FSL season 2 Team profile - MAS/Archer Racing

Formed in May of 2007 , by Jafo Tendaze and Crippy Oh, to compete in Season 1 of FormulaSL, Archer racing is one of the older teams of this season's field. Coming in as the under dogs we managed to do well and capture the season 1 team title, and Jafo won the driver title.

Since forming Archer also began racing as a team in the SLASCAR series capturing many division titles in the last year. We have merged with our new sponsor MAS Racing , to form the MAS/Archer team, along with Holden Saunders racing the stocks with us , we hope to continue our winning streak in the upcoming summer season .

This season we added a 3rd driver for the first time , Yuriko Nishi for her driving skills and technical expertise. Yuriko owns YUNI bikes , and builds detailed choppers that drive very nicely also.
We feel Yuriko has been a great addition to the team, having cut her RaceSL teeth with a superb performance with OMG racing during MotoSL season 3. A bike person , she has already excelled behind the wheel of Les Whites Formula cars.

Our cars this season are the 2008 Longbow, built buy Jafo Tendaze and painted by VJ Shojo. Our main sponsor is MAS racing representing MetroLexus, Lexus of Las Vegas , and Lexus of Akron. Returning as a sponsor this season is Shiryu Musashi and Musashi-Do, also onboard are the gentlemans and music club ; Club Genesis and E.Watkins Equestrian.

As defending champions going into this season and the strong field of drivers out there , we know we have a target on us and hope we can come thru the season having fun and doing our best . At the time of this post we are leading the team championship point after 2 races.

This is the first in a series of posts , each featuring one of the many teams participating this season. More info can be found at http://www.racesl.com/.

Also in the news, Epic Studios will be filming race 4 at PSU , this will be edited to include voice over commentary by our own resident DJ/ Builder / painting expert , VJ Shojo. Advertising slots during the race are also available .

FormulaSL - Race 2 at PSU

This was one of the tougher races for Archer and myself personaly in a little bit , i managed to claw my way up onto the podium finishing in 3rd, but just by my fingernails.

I landed 5th on the grid after a nervous qualify where i didnt quite get the time i had been looking for , Yuriko qualed 3rd and Jafo an unprecedented Group C qualify . All the Jafo-heads out there are wondering, when will robot Jafo make a return and make a bid for a 3rd straight RaceSL season of domination.

Group D race was won by Caine Beresford, Group C with Jafo was taken convincingly by Just Catteneo , Jafo finished at record low for him...14th.

Yum Divisdero ran a great Group B race for a nice win and free passsge into the Group A race. Yum lead from lap 5 to lap 20 , putting the field further behind her every lap.

Last but not least , the group A race, with Ram Pharoah on Pole , Kandy Tommorow 2nd , Yuriko Nishi 3rd, Gros Manteau in 4th slot , myself 5th , and YumYum 6th on the grid .

Not alot of memories from the early part of the race, it wasnt my best , some tussling with other drivers, some contact ( which damages and slows the cars now on the newest car versions). I made a bid to move up in field , but after some bad breaks i was still in 5th , some more sliding on lap 4 and i politely let YumYum by and fell to 6th.

Running in 6th for 2 laps , i was back by Yum... after that i was just running as hard as i could to catch the field, Gros and Kandy were far up front racing a close 1 -2 race untill Kandy began to pull away lap 7.

Lap 14 Ramses musta had some problems, cause he fell way to the back of the pack, from 3rd to 6th , putting me into 4th , Yuriko had a slow 2nd pit and i was on her and by on lap 21. I was in 3rd and continuing to try to make ground on the front .

Fortunes had changed for Kandy and Gros , with Gros getting by on lap 18 and pulling away , at one time having a 7 second lead over Kandy , closest i got was 9 seconds at very end . Lap 24 on Kandy slowly made progress on Gros.

Gros musta had a bad slip on the grass lap 28 cause Kandy closed the gap to 1 second going into the last 2 laps , with Kandy passing Gros on last lap and winning it by .6 seconds , i held onto 3rd even though Yuriko caught me and came close to passing me a couple times.

Grats to Kandy and Gros , and Yuriko for her highest RaceSL finish , thanks to everyone that came out to support us , Jerry and Rayne , and we know Dolli Dreamscape and Vinnie Niangao are really closet Archer/Jafo fans hehe.

This race puts me into tie with Kandy for 1st place , with Ram in 3rd, Gros in 4th and Yuriko in 5th . Mas/Archer leads the teams , with KC Motorsports 2nd and IDK 3rd,

First Race of FormulaSL season #2

Finally after many long weeks and trials and testing , RaceSL founder Les White gave the go ahead for the season to begin and Round 1 be held at Mooz on April 19th . In classic RaceSL form , the track was a buzz with drivers practicing for the big race all week long .

It was a great turnout , 26 drivers joined the que to run in the qualify round for the day . Qualify as usual is a tense situation im telling you , lots of nerves waiting to see what group you will be racing in. I got some lag during my round , but managed 1 ok lap , enough to put me into 3rd at the moment , but there was still a ton of good drivers left to qualify.

Just Catteneo sent me down to 4th , with Jafo and Kandy Tommorow left over to run their round, only the top 5 qualify for group A , so im on the bubble . Kandy knocked me down to 5th , then Jafo grabbed the pole and sent me to Group B .

Some pics during qualify , Archer team , Kells Dragons , depo and Pure teams .

I still have a hope to get into Group A though , new rule this season is winner of each Group race advances to next race. YumYum won the Group D race and battled hard with her own teamie Dolli Dreamscape in the Group C race, but Yum hit heavy traffic and Dolli got away for the win.

Next was my race , Group B, lots of good drivers chasing me , Yamaha Harley beside me , Gros Decuir, Yuriko Nishi , Silk Bamboo and Dolli close behind . I was able to hold on barely and win a close one with Yamaha coming close to catching me after i ran into some traffic on last couple laps.

That puts me 6th on grid group A , with Just, Neko Carter, Kandy Tommorow , Ram Pharoah and Jafo on pole ahead of me . The next 30 laps was quite a ride , starting with big pile up at one of the first turns , the crush of cars veered to the outside to my right letting me thru on the left , next thing i know i see clear sky on straight to clubhouse with Jafo just in front of me.

There was many bouts with weird spikes and lag , but without that it was pretty smooth , i chased Jafo for a bit , untill some heavy lag took him wide out of the hairpin, letting me slip by into 1st . I led around untill i pitted , i htink i was first pitter im not sure, in and out , i was in 4th , one by one the cars leading me pit and im back in the lead.

This is the same exchange the next pit , around lap 26 i sail pass pits seeing Jafo in for fuel and tires, and im back in lead with 4 to go . But the traffic was heavy the last couple laps , next thing i know Ram Pharoah is right behind me and closing , i cant wait to see Silk Bamboos graphs on this one , cause the last several laps were a sprint , couldnt breath wrong, i could hear him right behind me which means close . But i was able to hold him off and take win , Ram grabbed 2nd, with Kandy 3rd, Jafo in 4th, Neko 5th and Just 6th .

On the podium for my 3rd win at Mooz ever , After the race , Jafo, Yuriko, me and our top sponsor Madsen Dreamscape of MAS Racing .
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Next week is Race #2 of the series at PSU Raceway, the quality of teams this season is very high , KC team of Kandy and Caine, IDK with Just and Gros, depo with Yum and Dolli, Count Bayliss' MoR Team is looking very strong , with Yamaha , Silk and Neko ,VJ Shojo's Macmost Team of Mango and Bigfoot.

Redline racing with Yetrates and Peldon. Abacus Ministrobell's Mach2 Team with Vinnie Niango and TFox Thomas, 2 englishmen both easily capable of making it to Group A on any given race, Kells Dragons with Xia , Revena , and Gordan Merriman . Not to Mention MAS/ Archer team Jafo, Yuriko and Crippy. Gonna make round 2 and onwards very interesting for sure .
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Archer would like to thank Les White, Avaya , MAS Racing , VJ Shojo for our great cars, Shiryu Musashi for the great uniforms, it was a very nice start to the new season .

Archer merges MAS Racing and some catching up..

Lately ive been busy busy in RL and SL , lots of stuff going on and not much free time , havent been posting as much as i would like to.

Ive been working as PR and Communications director for RaceSL , lots of talking and not enough deals landed, but always hopefull to find new people interested in RaceSL on any level .

Have been talking to SLCN some about broadcasting RaceSL , but for various reasons this has not quite worked out, always a chance in the future though .

Hoping to have Slodcast film our upcoming FormulaSL season 2 , one possibility is streaming it live to several places holding events for the broadcast, more news on this soon, gonna have raffles and races will be commentated, adding color and making it easier to follow, hehe its always nice to know whats going on . =p

Spring 2008 season of SLASCAR has come to a close , and i managed to defend my Super Stock title with another championship in that class. Jafo won the Baby Grand and Dirt Modified divisions , Quick Gazov took home Midnight Madness championship and Holden Sanders won Pure Stock division title . Grats to all racing , it was alot of fun and looking up with Havok 4 live now .

Next up for SLASCAR will be the big Summer season , and it is promising to be very competitive and close , Archer Racing (Jafo and me ) have signed on to race as part of the MAS racing team as the MAS/ Archer team in SLASCAR .

But even bigger news is tonite we finalized deal with MAS Racing as a major sponsor this season of FormulaSL for us. The team will also be called MAS/ Archer Racing , and we will be including 3 RL Lexus dealerships as part of our sponsor family, which already includes, Musashi-Do, Club Genesis and E.Watkins Equestrian.

Also been sailing my Beach Cat catamaran some when i find time , lots of fun . Went to the Dive Dive sim i read about in Dinee's blog, very pretty and cool. Penguins up 2 games vs Ottawa hehe . go Pens .

MotoSL 3 Awards ceremony

On Saturday March 22nd , RaceSL held the end of season awards ceremony for MotoSL season #3 to close off the successful season . Riders , sponsors and fans alike attended the event hosted by Les and Motorato at Hotgates.

The end tally for the season was ---

Rider Champion : Jafo Tendaze

2nd place: Just Catteneo

3rd: Crippy Oh

Team Champion : Pure Racing

2nd Place: OMG racing

3rd place : NSG

The league now continues to move towards the start of FormulaSL season 2 , still much testing to do to adjust the cars to Havok 4 .

Race #12 , MotoSL season 3 finale

Lot of nerves going into this one with team championship at stake. A long week of practice for many who put alot of time into getting ready for this one . 23 riders came to play .

Unfortunately the qualify round had some lag for many , most of it not serious lag , but even a little during qualify can dash someones hopes on the day .

I hadnt had more doubts about my chances in a race than this one in a long time , wasnt too confident i would make Group A. Just trying my best was my main concern at this time .
Some how that translated into me grabbing Pole Position in Group A from Caine Beresford by just .003 seconds.

The attendant crowd was treated to 3 good races for LCQ, Group C where YumYum took her 3rd straight win in that group. Group B where Doll Kabuki won big and made it 2 in a row for the depo team .

Group A consisted of me on pole , Caine 2nd, Just C., Jafo, Fox Tammas and Kandy Tommorow.
For me i can sum up my view of this race simply, the back of Just Catteneo's trousers.

After a crowded start where i fell at least to 4th place about half way thru track, i ended up crossing lap 1 in 2nd hot after Just in 1st , and thats how the whole race played out , me chasing Just , id gain , id lose, the last couple laps i fell back a little more , bust most of race i was less than a second behind him.

Just won, i got 2nd place, Caine 3rd. Kandy stalked Caine for a bunch of laps to grab 4th place, Fox Tammas finished 5th and Jafo had a bad wreck and came in 6th.

With it all said , Pure was able to get the Team Championship , even with the proverbial fighting us with one hand tied behind there back and hopping on one foot , due to lag , RL commitments ect... OMG still almost whooped us , it made for a exciting end of the season.

Now RaceSL moves towards final testing stages of FormulaSL season 2 , the rosters are filling up and the series will be run on the Havok 4 physics engine on all tracks .

Heres a link to video filmed by Ram Pharoah of group A race , filmed with camera on me whole race http://www.slodcast.com/media/fsl/motosl_12.html

A wedding and a superbike race

Not the typical saturday on SL for me , online at 9am SL time , into my leathers and off to Mooz to practice for 2 hours for the days big race. Back home at 10:45am and i changed into a dress to attend my friend Dinee's wedding at 11am .


The wedding was beautiful, Dinee looked amazing in her dress and DOC was very handsome. Both exchanged sweet words of affection while Crippy dabbed her eyes , it was very nice =) I hated to have to leave so quickly , but at 11:20 am it was back to home , out of dress and back into racing leathers, then off to Mooz for last minute warmups .

12am, MotoSL round 11 of 12 , Mooz grand prix---26 riders Qued today for what many thought was gonna be Pure's make or break race in trying to catch OMG for the team championship. Both teams fielding a full compliment of 3 riders each, Motorato Ware, Silk Bamboo and Yuriko Nishi for OMG, Ram Pharoah, Suzy Cuddihy and Crippy Oh for Pure.

Qualifying....Once again the auto-matic Querer chose me to run the first round after the rookie Que was finished. Unfortunately after a little bit of tussling , a fall and other difficulties made this a nerved fill qualify for me, but somehow i got around well enough to get a 23.3 , suprising me quite a bit hehe, amd sticking me in Pole position.

Untill it was time for Moto Ware, Jafo Tendaze and Just Catteneo to run as a group in one of last qualify rounds. Jafo registered a 23.2 his first lap and stuck me at number 2 on the grid where i would stay ....because of the first turn quick Chicane (a small S turn) , spot #2 , 4 and 6 i dreaded cause of ther possibly dangerous approach to apex of chicane, collisions there happened in every race.

A couple good early races , highlights being Yum Divesadero's strong win in group C, and Suzy Cuddihy's (possibly) do or die win in the group B race. Then onto the grid rolled the Group A in order of qualify, Jafo, Crippy, Kandy, Caine, Just and Silk.



Soon Les activated the start gate and we were off , flying thru gears straight at the narrow Chicane, Jafo was thru quick ahead of me , but was hit from behind and lost some time coming out of chicane , allowing me to dodge ahead into the lead, and i led the first lap around. But i was in for not such a good lap , smacking into the chicane fence, Jafo is by me , i then hit the Hairpin turn fence on the same lap , 2 more bikes fly by me , suddenly im in 4th place.
Around after Caine , i chased him, trying my best to look for a clean pass and not force anything dangerous, for 4 laps i stalked him untill he took a corner too shallow and wiped out on the grass, im into 3rd.

The next lap i was on Silk who was in 2nd , but i took a risk and got run off into grass, was quickly able to recover and was off after Silk , chasing her , till i got by her near the pits , i was a bit wide and slow , while Silk was low and fast, her wheel clipped mine sending me onto the rough pit surface and sending me tumbling, Just Catteneo zoom by us both , sticking me back into 4th .

Another lap around and Silk had some trouble negotiating the chicane , slowing her enough for me to catch up, we took the same line, unfortunately i took it faster, my front tire hitting Silks and sending her into the grass as i moved by into 3rd again , on lap 13.

Around i went , lap 14 then last lap 15, suddenly coming thru the Chicane i see Just Catteneo is down , im passed him and into 2nd , but Just is back on his bike and fast after me , i cut the hairpin turn too tight and woulda hit fence if i didnt steer wide and lose momentum going into final straight, Just hit the hairpin dead on , the final straight was a drag race, with Just gaining every meter....but my wheel crossed the line first by .062 of a second and i grabbed 2nd place for the day , Jafo with his 5th win , no suprise as he is arguably steadiest racer at Mooz. Just in 3rd, Silk 4th, Caine 5th and Kandy 6th .

Pure gained 10 points in the championship total , narrowing OMG's lead to just 12 points, with 1 more race to go . I wish OMG was gonna field a full field of 3 , to make the final race a true showdown , but unfortunately Silk wont be able to make the race, leaving Moto and Yuriko still a better than decent chance of holding us off at race 12 at PSU 2.