Hi everybody!

The AirAttack crew announces 2nd season of its FBM Racing Series and invites all decent people looking for some good and fair racing for fun with nice chatting before/after the event! 1st season took place only in demo configuration (that is on BL1) with one race a week for 45 laps (about one hour). Based on experience gained in organising the races the new season will bring many changes as they are summarised below:

1) Major change is moving to at least S1 tracks. If everyone seriously interested owns S2 licence, then of course also S2 tracks will be used - this will be decided on after 3rd race and some discussion.

2) There will not be one long race, but two shorter races. The two races will double the chance of some nice result for everybody. a) Each race would be run for 30 minutes plus one lap with short refreshment breaks after qualification end and 1st race end. b) First race starts in qualification order, the second in reverse order of the 1st race. c) One pitstop required in each race, probably with obligatory tyres change.

3) Dynamic point system will be used. Points given to winner will depend on the number of starting racers, spanning from 10 to 25. The meaning is to differentiate between finishing 1st (or 2nd, etc.) in a race with 6 people and in a race with 16 people. Also only certain number of total races with best results will be counted (say 12 of 16). This means players may safely miss some events without losing points/positions.

4) One car reset in each race will be allowed but for a penalty - stop and go plus 30 seconds. The intention here is to let everyone finish even when he/she topples his/her car or burns the clutch. The penalties will be given in sequence (first SG and then 30 seconds) automatically by the Airio tracker. This InSim application also takes care of 30 minutes + 1 lap race format, among lots of other things. To see it in action visit www.airattack.co.uk#1, www.airattack.co.uk#2 or [AA] AirAttack Racing servers.

So, these were the changes and basic not-so-common race format rules. Other rules concerning general behavior are ready and will be posted later, but nothing unexpected there. Anyway, your comments are welcome.

If you are interested and want to check the racing conditions and possibilities live, join a test race, last one before the season starts. This race takes place on the [AA] AirAttack Racing LFS server on Thursday, September 4th, 21:00 UK time (that is 20:00 UTC, I believe, 22:00 CET...). Done on FE2 with FBM it will be a bit shorter (2 x 20 minutes), but otherwise all the above mentioned rules apply. Note that car reset will be allowed and that server may not appear in list if the apropriate option is turned off.

That's about all concerning this announcing message and test race invitation. Other things like detailed rules, points and tracks will follow in several days. Also a system for signing up to race is being delevoped; test race is open for everybody who can join. And as already mentioned, your comments are welcome.

Catch you soon on track!

I´d like to say YAY for that...1st season was great fun, cant wait for 2nd

As promised, here we have a "short" summary of the race rules:

A) Qualification

1) You can pit (Shift+P) as much as you want. Your best time stays valid even after pitting or spectating (Shift+S) and later rejoining (Shift+J), do not worry.

2) You can use any setup you want, it may be different from the race setup. You can have any amount of fuel (car weight) and tyre types you want. Most of these things cannot be checked anyway so it is better to leave them open.

3) Don't forget to join (Shift+J) the race before restart. Otherwise your qualification position will be lost and you will start from the back of the pack.

B) Race

1) You should drive and try to finish the race as long as your car is moveable. Do not leave the race just because your are one (or more) laps behind the leader or spinning constantly due to hot tyres. Press F12 (instructions to pit crew, you can also turn on/off repairs there), set required tyre types and drive to pits for exchange. Then continue in the race whatever your position.

2) You cannot use direct pitting during the race (that means no Shift+P). If your car is broken after an accident, try to drive slowly and safely to the pit positions for repairs. The other option is to use car reset and then carry out the S+G penalty in the same lap (!) with 30 seconds penalty following.

3) If you have used car reset already and your car is once more unmoveable (upside down, locked in gravel, with burned clutch), your only option is to spectate (Shift+S) and clear the track. You should spectate to the end of the race then. While spectating don't chat as it disturbs the remaining players.

4) Evade dangerous manouvers, drive fair. Judge for yourself whether it wouldn't be wise to let obviously faster players overtake you without much struggling. You are not forced by these rules to let them overtake you (unless you have blue flag, naturally!) but direct blocking or moving left and right is of course out of the question. You can however, if you decide so, keep the ideal line for yourself.

5) During a pit stop you must change all your tyres. This rule is here to prevent absurd stops with no work done. To be sure the tyres are changed, set Always as tyre wear level in car settings or F12 menu.

C) Finish

1) All players that complete at least 90 percent of the race laps will be treated as finished and can get points for their final position even though the game reports them as DNF.

2) Players with less laps will be disqualified and not included in final results, even though the game may have reported them as finished.

3) After the event race statistics will be published and results confirmed, points calculated. It is not possible to do this between the two races though.

D) General

1) If you say you will race and are added to the list, make every effort to be there at the right time.

2) If you are not on the list of participants, try to connect anyway and see if there's a free spot. But make no obstructions if the race is full already. You may very well spectate the whole race, because there are more slots available for this. Don't chat with others during the race though.

3) We are not lawyers here, so do not try to misuse the rules to your advantage. This is about their meaning and not exact words used. We drive for fun and enjoyment and the rules only set basic framework for that.

4) The race organiser has the right to do some corrective actions under special circumstances. He/she can for example decide to restart the race if something went wrong in the race starting stages (lap 1).

5) If you don't adhere to the above rules or behave otherwise in an unacceptable manner, you will be excluded from the next or all upcoming enduro events. But I don't expect anyone taking part regularly will have problems with this point. It is here just to close the rules nicely.

Great to have another series to race in =). Unfortunately, I'll probably miss the first few races cuz I'm moving on the 31st and I'm ordering a new laptop that will get there around the 11th, plus I'm not shipping up my wheel right away. But I look forward to getting in the running asap.

Hey guys, I'd like to take part in this, however I wont be able to make the practice on
September 4th (my birthday)...........I'm in California at the moment anyway and I will only be back on the 9th

See you soon!

Sounds great! I would definitely like to take part!

Looking forward for the next Thursdays practice run .

WOW Cool Stuff Worry and thanks for all the Work.

I've got work scheduled for the 4th but I'm looking forward to getting into some of these races for sure.

3rd

Thanks people for all your responses. I see it is good to have one more test race - next week everyone will be ready.

I've been thinking about the points table - I already mentioned a sort of "dynamic" system will be used. I was looking for a system that could also be used on AirAttack demo servers for a sort of short-, mid- and long-run championship. It must meet the following criteria:

1) Points for the winner should depend on the number of participants.

2) It should support points for more than 8 first places.

3) The points for places must be progressive - the higher the position the higher the point difference.

Well, in the end I used a formula taking as input number of starting people and position in finish. Here's how the table looks like:

(the table was replaced, see below)

1) Winner gets (num_people * 15) points but maximum is 180.

2) Last to finish (if all starting really make it to the finish) gets 10 points (if not worse than 12th).

3) Other places get points according to the calculation, e.g. 67 points for 4th place in a race with 8 people on the start.

I know this system may not be as transparent as 10 - 8 - 6... one, but I believe it is much better. The high numbers (hundreds) are used to keep precision while evading decimal numbers.

Well, take a look, compare the numbers, write what is good/wrong, it is after all (for now) just a suggestion. It would be e.g. no problem to give points to 16 racers etc...

See you on the test race, everyone is welcome, give it a try!

Oh, a little note. Feel absolutely free to invite other people that may be interested in the one test race or in the series!

The track is already prepared on [AA] AirAttack Racing for practicing. It is best to use the server name for direct connect because car reset is allowed...

@ Silver : Great to hear from you again! And thanks for good-luck wishes. I hope to see you back fully online soon. :-)

@ everyone :

The test race proved to be quite interesting despite the fact that only 5 people qualified and just 4 did the two races (with the remaining one losing Internet connection completely at the worst possible moment).

FE2 is a tricky track with several spots where one can go fast (chicanes, turns) but also crash heavily. I think we all had major troubles and so the car reset feature with two consecutive penalties was checked and proved several times to be working correctly.

Race 1 results: Mosseman, Martini, EQWorry, (JakBot DNF)
Race 2 results: EQWorry, JakBot, Martini, Mosseman

With the final points table (giving 40 - 23 -13 - 6 points in this case) it means the following overall results:

1. EQWorry (13+40) = 53
2. Mosseman (40+6) = 46
3. Martini (23+13) = 36
4. JakBot (0+23) = 23

Mentioning the points table... I was never quite happy with the previous one. The new one (which I call final) is appended. You may notice the relatively simple formula used yet giving nice progression - points difference between top places is much higher than between the bottom ones, victory is most certainly worth fighting for from 2nd place, it may mean +30 points.

I missed only one thing there, more people to race with. I hope you all finish your movements/arrangements soon and join us. The season starts Thursday, September 11th, 2008, 21:00 UK time (that is 20:00 UTC) on [AA] AirAttack Racing server. Use the name to connect, it is the safest way. The track: BL1R, but this is still open to suggestions...

If you feel like trying it out, browse to http://racingteam.aa24.net/, click on Events, then FBM Racing banner and sign up for the race. This is not absolute necessity though, but it will be nice of you to give me an idea...

Sounds wonderful!

Is it possible to set the server to practice mode say, hour or two before the race? Granted I could practice in SP, but it's so lonely :weeping:.

Looking forward for the season, keep up the good work Worry!

Yes, the track will be ready there, probably all Thursday, at the latest in the afteroon... Everyone is welcome to drop by, do a few laps, later join the race...

I hope I can make it, after talking to you Worry mate, I twisted my back and have been laid up for 2 days in bed. Better today but not racing fit .

If i'm ok tommorow SEE YA THERE !!

Yeah, Trix, that usually happens to people that talk to me...

Get back into shape in time! Please...

Thanks everyone for comming to the 1st event of new season! Eight people on start of both races is not bad, for the next week it would be nice to have 12... Everyone please note that it is not yet too late to join the season, because some of the events where you get the least points will not count - it means you can safely miss some evenings.

Detailed race statistics are online now. You can browse to http://racingteam.aa24.net page (official AA team site), click on Events, then on the Racing Series banner and finally on Statistics link. If you cannot be bothered with all that clicking, jump directly to http://racingteam.aa24.net/eve ... /fbm2/aa_frs_02_01ar.html and http://racingteam.aa24.net/eve ... /fbm2/aa_frs_02_01br.html...

Somewhere around the FBM event pages there'll be current points table - JoRuss is currentky working on that, big thanks to him for this and for preparing the whole AA site as well. I'll here just summarize current points:

1. Woozy (1st + 1st) -> 80 + 80 = 160
2. Martini (3rd + 3rd) -> 40 + 40 = 80
3. Mosseman (5th + 2nd) -> 21 + 55 = 76
4. JakBot (2nd + 6th) -> 55 + 15 = 70
5. Worry (4th + 4th) -> 30 + 30 = 60
6. JoRuss (6th + 5th) -> 15 + 21 = 36
7. Trix (7th + DSQ) -> 9 + 0 = 9
8. Mull (DNF + DNF) -> 0 + 0 = 0

Double win for Woozy despite the reverse start grid in the 2nd race - great beginning of the season and already a commanding lead!

Next races take place on [AA] AirAttack Racing server on Thursday 18th, 21:00 UK time (20:00 UTC) 1st race start. Qualification will start 15 to 30 minutes earlier, that is around 20:45 UK time. The track: SO5. Length: 25 minutes + 1 lap for each of the two races. I still could not contact some people that would surely be interested in racing - time to send new PMs to get the target number or racers...

Hi...
Still finding my way around the forum ;-) and just came across this thread.

Is the race series still going?
Didn't see anything new on the team website (but maybe looking in wrong place).

Yeah, series still going on, you'll certainly be welcome! Everyone interested may find complete race 2 stats and current standings here: http://racingteam.aa24.net/events/FBM/. You may notice it was a strange evening with only 6 people racing, some disqualifications, some pitting troubles. Still, nice double win for JakBot on SO5 track, cool achievement. Congrats!

I certainly do hope the next, 3rd race will see more people around. We're going to FE2, nice but very tricky track, as everyone doing the test race no doubt remembers.

Server: [AA] AirAttack Racing
Day: Thursday, September 25th, 21:00 UK time (20:00 UTC) 1st race start (qualification will start 15 to 30 minutes earlier, that is around 20:45 UK time)
Track: FE2
Length: 25 minutes + 1 lap for each of the two races

Everyone I can remember as showing interest will receive direct personal message - this will hopefully increase the number of racers.

Again, no previous notice is necessary, anyone can join the server for the qualification. The track will be ready there for testing on Thursday, just don't forget car reset will be allowed and activate appropriate option when listing available servers.

See you there! EQW

I'll be there if I can. My new job will most likely keep me from the race but I'll be there in spirit. Crash jakbot!!

keen as mustard.

keen as mustard. [13474072] <flano. S2!

Argh, can't connect - private host, needs password...?
Am I too late?

Doh, such pity, you must have missed it by just a minute or two - the server was opened until the 1st race start, that was around 21:03 UK time. What a pity... Next time try to use "end" as a password...

Now I see what happened. I looked at the start time for the second race.

As for race 2.. I'm gonna just blame it on the fact that I was sick. Damaged for 2/3s of the race (my own fault) and wasn't able to put together a good lap in any of the other 1/3 of the race. And sorry again to Roby and Boost.

Quote from EQ Worry :

Doh, such pity, you must have missed it by just a minute or two - the server was opened until the 1st race start, that was around 21:03 UK time. What a pity... Next time try to use "end" as a password...

Yeah, figured that must be what happened.
Got stuck late in work and missed the boat... Ah well!
Will practise hard for the next one
...
Hmm, just checked the date for the next race, will be out of the country until the night before so might still be able to compete, but has the track been decided yet? (Would be nice to practise a bit and I've only got experience of about three tracks so far...)

Quote from SilverArrows77 :

Is there a replay of round 3 guys?

Here you go Silver. Good to see you out and about, but when do we get you back on the track?