FormulaSL pre-season and other stuff

Today was the 2nd Test race of the upcoming FormulaSL season 2. Held at PSU raceway on the brand new PSU 2 track, the longest track weve ever run on , and a very well put together layout by Les White.

Excitement for the upcoming season has been growing, we had 15 driver Que up at Test #1, and 25 Que up at today's Test #2. So far there has been controversy within the Archer ranks on what car we will race this season , Jafo has put together a very nice model he built himself , but when it came down to race time , Jafo saddled up in the car built by Just Catteneo and i stuck with the car built by Abacus Ministrobell .

3 cars ran qualify at once this time, and luck would have it , Jafo and i were amongst the first group. Jafo ran fast and set and held pole position. I wasnt so lucky , registering a so-so time and slowly lost position as the other 22 drivers after us took to the track . In the end i ended up in 5th overall.... setting the top grid at Jafo, Grosmanteau DeCuir, Just Catteneo, Dolli Dreamweaver or whatever , Doll Kabuki's new racing alt, me and Yamaha Harley.

The other group races were exciting , especialy Group B where the lead changed several times with Mango Birdbrain coming out on top . Group A race promised to be a good one . Onto the grid we went and Les sent us off with a gate countdown . The first couple laps were very tight , i kept Jafo, Gros and Just close in my sights with Yamaha right on my tail . Poor Dolli hit a patch of grass and flipped her car early , taking her out of running for the win.

Lucky for me the 3 cars ahead of me were all over each other , eventualy allowing me to slip by into the lead, with Yamaha still running fast behind me , round and round the track we went , the sound of his engine very loud in my ear. At some point i think he slipped on a little grass, and i was able to pull away . A few laps later, after i seemingly fended off the attack of team mate Jafo, Yamaha came from no where and passed me , but he pitted the same lap , allowing me to pass back into the lead.

Into the pits i went the next lap , coming out i was 2nd , at some point i think Yamaha had some troubles and i was able to jump ahead of him again and never look back, even after my 2nd and 3rd pit stops i remained in the lead till the end , crossing the line for my 2nd win of the FormulaSL pre-season (having won test race #1) , with Yamaha 15 seconds behind me .

The next stop for FormulaSL i think will be Mooz where Les plans to make it Havok 4 after the upcoming MotoSL race next week . 4 victories out of the last 5 MotoSL events , i dunno if im eating my wheaties or what , but i like it and hope my luck doesnt run out soon .


And other stuff----

The other day i was hanging out at Mooz race track and met Niki Wilder and McKinney Allen who run Air Races out of Niki's sim. After going over the whole RaceSL spiel with them , telling them the whole story and format of the league , we went off to Les Whites playground at Misp .

There we were joined by Jafo , we played Sim Invaders, Les' space invaders type arcade game , where your AV stands at arcade machine , but the game itself is in the sky above you , very cool. we played Arena ball , a indoor soccer type game , we flew airplanes , even dogfighting a little, since Niki wanted to try flying in Havok 4, which is what Misp has.

Then we took to the sea , rezzing our Siege Guild warships and fighting a sea battle , lots of fun .
After all this Niki took us to her sim where we tried Air Racing around pylons , i found it to be very challenging and fun. Although i hoped to participate in their league races this Thursday , i was too busy , so more practice and hopefully i will next thursday .


upcoming posts ....Finally ! i will post about Yuni Motorcycles, beautifuly done high prim Motorcycles by Yuriko Nishi .
Also a pictorial tour of Haven Manor , the new house i share with Rayne Niven .

MotoSL Round #10 ...Victory at Snowpeach

Finally...after coming 2nd at Snowpeach , my fav track on RaceSL circuit, 3 times in the past ....i finally grabbed my first win ever there. Although for this round the track was run in reverse direction.

No crashes for me allowed me to hold off a hard charging Kandy Tommorow who gained .500 or more time per lap for last 3 laps , but finished 3 seconds behind me. Kandy also took the Pole Position for the day ...sticking me into spot #2 by beating me by .002 of a second. Also by a coincidence Just Catteneo ran the fastest lap of the race, beating my fastest lap by .002 seconds!

Just Catteneo finished 3rd, Jafo 4th , Doll Kabuki 5th and Caine Beresford finished 6th . This win puts me in 3rd in individual standings overall , and finally allowed us to pass Jafo Tendaze and the NSG team into 2nd place in team standings.......Jafo had literaly been holding us off nearly single heandedly for the last 9 races.

Group B race was a good one, although crashed filled except for Yuriko Nishi who led the field flawlessly throughout, unfortunately Yuriko took a bad spill on the last lap allowing Matt Birke to make up a 9 second gap and beat her by just .313 of a second.

Group C was another thriller , a 10 lap neck to neck battle between Pure rider Ram Pharoah and Depo rider YumYum Divesadero. Yum did quite well holding him off untill lap 6 when Ram got by, Lap 7 was still very close , but Yum encountered heavy traffic and fell back almost 5 seconds on lap 8-9, Ram fell the last lap and Yum squeeked by to win by just .134 seconds.

The event was a great turnout , 25 racers queing up for the day , now the series moves to the 2nd to last race of the season at Mooz in 2 weeks , with a FormulaSL test race next week.

Im hoping to keep up my momentum gaining 67 points in last 3 races, and thats after only getting 23 points in 4 races before that.

2007...a Year in review

After a failed attempt to get into playing SL in 2006 , encouraged by tales from my friends Charmed Daehlie and Dinee Ghia, i decided to give SL a 2nd try and on February 2nd , 2007 Crippy Oh was born . I spent a fair amount of time on Helper Island to familiarize myself with the game system and later that same day (rez day), Charmed logged on and began to show me around , buying me my first hair , lending me some cash and showing me the best freebie places.



My first day in SL


My experience with SL this second try was much more positive , the first time it was just plain too laggy for me. My first couple days were spent being enthralled by Charmed , her home , her many beautiful outfits, i was quickly becoming entranced with SL and its wide open possibilites.

























A more refined Crippy after playing a few days . Shopping at one of my fav stores , Delicious Results.


By day 5 i had started to explore a little more and happened upon Club Prominence owned by Hanako Calamari. It was at Prominence i got my first job as a dancer, and met several people who remain friends of mine to this day , including Emilie Watkins, EcleticJohn Niven,and Misty Gentil. Charmed came and worked at Prominence for a short time , but eventualy the club closed when Hanako returned to her studies as a medical student, i still have many fond memories of this place and it was my first real hangout in SL. Emilie Watkins currently has a successfull clothing store in SL , making riding clothes and various normaly hard to find clothing items.

My 3rd incarnation after playing about 1 month, wearing my Dragonfly skin

After Prominence i had more spare time on my hands and began to explore SL more , around this time in early March i came upon Motorati Island, i got my first car , then first motorcycle , soon i was standing in the infield at Fairgrounds speedway , wondering , how do i get in on this . At Fairgrounds i met many people who are also still my friends to this day , YumYum Divesadero, Doll Kabuki, Jafo Tendaze, Suku Ming , Toby Rainbow , Subwoofer Fuhr, Sabrina Lachman. Getting involved in the SLASCAR league consumed my time on SL , even after getting hired at Club 250 thanks to Misty Gentil who was a manager there.



Posing with my FormulaSL and SLASCAR trophies



Club 250 became another important segement of my time on SL, meeting long time friends Frosty Sinatra, Skates Coronet and Lilyu Jewell. Lilyu soon became one of my closest companions in SL and remains a important part of my online life. Club 250 was a great hangout , from dancing on the tables , to dance events , to just hanging out chatting with strangers and friends. Frosty even sponsored one of my SLASCAR cars before he left the club for a career in poker.


Crippy Oh today


Skates Coronet eventualy completed his long time project , Club Genesis , and this became the next phase in SL for me , meeting friends Ronni Boa , the gorgeous Rayne Niven who also became a close and very important companion to me to this very day, and many other lovely personalities i still see and speak to time to time.

During my time working at Genesis i finally made my way to the venerated race courses of Mooz and Misp and met people who by this time were nearly legendary to me by now , Les White, Motorato Ware , Silk Bamboo, Suzy Cuddihy. I formed Archer racing with Jafo Tendaze and competed in Season 1 of Les Whites beautifuly done FormulaSL, going on to win the team championship with Jafo. Over time RaceSL has become my passion on SL, and ive met many great people thru it , Shiryu Musashi, VJ Shojo, LUCA Rosmer, Chester Orbit, Bennet Dynamo and all the nice people at Depo.



In flight hunting for Doll Kabuki


During this period my interests in SL became many and varied, sailing at the Hollywood sim and its ajoining sims, Dinee Ghia introduced me to Bloggers with Blades where i met Tiana Merriman , Zoe Connoly and Desertwolf Longstaff. Spurred on some by Zoe Connoly's very nicely done blogs and my interest in the Victorian period i became quite interested and involved in Steampunk in SL and some late 19th century play. I became a Human Assassin in the SL world of NoR , a post-apocalypse setting based on race, experience points , skills , levels and roleplay .
















Looking back at 2007 , i enjoyed my time in SL very much. Im still very involved in SL , managing Archer Racing and hoping for a successfull 2nd season of FormulaSL. Mooz Raceway and Club Genesis are still my main haunts. I have just moved into a beautiful Victorian mansion with Rayne Niven . I still enjoy very much hearing about the RL and SL of my friends, when i get a half a chance to catch up with them. Heres to hoping 2008 is a fun, involving and engaging as 2007 was.....

MotoSL Round 9---Crippy Oh...2 in a row ??....no

This saturday was MotoSL round 9 at PSU raceway , always a fun event , 22 riders showed for the toughest racing competition in SL . Gonna keep this one short and sweet though.

Qualifying round was a bit of a bear this time around a sweaty bear lol, Just Catteneo and i decided to ride around and clunk heads for a bit before finally getting in some good laps , wasted 3 of the 5 qualifying laps though, but it was good enough to get me 3rd overall on grid, with Jafo on Pole position and Just 2nd, also in Group A race was Silk Bamboo, Caine Beresford and rookie Grosmanteau DeCuir.

One thing i love about MotoSL is im much faster out of gate at start than in the Formula1 cars, lights went out on the group A race and i was off, Jafo in my crosshairs, i was tight around first turn and into 2nd place chasing Just.

Just crashed his bike lap 3 and i was in the lead. One bad point for me for this race , was computer problems , i was racing with no sound , alot of shifting and knowing how close people are to you is all based on hearing sound . But i didnt let that phase me , 11 laps i led the field, at one point by 12 seconds.

I got hung up on the hairpin fence once and crashed my bike another time, but was still able to hang onto lead. But Just Cattaneo was closing fast. Just was by far the fastest on the track during the week of practicing , i knew i better pick it up. No sound though , means not hearing person is close behind you and Just found his spot and made his move , cleanly passing me on lap 13.

Another crash on last lap and Jafo was able to pass me , in the end i got a podium and 3rd place, but another missed opportunity to score big. Kandy Tommorow ran brilliantly again and won the group B race, Yamaha Harley and Vinnie Niangao put on quite a show , dueling it out for 10 laps in the Group C , Yamaha was like a rock though , Vinnie would beat him into a turn and Yamaha would beat him out , Yam came home for the win .

Next MotoSL race in 2 weeks at Snowpeach , like this week , the regular layout will be run reversed for the race.
---On a side note today, saturday February 2nd was Crippy AVs 1st rez day =))

SLASCAR -Winter Season wrap up

January 20th , the last cars crossed the line at Dirtfield to end the Winter Mini-Season. Due to its short length of only a couple months , the competition was fierce for the top spots. Many veterans returned to stake their claim, Jafo Tendaze, Doll Kabuki, Subwoofer Fuhr, Suzy Cuddihy, Greg Drayman, Aybabtu Abaye, Mango Birdbrain, Sonic Costello, Valiant Jewell, Mater Gamba, Dekul Runo. Challenging the vets this season was a skilled crop of rookies including Quick Gazov, Mac Heron, Katier Reitveld, Innes Merriman and Holden Saunders.

With all these vets and fast fresh faces , competition was at its highest since i started racing in SLASCAR, in the end i raced in a total of 19 races, i missed a bunch because of RL work and the holidays. I won 4 races, came in 2nd twice and in 3rd place 4 times. It was enough to bring me home 2 championships , in Baby Grand stocks and Legends.

Final standings-

Baby grands: 1st : Crippy Oh, 2nd: Jafo Tendaze, 3rd: Quick Gazov

Midget cars(Dirt track) : 1st Jafo Tendaze, 2nd : Sonic Costello, 3rd: Subwoofer Fuhr

Pure Stocks(Dirt Track): 1st (tie): Jafo Tendaze & Subwoofer Fuhr, 2nd: Sonic Costello

3rd: Greg Drayman

Legend cars: 1st: Crippy Oh, 2nd : Subwoofer Fuhr, 3rd: Jafo Tendaze

Pro Trucks: 1st: Subwoofer Fuhr, 2nd: Doll Kabuki, 3rd: Crippy Oh

Midnight Madness: 1st : Quick Gazov, 2nd: Mac Heron, 3rd Holden Saunders

MotoSL Round 8- Mooz with a vengeance!

Ive already stated in my series of blogs that Mooz raceway is not amongst my favorites of the RaceSL series. It was first track i raced in lower than Group A race. I had a horrible race there once in FormulaSL where i was absolutely mugged to little pieces by 2 rookies. Although ive had some ok races here, most memories are not good.

MotoSL round 8 started as all other events, everyone at track de-scripted, and then clicked on the Queuer to enter there names in the race. The Queuer then randomly picks 3 riders to qualify together , 22 racers entered , a field of 5 rookies and 17 pros. The rookies ran their rounds together , then it was time for the pros .

Always ready to go , i waited for Les to hit that button for the 1st pro qualify round , and once again....this has to be 3rd or 4th time , i was in the 1st round .Which means i gotta gear up and get out there and do my thing with 2 other riders first , and my partners are very good riders also, Kandy Tommorow and Yuriko Nishi . After my failure at Snowpeach , where i qualed so badly , i was ready to go , my 1st lap woulda been good enough to stick me into 3rd overall , but my 2nd lap got me Pole Position, which is good , cause none of my other laps were any good, i fell twice.

After the first round i had to sit thru 14 more riders giving it there go , each one a class act and many , serious threats to topple me from Pole , Just Catteneo , Jafo Tendaze, Moto Ware, Yamaha Harley, Ram Pharoah, Doll Kabuki, Caine Beresford, all gave it a go in succession, but when the dust cleared i had held Pole Position =) my first ever in RaceSL .

Sitting on Pole with Jafo on my right sitting 2nd on the grid , nerves were hitting me , but in the end you have no choice but try to do your thing and just get thru it . 3-2-1 go and i got off very good , with Kandy hot on my tail . She got very close several times, the roar of her engine was very loud in my ear, after a lap or 2 Jafo got by Kandy and was after me .

Each time i passed the gate i looked for the rider behind me gate spam , if i can see it before i go around next turn , i know they are close. After a little bit Jafo's spam faded, and i decided to cruise a little easier . After several laps of no spam , i had a slow lap, around thru the gate , then suddenly i could see Jafo's spam as he came thru behind me , hot on my tail on lap 10 . I knew i had to pick up the pace.

3 laps he chased me , gaining on me and was within .980 seconds, when he hit the tires near the pit on lap 13, this gave me clear sailing the last 2 laps , just needed to stay on my bike..........which i did ..hehe . My first ever MotoSL win and 2nd ever RaceLS win, needless to say im very happy.

Moto Ware won the Group B race, with YumYum running a solid 2nd and Ram Pharoah getting 3rd. Doll Kabuki ran a solid Group C race with a big win and rookie Neko Carter came in 2nd in his first RaceSL race ever.

This win puts me from 6th place in standings to 4th place, just ahead of Silk Bamboo, on a sad note, Silk missed this race, even though she showed up just a few minutes too late to get in as a entry . Silk is a top notch competitor and she will be back i know that for sure.

Round 9 is next week at PSU, we are running the course in reverse, which will be very interesting .

Road to Snowpeach ...Round 7 MotoSL

Last week Jafo Tendaze took his 4th MotoSL series win at PSU raceway , this week the series is back at the venerable Snowpeach complex owned by Count Bayliss.


The highlight of this event was the Group A race, specificly the battle between Motorato Ware and Kandy Tommorow. Jafo led the pack early , but spilled on lap 3 , giving Kandy a brief lead before Moto was able to jump in front . Kandy was hot on Moto's tail the entire race, falling back some , but then slowly creeping back up during the final laps , heading into the S turn before the finish line on the last lap , Moto didnt quite have the best line and struck the wall sending her flying , Kandy sped past and to victory .


Much congrats to Kandy Tommorow on her win , in the last 1 and half seasons of FSl and RaceSL (18 races total ) only 4 people out of the dozens of participants, had ever won a race, Jafo Tendaze, Just Catteneo , Moto Ware , and me (Crip Oh) .


Silk Bamboo won a controversial Group B race and Suzy Cuddihy's tenacity and persistence won her the Group C race. oh ya i raced too , i fell while leading the Group C race, on the last lap , letting Suzy by for the win .


The last 4 races have been poor performances for me , im now in 6th place overall , with Jafo in 1st, Just Catteneo 2nd, Moto Ware 3rd, Silk Bamboo in 4th, and Suzy pasing me into 5th . Gonna have to sharpen up to keep up with this extraordinarliy talented and competitive field . Next race is 2 weeks at Mooz , time to step up or go home =p


Pic of Silk Bamboo giving me Reiki therapy saturday after the race, at her clinic. Thanks Silk needed that =)