Agent-P's Racer 2014/15

Current Mission I want to take this Travel bug to GC30 - Mingo. which has easy access on and off of Interstate 70 in Kansas. If I am the first one there, I will receive 100 points to my score.

If I can make it to this checkpoint it would be great. It would help me in my standings. if you get it there then try to get it to a cache ASAP so my points will add up. If you can keep it moving towards the cache of my current mission.

The 2014/2015 Amazing Travel Bug and Geocoin Race will be a race around the world. The goal is to reach as many of the seven (7) checkoints that have been setup for this race as possible. There is one checkpoint on each of the seven (7) continents. The race will begin on or around July 1, 2014 and conclude on December 31, 2015. The information below should answer any questions that you might have concerning this race.

Scoring Information

Points based on finds

Traditional Cache 5 Points, Multi-stage Cache 10 Points, Letterbox Hybrid 15 Points, Mystery Cache 15 Points, Regular Event 25 Points, CITO Event 30 Points, Groundspeak Headquarters 30 Points, Mega Event 50 Points, Project APE Cache 75 Points, Photos 5 Points, Mileage .1 Points per mile.

Points for checkpoints

1st Place into Checkpoint 1000 Points, 2nd Place into Checkpoint 500 Points, 3rd Place into Checkpoint 250 Points, All other places into Checkpoint 50 Points.

Please note, there is no penalty for being dipped or discovered. If a racer is "dipped into/visits" a cache, you will only receive the mileage points. The racer needs to be phyiscally dropped into the cache to gain those points.

Checkpoints Caches

In this year's race, there will be 7checkpoint caches located around the world. Each continent has its own checkpoint cache, including Antarctica. Each cache was chosen after the general area was selected on the map. There are bonus points for reaching a checkpoint cache. The first racer to reach a checkpoint will receive 100 points, the second racer will receive 50 points, the third racer will receive 25 points, and each racer after that will receive 5 points. In the event that a checkpoint cache gets archived during the race, a new cache will be selected for that continent and the bonus points will not reset. The checkpoint caches to start the race are as follows:

North America:

GC30 - Mingo. Located in the American heartland, this is the oldest active cache listed on geocaching.com. With easy access on and off of Interstate 70 in Kansas, Mingo has over 950 favorite points and over 3,100 finds currently. This was by far the easiest cache to choose for this race.

South America:

GCJ9KW - SuperCerca El Cerro San Cristobal Gran Parque. Located in Chile, and sitting above the city of Santiago, this cache offers a wonderful view of the city below. This is one of the more popular caches in South America with 13 favorite points and 412 finds when it was chosen.

Europe:

GCX1AK - TB Hotel Acropolis Athens II. Located south and west of Athens, Greece, you will find Europe's checkpoint in the race. This cache offers a great view of Acropolis and will make a great location for this years racers to reach. The cache has at least 31 favorite points and over 800 finds. This will be a must see location for these racers to reach!

Africa:

GC31WXR - Table Mountain Travel Bug Hotel. Located on the coast of South Africa, and high above the city of Cape Town, Africa's checkpoint resides. With its majestic view of the South Atlantic Ocean, one must take a cable car up to the summit of the mountain to reach this cache. Table Top Mountain is located in the center of Cape Town, South Africa. This cache was a worthy destination to choose for this race. With at least 167 favorite points and just about 550 finds, this cache is another great destination for the racers to reach.

Antarctica:

GC2GGM9 - Novo Airbase - Most Southern International Airport. Located on the coast of the giant ice sheet known as Antarctica, this checkpoint resides. Most racers will be lucky to get a flight to such an isolated spot, but I could see one or two of them making the trip to this spot. Not many have found this cold climate cache, and with only five finds this could be a very rewarding stop over, or could be a race ender.

Asia:

GC38J50 - Asakusa Kaminarimon. Located just outside of Tokyo, Japan, you will find the checkpoint for the Asian continent. Being located at one of the gates that leads to the center of Tokyo's shitamachi ("low city") where an atmosphere of the Tokyo of the past survives, this checkpoint will offer racers a chance to get a glimpse back in time. The 70 favorite points and close to 300 finds makes this a worthy destination for the race. Racers should certainly make sure their camera is packed for this checkpoint (if you can figure out a way to pack a camera on a travelbug dog tag).

Australia/Oceania:

GC250Q5 -International Departure Lounge Mark III. Located to the south of Auckland, New Zealand, this checkpoint will welcome racers as they arrive at Auckland International Airport. This cache could be a great stepping stone to head towards Australia or to explore the New Zealand countryside. Nearly 500 finds for this cache and 93 favorite points await racers in Oceania.

Here are some more general rules for the race that you should be aware of:

• Once the race has started, cachers with racers in the race are not permitted to handle any racer, including their own at any point of the race. This is done to prevent cachers from intentionally or unintentionally moving others or their own racers to either hinder or help the racers advance.
• If a racer is discovered during the race, there are no points for discoveries. 
• Once a racer has been placed into a cache, the racer must stay in the cache until the cache is visited again. This is to prevent a racer from being passed back and forth between a group of cachers. If a pattern of this type of activity is spotted, an email will be sent to the cachers in question, explaining that this racer will need to be placed and left. As a race contestant, you should also be aware of this activity happening and send an email as well. If this activity does not stop, a penalty will be enforced. The penalty will be a loss of points for the type of cache the racer was placed in and retrieved from. So, if cacher A places the racer in a regular cache and cacher B in the group picks it up, after the warning has been sent, the penalty will be -5 points. If this happens at a regular event-type cache, the penalty will be -25 points. If this activity continues after the warning email, then the racer will be disqualified. No questions asked. Only one warning will be issued!
• Racers cannot be mailed at any point during the race, once it has started. If mailing has been detected, a penalty of -1000 will be assessed.
• The use of wormhole portal caches is also prohibited in the race. In most cases, wormhole caches move trackables quickly by mailing the trackables from one continent to another, so the use of wormholes is akin to mailing the trackable.
• Updates to scoring will be posted on our race website. An attempt to update scoring once a week will be made, but cannot be promised. A more realistic promise will be, scoring will be updated at least once a month. You can visit the scoring website athttp://www.wpaga.com/ATRB1415/standings.html.
• If at any point during the race if one of the checkpoint caches becomes archived, a new checkpoint cache will be chosen on that continent and the points will NOT be restarted again. I will post an update to http://www.wpaga.com/ATBR1415/checkpoints.html, showing that a new cache has been selected and the archived cache will be removed.