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City of Fresno Parks, Recreation and Community Services will be holding the California 100, an HO Scale Slot Car Race on Friday, May 23, 2008 at the Sal Mosqueda Center, 4670 East Butler, in Fresno, California. Racing will begin at 1PM and continue until all races have been completed. Kid’s ages 8 to 14 may sign up in the Connect Lab at the Mosqueda Center, 15 to 18 years old may sign up in the Recreation Center.

A total of 30 slots will be open for 8 to 14 year olds, and 10 slots for 15 to 18 years old. For Recreational Leaders, there will be 3 slots open; participation will be based on your qualifying times, so please sign up if you want to pit your skills against the kids!

Call Peter McKay at (559) 621-6619 or by email at peter.mckay@fresno.gov. Donations of cars and HO slot car item will be accepted at the day of the race.

I just called your office, they said you were under the network system. How did you get UNDER a network? Anyway, put me down for $50 when I see you this weekend.

..before Hank comes in here yanking posts, this is NOT a solicitation for HO stuff...but Yoshi, I will take your money. :) I just posted the text used to post it on the Parks and Recreation messege area.

Pete I have a few lifelike bodys with just primer on them you need em? let me know in a PM with your address and they are yours (old stocker bodies)


Dave

Pete I have a few lifelike bodys with just primer on them you need em? let me know in a PM with your address and they are yours (old stocker bodies)


Dave


Bodies are good, I can order the cheap cars and swap chassis out. PM sent.

Arrived today, 3 new O-Chassis cars from Scale Auto PLUS 2 $10 gift certificates. The cars were the #6 Valvoline car, #28 havoline and #88 Ford Credit car. The #28 and #88 immediately went to the paint shop to become the #2 Miller Genuine Draft Taurus and #98 RCA Taurus. This brings the total number of cars to 16!!!! I will be ordering some of the cheap #9753 Dodges to replace the O-Chassis cars with T-Chassis cars, everyone has been right about the O's being left in the dust.

More good news in the mail, this time from Lucky Bob's!!! they sent me 6 (!) of the #18 Interstate Battery Chevrolets!!!! These are the newer design Monte Carlo's and are sweet. One immediately went into the line up as is, the other 5 went to the paint shop to become the #83 Meineke Muffler car, a #25 Kodiak/Mac Tools Kenny Schrader car, Kevin Harvick's #28 GM Service Plus car and a Home Depot #16 Mike Reyes (local driver) car. What's that you say, one missing? Yeah, that one will become Mike Waltrip's NAPA #15 as soon as I order the decals next week.

This makes a total of 22 cars, 11 more to go!!!

The long awaited kids race went off without too much difficulty today, here are some pics!

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This race even brought four of my supervisors in from downtown. One of them was the same supervisor that cancelled my attempts to hold the mini-indy last year at this same location. We have a heat race and she won!!! She won a $10 Jamba Juice card, thanks to Jamba for the prize!~

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The event originally had 18 kids signed up, and 14 practiced last week for this event. But unfortunately as things go in southeast Fresno eight of the kids, all guys, were ejected from the community center over the last 10 days for things ranging from fights to vandalism. Todays event started with the remaining 10, but one was ejected for intentionally damaging the track but pulling trees out of the turn three area.

The remaining nine were given their cars and the event continued. Three rounds of heats were run, and then the top three raced for the trophy in a 50 lap shoot out. The winner was 14 year old Alexandria Ruiz, second was Lorrlee Vang, and bringing up 3rd place was Melissa Cortez. What makes this interesting is Mr. Vang is developmentally disabled, and he posted the third fastest time in qualifications.

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I gave away 12 cars, each person who participated got one each, the ones that made it to the main each got the car they raced as well. They also each got a trophy and a $10 Jamba Juice card, and the winner got a $20 Pizza Hut gift certificate. Thanks to Jamba Juice and Pizza Hut for those!!

Unfortunately after the racing while we were loading up the same young man that was ejected prior to the race intentionally threw a football at the track, causing more than $50 in damage. The ball hit the turn 1 end of the grandstands tearing off the roof, and destroyed the bleachers, concession stand, fencing and the new billboards outside of turn 2. The foam and spackle border around turn 1 and 2 was virtually destroyed and the plastic track pieces broken. He has been expelled from not only the Mosqueda Center but all Fresno parks for the next 6 months. Unfortunately it won't fix the track, I'll have to deal with that. The regularly scheduled races for the next two weeks have had to be cancelled in the mean time.

This is the last such race I'll be putting on, simply because of the issues that happened this time. There is word that the Mosqueda Center wants to build their own track but until I see a memorandum I won't worry about it. Right now my track is in the spare bedroom waiting a major end rebuild I'll start on Tuesday. It can be fixed, however it's traveling days are over.

It is a shame that a few have to ruin it for all. Dont give up Pete. Make a new track, less attractive, more robust. say child proof, and use it. You touched the 9 kids lives and they need to interact with real mature people to learn how to grow up.

It is a shame that a few have to ruin it for all. Dont give up Pete. Make a new track, less attractive, more robust. say child proof, and use it. You touched the 9 kids lives and they need to interact with real mature people to learn how to grow up.

I totally agree! I'm really glad you put the effort, time, money, and heart into this Pete! I for one love working with kids and helping them out and helping them enjoy or realize that they need to enjoy the one thing that their life or surroundings may be stealing from them - childhood. If we let individuals like this one youth that had a major attitude effect things for the rest then the rest learn that one person can ruin things forever. Don't give up and DON'T stop! That youth that threw the football is lashing out and looking for attention - unfortunately, he is obviously not smart enough to see he is getting the wrong attention with those sorts of actions. That this community center and what you did was for him, as much as it was for the others. And that he lost the benefit of someone such as yourself giving of your heart and attention to him, in the right way. I'd encourage you to NOT be discouraged by one youth's actions or even by the actions of the other 4 or so. At the end of the day you have to realize, as T-Jet Racer said here, you touched the majority of those kids lives - almost 10 of them - and that is something that those 9 or 10 will be watching you and your actions to the events. Will you do what everyone else does or will you be different this time?

Awesome report on the event and congratulations on even pulling in your supervisors and co-workers! I think they too are watching - don't let them turn this into a "I told you so" moment. It needs to remain a victory no matter what! Geez man, your track, cars and setup even survived an attempted robbery attack as well as Smokey's fun with #48! It can survive this too!

Raise your head up and walk proud bro! You did awesome!

PD2:thumbsup:

Did a in depth look at the track damage this morning, other than having to rebuild the bleachers and snack bar on the turn 1/2 end everything else is just a matter of regluing.

The track pieces broke at the joints cleanly, I epoxied them back and the electrical is fine. I had lot of extra guard rail that replaced the parts that got mangled, and the area outside of the lanes before the rail were easily reglued back into place. Even the fencing broke in such a way all I need to go is fill in the holes with a little Elmers and put them back in. The styrofoam under it gave way in just about all the cases, those holes can be filled in and covered with static grass.

The piece of the roof from the main grandstand glued back on with only a small visible seam, but the two bleachers and concession stand are going to have to be replaced. Those can be redone in a day or two and I still have leftover foam board and printed spectators. All in all the track will be fixed by this coming weekend for the opening of our regular points season.

I am already pricing stuff for the new "traveling" track, it will be a high banked version of Sequoia with much less scenery. I haven't gone to work yet so I'm not sure where my boss stands on doing this again, but I'm sure she'll be interested. Hopefully I can get more than the $100 she gave me for this last event, especially if I cry on her about how badly my track was tore up and how many cars we lost to being stolen.

Maybe you ought to forget the scenery altogether and screw down MaxTrak. They could run over that with a car and it wouldn't make a difference. Also, it wouldn't cost that much to go just a tad bit bigger, sayyy, 4 X 8.

I can't get 4X8 in the back of my Escape. That's why Sequoia was built to be 3X6, and the scenery was added to the desires of the adult racers who are now enjoying this course.

One thing about classes. We have been running Lifelike cars pretty much box stock, both T and O chassis. This series will be done in mid July and we have decided on the follow up to this class already. But I'll leave that for a later date. The kids who have their cars asked me today to bring the track back, have a race just for them in the auditorium and not let anyone else in. I have to clear that with my boss but they're willing to deal with whatever restrictions I put on them so they can keep racing.

Pete,

I'm glad that the track was not extensively damaged and that most of the repair is in a little elbow grease and your personal time. I know it sucks going through a track that you poured your heart into and realizing each broken item was done by a kid that you poured your heart out for, to give them something to keep them out of trouble. I understand that heartache that it must bring when you have kept and protected that track and spent the painstaking detail of putting little details that even the kids who enjoyed the track would probably never notice. BUT, look at the reward! You have a group of kids who have their cars from doing right that are eager for you to bring that track back and run a race no matter what! As you said, they are even willing to run it with a bunch of restrictions in place! That is HUGE! That means you did reach them with this hobby and regardless of how much damage there is to the track that should be something to hold your head up high and be proud of bro!

I'm glad you are looking and working out the plans for the next track! Any word on the setup of a permanent track at the center? Maybe build it in a special made enclosure that gets locked up when no workers (or you) are not around? I think that would save you a lot of time and the possibility of those kids pulling the old football trick again.

Again, I'm glad to hear the damage was not too extensive and that there are other plans in the works!

PD2:thumbsup:

Sorry for the delay in the response, it's been a short week and I had daily meetings with my immediate supervisor over the future of slot car racing at my center.

They have approved my plan for more races. There will be a total of 15 participants, only those actually racing will be allowed into the track area, others will watch from behind cafeteria tables turned on their sides as boundaries about 8’ away from the track. The races will be held inside the auditorium, no sports equipment of any kind will be allowed inside. Anyone interfering with the event will draw a 30 day suspension from the center. Anyone removing any property associated with the event will be expelled for the entire summer. One of the problems we had was cars being stolen, we lost several and I don’t want that to happen to those that earned theirs.

All of the kids still wanting to race that own cars have brought them to the Mosqueda Center and they are under lock and key there. Some have more than one car and have been given the choice to have a friend or sibling race their extra cars. I have 4 cars of my own left and other racers with my regular points series will join in. I won’t be buying or asking for any more donated cars, when the cars involved are gone (no longer in operating condition) this series ends. The city did not approve funds for a track for the center nor have they granted me any more money to buy cars or awards. I’ll be dealing with the sponsors from the last event for small awards. I’m also looking at the Lifelike trucks; Walther’s has them for $11 each so I may be able to get a few of them for a different class.

No date has been set for the next race but it will more than likely be around the July 4th weekend.

Email Walthers, they are very generous with their products.

Congrats on the approval of more races Pete! It definitely sounds like they believe it impacted the kids and with them taking the precautions such as the border with tables and making sure there is nothing in the center, such as sports equipment, that could be used to harm the track, means they definitely understood the importance of ensuring the saftey of the track for future use. I'm definitely glad to hear that this whole project is back on track! The race trucks ought to be fun - I don't have any, but I have always thought the Craftsman truck series was cool!

Good luck bro!
PD2:thumbsup:

Pete

Send me your address, Walthers sent me some New T-Chassis last fall, I'll send you 5 of them and a few pick-up shoes. You can use them to get started a little bit.

We're lucky enough to have this new Max-Trax in our club, you can't imagine how LL T-Chassis run on this track.

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LifeLike T-Chassis Truck

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Email Walthers, they are very generous with their products.


I did that, they pledged cars and they never arrived. Scale Auto, Lucky Bobs and two very loyal members of this forum were the one's that contributed cars for the last event. I have half a dozen cars left and once I get by stimulation check I plan on picking up a few more for the local adult series we have going. I'm disappointed Walthers didn't come through but we did well with all that we did have.

I had a final meeting with my immediate boss, the one I have had so many objections about racing both last year and this year. The final verdict is they don't want my track back at the community center. After I told them about the damage she said that they don't want to assume the liability for any more damage done to Sequoia. She said if I were to build another track without scenery she may....MAY review her decision, but as of Monday slot car racing at the community center is over. Needless to say the kids were bummed.

Our adult series is continuing with racing each Saturday night. Last Saturday was the first points race, each driver had 3 cars, a total of 21 were present. I finished a respectable 3rd behind Yoshi and David Hicks, I had tire issues all night long with my Miller Genuine Draft Ford Taurus. All three of my entries did well, with placings in third, fourth and sixth place. Yoshi's Home Depot "Toyota" (a Monte Carlo conversion) won the event, David finished just a hair in front of me with his top qualifying Jeff Gordon Dupont Monte Carlo.

I had a final meeting with my immediate boss, the one I have had so many objections about racing both last year and this year. The final verdict is they don't want my track back at the community center. After I told them about the damage she said that they don't want to assume the liability for any more damage done to Sequoia. She said if I were to build another track without scenery she may....MAY review her decision, but as of Monday slot car racing at the community center is over. Needless to say the kids were bummed.



Dude, that is a bummer! Are you going to try and create a second track with no scenery? Maybe make the scenery 1-dimensional? At least she did not completely rule it 100%.

Good luck with getting it back going again bro!

PD2:thumbsup:

Why don't you have a race for the kids at your house with the stipulation that at least 1 parent must be there with them. That way you involve the parents in the racing with the kids possibly creating stronger bonds with the child / parent. Isn't that what social work is all about?

I'm just not going to deal with having it there. It's condition after condition and after she yanked my fresno.gov email in the middle of my getting donations I'm sort of turned off by the idea of trying.

We have a good adult following, I don't live far from the community center and if the kids want to race I'll take the track downstairs and we can race on the "grassy knoll" below my apartment and let them race there. When this series is done we're switching to the CoT cars anyway.

and after she yanked my fresno.gov email in the middle of my getting donations I'm sort of turned off by the idea of trying.

That was probably a big no no. Using a government issued email address to solicit funding and help. Your superiors could have gotten into a lot of trouble for that under federal law. Should have used a private email account. Like I said, I have some extra LifeLikes if you want them.

Of course, it also brings to light another problem, apparently your boss is more into her job for the money rather than actually wanting to make a difference in kids lives, sad as it may seem, unfortunately that's life, although it would be nicer if she thought about the kids a bit more than herself, isn't that the real idea behind social work?

Since the race was being held at the Community Center and all donated proceeds were going to the kids the Director of Parks and Rec gave me the OK to use my old PARCS supervisor email account. We use those accounts quite often to contact companies to solict donations and sponsorships for our sporting activities. However since I was no longer in the same capacity as I was when the email address was given, she yanked it. My experience is not many businesses would donate to a private party soliciting for a city parks function through his personal email. I think this is why nothing arrived from Walthers ultimately. And you're right about her being into the money, initially there was supposed to be an entry fee of $5 per kid, I refused to do that. These are inner city kids who don't have a dollar much less five.

I had drawn up plans for a two lane oval on a 2' X 4' plywood base, total cost was under $100 having to buy just about everything new from Scale Auto but I feel like I'm trying to jog into a hurricane with this deal, and frankly between the attitude of some of the kids and the friction with my boss it's burning me out. I just sit in my computer lab now nursing hurt feelings and trying not to take it out on the good kids who participated in the events.

I'm going to spend some time rebuilding my Empire, when the CoT cars come around I'll gather all of the old Taurus's, Monte Carlo's and Grand Prix's from the other guys and have another kids race in a neutral location, like Jamba Juice or the Pizza place again.

My experience is not many businesses would donate to a private party soliciting for a city parks function through his personal email. I think this is why nothing arrived from Walthers ultimately

You didn't say how long ago you ask Walthers for cars, it took them 6 months for me to get my cars from them, I also ask as a private individual for cars for some kids racing I was trying to set up, haven't got it going yet, but I will, Walthers sent me 19 New and Demo cars at no cost, they even paid the shipping.

That might be it right there, I asked like just over a month ahead of event. No matter though, the race itself was great, and that's all that mattered. All the bad stuff happened afterward.

And you're right about her being into the money, initially there was supposed to be an entry fee of $5 per kid, I refused to do that. These are inner city kids who don't have a dollar much less five.

I had drawn up plans for a two lane oval on a 2' X 4' plywood base, total cost was under $100 having to buy just about everything new from Scale Auto but I feel like I'm trying to jog into a hurricane with this deal, and frankly between the attitude of some of the kids and the friction with my boss it's burning me out. I just sit in my computer lab now nursing hurt feelings and trying not to take it out on the good kids who participated in the events.



Obviously she has gotten burned and jaded by the community and reaching out to the very people she is supposed to be helping and doing something for. I can understand how easy it is that when you are reaching out with a helping hand and someone slaps it or bites it, it does not take long before you quit reaching out. But all that does is justify in the mind of the individual (be it a kid or even an adult) that your actions (the actions of your supervisor) are just what they believe and expect of EVERY person, regardless of whether they are trying to help or not. So what happens? She does something like this and we continue to prove these people "right" every time! Instead, we should remain consistent, faithful, and committed to what we engaged in, no matter what. It's what instills faith back into people that there are others who care about them beyond getting recognition or monetary gains. Just sad that she has chosen the path that always gets chosen. And I'm further sorry that her actions are ultimately bumming you out and forcing your hand down that pathway too Pete.

Definitely do not take out anything on the good kids and I hope that you recognize soon that you don't need to be hurt over what she is doing. I would personally not take it personal, because obviously she is doing what she knows to do based off of how she has justified protecting herself, personally and monetarily. It's probably not an attack on you as much as its a selfish thing. Which brings us back to what medic57 is saying - "...it would be nicer if she thought about the kids a bit more than herself, isn't that the real idea behind social work?"

PD2:thumbsup:

Exactly. I don't think of this sort of event from the business end, just from the promoters end. I have made money off slot car racing before, not a lot but enough to cover my electrical investment for that event. Funding for recreational projects is gettign more and more difficult as taxes are cut and dollars are shuffled elsewhere. Our swimming pool used to be free 2 years ago, last year it was a dollar to go swimming, this year, $2. Lifeguards need to be paid, pool upkeep needs to be paid, and insurance has now gone through the ceiling.

This isn't the end of kids racing, but it will have to be replanned and re-thought out before it starts up again.

This isn't the end of kids racing, but it will have to be replanned and re-thought out before it starts up again.


This is GREAT to hear bro!:woohoo: Keep us posted and keep ya chin up! It's all good!

PD2:thumbsup: