the rest is available at the Racers Island Drift blog, as always. I myself would like to mark again the great perfomance of Nishi and Mathieson (especialy due to the fact Mathieson had started from the Race B), along with Ashbourne and Hatsune - just not sure if it will surprise anyone... great race it was, thanks to all the competitors, and I mean not only the leaders but also those who was competing hard behind them. Thank you very much! 

Racers Island - Stock Car Series - Round 9 @ D-Oval Track

Racers Island Raceway blog

Racers Island Pro-Stock Car Series Results

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

Valo Emsbury seems to fail every 3rd race, according to the stats. This one wasn't an exception.

Well, it's just a little remark. Guys, I'm extremely sorry for such a huge delay, I've had a very rough weekend, and yesterday I've finally passed the last exam, wahoo!

Now - back to the race, to the qualifying round, to be exact.

This time, it was Miku Hatsune who took the pole position - even despite the fact she was qualifying first and other racers knew what they're going to deal with. No one could reach this time though.

But some of qualified times were very, VERY close to each other. Or even totally the same:

[18:41] Racers Island  Doval Oval Gate shouts: P 5. Mystic Audion,  8.892, -0.133
[18:41] Racers Island  Doval Oval Gate shouts: P 6. Andrea Von Brokenhymen,  8.892, -0.133

(Mystic Upshaw was qualifying 3rd, Andrea Von Brokenhymen - 7th)

Or with 0.001 second difference:

[18:41] Racers Island  Doval Oval Gate shouts: P 7. Eddie Mathieson,  8.937, -0.178
[18:41] Racers Island  Doval Oval Gate shouts: P 8. Upshaw34 Resident,  8.938, -0.179 

(Mathieson was qualifying 4th and Kert (Upshaw34) - first, along with Hatsune)

But everyone got under 1 second difference with the pole - well done, though not very surprising at the oval track, but shows the level of all the racers, and I find it pretty high. High enough to get the close competition on the track even through the Race C.

How tough it was? First, their positions at the start:

P 9. #427 - Nella Boccara  

P 10. #2 1/2 - Harleybeth28 Amoufhaz  

P 11. #3 - Cole Bishop (loadcoil)  

P 12. #2 - miller Tomcat  

P 13. #7 - Doug (Dougie Bellic)  

P 14. #4 - 2cul4scul  

P 15. #18 - davids25 Resident  

- and only 2 of them were supposed to move up. That was another proof that not everyhing depends on the grid position - it's your driving skill. Never without bumping walls and bumping each other, and Bellic was the unluckiest - devil knows how many times how got pushed into the wall or turned around by other racers.

Let's get a closer look to this race. At first, Boccara and Bishop took advantage of their positions; plus 2cul4scul made it from the 6th position to the 3rd, and when Boccara dropped behind - 2nd, protecting the place from Boccara who kept on going very close and eventually got ahead to begin a competition with Bishop for the 1st place. She achieved it and Bishop started losing his position still going 2nd though - others were too far away to catch up with him (most were lapped by Boccara and Bishop) everything was pointing on the win of them... but Boccara started being hit by others a lot on 43-48th laps and was losing a lot of time to recover. Tomcat, who was 3rd, of course, promptly caught up and gained the 2nd place. That concludes the Race C, and we follow Bishop and Tomcat to the next race.

Race B participants started in the following order:

P 5. #54 - Mystic Upshaw (Audion)

P 6. #75 - Andrea Von Brokenhymen

P 7. #00 - Eddie Mathieson

P 8. #34 - Kert (Upshaw34)

Race C P 1. #3 - Cole Bishop (loadcoil)

Race C P 2. #2 - miller Tomcat

After the start, that wasn't clear who's leading - racers were switching positions constantly. Then Von Brokenhymen took the lead, Mathieson and Mystic Upshaw dropped behind, the rest started the battle for the 2nd place, where Tomcat was leading at first, while Mystic Upshaw was catching up with them, then Kert replaced him. Von Brokenhymen remained 1st, but no one was lapped yet.

Mystic Upshaw was great with her laps time (5th place at qualifying and during this race) even despite the traffic, so she got 2nd place pretty quick, and Kert dropped behind.

Eddie was doing brilliant laps and made it to the 3rd place closer to the middle of the race and got into the fight for it with with Kert, however, the gap between them and the leaders was too big. Eventually Eddie began to lead and Kert got lapped along with the rest. And that's how they've finished this race. Andrea Von Brokenhymen and Mystic Upshaw moved up to the Race A.

And here's their order:

Pole Position. #121 - Miku Hatsune (Doll Kabuki)

P 2. #88 - David Wetherby

P 3. #69 - Yuriko Nishi

P 4. #92 - Valo Emsbury

Race B P 1. #75 - Andrea Von Brokenhymen

Race B P 2. #54 - Mystic Upshaw (Audion)

Hatsune took the lead in no time, others were going close to her for a pretty long time. Then the bumping time for Emsbury and Nishi began, and they dropped down, but there was still an extremely close fight ahead of them, though Hatsune was leading - everything could have changed any moment then. 

Hatsune shot ahead, and it turned into a battle for the 2nd place between Wetherby, Von Brokenhymen and Upshaw, that lasted till the halfway of the race, and Wetherby won it. Meanwhile, Emsbury caught up intended to take the 3rd place from Upshaw, but closer to the end of the race the gap between them grew again.

And Mystic, after catching up successfully with Wetherby, challenged him for the 2nd place and won it. Wetherby finished 3rd.

Thanks a lot to all the participants - it was a big pleasure to watch such a competition. Congratulations winners - well done, especially comparing with previous results (of course I mean Mystic Upshaw and David Wetherby, because Miku Hatsune's win was expected). Hope to see something like this next week!

P.S.: I finally can promise you to write the articles about races up to date (within 12-18 hours) - EXAMS ARE THROUGH!!!

Another good news: I got my ass to create an account on Flickr - still setting up there, but from now on I've decided to post your personal photos there. We'll see how else I can use it :)

For now, find yourself here.

Thank you very much!

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!