A new topic for posting the Hobby Planet race results!

We got in a full five series of racing last night, though it did mean we ended up wrapping things up around midnight. None of the drivers complained though, least of all Marty!



A1GP finally had enough cars to have a race.

Driver Qualifying
Erik 4.352
Tom 4.550
Marty 4.786
Nick 5.601

Erik has the Great Britain car, Tom has Germany, Marty had the U.S., and Nick had Australia.

Driver Laps
Tom 114
Marty 114
Nick 88
Erik 87

Nick was doing his best to stay alive, as he was more used to the lower power settings that his car is set up for (a lot less magnet than the others). He did a reasonably good job, though the front wing did depart the car again. Racing between the other three drivers was close, until Erik dropped out with power problems. Apparently when he put his car back together after replacing a bad wire he put the front screw through the opposite wire! At that point Marty was left in the lead, heading into the last heat with a one lap advantage. The German car never gave up, and kept closing, each off by either car being big. As time counted down the final three, two, one seconds, the German car pulled alongside the American car and pass it going around the inside turn, taking the win by just six feet!



Next up for the night was another short class, the Porsche Club.

Driver Qualifying
Tom 4.711
Erik 4.927
Richard 5.846
Jonathan 6.270

Tom took the pole with his Team Sebah 911 GT3R, Erik followed behind with his Gruppe M 911 GT3R, Richard was third with a Seikel GT3R, and Jonathan rounded up the field with a Fly 911 Rally Car.

Driver Laps
Erik 115
Tom 112
Richard 95
Jonathan 45

Just like the A1 cars, this was a pretty close race, though the numbers don't show it. Jonathan had a lot of problems with the Fly car, which prevented him from getting up to racing speed and maintaining it. Richard was working well with his Seikel car, but hadn't gotten enough practice with it yet to keep the pace set by the two newer cars. In the end, Erik's Gruppe M car edged out Tom's Sebah car, reversing the results of a week ago.



Touring was the first big class of the night with seven entrants.

Driver Qualifying
Tom 4.327
Erik 4.357
Richard 4.782
Wendell 4.901
Marty 4.912
JP 5.012
Jonathan 5.297

The car breakdown was like this: Tom's NINCO Kenmore Mosler MT900R, Erik's Gulf Mosler MT900R, Richard's Scalextric au Cerumo Toyota Supra, Wendell's Carrera Tuner Nissan 350Z, Marty's Scalextric au Cerumo Toyota Supra, JP's NINCO Denso Toyota Supra, and Jonathan's Scalextric Raybring Honda NSX.

Driver Laps
Tom 129
Erik 128
JP 116
Marty 115
Jonathan 109
Richard 109
Wendell 109

The racing was broken down into two heats with four and three drivers in them, then the results tallied together. Though the Moslers seemed to be in a class of their own, swapping the lead multiple times and taking the 1-2 finish, the rest of the field was very even. JP overcame early problems to take third place, edging out Marty by a lap. Behind them it was as close as could be imagined, with three drivers on the same lap! Jonathan took fifth by virtue of being right before the scoring line (just missed out on hitting 110), and Richard was only half a car length ahead of Wendell to grab sixth.



NASCAR was another relatively short class with five drivers.

Driver Qualifying
Wendell 4.770
Erik 5.154
JP 5.384
Marty 5.622
Tom 5.807

Speeds in qualifying weren't as good as they have been, with the exception of Wendell, who turned a ridiculously fast 4.770 in his older Scalextric #14 car. Erik had the Scalextric #97, JP the SCX #9, Marty a custom Scalextric #3, and Tom a Scalextric #17.

Driver Laps
Erik 119
Wendell 111
JP 104
Tom 103
Marty 69

The NASCARs were really wild, sliding their back ends out all over the place, and giving their drivers something to think about! Marty went out after two heats with transmission troubles. Tom fought a loose car the whole race, one that possibly also had a slowly dying motor. JP brought in third with a new SCX car, feeling happy about the result. Wendell was driving his wheels off (they literally fell off after the race!), but couldn't catch Erik, who did some tweaking of his magnets following his qualifying run and gained the speed and handling he needed to take the win.



Last up were the Prototypes, with seven racers. It was also broken down into two races with four and three in each. The Prototype races were also done using European Rotation style.

Driver Qualifying
Tom 4.538
Jason 4.589
Richard 4.622
Erik 4.730
JP 4.895
Marty 4.930
Jonathan 5.257

Qualifying was wild, as only one car missed the under 5s mark, leaving the top six within four tenths of each other. Tom took pole with a Lancia LT, Jason up next with a Sauber Mercedes, Richard a Nissan R390 Street Car, Erik a black Porsche 956C HD, JP a Boss Porsche 956, Marty a Spirit of America Porsche 956, and Jonathan a Lancia LT.

Driver Laps
Jason 131
JP 126
Tom 119
Jonathan 119
Erik 116
Marty 111
Richard 58

The racing at the top was tight, with all of the drivers close together. Jason got the win by keeping his nose clean. JP kept his car humming along and grabbed second overall. Tom had a few problems during the race and fell behind, but edged out Jonathan for third. Erik was going strong but the car started getting slower and slower until the final heat when it couldn't pull a lap below 6s as it started acting jerky, the motor dying a slow and agonizing death that could no longer be denied. Marty brought in sixth with a courageous performance that will likely get better with experience. Richard had problems with his car and dropped out. Speaking of dropping out, a screw fell out of the back of Erik's "Death Race 2000" Porsche, falling into yellow lane. Richard was on the lane at the time, and when he tried to drive his car, power fell all around the track, and did so regardless of the car or handle being tried on the lane. Finally the screw was found and power resumed as normal. The screw was replaced but fell back out later.



Fastest Laps
A1GP: Tom 4.546 (Orange)
Porsche: Tom 4.795 (Orange)
Touring: Tom 4.286 (Blue)
NASCAR: Tom 4.754 (Orange)
Prototypes: Jason 4.493 (Orange)

This week was the second week for Sunday races. Plans are to have more races on Sundays, the idea being to start them shortly after the Junior races are done.

Power was juiced back up to 16V and time reset to 3:00 per heat. The only class raced was Touring.

Driver Qualifying
Tom 4.314
Erik 4.429
Marty 5.011
Richard 5.539
Wendell 5.568

Marty took the provisional pole right out of the gates with his Scalextric Toyota Supra, and held it through Wendell's Scalextric Dodge Viper and Richard's Scalextric Nissan Skyline qualifying, but dropped as first Erik's NINCO Toyota Supra and then Tom's NINCO Mosler MT900R took their qualifying laps.

Driver Laps
Erik 146
Tom 125
Richard 119
Marty 118
Wendell 103

Erik's and Tom's experience saw them grab an early lead over the rest of the field, staying close in the opening heats. Unfortunately, Tom was caught up in a wreck in the middle of his third heat and had his rear axle pop out. The turn marshall couldn't fix the problem, and Tom's hand was too bad to fix the car while still at the track, so he had to pull out of the heat after completing only 19 laps to take apart the car and fix it. This allowed Erik to pull out a large lead which Tom wasn't able to reel in, despite turning in the fastest performance of the day on orange lane with 39 laps and the fastest lap of the day. He still had enough of a cushion to keep second place over Richard, who just beat out Marty. Wendell had troubles with his Viper, which caused him to pull in last, fifteen laps behind Marty.


Fastest Lap
Touring: Tom 4.359 (Orange)


The axle in question is being fixed in place so as to prevent any repeats next week, and with each week of building experience for newer drivers, the racing is getting closer.

I have a question.....Did you expect the race to STOP so this car could be fixed? When I was racing, if you de-slotted (crashed) and broke something YOU fixed it. Its not the turn marshall's job in fixing your car for you. Besides the turn marshall didn't make you de-slot, right? The race doesn't stop because one racer has a problem, I could see any national touring series stopping the race so Driver "X" can fix his car. I dont think so.

Remember not everybody has the same abillity as other and not everyone knows what or how to fix said axle. If the said axle was fixed or whatever, who's to say that only a part of it was fixed ie: not being seated all the way that it should be? example being what is the axle was only partly snapped back in and was at and angle? Then would said racer be gripping even more over the turn marhall for not fixing it right?


Reading these threads sure help in passing the time! If I only had a track to race on these days.........But I di-gress,....I dont so remember IT'S only FOR FUN! Some people I use to race against,..where the kind of,....well let just say they needed thier EGO's boosted everyday! They had to win everything the ran in, regardless of what class it is. It got to the point of why bother going, with so and so there. That was all we ever heard about....I think that might of been one of the reasons the owner shut it down, but who knows.

So keep in perspective,...THEY ARE ONLY TOYS CARS,....KEEP IT FUN FOR EVERYBODY THAT WAY MORE PEOPLE WILL ENJOY THE HOBBY ALSO...

Ok off the soap box now!......

Racing cars is a lot of fun. You could even say it's slots of fun!

Okay, forgive the bad fun.

A1gp- is that the cars that look like the F1's?
The touring- is there a scaletric car that can compete- don't like" slot it".
Racing the next few weeks on Sundays is great .

A1gp- is that the cars that look like the F1's?
The touring- is there a scaletric car that can compete- don't like" slot it".
Racing the next few weeks on Sundays is great .

A1GP are the cars that look like F1s, yes. The nice thing is that it's done in the spirit of the actual series, in that everyone uses the same equipment. Each car is exactly the same except the paint scheme, and the only thing you're allowed to change is the magnet set up. Tires, gears, everything else has to stay stock. But they're fast little cars.

Touring, I once had a Scaley that not only competed, it was actually beating the NINCO cars. That was a Ford GT. Was a brilliant car, until it one day launched over the railing and snapped the guide post up through the chassis. :( The NINCOs, set up well and driven on the ball (which isn't that each to do with some of those turns), can turn around 4.3-4.4. The best Scaley I've seen so far is Marty's Supra turning a 4.7. The biggest difference is in weight, because most Scaley cars weigh close to 100g, and I think the NINCOs are more like 70-75g. The Ford GT was, IIRC, 68g. There aren't really any Slot.it GT cars, unless you consider the Nissan R390, which technically was a GT car, and Richard's going to be using his R390 in the Touring class.

The NINCO cars do seem to have some advantages over Scaley cars, but the Scaley cars are also good in their own way. NINCO's engines produce a wicked amount of torque, which can sometimes cause problems. I know of at least two drivers who haven't been able to get down the hairpin turn on blue (and green, to some extent), and have actually dropped out while running on blue out of frustration with their car popping out. One of them had a *lot* of magnets, even up front, and that was doing no good to solve the problem. Scaley cars are a lot smoother and easier to drive, you can ease into the turns and out a lot better. Overall they should be about equal, but the weight differences, and experience with a particular car, tend to play into things. If you have no qualms with running a NINCO car, Speedy can order one for you, he just has to know which one to get.

Running on Sundays will be good, I think. A lot of people have Sunday free and it'll allow guys who haven't been able to come in on Fridays to be in on Sundays. It'd be nice to see some familiar faces racing again. :thumbsup:

Lots of racing tonight, so much so that it was nearly 2am when the racing stopped, despite starting before 8pm! We had three series with ten drivers in each of them, and a small one to start it off with four. Races were 2:45 for heats tonight.



The first race on the block was Porsche, just four drivers tonight.

Driver Qualifying
Erik 4.857
Tom 4.987
Richard 5.480
Kurt 5.699

Erik took the pole, Tom coming in second with an amazing lap that ended with his Porsche sliding along upside down under the scoring bridge! Kurt was running a Pro Slot Porsche, the only non-Scalextric car.

Driver Laps
Erik 125
Tom 119
Richard 104
Kurt 91

Interestingly, the results ended up the same as the qualifying. Erik did well by having a car so locked down it couldn't come off, but Tom wasn't so lucky. Richard did his best to keep up but had some bad off-track moments, and Kurt did what he could with an unfamiliar car.




Next up, after everyone's appetite was whetted with the Porsches, was the Touring class. It was broken down into an "A Main" and "B Main", with a 5/5 driver split, based on qualifying.

Driver Qualifying
Tom 4.285
Erik 4.41
Jonathan 4.520
Richard 4.692
Marty 4.985
Kyle 5.045
Jason 5.076
Wendell 5.727
Jaime 6.780
JP DNQ

The order of the cars may be surprising when you hear what everyone was running, in order from Tom to JP: NINCO Mosler MT900R, NINCO Toyota Supra, Scalextric Honda NSX, Slot.it Nissan R390 Road Car, Scalextric Toyota Supra, NINCO Honda NSX, Scalextric Nissan Skyline, Scalextric Dodge Viper, Scalextric Toyota Supra, and NINCO Toyota Supra. JP had a "DNQ" because he had too much magnet in his car to turn a lap. He fixed that problem during the race (yes, *during* the race).

Driver Laps
Tom 131
Erik 123
Kyle 123
Richard 121
Jason 119
Jonathan 118
Marty 110
JP 106
Wendell 99
Jaime 83

Tom's Mosler kept going clean and that allowed him to pull away from the field. Behind him, things were anything but clean. Erik's race was a madhouse that I'll describe below. Kyle had a few problems on green lane that caused him to drop behind. Richard, Jason, and Jonathan kept their cars going well most of the time, and kept things close. Marty had some problems being a bit loose. JP's car had magnet problems that cost him time fixing them. Wendell and Jaime both had handling problems, which cause them to lag behind.

I mentioned Erik's crazy race, and this is one worth mentioned. During the course of the race, the car exited the track coming out of the loop and in the s-curves, came off once and nearly hit Henry, came off another time and caught Kyle's arm while he was turn marshaling, and had the right rear wheel come off at least four times. The most spectacular highlight of this mess came when the wheel came off going down the main straight, causing the car to jump out of the slot at full speed, flying off the track and slamming headfirst into a wooden case. The wood was pretty badly chipped and the car's rear wing shattered. The stricken car was put back on the track with its wheel shoved back on, and managed to bring in second by just a few feet.




The third class of the night was NASCAR, the same deal as Touring: ten drivers, two mains of five each.

Driver Qualifying
Erik 4.966
Kyle 5.102
Tom 5.105
Marty 5.171
JP 5.330
Richard 5.430
Bob 5.471
Wendell 5.637
Jonathan 5.952
Jaime 6.150

Wendell was using an old Scalextric Pontiac with a repaint job as a Leyton House #16, because his Conseco #14 was out of commission. The only non-Scalextric car was Jonathan's SCX #99. Erik and JP both ran Scalextric #97's. Tom, Kyle, and Richard all three ran Scalextric #17's. Marty and Bob both had Scaley #48's. And Jaime had a classic Scaley #6.

Driver Laps
Erik 119
Kyle 116
Marty 114
JP 110
Richard 106
Bob 103
Jonathan 97
Tom 86
Jaime 63
Wendell 57

This was a reversal of NASCAR races of weeks past! Erik and Kyle ran together for most of the race, keep a tight race going, even running side-by-side for many laps. They entered the final heat with Erik just a lap ahead, but Kyle had some mistakes at the end which cost him the top spot. The remaining drivers did a good job of keeping things close, every mistake counting in a big way. Three of the drivers haven't had much experience with the NASCARs so far: Richard, Jonathan, and Jaime. The bottom three each had car problems. Tom had a chassis issue that kept the car from being properly balanced, Jaime had a wire come loose from its guide three times during the race, and Wendell had problems with a magnet on the bottom of the car that seemed to want to pop off and attach to the track regardless of tape or glue (he finally left it off and tried to keep the car straight without it).




The last race of the night, as the hour slipped past midnight, was Prototypes.

Driver Qualifying
Erik 4.424
Richard 4.491
Jason 4.495
Tom 4.557
Jonathan 4.596
Bob 4.791
Kyle 4.815
JP 4.832
Marty 4.963
Wendell 5.043

The list of cars used is as follows (all of them Slot.it cars): Porsche 956C High Downforce; Audi R8C; Mercedes Sauber; Nissan R390 Road Car; Lancia LC2; Mercedes Sauber; Nissan R390; Porsche 956; Porsche 956; Porsche 956C High Downforce.

Driver Laps
Jason 134
Erik 127
JP 121
Richard 121
Kyle 114
Tom 112
Wendell 111
Jonathan 105
Marty 102
Bob 61

This was a pretty good race, all told. Jason and Erik kept things within a lap of each other for two heats, but Jason's HO-esque Sauber kept on the track most of the time and sped away to a cushiony lead. The other drivers did a good job of keeping their cars in line to keep things tight, with a few problems opening gaps. Richard had to make a quick grab for his own car during his stint on blue lane as his car went launching off track. His finger still holding the controller trigger, Richard made a beautiful one-handed catch as Henry got the track shut off. Tom's car had some issues both with power and being hard for him to see, which caused him to lose his car at times (these things are fast!). Jonathan lost a lot of time when he started the final heat unable to run his car. After all kinds of problems were checked, it was discovered that the controller station's fuse was loose! Marty had to fight a motor that was slowing drastically as it was much too dry. And Bob had to pull out after first his Sauber, then his Nissan R390, had trouble with his guide wires popping out on both cars.



Fastest Laps
Porsche: Tom 4.744 (Green)
Touring: Tom 4.278 (Blue)
NASCAR: Kyle 4.949 (Orange)
Prototypes: Richard 4.376 (Orange)


There'll be more racing on Sunday, and of course lots more next Friday!

We didn't have any regular racing Sunday, despite a decent turnout of about ten or more racers. Instead, to switch things up a bit, we ran a "consistency race". The rules were simple - a five minute race, if you deslot at all you're off. Two heats were run before the main race, qualifiers with four drivers each and the top two from each advancing to the final, which would keep the same rules. Lane choice for the qualifiers was done by age, and for the main heat by laps completed in the qualifiers.


Heat 1

Drivers: Wendell (Scalextric NASCAR #14), Richard (Scalextric NASCAR #17), JP (NINCO Toyota Supra), Marty (Scalextric NASCAR #48)

The racing was hot right out of the gates, with JP taking the most chances for speed. Marty kept pace well but on his eighth lap lost it going into the hairpin on blue. Wendell, on yellow, was running well, but JP's Toyota on orange caught him just enough to tap him out of his slot. With two down, JP slowed considerably, taking a leisurely pace along with Richard to advance to the final.

Lap Count: JP 58, Richard 47, Wendell 22, Marty 7
Advancing: JP, Richard



Heat 2

Drivers: Erik (NINCO Toyota Supra), Steve (Scalextric Dodge Viper), Jonathan (Slot.it Lancia LC2), Nic (Scalextric Australia A1GP)

This one looked like a good one at first. Steve wasn't able to get in a lap, his Viper slid out from under him early and he was out. Erik took an early lead with his car turning fast laps on orange, but back troubles caused him to lose focus heading into a turn and his Supra snapped around, backing through the guardrail (yes, *though* - it had been loose all day). With two drivers out, Jonathan and Nic slowed down a lot on the yellow and blue lanes and kept themselves clean in order to bring their cars around and advance.

Lap Count: Jonathan 50, Nic 42, Erik 18, Steve 1
Advancing: Jonathan, Nic



Main Heat

Drivers: JP, Jonathan, Richard, Nic

The final race was set to be a classic. JP was on orange, Jonathan on green, Richard on yellow, and Nic on blue. All of the drivers came out of the gates well, but Richard and Nic decided to ease off early to take a conservative approach. Nic was out first when his A1 spun around on him in the hairpin. It looked like it might be a good three-way race with all three staying on-track until JP made a mistake in the hairpin late, sliding off and ending up in the path of yellow lane, Richard too close to stop. Richard's NASCAR made just enough contact to cause him to deslot. With that, there was one. Jonathan picked up the pace and tried to turn as many laps as he could, but still kept himself off of his top pace. In the end, he came home with no deslots, winner by default.

Lap Count: Jonathan 52, JP 40, Richard 32, Nic 14
Overall Winner: Jonathan


Overall Fastest Lap: Erik 4.376 (Orange, Heat 2)


Faster Lap by Driver:
Erik: 4.376 (Orange, Heat 2)
JP: 4.570 (Orange, Heat 1)
Jonathan: 4.939 (Green, Main Heat)
Marty: 5.125 (Blue, Heat 1)
Richard: 5.691 (Green, Heat 1)
Nic: 6.222 (Blue, Main Heat)
Wendell: 6.417 (Yellow, Heat 1)
Steve: N/A


We're probably going to do more of these races in the future, and it's an interesting qualifying method for future racing events. There's a very good chance we'll do more interesting methods of racing in the near future to keep things fresh.

Looking foward to coming out this Sunday with the new Jaguar.Tested a GP1 car maybe that will be my next purchase- I like the speed( more like an F1).

Look forward to seeing you back racing with us.

Looking foward to coming out this Sunday with the new Jaguar.Tested a GP1 car maybe that will be my next purchase- I like the speed( more like an F1).

Great! That Jaguar looks really good. The A1 cars are a lot of fun, I just need a new motor for mine. It's currently quite dead.

EDIT: They had an FF motor at the shop Thursday night! Got it in the cars and it's back in business! :thumbsup:

Lots of racing tonight, as has been the norm lately! We got back a racer who'd been missing for a while, Herb. Heat times weren't turned up from the junior racing on Sunday, so they were 2:15 heats. On the other hand, I think track power was slightly up from the norm, as you can see from the track times!



Touring was the first class.

Driver Qualifying
Tom 3.896
Erik 4.120
JP 4.290
Richard 4.355
Kurt 4.535
Wendell 4.573
Jason 4.744
Jonathan 4.770
Herb 4.780
Marty 4.803

This has to be a new pole for qualifying in any class, close to the all-around track record for an unmodified car of 3.806 (Williams F1 shovel-nose car). Tom took the pole with his NINCO Tuning Honda NSX, followed by Erik's NINCO Wood One Toyota Supra, JP's NINCO DENSO Toyota Supra, Richard's Slot.it Nissan R390 Road Car, Kurt's Scalextric Xanavi Nissan 350Z, Wendell's Scalextric Subaru, Jason's Scalextric Calsonic Nissan Skyline, Jonathan's Scalextric Raybrig Honda NSX, Herb's Aston Martin DBR9, and Marty's Aston Martin DBR9.

Driver Laps
Erik 118
JP 113
Tom 108
Marty 98
Herb 97
Richard 94
Jonathan 94
Jason 92
Kurt 80
Wendell 41

The field was broken into an A and B Main, based on qualifying results. The B Main was an exciting race in which everyone stayed pretty close to each other. The field started separating when Wendell went off-track and his motor popped out of place, destroying his gear. Jason was keeping pace well but was punted by Marty's Aston Martin and spent some time off-track getting repaired. In the end, the "slowest" qualifiers were first and second in the B Main, and would be fourth and fifth overall. The A Main was a breakaway by the top three. Tom had an early off which put him slightly behind JP and Erik, who went most of the first heat swapping the lead with neither pulling more than a foot or two from the other at any time. Then things went sour as JP had a few offs and Tom started to have problems from his diabetes, causing him to fall off-track (and nearly off his stool!) during the final two heats. He was still able to bring in third, with JP second. Richard had a hard time with his R390 tonight, pulling in sixth overall, and Kurt turned in ninth fighting a crazy car.



Next up was NASCAR!

Driver Qualifying
Erik 4.673
Marty 4.743
Kurt 5.124
Wendell 5.440
Richard 5.794
Nick 5.830
JP 6.040
Jonathan 7.576

It's interesting to note that JP and Jonathan both had the new SCX NASCARs, which were very loose during the race. Nick was new to the NASCAR scene with a car he'd just gotten today.

Driver Laps
Erik 94
Marty 89
JP 83
Richard 80
Kurt 78
Wendell 75
Jonathan 70
Nick 66

The race was split like the Touring class with four and four. Things initially looked shaky for JP but he brought his car in line. Nick and Jonathan had no such luck and suffered a lot of offs with their cars being loose. Richard turned in a decent performance, good for 4th overall. In the A Main, Erik, Marty, and Wendell all three had a good opening heat, staying close to each other. Things started going awkward for Wendell in the second heat, and Marty lost ground but was within striking distance. Marty took his last heat on blue, his favorite lane, while Erik took it on orange, the "hot" lane of the track. It worked out better for Erik as he pulled away, Marty's car coming off-track a number of times to make the gap a lot larger than it should have been.




Third class of the night was Prototypes. Tom was originally going to race in the class, but had dropped out because of his diabetes problems, so Henry took his place, but did so after qualifying (hence his "DNQ").

Driver Qualifying
Jason 4.265
Jonathan 4.395
Herb 4.400
Richard 4.575
JP 4.920
Wendell 7.046
Marty 8.432
Henry DNQ

Jason took top with his Mercedes Sauber, then Jonathan's Lancia LC2, Herb's Audi R8C, Richard's Audi R8C, JP's Porsche 956C, Wendell's Porsche 956C HD, Marty's Porsche 956C, and Henry's Porsche 956C.

Driver Laps
Jason 109
Herb 104
Jonathan 103
Richard 102
JP 96
Marty 87
Wendell 58
Henry 57

The B Main was all Porsches, and it was ugly! There were more tails wagging than a box full of puppies! In the game of survival JP won over Marty, and Wendell and Henry lost out with wires coming out during particularly nasty offs. The A Main was a lot cleaner, but still had some problems. Jason came off a few more times than usual, and even had his front axle come off again, but it didn't matter as he cruised to his fourth straight Prototypes win. Second through fourth were also close going into the final heat. In fact, it was Jason with 81 laps, Richard with 79, Jonathan with 78, and Herb with 78. Herb kept his car going along and managed to pull in a second place finish, Jonathan took third with a battered Lancia, and Richard ended up dropping to fourth. Funniest moment of the race was probably Herb's prediction regarding his rear wing coming true - it flew off as the field entered the first turn! The hairpin saw three of four cars pile up with Jonathan surviving. But the highlight of either main definitely had to be JP hitting Erik's hand as he was reslotting a car, going up on just one wheel, and keeping in the slot, continuing on as it popped back down onto the track.



Finally, we had the Porsches. Tom had eaten some free food provided by our nice friends at Pizza Hutt, and felt confident in re-entering for this race.

Driver Qualifying
Tom 4.802
Erik 4.884
Herb 5.006
Marty 5.287
Richard 5.344

It looked like a good decision for Tom, as he took the pole with his Team Sebah car! Erik, Herb, and Marty all three had Gruppe M cars, which made for some interesting moments in the race. Richard took the last qualifying spot with a Seikel Porsche.

Driver Laps
Erik 93
Tom 90
Marty 86
Herb 81
Richard DNF

It was a tight battle between Erik, Tom, and Marty, which continued to be tight despite all of the drivers coming off all over the track, including one wreck in which Erik slid off, was punted over into Tom's lane, and then was knocked off track so hard it ended up below one of the paint racks! Tom pulled off after eight heats with a 24-lap lead over Erik and Marty, a safe lead with no car having gone over 23 laps in a heat. The two Gruppe M Porsches seemed evenly matched at first, but Marty had a few offs, some of them costing lots of precious time. Herb rounded out the cars that finished, having not run on the track in a long time (back then, there wasn't as much power!). Richard had a DNF with an odd behaving car, likely a dead motor. Every time the car got on the track, it slowed the power across the track for all of the cars, which could have helped Erik pull off the win (he had one heat without Richard's car on-track, and in the final heat there were only three cars on the track, which meant more power).



Fastest Laps
Touring: Tom 4.039 (Orange)
NASCAR: Marty 4.912 (Blue)
Prototypes: Jason 4.359 (Blue)
Porsche: Erik 4.731 (Orange* - only 3 cars on track during heat)

A few observations on the night's racing from a driver's standpoint:

Touring class: Tonight I saw what the difference is between the top runners and the further back cars. It's not so make the make of the car, NINCO or Scaley. A lot rests in the experience of the driver. The top three qualifiers and finishers are the three most experienced drivers on the track, the three drivers who have the best track records across all classes - Erik (yes, me) with a near 50% win, Tom (my dad) with over 70% top three, and JP with a decent 66.7% top three rate. It just so happens we all drive NINCOs. The main thing I noticed was that the A Main had a lot less crashes than the B Main. JP and I traded the lead a number of times while sticking ridiculously close to each other until about 0:30 to go in the first heat. The cars stay close and raced fast because they didn't come off the track. Fourth and fifth weren't that far behind us really, and what were they? The slowest qualifiers, the "ploddingly slow" Aston Martins, a car I love for its reliability, durability, and consistency, despite its lackluster speed. It seems that driver skill really does mean a lot in this sport, and track experience certainly helps with that. This theory will be put more to the test in the near future, as both Herb and Richard will be getting NINCO cars this weekend.


Porsche: To be honest, I got amazingly lucky here. I had a heat before Richard's problematic car came in, and he pulled out at the end. This is more important than you might think. We have one transformer pushing power to all four lanes. Check Scaley's site on this. When you do that, if one lane isn't drawing power, there's more going to the other three. This resulted in greater speeds for me because of better power. On top of that, I had quick turn marshaling, and no off-track excursions by anyone (I mean totally off), so no hitting the yellow flag button (which chews two seconds off the race time). I went into the final heat 24 laps back and Speedy announced no one had turned more than 23 in any heat. I got 27 because I ran into "the perfect storm" - conditions were ideal for a great heat. Were everything equal with prior heats, I would have been second, I'm sure.


NASCAR: Crazy good fun, and Marty gave me a good ride for it. I was tied with Wendell after the first race, tied Marty during the second, but a two-lap lead on him in the first and third heats gave me a nice cushion, which caused him to somewhat overdrive his favorite lane, blue lane (the inside, tightest lane). I think Marty sometimes gets overeager in pursuit of the goal - a problem that cost me a lot of NASCAR races even recently - and with time he'll overcome this issue.


Prototypes: We're seeing a revolution in Prototypes at the track. Previously, most setups were an H magnet at the rear of the car, and some smallish magnets in front of the motor mount to help keep the front end in line. Reasonably fast, handled well, but not super fast and easy. Lately, the cars are being set up with an H magnet at the back, C magnet in front of the motor, and a little more on top of that. This is making the cars stick a lot better in some cases, producing faster speeds. Jason, the fastest, has a Sauber with this kind of setup, but even more than that, he uses a DiFalco controller, which is a heck of a controller.

The Porsche race was a bit strange, with Richard's car problems killing the power so bad in my last heat that everytime he put it back on the track all of the cars would slow to a stop(Erik wasn't in this heat). Then Richard pulled out of the last hest and everyone that were left had great power. I could only set and watch as I had finished my heats while Erik Over took and passed my lap total. Erik drove that last heat perfectly, and deserved the win. In the Porsche race everyone drove Scalextric car and it was the same top drivers as in the GT class leading the race. We have a great group of drivers and the results of the races show that the newer drivers are getting better every race.

There was no Juniors race today, so we were able to start earlier, allowing us to get in two classes of racing!


The first class was Touring.

Driver Qualifying
Erik 4.217
JP 4.470
Jason 4.571
Bob 4.675
Tom 4.690
Herb 4.967
Wendell 5.089
Jaime 5.641
Bill 5.840

The top five qualifiers were NINCO cars: Supra, Supra, 350Z, NSX, NSX. Then: Scalextric Aston Martin DBR9, Carrera Nissan 350Z Tuner, another Scalextric Aston Martin DBR9, and Bill with his new Jaguar XKR.

Driver Laps
Erik 117
JP 113
Jason 108
Tom 103
Wendell 94
Bob 93
Herb 93
Jaime 85
Bill 61

The NINCOs ran their own A Main, and the others in the B Main. It was done with a Ro The B Main was first, and it was a very exciting race! The top three stayed close all during the race, though Jaime's inexperience (especially with the Aston Martin) ended up dropping her a few laps behind. Wendell managed to pull ahead on a couple of problems by Herb, and that was all the difference it took. Herb's car had a magnet pop out of place in the rear that caused it to go haywire during the race. Bill was doing his first run in month, and with an unfamiliar car. The A Main was quite exciting as well, as all the cars were evenly matched. Bob's NINCO pains continued. Tom rediscovered why he'd retired the NSX, and planned to do it again. Jason was running his first race with a NINCO, so he did well. Erik took off to a nice lead and never looked back, despite a lot of wrecks in the final heat on yellow lane.



Prototypes was the next class.

Driver Qualifying
Erik 4.279
Wendell 4.421
JP 4.467
Kyle 4.662
Herb 4.730
Jonathan 4.773
Bob 4.870
Richard 4.940

Erik borrowed Tom's Clarion R390, but the others used their usual cars: Porsche 956C HD, Boss Porsche 956C, Calsonic Nissan R390, Audi R8C, Lancia LC2, Mercedes Sauber, Lancia LC2.

Driver Laps
Erik 112
Richard 104
Jonathan 104
Wendell 101
JP 100
Herb 99
Kyle 99
Bob 87

Again the race was split into an A and B Main, based on qualifying times. As you can see from the final results, qualifying times are not so indicative of race performance! In the B Main, Herb did his best to keep up but had an extremely loose car, which was hard to handle. Bob's car was even worse, with a motor too weak to pull much magnet. Richard and Jonathan raced hard for the win, with Richard overtaking Jonathan in the final heat to grab the win by a half a lap. In the A main, things looked really close, and the final laps between 2nd and 4th in the heat was a two lap difference - 101 to 99. Erik got a good, solid lead ahead of the field with the Clarion, and kept it until the end.


Fastest Laps
Touring: (Tie) Erik and JP 4.176 (Green) -> Tom next fastest 4.178 (Green)
Prototypes: Erik 4.103 (Green)


It was a nice day of racing, an especially good turnout for a Sunday race! It was nice to see an old friend back (Bill F.), and good to have a shot for someone else to win Prototypes (thanks for not running, Jason!).

Driver notes...

Touring: Interesting race, I think this one means the end for the NSX and the Kenmore Mosler returns to the race circuit, which could mean bad things for the rest of us! The racing was pretty close really. It seems the NINCO cars are destined to be separated from the Scaley cars because the belief is they're too good to run with the cars. Today's top runners with NINCO cars and their results from the month of December, sans Touring class:

Erik: 8 wins, 1 second place
Tom: 1 win, 4 second places, 1 third
JP: 1 second place, 3 thirds
Jason: 3 wins

Bob doesn't have much data for the past month, but as you can see he did no better than the Scaleys. I think this shows a trend that it is not the car so much as the driver that makes the difference.




Prototypes: I wasn't happy with the recent performance of "Death Race 2000" so I wanted a faster car. My dad wasn't running, so he let me borrow one of his cars, any choice (except his Silk Cut Jag). I chose the Clarion R390, an old favorite of mine he'd let me borrow for a while in the past while my Porsches were being retuned. It took me a couple of laps to get back used to it - those laps were in qualifying, a three-lap practice session really! The car was much as I remembered it, quick and punchy out of the turns, but it was still hard to get used to a car that wasn't as smooth as my normal cars. This has to be one of the best cars Slot.it's made to date, and I am a big fan of it.

It was definitely some good racing out there!

Tom I'm glad you mention the motors. I could not help notice the difference in the GT motors. Ninco 20,000. While the scaleys come with 18,000.Is that fair?Those Ninco cars are as fast as the F1 were.I think you should add weight to those cars.

Is a Slot.it motor really a V12? Would you be able to run it in a V10 class?

We have a lot of fast drivers, they drive all kinds of cars. It's good to see the different cars they drive and how they work out.

Would it be wrong to use G instead of K?

That Nissan R390 of Richard's had been pretty fast lately, I think he might even win a race with it soon!

Power and control are both important for a car.

Test- test- reports - reports. The simple fact is look at the lap times by the difference car makers.That's the facts. Turn marshalling the Ninco race is all the facts I need. All I was saying is look at the lap times- they are as fast as the F1 were awhile back. The Ninco's have the advantage if you can't see that then this conversation is over. Actually it is over as I will fix my car shortly.

From what I have read.....your guy are running two different make or cars in the same class right? Why should one car have anadvantage over the over? If one is running a 20,000 rpm motor, then why not let the other cars run a 20,000 rpm motor? Or just declare all cars in this class will run this rpm motor whatever you or the track owner decides? It would be better if the playing field was level for all? If one person like the scalextric over the ninco or ninco over scalextric then let all of them run either 20,000 rpm across the board? I dont see a problem with that, but I am sure others would. Just a suggestion, ok? So no need to get defensive. What happens when your track starts to tech (your) MEANING EVERYBODY NOT JUST YOU IN PARTICULAR cars and such, (if its not already being done?) then what problems will arise from this? For someone who get defensive very easily I can see why everybody jump the gun there. "Your" was being used collectively as for the whole group! I never made any mention about you or anybody else skirting any rules now did I? This "wingNUTless wonder" seems to like to keep it stirred up for everybody!

I was only making a suggestion, and YOU turned into something that it was not.....

A suggestion maybe would be limit all the cars in this class to say 18,000 rpm motor and say turn the voltage down to 14.5 volts? And see how that would work? What does your track owner have to say, after all its his track and everybody should abide by his rules, if they dont want to then go someplace else? Right? Some input from some racers is good but to many racers just make things worst than before.

Hope you get it all figured out,........or you might end up with no place to race???,...then what??????

Now searching for new race staff, position: weight watchers.

Life is the pits - in and out in 7.2 seconds.

Sorry to everyone else, especially Bill and Henry, who asked me not to let that guy get to me. That was just too much.

I'm all for running separate classes for Ninco,and Scaley. I'll tune up my Scaleys for the new power and then run both classes. I believe the results will be the same in both, the same drivers will do well in both classes.

Erik,

No problem on my part, speak your mind when you need to, ok?

Henry

On another note, we do need to find some kind of happy ground between the two different manufactures of these cars, wouldn't it be nice if we could run both makes at the same time instead of separate classes? I am sure other shops have done it, we just need to figure out also,..is everybody in agreement?

Thanks
Henry

I'll volunteer my time to help people get their Scaley cars faster if they need to, even to coming in and doing a clinic on them.

Ya'll really need to chill out. The best drivers were driving Nicos that's fine with me. You can show me all the info about motors free wheeling. The proof is on the track.I don't want a Ninco or Slot it, period but when I comeout and practice some more and my car is still not at that competitive speed then something has to change.
Add weight to the Ninco or any other car in each class. We have min. weights in
R/C why not Slots? Each class has it's min weight?
Again as I said at the beginning of this post -take a deep breath and look at things from the otherside. A common ground can be done. Is it really that important to keep track of your 61% wins.Do you win alot- great if you do - the bigger question is did you have fun regardless.If your winning that much and you can't have any fun unless your winning then there is a problem.
This is a fun Hobby- keep it that way.............

Mmm... if I chilled out any more I'd be frozen. The weather outside *is* frightful.

All cars are fast if you give them a chance. Scalextric, NINCO, Slot.it, they're all good in their own way.

You'll notice who does 99% of all the posting here.I'll leave you guys alone now - have fun with your posting..........

Some people are in it just for the text.

No you can post away after all it's you and your dad doing all the talking.Your the experts- read all the documnents and done it all oh and I forgot won 61% of the time.You really should just sit back and see what you've posted.There is a change coming .I stop posting now so I and everyone else can read all about the Tom and Eric show.............................................. ..................

Is it wrong to love speed so much?

Prototypes are some sweet looking cars.

Wonder, chill out. Don't let that BullFrog guy get under your skin. We have been following your race results and enjoying the posts. We had the same kind of thing happen here at our track, a guy that'd been away for a while came back and couldn't deal with the changes to the track or the cars. We added two high banks to our track. This guy complained that the high banks were giving the Ninco cars an advantage, and the Nincos should'nt be allowed because of that. :rolleyes: Sounds like you're having the same problem at your track with this BullFrog guy. The guys at our track that have been following this thread are getting quite a laugh out of him. Does the guy actually race slot cars? He doesn't seem very knowledgable. :confused: The fastest car in all classes, is a Scalextric Ferrari 330 P4, followed by a Spirit Dallara. They outrun Nincos all the time. We run a box stock Scalextric DTM class, where we only allow Scalextric cars. But lately interest has fallen off in this class and the racers are wanting more variety of makes available. Just remember, this is a hobby meant to be fun. Don't let that guy get under your skin. :wave: :thumbsup: :jest:

Fastmann,

If your close to Jax, Fl. Come over and race with us. The more the merrier it can be!

:wave: :thumbsup: :dude:

Like Henry said if you are near enough come race with us.

Eric did I ever say anything about my car- no you did. I really did n't care. It was brand new and needed afew things done- big deal.Since when is the green tape illegall tire dressing(used 100% during the race).Oh if you were really worried about what you thought was in the yellow thing- it was legal.I don't need your help on anything regarding my slot cars.I didn't need your help with the F1 which set many track records.I was my choice not to go racing on Friday nights because of work. But to give all the talk about motors and seeing the difference you have got to be kidding.But then your not kidding ya'll are the experts.

Why do they call them q-tips, anyway?

The fastest car in all classes, is a Scalextric Ferrari 330 P4, followed by a Spirit Dallara. They outrun Nincos all the time. We run a box stock Scalextric DTM class, where we only allow Scalextric cars. But lately interest has fallen off in this class and the racers are wanting more variety of makes available.

DTM... there's a class I'd like to see. There are Scaleys, NINCOs, and Carreras for it, I bet it'd be a pretty close class.

I'd like to see one of those DTM cars on the track, I think they look awesome.

Yes, I like to post at the other forums. It's good to get a lot of info and ideas. The knowledge base of our hobby is far reaching! :thumbsup:

I race in the Mid-Ohio area, but if I'm ever around Jacksonville I'll be sure to look you guys up and give it a go. What classes do you guys run? Is there somewhere I can find out the regs? Don't want to go with a car I can't run. :D

A DTM class would be fun.

Hey how do I get an avater on here?

Check back later, it's time for lunch! And then some tuning!