circus maximus [Updated October 2003]  

 2003 WBC Report  

 2004 Status: pending 2004 GM commitment

Tom Saal, MI

2003 Champion

2nd: Bill Beckman, SC

3rd: Bill Edwards, VA

4th: Anthony Musella, VA

5th: Bret Mingo, MD

6th: David Weinstein, NY

Event History
1991    Tim Flanigan        54
1992    Jeff Barnum        67
1993    Barry Smith        35
1994    Mike Stanley        47
1995    Mike Pantaleano        72
1996    Bruce Monnin        64
1997    John Jacoby        72
1998    Mike Stanley        84
1999    Frank Sinigaglio       74
2000    Mike Stanley       85
2001    Steve Katz       76
2002    Steve Katz       71
2003    Tom Saal     103


Offsite links:

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Recommended:

 Laurels
Rank Name

From

Last
Total
 1. Steve Katz

VA

02
144
 2. Tom Saal

MI

03
  96
 3. Anthony Musella

VA

03
  78
 4. Bill Beckman

SC

03
  72
 5. Mike Stanley

OH

00
  60
 6. Frank Sinigaglio

NJ

99
  50
 7. Charles Goodwin

OH

00
  42
 8. Carl Walling

PA

02
  38
 9. Bill Edwards

VA

03
  34
10. Tim Dolan

NJ

02
  24
11. Alfred Wong

IL

01
  18
12. Josh Githens

SC

00
  18
13. Mark Love

MD

99
  15
14. Bret Mingo

MD

03
  12
15. John Tighe

NJ

02
  12
16. Mike Hazel

SC

01
  12
17. David Weinstein

NY

03
    6
18. Francis Spencer

MD

02
    6
19. Carl Sykes

SC

01
    6
20. Mike Fisher

PA

99
    5

Past Winners

1991: Tim Flanigan - IA
1992: Jeff Barnum - MI
1995: Mike Pantaleano - DE

Barry Smith - NY
1993

Mike Stanley - OH
1994, 1998, 2000

Bruce Monnin - OH
1996

John Jacoby - VA
1997

Frank Sinigaglio - NJ
1999

Steve Katz - VA
2001-2002
       
 


blood amongst the kisses

A sweet aspect of John Jacoby's Circus Maximus event is that he rewards the first driver into each turn with a Hershey's Kiss. The candies replace the dolphins which were upturned in the Roman Colosseum to record the number of laps run.

John won our GM of the Year Award in 2002 and for an encore shattered the event's attendance record by 19 - breaking the century mark for the first time. Taking a break next year for a well deserved rest and some more playing time, John's replacement will be hard pressed to fill his sandals. Perhaps we need to build him a new colosseum with these attendance records.

Best Quote of the Tournament: "They Killed Winnie!" (said when the bear drawn chariot lost a steed.)

The finals of Circus Maximus had 14 entrants; two light, four medium and eight heavy chariots.

The race started with blue and orange cringing in the starting gate until turn 3. Purple, driven by two-time defending champion Steve Katz, was dispatched with a dead horse quickly. There would be no three-pete. (The ALPO representative was seen to leave his box early to make a bid.) Turns 3, 4 and 5 set the tone of disaster for the race with a lost whip by grey. The trip thru the first turn was punctuated by three hits on gold's left wheel, four on gold's horses, four on yellow's horses and one on white's horses.

Turn 6 turned into an attack-fest as the heavy chariots were drawn early and did their duty. The horses injured included; black 4, orange 5, blue 4, and brown 1. Gold took four damage on his left wheel. He survived his initial wheel test, but failed and flipped when his chit was drawn. So much for 13th place. The fastest chariot was now the bears with a speed of 20.

Turn 7: The pink horses took two damage while the unfortunate green team took 4 and stopped with a very dead horse. The death of this second horse was all that kept the mob from attacking the cart manufacturers. Thus far, there had been four successful horse attacks with a damage result of 0 hits. Two of them were from HEAVY chariots!!! (The ALPO rep was seen screaming at the wheel manufacturers about their decision to include Nerf wheels in their catalog.)

As turn 8 began, there were yellow, brown, bears, pink, green (with a dead horse) and black lined up just past the second curve. A successful ?? attack by brown caused six wheel hits, two on brown and four on yellow. Red likewise did three wheel damage to blue at a like cost to himself. Red then took one horse damage.

On turn 9 the ALPO rep was grinning as green did a manly six damage to the black horses, killing one. The brown and bear horses took one and two hits respectively. Black cut loose and grimly limped after green.

Turn 10 was truly grim for black as he took four more damage to his horses (speed dropping to11). Black caught green and did three wheel points to green and four to himself. UGLY.

On the next turn carts and horses of tiger, bears, white, yellow and pink took hits. The black chariot (speed 11) managed to whip his way to a wheel test which he failed and flipped for 12th place.

Turn 13 started in the 4th curve with the bear (speed 15) leading pink (speed 16) by a square; yellow (speed 15) and brown (speed 17) next. The orange chariot was fastest with a speed of 18, but was far back. Red did one more damage to his wheel (now 4).

On turn 14 green received three more horse hits courtesy of red. Blue slipped into an involuntary attack for one damage to himself. The speeds of the leaders were pink 16, bear 15, blue 13, yellow 15 and white 15 as they approached the final turn.

Turn 15: Horses were the only targets. White got three hits, green two, and brown one. Another spoke came out of red's right wheel (now at 5 hits).

Turn 16 was the most entertaining for the crowd. The brown horses took another hit, but the wheel exploded from previous damage. Brown decided to surf his way in. Pink (with only two endurance left) killed a bear (Winnie the Pooh) in the final turn. The tiger chariot flipped. The gray driver decided that the -2 that he had for a jostled driver could be eliminated instantly by moving faster than the posted speed while jostled and automatically flipping. He was right. Three drivers were now being dragged through the final turn.

Turn 17: Pink led at the top of the stretch and had the highest speed of the three leading chariots. He was not sad when his chit was drawn first. The next closest chariot, the bears, cut loose and shuffled forward two squares. The dragged gray driver died, settling 11th place. White attacked the yellow horses three times. Yellow evaded twice but the third attack scored three more hits. Yellow attempted, but failed to trample the dragged tiger driver. Yellow did, however, hit the white horses for a point, which was enough to kill a horse. (The ALPO rep was by now ecstatic.)

Red hit the immobile white horses for two more points and added one on a yellow horse for good measure. Blue lashed orange's horses for his last endurance, slowing him for the remainder of the race. Pink, needing only one extra space to get his chariot across the finish line, lashed the last of his two endurance away when his chit was drawn, and barely crossed the finish line to win the championship. (Any other action could have given the other drivers a last chance to attack him in the next turn.)

In subsequent turns, the brown dragged driver succombed for 10th place, followed seconds later by the tiger driver's demise and posthumous award of 9th place. The bears took 2nd, blue 3rd and orange 4th. Red, in a true act of defiance, took 5th without flipping on a set of wobbly wheels that had 6 and 7 damage. In fighting for the last plaque, yellow killed another of white's horses, to take 6th. White limped in with a speed of 7 to clinch 7th place with its remaining two horses.

Of the eight chariots that actually finished the race, the average speed was down to 12. The crowd thought that it could and should have been worse. The ALPO rep joined in the investigation of the wimpy "NERF" wheels that did so little damage. He was joined in the investigation by the drivers' union who wanted to know why so many wheels exploded during the race. The top five executives at the Firestone Romanus Wheel, Spoke and Hubcap Co. were thrown to the lions as a result of the investigation. The crowd was pleased.

The final result was as follows:
1st Pink Tom Saal +1 Heavy
 2nd Bear Bill Beckman 0 Heavy
 3rd Blue Bill Edwards +1 Medium
 4th Orange Anthony Musella +2 Heavy
 5th Red Bret Mingo +1 Heavy
 6th Yellow David Weinstein +2 Medium
 7th White Paul Bolduc 0 Heavy
 8th Green Lane Hess +2 Heavy
 9th Tiger Josh Githens 0 Heavy
10th Brown Howard Dawson 0 Heavy
11th Gray Steven May 0 Medium
12th Black Dakota Wenstrup 0 Heavy
13th Gold Brian Leonard 0 Light
14th Purple Steve Katz 0 Medium
 GM     John M. Jacoby [5th year] 102 Deerwood Rd., Charlottesville, VA 22911
   NA NA

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