Supercharged Championship (3 race mini-series)

Bimodal_Rocket · November 13, 2023, 4:07pm

From the mind of Will…

Hi Dom,

We are excited to invite you to the 2023 Supercharged Entertainment Championship Series!

This will be a shortened racing series that will be ran just like our league, but with a few minor adjustments. For starters, as mentioned above, it will be shortened. This will only be three weeks of racing. Now what about qualifying? How can you have two weeks of qualifying with only three weeks of racing? The answer is, there won’t be any qualifying. All drivers will be in one division and there will only be one single winner crowned. You also won’t need to worry about your starting grid, because each night the drivers will rotate which race they are in and who they race with. Everyone will immediately be racing on our increased league speed. Also, the number of points that drivers earn based on their position, will be different. Aside from that, everything will run just like our standard leagues.

Challenge Accepted!

So, are you ready to show that you really are the best of the best? This is what everyone has been waiting for. Is Tuesday the fastest night? Or is it Wednesday? Time to find out!

The Championship Series will begin on November 14th, and run on the 21th and 28th. We will be running this on Tuesday night only, and will have a limit of 100 drivers. The winner will get their name added to the championship trophy at the track check in desk!

All righty… this should be fun…

@nikspeeds warm your engine, Sir… we are racin’ tomorrow nite. Btw any idea what time?

I challenge you to a race! I suspect you shall pip me this round but we shall see. Perhaps we can close the gap a touch to Marc.

Group 1:

Victor Polanco, Brad Mitchell, George Boes, Geoffrey Suasnavas, Kahliel Marshall, Steven Ffrench, Joe Stanio, Cristian Gamboa, Icaro Dias, Preston Podell, Jon Katsaros, Nik Trenchi

Group 2:

Evan Collins, Dom Callan, Fernando Quinonez, Steven Kwiat, Andy Estevez, Jon Schreur, Andres Ladino, Brian Concannon, Yosef Babyov, Dale Roberts, James Shaw, James Burdge

Group 3:

Darryl Jackson, Marc Colteli, Steven Pezzuti, Tim Barrett, Erick Bustillos, James Harris, Dave Roman, Vanja Pejovic, Jaelin Harvin, Bryan Vincent, Ben Caruso, Brandon Cerreta

Bimodal_Rocket · November 15, 2023, 3:37am

Race 1 of 3

I would like to point out that #1-2 are over age 40 which is a rare occurrence. Congrats, Andres and Alex!

It went well. And, the night was super quick, racing, for me, done by 7:30 with a 6pm start.

Andres and I had a terrific session, once again. Our shenanigans from last series can be found here:

Andres finished first in both heats and I managed 5th and 2nd place. My second race with Andres was really close. I had pole until the final lap and he just squeaked under me. Here’s the tale of the tape showing the bitter pill I was forced to swallow:

I also did a public session right before which was nice. It’s truly a different world in the general sessions. I’ve seen things that make no sense, like someone deciding to just come to a full stop in the middle of the track and then just sit there. Baffling behaviors. I got it all in 360 so hopefully I can post some fun shorts.

Enter at own risk

I was thinking about Tanguy, out there, on track. He talked about how he kinda just said F it and just went with his gut, and how that seems to have re-invigorated his driving.

I’m not sure which direction I want to go, wether it’s “letting go” or “clamping down”. I think it’s gonna be both. Trust the driving but start demanding more technical “perfection”, be less willing to roll with it.

It was a good start and it was really validating to land 2nd in h2. I made some changes, delaying turn in even further up the hill, and it worked very well.

So, the standings after night one are thus:

@nikspeeds HERO12 thoughts:
I tried EV COMP +1 and it was bad. It appears to have darkened things by a stop instead of lightening them.

I also had max asa 800 which may be limiting things but that has been constant.

Using the exposure adjustment with HV appears to further darken footage.

I was able to lighten a bit in Adobe rush. I have basically increased exposure in editing 1.8-2 and also pushed blacks back almost 100.

When the 4k 60 kicks in… it looks amazing. Almost like glass. I really want to get exposure right. Maybe the headlight mod?

High Beams Engaged

@nikspeeds a thought… wanna run 2 teams for next big enduro? I’ll grab rebel scum regulars and maybe we can make a team like you, Andres, Brandon, James, etc. Might be fun to have a couple teams on track at same time!

Bimodal_Rocket · November 16, 2023, 2:17am

360 Cam Stuff:

These are mainly from non-race public sessions as they tend to have some unusual driving moments.

Bimodal_Rocket · November 16, 2023, 12:30pm

Oh forgot to mention… Rebel Scum Marc Coltelli won both his race heats in his group. Our plan for global domination proceeds.

Speaking of which:

I’m feeling a bit ambivalent about starting to see a lot of traffic.

Part of that is the content (league/enduro) and part of it is me working the footage, including shorts. The shorts are responsible for the majority of the views. The long form content is of limited interest.

Bimodal_Rocket · November 16, 2023, 8:55pm

In the category of random stuff:

I like making custom thumbnails, like above.

Sadly, YouTube won’t let you change the Shorts thumbnails.

I wonder what the logic/reason is.

Also, look at the view differences between the Shorts and the regular vids. Sheesh, we are low-attention span creatures.

Bimodal_Rocket · November 17, 2023, 12:42pm

I have an idea which isn’t original:

There are these areas in track that appear to be a speed zone.

What if they made these into “boosts”? When you drive over it you get 5secs of bonus speed. There could be two of these zones per track. You could be given 5 boosts total per 12 lap race.

The boost zones would be situated in such a way that the yeet effect would require you to hustle it back to opposite side of track to use the speed for next turn or something like that.

@nikspeeds if you are game to discuss… how are you feeling about your driving with one series behind us?

Did you finish within expectations or ?

Do you feel like there’s room to improve line/process?

Also, do me a flavor and if you notice any audio “blank spots” in my vids let me know. I’ve been watching the ones I output in editor (as opposed to simple trim in lossless cut) seem to have audio cut out for parts. I’m not sure if that playback data issue or a problem in the rendering.

Bimodal_Rocket · November 20, 2023, 12:29pm

First attempt at Exposure correction in Adobe Premier

I bit the bullet and signed up for the web access to the Adobe suite. There’s a lot to learn but here’s a video where I took the footage which was too dark and made it better.

Here’s this footage as compared to HERO 9.

The wider fov of the lens mod 2.0 and the max hypersmooth are better, imho. (so is 4k 60 uktrawide). It’s a matter of figuring out exposure.

I’m hoping that flat lighting and exposure/curve adjustments will provide good footage.

I didn’t read this last night but it has ideas. I may go back and do it again with a guide:

https://motionarray.com/learn/premiere-pro/how-to-fix-bad-lighting-in-premiere-pro/

I also need to learn about “color grading”:

https://motionarray.com/learn/premiere-pro/changing-color-in-premiere-pro/

Bimodal_Rocket · November 20, 2023, 8:00pm

Aha! Kartpulse Slap fight:

Group 3: Dale Roberts, Ben Caruso, Dave Pavoni, Brad Mitchell, Marc Coltelli, Erick Bustillos, Nik Trenchi, Dom Callan, Yosef Babayov

It’s on @NikG

Prepare to feel total ultimate speed! Not sure which of us will do the harnessing of it, however. I’m guessing Marc wins but maybe we get lucky.

Also, I noticed something… I have a weird habit of moving my hands around on the wheel. I think it’s from a deliberate effort to hold it lightly and not clamp up.

What I noticed is that even with the “airplane” or formula style wheels, which don’t give you any acreage to slide hands around, I still do it. My left hand constantly releases the wheel and moves up or down the handle.

From Will regarding the idea of Yeet zones:

I love the idea, but sadly our system does not have the ability to do something like this.

Bimodal_Rocket · November 21, 2023, 6:22am

And now for something completely different…

speedcraft · November 21, 2023, 2:46pm

I’m getting Easy Rider acid trip vibes.

Deanbert · November 21, 2023, 2:58pm

That’s hilarious. What are you running in those karts? Small block Chevys? Is there a speaker on the kart making engine noises?

Bimodal_Rocket · November 21, 2023, 4:18pm

I believe it actually is a small block Chevy…

V6, V8 or rather whisper-quiet: You decide. The unique and adaptive sound system of the new SiNUS iON makes it possible.

Bimodal_Rocket · November 21, 2023, 4:29pm

Hehe I subbed to Adobe and am having fun with all the editing powah!!!

Seems to have gotten a bunch of likes on Instagram (relative to my usual artsy nonsense). So I made a full session one using the quiet kart so I could have a zen session to veg out to.

Bimodal_Rocket · November 21, 2023, 7:50pm

Next series sign-up

I wonder what the new “mulligan” rule is.

Bimodal_Rocket · November 21, 2023, 8:35pm

I gave Miss Piggy a role:

Bimodal_Rocket · November 22, 2023, 1:57pm

Mini-Champ Round 2

Really interesting races with an unexpected twist.Nik wins and has another baby. That’s quite the trophy.

The primary change tonight was using big W I D T H up into 2 (ramp up hill). You can see I am holding left edge very late on entry.

First couple laps for now. We had a surprise win wherein Nik managed to win 2nd heat, edging out Marc (who won the first heat). Also, @nikspeeds and his spouse are having another baby!

On a personal note, I struggled a bit in H1, landing 5th with a 49.3 but made some improvements in H2, finishing 4th with a 48.9. This was a relatively slow night, wherein almost no one broke 49 in H1 and only 4 of us did break 49 in H2. So, mission accomplished on the sub-49 front.

I am thinking that my weakness today was the turn into the final straight. I believe that the next gap up for me will involve the ramp exit and the left/right combo onto back speed run.

Congrats on the win and the addition to TeamTrenchi! @nikspeeds

Oh, I had a bangin’ public session before the race heats. I shall find the many bonkers passes I did in 360 footage for your amusement!

nikspeeds · November 22, 2023, 4:38pm

I missed this thread. Looks like default settings here are to not send notifications. I guess I never noticed with the other thread bc I kept it open in a tab.

When you mentioned it last night I came looking for it

Sounds good!

I think there’s way too much ambient light to really make a difference. Probably playing with ISO like you are is the best bet.

I think bc Shorts are made to directly compete with TikTok and Reels

I watch a lot of my stuff back over and over, sometimes in 1/4 time, and I still feel like I haven’t had a “perfect” lap where I hit everything I intend to, exactly as I intended to.

For now I’m happy enough with the lines to keep trying for it.

Will do

Each driver will get 2 “mulligans” during the league. Each one gives you the ability to toss out 1 race at the end of the night. It has to be used the same night as the race. You tell will “throw out heat 1” and it won’t count for your average. For example, if I did that last night (and Brandon did also) I would have been 2nd overall for the night.

Speaking of, I plan to analyze kart-specific data soon. When I complained about my first kart feeling broken, Steve and Joe let me know that they both turned in #60 and redid their races. Frustrating bc I should have done the same but I was feeling down on myself instead of blaming the kart.

And thanks!

Edit: btw we tried talking Will into making it just the fastest laps of every night, but 2 “mulligans” was a good compromise.

Bimodal_Rocket · November 22, 2023, 4:50pm

Awesome! Thank you! Wasn’t sure if I was over-involving you or not. Thx for piping up.

I posted a small bit (having issues figuring out premier).

This is with Flat+Natural

It does get rid of the very dark bits but it has an overall tinge of tobacco/yellow.

I was using the eye dropper tool in colors to try to set the color balance better.

I also used the exposure sliders and stuff to make it look ok.

I’m not satisfied yet, though. It feels like there’s got to be a way to do a pass on the footage and give it more life.

nikspeeds · November 22, 2023, 5:56pm

I haven’t played much with color grading on the gopro. Do you have 10bit turned on?

Also, I came across this site that let’s you control hidden/experimental gopro features with QR codes:

https://gopro.github.io/labs/control

Haven’t tried it out, but kept it in mind in case I ever try to go that deep into it.

Bimodal_Rocket · November 22, 2023, 6:27pm

There’s a lot of interesting stuff there!

Yup, 10 bit on

I wonder tho. In the dark underpasses it would help, maybe. Also, I would look even more magnificent with a bright light emanating from my head. Imagine that bearing down on you. I’m totally getting one.