Motorbikes and mini-cars

Season 4 of MotoSL gearing up for action .......

Its the time of season for the next round of MotoSL . Les White's brand new superbikes are just about ready . Rider and team registrations will begin September 1st. Currently we are running a Pre-season to test the bikes and tracks, and to let new riders join and get acclamated.

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Info for the new season is being posted at http://racesl.com/, already a few new comers have shown promise and everyone is looking forward to another exciting 12 race season .

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Anyone interested in what is often a exhilirating experience... yes you heard right ... forget the bad experiences youve had driving most vehicles in SL , these ones are actualy alot of fun, and complicated and innovative enough for the die hards..... come by Mooz or PSU CS199 and try out the new bikes.

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This coming saturday August 31st is the 2nd Test/Pre-season race. Jafo T. Ram Pharoah and Yuriko Nishi finishing in the top 3 last weekend at the first test race.

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Small scale racing at Aybabtu

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Also catching my fancy lately is the fun and innovative racing at the Aybabtu sim. Instead of trying to introduce a new full sized car racing league. Aybabtu Aabye has decided to scale down the vehicles 1/2, allowing for a larger track .

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So far this has been quite fun , and first time this blogger has really had interest perked by a SL racing league since the first time I TPed into Mooz

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Here is overhead comparison of my FormulaSL car and to the right a Proto-type body built at Ayb's scale by Sulla Looming. Yes racers actualy ride in these small cars, the pose folds up your body and a invisibility prim hides you . The ride is very smooth and is one of the easier forms of racing in SL to pick up quickly.

FormulaSL awards ceremony

Today was the awards ceremony for end of FormulaSL season 2. A nice event hosted by Motorato at her Hot Spot sim. Plaques, trophies and money were handed out to the top 10 drivers and top 3 teams . http://www.bikersites.com/SL/raceSL/ for the full stats of the season .

Thanks to Les, Moto, Rayne , Jerry and MAS racing , VJ Shojo, Shiryu Musashi, Isolone Torok and and all of Archer's supporters this season .

Grats to all drivers and teams, this season was alot of fun and looking forward to MotoSL season 4, which has officialy entered the testing phase with alot of interest. This season of bikes will have a new model, Les White's Wrath 10R , replacing the venerable Hawk 10R . A new track layout , with most likely more to come also .

I also will be blogging soon about Aybabtu Aabye's new racing league . Besides RaceSL this is the most creative builder and league ive seen in SL so far , its been alot of fun , im gonna miss the season opener on Sunday 8/17 , but hope to not miss any after that .

FormulaSL season 2 Finale at Snowpeach

MAS/Archer captures 2nd straight Team and Driver titles

Crippy Oh hangs on by slim margin to win Driver championship

FormulaSL season 2 , completes its course after many dramatic and exciting moments over the course of the 12 race season . Controversy , heartbreak and close competition all found in the 11 races preceding the finale.

If it had been a rocky road to this point , the final race promised to not disapoint . After the smoke of 11 races cleared, Jafo Tendaze sat on the verge of a amazing comeback in a attempt to defend his FormulaSL title and win his 3rd straight RaceSL Driver/Rider title.

Crippy Oh was in 1st place by just 7 points , the score at 208 to 201. Week 3 Crippy fell to 2nd after Kandy Tommorow took a big win , but had retained 1st place since. Jafo sat willing, able and determined to spoil that streak in the final race.

Only 1 week seperated races 11 and 12, so Snowpeach saw a flurry of practicing and preparing all week long . Setups were fined tuned, tire and pitstop strategies tweaked , tested and reworked .

Drivers braved often pitifull SL lag to try to hone their driving lines , to commit the track to memory and repetition , knowing mistakes are made in a split second, drivers must practice for many hours to be prepared for as much of the unexpectated as possible.

The first drivers slide into their cockpits in preparation for their qualify laps , officialy starting the final event of the season . Annie Gufler captured her 5th straight pole position , I managed to turn the 2nd fastest lap , Jafo did not qualify as strongly as some might have thought , taking the 3rd spot by just .001 over Yuriko Nishi in 4th , with Dolli Dreamscape being 5th qualifier for the Group 1 race.

The 20 lap group 3 race was dominated by Racers Island driver Brave Ashbourne , Rattra Raymaker 2nd , upcoming new driver Molly Fitzgerald 3rd, and the Kells Dragon team finishing out the field and grabbing up the last points spots , grats to Xia and Ravena .

Group 2 is 25 laps long and determines who gets 6th spot for group 1. This time around Yum Divisadero didnt wait around to tangle with Neko Carter , dominating the race even after falling to 4th after pitstops , she cruised to the win . Neko 2nd and Suzy Cuddihy 3rd. Yum moves up to Group 1.

Group 1 race, 30 laps . I was able to jump in front of Annie and lead field to the first hairpin, but after about half the lap , Annie jumped ahead and i fell to 2nd . I was there for 3 laps till a incident sent me back to 5th place in one fell swoop . Danger Will Robinson , there was many outcomes that would give Jafo the points he needed . Jafo 2nd and me 5th was deffinately one of them .

Combos that Jafo needed to win were, 1st and me 3rd.... 2nd and me 4th ect... a very slim margin with the leagues point system . Lap 7 and I was able to get by a surging Dolli Dreamscape and Yuriko Nishi, back into 3rd. Lap 9 Jafo took the lead from Annie , i passed into 2nd place again , untill Annie sent me back to 3rd.

A collision lap 19 sent Jafo all the way back to 3rd, I was in 2nd again , untill Jafo got by me lap 26. For 11 laps during the race , if it had been the final lap , Jafo would have made a truly great comeback run , but for 19 laps , including the final lap , I was able to be in position to stave that off.

In the end Annie won her 3rd straight race, Jafo 2nd , myself 3rd, only losing 4 points to Jafo I finished the season with 224 points , Jafo 221. A very close finish between 2 good competitors who , I certainly can say for myself , truly admire the other as being a top racer across SL .

Neko Carter got 3rd place overall, being from Switzerland i think all can agree was quite a feat, including a win at PSU during the season, Ram Pharoah another European driver came in 4th and had a couple podiums, Annie Gufler 5th , Yuriko Nishi , who has been a great addition to the Archer family 6th . YumYum D. a very respectable 7th , considering her very limited time to prepare for each race , she did great including a podium finish at Mooz.

Started April 19th , 2008 at Mooz , lasting nearly 4 full months , FormulaSL season 2 has concluded, the league now turns towards the return of the venerated Superbike series with MotoSL season 4. Testing has begun, sign ups will be announced when ready http://racesl.com/

Round 11 at PSU Canyon

Sunday August 3rd, Round #11 of 12 FormulaSL season #2. This week we headed back to the newest track on the circuit , the canyon track at PSU .18 drivers qued up after a hour delay due to unforseen circumstances, attendance had slimmed some since the start of the season where we had 25 strong each race, but even 18 is a impressive number for a a SL racing event.

Annie Gufler grabbed her 4th straight pole position , with Archer's own Yuriko Nishi 2nd, Silk Bamboo putting in a great qualify for 3rd, Jafo 4th , and Caz Freschi 5th for the Group 1 race.
I ran cold in the round and only managed to get 7th in qualify , landing me in Group 2 for 3rd time this season . Group 4 proved practice pays as rookie driver Molly Fitzgerald ran a strong race winning wire to wire and advancing on to the Group 3 race.

Molly again ran strong early in race before her car was lost in a bad wreck, Yum Divesadero ran this one wire to wire for a deserved win, strong performances from Brave Ashbourne who got 2nd and Dolli Dreamscape who got 3rd.

On to the Group 2 race, basicly my championship bid this season is riding on this race, and i was able to find a zone and run as strong as i could , leading the 25 lap race wire to wire , giving me the 6th spot in the Group 1 race i needed badly.

Neko Carter beat YumYum at the finish line by .01 seconds to grab 2nd , Yum 3rd, Sulla Looming, who was able to make her first FSL race, after so much promise in the pre-season had been ended by new RL work schedule, finished 4th ( or 9th overall) in her FSL debut, FOX Tammas 5th and Suzy Cudihy 6th .

Group 1 race , sitting in the back of the pack, 2 Archer cars in front of me , Jafo directly and Yuriko 2 rows up . The first major turn on this track is a hard left thru a enclosed tunnel , so as the lights went out i held back some letting the pack thru , but searching for a hole , lap 2 i found a little one , jumping ahead of Caz into 5th , but a slip and he was by me and again i was trailing the field in 6th .

5 laps passed i chased 5th place Caz and 4th place Silk as close as i could , but there was no mistakes to exploit , by lap 6 Annie led the field , with Yuriko in 2nd , and Jafo 3rd.
Finaly lap 7 Caz blinked and slipped a bit on the dirt and i was by him into 5th . Lap 12 Silk finaly had a bad moment giving me the chance to jump into 4th , the rest of the field had remained the same before the 1st pit stop, Annie , Yuriko then Jafo.

Laps 14 and 15 the field makes their pits , Yuriko's pit crew make both crucial tire and fueling mistakes costing her a deserved spot on the podium, but it was a mistake that allowed me to get by before she recovered, and sneak into 3rd place. Jafo led for 1 lap as Annie pitted , but his car stalled hard, although i dont remember passing him , next thing i know , lap 17 of 30 and im in 2nd place.

Lap after lap im suprised everytime i see it say my name in 2nd place, i never saw Annie's gate spam , but next thing i know , after a couple mediocre laps , lap 23 and i see Jafo's gate spam in 3rd just 2 seconds behind me . Twice Jafo surged within passing distance on laps 24 and lap 28, but twice he fell back .

Annie took her 2nd straight win , Crippy 2nd, Jafo 3rd, Yuriko 4th, just off podium for 3rd time . Caz got 5th in his first Group 1 appearance and Silk Bamboo 6th .

2nd place in this race to Jafo's 3rd gives me +4 points , bringing the duel for the League championship down to the last race of the season with the points score at Crippy 208 , Jafo 201. Anything can happen in FSL so no one will be counting any chickens till the cork pops on the final race of this season.

FSL Race #10 Mooz Super-Speedway

This post is a little late considering the race was ran a week ago on July 19th , but i figured better late than never.

This round we were back at Mooz, but this time for the dreaded Speedway layout . The fast outside ring track at Mooz. Basicly this amounts to 6 cars going 300 kph around a quarter mile semi oval. With a small bridge span thats tight quarters on exit with a hard left towards the finish line. All the ingredients for a disaster ...and round 10 did not disappoint.

I broke a small streak of not so good qualifies with 2nd on grid this day, with Annie Gufler grabbing her 3rd straight pole . Jafo 3rd, Silk Bamboo grabbing a impressive 4th and Dolli Dreamscape with her 3rd Group A appearance in 5th.

The cleanest races of the day were the Group D and C races with Just Catteneo taking the Group D and challenging a hard charging Neko Carter in Group C , but Neko held on for the win. Group B was the kinda race you watch with your hands over your eyes, with a dramatic finish of Ram Pharoah leading the race and crashing on the final lap, Yum Divisadero got by for the win and transfer to Group A.

Group A ...uhh what can i say , lots of traffic for me in this one , the first couple laps were tight with me right on Annie , but at some point i encountered heavy traffic and struggled to keep my car on the course. Meanwhile Annie raced a superb race to capture her first victory, with Jafo in 2nd and Yum Divisadero taking her and her teams first podium of the season in 3rd, i managed 4th as my podium drought continues. Dolli 5th and Silk 6th .

The season is coming down to the wire with just 2 races remaining , I still lead as i have all season, with Jafo just 3 points behind me . The next round takes us back to PSU canyon track , stay tuned , the finish of this season is promising to be drama (exciting drama im refering to.. not the waste of time drama ) =)

Race #9 SLBloggers Grand Prix at Canyon track

The race weekend started out at Fairgrounds on friday , for my 2nd race of season this time in Late Models on the big oval . This time I actualy did ok , qualifying at back of pack , but getting up front after some laps to battle for 2nd with Jafo , with Greg Drayman running away with race.

Some iffy driving and i shuffled back to 3rd where i finished , with Greg in 1st and Jafo in 2nd. The 40 lap race had no red flags and was a great one overall .

Next up was Race #9 at the new Canyon track at PSU , sponsored by SLBloggers. This one promised to be tough from the get go , as practice times from many drivers all week had been very close .

Qualify was the usual nail biter, some people got lag , that hampered their efforts . I got 5 clean laps , but failed to score a superb lap . In the end Annie Gufler took her 2nd straight pole position . Ram Pharoah 2nd, Neko Carter 3rd , Jafo 4th , Silk Bamboo 5th, and myself in unlucky 6th for 3rd time , putting me on pole position for Group 2 race.

Caz Freschi ran away with the Group 4 race , but nothing prepared the drivers and spectators for the carnage to come in Group 3 race. From the get go the field drove in tight formation, banging and rubbing paint around several laps .

Rattra Raymaker was forced into his backup car after his starter was destroyed in a wreck. Early leader Suzy Cuddihy also lost a car on lap 8 . Caz led for 7 straight laps before being passed by Abacus Mimistrobel , only to pass him again on last lap for the win . Caz advanced again to Group 2 race.

Group 2 race, i just knew i had to win this to get into the Group 1 , so i lowered my head and just tried to drive right, i had fewer slips overall in the 25 lap race than i did in the 5 lap qualify round . I got the win , Yuriko Nishi had been right on my tail for the first 13 laps , fell back some , but finished 2nd , YumYum 3rd, Caz nabbed 4th , Brave Ashbourne 5th and TFFox Thomas 6th .

I made it to Group 1 race, only 5 good drivers in front of me....it wasnt promising for me , but I was happy to make it that far. Off we went , first majot turn on track is the hard left thru the tunnel , I let everyone else charge thru first and it paid off somewhat , I was in 4th after lap 1 , where I would remain most of race. The early part of race was Neko in 1st , Annie chasing him close in 2nd , Ram in 3rd.

Lap 6 I passed Ram, but Jafo passed me , then finally passed Annie lap 11. Neko led wire to wire for a great win . Jafo 2nd , Annie got her 2nd straight podium in 3rd, Crippy 4th, Ram 5th, Silk 6th .

I still lead Jafo in drivers championship by 10 points with 3 races to go , next one being in 1 week at Snowpeach. Grats to Neko for a great win today.

EMH Grand Prix at Mooz

Jafo Tendaze takes 3rd straight FormulaSL win

Saturday was race #8 of the FormulaSL season , taking place at Mooz on the classic layout, sponsored by Frageurs Hock and LUCA of EMH motors. This go around we had the smallest turn out so far of season with 20 drivers signing on to compete in the race.

Qualify round for me was even more nerve wracking than usual , with a thunderstorm starting to brew in my area, i could hear the thunder getting louder as i waited for my turn. I qualified in the last group of the day , and didnt run such a good round , i slipped on the grass my best lap , only good enough to get me 4th on the grid, with rookie sensation Annie Gufler grabbing the pole , Jafo 2nd , Ramesses 3rd, me 4th and Yuriko got 5th for 3rd straight 3 Archer cars in Group 1 race.

There were several good lower group races, with Just Catteneo shining above the rest , winning the Group 3 and Group 2 races to get into the A race. Brad Lytton won the Group 4 race decisively, but only managed 5th in the Group 3 race.

Group 1 race promised to be a good one , i just didnt know not for me. The light went green and the field was off, that is where my problems began , another car went wide heading into turn 1 sending me into wall and my hopes of a win with it .

I recovered and chased the field in 5th place, where i settled for a bit, closely chasing Just C. for 6 laps , with Yuriko in 3rd, Annie in 2nd and Jafo leading the field . Lap 7, Annie and Yuriko came together in the turn after pits , allowing me and Just to slip by , suddenly i was in 3rd, chasing Just who was in 2nd .

For 12 more laps i chased Just , who was intent on a huge day at the track . But the strain of racing 3 races was showing on him and his car and i was able to get by him into 2nd on lap 21.
Just's car completely stalled lap 25 and he could only manage 4th place.

For the rest of the race i ran mostly on clean track, 9 laps trying to gain ground on Jafo, i got up to minus 10.8 seconds distance but was too much , eventualy i dropped back more and Jafo won wire to wire for 3rd straight, i got my 3rd straight 2nd place, Annie got 3rd for her 1st podium in her 2nd FSL race. Just 4th , Ram 5th and Yuriko 6th after having a hard time during 2nd half of race.

Jafo narrows the gap on my lead, leaving me with 17 points ahead in the drivers championship, with 4 races remaining . Ram Pharoah is in 3rd, Neko Carter in 4th and Just Catteneo in 5th . Race #9 is in 2 weeks at the brand new canyon track . A new track that Les has built and set on the PSU sim , its a fast track and alot of drivers have been posting very fast times in early practice, its starting to look like this next race might have the closest qualify session of the season .