View from the Front
Despite its popularity, Formula De nearly died as an
orphan event for 2003. I decided it was a simple enough event
for a first-time GM and stepped in to do the deed. Due to my
lack of experience, I decided to carry over last year's format.
It is simple enough: all heat winners advance to the final with
second-place finishers filling out the field. Due to my laziness
and my desire to keep the number of first-place finishers to
no more than 10, I decided to scale back the tournament from
three heats to two. Two special rules were used for the tournament:
Redlining, which allows a car to use an engine point to move
one extra space, and Rallying to the Finish, which allows cars
with blown engines to try to limp across the finish line.
The
first heat was early at 9 AM Wednesday morning, but the turnout
was fair, with 26 players on four tracks. I let each table choose
their own tracks and Zandvoort, Monaco, Portland and Budapest
were played. The second heat was unfortunately scheduled for
4 PM Thursday and we found the Maryland room packed wall-to-wall
with Puerto Rico players. Nevertheless, there was a good
turnout of 37 players on six tracks, two of which had to be run
out in the hallway.
The tracks chosen were Kyalami, Hokenheim, Estoril, Monaco, Magny-Course,
and the special "Formula De 10th Anniversary Track. This
tricky and amusing track shows a racecourse snaking around a
drawing table covered with art
supplies. The results of the preliminary heats showed a correlation
between starting and finish positions, with five of the ten races
being won by the car starting in the first or second spot. However,
Steven May won both the heats he entered despite starting in
4th and 6th position.
Since Eurogames did not provide the special track and cars
as they had the previous year, I chose Interlagos for the final.
This is my favorite track as it's fast with tight turns at the
ends of the long straights. This track allows players to gamble
on big dice if they need to catch up, and I was hoping for some
excitement at the end. (And boy, did we have excitement!) The
plan was for a 10-player final with second-place finishers dicing
off for any open positions, but since six first-place and four
second-place qualifiers showed up, I decided to let them all
play. Everyone seemed happy with this decision and the players
started their engines. Steven May, as a two-heat winner, had
the choice of pole position if he wanted it. He declined in order
to keep "Good Karma, earning himself a Sportsmanship Nomination.
The race started out with a bang, literally, as about a half-dozen
debris markers littered the track before everyone had even made
it around the first turn. Due to the rough start, most racers
decided to pit at the end of the first lap. Chad Gormley, however,
saw the opportunity to take the lead and ran past the pits. Unfortunately,
he missed the turn by one space and was forced to redline. He
was able to make it around the second lap nursing his last engine
point and safely made it to the pits at the end of lap 2. The
second lap was as brutal as the first and car points were running
low going into the final lap. David Wong and Jason Carr ran out
of engine points and Brian Jones crashed spectacularly on the
infamous Descida do Lago turn. Coming toward the last turn both
Chad Gormley and Steven May were set up for a nice easy 4th gear
roll. But Ilan Woll was set up for 5th gear, so Chad and Steven
were forced to gear up or risk falling behind. With lucky rolls
both Chad and Steven made it through, Steven with no brake or
extra tire points remaining. Ilan turned out to be the unfortunate
one who rolled low and missed reaching the turn. Into the long
straight toward the finish both Chad and Steven rolled The Big
Blue Die for 6th gear and BOTH blew their engines! Distraught,
Chad was unable to finish, but Steven was close enough to use
the Rally to the Finish rules, crossing the line in 2nd gear
for the win.
|