Third 'I' Blind
And the hits just keep on hitting. Little bit o' this, little bit of that, and the King of the Mountain is still the king... but for how long?
Open was where the action was tonight, with six new entries in both Unlimited and Hauler Challenge. While the top of the stack remained unchanged and CMDR Kligg JR holds onto first, a new contender has stepped up and seems serious about getting to the top. CMDR Aken B. jumped the
Bucket of Bolts right into Alot's back seat and close enough to the
Wedding Anniversary and
Grey Mullet to see their tail lights. It's unclear how far the DB-X can be pushed, but Aken has proven it can run with the Asps...
CMDR Heronymus made a strong Buckyball Premiere in the Asp
Icarus followed closely behind CMDR Jak, who switched to his Asp
The Obvious Enigma to try and gain a few positions on the board. It worked, sending him from 12th to 7th place.
In a very strange case of synchronicity, another first time Buckyballer, CMDR Thor Curzon, submitted a race report just a minute from CMDR Heronymus with another Asp named
Icarus. Thor also made an impressive Buckyball debut, coming in just under a minute behind Heronymus. Because the Big Board would crash and spew sparks all over the bar on the
Shotgun Shine if a duplicate name is posted, I had to change the name of one of them. I don't know how many attempts Thor and Heronymus intend to make, but from this point on, the leader of the two gets to keep the name and the second-place finisher shall be referred to as
The Other Icarus. This is, after all, a competition...
Finally in Unlimited, we have two new record setters: CMDR Birdnose, who gets today's quote of the race ("Still had some hull integrity left, so clearly I didn't push hard enough." See, I do read the notes!) shoved
Gravitas Catastrophe, the first Adder of the race, into Obsidian's gullet. This was done in response to CMDR von Rhein's promise to do the same.
And just because I find it hilarious, I'm posting this video of my imagined encounter between Birdnose and Edelgard at a stoplight in their respective Adders:
[video=youtube;07zLbgXElsA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07zLbgXElsA[/video]
Edelgard? The ball is in your launch pad.
And finally in Open Unlimited, CMDR Admiral (is that a rank?) Spoon provided the coup-de-grace for the evening by running the Type-9
Sailfish to the finish line at a somewhat leisurely pace, but fast enough to beat a whale and at least one snake. Well done, Spoon! Blondebeard the Space Pirate would be proud!
Unlimited Solo... not much happening there, so onto
Hauler Open where six more contestants tried (and failed) to knock CMDR Alot from the top perch. But it wasn't for lack of trying, as CMDR Cookiehole pulled the
Tin Can close enough behind Alot's smoke trail. (Wou might wanna check the seals on your canopy, just sayin'.) In a very close 4th, 5th and 6th place, Black Rat's
Zealot, Cheetah's
Brown Alert II and Timothy Knight's
Haulin' A are all jockeying for position, almost close enough to trade paint, with Geo Falke's
Ducktape and a Prayer and Mad Doctor X's
Also Available in White rounding out the field. Less than two and a half minutes separate First from Fifth in Open Hauler. Like its unlimited cousin, it should turn out to be quite a spectacle!
And last but not least, first-time Buckyballer Zenny dared to experiment and turned the hauler
Flying Ostritch into a flying gas tank, foregoing the need for a fuel scoop or refuel stop on the 594 LY trip to Obsidian. While it made plotting the route carefree, Zenny no doubt had to fire up the ol' FSD a few more times to make up the added mass... but as anyone who's run into the patch of unscoopables near the Pleiades sector can attest, it sure would be nice not to have to worry about that gas gauge.
Those are your results for 4 January. We're almost to the halfway point. Keep those entries coming! And as a reminder we will be holding another Live run on Saturday, so keep fine tuning your routes and remember bribes are always welcome as long as they are in cash or booze.
Oh, and by the way, for everyone who pointed out the missing 'I' in unlimited, congratulations but you failed completely to notice the missing I in "Orbital" at the top of the freaking page. It was an I exam, and you all obviously need glasses. BWA HA HA HA ha... (ahem) Don't forget to tip your wait staff. Good night.
(EDIT: just caught some last minute entries on the page - you'll be included in tomorrow's update.)
