G'Day fellow tuxers……. Its your interim host here once again…….. Its a sunny Saturday here right now…….…… Been a very quiet week has rained most of it……. Got wet on a few walks this week…….. One time it came down so heavy that by the time we got home from a walk both myself and Natasha looked like drowned rats……..

Natasha came running up to me the other day and jumped up and gave me a Collie Uppercut right in the Dick Trickle…….. That was not fun at all…..

Besides that its been very quiet……. Too cold and wet to do much at all this week…….


[+..••] As for gaming this week in Emulationville I played [+..••]

Arcade

Asterix (1992 Konami) - Beat 'em up


Console

Gran Turismo 4 (2004 Sony) - Sony PlayStation 2 - Sports (Racing)
NASCAR: Dirt to Daytona (2002 Infogrames) - Sony PlayStation 2 - Sports (Racing)
Vib-Ribbon (1999 Sony) - Sony PlayStation - Rhythm


PC

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004 Rockstar) - Steam - Action
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002 Rockstar) - Steam - Action
NASCAR Heat 5 (2020 Motorsport Games) - Steam - Sports (Racing)
Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun (2023 Focus Entertainment) - Steam - First Person Shooter


The Dick Trickles Racing Career: Part 18
NASCAR Dirt to Daytona: Part 18
Weekly Dirt Racing Series Season 2: Race 7

Intro music…... Hello and welcome to Left Turn Heaven..... Im Murray Eastlake and today im going to be bringing you all the action from the 2003 Weekly Dirt Racing Series: Round 7 of 10 here at Hastings Motorsports Park.......

Hasting Motorsports Park is 0.250 miles with 25 and 18 degrees of banking….. This short high banked dirt track is the Bristol of the Dirt….. Horsepower is not as important here……. Getting the car to turn in and carry corner speed is just as important if you want to have good lap times here…..

Last week Dick Trickle put on a clinic……. As he showed just how talented he is….. Not only winning by over one lap on the fastest race track on the calendar…… But also not putting a wheel wrong and bringing the car home with zero damage…… Thats two races in a row Dick Trickle has been perfect…...

Second in the championship standings Ted Finger was third last week……. And time is running out for him as he really needs a win here to realistically stay in the championship hunt…..

Defending champion Josh Ginter was so far down the list last week I needed binoculars to see him……. As he finished down in ninth…… His worst finish for the year and that just about ends his championship hopes…….

With only four races left there is not much time for Ted Finger to catch Dick……. Can he do it or will Dick prove to be the hardest one out there and take his seventh straight win this season???

Dont touch the sets...... Dont touch the dials...... You wont want to miss a single moment of the 2003 Weekly Dirt Racing Series action....… Practice and qualifying are coming up right now…...



Hastings Motorsports Park…...



Dick Trickle at the track ready to race.…

Practice was a mixed bag for Dick…….. He was fast thats for sure…… But he was unable to get any decent laps in as the track is so small and with 20 cars out there also practising….. Finding space was very hard…… even more so when you have a top teir car……..

Qualifying rolled around……. And Dick Trickle set a time of 15.644……. To top the time sheets…… Sam Peterson was second with 15.871……..

Matthew Kato was third with a time off 16.176……… The man fighting Dick for the championship…… Ted Finger could only manage seventh with 16.981 and the defending champion Josh Ginter had another terrible qualifying result…… 17.611 which was good enough to get ninth…….

This is a disaster for Ted Finger who really needs a win to stay in the championship hunt…. Dick Trickle could be in for a good points haul over Ted Finger unless Ted can find some race pace….. And so far Ted has shown no signs of having any pace here at Hastings…….


Qualifying Results........

The green flag dropped for the 5 lap Heat 1 race…….. Dick limped off the start line……. As Matthew Kato had a great start to get the jump on Dick…….. But as per usual Tricky Dicky was not to be left behind for long……

As the pack exited turn two Dick Trickle was back in the lead and was stretching it further down the back straight…….

Matthew Kato and John Rafter had a ding dong battle for the entire 5 laps…… With Matthew Kato just edging out John Rafter 0.03 of a second…..

But as we have seen in every race this year…… Dick Trickle won the race easily……. As he lead the field home by 3.8 seconds……..

Ted Finger still has not shown shown any pace this weekend……... started fourth in the heat race and finished fourth……. So he will start in seventh in the A Main final…… Josh Ginter was right behind him in fifth…...


Heat 1 Results....…



Dick Trickle lined up ready to start the A Main......

The green flag dropped for the start of the 50 lap A Main final……. As per usual on this track the outside line got a good jump…… But Dick hung low and was able to get a real good run through turns one and two…….. And exited turn two as the leader……

Sam Peterson had no answers as he lost touch of Dick in the early laps…… Falling through the field to finish in sixth……

Matthew Kato took over second place and was having a good battle with John Rafter again……. Until Rafter hit a lapped car……. Damaging the car just enough to put him out of contention for second place…… He soldiered on and managed to get a good fourth place finish…….

David Brandt took over third place…… But he was no match for Matthew Kato……. With Kato and Brandt finishing in a comfortable second and third place respectively……

Josh Ginter gained a few places throughout the race and was able to nab a top five finish in the dying stages of the race……. Bringing his car home in fifth place……. Still way off the pace….. three laps behind the winner……

Ted Finger who desperately needing a good result today……. Had a day to forget thats for sure…… Starting seventh in the race…… He struggled all race long as he managed to gain zero positions in the race……. He ended up losing a spot to Dan Diamond in the last few laps to bring car home in a VERY disappointing eighth place……. His worst result of the season and the first time this season he has finished outside of the top five…...

But the man the hour was Dick Trickle as he again drove a very well controlled race to win by one lap over Matthew Kato……. Unlike previous weeks there was some damage to the Infogrames Flaming Dick Machine……. As there was some beating and banging with lapped traffic on this small track…….

I caught Dick in the winners circle after the race and congratulated him on yet another race win and asked for his thoughts about the race………. “Thanks Murray…….. The car was really good again…… Practice was really hard as the small track means theres not much room out there to run without another car being in the way…….. But I managed to put together a good enough setup to snag pole and win the race so I cant complain to much…..”

“I had a rather smooth race…….. Took the lead early as per usual this season but the lapped traffic was a bit of a problem though……. This small high banked track makes it really hard to get around other cars cleanly….. There was more beating and banging than I wanted to do but thats the nature of tracks like this….. Spectators love to see it but as a car owner it just hurts the ol hip pocket…… I suffered from some minor radiator damage that made the engine a tad hotter than I wanted…… I managed to nurse it home thanks to the huge lead I had built up…….”

“It was a fantastic day for the championship…….. Ted [Finger] finished way down the list….. Im not sure where yet as I have not seen the full results…..”

I then informed Dick that Ted Finger had finished in eighth place in the race……

“Fair dinkum???…… Thats fantastic news Murray……… That would mean I have around a 230-ish point lead in the championship…….. Roll on next week…… I have good history at Kingsfield Raceway…… The place where I got my first career win last year and I have already won there this season……. I have a good shot of wrapping up the championship next week……. I just need to stay focused and drive the way I have been all year and I will be in with a real shot to do that…… You better get that fat lady ready to start signing Murray…...”

Dick Trickle then celebrated his seventh straight win by making his family and friends all moist and sticky as Dick sprayed everyone……. With champagne…… We might even speak to some of the them if he wraps up the championship next week……. Dick extends his championship lead to 238 points…..

Next week the 2003 Weekly Dirt Racing Series heads to Kingsfield Raceway…… Dick Trickle has raced there three times in his Weekly Dirt Racing Series career…….. Getting two wins and a third placed finish…… My money would be on Dick Trickle to wrap up the championship next week…… But this is motorsport and anything can happen at any time…….

Can Dick Trickle do it???……. Can he win his eighth straight race this season????…… Or can Ted Finger bounce back and finally mount a real challenge???…… Ted is really the only one that can…… As Matthew Kato and Josh Ginter are effectively out of the running with Dick Trickle just needing to make the A Main next week to knock them out of contention……

Tune in next week for the answers to all these questions and more….. Exclusively here on Left Turn Heaven……..

This is Murray Eastlake reporting for Left Turn Heaven..... And until next time its goodbye from me....


A Main Results..…



Winnings.…



NASCAR Heat Weekly.…



2003 Weekly Dirt Racing Series Championship Standings after round 7 of 10.…







First lap A Main action....


Vib-Ribbon



Well after Jackass: The Game last week I decided to try another weird game in hopes I might find something…… good???…….

Vib-Ribbon is a minimalist rhythm game…… Looking like a game that would be more at home on the Vectrex……

The wireframe graphics do they really nice and give it a very unique look for the time…… Thats about all there is to say about the graphics as it is just a plain background with white lines….. Like I said…….. This game is minimalist……..

Sounds are quite good…… It uses their own music which is quite good…... But you could put in your own music CDs……. That can still be done an emulator but requires for audio cd or mp3 playlist to be converted into a bin and cue file……..

The controls are super simple……… The game only uses four buttons……. R1, L1, Down and X…….. Thats it……. It works well enough and the Vector Rabbit controls well enough with those controls…..

The storyline is also super simple…….. Tonight on Unsolved Mysteries…… A drunken vector rabbit named “Vibri”……. Is on his way home after a night out on the turps…… And is up to you the player to get him home safely……. By avoiding obstacles on the path as he drunkenly walks home……. And perhaps you can solve a mystery and find out who is giving alcohol to vector rabbits……. Because after playing this…… You might need some……

Actually there is no storyline at all…… So you get to make up your own storyline as you go along…… Maybe Vibri is really going home drunk from the pub or on his way to a booty call….. Or maybe he just lives in a really dangerous neighbourhood…… Or maybe…… April O’Neil has been kidnapped and hes on his way to rescue her…….. Its all up to your imagination…….

The game play is also minimalist………. There are four obstacles that need to be avoided they are……. High walls……. Pits……… Spikes……. And a loops…… Each button is used to get passed a specific obstacle…….. The rabbit moves on his own…… You just need to press the right button and the right time to avoid the obstacles…….

Its apparently done in the rhythm of the music…… But since I have the rhythm of a dead wallaby……… I have no idea if that is true or not………

If you have rhythm this could be fun……. But as ive already told you….. I dont…… So I found this game to be totally infuriatingly frustrating most of the time……

Overall this is quite a good game and I could see you having quite a bit of fun with it if you could import your own music tracks and had any rhythm at all…… Its really unique art style really does a great job as well……. Give it a go for sure if you like rhythm games……...


Vib-Ribbon


Next week…… I really need to get out some……. I hope the rain stops so I can get out more……..

As for gaming there will be more hardcore Dick Trickle racing action in NASCAR: Dirt to Daytona……. Killing more heretic scum in Warhammer 40K Boltgun…….. And I will hopefully finish my stupid quest of making a setup for every car at every track in NASCAR Heat 5……

Current setup checklist…...
Cup: 29 of 30
Xfinity: 29 of 30
Truck: 30 of 31
Dirt: 9 of 9

Well thats it from me…… Hope all you tuxers have a good week……

Now for my bad joke of the week……
Little known fact....... Before the crowbar was invented....... Crows simply drank at home......
*ba dum.... tssssh…...*