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Bonneville Salt Flats Speed Week Nears

September 4, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Bonneville Salt Flats

Most of the racing fans I know tend to stick to one form of the sports, the NASCAR fans look down on the Formula One fans, and vice versus, although I am not sure where the truck racing fans and super modified people stand on the issue. However there is one area that they all seem to agree and that is that going fast is great, which brings us to Speed Week at the historic Bonneville Salt Flats.

I knew that speed records were often set at the salt flats but I had no idea that it was a regular event that occurred once a year where fans of just about any type of engine driven vehicles from bar stools on up can compete to set records or in many cases just go very, very fast.

So on September 8th and running to the 11th is the World of Speed held by the Utah Salt Flats Racing Association (USFRA). The event has an interesting format in that once you get accepted via registration, you run in a random order.

There is no head to head racing; it is just the driver and the machine against the track and the timer, going all out to set a record, or to achieve set speeds that allow you to say that you have achieved a certain standard at the event such as the 130 MPH and the 150 MPH clubs

Racers seeking to set records run in what is called the Record Run, and they make two runs, one a qualifier and the other is called the Record Run, which are the first races in the morning. The average of the two races is what is used to establish new records.

The Salt Flats have two courses with the short course running four or five miles while the long course running seven miles or longer. For most cars, they must qualify to run the long course by first running the short course at 175 mph, reaching that sped by the 2 ½ mile marker.

While many people are probably familiar with a wide range of vehicles that are raced at the Salt Flats from the famed streamliners to muscle cars, vintage cars and motorcycles there are some oddities as well including bar stools, Volkswagens, go-carts and electric vehicles.

I am not sure if there will be any over the air broadcasting of the events but there are a host of web links to some of the teams that are participating here. If you are attending send us some pics!

Filed Under: Bonneville Salt Flats, Contests, Indy 500, NASCAR, Outdoor Activities Tagged With: , ,

Game Fixing in eSports? Say it Ain’t So!

August 28, 2012 by

League of Legends

All of the gamers that I know are fiercely competitive, and would destroy their grandmother (figuratively) if it meant that they could advance to the next level or open up new capabilities and so I was shocked at the news that came out of the Summer Championships from last weekend.

Major League Gaming, the tournament organizer, has revoked the titles and prize money that had previously awarded to the top two teams in the League of Legends tournament, accusing the teams of colluding in the first round.

While the MLG did not spell out exactly how the two teams colluded, it has been speculated that they played an easy version of the game in order to manipulate the rankings for later in the tournament, which ended up having these two teams face each other for the championship.

If this sounds familiar a similar collusion occurred during the recently concluded Summer Olympics with the badminton teams. In the MLG case, the teams still played to win, it is just that they manipulated the system, a move that violates both the rules and the ethics of the MLG.

They have both agreed with the ruling, at least in part, as has Riot Games the developer of League of Legends. The top two positions in the tournament will be vacated, with no team winning those places, but the third and fourth places finishers will get their points and awards.

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Filed Under: Contests, eSports, Major League Gaming, Video Games Tagged With:

NFL Invites Fantasy Fans to Try for $1 million Prize

August 28, 2012 by

NFL Fantasy Perfect Challenge

Pro Football game that count are almost upon us and so many fantasy football leagues are preparing for their leagues drafts by pouring over fact sheets and looking at who has been waived and picked up- but there is another way to use that knowledge by playing in the NFL Fantasy Perfect Challenge.

While I am sure that winning your league comes with some valuable perks, there is the potential to win $1 million in the NFL fantasy game, and I am pretty sure this trumps most league benefits of simply having bragging rights.

The program is free to both join and play and is pretty simple to play. The contest will last for the 17 weeks of the season ending on Jan 20, 2012. Each week you would go to the game page and select your lineup based on the player roster.

You select eight players, fielding a team that features one quarterback, two running backs, two wide receivers, one kicker and one team defense/specialty team. Each week you can use the same or different players as you see fit.

Points are accumulated by a method spelled out in the rules that basically calls for the most points coming from scoring both on offense and defense and you can lose points for fumbles and interceptions. Also yards gained passing and rushing accumulate points.

Defense and specialty teams accumulate points from touchdowns on punt, kickoff, fumble and interception returns as well as sacks safeties and shutouts, among other options. Allowing large amounts of points are negatives to your score.

To win the grand prize a player needs to pick what is called the Perfect Lineup. This means that you need the position player that scored the highest number of fantasy points at each position. For other prizes you need to pick the NFL player and defense/ specialty team for that week.

I can see myself developing an ulcer as some coach brings out the quarterback in the fourth quarter of a late season blowout killing my chances at $1 million. Of course since I have a difficult time separating my emotions from my team it’s likely the rest of the players I have selected will not be at the top of the leader board, but I can always dream!

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Filed Under: Contests, Fantasy Sports, NFL Tagged With:

U.S. Lawn Mower Racing Association Finals Labor Day Weekend

August 23, 2012 by

Sta-Bil Mower Racing Series

The US Open is coming on Labor Day weekend. No not that one, the final race of the U.S. Open Racing Series, and as I am sure that you all know, this means lawn mower racing at its finest! Actually that weekend will be the close of lawn mower racing season and the STA-BIL Keeps Grass Fresh Finals will also take place.

While I have not watched that much lawn mower racing I became fascinated with it when I read that a racer named Bobby Cleveland managed to get his mower to reach 96 mph on Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats. I have had several cars that could not reach that speed.

So next weekend is the biggie for the league with the top race in a 20 year old series, the STA-BIL Keeps Grass Fresh Finals and the finals in the inaugural season of the U.S. Open series both taking place at the Delaware County Fairgrounds in Delaware, Ohio.

For fans of the TV show “Home Improvement” the 150 horsepower Dixie Chopper Jet Mower, built on the show and which once mowed a football field in 14.2 minutes will be on display as will the 104+ Octane Boost mower that holds the world land speed record for mowers, shown in the video above.

There are five basic classes of mowers (seven overall I believe) allowed, although they all share some characteristics. They must all have been sold commercially, have the grass cutting blades removed and have working brakes and a kill switch.

The classes start with the stock class, fresh off the factory floor. Then there is the JP Class for kids from ages 10-15. The IMOW (International Mower of Weeds) class is a highly regulated front engine grouping followed by the Prepared Class that allows modified drive trains, engines and other parts. The final class is the FX Class that allows major modifications.

I should note that there is more than one lawn mower racing league and here we are just talking about the U.S. Lawn Mower Racing Association and not the American Racing Mower Association or any other organization. The races will be broadcast on Fox, although I have not yet found the time, so it could be tape delayed.

If you are interested there are even mobile apps to play as if you are a driver with Lawn Mower Madness at the Apple App Store. I wonder if this invention is the next racing platform, or is it just a fad?

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Filed Under: Contests, Fox Sports, Outdoor Activities, U.S. Lawn Mower Racing Association Tagged With:

America’s Cup World Series Starts Today in San Francisco Bay

August 22, 2012 by

AC World Series on SF Bay

If you are in the Bay Area this week you might want to head over to the Marina district in San Francisco to catch some of the America’s Cup World Series events that start today on San Francisco Bay.

This is not the actual America’s Cup race, those are slated to begin next year, nor is it a set of races that will enable the winner to advance to next year’s race but rather a set of competitions between smaller boats.

The World Series races use 45 foot boats, called AC45s, rather than the 72 foot AC72 models that will race next year for the trophy. There will be 11 teams on the water and the format will be very different as well.

This is head to head sailing with a multitude to teams participating. The teams are seeded and the racing qualifiers start today, followed by quarterfinal races on both Thursday and Friday. The semifinals will be Saturday and the finals on Sunday.

This is a new format, from the previous (and first) sailing of the America’s Cup World Series that will have six teams competing today in the qualifiers. The other five are the top ranked boats from the standings of the 2011-12 ACWS Match Racing Championship. The top three from today advance to the semi’s tomorrow.

It is interesting to note that there are several possible race course configurations, depending on how the wind is, or is not, blowing on any given day. As anybody who has spent any time on the Bay knows it has a strong current, an almost constant chop and usually strong winds that shift directions as the day goes by.

It is interesting to note that while the teams spend millions on their boats, there is no purse in the America’s Cup, they do it for bragging rights and the ability to be the home team and select the race site for the next cup defense. It would be nice to have that much money to throw around.

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Filed Under: America's Cup World Series, Contests, Sailing Tagged With: ,

Athletepath Debuts Race Tracking App at Hood to Coast Relay

August 21, 2012 by

Athletepath

The other day a friend went zipping past my house setting what looked to be a pretty good pace and he ran down my gravel, pot hole stricken street and away he went around the corner and up the hill. When I ran into him later in the weekend he said that he was just on a 10 mile run in preparation for the annual Hood to Coast Relay.

It turns out that a number of friends and acquaintances are going to be participating in the relay, either as runners or as team volunteers. So how do you follow people in a two day race when the roads are closed and it is hard to tell team times?

Well one startup company, Athletepath, is going to give it a shot with a product that is just now emerging from beta. The product uses social media to keep followers of atheletes informed on their progress and enables the athletes to fill in their followers about what is going on with them.

The company, started by Wieden + Kennedy’s Portland Incubator Experiment (PIE) that selected the company last year as one of nine companies to get funding, out of 275 applicants. The founders of Athletepath include CEO David Embree, Christian Reed as front-end developer and Junichi Furukawa as lead technical developer. A look at their athletic resume shows triatheletes, cyclists, soccer player and skier, among other outdoor activities that they and others on the team participate in.

The free app can be used with any browser and uses official race timer information to keep racers and their followers up to date on their progress. It can use email, text or post to Twitter results when someone crosses the finish line that you are following.

The goal of the program is more than just a tool to inform fans of ongoing results. It also informs athletes of upcoming events in which they may be interested in participating.

Hood to Coast Relay

About Hood to Coast
The race is an interesting event that takes place over the course of two days and runs, as its name implies, from Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood east of Portland, down the hill and onwards to the ocean, finishing leg 36 in Seaside the following day.

The starting altitude of the race is over 6,000 feet above sea level and each leg is anywhere from 3.52 miles to 8.09 miles in length. There is also a start in Portland for teams that are doing the walking version of the race as well.

It is a pretty big event and this year it expects to have 1,050 teams, each with a maximum of 12 runners and a minimum of eight that will take on the challenge of running the entire 199 mile course over the two days of August 24 & 25th. This is the 31st running of the event and the first year it had eight teams.

While it might seem that this could be a receipt for confusion as some teams come, like at events such as Bay to Breakers, just for the fun of it and with no real expectations of finishing the race, the race has a rather strict approach and gets times from previous races to judge the quality of teams. It also looks at finished times and uses that for seeding teams. There are a series of penalties for a variety of infractions ranging from 30 minutes to 60 minutes to disqualifications.

Now I can tell my friends I was there watching and citing their team times as proof, and as long as they are unaware of the app I can reap free beers for being such a supportive friend! A win for everybody in my book.

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Filed Under: Apps, Athletepath, Contests, Hood to Coast Relay, Outdoor Activities Tagged With: ,
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