LOOKING BACK AT 2001

    There is not much else I can say about the past year of SMK Time Trials apart from.....AMAZING! It has been a fantastic year all round. There has not been a week where there was inactivity in SMK! I must thank you all for participating, you have all done really great. I must thank all the players from France, who started joing a year ago from now, as they really made the competition on PAL great. And to al the new NTSC Karters who have set some really fast times, including the famous sub 1'00"00 on MC1, along with many other super WRs! We have yet to find out the fastest SMK players in many other countries. So far we have players from U.S.A, Canada, U.K, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden and Australia, which is great but we are still searching for more fast players from around the world. We are still also searching for the Japanese SMK World Record times. It is likely that there may be some Japanese sites with their NTSC records, but we will have to keep looking. It may be best to contact someone in Japan to find out what the records are.

    SMK has been around for over 9 years now and is still going strong. We can clearly see that we have so much to look forward to, even if we are not competing for World Records, but just for certain standards or ranks. Maybe some players would like to reach #1 in their country. But in the end of the day, the reason for all this is mainly for the fun of it, and it is great to meet and communicate with so many people online. I have made many friends over the internet, a lot of them who share the interest in SMK, and im sure you all have too. Many of us chat on AOL instant messenger (AIM), but a lot of us also dont, so it would be great also if more of you sign up and join. Go to www.aol.com to download the necessary programs to use AOL messenger.

    Lets continue to keep SMK Time Trials alive, we have done so well so far, congratulations to everyone! Have a super new year and keep on karting!

UPDATES THIS WEEK

    There hasnt been a lot of PRs sent in this week, but I guess we were all enjoying the Christmas and New Year period. Still the last week of 2001 wasnt left unPr'ed. Simon Laflamme didn't give up on his chances at CI1, as he has driven 0'57"96 and 0'11"44 on Choco Island 1!! The previous lap record was held by Stanley Jeram who is slowly losing more World Records. Kent Marten also from Canada was the only other NTSC member sending in new times this week, he improved some times on DP1, BC1 and GV3 and got moved up to Master D. He has potential for the Elites some day, maybe soon!

    Matthieu Cruypenninck improved on 14 of his records, cutting off quite a few points here and there. The times were mainly Master to Elite, but he drove a King G on BC2 lap and a pair of King times on Rainbow Road. He climbed to Elite E and reached #37 on the PAL Players' List. Jérôme Gava returned to SMK, and hit 4 great PRs on BC1 and BC2, the BC2 lap being a nice GOD time! His BC1 went under 1'30"00, so he joins more players there and has a great lap record to go with it. Gava is now ranked at #5 in the World on PAL, #3 in France (after passing Pierre) and has also made it to Legend D overall!

    Dan Hooper has taken over updating his own profile now, which will save me a bit of time. Just letting you all know that if you wish to update your own profiles, that is fine, but you still have to send in your PRs because I am updating the Top Times. Dan's performance this week was great with a super set of PRs on KB2, the lap being a GOD time and many other records taking him all the way up to King B. He had a tied SR with Pereda, but won on matchups so he gained the #12 position on PAL! Andrew Kent has been focusing on MKSC more nowadays but has found the time to improve well on a few courses. He is now getting much closer to Ademir Cortes, it is only a matter of time before Andrew Kent becomes #1 in Australia! Thorsten Fellberg only made two recrods this week on VL2, but they were good and cut some more points off. As a result Thorsten is a King C karter, now he is just making his way towards Björn Kühn, the SMK champion of Germany. Björn sent an e-mail this week informing us that he has been busy but would like to get into SMK again, so we may get some PRs from him sometime soon.

    Lars Nouwen made less records this week but is still ready to improve further, 11 SR points off moved him further up through King G. His PRs were on MC1, DP1, MC3 and DP3. DP3 looked very good on both course and lap! Mike Groels told us he had a goal to reach Master G before the end of the year, sadly he missed this goal, but is still going to do great with his new PRs. The 7 PRs he sent in this week were a nice set of Pro and Master times, so he is well on the way with his Pro A overall standard so far!

NEW MEMBER

    Thorsten Fellberg has recruited a new member to the SMK site! He has some great times on some of the courses so far! His name is Sven Necker, also a PAL driver from Germany. His overall standard is currently Master C overall and he is #46 in the PAL World Rankings! Welcome to the site Sven!

UPDATES THIS WEEK

    Many Karters with a lot of PRs sent in this week, so it has been quite busy! Next week I have exams but they finish on Thursday so I should be able to update as normal that day, no problem. I was kinda worried about that. Anyway, Archibald Lefevre is continuing to reach new levels in SMK, this week with a new PAL WR passing Sami Çetin by 0.01 on Choco Island 2 Lap with 0'14"26! He also improved the 5-lap pretty close to the WR there aswell! He may even be able to take it soon. With the great success of 1'07" times on NTSC, it will be possible to break 1'12" on PAL, but extremely difficult! Jérôme Gava has continued to Kart since his return and is aiming for some fast times, with nice quick improvements on the Choco Islands, he is slowly catching the players in front of him.

    In the Netherlands Michael Jongerius has not given up his PRs! He returned back to SMK after some MK64 and has improved on many of his lap records this time hitting a few GOD times and some Legends. He is getting closer to Legend C overall, but still has some more points to pass. Lars Nouwen..... well this guys on fire!!! Just when we thought the other week he was slowing down when he reached King G, wrong again!! He has made a total 26 new PRs and a nice big SR cut! These records included strong King times including MC1 passing towards low 1'02"s! Lars Nouwen is now a King E overall standard karter and has reached #22 in the World on PAL!!

    Andrew Livingston is still hitting a lot of new records including some nice improvements with the jump on GV1 and some Legend times on the Koopa Beaches. He is now at the King C overall standard, and a very fast karter from U.S.A. He looks set to be a Legend sometime soon. Go for it Andrew! Again not much NTSC activity this week, but Kent Marten is picking up the pace a lot more now! He is getting there with more Master times and a few Elite! He played mainly the Bowser Castles but some other courses to. He was getting close to the next standard but didnt reach it just yet, but has moved up a position on the NTSC Players' List to #46.

    With the success of Dan Hooper and his fast records from the previous weeks, King standard karter and #3 in the U.K, Neil Rowntree returned to SMK to give Dan's PRs a run for their money. 16 new records seems like a great new start for Neil, some of which were really good (Legend times). He straight away climbed to King D and #20 on the PAL Players' List! Champion of Switzerland, Raphael Braun has passed Steven Zwartjes! He drove some nice MC records, including 1'01"8X for MC1 and a sub 1'42" on MC4! Some nice Legend times around! He now ranks at #8 in the World on PAL. Thorsten Fellberg is very very close now to becoming #1 in Germany! If he makes enough PRs in the next week, that cut enough SR points off, he could make it! So far he is #15 in the World on PAL and remains at King C. He drove a Legend G time for KB1 lap which was good!

NEW MEMBER

    We have a new member from France this week to the PAL section. Matthieu Cruypenninck has recruited his cousin Julien David to the SMK site! Julien has made some good records so far; he is ranked at #48 on the PAL Players' List and Pro A overall. Welcome to the site Julien!

UPDATES THIS WEEK

    Some crazy World Records this week from both PAL and NTSC sides! To start off with, Pierre L'Hoëst returned from a short break of SMK, and has now improved on several courses! His result in SR moved him up to #5 in the World on PAL ahead of Gava, thus making him #3 in France again. This wasn't the surpise! After figuring out the moves on Koopa Beach 1, he went and took both of Sami Çetin's World Records in style! His new times stand at 0'59"10 and a fastlap of 0'11"17!! In Canada, Simon Laflamme made yet another pair of WRs, one of them previously held by Stanley Jeram who is losing more and more WRs. Donut Plains 1 was the track, and Simon's aim was to reach GOD times for both. It looks like he did pretty well so far! His records stand at 1'15"34 and 0'14"87! Once again, Kent Marten has impressed us with his weekly improvements. He is the only other active NTSC karter at the moment, but will be reaching the Elites soon as mentioned last week. He karted more courses this week, and has climbed to Master B overall and #44 on the NTSC Players' List.

    Matthieu Cruypenninck took over this week in terms of number of PRs made, altogether his PRs totalled 24. He is hitting more of his times in the Kings now, so we can see exactly where he is headed! His overall standard is now at Elite B and #31 overall. Jérôme Gava improved on two PRs this week, but they were really good! Choco Island 1 has been under attck here for real, with his Legend B and D times. Jérôme got passed by Pierre this week but still cut some points down here that will keep him going strong. Serge Ludescher has returned again for more new records, this time concentrating on the Donut Plains courses. He has made 3 Elite times and 3 King times. It has been an important week for him as he is now King G overall and #28.

    Andrew Kent has made it! He has become #1 in Australia!! Congratulations Andrew! With his great performance on DP1, GV2, DP2, BC3 and VL2 he cut enough points down to pass Ademir Cortes and reach King B overall! He says that he still has more goals to reach, and it is clear that with some of the times he has been hitting, he does stand a great chance at Legend G! Lars Nouwen hasn't stopped playing SMK! We are soon gonna warn some of the top Dutch Karters in the Legends because if Lars carries on, they are under serious threat! His weakest standards are in the Kings, and he is hitting a few more Legends. But his greatest achievement so far is his first GOD time, on VL1 fastlap! He even got some bonus points in! Lars is now a King D overall karter and has climbed to #21. There are many karters just in front pretty close on SR points. Another climb like this and he will move up much further in the ladder! Michael Jongerius, the Champion of the Netherlands has been extending his lead on Roodhorst and other karters below him. Infact he is on the way to catching Lefevre, who is not too far in front now.... All he hit were 4 GOD times, KB2 being a great improvement. He is looking dangerous in every posible way also on BC3 and VL2 fastlaps! Jongerius stands at Legend C overall now.

UPDATES THIS WEEK

    Activity in SMK this week has been only on the PAL version. There was very little to start the week off, but then it got very competitive yesterday. We didnt have any new World Records, but some great PRs were still made! Lars Nouwen hit again a lot of races very well indeed. Most of his times still getting through the Kings, but he hit a few Legend which were good! He has threatened the King C Karters now as he lands with a 9.675 SR and is #19 in the World on PAL. Dutch Champion Michael Jongerius is really working hard on some of those PRs and is strengthening his VL1 times in the GOD standard. He also reached a sub 1'03" on GV2 which was also a GOD time. He is closing in on Archibald now, so he better watch his rear mirrors! Andrew Kent, the Champion of Australia has not stopped PR'ing since last weeks' success. He has worked on key areas where he needs to improve. Rainbow Road caused a few problems, but he definitely has the ability to reach his targets. Andrew is currently very busy, but will be making a run towards King A, but it seems he may not wish to continue to recah Legend G. He definitely has the potential without doubt, as he has made it through to past half-way in King B, and #12 on PAL!

    Julien David suprised us all this week with an all new set of PRs on most courses! These were great big improvements too. Just as a reminder, he is the cousin of Matthieu. Julien cut an amazing 331 points down, which moved him up to Elite G straight away! He didnt even stop in the Masters! So here we have it, another karter with some serious potential to look out for! Matthieu Cruypenninck once again didn't leave a week without some new records. These consisted of Elite records and some Kings. It is now very certain that he will reach the Kings soon as he is now Elite A and #30 on the PAL Players List. He is also #12 in France. Jérôme Gava sent in some new records again to challenge the Legends. His VL1 lap is getting him great bonus points! He was a little behind on MC1, but that is slowly getting faster, and he made a 1/5 jump on GV1 with a nice little PR there. He has also shown what he is made of on MC2 with a great 1'17" time! Gava is very close behind Pierre, so the fight for #3 in France continues.....

    Great news this week in Germany, because they have a new Champion, Thorsten Fellberg! Thorsten made 8 new records that shaved enough SR points off to take him just ahead of Kühn. These included Legend and King times altogether. He has certain goals this year which are to keep himself as Champion of Germany. This he said will be hard of Kühn returns, but he would also like to make his way towards the Legends. Sven Necker has now improved some records. He was also a recently joined member to the site, and has already cut a lot of points off on just a few courses! These were CI2, BC3 and GV3. Those PRs alone helped him to climb to Master A overall and #45 on the PAL list. In Switzerland, Serge Ludescher drove 9 new times, all of Elite and King times except GV2 lap reaching Legend. One of his times was for GV1 lap in which he managed to hit the jump to the platform 4 times, however he was unable to complete a 5-lap race with the jump for an improved 5-lap PR. Serge has managed to scrape into King F overall with his latest PRs.

ADDITIONS TO SMK PHOTO GALLERY!

    I finally managed to get Lars Nouwen's updated photograph added to the SMK Photo gallery. I cant remember what i did, but it is working now. I also added some other pics. One of Michael Liem and a group photo from an old MK64 meeting of Rene & Peter Elsässer, and also Steven Zwartjes.

UPDATES THIS WEEK

    There have been some super new World Records made even though we had less active karters than previous weeks! Simon Laflamme wanted DP1 so badly and he got where he wanted to with a pair of GOD times....his lap was insane!! The times were 1'15"16 and 0'14"80!! He is now almost at -3 SR score, which on NTSC seems really unbeatable for now. He currently continues to kart and set more WRs! Michael Jongerius is the karter with the top story this week! He drove an amazing 16 new records altogether! 8 of them were Legend times, and 8 were GOD times. He managed to drive two PAL WR ties!! These were on BC1 lap with 0'17"75 and for one of his already strong courses, DP2 lap with 0'17"49! He has also made another great achievement. As a result of his mass PRing and huge SR cut, he has not only become Legend B overall, but has also passed Nicolas Clementy (Champion of France) for #2 in the World on PAL!!

    In France we had 3 active karters this week. Julien David drove the most PRs, most of which were Elite times with Masters and a few Kings. He passed up the ladder to #38 and is further now in the Elites group at Elite E overall. We look forward to hearing of his further PRs. Matthieu Cruypenninck drove less records but some of them were really good. MC1 is now getting that bit closer to the 1'02"00 barrier, so he may get there to a 1'01" soon and there is still plenty of potential left. He has landed dead on at 14.000 SR which makes him a King G SMK player overall. Jérôme Gava sent in 2 PRs this week. They were on Donut Plains 2, and were nice cuts too! They were enough to help him pass Pierre and reach Legend C.

    Andrew Livingston has returned from a short break to continue making great progress in NTSC SMK. He got a pair of GOD times on CI2 along with many other King times and some Legends. His MC1 is getting really good now, the lap in particular. He has also tested out GV1 lap quite a lot and made some nice results there too! He has climbed past the King C karters and landed on King B and # 13 in the World on NTSC. Kent Marten is still on his mission to reach the Elites, and has this week gained another place on the list with his 7 new records. His Elite times on GV2 look great so far, we look forward to seeing more Elite times from him soon. He almost reached the Master A standard, but was only 5 points short. Andrew Kent has been trying to reach the last goals that he has left. One of them was a sub 1'29" on Rainbow Road. After several hours of trying, he worked out his potential which is now even under 1'28"! So far he reached the goal and drove a nice lap to go with it.

Continue to February 2002