Pit Pass

Well we where all there but some major connection problems led to the event being canned and rescheduled for next thursday (unless anyone can do Monday????). Gazmick couldnt get on and Clarksy had major lag problems which required him to rewire his house just to hardwire his xbox up.

The cup started with two races but shortly ended after Clarksy’s lag problems ended both of his races prematurley. Shame really as Orbittman was back in form notching the first win at Diamond back and then normal sevice as Gibbon scored the win at Leguna Seca, which I have to say was a winner with the minis.

So after a million game invites to gaz and some headset issues we all decided to just have practice at none other than the Nurbugring which involved several accidents and Tim Hanns Orbittman blitzing the field and a brotherly tustle and Gibboon, Fili and Tommy ice skating on around the track to the beautifal sound track of crash bang whoops there goes my bumper.

Gutted! - But we all have more knowledge of Aurora’s challenge. I personally blame it on the snake, and Gaz’s pink mini.

I have been trying to convince my wife that she should join in a “ladies” race but she is resisting. In an attempt to lure her in, I painted up a car for her knowing that if it looked right she would find it harder to resist. By “right” I mean “pink”, obviously!

Anyway, last night I thought I would take it out for a spin and get a little dust on it. I think I might use it at the next event as I have a feeling driving a pink car will force me to put some distance between me and the rest of the pack!

If you want to keep up to date with what is happening in the league you can now sign up and get email updates from our pit pass section.

The sign up box should be on the right of all pages just look for the email updates heading.

11/2/09 - Last night we added the abillity to view the event schedule for a forthcoming race. If you look on the next event panel on the left when browsing the site there should be a view event details link which will tell you what tracks and number of laps will be run.

Last Week Sometime - Added season overview, event finishing positions and race results with a little stupid podium thing which just breaks up the boring table format etc.

What else is coming - Some funky stuff is being done just to make it easier to find the info. I do plan to redesign the site when I get time.

This week’s event configured by Filibuster

Photo one shows Keith and Tommy demonstrating their undeniable spectacular levitation skills.

Next we see all seven entrants showing how to take a hairpin cleanly. Yeah, right!

And here is another shot of the same hairpin a few moments later, not for any particular reason other than I had this photo to hand!

Technical issues hit the start of the Decisive Moment Cup last night, preventing our first full grid. We still managed to squeeze seven Minis onto the grid and into the first corner, although getting seven Minis out of the other side proved a little harder to achieve!

Our two new drivers, “Tommy” and “Gibbon” proved to be formidable opponents, stealing much of the silverware away from the established entrants. Previous season leader “OrbitMan” was not on his usual form and slipped down the scoreboard.

Most drivers appeared to agree that the eight races at this event was a little too much and we will probably restrict the event to six in future.

Congratulations to Kevin “Gibbon” on whitewashing the series in just one event!

Event Results

We have set up our own points scheme with the intention of making the racing as close as possible. The points gap between finishing positions is quite small and points are allocated from the bottom of the table instead of the top.

Points are essentially relative to the number of drivers you finish in front of, the idea being that winning a race against seven drivers is more meaningful and valuable than winning a race against two drivers.

So for example, in a race with five entrants, points would be allocated from 4th - 8th from the table above. Only time will tell whether this will make the season competitive, but we can improve the scheme with feedback from the next few races.

After a few months of putting it all together, we finally managed to hold the first points scoring event. The pressure proved a little too much at times for the “senior” element of the field and the black and gold paint was traded once again.

The racing was generally very close, although on several occasions it was a little too close and a number of drivers had to limp to the finish line. At this point we are considering turning the damage setting down to “cosmetic” to see whether it improves or spoils the racing.

One common complaint of racing these Minis is that there is no constant rear-view mirror available. During the event, drivers began calling out their position when attempting to overtake. Although my initial reaction was that it might seem one driver was telling another that they expected them to get out of the way, this did not seem to be the case. It actually lead to closer racing, some interesting overtaking (and re-taking) manoeuvres, less accidents and more fun.

Congratulations to Tim who came out at the top of the leader board.

The next event is on Thursday 5th February at 21:30. It’s a (tentatively) full race card with seven sprints and one feature, but this is subject to confirmation at the time of writing. We have a new entrant, “TommyGunn2000“, expected to join us for this event, so things could get even messier!

The Decisive Moment Race Off - 5th February 2009