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Route 30 traffic ... anyone want to
play Frogger? Apparently attendance is not a big problem in this
event as FMR heat fills the room. |
Bill Beckman, Stockcar Racing champ,
tries to double his driving exploits, but is stymied by Lisa
Gutermuth who goes on to win her second FMR title. |
Broken Records ...
The same format and times were used for the three preliminary
heats with the six-race format that composes a single "game".
Tables were randomly assigned with six players, 5-player games
being substituted as required when the number of drivers did
not provide an even multiple of six. Several records were broken
in 2010 as attendance soared to the highest level in the ten-year
history of the event. The record 90 drivers in turn also yielded
a record 22 Preliminary games - besting the old mark by three.
These 22 games yielded the following statistical highlights:
Min score for win: 29 (unchanged from 2009)
Max score for win: 44 (increase from 41 in 2009)
Average score for win: 35.54 (increase from 33.47 in 2009)
Min score for second place: 27 (unchanged for last four years)
Max score for second place: 37 (increase from 35 in 2009)
Average score for second place: 31.31 (increase from 30.12 in
2009)
We only had one game where a winner had to be decided by tie
breakers. But, there were four games where tie breakers were
used to decide second place. Of the 22 games, five were 5-player
games, with the default car (aka non-player car) finishing last
for three of those games, fourth in one race, and actually winning
in the fifth game! In one of the games where the default car
finished sixth, it was allowed to get just a grand total of one
point. That covered the extremes for default cars - from winning
to finishing last with only one point.
Another new record was set for the most cars lost to spin-out,
engine blown or crash. Chris Greenfield lost a total of eight
of his 12 cars. Chad Gormly earned a dishonorable mention as
he lost seven cars. Mike Coomes was the winner of the unlucky
die. In the first heat, first race, he played the crash card,
rolled a 12, then realized he had his cars in the 11th and 12th
positions. He had knocked himself out of the race.
I forgot to record the player's name who drew the Queen of
Spades to win the free prize provided by GMT games. But, since
they already had Formula Motor Race, they chose another
GMT game. Mark Love was then provided with the free FMR game
so he could teach it to his gaming group.
A total of 18 heat winners appeared for the semi-finals. After
several years of having a father-son pairing in the Final, it
was not to be this year as there was not a father-son duo on
the list of heat winners. But, we did have a mother-daughter
team advance to the semi-finals in the form of Sharee and Aurora
Pack. All of the semi-final races ended in very close scores
with just one point separating first and second place finishers.
Jordan Shea did the best racing in the semi-finals since he had
one of his cars knocked out in five races, but was able to score
points with his remaining car in all six races. And none of those
six cars were for a first place finish. Four were in second place
and two in fourth giving him a total of 30 points, good enough
for a second place finish to advance to the Final. Shannon Keating
lead the six qualifiers with 33 points, followed by Robbie Mitchell,
Lisa Gutermuth and Scott Nerney with 32 points, Nicola Bradford
with 31 and Jordan Shea with 30.
Lisa got off to a hot start in the Final by winning the first
race and placing with her second car to give her 12 points. An
early lead often just makes you a target in the remaining races.
Robbie and Scott lost a car to crash, while Jordan kept his string
alive by losing one car to spin-out and having his second car
finish in the point total. Race 2 resembled a demolition debry
with Nicola and Shannon each crashing a car, Jordan again losing
a car to spin-out and Robbie having a blown engine. In contrast,
there was no crash card played in Race 3. Shannon was the only
person to lose a car when she spun-out. At the midway point,
Lisa remained in the lead with 18 points, followed closely by
Nicola in with 17, Shannon 16, Scott 13, Robbie 10 and Jordan
trailing the pack with just four points. But Jordan staged a
major comeback in Race 4 by winning the race and having his second
car place third, for a total of 14 points for that race alone.
Shannon again lost the only car (spinout) as the crash card was
not played. Jordan's comeback tightened the scoring after four
races: Lisa 21, Jordan 18, Nicola and Robbie 17, Scott 15. Victory
was now truly within reach of everyone with only two more races
to go.
Lisa was able to extend her lead by winning Race 5. Shannon
and Scott each crashed, while Robbie lost a car to spin-out.
The point total going into the last race was now: Lisa 31, Robbie
23, Nicola 21, Jordan 19, Shannon and Scott 18. Lisa's big lead
required that she be kept out of the scoring for the final race.
This mission was half completed when the spin-out knocked one
of her cars out of the race halfway through the deck. Lisa completed
the mission herself when she played the crash card as her last
play only to roll her own car. Jordan was chosen to also be affected
by this crash. Now the winner's circle was wide open as everyone
else still had one more card play, but no one had the proper
card to give them the win. Lisa was able to present us with the
last new FMR record of the year by becoming our first twotime
champion. the final point totals were: Lisa 31, Jordan 29, Robbie
26, Nicola 25, Scott 24, Shannon 21.
I would like to thank Chris Janiec and Lisa for serving as
assist GM's. Special thanks go to Katie McCorry, who provided
tutorial service before the second and third heats to those needeing
a refresher training session.
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Amanda Yu and Katie McCorry have this
poor devil sandwiched. |
GM Chris LeFevre oversees his finalists
as his championship expires. |
Formula Motor Racing Junior
Robert Schoenen provided a racing circuit for the pint-sized
drivers. There were 22 little race drivers sans learning permits
loosed on the streets of the Heritage room this summer. The best
of these was Hudson Wyatt who was followed in order by Sophia
Curry, Jasmine Mann, Dacey Collinson, Joey Depoian and Andrew
Doughan.
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Now that's what I call a Demolition
Derby. |
Chris lends a hand to Juniors GM Robert
Schoen. |
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