FormulaSL - Season 3 opener

Annie Gufler wins season opener at Mooz


It was a nice welcome back on saturday for everybody , and i mean everybody as 50 peeps crowded into Mooz to kick off the new season . This included 30 drivers eager to test their mettle in Second Lifes most prestigious racing series . One of the great things about RaceSL, and even more so this season ,it has collected some of the best participants of SL's other top notch racing leagues , including Racers Island fielding a team of 4, Amber Raceway , and for the first time our Italian friends from the Alice Racing league.

Any commentary on this race cannot avoid the fact that Annie Gufler of AM Pro dominated the days proceedings , grabbing pole position then skillfully running away with the 8 car Group A race, lapping the entire field .

But for my day personally it was certainly one of the greatest challenges in my own teams history and a day i am quite proud of my team mates. The qualify round only shined for Jafo Tendaze , 2 time RaceSL champion , who qualified 2nd behind Annie . Yuriko Nishi and myself suffered from nerves and or inclement weather to qualify 10th and 11th , putting us back in the middle of the field for the B group race.

The situation was not looking good , with veteran speedfreak Hotspot Racing Drivers Silk Bamboo and Suzy Cuddihy both qualifying into A group , along with AM Pro sticking 2 drivers into Group A with the brilliant qualifying run of Annie's vet teamate Fox Tommas. Already the obituary Archer Racing's record of 36 straight races in 1st place was going thru my head, as our backs were obviously up against the wall like at no other time in our year and a half history .

All there was left to do was to actualy race, all we could do was try our best to give the other teams a challenge. Either Yuriko or myself needed to come in 1st or 2nd in Group B race to advance on to A and attempt to defend our title . After that it was a bit of a blur to be honest , a nice start for me as i threaded the needle past cars in trouble to move into the lead, it felt good out there and i did what i had to do making as few mistakes as possible and winning the race, and as a nice added bonus Yuriko also ran a very good race coming in 2nd .

Although i do prefer to adjulate the accomplishments of my fellow competitors on this forum , i am quite proud that Archer was able to rise to the occaision , with Jafo coming in 2nd and Yuriko grabbing 3rd, securing us our 37th straight round in 1st place, but just 2 points ahead of the AM Pro team. With the whole of the season remaining i think this will be a continuing battle with the veteran AM Pro and Hotspot Racing teams , both not only worthy to knock us off the top but also deserving to do so .

Veteran Caz Freschi overcame some bad breaks during the race, included a few maulings by myself to put the new InDrive team of Greg Draymans Kokopelli racway and league into 4th place. But i think the most eyes were on the rookie Midnight Lotus team , led by dedicated RaceSL rookie Laney Recreant and a top performing Ashe Revnik, Midnight Lotus had a commendable day with Laney finishing 9th overall and Ashe finishing in the points in 13th after a great performance in the C race to advance up to the B race.

The skilled , and to be completely honest... often a crazy ... Racers Island team was led by veteran nutter Brave Ashbourne who ran a solid win in the C race , finishing 10th overall on the day , not far behind was Remon Franizzi in 12th .

The highlight of the Group D race was resident monkey and indie driver Ford Roffo who decisively led wire to wire. Ford then came in 5th in the Group C race. Another story of the day was Racers Island veteran Rattra Raymaker having computer problems and running the event on a backup computer, he did great coming in 2nd behind Ford in Group D and 4th in the C Group race.

Although SL wasnt too kind to us as far as lag , sometimes it was ok, sometimes it was just bad , the race was a great show of driving prowess and support, and the rest of the season is promising to be much the same, the next round is saturday the 28th at the Canyon raceway , with alot of drivers already looking to be in top form in early week testing .