formula de [Updated October 2003]  

2003 WBC Report  

 2004 Status: pending 2004 GM commitment

Steven May, MD

2003 Champion

2nd: Ilan Woll, CT

3rd: Barry Smith, NY

4th: Paul Murphy, UT

5th: Bob Runnicles, FL

6th: Mark Mitchell, VA

Event History
2000    Keith Levy     65
2001    Roderick Lee     80
2002    Barry Smith     58
2003    Steven May     50


Offsite links:

AREA Ratings

boardgamegeek

 Laurels
Rank Name

From

Last
Total
 1. Barry Smith

NY

03
62
 2. Lance Fogel

PA

02
42
 3. Robert Kircher

MA

02
38
 4. Steve May

MD

03
30
 5. Roderick Lee

CA

01
30
 6. Keith Levy

MD

00
30
 7. Ilan Woll

CT

03
18
 8. Matt Muir

MD

00
18
 9. Steve Field

IL

02
15
10. Brad Johnson

IL

02
13
11. Stan Buck

MD

00
12
12. Paul Murphy

UT

03
  9
13. Bill Dyer

IL

01
  9
14. Jim Rochford

IL

00
  9
15. Mark Mitchell

VA

03
  8
16. Bob Runnicles

FL

03
  6
17. David Wong

NJ

01
  6
18. Joe Wetherall

PA

00
  6
19. Eric Eshleman

PA

00
  3

Past Winners

Keith Levy - MD
2000

Roderick Lee - CA
2001

Barry Smith - NY
2002
 


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.

 GM      Dave Bohnenberger [1st Year]  1560 Parklane Rd, Swarthmore, PA 19081 
    dweeb@erols.com   610-541-0712

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