Sand Marble Rally 2017

Sand Marble Rally 2017
Duration	1 April 2017 – 8 December 2017
Competitors	20
Races	13
Link	Marble Race: Sand Marble Rally 2017 - All Events
Standings
Champion	Dragon's Egg - 135pts
Runner-up	Red Number 3 - 134pts
Third Place	Slimer - 130pts
Chronology
Previous	2016
Next	2018

Sand Marble Rally 2017 was the second edition of the Sand Marble Rally where 20 marbles competed on sand courses filled with lots of turns and obstacles, for the prize of being Sand Marble Rally champion.

A qualification stage consisting of 5 races with 7 marbles each was used to select the marbles for the final stage. 35 marbles entered the qualification stage in total, with the best 4 marbles of each race (20 in total) advancing to the main tournament. It is succeeded by Sand Marble Rally 2018.

Ghost Plasma was the defending champion.

Changes in 2017

Ghost

One of the new additions in the 2017 season is the Ghost marble (not to be confused with Ghost Plasma, a red marble). This is the frosted glass marble which releases the starting gate at each race, the Ghost will proceed through a small plinko track (next to the main track in front of the starting Gate) which ends on the main course. The ghost will run a few seconds back of the main competitors. The purpose of the ghost is to push up or release stranded marbles so they will still get a chance to get some points.

The Ghost Marble at the starting blocks

It is even possible that the Ghost marble can "win" a race by crossing the finish line in first. However the Ghost will not get any points so that the marble who pass the finish line after the ghost will win the race.

The Ghost will be shown on the results list when it crosses the finish line, but if the ghost doesn't finish, it won't be shown on the results at all.

New obstacles:

• Spinner
• Rotating Chevron Sign
• Drophole
• Plinko Board
• Dummy Balls (only in races 3 & 4 (2017))
• Teardrop
• Split
• Stairs (Sand Rally)

General Changes

• Unlike the previous season the field consists of 20 marbles right from the start.
• The points system has been changed so that only the top 15 finishers of a race will receive points, compared to 20 in the previous season. In addition, the winner of a race now gets 20 points, down from 30 in the previous season.

Qualification

Main article: Sand Marble Rally 2017 - Qualifiers

Qualifier 1

Pos.	Marble	Time	Result
1st	Comet	0:55.48	Qualified
2nd	El Capitan	0:55.95	Qualified
3rd	Nemo	0:56.66	Qualified
4th	Wisp of Darkness	0:56.85	Qualified
DNF	Blue Moon	Did not finish	Not qualified
DNF	Reflektor	Did not finish	Not qualified
DNF	Cobra	Did not finish	Not qualified

Qualifier 2

Pos.	Marble	Time	Result
1st	Big Pearl	0:54.00	Qualified
2nd	Blizzard Blaster	0:54.93	Qualified
3rd	Fantasy	0:55.23	Qualified
4th	Slimer	0:55.88	Qualified
5th	Rastafarian	0:56.04	Not qualified
6th	Silver Bolt	0:57.16	Not qualified
7th	Starman	0:59.62	Not qualified

Qualifier 3

Pos.	Marble	Time	Result
1st	Summer Sky	0:55.46	Qualified
2nd	Deep Ocean	0:56.94	Qualified
3rd	Glassy	0:57.07	Qualified
4th	Pollo Loco	0:57.59	Qualified
5th	Blazing Fireball	0:57.84	Not qualified
DNF	White Widow	Did not finish	Not qualified
DNF	Tarantula	Did not finish	Not qualified

Qualifier 4

Pos.	Marble	Time	Result
1st	Red Number 3	0:51.04	Qualified
2nd	Quicksilver	0:51.29	Qualified
3rd	Dragon's Egg	0.52.72	Qualified
4th	H2 Blue	0.53.30	Qualified
5th	The Flash	0:55.24	Not qualified
DNF	Mocha Madness	Did not finish	Not qualified
DNF	Blue Smoke	Did not finish	Not qualified

Qualifier 5

Pos.	Marble	Time	Result
1st	Crazy Cat's Eye	0:52.38	Qualified
2nd	Lollipop	0:52.71	Qualified
3rd	Ghost Plasma	0:52.84	Qualified
4th	Black Knight	0:53.03	Qualified
5th	Marbly McMarbleface	0:53.58	Not qualified
6th	Snake's Tub	0:53.86	Not qualified
7th	Super Turtle	0:56.10	Not qualified

Competing Marbles

Qualified Marbles

1. Big Pearl
2. Black Knight
3. Blizzard Blaster
4. Comet
5. Crazy Cat's Eye
6. Deep Ocean
7. Dragon's Egg
8. El Capitan
9. Fantasy
10. Ghost Plasma
11. Glassy
12. H2 Blue
13. Lollipop
14. Nemo
15. Pollo Loco
16. Quicksilver
17. Red Number 3
18. Slimer
19. Summer Sky
20. Wisp of Darkness

Non-Qualified Marbles

1. Blazing Fireball
2. Blue Moon
3. Blue Smoke
4. Cobra
5. Marbly McMarbleface
6. Mocha Madness
7. Rastafarian
8. Reflektor
9. Silver Bolt
10. Snake's Tub
11. Starman
12. Super Turtle
13. Tarantula
14. The Flash
15. White Widow

Retired Marbles

• Oddball
• Olympia

Newcomers

• Blizzard Blaster
• Lollipop
• Nemo
• Red Number 3

Venues

The Races are held on tall sand dunes or sand hills in the Netherlands.

Qualification:

• Papenberg Castricum
  • Located near the NS station of Castricum, with views over adjacent sports and football fields, but scattered with dog feces.
  • Height difference: 18 meter (60 feet),
  • Maximum race duration: 90 seconds

Main Tournament:

• Doornse Gat
  • Located east of "Doorn", a village located in the Utrechtse Heuvelrug, 15 km south of Amersfoort
  • Race 1, 2, 7, 8, 9 and 10
  • Height difference: 25 meters
  • Maximum race duration: 2 and a half minutes

• Klimduin Brechtdorp (Koningsweg)
  • Located along the Oorsprongweg north of Schoorl, a small town north of Alkmaar, the Netherlands. This is an alternative more quiet location compared with the "famous" and overcrowded klimduin located at Schoorl itself.
  • Race 3, 4, 5, 6 and Final
  • Height difference: 45 meters
  • Maximum race duration is 5 minutes on wet sand or 2 minutes on dry sand.

• 't Peeske Montferland
  • Located 22 km east southeast of Arnhem near the village "Beek Montferland"
  • Race 11 and 12
  • Height difference: 20 meters
  • Maximum race duration: 2 minutes

Standings

Rank	Marble	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	R9	R10	R11	R12	F‡	Points
1st	Dragon's Egg	10	10	14	6	11	7	20	2	1	8	0	12	34	135
2nd	Red Number 3	7	12	2	20	2	17	10	20	DNF	5	3	14	22	134
3rd	Slimer	6	DNF	DNF	9	12	0	6	3	20	9	20	17	28	130
4th	Quicksilver	4	9	20	4	20	14	4	17	14	0	17	2	DNF	125
5th	El Capitan	5	DNF	9	11	14	DNF	11	9	5	11	4	20	12	111
6th	H2 Blue	17	DNF	0	14	DNF	4	3	4	3	0	8	7	40	100
7th	Glassy	2	6	6	5	4	6	14	7	2	17	11	9	6	95
8th	Crazy Cat's Eye	20	DNF	5	7	1	12	5	10	8	14	1	4	7	94
9th	Black Knight	12	5	7	17	9	8	1t	0	10t	0	6	0	18	93
10th	Lollipop	8	17	4	12	DNF	9	9	1	7	DNF	0	1	24	92
11th	Pollo Loco	0	7	0	DNF	5	20	17	11	4	4	DNF	3	16	87
12th	Fantasy	0	8	17	8	10	10	DNF	6	DNF	7	10	DNF	10	86
13th	Blizzard Blaster	14	DNF	8	10	0	11	DNF	5	17	3	5	8	4	85
14th	Nemo	DNF	11	11	2	17	DNF	2	12	DNF	DNF	9	10	9	83
15th	Summer Sky	11	14	1	DNF	3	2	0	8	11	12	7	11	DNF	80
16th	Deep Ocean	9	2	10	1	8	0	0	DNF	10t	6	12	5	5	68
17th	Wisp of Darkness	0	3	12	DNF	6	3	1t	0	6	20	2	0	14	67
18th	Big Pearl	DNF	20	3	DNF	DNF	5	8	14	DNF	2	0	0	3	55
19th	Comet	1	4	0	3	7	1	12	0	DNF	1	DNF	6	20	55
20th	Ghost Plasma	3	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	0	7	0	12	10	14	0	8	54

DNF: Did not finish and 0 points awarded
0: finished outside the points and 0 points awarded
t: tied
‡: double points

Point System

• 1st: 20pts
• 2nd: 17pts
• 3rd: 14pts
• 4th: 12pts
• 5th: 11pts
• 6th: 10pts
• 7th: 9pts
• 8th: 8pts
• 9th: 7pts
• 10th: 6pts
• 11th: 5pts
• 12th: 4pts
• 13th: 3pts
• 14th: 2pts
• 15th: 1pts

Winners

Race	Winner	Time	Margin	Starting position
R1	Crazy Cat's Eye	2:03.06	+0.40	P1
R2	Big Pearl	2:03.08	+0.08	P10
R3	Quicksilver	1:06.21	+0.06	P3
R4	Red Number 3	1:04.81	+0.67	P6
R5	Quicksilver	1:18.52	+0.01	P10
R6	Pollo Loco	1:12.72	+0.97	P5
R7	Dragon's Egg	1:45.10	+0.77	P4
R8	Red Number 3	1:43.64	+2.77	P7
R9	Slimer	2:10.88	+0.52	P2
R10	Wisp of Darkness	2:12.75	+0.15	P19
R11	Slimer	1:48.01	+0.18	P20
R12	El Capitan	1:45.34	+1.11	P7
F	H2 Blue	2:21.26	+0.25	P15

• P1–P7 is on the front row
• P8–P13 is on the second row
• P14–P20 is on the back row

Trivia

• The first attempt of Race 3 was aborted after a huge pile up at the start. Before the start of second attempt, a dog was seen invading the track. Finally, the race got away and, in the end, Quicksilver won it.
• The double points for the final race was announced only in race 12 (the second last race) and it caused a little bit of controversy because it affected the end results with Dragon's Egg (135pts) becoming champion infront of Red Number 3 (134pts), Slimer (130pts) and Quicksilver (125pts), while without double points the results would've been: Quicksilver champion with 125pts, Red Number 3 second (123pts), Dragon's Egg third (118pts) and Slimer fourth (116pts).
• There was at least 1 DNF in every race. The 2017 season is the only main-league edition with this distinction.
• Before this season was announced, Oddball and Olympia had announced their retirement and would not compete.