Well, the first round of the 2010 AirAttack Rallycross Cup is in the books! It was a very competitive field starting with approximately 12 cars in the heat races. The B-main saw the number one car of Nillson clinching the final A-Main position, as well as becoming a definite favorite to win the final race.
The starting grid for the A-Main set up what would be an extremely competitive race as the number 7 car of Blixt lined up in the first position with the number 13 of [AA]Juha and the number 9 of [GRT]Gelin on his outside to form the front row. Behind them was another 3-wide row with the number 12 of Berglund taking the inside in 4th, with the number 11 of G.TammERC and the B-Main winner rounding out the field.
Nillson dominated the green light, shoving his way to the front to challenge Blixt for the lead as Berglund stayed right on his bumper for 3rd. The three-car battle for the lead continued onto the asphalt, and back onto the dirt as Blixt and Nillson went side-by side through turns 5, 6, and 7. Nillson would briefly win that battle before making contact and sending his car plowing into the tires. This caused significant suspension damage for Nillson and effectively ended his day.
After recovering from early contact, Berglund impressively ran down Blixt to challenge for the lead on lap 3. The two cars briefly made contact on approach to turn one on the final lap. This gave Berglund a very slight advantage before he sent his car slamming hard into the inside wall. Blixt attempted to take advantage of Berglund's mistake, but was hit by faster
traffic behind him. Blixt would remain unchallenged for the rest of the race, taking the checkered flag and the first win of the 2010 AirAttack Rallycross Cup.
This was my first time attending an AA event, and my first time commentating any event. Thanks to Yann (AKA Commentator1) for commentating with me. This event was well run, action packed, and very competitive. I can definitely recommend this cup to anyone looking for close action and great race-marshalls. Very nice job, AA!
Tomorrow before the race we will have a silent minute for a big Folkrace/Rally profile from Sweden who passed away today only 61 years old.
He was a big fan for me and a relative for Nilsson (From TTR). I hope everybody can respect him and he's relatives to take part in one minute silence tomorrow.
Hello racers!
I am (AW)88Amped for those of you who do not know. You may know me better as Commentator.1 in the 2010 AA Rallycross cup. I have to start by saying that I agreed to help in this event because I think it is a very unique and fair format. But no matter the quality of planning and organizing of any event, it is only as good as the quality and behavior of the participants. That being said, if you look at my post-race summary of Round 1, you will see that it was PHENOMENAL! The races were close, everyone had a great time, and we were all left looking forward to the next round. There were crashes, there were penalties, and there was even some unfair driving, but over all it was an excellent event, one of the best I have ever attended. Then came round 2.....and I dont think many of you would disagree that some of the behavior by some of the participants was absolutely sickening. After reviewing the replays, I counted at least 15 times where people had to be told to STOP TALKING DURING THE RACES!!! Not only is any chat distracting and unfair to drivers on the track, but the CONTENT of this chat was DISGUSTING! Some of you must have completely forgotten that this event was being streamed live, and you made complete idiots of yourselves! When you participate in an event like this, you are a GUEST in someone else's server, and should act that way. What we saw yesterday was complete disrespect.
Aside from the disrespectful chat, there were some racers arguing the rules. The solution here is simple....read the rules before signing up. If you don't like the rules, don't sign up, and go race somewhere else. Very simple, folks. Now, granted, there were some mistakes made by Gelin as far as the scoring/organization goes, but as usual he was able to correct these things, but not before being verbally raped by some of the people in the server. Do you have ANY idea how many things this guy is doing at once ON TOP of racing in the event at the same time? Again, he was shown COMPLETE disrespect, and that's not right any way you look at it, I don't care what your excuse is.
So, Gelin and I talked for a while after the race and here is what we decided.....but keep in mind this is still in the making so a few things may change before round 3.....
It is my belief that Gelin is taking on too much at once. On top of having to correct his own human error(s) in the middle of everything, he is also having to assign penalties, try to keep SOME level of order in chat, and deal with people acting like children. This will be no more. I will be taking over the judging of every race in terms of Crashing/Unfair Driving as well as chatting during the race, and abusive chat otherwise. Gelin will simply be scoring, organizing, and setting grids.
My policy of judging/assigning penalties will be VERY simple, so there should be NO confusion:
-Chatting under race conditions: This will not be tolerated AT ANY POINT BY ANY PARTICIPANT FOR ANY REASON. If you decide that something is important enough to say during a race, go ahead, but it will cost you one position per comment. If you are at the bottom of your grid already, then you will be officially eliminated and the next quickest driver will take your spot. -Abusive/Disrespectful chat: This will result in ONE warning. If that warning is ignored, you will be immediately removed from the server. We understand that mistakes will be made by the organizer from time to time. In this case, PLEASE bring it to our attention, but do it AFTER the race and in a respectful manner and everything will be solved in an organized fashion! -Dangerous Driving/Dive Bombing: We saw a lot of this in Round2. This was partly due to the track at hand, but mostly (in my opinion) due to Gelin trying his best to give warnings instead of penalizing drivers. From now on, it will be very simple. If you are seen being OBVIOUSLY overly aggressive, you will give up one position, AS WELL AS any position(s) gained by your aggressive driving. This means if you dive-bomb a corner, and damage 3 cars, your finishing position will be no better than the LAST of the 3 cars that you damaged. It is in your best interest to avoid contact as much as possible. There will be NO exceptions to this for any driver under any scenario. The only time warnings will be given will be when it is hard to tell if overly-aggressive driving was the reason for contact!! If this happens 3 times, the 3rd warning will be treated just like an aggressive driving penalty. Warnings will not carry over to the next race.
These rules will be enforced very strictly. I will try my best to be as fair as possible to all drivers at all times. However, I am sure that I will make a mistake or two. If this is the case, it is to be handled AFTER the race in the form of a protest. Any arguing/whining about judge's decisions during the event will be considered Abusive/Disrespectful chat and will be treated as such. One warning, then kicked.
We are 100% sure that these rules will make for a repeat of Round 1. Because of this, we are going to be allowing everyone who was banned to participate once again, with no grudges held. Everyone will be treated equally. Hope to see you at round 3! Stay tuned for Points Results from Round 2!
***Edit***
Gelin has reviewed this post, and made some very small changes. You can see the final changes on the main rules post in this thread.
Well Racers, Round 2 has passed by. First of all i want to make clear that you check page 1 for the added (updated) rules because the acting from some drivers where wery childish. However, the continuation of GRT's domination was looking to continue as they had a 1-2 position after the 1st lap of the A-Final. Gelin spun and Berglund lost out to Borgström who won Round 2, making the overall positions very close.
You say this, but what if you gave the positions back during the race, are you still doomed to last? To me that seems to lack common sense, but then again anything is better than what happened yesterday...well, almost
If you turn someone around, and stop to let him pass, you will get away from black-flag no matter how many positions he loose. (Pretends on HOW bad the crash is)
And about the black flag... Blixt deserved what he deserved after zillion of warnings which actually mean nothing in the race, especially when you start from 0 warnings in every new race. I was about to try clean racing, but after he striked again, I used his "technique" against him .
Also, when you restart one heat 5 times because of start failure of a few drivers or smth, you could do the same in a heat where you drive and someone join the track too late or fails on start .
And the last thing. Put the famous Swedish Folkrace in the official rules thread please.
Hello racers. Replay from the stream is now avaible on the link below. Dont mind all the arguing, it will not be like that at the next round, i promise.
Did you fail to read the updated rules? If you read them I think you will find that all of your concerns here were directly addressed and taken care of days before you posted this. Hope to see you in round 3.
Each driver has 2 minutes to come back after "Timed out" or anything like it. I did not forget/drop behind any driver during the race, i has happened once or twice, but not this time. And the Swedish Folkrace rules are over 200 pages, you really want them to be posted?
And about the dyving. It's not a problem IRL, is it? No it isnt, because there is something called "Bug/Lag". IRL The driver would not have recived even a warning, wich makes it difficult to judge. If you are a better judger then me or anyone else who judged, you are free to annouce yourself as a volantair.
Important news
------------------------------ I've got a flue. A really bad one. It's getting worse for each day now. I will go and see a doctor tomorrow, and get some medicin, because rignt now i'm almost killing myself. We will see how it will be on the sundays race. I could move it one week if i dont have the power to do it. Anyhow, 24h before the race i will post my desicion.