MotoSL 4 --- Round 11

Brave Ashbourne wins MotoSL PSU2 at Racers Island GP!!

This round of MotoSL has taken us to the beautiful Racers Island sim , where Eddie Mathieson runs several racings leagues on superb race tracks... stacked 7 high .
--

The story of this round is unfortunately one i wasnt able to witness personally cause i was racing myself , but the Group A race started and stayed for awhile a 3 bike dogfight between Ram Pharoah, Brave Ashbourne and Moto Ware . Ram hung on untill lap 7 where he was overtaken by Brave , with Moto still in striking distance if either should fall .
--

Ram retook the lead lap 10, but Brave again got ahead lap 11 and hung on despite Ram being right on his heels for the final laps . Big congrats to a hard working racer that deserves this win on his home turf .

Group B race was won by Ram Pharoah who had a steady hand today, he needed it with last races winner Silk Bamboo hoping for any kind of voodoo to help Ram fall, but he did not and prevailed , moving onto the Group A race.
--
Another great story of the day was the Group C race , where long time racing vet Nella Boccara
jumped out after Holden Saunders faltered lap 4 . Nella proceded to lead the rest of the race and win .
--
Group D was a 2 bike faceoff between Bikey Bekkers and Hakuna Albatross, Bikey prevailed and moved on to the Group C race. Next race is saturday January 31st at Mooz on the full layout. Its been a great season , in the closing races we are seeing new stars like Mooly Fitzgerald, Brave Ashbourne and Stang Voom staking their claims, and seasoned vets still riding solid.
--
Annie Gufler has the season championship sewn up going into the final round , Annie will become the 4th MotoSL champion in 4 seasons , with the 2nd all time number of MotoSL wins in 1 season and overall . Season 1 champion Stillywack Stillman, still holds records of most win in single season and overall .
--
Archer has also wrapped up the team championship, our first MotoSL team championship and 3rd overall in RaceSL . But this season has showed that there is several good teams ready to take it next season , including Bikersites.com, AM Pro, Racers Island and ZT Racing .
===
===
Last wednesday was also race 2 of the G1-GP rfactor season , i managed to get another win, despite a late race kiss with the wall . Rattra scored his 2nd straight, 2nd place.. and Jafo came in 3rd.
---
So far as the season is shaping up .. I think Sulla is so far in a class byherself , and once she can stay the course , she will start winning. Rattra , Yuriko and Suzy are the steady crew, placing high in the 2 races , payoff for their steady racing.
---
Jafo and Suku are both talented enough that once they can keep all 4 pointing forward they will finish high. Caz is working hard to join any of the above categories, plus we will have new drivers Kiboe Munro and Eddie Mathieson joining us in upcomign races, making it a field of up to 10 ...Race 3, is 18 laps at Silverstone wednesday jan 28th .

Group1-GP season opener

In early december i had the idea of combining Second Life with a seperate racing simulation, having a pool of talented drivers from second life compete in a racing series that would be carried out both inside SL and the Rfactor racing game.

Finaly after a series of 5 practice races , we had a field of talented drivers and a 10 race schedule using high powered American Le Mans style cars. Race #1 was finaly set for Gille Villeneuve track in Montreal Canada .

We were plagued with some technical difficulties , but finally after some delay , a field of 8 was lined up on the grid for the 1st race of the series, these included , myself, Suku Ming, Sulla Looming , Jafo Tendaze, Yuriko Nishi, Suzy Cuddihy, Caz Freschi and Rattra Raymaker, champions and top notch drivers each one .

Nerves ran a bit high as the cars went off for the 22 lap race, Suku sitting in 2nd spot had a slow start , allowing Sulla Looming , who is a early favorite to do well in the series, to get by . Unforntunately Sulla spun in turn 3 and a close following Suku t-boned her, Sulla then hit a wall losing her rear wing . Sulla made a effort to continue , but had the whole track to drive around while damaged to reach the pits , finaly spinning out and being damaged beyond repair and the first casualty of the night .

2nd casulaty was lap 5 when Jafo T locked up and struck a wall , he also retired from the race when his car was beyond repair .
Although i was able to lead all 22 laps cleanly, the race was filled with several close battles, including early on between Ratta and Yuriko in a battle for 2nd , Rattra was able to show patience, and got by after Yuriko spun out .

Late in the race Suku and Caz batttled it out for 5th place , with Suku finaly prevailing in the last lap . Rattra ran a strong race finishing 2nd, Suzy Cuddihy grabbed the last spot on the podium for 3rd. Yuriko 4th .

In 1 week is Round #2 at Toban raceway , a fictional Rfactor track that should be a very challenging race, with several hard and fast turns for the drivers to negotiate in the 20 lap race. Its still early on and with a championship points scale made for a close season , everyone still has a good chance to come out on top in the end . Thanks to everyone participating .

MotoSL Round 10 and other stuff

Silk Bamboo wins Round 10 at RD Motorsports -Wide Track

22 riders came out saturday to watch BikerSites.com dominate the Group A and B races , ill save the formalities and cut right to it . AM PRO rider Annie Gufler grabbed her 3 podium of the season and had visions of a 7th straight win in her eyes...wether or not this would be a RaceSL record is up to debate due to incomplete MotoSL season 1 records , but still would be quite a feat .

-

Annie started out well when the lights went out as usual, and it looked perhaps like she would 7 'peat, but something was different this time out . Although Annie had a 4 or 5 bike length lead , a determined cluster of riders was hot on her heels . 5 laps Annie led , then suddenly the crowd rose as one as she went down , when the smoke cleared , Silk Bamboo had moved from 4th to 1st with Jafo Tendaze and the the rest of the crowd chasing her close .

-

But thats all anyone could do for the rest of the 20 lap race, chase her.. Jafo was close for 5 more laps before crashing , after that Silk was gone for her first win since MotoSL season 2 . After his fall on lap 10 Jafo and Stang Voom of Zero Tolerance battled it out for the 2nd spot .

-

Jafo held him off for 9 more laps , but they came together going into turn 2 of the last lap, Jafo got the worst of it, getting hung up on the fence, Stang completed the lap and finished 2nd and his first MotoSL podium . Jafo finished 3rd, Motorato Ware 4th ...giving the BikerSites.com team the best showing of the day by a wide margin , Yuriko Nishi 5th, and Annie Gufler 6th . I was not witness to what became of Stang Vooms racing Speedos after finishing 2nd, but my guess is tongs and industrial grade solvent were involved .

-

Motorato Ware dominated the Group B race getting the advance to Group A. Normaly i dont dwell on races i dont do so good , but this one was fun, i started 4th on the grid for the race and it developed into a close dogfight between myself and cross town rival Brave Ashbourne for 2nd place, for 9 of the 15 lap race we crossed the line only seperated by tenths of a second.

-

I was trailing for 6 of those... finaly getting by him lap 12, at one point, I have no idea what happened , but Brave looked like a pop fly way up in the air , he manged to land and continue , but his line was a bit off thru the next 3 turns , and we both went into the fence at the turn 3 hairpin , i got going quicker and managed to finish the race 2nd, poor Brave stalled or something at the finish line and was passed by up and coming Whites Bikes phenom Molly Fitzgerald who got 3rd, Brave 4th , Ram Pharoah 5th and Abacus Mimistrobel 6th .

-

the Group C race was another tear jerker for veteran BikerSites.com race Suzy Cuddihy, who steadily led the race for the first 7 laps before taking her only spill , allowing SlodCast chief Ram Pharoah by after he ran a flawless 2nd till then, Suzy got 2nd , AM PRO ride TFFOX Tommas 3rd.

-

Group D was a flawless run by Rattra Raymaker , with a impressive 2nd place by veteran YumYum Divisadero , who has been missed as a top competitor this season . All in all it was a great day of racing , mucho thanko to Les White, next race is in 2 weeks ...where, has not been set in stone , but perhaps we will be at the Racers Island sim this time .

-

After the MotoSL races saturday , I headed over to Kokopelli Raceway to participate in the Sportsman Late Model class race. 3 classes of cars run there on saturdays , the Spectator, Factory Stocks and Sportsman . It was good fun , a bit lengthy I will be honest , but my butt on the hard bleachers endured and I managed to win my race as pictured below .

The next post for this blog will be thursday or friday for a race summary of the Season opener of my own league , G1-GP Racing league. Hoping to have 8 or 9 top skill drivers competing for cash and a nice trophy at a virtual Canadian GP (Montreal). Below is a pic from our 5th and last practice race, featuring Sulla Looming spinning out in turn 1 of lap 1 , she recovered and came back to win in a race that was great fun ..stay tuned .