This is insane... 211 emails to Yahoogroups! Most since June 2001, cause of the Twin Galaxies contest. The way things are going, February will have a nuts amont of emails, even with less days that the rest of the months. There is so much to talk about here.
Cetin refuses to let Miller get the upper hand on YV while, while Penev silently sets a WR, and Lars closes in on Legend D.

King Ding Kongs aren't doing bad either, cause we got Chen, Y. Wijk and Wingert in a close battle, as Fairbourn looks on and than we got Gaffikin which is PRing at an insane rate. will he even be the next Legend, or will Chen do this?

Heck, maybe it won't even be a current King that makes legend first. Mark Jones, Stanley Jeram, Mike Nardone, New Member Chris Rayola, and we also got Veteran Eise Smit and Relatively new Marc Bruton. It's really anybody's race at this point.

I really thought the beginning of January was awesome, but this is just insane. Kart is really alive again, and it could be yet another great era. It really has been a long time since there has been so much excitement around here. Keep up the great karting folks, and if I missed anything on the PL update, contact me at KevinBooth1@attbi.com , and I will correct it on next PL update.

Monday, January 28, 2002 - Elite Wars! (Top100/ARR/AvgFin update) - by Michael at 1:00 pm
Activity in the elite ranks is exploding! New member Chris Rayola (who's well known from his achievements in games like Perfect Dark, Goldeneye, Donkey Kong 64) has joined the battle. He entered the site at an elite B rank. Mark Jones just managed to stay in front of him by getting various new King times. Mike Nardone and Stanley Jeram are still improving steadily and are going to reach Elite B soon. Eise Smit returned from inactivity, and is the highest ranked active elite player now. It will be interesting to see which of these players will be ahead at next update.

In other news: Sami Cetin got a nice Frappe Snowland improvement. Lars Nouwen got some PRs, including an amazing Choco Mountain SC flap time, that's 4th place in the world!
Yrvin van Wijk and Brent Wingert both got some PRs. Yrvin passed Wingert again. It looks like Chen might get passed soon by one of these 2 players.
In the lower ranks, Michael Linski and Marius Ancuta did some great work. Linski improved 15 places for #147 on nonSC AvgFin, just in front of Michael Poelzl. Ancuta improved 28 spots for a 114th place on that list!

Saturday, January 26, 2002 - PAL & NTSC Rankings Updated - by Michael at 3:45 am
The PAL and NTSC Top tables and Worldrankings are updated. Check them out. Congrats to Sami for reaching #2 on PAL! And welcome to the people who entered one of the ranking tables for the first time.

Friday, January 25, 2002 - PL updated - by Kevin at 10:58 pm
Just like to say that karting isn't just for the elites anymore. Kings and Legends are also making names for themselves. Also, you should check the top of the ladder... a top spot has just changed hands!

- POW done - by Ruokai at 2:13 pm
The POW is updated with the Player of the Week of the third week of January. This award is well deserved by Sami Cetin, who set some awesome PAL WR's an and overall WR on Rainbow Road!

Thursday, January 24, 2002 - Top 100s, ARRs & AvgFins updated - by Michael at 4:08 pm
Sami Cetin broke Steven Zwartjes' PAL Worldrecord on Wario Stadium 3lap, and just missed the overall Worldrecord by 0"02. His got close to Alex Penev in both ARR and AvgFin scores. Michael Liem has a 4-day PR streak going, which improved his stats significantly. Lars Nouwen cracked the 2'00"00 PAL time barrier on Luigi Raceway, and is also steadily improving his stats.
Tom Gaffikin got some great PRs, and finally reached King F! He also passed Beau Fairbourn in the process. The difference is only small, because Beau also got some PRs. Brent Wingert submitted some times, that edged him past Yrvin van Wijk again.
In the elite battle, school commitments are affecting the karting achievements of the 3 active Elite C players. Nevertheless, these 3 players were able to get their share of PRs again. And with the limited amount of time available, Mark Jones was able to succesfully defend his lead on Mike Nardone and Stanley Jeram.
Michael Poelzl climbed 4 places on the Shortcut AvgFin rankings. He's only 3 places behind Xavier San Giorgi. On the nonSC rankings, Xavier improved a little by moving to the 129th place.

Wednesday, January 23, 2002 - POW NEWS??? - by Kevin at 11:41 am
Ya, I changed the links for the 2001 and 2002 years. Ruokai Chen will be maintaining this page for now. I am gonna get the POW points situated in the near future.

- PL updated + POW news - by Kevin at 11:39 am
Ok, the players list is updated. Some movement in the King and Elites area so far, and some great stuff is happening. Liem already talked about some stuff, so I'm just gonna say a few things. It appears the Kings are starting to get active again, with Yrvin back. This might mean that the Kings are tired of the Elites stealing the excitement as of late, but what about the Legends? Cetin-Lacey-Liem really are back and are making some serious progress. Cetin may pass Penev for 3rd on the PL by next update, and of course, Cetin is setting Pal Wrs left and right. He even got an overall in Rainbow Lap. That is all for now, but the heavy inventory season is over, so I'll be updating/karting more frequently now.

Monday, January 21, 2002 - Top 100s, ARRs & AvgFins updated - by Michael at 5:14 pm
Some great news this update: Sami Cetin drove a new overall Worldrecord on Rainbow Road fastlap: 1'57"97 (1'38"11)! Sami showed us once again that he's the true Rainbow Road master. He also got some other great times, including 2 PAL WRs on WS flap and YV flap. He tied Gallo for 4th place in ARR, and he's getting close to Alex Penev in AvgFin, which improves his chances of reaching #3 on the nonSC Player List.
Other great news is the comeback of Ben Miller. He immediately catched a PAL WR Tie at YV flap. Unfortunately, Sami got back that WR within a few hours, but still this comeback was one in style. Michael Liem was the 3rd active PAL Legend player. He improved his Mario Raceway flap time.
The Elite battle was awesome again. Stanley Jeram and Mike Nardone kept climbing the rankings against eachother. Mark Jones felt the pressure, and he quickly got some PRs to succesfully defend his lead on those 2 players.
Yrvin van Wijk had a good week. Some nice PRs got him ahead of Brent Wingert on both ARR and AvgFin rankings. Tom Gaffikin made some PRs and is set to reach King F soon. Michael Jongerius, Michael Poelzl and Xavier San Giorgi were the other players who made some PRs.

Wednesday, January 16, 2002 - PL+Welcome Michael Linski - by Kevin at 2:38 pm
Anyhow, first off, a warm welcome to Michael Linski. He will be attempting to make Wisconson proud as he throws his hat into the race. He already seems pretty motivated to be a part of things here. He's actually been playing for awhile, but just recently decided to try to get into competitive time trialing. Sept of last year, he set some base times, and he has now made himself public, and we wish him the best of luck.

Ok, the players list is updated with results up to the 15th I believe. Alot of good movement still going on, but the difference is that King is no longer where it is at. Go to the Non-sc PL and check 61-68 on there. It's just purely insane what is going on. Nardone and Jeram are the current guys that seem to be pulling away, but I have a feeling the rest of those guys are very anxious to prove me wrong, that is for sure. If you are a fairly high ranked elite, I'd suggest you play again, cause these guys mean business!

Lastly, I was surfing around, and noticed alot of you have your own profiles, so next update, I am gonna make sure to get those links fixed. Please let me know if you now maintain your own profile, so I can get this done for you. Also, if any of your information, like location/email/aim is incorrect or missing, also let me know.

Good Karting guys! I'll be reassuming the responcibilities of POW at the end of the month, so I'll talk more about that next update.

Tuesday, January 15, 2002 - Top 100s, ARRs & AvgFins updated - by Michael at 3:08 pm
Many different people were active in the past few days. Most notable achievements were Sami Cetin climbing from 5th to 3rd place on the Avg Fin Rankings, and Mike Nardone and Stanley Jeram passing tons of people in the elite ranks.

Saturday, January 12, 2002 - Top 100s, ARRs & AvgFins updated - by Michael at 4:52 am
Two words to summarize this update:

William Lacey!

This guy has made one of the most insane runs ever seen in this game! During his christmas break, he got 44 PRs, beating several GOD standards. With those PRs he reached an ARR score of 0.469 (Legend+), which gives him a 3rd place on the ARR rankings! On the AvgFin rankings, he climbed to 6th place. If William keeps playing at this level, he can become a contender for the top spot very soon. Go here to read his own report of his PR run.

Kevin Booth was one of William's major victims, taking several losses. However, Kevin did a very nice job on Frappe Snowland. His time of 32"45 is 3rd in the world, and only 0"06 away from the Worldrecord.

In the elite battle, Mark Jones is now the leading active player after having passed Michael Jongerius. Mike Nardone reached Elite, and is close passing Anton Forsander and reaching Elite D. Stanley Jeram is back from inactivity, and is aiming to join the elite battle very soon.

Other active players were Ruokai Chen, Tom Gaffikin, Morgan Malm and Xavier San Giorgi.

This update is based on the times from 2 days ago. Many new times have already been set since then. You'll see them at next update.

Saturday, January 05, 2002 - Top 100s, ARRs & AvgFins updated - by Michael at 6:13 am
Those pages are updated again. We have some big news this update: Sami Cetin is back!!! The #4 ranked nonSC player in the world had been inactive for over a year. But now, after demonstrating some things to Tom Gaffikin, he is trying to get back into kart again. And within the first few days, he's already achieved some awesome things! A PAL Worldrecords on Yoshi Valley flap, a near Worldrecord on Wario Stadium 3lap, and 2 other PRs are a very promising start of this year for him. He passed Brian Gallo for the 4th place in Average Finish nonSC rankings. Expect more from him in the near future.
Other active Legends were Michael Liem and Lars Nouwen. Michael Liem got 2 PRs which helped him improve his ARR and AvgFin stats. Lars Nouwen is pulling away from the other Legend F players on the nonSC rankings.
Ruokai Chen had his usual share of PRs. He tied Wingert on the ARR rankings, and passed him on AvgFin. Tom Gaffikin didn't manage to make King yet, but that will probably happen soon.
In the elite/master ranks we see 4 players who are close to eachother. Michael Jongerius, Mark Jones, Anton Forsander and Mike Nardone. That's the order they're listed on the ARR rankings. All 4 players improved more than a full ARR point in the past few days. Forsander made the biggest cut, jumping from 19.188 (master C) to 16.906 (Elite F).

Wednesday, January 02, 2002 - PL Updated-Upgraded/Main Page/MISC - by Kevin at 2:30 am
Michael Liem has once again done a great job implementing another version of the players list. We ask everyone what they wanted in a players list, and now you have got it. To avoid confusion, there are now 3 different pages. First page is a description page, that tells you what the PL is, and how we do the thing. 2nd one, is the Non-sc Players list, and the 3rd one is for the shortcutters. All these you can access from either the main page, under the players list bar, or you can just the top area on either of the 3 pages to navigate to what you want as well, your choice!

Liem pretty much talked about what went on with the players in his end of the year update, but I figure I should gab a bit about the happenings. Once again, a couple more players are retiring. Brent Wingert was moving strong in the Kings, but it gets really hard at that level, so it was his time to go, but lets remember just how great he has played at times. Marc Bruton actually did play awhile, but retired soon after joining our page. Still, he did make an impact, and won't be forgotten. As players leave, others take their place, as Jones and Nardone, the summer 2 have shown.

Last year wasn't that great for the Legends, excluding Lacey and Miller, but alot of new faces have shown that kart still has plenty of life to it. We are finding that players like Beau Fairbourn, Ruokai Chen, and Thomas Gaffikin will be the future players to watch. These 3, among some other rising stars, are showing that we should not give up the ghost quite yet. The last few months have been their chance to shine among the kart greats. I won't be too much longer before the y start regularly picking off some of the weaker legends for wins. Lars Nouwen pretty much is providing veteran leadership, as he journeys into the Legend Sector, but stats tell me that there is a good chance he won't be alone for too overly long in this journey.

The new year will most likely make for some new chemistry. With the new team members available, you will find some roles changing up. Things need to be situated, but once they are, everyone will be in. This month, I may not be available all that much due to my work schedule. As you know, inventories are taxing in January. Karting, who knows. As always, you need a goal, motivation, and determination to get where you want to be. This goes for everything.

Kart has gone on for nearly 5 years now. Can you even believe that we have been active all this time pretty much? Only April 1998, were there many days where people probably didn't play the game in a given time frame. We've stayed alive, cause you care. This isn't the players site for nothing. This is your site, and you continue to prove that with each and every personal record you set. You show your commitment, and you show you do care about kart, you do care about eachother, and you do believe in what we got here.

Once again, I thank each and every one of you for contributing to the community. 2002 is going to be just fine, as long as we carry on what we have done the last 5 years!

Tuesday, January 01, 2002 - Ranking climbers in 2001 - by Michael at 8:13 am
I've uploaded a chart that shows a comparison of non-shortcut ARR scores at the start and the end of 2001. It's quite interesting to see. Do you wonder how many players were active in this year? Who were the biggest movers? Who are the best newcomers of this year?
Check out the chart here:
http://www.geocities.com/m_liem/ARR2001.html

- All my pages updated with end of year times - by Michael at 7:59 am
First of all: Happy new year to everyone!

To start this new year, I've put up a big "End of Year" update with all the times updated up to 31st December 2001.

Check out the top 100s, ARR rankings and Average Finish Worldrankings. And also the PAL and NTSC top 25 tables and worldrankings.

Sad news for kart are the retirements of Brent Wingert and Marc Bruton. Getting PRs was getting harder and harder for them, so they took the decision to stop playing kart for now. It was really nice to have you guys around here, with your regular PRs and active contributions to the message board. And you can definitely be proud of your karting achievements in the past few months. I'd say: Good luck to both of you, and hopefully we'll see you back in the future. Remember: Nobody can retire from this game!!! ;-)

Good news is another set of comebacks. After a few months of inactivity Mark Jones and Mike Nardone picked up their controllers again. Both of them had some unfinished business left, when they stopped playing, so we'll be looking forward to they're going to perform in the next weeks. Mark Jones already achieved a great milestone: His nonSC ARR score went up from Master C to Elite F. Nardone also cut a significant amount from his ARR score.

Michael Liem got a 43"86 (36"45) time on BC flap. He passed Myles Bukrim on the Freak rankings with that. And on the PAL nonSC worldranking page, he's finally back in 5th place.

Ruokai Chen got a nice set of quality PRs. He tied Yrvin van Wijk in ARR. He wasn't able to catch Brent Wingert during his active period. But now, that Wingert has retired, it should be possible to finally get ahead of him.

Tom Gaffikin continued to make nice PRs. With his busy working schedule he wasn't able to improve fast enough to reach King yet. But an 11.875 (Elite A) ARR score is also a very nice standard.

Michael Jongerius and Josh Hawkins also had some PRs. No ranking changes for them, but they're getting closer to the players in front of them..