Biller Longfall and the Jericho Hill Racing Association

By Bixyl Shuftan

In early June, racing in Second Life made the headlines when the Buddy Forsythe 100 took place, which was won by Biller Longfall. Auto racing in Second Life is nothing new, having gone on for years. Not long ago, Biller asked to talk to me about what goes on with racing in Second Life.

When we first talked, Biller stated he ran a racing group in Second Life. They were the Jericho Hill Racing Association, or JHRA, "We have races every Tuesday at 7 for Factory Stock, Wednesday at 3 for Super Cup, and Sunday at 6 for Gen 6 cars. Factory Stocks and Super Cups are the easiest, while you do more in Gen 6 cars, like pit stops and such." Their championship week was June 26-July 2.

Biller too me to a track at the Jerico Hill sim, which was over 2500 feet off the ground, "This is Flemington Speedway, based off (the) Flemington Speedway in New Jersey in real life. It handles a lot like Indianapolis, very fast and narrow in the corners. (It's) nearly, if not all the way, flat out." There were other tracks on the sim at different heights. He took me to another, the Irwindale Speedway, "based off the real thing, Which is located in Irwindale, California. This is actually the same track the Relay race was on." Jerico Hill currently has "over twelve unique different tracks. JHRA features a variety of oval tracks and a few road courses from builders all over SL, unlike any other racing league out there."

"Anthony Stuart from SLARCA, Kandy Tomorrow from KC, Willis Bailey from WB, a few JHRA originals, and potentially ones from Dowcha Foxdale and Sliver Motorsports in the near future. None of those guys are still around, but I thought a lot of their stuff needed to continue because otherwise, it's wasted siting in inventory. We race cars from R.I.R Racing and currently have partnership with them and the SRL Racing League."

Biller stated Jerrico Hill got it's start, "Back sometime in 2015, I was talking to one of my friends, Anthony Stuart. We were discussing what we thought was missing from SL racing, like realism, while at the same time, more calmer atmosphere. Then we brought Mango Darwinian on board. After many months of up and down, we finally got this thing kicked off and it's been steadily growing with interest ever since. Originally, we were going to do mini scale. But found it to be too problematic, so instead (we) formed partnerships."

"When racing events go on, it's so exciting. I love seeing races on this track."The number of racers per event can vary, As to how close races can be: very, "We've already had finishes of 0.205, 0.156, 0.052, and 0.130 seconds in the last four of five races so far.Side by side, it's very competitive. Good chunk of the field that is competitive to win any week. And what the funny part is, three of those came on Jericho Hill, which is a wide fast track. The fourth came at Flemington, which is a narrow fast track."

Of the cars used for the races, Biller stated, "Currently we use cars provided by our good friends at RIR. They are based off Stock Cars, like NASCAR. He showed me three, his cars having the number "4" and painted orange and black, "The first car is the Factory Stock car... they have steering and downforce options, it is by far the easiest car. But also very competitive. The Super Cup has Steering, Wedge, and Downforce. Hopefully soon, we can make it one setup, so anybody can jump in and go race."

Pointing out the third, "And then the Gen 6 car is my personal favorite. It's fast. It has Steering, Wedge, and Downforce settings... as well as damage. So if your car hits the wall, it will lower your wedge, which will make the car a lot harder to handle. It's also a car you pit in. No speed limit pit stops are fun to watch and to do."

He pointed out a feature that added realism to Second Life racing: draft, or a car having less wind resistance when just behind another car, "All three have draft, so you can ride behind another car and pick up some draft. You can bump draft even on certain tracks."

Biller took the Gen 6 car out out on the track for a few demonstration runs, the timer at the finish line giving his time and speed. His best was 15.446 seconds at 151 kilometers an hour, or 93 miles an hour. Four of his five laps differed by less than 10 kph, "It's really nice during races; it's really close."

Of the requirements needed to race, "Anybody is allowed to come race, just have to remove all scripts. I have no scripts on and I don't look so bad, right?" he chuckled. "We allow free demos in competition. No limit on that, just rez whatever car is scheduled for that race and just have fun."

I asked Biller with the Buddy Forsythe 100 over, what big racing events lay ahead. He answered, "Besides the championship races, beginning next season, we'll be doing a cool All-Star race at a new track, Charlotte Motor Speedway." Of the champtionship races, "We have four championships. Three of those are season based, and one is yearly. It's probably going to be intense. Beginning next season, we will expand the schedule to 12 weeks."

"We are always looking for partnership and I would love to branch off to other forms of racing, like open wheel, dirt, rally, or moto stuff... any progress or news would be announced on the JHRA website."

Their current normal schedule is Tuesday at 6:30 PM SL time, Wednesday at 3PM, and Sunday at 6PM. The week of August 21-27 has only one day of racing: the "All Star Week" on Aug. 23, with events at 4:30 and 6:30 PM SL time.

I would later see one of their racing events, with four other races besides Biller, including one woman: Becky Alder. In the first race, which consisted of 65 laps, Becky won by just 1.071 seconds. The champion of the Buddy Forsythe 100 didn't do so well, coming in a lap behind. Becky commented she didn't always do so well, "I go from the worst possible way to race last night to a win."

So if you feel like burning rubber, there's a number of places you can race around. And Biller and his friends will be happy to make a place for you.

The JHRA lobby is located at Jericho Hill (103/162/2569). Their website, once again, is at: https://jhraracing.wordpress.com/ .

*Addition* Biller would later say the schedule had changed somewhat, " Our new times are Tuesday at 6:30PM with Factory Stocks, Wednesday at 5:30PM with Super Cups, and Sunday at 6:30PM with new Xfinity cars."

Bixyl Shuftan

A Day of Relay Events

By Bixyl Shuftan

Saturday March 23rd was a day full of events for the Relay For Life. Numerous teams had events planned, large and small. And all of them cheered each other on through the volunteer group chat.

At 11AM was the biggest event in terms of area it took place on: the "Cross-Country Giant Snail Race." Organized by RacerX Gullwing and his team, his Giant Snail Races usually take place on an obstacle course in part of a sim. This marathon took place over 45 sims on the Mainland, going by places such as "The Shelter." For the Relay, RacerX and his team are known as the Giant Snail Relay team.

About a dozen racers donned giant snail avatars, and took part in the course. There were a few problems unfortunately for both contestants and onlookers. Forks in the road had arrows to help guide the racers. Unfortunetly, lag could sometimes hide them, from both racers and people trying to keep up with the action. The snails could also get caught in obstacles hidden by lag, such as trees, in addition to ban lines from peoples' houses on the mainland. The exact time the race took wasn't available when this article was written, but these cross-sim races often take over forty minutes before the first racer crosses the finish line, and an hour before most contestants have gotten through. Alden Cortes' snail was the one who won the race. Stay tuned for the race to appear on the Treet.tv archives soon.


The Giant Snail Relay might have had the largest event. But there were plenty of others. The Unmasking a Cure team announced a "Sink the DJ" event, "Unmasking A Cure team is kicking off our first event with DJ Chris Crisis! Come on down …  We'll be here all day! Hope you can stop in and have some fun with us!" Getting there, it was a small but enthusiastic crowd. The DJ and hostess were sporting ducky water floats, "Pay the kiosk 100L, and I'll take your request. Show your love, help unlock a cure!" Near the dance floor was a small pool, presumable where the DJ would end up if enough cash was donated. The event went on for about eight hours.

At Celtic Isle, an "En Garde" fencing tournament was held. Panza Elde announced the competition to Relay chat, taking amusement to the variety of avatars, "Another match about to begin, bird vs bunny." Heading over, the contestants were a variety of human, furred, and tiny avatars.  More than 11,000 Lindens had been raised at the event, the winner being Capt Blinker with Stero Nacht a close second. Capt Blinker joked, "I cheated, I tied Stereo's shoelaces together. (grins)"

There were other events that day. The Sunbeamers held a special "Purple Passion" Relay event that night at Club Cutlass in Sunweaver Space. How much was raised at the event is unknown, but as of the writing of this article, the team was comfortably in Bronze status with almost 32,000 Lindens. Harmony for Hope held a "Jail n Bail" in which Sunshine Zhangsun found herself behind bars, "I am too cute, so they threw me in jail. *pouts*"  "I'm sure it's well deserved." "Yes! Oh wait, I mean NOOOOO!!" And there were some more jokes about "Stinky the Skunk" and his continued presence at the Relay Rockers. It would be a few more days until the Rockers were finally free of their long lasting "skunked" status.

 There will be many more Relay events big and small in the coming days and weeks. You can find some posted in the Relay For Life in Second Life webiste Here. A new website was also revealed which keeps track of various RFL blogs and those of friends of the Relay.

"Go Relay!"

Bixyl Shuftan

Image Credit: Jasmine Dawn Shuftan

Relay for Life: Woodstock, The Critter Races, and the Jeffry Pastorelli Tribute

The Weekend of June 30th and July 1st saw a number of Relay for Life events. Some were big, and some were small. One of the bigger ones on Saturday was the "Woodstock: Summer of Love." It was in Nantucket Channel, held by Sail4Life, and went from 9AM  to 9PM SL time (Noon to Midnight EST).


Time to go back to the "Summer of Love"!    Nantucket Yacht Club in support of the Sail4Life Team is recreating Woodstock with 12 hours of Peace and Music running until 9pm tonight.  Come and enjoy the music, take a dip in the pond or play in the mud.  Bring your friends,  Drop in and Drop out.  Drop some Lindens in the RFL Kiosks


Hopping by the place at the time DJ Benny (aka "Benny the Boozehound") was playing, it certainly looked like Woodstock. The area was mainly grassy field, with a stage at one end, which held the performers and where most of the people partied. With the theme, the majority were either dressed like hippies or were nearly naked.

The event area was large on it's own, but surrounded by scenery paneling to make it look more like the countryside. There were a few campers and campsites. At the stage, there was about one new performer every hour for the 12 hour event. Besides the dancing, one could mess around in the mud hole, or one could skinny-dip in the pond. Besides collecting money in the RFL kiosk, the Woodstock event had another way that fit with the theme. People could buy a flower for the event by donating fifty Lindens, and dedicating it to a friend.

As time went on, went the inevitable jokes about stoned hippies and while having cleaned up their act years later still looked back at their wild youth with fond memories. DJ Benny shouted at one point, "Now you can tell everyone you WERE at Woodstock!" Someone else joked in response, "If you can remember being at Woodstock, you weren't there."

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Sunday at the Steelhead Estates was one of their last big events for the Relay season, the "Steelhead Critter Races."


A Benefit Event for Relay For Life in Secondlife, sponsored by Team Steelhead Salmons & the Steelhead Public Library. If you have a critter and it can be raced, this event is made for you! Bring your horses, tigers, ostriches, banthas and other ridable critters! You are critterless? Ostrich is lame? Bantha has mange? Then drive one of our free Roman Chariots!

The race was held on a track high above Steelhead Port Harbor, with Sheriff Fuzball Ortega in charge of the event. The race attracted a number of contestants and onlookers, some of the latter whom also brought their own mounts. Besides the horses were a number of exotic mounts, including a "Star Wars" Bantha, a "Cyantian Chronicles" Shiave, and a "Guineapigasaurus." The latter was a horse-sized ridable guinea pig brought in by Mindy, one of Steelhead's kids whom amused/annoyed the others around with it's squeaks, "breeep, breeeep, breeeep!"

There were four races in the event. Although there was a race for any kind of rideable ground mount, no flying mounts were allowed. Also, players could not be the mounts either. There was some debate as to why the second rule, either because of possible jokes about a girl being "mounted" by her boyfriend, or that Fuzzball's fiance Eugene Burton might take advantage by riding him around in his wolf form more often, riding crop in hand. Before the official races, there was a practice lap taken. After that, there was an entry fee of 500L per race, or a one time payment of 1500L for all of them. They were entered by both those from Steelhead, such as Baron Klaus Wuffenbach, and from outside such as Liska Fuchs.

The first race was "Reasonably Sized Critters," any mount that could fit in the starting gates, whether horse or exotic mount. The second race was "Unreasonably Sized Critters." The riders had to go into the starting gate without their mounts, run to the cycle in front of them when it started, rezz their mount, then start running. The third was a normal horse race, although the horses themselves were a variety of kinds from breedables to statics. Baron Wulfenbach loaned his huge horse to one contestant. The first and third race were won by the same rider, whom had an experienced breedable horse. As it turned out, the horse might have given him a small edge as this particular breakable can be trained to run faster.

The fourth race required no fee, or mount of one's own: the steel chariot race with piston-powered mechanical horses provided for free. Trouble was, the chariots were so fast, they proved difficult to steer around the track, getting caught on the walls, tipping over, or getting caught at the starting gate after a lap.

Following the races was a party held by DJ Thadicus Caligari, in which the former competitors and onlookers joined each other for music and dance.


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Following the Steelhead races was a memorial event to Jeffry Pastorelli. Jeffery had been a team captain for the Team Relay for Hope whom passed away in 2010 (Prim Perfect article). The event was held at one of Second Life's more solemn areas, the Remembering Our Friends Memorial


Hello everyone, I just wanted to send a reminder that there will be a memorial for Jeffry Pastorelli TONIGHT, Sunday July 1st.  This is being held by Mike Burleigh at 7 PM SLT at Remembering Our Friends, landmark attached.  Please be there if you can, as this means a lot to us all.

The event had a moderate attendance, with among those attending Trader1 Whiplash and Lomgren Smalls. Mike Burleigh was in charge of the music, but much to his irritation, he had some problems getting his stream online, and the problems persisted throughout the event. Lomgren Smalls, whom helped get people to the event,  rezzed a kiosk for his team, the Passionate Redheads, and the money began to pour in. While this year's Redhead events often brought in just several thousand Lindens each, this one was bringing in tens of thousands, bolstered by some promising to match the donations of others. That the money was coming in despite the stream being down led to some jokes, "Can this mean that the music in SL is so bad that people will pay NOT to hear it?"

People talked about Jeffry during the event, "I know he made a huge impression on me. And still does to this day." "I miss him, even if he was a pain in the a** most days" "You know, we wouldn't have loved him as much if he wasn't a pain in the a**." "I can still hear him cussing in the living room when things pissed him off too. He was passionate." "Yes he was. And that passion rubbed off onto so many of us Relayers."

During this time, someone tried to display a copy of the Relay Weekend sims map. But as the area didn't allow for rezzing on the ground, he tried to wear it. But as his avatar moved around, so did the map. Trying to get more than a glance at it was a big challenge.

By the end of the event, 35,000 Lindens had been raised for the Redheads, the team that had struggled this season, bringing it's season total to 245,000L and was a much needed morale boost. The following day, the total would pass 250,000 Lindens, and get the Redheads the Gold standard.

More on Jeffey Patrelli can be heard at a special episode of Designing Worlds, taped at the Remembering Our Friends Memorial (Click Here).

It was quite a weekend with many events, most of which we don't have the time to mention. And as the Relay moves on into July, the Relay Weekend approaches, with nine days left as the prining of this article, the weekend of July 14 and 15, with the Relayers anxiously anticipating the climax to the season.

Bixyl Shuftan

Pinewood Derby at Camp Kawabata

What great fun! Christian Welles, sent me a notice that there would be a Pinewood Derby at Camp Kawabata, the Scout Camp. It was held in what looked like an old warehouse near the camp grounds on Saturday the 18th of February. The scouts each built their own cars before the race began, choosing their shapes and paint. The sound of hammering was evident as they all worked.


Then the first round: the girl scouts’ cars raced down the ramp. Little Angala resident was the 1st winner, with a time of 16.70. Then the boys went down the ramps, and the first winner there was Ragged Resident and his time was 17.70. The races went on for several rounds with the winners changing places more than once as they did the rounds.

For those who do not know the Pinewood Derby has a long time place in scouting in real-life. Cub master Don Murphy created it in 1953 as a tool for bonding between dads and sons to build a miniature racing car together and is an official function of the Boy Scouts of America. It has been adopted by other scouting groups and so into Second Life. To read more about the history visit http://www.pinewoodpro.com/pinewood-derby-history.htm.

Christian Welles, Webelos Den Leader, and Billybob Farshore, Patrol Leader, both oversaw the event in Second Life. At the end Angala resident was the top winner with her 16.70 time and received a trophy along with Clymene ( 17.50) and Hunter -Lynn (17.90) who took second and third place respectively. It was fun to watch and listen to. This was the first time the event was held, but not the last I am sure. There should be another one perhaps in the spring.

Gemma Cleanslate

Delinda Dyrssen "Taking Flight" at the Snail Races

I'm still smiling from all the fun and laughter I had while participating in a Special Edition Giant Snail Race put on by RacerX Gullwing and his crew to help raise money for Relay For Life in SL on Saturday. I have raced once before in one of the regular races which are normally giant snails but this one was with Tiny Giant Snails (about the size of a typical avatar in SL) but to be honest I had a little difficulty steering that Huge Snail Avatar around the course.

As soon as I tried on my mini snail (and promptly had a Live n Kickin Flag added by Baldi McMillan (who happens to also be my SL next door neighbor) Thank You Baldi. I was ready to race! This race turned out to be absolute chaos for me and Treet TV's Cameras which you'll see in the clip below. I would attribute it mostly to sim lag as there were way more people in the sims than the Linden Labs servers could handle gracefully.

At one point I fell off one of the rides and I guess the build was at a high altitude in SL and I found my snail/self falling from above 2000 meters below to what I believe was some kind of Music Event that was going on below us where I briefly saw Harrie Skjellerup (organizer of The Originals) in front of me before a friend teleported me back to the Snail Race..

Anyway.. this 2 min clip below shows some of the madness of the race with a priceless shot of one of the boats overloaded with snails appearing to fly through the forest and off into space.. You gotta love Second Life Sim crossings!

Watch with the Audio on this is pretty funny..



Delinda Dyrssen
Reprinted from "Brb" with permission