Since I've sort of become the Bernie Ecclestone of this venture I guess I should let everyone know where we stand and what we're doing.

For those of you with the Tomy Super International you know the track comes with diagrams to create all of the tracks (plus two others) that were part of the 16 race 1993 Formula 1 Series. The two extra track diagrams are for the Phoenix street circuit track and for the Jerez track that is still in testing use currently. While none of the tracks are a perfect representation of their real world counterpart they are close and appear to offer enough of drivers challenge to base a slot car season off of. So, we shall.

Right now I'm working with Pete and John and a few others to get the Kids Series rolling. That series has been expanded to 6 races from 4, and will include the two extra tracks off the template sheet as well as Laguna Seca and Daytona, and at the Sequoia Oval and a 4' X 12' big Indy oval. Once completed it will more than likely be about the time school starts up out here and we'll begin launching the aF1x Grand Prix. I'd say our first race will be sometime around Thanksgiving.

Cars will be dead-out-of-the-box stock. You can sand and true your tires, you can change the paint on the body but that's about it. This is an absolute SPEC series like the series Pete tried to have at his landscaped Laguna Seca earlier this year. All cars....ALL CARS will be teched before qualifying, before the Grand Prix Final and afterward. I'm going to be totally anal about this just to make sure everything is on the up-and-up. There won't be any accusations of tire cheats or of unfair gear changes. Any unsubstantiated accusations will be dealt with but this series will not be cancelled because of sour grapes, even if it comes down to Pete, John and I racing it ourselves.

Now today I placed an order for my own Super International, Pete has one and John will be ordering one soon. We may buy one more for the Hicks brothers to use for testing, this way everyone has the same capability to test before race day. I say this because race day practice will be extremely limited. More on that at a later date, the full rules are still being written as well as working on a 4 lane racing program that is both fair and impartial.

Today Pete told me he closed his Sequoia Speedway Myspace page, in about a week or so we'll be putting up one for the aF1X Grand Prix series, another possibility may be a Google Page since there will be so much information made avilable. I would love everyone who has one of these sets to join us with the same layout on the same date, using the same rules to see who does better. Right now the only change I see doing for the event track is getting the double power pack terminals and two more packs for each lane to be 100% clean. But each event track will be set up the morning of the race and taken down at the end of the day.

There will be more stuff later, this is just the last few days of sitting around Pete's place, eating BBQ and drinking Jamba's, running laps on his short track with cars that are just way too fast for it and thinking of what we can do to make it better.

If you're setting up outside in the sun make sure you grind the track tabs down otherwise you will suffer bad bumps as the track expands and cools with sun and clouds passing overhead.

Oh, and halogen work lights that come in a pair with the light stand are great for outdoor night races. Beats dealing with the bees and bugs and heat of daytime racing.

We've run a few outdoor races and that's been my experience with a few of the problems we've run into.

Thanks for the advice 'doba, we have two pop-up canopies that the track will sit under. But in November in California the sun won't be that much of a problem, rain might be. At least we hope it will be, we haven't had rain since February.

The program I'm writing is a 16 car rotating lane event that can be run under two hours. The "away" races will have a maximum time limit of 3 hours and we'll have just 3 parking spaces for the race. That means one for the track, one for a pit area and one for any spectators we may have, so this is perfect.

As of this moment each team will be allowed a maximum of 3 drivers. Each driver will be permitted to practice with two cars, but only one can make a qualifying attempt. They will have 1 minute in each lane, the total and partial laps will be tallied and that will be the qualifying distance. A series of Sprints will be raced for laps+ that will also be tallied and the top 8 cars will go to the Grand Prix. After 2 Grand Prix's the top 4 go to the Grand Prix Final. All of the races are timed events, so running the most laps you can in that amoubnt of time is key.

During the Sprint race the lanes are rotated so that everyone has the same advantage, but in the Sprint Races and the Grand Prix's the person with the fast qualifying time will get their lane choice throughout the races. This is meant to reflect the advantage on the starting grid given to those with a faster qualifying time. Here is how that section of the rules reads for the moment, remember, nothing is written in stone at this point.

Each driver will be permitted to practice two cars for a total of 5 minutes each. No single car may accumulate more than 5 minutes of practice time. Only one car may be selected for qualifying.

Teams may have no more than three drivers, with two cars each. Cars may only be driven by the driver who enters and/or practices with it. There will be absolutely no swapping out of chassis drivers, anyone found to be doing so will be withdrawn from the event.

Cars with similar paint schemes (but differing numbers) must be identified as such; First car will have a black roll bar/intake scoop front, the second car will have a red or yellow roll bar/intake scoop front. This is to designate team cars and be able to tell them apart on the track.

Qualifying:

Qualifying will consist of four 1 minute qualifying races with the driver running one race in each lane. The total number of whole laps and partial laps for each lane is recorded. Partial laps are determined by the total number of track pieces beginning at the starting line to where the car was when that session’s time expired. For the purposes of track counts each 1/4th radius corner will be considered two pieces as to equal an inside or outside corners 1/8th radius.

The total laps along with partial laps are then added up, converted to whole laps and remaining partial distance and a qualifying order is then established. The top sixteen qualifying cars are then set into four car grids, comprising four Sprint Heats. Total time for qualifying will depend on the total number of cars entered but will not exceed 45 minutes.

Sprint Heats:

The Sprint Heats are started from the starting line are two minutes long each with the cars rotating from lane to lane outside to inside, each time starting from the starting line again. This makes the total time for each Sprint Heat eight minutes long (plus staging time). Again cars total laps plus partial distance are recorded. This continues through all four sections of the Sprint Heats. Sprint Heats should not take more than 45 total minutes to complete.

Grand Prix:

The top eight cars from the field of sixteen are then selected and placed by order of their Sprint Heat finishes into two four car Grand Prix grids, with the top four cars being placed in the first round, and the second four in the next. Drivers may then choose which lane they will race in for the entire round based on their qualifying times.

Grand Prix’s are each five minutes long, and the top two finishing cars in each round will have their total laps and partial laps recorded. Those top four cars are then placed in The Grand Prix Finals. Again, the best overall qualifying time will be given lane choice for the entire final, which will be ten minutes.

Total time for the Grand Prix and Grand Prix Finals will not exceed 30 minutes including staging times. Total time for the entire event is not to exceed two hours.

It's not complete, we're still ironing out the bugs but we're trying to use elements of the real F1 program with Peter's 25 year proven program from his oval tracks.

So far the Hick's brothers have not announced their intention to race in the aF1X GP, I'd hold off buying anything for them. They have been told they will have to buy their own cars and balked at participating in the series. Here's what I have so far:

Me: 2 cars, 7-11/Big Gulp sponsorship, #26 and #27, Second driver TBA
John Berry: 2 cars, Jamba Juice sponsorship (duh) #98 and #99, second car driven by his 16 year old stepson Adrian Munoz.
John Hamilton (age 12): 1 car, Vodaphone MP4/22 sponsorship, #1 or #2
Proxy car from PD2 (Paul): Driver not yet assigned, 1 car, Copenhagen-Gilmore sponsorship, #14
Yoshi: 1 car, Nissan sponsorship, #84
Jason Steele (age 14): 1 car, Pennzoil sponsorship, #4 (or #2)