Sports Journal 9-8-13

Who would have thought that the Yankee-Red Sox game would have been the first to finish amongst the three Saturday Fox games?  Of course the other two games went into extra innings.  I had really hoped to see the Dodger-Reds game, but how many times a year do you get a chance to see the Yankees and Red Sox play?  Umm. . . About 19 is the answer.  Given that both games had playoff teams involved, I’d have thought that we’d get the more regional Dodger game.  KROD radio declined to broadcast the game as well.  Their local sports talk show really needed to make their important Week 1 predictions for the NFL.  

I’m not going to admit the 13-9 Red Sox over the Yankees was a good game.  But I will say that it was your typical overly long AL East softball game played in a Little League stadium.  Actually I found the most interesting moment of the broadcast was in the post game.  Mitch Williams said about injured Matt Kemp of the Dodgers, “I don’t think they’ll miss him in the World . . . the playoffs.”  Is it really getting that inevitable?  Certainly Fox hopes so.  My biggest Matt Kemp question is, “Will the Dodgers end up really regretting that huge contract they gave him last year?”  If you’re the Dodgers, it’s only money.

On Sunday, I woke up a little early and caught the end of the F1 race from Italy.  There was a big, passionate crowd there and about three-quarters of them were wearing Ferrari gear.  I agree with the experts.  An Italian driver in a Ferrari car would have the weight of the world on him.  The other thing I noticed were these liquor billboards that read, “Think before driving.”  You know, just consider it as a courtesy.  As opposed to this country where busy streets are closed down for “DWI checkpoints.”  And, they’re much bigger drunkards in Europe.

Welcome to the traditional end of the baseball season, that is to say, the start of the NFL season.  Hope you enjoyed this summer.  The Cubs and Brewers went through the motions of playing a baseball game anyway today, as did the rest of the league.  The Chicago crowd seemed subdued, as did the announcers and players.  I assume everyone was preoccupied thinking about their fantasy teams and hoping to get this game over quickly to check their stats. 

Len and JD had a pointless discussion about the WAR stat in relation to the MVP award.  I think I raved about WAR earlier in the season.  Let put this in football terms, so that it will be comprehensible to the average sports fan.  Tony Romo would probably have a great WAR stat with all of the numbers he puts up (if they had such a thing in the NFL, which they may).  Do I need to make a better case than this against the stat?  WAR shows “theoretical” wins, as opposed to “actual” wins.  WAR is only most valuable to agents and the teams they’re negotiating with, not to the fans and not to the team Win-Loss record.

A jovial Lee Smith was on hand for the 7^th inning stretch.  He works for the Giants now, and they talked about the near perfect game on Friday pitched by some guy, whose name I couldn’t possibly pronounce, and other pleasant topics.  As for the singing, well, the Cubs never paid Smith to sing.  Junior Lake hit a homer in the 5^th to break a scoreless tie.  Dad really likes him.  He does seem pretty good.  However, the Brewers would carry the day, 3-1.

Meanwhile, the Pirates have lost four in a row in their quest to have a winning season for the first time in 20 years.  They just need one more win, and they’re almost locked into the playoffs as well.  What could possibly go wrong?  The Rangers were pounded again Saturday night.  I didn’t even have the heart to listen.  I didn’t even get the final score.  I might have listened if I’d known that today’s game was going to preempted by the local affiliate for, not a football game, but the Fox Sports Radio’s commentary show about the games. 

The only thing I noticed about the NFL games this Sunday was that the Jaguars and the Steelers both scored early safeties and lost badly anyway.  I think the Red Sox or the Yankees could have beat either team this day.  Is that insightful sports commentary or what? 

Fantasy Core RPG: Jianghu Setting-Grandmasters

Fantasy Core RPG

© Jerry Harris 2013

Published here as Open Game Content.

(This link will take you to the Fantasy Core Index.)

Jianghu Setting

Grandmasters

Supreme knowledge is only useful if it is held in the proper hands.

There are two known Grandmasters of martial arts in Shang-tu province.  They may be considered the most powerful warriors in the area, and yet they are the least likely to ever engage in any conflict. 

No stats will be given for the Grandmasters.  They should only be plot devices, who the characters learn from, not opponents to be fought directly.  These guys (along with truly pious Shamen) are about a step away from immortality, whereas the characters can’t even see it on the horizon.  Their concerns and motivations are well beyond normal mortal ones, such as whether should they try and become an Immortal or not. 

A Grandmaster might only become involved in a fight if a truly great evil surfaces.  Perhaps an embattled Governor Yu or one of his Ministers makes a deal with Yomi for supernatural power and demonic troops, in return for human sacrifices.  Perhaps a Mongol hoard attacks and indiscriminately begins to slaughter everyone in the province.  Of course, a Grandmaster will gather heroes to join him in the fight.

The wise claim to see reality the most clearly, as do the insane.

The Abbot of the Mount Tien Temple is Grandmaster Fu.  Fu is a funny, little old man, seemingly child-like in his attention span and senile in memory.  He speaks in strange, nonsensical phrases and non-sequiturs, along with absurd actions.  This is his frustrating genius, as those around him are forced to interpret what he does in order to learn anything from him.  His students attempt to read meaning into his every action, as much of the time he teaches lessons indirectly, by symbolic acts, metaphor, and allegory.  Then suddenly, he speaks in clear, unmistakable terms.  These tend to be moments of terror for the monks.  He was in one of these lucid moods when he dismissed Yune. 

If Fu is asked by a petitioner to teach them one of his Special Techniques (such as The Dragon), he is likely to respond with a seemingly foolish response, such as, “I’ll teach you after you put down your burden.”  He’s not talking about anything the characters’ are physically carrying.  Perhaps he’ll invite you to a tea ceremony, and afterward ask you how many sips you took.  Perhaps he sends you into the woods to capture a specific cicada.  When you return, he asks if you’ve found yourself yet.  Perhaps he tells you to meditate until you can’t take it anymore.  After ever increasing Fort Saves and eventual failure, Fu announces that you have succeeded. 

If all this sounds like something to frustrate the players more than the characters, that is correct.  Don’t stop until the actual player has learned something about the game or life in general.  (Tears will be shed!)  At that point, Fu announces that the character already knows the technique and knew it all along.  They never needed him at all.

Here are some more ideas for character trials.  (Some of these are rather painful.)  http://terebess.hu/english/zen.html

The company of the wise is a trial of mind, spirit, and body.

Grandmaster Lin is a hermit living in the woods in the Mount Tien mountain range.  He roves around, sleeping in trees and caves, and meditating on mountaintops, and at streams and lakes.  He subsists off of nuts and berries and, reportedly, wild creatures will kill themselves in front of him to provide him with meat.  Lin is an earthy creature.  Real earthy.  As a practical matter, DC 12 Fort Sv or nauseated 1 turn, when first meeting Lin.  If he decides to train you, that will be one of the easier Saving Throws you’ll have to make.   

Grandmaster Lin is a Wudan master.  He has harnessed his inner lifeforce and is able to externalize it throughout his body and can project it out.  (Mind over matter.)  Lin has perfect health and can survive in virtually any climate.  His Chi can produce tremendous healing powers, or it can produce devastating force (telekinetics).

Finding Lin, even with his smell, is going to be a task in itself.  Then there is matter of convincing the mercurial wild man of the woods that you are worthy of his teachings.  There should be plenty of humiliation to go around.  Then begins the harsh endurance training of mind, body, and soul.  The good news is that he won’t let you die in training, even if you fail.  The bad news is that he won’t let you die, no matter how much your character is suffering.  Where Fu might be mysterious and enigmatic in his teachings, Lin will be painfully direct and obvious.  “If you wish to develop Steel skin, take these burning coals out the fire and carry them to the stream.  One at a time.” 

     

Grandmaster Lin has many Special Techniques.  His most famous power, and requested teaching, is his Chi Force ability (once per encounter 2d12 + ½ level, must rest 1 turn after using powers).  

Baseball Journal 9-6-2013

On Monday, the Marlins beat the Cubs 4-3.  That’s about all that happened.  Len, JD, and myself took Labor Day off from commentating.

On Wednesday, the A’s beat the hell out of the Rangers 11-4.  About halfway through, the game became a blowout and with the expanded rosters, mass substitutions began.  Eric and Matt said that this was turning into a spring training game.  In the 9^th was the most embarrassing part of the game, the Rangers batted out of order, likely due to all of the subs.  The A’s either didn’t notice or didn’t care, since it was an out either way.  The guys were upset that their scorecards just got hashed. 

I had never before seen out of order batting happen, but now I’ve seen it twice this season.  The other time was the Giants-Dodgers game that I’ve mentioned before, probably the symbolic start of the Giant’s problems this year.  At least I knew what the rulebook said about this situation.  If I ever see the three-base error for improper equipment use enforced, I will have finally seen everything.

On Thursday, the NFL season started and baseball coverage officially fell off the face of the earth for most sports outlets (like it was prominent to begin with).  The Orioles are now the most hated sports franchise in Baltimore because they wouldn’t play a day game instead of a night game, and the champion Ravens had to start play on the road and lost.  This was because the teams share the same parking lot.  I know the Orioles probably didn’t want to give up the income from a night game over a day game, but that does seem a bit d*ckish.  Certainly it wasn’t worth the bad press.  Could the Ravens have ponied up a little money to make up the difference?

I didn’t really watch the game, but I got the impression that Peyton Manning might have heard all those comments about Tim Tebow having more playoff wins for the Broncos than he did.  Ah Tebow, the most hated man in the NFL by the sports media, as opposed to actual human beings.  Aaron Hernandez has not gotten as much bad press as Tim Tebow.

On Friday, Dodger and Ranger night games were cancelled on the radio by high school football.  No complaints.  That’s perfectly appropriate.  Thankfully I got to watch a meaningless Cubs-Brewers game on WGN in the afternoon, though there was some stiff competition for my attention at the US Open tennis tournament.  Namely, some dramatic slo-mo upskirt shots of Flavia Pennetta, and a few provocative bend over poses. 

Ahem.

Len and JD were extraordinarily loose, if not downright giddy.  Perhaps they’re counting the days until they’ll be hitting the links.  The highlight of the commentary was their promotion of an upcoming giveaway, a Cubs doll shirt, along with a few high-end (American Girl) dolls for the shirt.  Putting a prop like that in the booth was of course a mistake.  They immediately started playing with it on camera.  Sage, the American Girl doll, was introduced to the Sandlot Slugger game doll they got earlier this year.  Sage was then given a microphone and a seat to start calling the game.  “Come on Cubs fans.  Let me hear you!”

A few former players were in attendance during the game for a Saturday charity softball game.  Former Cubs first baseman, Derreck Lee was seated behind the on deck circle.  He was looking casual and rather handsome and dapper (as opposed to the last time I saw on field, old and broken down).  Darwin Barney tossed him a foul ball during the game.  Derreck held it out and asked for an autograph. 

The Cubs radio announcer and former player, Keith Moreland, also made it into the broadcast as his baseball card somehow ended up in the home plate area.  The ump handed it over to a ball boy.  He looked it over and apparently didn’t recognize Moreland and put it under his seat.

There was a game.  One of the more comical incidents involved one of the Brewer players running down the line, trying to beat out an infield hit, while simultaneously turned around, shouting back at the ump for not granting him time.  (The game was running long, who could blame him?)  I suppose I should have gotten the player’s name, but frankly I have no idea who most the players on the Brewers are.  The only one that made an immediate impression was Scooter Gennett.  One, there’s that name.  Two, he came off the bench and hit a pinch-hit three-run homer, that went into and out of the basket.  (And here I’d said that the basket eliminated ambiguous home runs.)  Len and JD called him, “The best player you’ve never heard of this season.”  I hadn’t, and he might be.

With a Brewer game, Ryan Braun got a mention, somewhat reluctantly.  The guys said that he was personally calling season ticket holders to apologize.  Brewer management should consider doing the same, along with several other teams (namely, the Angels).  Actually the Brewers were taking whatever they were saving on Braun’s suspension salary and using it to reduce concession prices.

However, the Cubs would carry the day, 8-5.  You know you’re having a good offensive day when your .067 batting average, starting pitcher, Chris Rusin, drives in two runs.  Junior Lake was the star with a first inning grand slam home run, and then followed that up with a bunt single.   

Fantasy Core RPG: Jianghu Setting-Master Yune

Fantasy Core RPG

© Jerry Harris 2013

Published here as Open Game Content.

(This link will take you to the Fantasy Core Index.)

Jianghu Setting

Master Yune

 “How can I one day become a grandmaster?” –Yune

“How can you not become a grandmaster?” –Grandmaster Fu

The story of the incident between Master Yune and Grandmaster Fu has taken on the aspects of an allegorical legend.  The repeated versions of the story are usually apocryphal.  Yune was the most prominent, pious, and martially skilled monk at the temple, and Fu’s assumed successor.  There was no friction between the two, though small interchanges have since been embellished.  Then one day as Grandmaster Fu observed a simple sparring contest between Yune and another monk, he suddenly announced that Yune had dishonored himself and the temple and was asked to leave.

Without hesitation, Yune gathered his belongings and began the long trek down the 7,200 steps from the mountain temple.  The Grandmaster stood and watched and he and Yune had the above exchange, before they passed out of one another’s lives.  Much like Fu’s Zen koan (riddle), the whole incident seems nonsensical, as there is literally nothing more to it, at least on the surface.  Yune has spent much of his time since driven to excellence and meditating on the meaning of Fu’s last words to him.  The Grandmaster seems unfazed, but has not anointed any one else to take his place.  Certainly all of his current adepts are now afraid of trying to attain the honor. 

Yune migrated to the city to ply his trade as a master martial artist.  His funds being nearly non-existent and with the scandal attached to him, only the White Lotus would fund his dojo (obviously through intermediaries).  Since then, there has been an unspoken obligation for him to supply students for various tasks, at the White Lotus’ request.  Yune has no interest in any rebellion, and honestly doesn’t even know that he is working for the White Lotus.  (They never ask for his services, by the way.  He’s too famous for such covert work.) 

This arrangement has grated on Yune, but his students are never asked to murder or steal (the White Lotus works with the Kinsai ninja clan for that).  They only provide security or help to rescue someone quietly, and the students have always returned from the task (though not necessarily unhurt).  In spite of his teachings of honor and virtue, Yune is more pained and dishonored by some his former students working for the Triads, the Tongs, and the Brotherhood in criminal activities.  Most however, have started their own dojos and private security firms, or work as constables or in the military (Special Forces types).  Some have even retreated to the monastery, to Yune’s praise.   

Yune is an amazingly powerful, intimidating looking physical specimen, but could not be a more soft-spoken and gracious individual.  Yune was originally trained as a demon-hunter before entering the monastery.  He has disdain for magical weapons, armor, or devices, and relies on his own special skills and intuition.  News of a demon stalking the city is one of the few things that will draw him out into combat.  The Governor and his ministers have called upon his services at the palace.  The only other thing that will draw him out is one of his students being in danger.   

10th Level Flying Warrior, Hp 84, AC 18 (no armor) Enhanced Initiative +4

Fort +11, Ref +11, Will +7

Melee: Unarmed 2 attacks +14/+9 to hit 1d4+9

Longsword +14 to hit 1d8+4

Ranged: Longbow +14 to hit 1d8

Flying Strike +14 to hit + DC 12 Acrobatics check, 9 damage

Flying Multi-Strike +14 to hit + DC 12 Acrobatics check, 1d8+4, up to four, adjacent opponents

Acrobatics +9

Immune to falling damage

Special Technique: Mystic Strike-Yune is able to hit magic to hit creatures bare-handed or with any weapon.

Special Technique: True Sight-Yune can see through any illusion, though he must be concentrating to do so.

Baseball Journal 9-1-13

Oh, it’s a Chamber of Commerce day in Chicago.  Absolutely perfect.  The Cubs faced the Philadelphia Phillies in front of good crowd.  (Again, who’s needs a winning record?  Or any playoff potential?  Or a World Series win in the last 100 years?)  Len and JD were clearly caught up in the euphoria of this pleasant Labor Weekend and gave lively commentary, sometimes actually talking about the game itself.  Yeah, in a meaningless game in September between two loser teams, you’re going to be expanding the subject matter. 

Greg Brady started off the affair with rousing renditions of “God Bless America” and “The Star Spangled Banner.”  What he lacked in voice, he made up for in performance.  They later showed him trying to make his way through the crowd, all of whom wanted their picture taken with him (and he obliged, of course).  Hey, Barry Williams is a legitimate American icon.  Let’s see: Johnny Bravo reference, “Sunshine Day” played over the lineup card, a mention of the rivalry with the Partridge Family.  Yep, all the pop culture boxes got checked.  Good job.

The guys had one really worthwhile story, the origin of the “basket” in the outfield.  There’s a chain-link fence at a 45-degree angle jutting out of the outfield wall.  Home run balls sometimes fly, unambiguously into the basket, thus obliviating the need for any umpire video reviews.  Bleacher Bums will reach in for said balls, often in a highly unsportsman-like manner, all but fighting for them.  (Of course if they’re enemy home runs, they’re thrown back.)  

But the real purpose of the basket was to actually catch fans.  Apparently back in the day, some presumably inebriated spectators would take to walking on the top of the wall.  This would inevitably result in the fan falling into the field of play.  It was a different game back then.  Of course, after a shirtless Harry Carey dropped on to the warning track one summer day when doing one of his trademark drunken broadcasts from the bleachers, something had to be done.  Since then, wall-walking has gone the way of Streaking and hula hoops and such.

(I was totally kidding about Harry Carey by the way, but it didn’t sound implausible did it?  You know, this whole story sounds a little fishy.  Maybe Len and JD were having a little fun with the viewers.)

Best crowd moment.  A casually dressed woman wearing a wedding veil holding up a sign, “Just Married.  Send help.”  Her presumed husband beside her with the sign, “And send beer.”  They were in bleachers.  Thank goodness for that basket.

Oh, and a game was played.  7-1 Cubs.

Meanwhile in more relevant games, the Rangers dropped another game to the Twins.  I was beside myself.  Eric Nadel, voice of the Rangers, is getting downright cranky.  Last week there was some sort of web controversy (as opposed to an actual controversy) over his comments that Yu Darvish isn’t a true number one starter, at least not now.  Late in this game, he seemed to all but give up with the team only down by a run, getting on to the players for bad plays earlier in the game. 

He took the team to task for a bad August where the team played about .500 ball against mostly sub .500 teams.  The A’s schedule next month features two series with Rangers and the rest of their games versus sub .500 teams.  The Rangers will be playing teams who may or may not be playing for playoff spots, but are definitely good teams in any case.  I’m also thinking the Angels, who certainly have talent, may play hard for some pride, especially against the Rangers.  Eric, who’s seen an awful lot of Ranger baseball, may be foreseeing a bad end.  I wonder how his partner, Matt Hicks, is digesting all of this? 

The Dodgers won again.  I might be getting nervous about my dire predictions concerning their post season, but will not admit to it.  At the beginning of the Cubs’ broadcast, they mentioned that the Phillies had traded Michael Young to the Dodgers.  Len and JD speculated that they got him so that he can DH in American League parks in the World Series.  Picking up an expensive veteran to DH on the assumption you’re going to the World Series?  You’ve got to be kidding me, but what other explanation is there?

They’ve also picked up Brian Wilson and a bunch of other good reclamation pitchers, not to mention all of the good players that they’ve got sitting on the DL and the bench.  Where are they going to play all of these guys?  Surely it will occur to management at some point, that they’ve accumulated an enormous amount of salary in redundant and washed up players without trading away anybody.  What is the plan for getting rid of these guys at some point?  Is there one?  It’s not my money or anything, but even the Yankees must be questioning this kind of overspending.    

An Actual Fantasy Core Playtest 8-31-13

[We’re temporarily suspending the Jianghu Setting posts for this important announcement.]

Okay, I’ve finally managed to playtest the Fantasy Core rules.  The short answer is that they seem to work.  Granted it was one test with first level characters, but the principles seemed more or less sound. 

My crashtest dummies, err. . . I mean victims, err . . . I mean playtesters were my co-worker Evan and his friend Victor.  Given that Evan has been reading these posts, I couldn’t use any of my posted adventure material.  Since this was on short notice, all I could do was use somebody else’s mega-dungeon and read encounters off a page.  Frankly, not my preferred style, and I quickly got bored with kicking in doors and raiding chambers.  For playtesting purposes though, this fit the bill.  Evan and Victor seemed to enjoy the play anyway, in spite of my lack of preparation and imagination.

The big question was about the spell use.  Doing away with Vancian spellcasting and having Wizards roll to cast a spell and giving their targets saving throws on just about everything was on trial.  Victor had some terrible luck with the dice, but the system seemed to work correctly.  Even with luckier rolling, things seemed tempered enough with the saving throws and reduced spell damage.  But importantly, the wizard could try to cast spells in every encounter and be a actual wizard.  At higher levels, the low-level spells will be easier to cast with elevated damage, while more potent spells will be harder to cast, with the potential of exhausting their power from repeated failures.  Still, it did seem that only needing a turn’s rest to regain full potency was too light a penalty. 

That resting penalty was a recurring problem.  Unlike Old School, the low-level party didn’t have to exit the dungeon after one trying encounter.  But this was replaced with taking a turn rest after EVERY encounter, to heal and reset powers.  This might not be as much as a problem as I think.  It could just be a function of not setting up chained encounters so that resting wouldn’t be possible.  In the real world (not that RPG combat really mirrors such a thing), combatants will want to rest after any fight anyway.  Still, it was a lot of stop and start dungeon crawling, with all Wandering Monster rolls during the rests coming up negative.  I hate Wandering Monsters, but was forced to do something during all these rests.  It seems like there should be some game-related, non-narrative penalty for excessive resting.

The guys doubled up and ran two characters.  Besides the Wizard, there was a Thief, a Barbarian, and a Paladin.  Briefly, the Rage rules didn’t seem to work well, in that they were easy to forget.  That might have been from playing two characters at once.  The Paladin’s Divine Light ability was highly abused in this dungeon full of undead, necessitating a recharge rest between encounters.  The Thief never seemed to get to shine, except as a sniper.  This was a function of the type of encounters, so more variety needs to be used.  I’m not sure if the Sneak and Surprise Attacks were used correctly either.

Though it’s been a long time since I’ve instructed anybody on character creation, but it seemed to go fairly quickly.  Thankfully, Evan and Victor already knew the basics of RPG’s.  The characters were probably above average from your typical D&D character, but I had them roll the stats in order, rather than choice, to make it interesting. 

Combat moved along quickly.  I think we went through about five encounters in an hour or so.  The guys weren’t putting up with any encounters with any chatty monsters, so that certainly sped things up.  Things seemed fairly balanced.  I wasn’t going for any TPK’s, but the easy encounters were pretty easy and the tough encounters did cause some sweat.  Those max damage attacks, like Paladin Smite, really kept combat with higher HP creatures from going long.  I’d still like those “minions” to disappear a little quicker, possibly so I could use more of them in an encounter. 

Given that the Knight and the Ranger, with multiple attacks (and parry) weren’t used, I wonder if that would have slowed combat down or sped it up.  Would the multiple attacks or parrys be forgotten in the heat of combat?  One of the monsters they faced had three attacks.  It didn’t slow anything down, but it was by itself.

No major changes will be in store for the next playtest, but I need to brush up on my own rules.  

ALMS The Streets of Baltimore 9-1-13

This is it, for me anyway.  The next two ALMS races are on cable, and I will presumably miss them.  Then next season will be the merger with Grand AM, and I think Fox Sports 1 will be carrying their races.  Unless I get an expanded cable package, I’ll miss those races too.  It’s good that there won’t be two competing series anymore for such a niche market, but the thought of actual Le Mans Prototypes racing against Daytona Prototypes, makes my skin crawl.  What’s worst, LMP is likely to be hobbled to not make the DP cars look bad, and then eventually they’ll just be phased out.  Maybe it’s better I don’t see anymore top-level sports car racing in this country. 

This wasn’t the race I would want to remember the series by.  For starters (oh, you knew this coming, just sit back and enjoy it), Kelli Stavast was absent from the broadcast.  This is disheartening in every possible emotional way for me.  She did a little promo video on the ALMS website for this race, why wasn’t she there in the pits?  Why?  Why?  I wonder if I’ll ever see her again.  Kelli was replaced by Justin Bell.  The reason I remembered his name was because the first thing he did on the pre-race was name-drop his famous father, Derek Bell.  Good thinking for promotional purposes; a bad move for any earning credibility on your own.

For a street race, even in Baltimore, the start of the race was a new low in excitement.  The first, field-clearing wreck happened, BEFORE the green flag.  You see, because of some train tracks (the bane of all street races) on the front stretch, they inserted a chicane in the middle of this straight, high-speed section to slow down the cars to avoid damaging them on the tracks.  Instead, the cars were damaged in more creative ways. 

For the start of race, the cars were supposed to parade, double file directly past the chicane, instead of through it.  One car hit the back of another during the start, and there was a spin and nine cars were damaged in a complete track-blocking melee that delayed the restart for an hour.  There’s a Ferrari, a Viper, and some Porsches in the scrap pile.  At least the in-car crash footage was impressive. 

Several hundreds of thousands of dollars in repair damage later (little wonder the Delta Wing didn’t show up), the race resumed.  They actually got past Turn 1 before having the next large wreck, but this one only brought out a full course caution.  The killer chicane was not through with the field however. One of the Corvettes got it’s front end realigned.  (Didn’t hurt the car’s speed though, it actually held the overall race lead for a short time, and it won in class.)  Later, after yet another full course caution, the tire barrier around the chicane had been banged around bad enough to where it had to be moved back to its original position.  On the restart, the leading prototype banged right into it and knocked it off to the side again, and of course, damaged the car. 

After the driver change later in the race, the two drivers involved in the incident at the start of the race were interviewed.  Both cited different rules laid down in the driver’s meeting for how the race start was supposed to be conducted to explain their driving.  In other words, the problem was with race layout and the rules.  Yeah, it’s kind of cool watching sports cars go all “Dukes of Hazard” up on two wheels as they all end up hitting the chicane too fast, but it’s not good for the cars or continuous racing action. 

Here’s a better idea, when the contract runs out on this venue, don’t renew it.  In fact, go ahead and cancel all the street races, except for Long Beach (not that it’s good race, but it’s historical).  Put that Cleveland Airport race on the schedule again (if it’s still there).  Yeah, it’s ugly with no elevation changes and laid out with a bunch of orange cones, but the race is good and there’s no damn train tracks. 

Well, goodbye ALMS.  You know in spite of my bitching, I did actually enjoy the race.  You guys put out a good product.  I hope the new series takes more after you guys than Grand Am.  Goodbye Kelli, wherever you are.  I’ll miss you.