I've been giving this a lot more thought and given the minor concerns over jump-range I was wondering how extreme the race should be? After all extreme races like the Paris-Dakar rally and the Tour de France are pretty inspirational and I never imagined that so many people would be crazy enough to enter ElectricZ's Buckyball Run A*!
To make the race a bigger test, but also to allow most ships to enter (provide they have a class A FSD) I thought I could use three routes, all with the same first and last stages, and sharing some intermediate stages, but branching off for stretches that require longer range or visit more dangerous regions.
Class C: Suitable for anyone with 15+LY range, route visits local nebulae, never gets more than 5000LY from Sol, and doesn't include more than 'medium' exploration hazards (from the Galactic Mapping Project). This race will also keep you well within reach of the Fuel Rats in case of emergency, and the whole route would be short enough to finish in a couple of big sessions with a longer ranged ship if you wished (about 10K in total).
Class B: Suitable for explorers who already seen a couple of nearby Nebulae, with ships that have at least 25LY range, will visit more distant/inaccessible tourist spots like the Eta Carinae Nebula, NGC 7822 Nebula and Crab Pulsar/Nebula, may include 'high' exploration hazards. Will stay within 8000LY of Sol (maybe as far as the Heart and Soul). You might need to wait a while for a fuel rat, unless another racer can help you out.
Class A: Extreme challenge for experienced explorers, and crazy Buckyball Runners; will probably require ships with 30+LY Range, and will travel beyond the local nebulae to visit the Perseus Arm (to the 'south') and the New Outer Arm (to the 'west') including two crossings of the formidable Formidine Rift (one extreme, one 'easy'). Will include 'extreme' exploration hazards, and will take racers to the fringes of the galaxy. A special award/mention would go to the shortest range ship to finish the Class A race. If you run of fuel in the extreme parts of this race, you'll be lucky to survive; even other racers might struggle to get limpets to you safely, and the fuel rats would need to mount a huge and dangerous operation to reach you!
Each race would use individual stages of up to 3-5000LY, but sometimes shorter (the first stage will only be to The Coalsack, and the class C stages will generally be shorter), so each stage should be something that a 12hr BBRA ship could do in 1-2 hours. However one or two of the class A stages, while still 'only about 5K' would require great care (eg the The Formidine Rift is approx 5000LY across).
I'd be planning to make the Class A race about 25 stages long, run over a calendar month or possibly 5-6 weeks. Total length would be 60-100K I'd think.
In the case of the Class A and Class B races I was thinking that in the Tour De France (which is the most extreme race that I actually watch semi-regularly), most of the race is a bit of a procession, but some of the mountain stages and time-trials are where the top runners win the race. Some of the tougher legs (eg to the Crab Nebula for Class A/B or The Formidine Rift for Class A), would provide these race winning opportunities to gain a big advantage over your rivals.
What do you all think? If you think it sounds good them I'll be entering the Class A race in my Asp, and although I'd imagine that a 'Conda will win, it should be possible to complete in any long range Hauler, Diamondback or Type-6 as well.
I'm just not sure if anyone else is as crazy as me though, other than the obvious few nutters who also made multiple runs to Sadge, or
that guy who kept going until he ran out of galaxy!
Is an extreme race too much? Would I be better sticking to a single race that follows the 'class B' route, or are there other who want to race right out to the galactic fringe?
S
