Monday, October 27, 2008

MotoSL 4 , Race #3 at the Canyon


Yuriko Nishi wins her 2nd MotoSL GP of the season

A fine day for racing on SL and a fine turnout of 25 racers to compete in Round 3 of the current season . The MotoSL calendar runs with 2 races then a week off , so there is a 2 week break before next race, meaning 2 weeks of practice leading up to race day , being round 3 , it was one of those races . Having 2 weeks to prepare, a good amount of drivers show up race day razor sharp and the anticipation for a tight race is tangable .

Qualify was fast with Holden Saunders setting a quick early pace that only landed him 5th on grid after all 25 racers finished qualification, Yuriko Nishi grabbed her first career pole position, with Annie Guffler 2nd, Jafo T. 3rd , Crippy O. 4th , Holden 5th , and Suzy Cuddihy 6th after she advanced from a Group B victory.

This was a day of good races from beggining to end, low lag... allowing the riders to put all the hard practice to work, Group D started the day with some close racing between IDK Racing's Yamaha Harley and AM Pro rider Spdx Exonar , with Yamaha prevailing in the end.

Group C was another good race, with a twist of heart break, RaceSL contributor and Racers Island team captain Raver Bellow was running away with the race by half way , with most of the action for 2nd place between Just Catteneo and ZT captain Stang Voom . On the last lap Raver came on too strong approaching traffic near the tunnel and he went down after a collision, Just made most of his chances and brought home the win .

Group B race was nothing short of exciting , especialy since it was BikerSites.com rider Motorato Ware taking to the grid for first time this season . A little messy at the start , a different person crossed the line in 1st the first 3 laps , Ram Pharoah and Suzy Cuddihy dueling in the front , but Ram crashed Lap 4 , allowing Suzy into 1st and Just Catteneo to move up to 2nd and in close pursuit of Suzy.

Generaly a pack of riders fighting it out is a blessing for riders trying to make up time and Moto made most of this with steady riding the first 8 laps allowing her to eventualy catch the lead group of 3 riders. Laps 9 and 10 the top 4 are extremely tight with lead group all within 3 seconds of leader , Just fell back , with Moto getting by into 3rd, then Ram Pharoah slips on the grass and Moto slips into 2nd, while Suzy Cuddihy starts to make a gap in the lead and run with it .

Last 2 laps were close and exciting, with 2 skilled riders... Moto Ware and Just Catteneo fighting it out for 2nd, came down to the last turn of the last lap , they were literaly exchanging paint side by side, slowing each other with contact, but Just was able to slip passed and grabbed 2nd , Moto 3rd, AM Pro rider TFOX Tommas grabbed 4th from Ram who finished 5th and Brave Ashbourne, who had even a rougher day than me =p finished 6th .

Group A , im sitting 4th on the grid remembering earlier in the day we were casualy joking about how dangerous it is to start in the middle of the pack, at front or back being preferable. staring at Annie Guflers back knowing Suzy was behind me staring at mine .

The lights go out and Yuriko jumps fast from pole and gets the hole shot into 1st. I also get a good jump at the start , while Annie doesnt get such a good one , the result is we come together at the tunnel entrance and im in 6th coming out the tunnel . Yuriko leads, with Jafo 2nd , Holden 3rd. Jafo holds 2nd place till a 3rd lap slip sends him down to the cellar with Suzy and me .

I trailed both of them as they swapped positions and paint for a few laps , untill Jafo rubbed out on the outside tunnel wall . Although I got to see most of this race from last place, opportunities did come my way, i stayed steady enough to pass the people i was chasing when they made mistakes, but i failed to capitilize.... crashing out after getting 2 big breaks , up to 4th , but back to last before much more than a lap passed.

Meanwhile a big slip by Annie in 3rd, and mistakes by Suzy and myself let Jafo work his way from last place lap back to 3rd by lap 12. At the front Yuriko ran a strong crash free race, with Holden Saunders stalking her within 4 seconds the whole race, a great performance by both riders, kudos to Holden for doing what he needed to do to win this race, but thats not a easy prospect if the person you are chasing for the win makes no mistakes.

Grats to Yuriko on her 2nd victory in 3 races, she leads the season currently, with Annie in 2nd , Jafo 3rd, Crippy 4th , Holden 5th , and unfortunately Josephina Gears of BikerSites.com team did not make the race, she fell to 6th but still also with striking distance of the top with some steady performances in upcoming races.

Next race is Saturday November 1st at Mooz on the "Iron" layout , a tough chicane that will make or break many racers day . Returning this week we have Silk Bamboo's wonderfull stat presentations hosted on Bikersites.com at http://www.bikersites.com/sl/racesl/. Also we have the SLodcast video of this race from perspective of race winner Yuriko Nishi and the other races so far this season at the Slodcast site http://www.motosl.slodcast.com/.


Saturday, October 11, 2008

MotoSL4 Race #2 at Snowpeach

Annie Gufler wins Snowpeach MotoSL GP

Second Lifes most prestigious race series attracted 26 riders to compete for the top step today.
After some bumping and grinding with both Yuriko Nishi and Jafo Tendaze, Annie Gufler scored her 1st MotoSL win and the 1st MotoSL win for Am Pro Racing.

Josephina Gears held steady for a impressive 2nd place finish after Qualifying 13th on the grid and in Group 3 , proceding to win the Group 3 race and the Group 2 race. Josephina drew a hot hand today and finaly got a well deserved rest after racing 3 full races... standing up on the 2nd step .

Yours truly had a shaky qualify , just barely landing the 5th and final spot in Group A . My main problems started... oh about 300 feet into the race when I and Stang Voom came together trying to share the same line , the result was a hard crash into the wall taking us right out of the lead group at the start.

Stang got the worst of it having flipped over the barrier wall , it took him awhile with help of race stewards to right his bike and get under way . I on other hand was able to procede fairly quickly after righting my bike .

For awhile after that it was a lonely race for me , all alone on track as far as i could see, Stang far behind and i couldnt see anyone ahead, lap after lap , thinking i might be seeing riders thru the chicane (S turn) as i round the turn before it .

Finally around lap 8 i caught up to Yuriko who had taken a turn wide and come to a near stop on the grass to avoid going down . I chased Yuriko for several laps , but it was so-so driving vs good driving and i fell behind again .

Lap 11 and i came around the big sweeping turn before the chicane , and as in races past, suddenly i came up on 3 bikes , Jafo, Yuriko and Stang trying to get going after a bad incident near the entrance to the chicane , i was able get thru cleanly but Jafo was fast behind me being able to recover fastest from the accident area, from 5th just a moment earlier, i crossed the line lap 11 in 3rd.

Jafo was close behind for the next several laps , but i was able to make some space in the last laps and crossed lap 15 in 3rd. Jafo fast behind in 4th, Yuriko Nishi, who won Archer Racing's first ever MotoSL GP last week, came in 5th and Stang an unfortunate 6th after a nice qualify where he was 4th .

The Group 2 race was all Josephina Gears after some early race excitement with Raver Below and Just Catteneo dueling it out in the early laps , but both came upon misfortunes and steady Josephina was able to take the lead and gap the field. Brave Ashbourne of the Racers Island team, held on strong for 2nd place with Just Catteneo getting 3rd.

Group 3 was a great duel between BikerSites.com team mates Suzy Cuddihy and Josephina Gears. Trading off the lead several times, the race looked like it could go either way. The pair put alot of distance behind them to rest of field as they raced each other . Josephina finaly was able to get a little gap , winning the race, with Suzy 2nd and Holden Saunders after having the roughest qualify round of the day finished 3rd.

The Group 4 race might have had some of the loudest cheering of the day , with Snowpeach Raceway and MoR racing team owner , Count Bayliss surging out to the front of the pack early on and holding onto the lead for several laps , but the entire time , White's Bikes team rider Molly Fitzgerald, was hot on his heels.

Molly has been quite dedicated to improving her skills at MotoSL , practicing long sessions at the tracks before each race, and it paid off today. Several times Molly almost got by Count , but was held off. Possessing the more trained hand in this one despite Counts valiant efforts, Molly was just waiting for her moment to get by and get into the clean air where she knew she could pull away .

Finally her patience and skill paid off and she was by the Count , she was never challenged again and brought home a solid win . Count Bayliss held on for impressive 2nd place finish , with BBB
team rider Hakuna Albatross coming in 3rd.

Grats to everyone for some great racing , the schedule now has a week off with Race #3 taking place at Mooz on the Canyon track on October 25th .

After 2 races , Annie Gufler currently leads the points race, with Yuriko Nishi close behind in 2nd, Jafo Tendaze looking to repeat his championship last season in 3rd, BikerSites.com rider Josephina Gears 4th and Archer racing Crippy Oh 5th


Next post, during the MotoSL break week will be --- Past Champions: MotoSL season 2



Sunday, October 5, 2008

MotoSL 4- Season opener Race #1


Yuriko Nishi wins Mooz Classic GP

39 people crammed into Mooz raceway to see and participate in the season opener of Season #4 of MotoSL . 29 riders entered the que and ran in the qualifying round , which was one of my few bright spots on the day . Accidentaly stopped 1 lap short (hard to count gloved fingers =p ), but still managed to get 2nd spot .

Holden Saunders landed the opening pole position with Yuriko Nishi 3rd, Annie Gufler 4th and Jafo Tendaze 5th to round out qualifiers for the group 1 race, the final grid was 7 bikes since the top 2 of each previous race advance to next race.

Suzy Cuddihy has been looking steady early this season and managed to win the Group 2 race with a strong performance. Josephina Gears grabbed the 7th grid spot after also advancing from the Group 3 race .


Unfortunately today was a bit laggier than normal and everyone experienced problems at some point . Despite this, the early races on the schedule managed to be close and exciting with BBB team captian Bikey Bekkers tenaciously hanging on for the Group 4 win , new comer John Alturas made a mark in his rookie opener by getting 2nd and advancing to Group 3 with Bikey .

Group 3 race was another exciting one with Sulla Looming and Josephina Gears gapping the pack , but not each other . They fought back and forth for a good part of the race, Sulla prevailed and took the checkers, Josephina advanced with a 2nd place. Yamaha Harley came in 3rd, Bikey Bekkers 4th, Hakuna Albatross 5th and Abacus Mimistrobel 6th and John Alturas 7th

Group 2 race was all Suzy Cuddihy, winning by 6 seconds, with Josephina Gears holding strong onto 2nd . 3rd was Stang Voom , 4th Brave Ashbourne, 5th Sulla Looming , 6th Just Catteneo and 7th Ford Roffo.

Group 1 race, a bit laggier than we are used to in RaceSL , but still managed to be a good race up at the front , with Yuriko Nishi leading mostly wire to wire with Jafo and Annie hot on her tail most of the 2nd half of the race.

My highlight and low light of the day was all on same lap . I moved from 5th and almost caught 2nd place rider on same lap , several bikes came together at the gate and i was forced wide and missed the lap counting , i finished the raced in 7th at -1 laps .

In a bold move Yuriko prevailed past Jafo and Annie to take the checkers, Jafo 2nd , Annie 3rd,
Suzy 4th , Josephina 5th and Holden Saunders 6th. Another big start for Archer racing , also nice one for BikerSites.com team represented by Suzy and Josephina.

Race #2 is at Snowpeach in just 1 week , practice time for the race will be short, but races at the ultra tight and claustrophic Snowpeach are always exciting . Ram Pharoah and Slodcast filmed the race using 4 cameras and VJ Shojo commentaed the race, the video can be found here.....