SITE CLEANUP NEWS

    The NTSC lists are finally sorted and there are 69 members on NTSC now, so lets get recruiting some more karters there!

NEW MEMBER

    One new PAL member this week. Duarte-Leite Frederic from France sends in all of his times, and he has entered the PAL World Rankings at #54 with an overall standard of Elite D.

PR UPDATES

    7 active karters but a lot of activity still this week. The karter that took the lead this week is Karel van Duijvenboden from the Netherlands. He has been working hard on all of his strats on most courses and has chopped off a good few seconds on nearly all. He climbed all the way up to King F overall standard and #41 on the PAL World Rankings. He is now also #7 in the Netherlands. Two British karters kept active this week. Matthew McCarthy worked hard on some courses covering all the cups. Some of them were weaker times pushed into the higher Kings and others were strong Legends. He has cut his way closer to Legend C overall, some more seconds off will get him there soon. Gavin Ward has again been attacking MC1 for that 1'02"00 barrier. He is getting closer and has passed British karter, Neil Rowntree for #5 in the U.K and #33 on PAL.

    On NTSC we have Aaron Miarka once again setting PRs at high standard. We expect the see him reach the Legends soon as he climbs to King C overall not far from King B and his NTSC World Ranking which is now #29. Dean Barnhart has also been climbing far by reaching the Pro A standard and passing more karters this time to #58 on NTSC. Legend karter Ray Bergstrom hit DP1 well this week with a pair of Legend C times that helped him break away from Sunderland. Jason Fraser returned with a solid Legend D BC1 time and is chipping his way closer to GOD standard overall.

FRENCH TOURNAMENT 2003

    We received an email from Camille Batier who has reported to us the French Tournament this year that took place in Nancy, France. There were quite a few players who competed this year in the SMK tournament on Match Race, Battle Mode and GP 150cc races; the final results were as follows:

1st:    Jérôme Gava

2nd:    Thomas Bouctot

3rd:    Pierre L'Hoëst

4th:    Harold Christensen

5th:    Cédric Leutwyler

6th:    Nicolas Hofmann

7th:    Bertrand Voireuchon

8th:    Camille Batier

9th:    Martin Ricci

10th:    Nicolas Merny

11th:    Raphael Braun

12th:    Jérémie Vautrey

13th:    Sébastien Brusset

Winner of Match Race:    Jérôme Gava

Winner of Battle Mode:   Harold Christensen

Winner of GP 100cc:    Jérôme Gava

Those were the results for this years competition, well done to all who competed. Looking forward to next year!

PR UPDATES

    A new PAL WR this week by French Champion Pierre L'Hoëst as he takes BC3 1-lap down a millisecond to 0'17"94! Well done! Also on PAL, Karel van Duijvenboden continues his strong PRs, destroying his VL2 times and putting others into the higher Kings. He made it to King E overall and #37 on PAL. Sven Necker improved his VL2 records nicely that helped him to move to Elite A and #47 on PAL. He'll be in the Kings soon! Gavin Ward fainally broke the 1'02" barrier on MC1 with a 1'01"96 this week, cutting a few SR points off.

    NTSC activity was strong as with PAL again this week with Aaron Miarka hitting times on his way to the Legends with a fast looking GOD VL2 5-lap. His overall standard is now King B overall and he is #24 on NTSC. Colombian Champion, Juan Arévalo had some competition this week with Jason Fraser as they are both very near the GOD standard overall. Juan improved greatly on VL1 while Jason improved on VL2. Juan remains in front at the moment. Tommy Dickinson, who joined us in the high Kings this week made it to King A overall with his fast new MC1 times that he has been working on. With further improvements on other courses we may see him reach the Legends soon. Competition from Miarka is very close aswell for Tommy.

NEW MEMBERS

    Two new members joining the SMK site this week, one to PAL and one for NTSC.

    On PAL we have Dirk Wegener's brother, Daan Wegener from the Netherlands who has completed his list of records and sent them in this week. His overall standard so far is Master F and he is #67 in the World on PAL and #11 in the Netherlands.

    On NTSC from U.S.A we have Anthony Patterson who has entered to NTSC Players List at #69 with an NTSC Overall standard of Advanced G.

PR UPDATES

    It has been a busy week for some of NTSC strong King players as some have been making their way into the Legends. A return from Dirk Olson was great to see as he stormed into the Legends with his long list of strong PRs, mostly Legends and some GODs. Dirk reached Legend F overall, #8 in U.S.A and #17 in the World on NTSC! Tommy Dickinson was not far behind as his strong Kings and Legend/GOD PRs also put him on the Legend map at Legend G overall and #21 on NTSC! Not far behind Tommy, Aaron Miarka made some small cuts off 8 of his PRs that got him up to #24 on NTSC, he will reach King A very soon. Yves Daniel dropped by to send some records in that are of high standard and has cut off 8 SR points to put him a bit closer to the players above.

    Ray Bergstrom cut DP1 really tight after some hard work on it and has cut his PRs down to GOD times which helped his SR score a bit further in Legend G. Dean Barnhart improved Rainbow Road well and passed Chris Anujamol for #57 on NTSC. We had one active PAL member this week, Duarte-Leite Frederic of France who has been very active in setting PRs and has jumped into the Kings at King F overall standard and #42 on NTSC.

SITE CHANGES AND NON-GRASSBOOST SITE

    It has been a busy week with karters in constant discussion and sometimes arguments over the current grass boost situation. Basically we have a group of karters who wished to have the site based on non-grass boosting. So far 42 people have said that they would prefer the site to stay as it is. So what has been requested is a webiste for non-grassboosters so that they can compete with their own WRs list, players list, news updates etc. This discussion led to many complications which is why it is taking its time. But after talks with Simon Laflamme we are hoping to come to some sort of agreement to what the extent of features will be on the new non-grassboost site. For example, many karters (mainly from the list who have replied wanting to keep the site the same) do not wish to be copied over to the new site. It is believed that the new site will bring a great deal of competition back, if that is the case then new members should pour in to it easily, and then there is no need for making a complete copy of the non-boosters on this main site (mainly 80% - 85%) of the site. This is how some karters feel at the moment. So the discussion goes on, but i have more or less told people that i will not take part in the creation/updating of the non-grass boost site. So others will do it, perhaps a group of people. As it is complicated, it may take a little longer before something can be put together. If you want any more info on the latest, then send an email to yahoogroups where the karters have been discussing it if you want to add your thoughts/ideas, to perhaps speed up this matter and come to an agreeable solution to a new site that can co-exist with this one without interference.

    The second matter is improvements to this current site. Some new standards above King and sometimes down to Elite on most courses are being written. Time after time it was left because of the danger of constantly finding new strats and having to constantly improve standards. But with the grass boosts i have to do something that will help make the standards look more real in relation to the times we are setting. The bonus points are also going to be stopped to avoid many of these GOD -20 things happening, these leads on to the next change which is the ranking system. Myself and Simon Laflamme have decided upon an approach a bit similar to that of the Mario Kart 64 site, where the total times and average finish is mixed together but a percentage will be given. This will determine the order of the players list. Standards will still exist but will not have a part in the ranking order of the Players List. The only small problem that may be left which exists in the MK64 players list is that for example we may have a Legend C karter ranked below a Legend D karter. The pattern is correct throughout the list but we may have a few occurences of this. Not a big problem. Simon Laflamme is currently formulating some sort of Excel file to help with these calculations; once tested in all methods possible it can be used. The next big job will be to re-adjust all the rankings on the site. I am hoping to get this up and working at the same time that the re-adjusted upper standards are ready.

NEW MEMBER

    One new PAL member this week from the U.K. Alex Pitera joins the PAL World Rankings at #99 with an overall standard of Intermediate F.

PR UPDATES

    Daan Wegener, after joining in PAL last week has been hitting his weaker courses and chopping off a lot of points that have earned him a place at #65 on the PAL Players' List and Master A overall standard. He will reach the Elites by next week i'd imagine. French Champion, Pierre L'Hoëst improved for of his PRs, a pair of fast times for VL1 and also for RR that cut his point score a bit further away again from Videkull. Matthew McCarthy, one of U.K's top karters has set more records this week including a bit more success with the difficult KB1 strat. He has made it to Legend C and is now on the way to catching Roodhorst and Braun.

    On NTSC, Tommy Dickinson continued to cut off races like DP1 for faster times including a GOD fastlap. A few more of his times are going into the Legends as he makes it to Legend F overall standard. Aaron Miarka hit a fw more Legends and 3 GOD time improvements this week and has almost made it to King A. Dean Barnhart has been improving all his lap records this week as well as the full lot of MC1. His standard has now gone up to Master G overall, well done! Patrick Burke improved his VL1 times this week and cut down a couple of points. Ray Bergstrom improved one of his oldest PRs, GV1 lap in which he cut down the time a little. The jump is proving difficult, but in time Ray has been able to improve it further.

150cc RECORDS SITE CREATED

    Something new this week with a new 150cc records site that has been put up by a few of the French karters. So far a few are already competing on there. So if you have times you wish to send, send them to time150@tiscali.fr. Sébastien Holmière also informed me that they need a bit of help with updates, so if anyone would like to chip in and help, email Séb or Jérôme Gava and let them know. The link to the site is here, and above in the links area:

http://smkwr150.chez.tiscali.fr/index.php3

3 NEW MEMBERS

    U.K is taking over this week where new members are concerned! We have had 3 new PAL karters from the U.K joining the site after receiving a complete list of their times.

    First from Lancashire in the U.K, Jamie Stirzaker joins at Elite A overall standard and is looking forward to competing with the best soon. He ranks at #49 on PAL and #9 in the U.K.

    Second from South London is a recruit from Sami Çetin; Tom Gaffikin, some of you may know him from the Mario Kart 64 site or TS2 on the Gamecube has joined SMK this week. He used to own a copy of SMK years ago and was very skilled in it back in the day. After karting with Sami he has quickly put together a list of times, plenty of potential left, if he gets a copy of snes with smk soon we will see him improve quickly. Tom is currently Elite D overall standard with a PAL World Ranking of #56, a U.K Ranking of #10 and a London Ranking of #3.

    Our third new member is Ben Bryce, also form the U.K who makes his entry into the SMK site at #84 on PAL with a standard of Semi-Pro C overall.

PR UPDATES

    A more active week with 13 karters, some of them from long ago who have made a quick return with some suprises! On NTSC, Louis-Philippe Sabbagh suddenly attacked MC4 out of nowhere using boosts and took the WR to a sub 1'37" and a sub 19 second lap. He was then counter attacked by Jamie White as he did the same to land new NTSC WRs on MC4 with 1'36"06 and 0'18"64. Aaron Miarka continued his PRs on his way to Legend and is getting a step closer as he is now on King A. Ray Bergstrom cut off some points in his Legend G bracket with some good PRs on BC1 and CI1. Over on PAL, French Champion, Pierre L'Hoëst worked hard on Vanilla Lake 1 and earned himself both of the PAL WRs there, also breaking a great barrier for the fastlap! The records now stand at 0'53"74 and 0'09"91!

    Sébastien Holmière improved KB2 well and broke 1'04"00 in the process, he is slowly catching Kalle Videkull. Raphael Braun also played KB2 and managed to improve past the 1'03"00 barrier, also cutting down his lap record a little. He is nearly at Legend B overall. Not far behind Raphael and Gerard is British veteran karter Matthew McCarthy who has been on their trail for many weeks now. Matthew's KB1 times are getting better with the faster technique. Strong in Legend C, he is looking to pass retired Gerard Roodhorst soon. Also from the U.K who joined recently, Alex Pitera is hitting some PRs and has climbed to Intermediate D overall standard. Not far ahead of Alex are John Neville and Andrew Pinchen from Australia who joined the site a little while ago. They have been setting some new records to raise their standards higher. John has climbed to Advanced B overall and Andrew has cut some points closer to the next standard. We will see them improve again soon. Lastly we had a little battle between Dirk Wegener of the Netherlands and Magnus Andersson from Sweden. Magnus made a quick return with a good RR PR, Dirk's PRs manage to scrape him ahead of Magnus for #75 on PAL this week. Dirk has also climbed to Pro C overall.