“Fan Sponsoring”?
Wir nennen es “Fan Sponsoring” – dabei handelt es sich um einen Text, der an den großen Seitenkästen des Formula-BMW-Rennwagens (“FB02″) von Lassi Halminen angebracht wird. Es kann ein beliebiger Text, also ein Name, Website, Firma, Slogan und so weiter sein. Auch Website-URLs sind möglich.

Lassi Halminen?
So lautet der Name des von redspotgames gesponserten Fahrers. Jungspund, 15 Jahre, kommt aus der finnischen Stadt Kangasala, schon seit dem 10. Lebensjahr im professionellen Kartsport unterwegs. Hat sich im Formula BMW Talent Cup als einer der besten etabliert. Und daneben begeisteter Videospieler. Neben dem Rennfahren konzentriert sich Lassi darauf, uns bei der Ausbalancierung des Schwierigkeitsgrads von “Rush Rush Rally Racing” zu helfen. Schwer soll es sein, selbst für einen professionellen Rennfahrer – aber dennoch fair!

Formula BMW Talent Cup?
Der Formula BMW Talent Cup ist eine Art Rennfahrer-Ausbildung mit mehreren Rennen ohne Gesamtwertung (intern “Heats” genannt) in 7 Ländern Europas. Aus der Formula BMW gingen in den letzten Jahren Talente wie Sebastian Vettel, Nico Rosberg, Bruno Senna oder Sébastien Buemi hervor. Mehr Informationen über den Cup gibt es auf der offiziellen Website: http://www.bmw-motorsport.com/ms_de/engagement/formel_bmw_talent_cup/konzept

Wann und wo zu sehen?
Der Formula BMW Talent Cup, in welchem Lassi Halminen als einer von 13 Fahrern teilnimmt, absolviert zwischen dem 15. – 18. September sein großes Finale in Deutschland. Genauer gesagt in der Motorsport Arena Oschersleben, als Rahmenprogramm des DTM-Laufs am gleichen Wochenende. Die DTM ist eine der größten Tourenwagen-Meisterschaften weltweit und glänzt mit weltweit bekannten Rennfahrern wie Ralf Schumacher oder David Coulthard. Das Rennen mit Lassi Halminen wird vor geschätzten 60.000 Zuschauern stattfinden, sowie im Internet unter www.formula-bmw.com live übertragen.

Anmeldung und Deadline
Bis spätestens morgen, Freitag den 02.09.2011, muss eine Anfrage per Mail an sponsoring@redspotgames.com eingegangen sein. In dieser Anfrage muss bereits der gewünschte Text (nicht mehr als 24 Zeichen) genannt werden. Jede Anfrage ist bindend und verpflichtet damit zur Zahlung und Verwendung des ersten angegebenen Textes. Spätere Änderungswünsche können nicht beachtet werden.

Kosten und Abwicklung
Während im professionellen Motorsport ein Sponsoring mehrere Zehntausende Euro kostet, beträgt die einmalige Gebühr des “Fan Sponsoring”-Pakets nur 50,00 EUR. Es entstehen keine weiteren Kosten. redspotgames erzielt durch diese Gebühr keinen finanziellen Gewinn. Diese muss binnen 7 Werktagen auf unser deutsches Bankkonto oder PayPal-Konto überwiesen werden. Weitere Details erhalten alle Interessenten bei der Anmeldung auf sponsoring@redspotgames.com

Wir möchten zudem darauf hinweisen, das dieses Angebot nicht nur zeitlich, sondern auch platztechnisch limitiert ist. Danke an alle Interessierten! Und viel Erfolg in Oschersleben, Lassi!

The 16 year old Finn from Kangasala is one of 13 participants at this year‘s Formula BMW Talent Cup, a motorsport series that focus on the education and training of race drivers who come from karting and are between 13 and 18 years. Other motorsport stars like Sebastian Vettel, Bruno Senna or Sébastien Buemi once attended at the Formula BMW series and made their first large steps in professional racing here. The series also provides mental and fitness training by professionals who already trained Formula 1 drivers like Lewis Hamilton or even Olympia Gold Metal winners in different disciplines.

The „fan sponsoring“ is limited to the final event of Oschersleben (Germany) on September 15th to 18th, where they drive in the supporting program of the DTM („Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters“). The race will be streamed live on www.formula-bmw.com and about 60.000 fans are awaited for this event. HAL Racing will not charge 10.000 EUR, not 1.000 EUR, but only 50 EUR per text! Professional motorsport sponsoring has never been so easy and inexpensive! And the best: Every 10th order will get their text for absolutely free!

Since Lassi Halminen became one of the best Formula BMW Talent Cup drivers in this season, he has a realistic chance to win both the race in Oschersleben and a sponsored year in the Formula 3 ATS cup in 2012 as the prize of his eventually success here.

If you are interested or need further details, directly contact redspotgames at sponsoring@redspotgames.com – you can pay via both, PayPal or on an European Bank account (transfer within Europe with no extra charge). Please be aware that other names will appear on this area as well. redspotgames will not gain any financial profit out of this „fan sponsoring“ fee.

redspotgames already sponsors Lassi Halminen since the early 2011 Formula BMW Talent Cup season. As a hardcore videogame fan, Lassi already got his hands on Rush Rush Rally Racing for Nintendo WiiWare, which is about to be released very soon.

In qualifying sessions on Saturday Lassi continued his strong performance. In qualifying 1 from which two fastest laps were considered Lassi finalized third and fourth. Something about the tightness of the competition tells the fact that Lassi lost the second position only by 0.004 seconds, and to the pole position the time difference was only 0.111 seconds.

In qualifying 2 Lassi got some extra heartbeat when the red flag had stopped the qualifying and the cars were getting back on the track: there proved to be a severe problem in the throttle. After couple of minutes of hard work by his mechanics, he eventually was sent back to the track only few minutes before the end of qualifying 2.

„I was told that I will have chance for two laps, and I will have to be fast even on the first lap out to get chance. So I knew I had this only shot“ Lassi commented the qualifying. He achieved two fantastic laps which brought him to position two on both of his laps.

Lassi clarified the situation after qualifying. „I knew I needed two fast laps so I could not push too hard on the first fast lap, but I think it went quite well. When I left to the second fast lap I had only 7 seconds time left, so it was close call“

In heats (a.k.a. stints under race condition) Lassi demonstrated fantastic driving skills again, which further strengthened his position among top drivers in Talent Cup.

„Heat 1, I’ve got pretty poor start, and then I couldn‘t get an optimal line to the corner 1 and few opponents managed to overtake me in there. So I finalized as fifth“ the 16 year old Finn commented. „Then in heat 2 I had pretty cool start, and managed to overtake in the first corner and I reached third position. Then I started to seek for a place to overtake the car in front of me. However, already on lap 2 another car hit hard from back to my right rear tire. I span and in the incident the tire and breaks damaged, so I was forced to withdraw. The opponent who hit my car got a penalty of 5 starting grid positions in the next heat“

The third heat brought a phantastic start „and I managed to get the leading position in corner 1. However after a while the opponent who left from the pole managed to overtake me again“ He was driving as second, as bit later, another incident in corner 2 made him span out unfortunately.

Lassi was pretty close to a victory in the forth heat! „The start was ok, the race was ok, I drove the fastest lap time and I was pretty close to win, resulting as second. At finishing line the difference was only 0.38 second!“ he commented.

„In heat 5 I had to start from position 7 due to some bad luck in two of the previous heats. I had very nice start, I managed to get already to fourth position in the first corner, but then it came a bit too tight and I got hit and dropped to the eight position. It took quite many laps to rush-rush-race back to the fourth position which was my result at the end“

Lassi himself was satisfied in his performance. He knows that his speed is sufficient for winning, but also luck is needed. He was also fond of the Portimão track. „This is very nice and challenging track to drive, blind corners, lots of hills up and down. A great fun for me!“

But now it‘s time to recover – the great final race in Oschersleben as supporting act for the DTM („Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters“) is about to come on September 15th to 18th 2011! redspotgames will keep you informed about Lassi‘s race there.

Lassi Halminen is sponsored by redspotgames and is supporing the development of the upcoming 2D racing game „Rush Rush Rally Racing“ for Nintendo WiiWare.

British race driver Andy Priaulx – who will start for BMW in the DTM in 2012 – has established a training facility called iZone Driver Performance at England‘s prestigious Silverstone Circuit. It is aimed at helping racing drivers become world class racers with an innovative simulator. It offers three HD projectors, 5 axis of motion, competition hydraulic brakes with 4-pot callipers, eye tracker and a data analysis station, amongst others.

Lassi was fascinated by these digital training sessions. „I learnt an incredible range of strategies that will be really helpful in the future,“ said the 16 year old Finn after the event. „It wasn‘t as difficult as Rush Rush Rally Racing at all“

The next events will be Portimão, Portugal (26th to 28th August) and the grand finale in Oschersleben, Germany (15th to 18th August) in the supporting program of the DTM („Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters“).

Still redspotgames sponsored driver Lassi Halminen from Finland kept cool and delivered some pretty decent results in both the Qualifying and „Heat“ sessions (a.k.a. the 4 short races).

After placing 2nd and 5th in the Qualifying session on Saturday, he started from these grid positions in heat 1 and 3. For heat 2 and 4, the first 6 drivers from the previous heats started in the reversed order to mix the grid up.

Even due to these reguations he managed to compete with the best drivers, placed 3rd, 4th twice and 6th in the last heat. This marks a good result compared to his starting positions and the hard battle for places with a few car contacts by others.

„Qualifying 1 was very good for me and I didn‘t need to drive more than one fast lap and I was second“, Lassi Halminen reported. „Qualifying 2 wasn‘t that good and I missed the best laps because of traffic and I was 5th. Heat 1 was quite good but I got overtaken on lap 2 in turn 6 so I finished 3rd. Heat 2 I finalized as 5th [4th after a penalty for another driver] and I had couple of very good and tight fights. Heat three I had even more hard fights and eventually I was able to rise from 5th to 4th and 3rd place wasn‘t far, just one more lap…“, he said with a big grin. „Heat 4 in the beginning of the heat I got stuck and dropped from 3rd to 6th. My tires were not in perfect shape any longer so the overtaking was very difficult, but all in all the whole weekend was quite good. One podium, and lot of more racing experience.“

In his video message from Monteblanco, Lassi Halminen also announced a new „Rush Rush Rally Racing for WiiWare“ poster which will be gave away for free to every order in the redspotgames online shop (www.redspotgames.com/shop) from now on. Besides, the 15-year-old was also very happy to present his first merchandise article with the official „Rush Rush Rally Racing“ cap he is wearing at each event. The quality cap by Flexfit is available at the redspotgames online shop for 50,00 EUR (US$ 72.00 / GBP 44,00). „To be honest it looks much better than the common caps around, since it‘s more stylish and uses a modern design with flexible spandex. It‘s very fashionable and I also wear in my spare time“ he comments. By the way: Every 25th order at the redspotgames online shop will even get it for free!

The video has been uploaded to redspotgames‘ YouTube account and can be watched at www.youtube.com/user/redspotgames

The next station of the Formula BMW Talent Cup will be a training from 19th to 21st August 2011 in prestigious Silverstone, England. Here the participants will drive in a racing simulator (it can‘t get any harder than „Rush Rush Rally Racing“, can it?), guided by former WTCC and future DTM driver Andy Priaulx.

Furthermore, the race events in Portimão, Portugal (26th to 28th August) and the grand finale in Oschersleben, Germany (15th to 18th August) in the supporting program of the DTM („Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters“) will be the next steps.

redspotgames sponsored driver Lassi Halminen of HAL Racing was excited. “That’s my first visit to Magny-Cours. Usually I cope with technical tracks better than with high-speed circuits like this. Yet I really like this place. Very characteristic and well-known for it’s high-speed chicanes.”

After a practice day on Monday with heavy rain showers, the two hot and sunny qualifying sessions on Tuesday gave insights into the balance of power on this specific track. After Stefan Wackerbauer and Max Günther (both from Germany), Finland’s Lassi Halminen became third not too far behind.

Those results also marked the start position of the two Heat sessions under real race conditions the same day.

The first three positions saw no changes and therefore Lassi finished third! “Indeed it’s pretty hard to overtake in Magny-Cours” the 15 year old Finn explained. Therefore only a few place changes could be seen. The first Heat saw no surprise except a crash by Kevin Jörg that made it impossible for the Swiss driver to start in Heat 2 due to the damage. But luckily he was not injured.

Nevertheless the remaining drivers started very concentrated and with more self-confidence in Heat 2: Max Günther (second on grid) overtook Stefan Wackerbauer on Pole Position right after the start and Lassi Halminen was almost there to catch him as well. Unfortunately both struggled a bit with their cars and Stefan Wackerbauer could overtake Max Günther again. Meanwhile, Lassi Halminen came closer and closer to the tail of Max Günther’s car and started a few tries to overtake him to gather second place. “Unfortunately I had problems changing the gears in the very last corner, else I could have caught him”, Lassi said after the race. The difference between Lassi and second place was only 0.451 seconds! What a close one.

In the official overall results, Lassi brought thrid place home and deserved a podium. redspotgames is pretty proud to see that he would have made it to the next level of “Rush Rush Rally Racing”… and his great performance in Magny-Cours of course!

The 2011 Formula BMW Talent Cup season will see four more events:

• 5th – 7th August 2011: Monteblanco, Spain
• 20th – 21st August 2011: Silverstone, United Kingdom (Fitness retest only)
• 26th – 28th August 2011: Portimão, Portugal
• 15th – 18th September 2011: Oschersleben, Germany (supporting program for DTM race)

redspotgames will post results of both the qualifyings and the races live on their Twitter and Facebook pages, among with photos and videos of the events.

“Rush Rush Rally Racing” will be released within the next couple of weeks for Nintendo WiiWare in Europe and North America. Lassi is looking forward to the release as well!

BMW Motorsports was so kind and gave the Formula BMW Talent Cup participants the chance to visit the prestigious 24 h of the Nürburgring Nordschleife this year. Here Lassi met key persons of the sport such as the BMW works driver Dirk Adorf or BMW Motorsport director Mario Theissen. And got one or another tip how he could beat the opponents in both the Formula BMW Talent Cup and ‚Rush Rush Rally Racing‘.

Speaking about it: ‚Rush Rush Rally Racing‘ is in the final straight to the finish line and will pass the finish line a.k.a. the release soon. The European release for Nintendo WiiWare will be in July 2011. The release dates in North America and Japan are still to be announced.

By the way, the race was won by Manthey Racing in a Porsche 997 GT3 RSR but followed by the BMW Motorsport BMW M3 GT. It was a close one. Lassi‘s goosebumps were the proof of it. Or maybe he just was scared by the jokes of Mario Barth, famous German comediant of the new age, who he met in the BMW motorhome.

redspotgames, Lassi Halminen and HAL Racing not only teamed up for partnership at the Sturup Raceway in Sweden two weeks ago. It also marked the first on-track race situation of the Formula BMW Talent Cup.

Lassi would have been qualified for the next level in ‘Rush Rush Rally Racing’ with his pace in Sturup. Due to the qualifying results he started in group two and placed Third and First in those two group races! Excellent job, Lassi!

The 15 year old from Kangasala, Finland is one of 15 participants of 2011 Formula BMW Talent Cup and the only one from a Nordic country. He started Karting by the age of 10 and is following the steps of F1 legends like Mika Häkkinen (characer-wise) and Kimi Räikkönen (career-wise), while Ayrton Senna is his personal idol.

F1 World Champion Sebastian Vettel once attended at the Formula BMW Germany and therefore gave the participats a visit at Formula BMW Talent Cup shoot-out in Cartagena, Spain. So this seems like the perfect start of young talents in the big wide world of motorsport racing.

Also ‘Rush Rush Rally Racing’ is going the next big step and will be released for Nintendo WiiWare in July 2011 in Europe. The release dates in North America and Japan are still to be announced.

It’s also a quite important topic to our customers, since we are currently in development of “Rush Rush Rally Racing” for PlayStation minis – and wanted to launch it within the PlayStation Network. A release was scheduled for 2011.

But is there still confidence in Sony’s services and is there still a demand for new games on this network?

Today we decided that the game’s future on the platform should rest in the hands of its fans via Online Survey. Should an enormous amount of users vote against the PlayStation Network, a cancellation is likely.

Our related press release, gives you an overview about the situation:

PlayStation Network leak: Fans will decide on cancellation of Rush Rush Rally Racing for PlayStation minis.

Among all participants, three redspotgames keychains and three copies of Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles for Sega Dreamcast will be given out as prizes.

Originally those posters were made for the redspotgames booth at Europe’s largest videogame exhibition, Gamescom 2010 in Cologne, Germany. They have a size of 60 x 42 cm / 23.5 x 16.5 inch.

Nevertheless we are aware of the fact that die-hard collectors would never accept folded or damaged posters, so besides the opportunity of getting this item for free we are also offering the posters at a price of 3.50 EUR (excl. shipping) at the redspotgames online shop. It will be sent rolled in extra secure poster packing units and thus will arrive unharmed and absolutely crease free.

Rush Rush Rally Rally Racing for Nintendo WiiWare is set to be released in Q1-Q2 2011. Compared to the original Dreamcast version, this edition offers lots of improvements such as a widescreen option, new menus and advanced gameplay modes. Insights in the current status of the game’s development can be found at www.rushrushrallyracing.com

The price drops concern the two Dreamcast titles “Rush Rush Rally Racing Deluxe Edition” with alternate cover as well as “Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles”.

The special edition of “Rush Rush Rally Racing Deluxe Edition” with alternate cover will be discounted by 20%, from 27,95 EUR to 22,00 EUR (~ £18,60 / ~ US$29.25)! In addition to its unique features, this classic 2D racer is also a homage to the golden age of video games and offers many multiplayer modes with up to 4 players and cartoon cutscenes in its singleplayer mode, garnished with fine black humor. This Deluxe Edition comes with a spine card, soundtrack CD, extended manual with screenshots of deleted levels and three stickers.

Additionally, “Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles” will see a revival – the puzzle/adventure genre hybrid for Sega Dreamcast, originally released in 2008, will be offered for only 10 EUR (~ £8,45 / ~ US$13.30) at the redspotgames online shop – this is almost 70% less than before! (16,99 EUR) Furthermore, this version offers the most elaborate packaging design a regular indie Dreamcast game has ever seen: Spinecard, full-color CD print, extra thick color manual (130 g/m²), 40 pages with artwork, including a mini manga.

All games are available for these prices from this moment on and can be purchased at the redspotgames online shop.

redspotgames online shop: Link
“Rush Rush Rally Racing Deluxe Edition” with alternative cover: Link
“Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles”: Link

As an example: There’s a different split screen design for 3 players due to the new widescreen mode which should have all players a better overview of the track.

Have fun seeking for all new details. But remember: This is work in progress. Details might appear different in the final product!

Deutsch:
Während der gamescom wurden wir so einige Male gefragt, was wir nach der Messe mit den Werbematerialien und im Speziellen mit dem Sega Dreamcast Demo-Aufsteller machen werden. Nachdem uns auch nach der gamescom noch einige Anfragen per eMail erreichten, haben wir uns dazu entschlossen diese zu versteigern und bieten diese nun auf eBay an!

Neben dem Rush Rush Rally Racing und Solar Struggle Werbebanner verkaufen wir auch einen unserer geliebten Dreamcast-Aufsteller, dessen Einnahmen durch die Auktion direkt in weitere zukünfigte Dreamcast-Projekte fließen werden.

Solar Struggle Werbebanner: http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120613845726
Rush Rush Rally Racing Werbebanner: http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120613847361
Sega Dreamcast Demo-Display: http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120613466379

Wir drücken dir die Daumen, dass du bei Interesse die Auktion(en) gewinnst!

English:

We have been asked by visitors of our gamescom booth what will happen with the advertising material and especially with the Dreamcast Promo Display quite a couple of times. After some more inquiries later by email, we have decided to give you the chance to purchase it by auction and put them on eBay!

Beside the Rush Rush Rally Racing and Solar Struggle rollup banner we are also selling one of our beloved Sega Dreamcast Promo Displays, whose income of the auction will directly go into future Dreamcast Indie Games projects.

Solar Struggle Rollup Banner: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120613845726
Rush Rush Rally Racing Rollup Banner: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120613847361
Sega Dreamcast Store Display: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120613466379

We’re crossing our fingers that you’ll receive the item you’re looking for!

Nachbarstände von Nintendo und Microsoft sind cool. Coole Leute bei Microsoft aus UK, mit denen wir uns über die neuesten Indie Games unterhalten haben und wir auch technische Hilfe bekommen haben. Cheers Mates! Viel Stress, aber war die Mühe wert.

Anbei Fotos, auch sehen auf unserem Flickr-Account:

Rush Rush Rally Racing is the latest game by redspotgames and Senile Team and hit the shelves on October 30th 2009. Not even 6 months after its release all units of the Regular Edition are sold. Hence redspotgames exceeds the sales figures and sales speed of all Sega Dreamcast titles since 2008. The publisher already set a sale record of Indie Games on the Sega Dreamcast with their 2007 title “Last Hope”, which lasts until today.

Even though the Regular Edition of their latest title is sold out, both versions of the Deluxe Edition are still available for 27,95 EUR (~ US$37,80 / ~ £24,50) at the redspotgames online shop:

Rush Rush Rally Racing: Deluxe Edition (Alternative cover)
Rush Rush Rally Racing: Deluxe Edition (Standard cover)