The history challenge

It is a massive challenge trying to get as much Australian stock car racing history together as possible.

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May 28 2018

It is a battle to try and get as much information as possible on AUSCAR, NASCAR, Sportsman, HQ, Power Tour, Stock Cars Australia and more.

There are a few pages of reports on Trove and you pick up the odd bit of information on pictures that people post but there is a shortage of information.

For some reason, races when broadcast largely focused on the top 6 or so positions, so you didn’t know where people were running.

There were instances that broadcasts shown where drivers were after a certain lap, one example is shown at the four minute mark of the video below

But we’re getting there, more and more drivers names are being found and pictures are online to link and we’ll soon go through videos, screenshot cars and then post the images to make the list more complete.

The Little Game – Update

Work continues on the AUSCAR/NASCAR game.

May 12 2018

Work continues into trying to make an AUSCAR/NASCAR game.

A big problem is trying to make round corners, you see Game Maker art is made up of pixels (squares) so a corner is not a true corner.

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As you see, the corners are angled, the two red strips are checkpoints but you don’t see them in the game, the strip at the bottom hides the finish line which is visible in the game.

Cars

The cars above are version 2, these are one pixel wider on the sides, the roof is smaller as well and you can now see a bonnet.

More work will likely needed to be done on these cars but the pixel issue is the major sticking point as it doesn’t give us a lot to work with.

So far there is #27, #11 and #17 with #55 and #5 still being worked on as they were built as version 1 vehicles.

It is an easy game, keep holding the up key and then turn when needed but we’ve kept the opposition cars on a line so tight around the track you only got openings with quick reflexes mostly around the sharp corners.

That’s it for now.

The little game

A little game honoring AUSCAR/NASCAR

April 13 2018

World of AUSCAR is a hobby and so is game designing and so while making an open wheel top/down game, some NASCAR’s were made for amusement and put into the game and they didn’t turn out too bad.

The game premise is simple, a person gets to drive the #27 at least at the moment and they get to take on the #5 and #55 in separate races.

The opposition is not AI so the car is run on a path but it is designed to make passing difficult over the five lap race.

One of the difficult parts of making even such a small game is that everything you see is made up of pixels so it is harder coming up with the perfect car etc and so concessions have to be made.

As you’ll see in the first two pictures, the numbers are the right way up but on oval tracks they are actually upside down so the third picture reflects the change.

To have them upside down, you draw the numbers and words the right way up then rotate the image so it is upside down.

Maybe in the future, coding will improve to allow AI racers and more cars on the track making it a more enjoyable game.

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Stock Cars – Round 1

Round 1 of the Australian Stock Cars Championship (aka SCA) kicked off this weekend.

March 11 2018

Stock Cars paired up with Extreme TT in their first round of the season as part of the AMRS series at Winton.

Sunday’s races were streamed live on Facebook and YouTube.

Michael Coulter was on Pole for the first of the two streamed races, Zac Ohara in the #27 unfortunately had a diff problem on Saturday that taken him out for the weekend robbing the field of a NASCAR.

OzTrucks, NASCAR and GTA cars made up the Stock Car category and Michael Coulter charged out to a lead, Steve Coulter got past the #19 to make it a Coulter 1-2 and it stayed that way for the rest of the race.

Shane Harris stayed in touch with the two OzTruck’s in third position for the entire race and finished on the bumper of the Steve Coulter with 1.9 seconds separating the three.

Brian Walden and Trevor Crisp battled each other for fourth position in the early going before the Extreme TT cars joined in the fun and passed them.

Trevor’s race went from good to bad in a hurry after getting his right side tyres on the grass on Lap 8 resulting in a spin and he retired from the race.

Brian Walden finished in sixth position, fourth out of the Stock Cars.

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Race 3 got underway about 25 minutes later than the scheduled time of 4:10pm but only the Extreme TT cars lined up for the race, disappointing Stock Car viewers who hung around for the race.

It was reported that the field was down to just three cars (two trucks and one GTA) and so withdrawal was the best idea.

Overall the Stock Cars racing was a good introduction with around 80 viewers checking out the race on YouTube and the others who saw the action on Facebook.

ASCC – Round 1 – 8 days to go

8 days to go until Round 1 of the ASCC.

March 2 2018

In just over one week’s time we will see Round 1 of the Australia Stock Car Championship.

Round 1 is at Winton and the good news is that Sunday’s action will be streamed on Facebook and YouTube thanks to Blend Line TV. (click for YouTube channel).

ASSC is hoping for a great 2018 and hopefully the online streams will get plenty of viewers.

This is a great opportunity for the sport with every second day of competition being streamed means people will know what is going on in terms of who is driving and more.

Hopefully a successful Round 1 will ensure that owners of AUSCAR’s and NASCAR’s that aren’t in Round 1 will be interested in joining future rounds of the competition.

New SCA video

There’s a new video out about SCA.

November 1 2017

Stock Cars Australia feature in a new video by Parkey Productions and it is exactly what the sport needs.

There is music, there is action shots, there is drivers talking about the sport and it is good to see in 1080p video.

One of our biggest concerns is that SCA doesn’t talk enough about who they are and this video has given people a lot more insight into the series.

TA2, NASCAR and AUSCAR vehicles are invited to join the series that runs under the AASA and hopefully the video will entice some people wanting to race their cars the incentive to join the series in the last weekend of the season coming soon.

AUSCAR/NASCAR Wrap

The latest in the AUSCAR/NASCAR world.

October 24 2017

It has been an interesting October for AUSCAR/NASCAR fans

The month kicked off with Stock Cars Australia announcing their 2018 plans which includes expansion to other states as they will be joining another AASA series, hopefully they will keep being chatty on Social Media and update their website to keep the interest going.

Calder Park Thunderdome Facebook page gave fans a treat by airing on Facebook Live a replay of the 1993 NASCAR race on the Gold Coast, the race featured commentary by Darrell Eastlake and Peter Brock and Brad Jones talked to them whilst driving.

Signed NASCAR pictures have been popping up on eBay with the below Kevin Schwantz photo being one of those offered and purchased, there is currently a Bob Jane signed picture of Terri Sawyer’s car on offer.

The #2 NASCAR has found itself a new home after spending some time in Boronia, the new owner is Zac Ohara who owns among other vehicles the #27 NASCAR that races in Stock Cars Australia.

Wikipedia has finally accepted that Jim Richards did not win an AUSCAR championship after several attempts of editing in that fact.

That was pretty much it for October.

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