Question for me? Drop me a line at 'eAddict at yahoo.com' (had to change the e-mail format due to a large increase in SPAM)
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December 19
Wow. Where did that year go? It seemed long because we didn't have the plastic track up but it still went quick. What a great night of racing for a last night. We had trucks going everywhere (Gil had to cover the glass door on his new fridge!!). Marks truck went off the track so violently that the braids came out and he flipped from the inside lane to the top lane only to be flung off the track! Mike P had a great wreck too - have to join the discussion group to get the gory details. IROC was a mess (see the photos page). The Carrera NASCARS took and gave their last beatings. I think I would have done better that night had I not had a case of Labyrinthitis. It has been a fun few weeks but watching the cars go around and around made it a tad worse. I wasn't the only one to hook up the colors wrong that night. Everyone did run the right color in IROC finally.
I compiled all the results and passed them to Gil so he can order the plaques and trophies. Trophy party at my house January 20th! More details to follow. I will have copies of the 2006 website at the trophy party. If you can't make it drop me a line and I will try my best to get one to you. We will have the house done by then (http://addingroom.blogspot.com). Mark and I moved the portable over to my place so we can finish wiring and braiding. Another track in the club soon!
I would like to wish everyone who raced with us a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Years. The guys we have in our club are the best. They are a great group of guys to hang out with. I hope the ones that have been absent recently will return too. They were not just bodies to help fill out race night, they were also guys you could talk cars, racing, and pretty much anything else about to.
December 11
Second to last Oval race is done. What a good night. I was given so much crap - good natured though. One race Mark P offered to give me advice to guarantee a speed increase for my truck. A mere $10. After a bunch of me trying to guess he leaned over to me and whispered "Everyone else is running on high power." duh. I wasn't the only one with brain lock that night though. One racer was wondering why his truck didn't go. Once we reminded him that the white clip goes to the white power post, red to red, and black to black, his truck actually moved. In IROC one of the better drivers was driving poorly. I said "You are punching it too soon. You are always coming out!" He said no he wasn't. That is when he realized he was at the WHITE drivers station racing the WHITE car. He had been watching the orange car. He was good to go from them on out.
We really have a good time. Nothing too serious, reasonable time to fix repairs, and close racing. The IROC was the closest of the season. 1st was 137 laps 20', 2nd was 137 15', and 3rd was 137 10'. I usually did better in IROC but I just couldn't keep the blue car in... next one!
November 25
Even though I am writing this in December it happened in November. I took a side trip while I was visiting my in-laws in Southern Illinois. I took a few of my cars and controllers to Redline R/C to try out the track there and meet the owner. I went there the Saturday after Thanksgiving - didn't want to run into the crowd on Friday.
The place was quiet except for the owner and one other customer. They were chatting RC stuff. I asked about turning on the track so I could run on it. He had no problem. The only request he had was no glue. That was OK with me. I didn't bring THAT fast of cars with me.
I broke out my trucks and stuff in the pit area. There was PLENTY of clean pit space for all. There was even power in each area. I opened my case and pulled out what I brought: 2 1/24 NAStrucks, my stretch WOMP, and my 1/32 TSRF NASCAR. I couldn't locate any of my EuroPlastic cars that I wanted to bring nor my truck that was built for another FAST race (that I missed). You can click on each of the photos to see a larger image. |
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I then let Kasey, my daughter, have a go. She did just as well on such a large track. Then I put both trucks on and we did some side-by-side racing. The corner before the drivers station is where we often met.
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They had plenty of pit space and a very good selection of parts - esp for
what they run (duh). My daughter and I enjoyed it and I look forward
to doing another road trip or 3 to maybe even compete with the locals.
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November 20
We finished the road race at Carl's track. While I have never done really well there I thought I should go. Just in case. And I am glad I did. There we but 5 of us, including Carl, for the evenings event. Where did everyone go? Some folks speculated holiday issue, others thought it might be an end of the season thing, while a few more just shrugged. No matter what the reason you missed a good night of close racing. Carl was a great host for the small crowd (anytime your wife wants to bake extra cookies just let me know). We raced 2 or 3 on a heat and the others marshaled as best they could. It really made it better to stay in than to hope a marshal could reach you soon enough.
Mark and I worked on the portable oval Saturday the 18th. It was cold and our fingers were a tad frozen at times. We did manage to get the grove for the braid done. Now we are down to wiring and laying braid. Hopefully it will be done before the end of the year. It will make for a great 3rd oval in the club.
So what are your ideas for helping with enrollment in the club? Drop me a line at the address above OR join the discussion group that is on the front page of the club website. We are nearing the end of the oval season and will be thrashing for the Spring 2007 season soon.
Oh, and a big Happy Birthday out to my sister! You are now officially a year older than I. For those who don't know us, for 9 days we are the same age. Made for a lot of fun times growing up.
November 13
My birthday was actually on the 11th but who is worried about a few days at my age!
We had another great night of racing. The trucks, again, proved to be handful on high power. We have some awesome wrecks and major body damage. There was tape being applied everywhere! No one lost any fingers - this time- though it was close. Mike P got his truck working and was in the hunt. Paul was doing OK too until he realized too late that he ran an entire heat on low power. I have done that too - only to catch it THEN try to catch up! Details!
Mark P loaned me his backup Carrera NASCAR which turned out to be rather nice. I not only beat him but I also won the race. Mark can really tune a car. While others complain about 'plastic crap', Mark has been able to make any Europlastic car run well. I think it is just the time and attention to detail that he puts into it. While most folks think you can buy and run, Mark takes the extra step to check out everything. His attention to detail shows as he is cleaning up in all the classes. I hope to give him a run for his money when I can get at my work bench again.
IROC was close again. Gil repaired the damage we had done to all his cars last time we ran at his place. Mark beat me by 1 lap keeping me from winning all three races! That would have been a first for me for all the years I have been racing.
One more road race and 2 more ovals. I also hope to have my track up for next season. I am just waiting to hear from all the track owners about availability then I will post the first half 2007 season.
October 31st
Everyone, well, almost everyone reappeared. Must have been the payoffs or something else. The first race back for me was at Jim's. We had a new guy show up, Gino, who raced well for his first time out. Hope to see him back soon! We have enough cars and controllers for you to borrow to finish this season out. That goes for anyone reading this who is considering coming out to race. It was a good night of racing even though we forced Jim NOT to have the payoffs on TV.
The next week was
at Gil's on the oval. Ollie Z, Mike Z's dad, rejoined us for some
great racing! The Carrera NASCARS were so much slower than the
NASTrucks (check out the videos in the photo section). Even though the
Carreras were slow they still wrecked well. I think we had at least 2
bumpers come off if not more. There was plastic all over the inside of
the oval. The trucks were the hi-light of the evening!
Besides
going stupid fast they make for spectacular wrecks! I have a screen
capture here but you can check out the video in the photo section of the
site. With the trucks running 1.2s to 1.4s laps marshalling the trucks
was a challenge. If you want to see about the fastest vehicle this
club will run come out and check out the oval racing! I just can't see
folks running group 12 or group 27 motors!
We have such a good time that it is hard to describe here. Maybe you could ask Mike/Mark (inside joke) or come to enjoy the MGPMRC IROC Shuffle... or just come and talk cars and more cars.
We are nearing the end of the season and the votes have been tallied for the classes for the next season. They are on the Oval 1/24th Indy Roadster, REH/American Line and 1/24th or 1/25th hard plastic NASTRUCK on new or old Pro Track chassis. On the road courses 1/24th Vintage F1, Atlas and 1/32nd "C" Euroscale, Scalextrics T/A w/ stock or resin body. I hope, with Ken R's help, to have the rule out to the club ASAP.
Don't forget the show this weekend!
October 16th
OK. I spoke too soon. We have had two weeks with not enough people to race. Where'd everyone go? I admit I missed the last two due to various reasons (last nights Cards game sucked - I should have gone to the races). So where'd our regulars go? You know who you are <grin>. Hopefully this will NOT be a trend for the rest of the season. Right now it looks good that I can make the rest.
Other than that the club has started doing something to try to increase the number of racers coming out. We are in the midst of building a portable track. I'll have photos and updates soon. Mark P has been hosting the build out at his place. Scott V brought a heck of a lot of tools to make life easier. Gordon and I were there doing what we could to keep the day very productive. And productive it was. More later.
Race at Jim's this coming Sunday! See you there!
October 6th
Sorry about the delay in writing here but work AND home life have been keeping me really busy. I guess that is a good thing - then I have some spare $$ for my hobby.
We had eleven racers show up at Gil's for the oval last Sunday. There were 2 new folks in attendance. One was Ollie Z, father of Mike Z . The other was a visitor from Iowa, Jim G, who happens to be in St Louis for a consulting gig. Both were great racers and I think they both had a good time. Since Jim G was talking about racing with us while his work kept him is St Louis I guess we aren't too bad of a host group.
The racing was very close on the oval - 1st and 2nd finished within inches as well as 3rd and 4th. Paul and I more or less had DNFs on our Carrera's . I didn't have time to check mine out since I ran in right from dinner with the family. I made about 45 laps then my gears completely locked up. Oh well. I did OK in the Oval. Gotta catch Ken W though! I am at a loss of what to do for my truck to get it faster! The only difference I could see with Ken was he has 0 lead. I had about 1/2 ounce or so. I did replace my tires before the race and managed to squeak out a few more laps but Ken W still beat me by 8 laps! Close racing a great! And thanks to Gil for being a great host too.
September 14
And then there were 4. Actually 5 of us showed but only 4 raced except for the IROC race. I actually had thought about not racing that night but I am glad I did. Even though I raced like crap. Gil was a great host/director. He tweaked his system so we always had 2-3 marshals. The track calls were few and far between - even when I was racing. Kudos to Gil. We were done by just after 9PM so it wasn't too late of a night.
So where was everyone else? Labor Day was the previous weekend. Dunno but I hope this motivates the club a bit to expand membership. I have responded to some e-mails about checking out the club and I look forward to seeing those folks out soon.
I am also looking forward to getting my track back up! Only 2 more months. I can't even get at my work bench with all the stuff from the kitchen in the garage. So much for working on cars this season!
August 29
The race at Gils was both fun and frustrating. It was the first oval race on his oval - the other two have been on Carls. First the fun part: The oval itself. We had some good, close racing. There were a few vehicles with mechanical issues as well as one controller issue. The trucks looked great and I am still glad that folks are taking an interest in the Concourse award.
Now the frustrating parts. One was the IROC. Mark had done such an excellent job of making equal cars that the differences in the controllers used make the final line-up. The controller with the least resistance, Mark Ps DiFalco allowed him to get 143 laps while Gordon's Professor Motor only gave him 136. ALL of the other racers had 141 laps. It came down to placement and inches for the standings. We have decided to use Mark's IROC cars for the road courses and the older WOMPS on Gil's oval.
Now how to approach these next issue tactfully. First, my racing. I was on the inside of Gil for a heat. Every time I caught him with my truck I would invariably nerf him out. What would be the proper etiquette? With laps times near 1.3 seconds it is nearly impossible to try to just pass on a 16' straight. I felt bad about it - and still do but what can be done in a situation like that? Should the inside/faster driver not worry about it? Should the outside driver do anything?
The other tough point is the position of Race Director. We have some folks who call track all the time when in charge and then others who let a wreck sit and sit and sit. Yes, I am guilty of both occasionally but it is frustrating to see races being decided by the director. What should the rule be? We came up with only allowing the marshals call track. What about marshalability (is that a word?). Some guys are just incredible marshals (Ken W and Tom G come to mind). Others need to be reminded to pay attention to the race. This comes into play when you are nerfed out (like I did many times to Gil) and are waiting on a marhsal to re-slot you. Boy could this topic go on and on.
We are off Labor day. Have a good, safe holiday! Tune up those vehicles!
August 7
Well, 2 oval and a road race done and I finally get around to updating this. The season has started off with some close racing. Unfortunately many of our regular racers have not been out. Summer is a rough time for the club with vacations and all getting in the way! (guilty as charged your honor!). Hopefully we will be up to a normal turnout in a few weeks. This season is going to be a bit longer than most due to the fact that my basement is still under construction so no plastic season. The longer the regular season the more dropped races.
One of
the club members, Mark P, built some nice looking IROC cars for use for the
next few seasons. We are hoping to give the cones Gil built a chance to rest
and get repaired. Gil's were WOMPS while these are International 32
chassis with the club motor. They are relatively close in performance
though it seems the orange one managed to get itself a hot club motor.
Luckily everyone has to drive the same cars. Now if I could just get
the club going on getting some IROC controllers then it would truly be IROC.
I
wish I could drive well enough to make my truck run like it is capable of
doing. I would be doing OK then either break too late or something
but then I would come out. I would then get frustrated at marshals for
not putting the truck back in quickly enough. I would have to remind myself
with the following mantra: "If you don't come out you don't need a marshal."
That is exactly how Ken W manages to smoke the rest of us. Rarely does
he deslot (I nerfed him once) so he does manage to get a high lap count.
Never mind that he had a VERY fast truck to begin with but you never saw him
needing a marshal because of something he did. Oh to get more
experience under my belt so I too would not need a marhsal.
July 12
I have started yet another blog at addingroom.blogspot.com to show progress of the addition of our house. Why is this on the slot car site? Well, the lion share of the new basement will be the new home for West County Raceway and possibly a drag strip AND an oval. I have about 12' x 40' to work with. Tracks may be tight so pit area will have to be in the other part of the basement. No big deal.
Speaking of racing, there is a lot of interesting discussion about modifications to cars and what really defines a Ready-To-Run (RTR) car. If you haven't joined the yahoo! group you are missing out. Head back to the front page of the web site and join. The new season is but 2 weeks away too. See ya there!
June 27
First, a public thank-you to all the track owners who opened up their homes to our club. Without you are club would not even exist. Thanks for putting up with us Sunday night instead of watching football/soccer/bowling... Secondly, thanks to all the people who raced this past season. I think our club has grown a bit, maybe not in size, but in maturity. We have a nice system of voting, getting rules out (Thanks Ken R), scheduling (thanks - me and the track owners), and most of all we have really good and interested racers. We may not always agree on what to run but we run what the club votes and do our best. There is always next season. Yes, I have been the biggest complainer of Lexan and Thingies but I will run what the club voted in AND I hope to be competitive. Just have to get Mark P and Gil to build my cars again.
And so ends the Spring/Summer 2006 season. Onto the Summer/Fall...
June 16
I just finished posting the summer/fall schedule for our club. LOTs of racing on wood. Not having the plastic track in the rotation makes for, in my humble opinion, a long season. So what I propose to the group is that when my basement addition gets completed AND I have my track up that I can adjust the schedule to catch up the plastic season. I am also hoping to hear from the owner(s) of the new track in town about getting their track in our rotation. Also, the club is looking to by a drag strip which will also be hosted at my house. Same thing. When the basement gets done, the schedule gets changed. I was given the 2 week notice to construction this week. I have to take my deck down (any helpers available?). The contractor is hoping to be done by the end of September. I hope sooner.
Have a great Father's Day all! See you in 2 weeks at Ballwin Speedway for the last oval race of the season!
June 8
I had a good night of racing, 2 firsts and a third. Too bad there is but one more oval race to go. I think I could give
Tom G a run for his money in TSRF NASCAR. I am too far behind in the
points to catch him for first. Maybe someone could make sure he
doesn't make it there for the last race....nah, it is fun to race excellent
drivers when ones car is tuned well. I have 2 good cars. Thanks to
Mark P and Gil for making an awesome stretch WOMP for me.Speaking of cars, next season I will mostly be sponsored. I did buy a Monogram off of Jim S and did order some Lexan bodies for my Flexi chassis. I will have to be sponsored for the Thingy class and Carrera NASCAR. I don't have either and really don't have an interest in owning either. Besides there are a TON of new cool cars coming out that I want as well as waiting for the addition to be added to our basement! I can't wait to get my track back up and let it stay up! Time to host a ton more races!
I hope the last road race of this season goes well too. I will be out in Vegas for work - honest! I don't have a rental car so unless I spend a lot of taxi money I can't get out to any slot car places. Oh well.
May 26
We finally get back to racing in the club. That doesn't mean there hasn't been racing! Actually, Gil, Gordon, and I took the weekend off to go to Mid-Ohio for the American LeMans race weekend. I took over 800 photos and I am sure Gil took more than that - I only had one camera, Gil 2 or 3 (including videos). It was a great weekend - weather could have been a tad better (hotel could have been a HECK of a lot better) but we had fun none-the-less. Here are some of the cars we saw. I'll post a review sometime soon after I get a copy of all of Gil and Gordon's photos. You can actually go here and listen to the entire race as well as watch a short podcast.
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We are back on the Oval at Gil's this weekend. I'll have my laptop with all the photos. Come and check it out!
May 8
I was looking forward to a good night of racing but it was not too be. I had even spent time prepping my 1 car I was going to race that night. I was close to a DNF as I pulled my car off after my first heat of 3 laps with as many outs.
I
eventually went back in after I borrowed Gils Cidex controller and
everything ran well. My Professor Motor controller seems to have
issues on Carls and Gils's tracks. Gils Oval it is fine, the road
course it is bad. I used the Cidex and ran well for the rest of the
evening.
That
is until I ran next to Gordon in the Protrack TA class. I had borrowed
Mark P's backup car (see to the right here). It was real fast and
smooth. No wonder Mark always ends up on the podium. Anyway,
Gordon managed to nerf me from 2 lanes over! He also put my into the pit
area and against a wall. We had some close door banging racing.
Since I ended up 1 lap below Mark I think I would have beat him had I
managed to figure out a way to beat Gordon. He is a great
competitor and I enjoyed doing heads-up racing against him. He was
having some issues with his PM controller and his cars as well. I was
doing so bad that I didn't even run IROC that night. We had a light
turn out so the racing ended at 9:30PM. There were a lot of regulars
not there as well as some new blood. Hopefully it was just an off
weekend.That being said I hope the club can convince Gil to either work on his track OR even 100% replace his track. We all LOVE the layout and don't want to lose it but the track and the braid have seen better days. Gil is a great host and really supports the hobby with not 1 but 2 tracks BUT the road course is in dire need of repair. I think if the club wanted to we could easily rebuild it as a 4" lane spaced 4 lane track over 2 or three weekends. What do you think Gil?
May 3
The races went quick AND were very close. Make sure you check out the photo section. Gil beat my in the TSRF NASCRA race by 10"! He had to go get a tape measure since we finished on the same lap and the same foot mark. I didn't have my touch on the IRL class in which Mark P stomped me. My backup car was a tad slow too - time to change out the club motor. Not matter what direction I put the gear on there was no omph. I felt sorry for Shane since he had to drive that dog. Congrats go out to Gordon for his first IROC win too! He is a great competitor and it is starting to show in the results. He has, so far this season, finished 2nd in the TSRF NASCAR races. Tom G's three wins are keeping him in front right now.
We have a race at Gil's this coming week then off for Mother's day. Gil, Gordon and I will miss the following road race for we are going to Mid Ohio for the LeMans race. Racing at my place, the plastic track, is on hold since we are adding an addition to the house. It will be nice to have the track up ALL the time. Right now I am trying to figure out a good layout. I'll post my ideas here as the summer goes and see what everyone thinks.
Don't forget to vote for the next wood seasons. The details are here.
April 11
Though the turnout was a bit on the light side, 7 racers, it was still a good night of racing. We were finished by 9:15 or so. What made it quicker, IMHO, was no power between heats and concourse voting going on the same time tech was. In all the excitement I forgot to take a photo of the full line-up for the night! Ah! Oh, guess you had to be there... Speaking of being there - be there! We even tossed a car pool together to save on gas. So if it is a ride you need, ask. If you need to leave early let the race director know and they can schedule you in the first heats. We would like to have you out and racing!
My
Slot-It ran intermittently again but I think I know the reason. Take a
look at the braid! I keep meaning to fix it but never get around to
it. Maybe by having it posted here people can keep reminding me.
The car ran OK but it would get then lose power. If (a) I had a nice
braid and (b) I learned how to drive the car with the NSR king motor it in I
might actually be a challenge to some folks!
We are off for a few weeks but that isn't stopping the chatter in the discussion group. Right now we are talking about what we would like to race in the upcoming road and oval seasons. If you haven't joined the yahoo group head back to the site index and do so! We are also covering race night procedures. We'd like to keep the night quick but not rushed and are looking for everyone's input.
April 5
I almost got to race at Gils last Sunday. I got there on time, got my cars ready. Even had time to borrow a chassis from Gil for my Slot-it. Got a few test laps in. Cleaned some braid. Paid my money. Had my name added to the sign-up sheet. Got paged by work. Had to leave.
I have been working on a concourse page for the site. We have some awesome painters and I want to do them justice without forcing them to do a lot of writing work. I would like to showcase the cars for the current season but then maybe a driver would like to have their car in a showcase of sorts. Like why did they pick that kind of car to paint/make (esp on the Lexan or Protrack classes). For example, my Tomas Scheckter 2005 #4 Chevy Pennzoil Panther. I plan on redoing the graphics on the inside of the car (as suggested by many). As you can see the decals on the outside didn't last more than one race
Who knows. One thing that is sure about our club is we like to talk ... mostly about cars but the hobby as well.
Oh, and the show this past weekend? It was OK. There were a lot of vendor tables open but it still seemed like and OK turnout. Hopefully a few of the many folks who took a club flyer will come out and race. The parking lot was a hit (Mark P: thanks for letting the club use it) but I still have an itch to make a fast and LOUD track to draw some attention. Wonder how much space Carl would let MGPMRC have...
March 31
We had 11 guys show up for the last night of racing at my place, West County Raceway. We managed to finish before 10:30PM. Just have to work the power between heats differently. I might, if there are a lot of guys again, implement a 2 minute rule between heats. We have a few guys who spend a lot of time on their cars in between heats which makes it seem more like a pit stop than a lane change.
I have added a few figures, so to speak, to the track. I bought the
new Carrea babes (shown in photos) as well as the hand painted Slot-It
Hawaiian Girls. You'll have to dig through the photo section (when I
get it up) and check it out there. I really like adding a lot of
character to the track. I also bought RVs. You can see one in
the photo. I have a few left over and can let them go for $10.
If you are interested come to the slot car show on Sunday, April 2, and I
will have them there. The remainder I will probably post on
slotcarworld. I still need to get all of my Homies and Mirco Icons
out. My girls keep borrowing them to play with them and not putting
them back. Any other dad have that issue or am I unique?
Run, don't walk away from these cars! I bought a few from Professor motor and they are horrible dogs. By the time you manage to tune them you have spent as much for a newer, faster car. Speaking of faster, looks like the next field is going to be all Scalextric Sharknose and Cooper Climax. They seem to be the fastest. Our club, as well as the Wednesday club, are going to have to figure out a way to even the playing field. Right now it seems we either stick with one manufacturer of cars or open the motor to whatever one wants to put in it. So much stress over little cars.
March 24th
A lot of things are happening all at once. We have had some excellent nights of racing. Both the road and oval courses have been a lot of fun to watch let alone race. We have had a few new folks come out over the last few weeks but none seem to 'stick'. I hope no one is getting discouraged by how 'new' they are. No one in our group cares as long as you try! I hope to see the visitors again!!
The
Oval has been a hoot - OK, maybe because I am winning now and then. I
finally have tuned in cars and can actually compete! My TSRF Nascar,
the Blue Blob, went from last to first last week. My secret: remove
all the weight and put new tires on it. Now that the car seems to run
better I might actually get around to doing some of the decal work.
There are
some awesome looking cars this season and YES I know I need to get concourse
results/photos up. Maybe today. I stopped by Gil's the other night to
get new IRL/Indy bodies. I am going to redo my car with the decals on
the inside. It runs well so it might as look good too. Mark P,
the builder of the car, suggested decals on the inside.The site has been getting a TON of hits, 65,000+ a month! But it makes me want to work on it more... which makes it more interesting and so on. I think I have most of the links and such fixed from the change over from FP 2000 to FP XP. The new version of Front Page has trouble with unix, image that, so I have to keep every file in lowercase. If I put a file in MixEd CaSe FP can't seem to find it. Someday I might learn another HTML/Website tool. I am still looking for driver profiles from the club members. Only have 5 out of 10 or so regulars.
We
are on the last race of the year long season this coming Sunday. It has been
a good season with a lot of close racing. OK, close if you take Ken R
out of the equation. The guy is just a machine on plastic track! Funny
that he is winning all the time and says he like plastic less than wood.
Hmmm. Maybe if I start saying that I will do better.
We have voted on classes for the next season: vintage F1 and vintage rally.
I think there is a section in the rules or so that talks about the details
of the class - if not that just means more work for me! We have a
trash on April 23rd. I might open the track the 16th too - Easter
weekend. Most people are probably done with family/etc by the time we
race. Heck, I'll be there - might as well let the club be there too!
The first race isn't until June 11th so there is plenty of time to buy and
tune a car.
March 7, 2006
What can I say? I have been busy. OK. That and the drive that the website was on disappeared as well as my design software. All that is fixed, I hope, and more regular updates should be in the norm again.
I
didn't make last weeks race at Carl's because of
another pressing issue.
But the weeks prior have been some of the
closest, most enjoyable racing I have been involved with in the club.
Steve's track was exciting with the ProTrack cars! They flew around
the track. The best crash of the evening went to Gil and Ken W when
their cars met head-on and plastic flew everywhere! It was like the Reese's
Cup commercial except it went "You got green in my chrome! You got chrome on
my green!" I wish I would have had a video of the event. But cars did
finish the race.
Again I managed NOT to take photos at my track on the 19th. The racing
was close there too. The most excitement came when various drivers
forgot which IROC car they were controlling and accidentally sent the one
they were driving off the end of a straight. Ken R managed to even
jump the retaining wall that I have all around the track. Everyone one
was taking turns forgetting the car they drove. Wonder if this should
be another category where an award is given for the best driving of the car
you are not driving. We had some folks missing that did well, Jack and
Davis, so we hope to see them again soon!
The
next race was the one on Gils oval. The cars are looking great and
many folks are taking the concourse seriously. Now if I could just
that section of the site going to show everyone. Luckily I have made a
ballot that has the date so when I do get around to working the site and
recording the results nothing is lost. It was a great night of racing
here too - there were NO wrecks until IROC. We even had a new guys,
Shane, who beat the guy who loaned him his backup car to race.
Hopefully we will see him again. I am going to redo my car body.
I did the water slide decals on the outside and they didn't survive the
race. Mark P has shown me how he did his. Now I just need to get
another body.
This has been a great start to this season and the new plastic season is going to start soon. I am hoping to convince Mike P to write some awesome articles about the classes of the cars we chose to run. He did such a great job last time on the Karts that people are still reading it! It is NEVER to late to join the club!
February 6, 2006
First and foremost, thanks to Mark P and Gil for building me an awesome
C-Production car! That car was fast. It was loud but fast. I
clipped some of the body away but still need to get more spacers. I
could have run probably another lap or so had it not been slowed down by the
drag.Now my TSRF NASCAR, that is a whole other story. It was SO
squirrelly. I caused
a few wrecks - especially one where I turned sideways and Paul plowed into
me. Check out the photo section and look at the Interstate Battery car
BEFORE it met my blue car.
As you can see from the photos I still have to number and decal them. I have all the decals but have had no time, ok -only 2 months, to put them on. I don't have them on my ProTrack car yet either. Don't think the guys will cut me too much slack when I show up next week with no decals/numbers!
I really enjoy racing with these guys even though they give me grief now and then. I just tell them I will get back at them on the web. Sometimes I do.... but it is all in fun. We had a good race night, close races AND got to watch the Big Game (can't say S***r B**l or the lawyers will come and get me!!). We move to the road course next week.
Oh, also, check out the photos. We are also starting up a concourse award this year. First ballots have been put in. There is still some process improvement to go but in the long run I think it will be great. No I don't need to know your name OR your car number and will not ask for it in the future. After I got home last night I realized that the car owner will know his or her car if they get an award. I plan on doing a concourse spotlight every week too.
January 30, 2006
What a great night of racing! We had 10 guys show up for what turned out to be a evening of close races. We had a non-regular person dominate the races, Ken W. What a smooth driver. You can learn a lot by watching how he races. He took all three races! The rest of us more or less finished about where we would have in order. The points are close. There will be a few podium places determined by the last race of the season. This happened on the Oval too - makes for a great season!
The racing was as wild as always - especially without magnets.
No one left the track table though there was one
incident where Paul was marshalling and a car came up the incline and jumped
the fence. It landed balanced on the guard rail and his huge can of
lighter fluid. That's him sitting down and you can see his can of lighter
fluid. We also had many cars take the turn behind the grandstand a bit
too fast. One even rolled down and took the figures out that were in
the pit lane! Guess I will have to add a retaining wall!
I added some new figures to the track, Micro Icons. They look neat. Check out the enlargements in the photo section.
Overall the evening was a hit, both from the host (me) to the racers. All seemed to have a great time. There was a lot of talk about the Rolex 24 and other races. Keith and I chatted for about another hour after the last race about mid-ohio. I am looking forward to the Amercian LeMans race.
January 23, 2006
Thanks to Jim S for hosting us even though only small but dedicated part of the club showed up. Something about a football game stopped a few folks from coming out. Rumor has it it will be slow Feb 5th too for the same reason. Oh well, if there is a track available we race (or thrash).
Jim
helped me a heck of a lot working on my new Scalextric Maserati. I had
purchased the upgrade motor as well as the tires. Jim did some
soldering work for me - replace the guide with a slot-it wood track guide.
He also gave me a few spacer, pinion gear, and some brass tubing. Ok,
that last piece was for my Pro-Track chassis. Jim cut a few spacer out for
me so my front tires would not lock up during a race from the crappy nylon
ones I made.
I also ran my IRL car with the new club motor. Mark P and Gordon put theirs out too. The racing is going to be very, very close. I need to get some new tires for mine since my old ones are cracked and the new tunas I have are too small of a diameter and make my gear/chassis not pass tech. Jim gave me some pointers for set up as well as the name/part # of the tires he runs. Time to place YET another order. PLEASE - someone open up a slot car hobby shop with all the needed parts!
January 9, 2006
This has been a long time in the coming. Being off for the holidays makes for a very long break. Everyone was chomping at the bit to get back on the tracks and back into racing. It was a good night of building, testing, and conversation. We have 2 more thrash's AND a plastic track race before the official start of the season.
I am actually looking forward to this season. Why? Gil Mark P has offered to build my stretch womps cars. Gil did the building of the chassis, Mark is going to put all the bits together. He even offered to help me with my painting too. Guess he hasn't been too impressed with my Lexan work. I thought I did a good job on my Legends! Now I have a few more cars to paint: NASCAR and either an Indy or IRL car. I haven't decided. I have a bunch of decals for the NASCAR cars and will have to make my own for the other car. No big deal.
We also talked about
working on Gil's road course. I am not sure of the age but it has been
around for a bit. We really don't race on it till March so many of the
club members have offered to help do the work needed to get the track back
up to speed. It is a rally cool layout and I, and others I am sure,
would not like to see this track fall into such disarray as to be completely
useless. Gil has put a lot of sweat equity into it and the club
members want to help pay it back. There are a few bumps and gaps that
make some of the newer Europlastic cars hard to drive UNLESS you swap out
the guide for a wood-guide.
The other issue we talked about is the TSRF guide. Gordon did some work and brought an example of the original steel guide, the WD40 tub guide, and a flag guide. The club is unable to use a few of the tracks for the owners fear damage due to the steel guide. The LAST thing our club wants to do is damage a track! A decision as to what exactly to do is still under review by the membership.
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I hope to have a review of the new Scalextric Maserati by next week.
Jason bought one for me from Professor Motor along with the upgrade parts.