Today has seen intense activity on the course, with both the Unlimited and Adder Special leaderboards filling up nicely and with yet more competitors out on the course. (Apologies to those whose submissions come in for the rest of the day, the next update will either be very late today or, more likely, tomorrow now as I'm taking part in an event elsewhere this evening).
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In the Adder Special, the pace is now being set by CMDR Aken B., who navigated the course in the
Canned Laughter Box in under fourteen minutes. CMDR Bruski is less than twenty seconds behind in
The Pakistani Ambassador whilst a review of the submission documentation sees CMDR Alec Turner narrowly behind him. CMDR jumpingclear managed to bring the
Buckyfast Whine into sixth place, completing a group of entries all starting at Viete Colony. But is that really the fastest place to start?
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CMDR Alot thinks otherwise: starting from Bushkov Dock, the Buckyball veteran Hauler you might recognise from the highlights reel of Buckyball 7,
Explodes on Contact, has set the new benchmark time of 9:51, although she did not - quite - live up to her name, enduring the loss of more than one third of her hull during the run. CMDR Alot seems to have found the way to make the difficult approach to Viete Colony faster than Bushkov Dock, despite the slightly longer supercruise distance. Not far behind, though, is CMDR Bruski in the Imperial Courier
Varangian Lightning that has certainly set the normal-space speed record for the race, so far, in another sub-ten-minute time. There is, however, a Courier-shaped dent at Crick Orbital that shows there is more time to be found from runs starting at Viete Colony. There are a number of new and infrequent racers taking part in this event and CMDR Cruel Rabbit is leading the way out of those, so far, with his Viper Mk3
Mortal Coil, in a time close to twelve minutes, getting remarkable speed and jump range out of the ship. CMDR SJ McThompson has taken the first large class ship around the course in an impressive time of 13:37; a review of the video evidence revealed the original time claimed was actually one second slower than what was achieved by the Orca
Free Willy (I have been watching the videos carefully!). CMDR aRJay has raced both a Dolphin, the
Streaker, and a Cobra Mk3, the
Lazy Eight, achieving fairly consistent times, with the Dolphin being the faster of the two and less than twenty seconds behind its fellow cetacean
Free Willy. CMDR Stern Winter completes the new entries for today with a time of 11:45 in the Imperial Eagle
Snowbird, which he reflects could do with some improvement in the docking and supercruise approach phases.
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I've been out on the course today in my gunship doing a bit of bounty hunting to help keep the spaceways clear and saying hi to people running in Open. With fast supercruise approaches it's quite difficult for would-be pirates to get into position in time to interdict you but it can still happen, so fly fast and you'll always be flying safe! o7
Time is 12:11, I think. Any pointers from pros greatly appreciated!
