The CCRA will be running a 19 race IndyCar series this fall beginning September 6th. Races will be based on the 2008 season and will be run in order.

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z262/FresnoPete/Season.jpg

The tracks will be temporary set ups running 2-lanes and an AFX Electronic Control Station will be used for scoring. Cars will be Super G-Plus stockers with black silicones allowed. The season will end no later than the end of January including rain dates. These tracks were designed to be contained within a 10' square because of indoor maximum size restrictions. While not 100% faithful to the real world layout they all capture the spirit of the track they depict.

You'll noticed a few of them look alike. As in real world tracks some are very similar and that is the situation here. Some of the D-shaped ovals and tri-ovals will be identical. Iowa and Richmond are smaller versions of the bigger tri-ovals of Kentucky and Nashville. The Milwaukee Mile and Indy are the only flat ovals that will be raced. Tracks with less then 10 degrees of real world banking will be flat, the rest will have 12" banked corners. I currently have Infineon layed out on my tabletop, despite its tricky appearance it is a very fast track.

If anyone is interested in my UR 3.0 diagrams for these two lane tracks let me know and I'll post them.

Reference:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_IndyCar_Series_season

AWESOME Pete! I think this is going to be a great series! Wish I was close enough to come be part of it! There are enough of both styles of layouts to keep it mixed up and challengining too - you just never know...some are better at ovals than road courses and vice versa.

Cool deal bro!

PD2:thumbsup:

Oh yeah, at least 3 of the kids will be involved here too. This is not a community center sanctioned series but its successor may well be. We only have 8 drivers committed, which is good enough to run the program I have in mind.

Big John pulled off a coup last night, not only did he draw Penske Racing (randon drawing from a hat for teams) as his team for this series but also "bribed" (for lack of a better work) John Hamilton to drive for him. I did get details later, it involved a Jamba Juice a week for the next 6 months. I did get 7-11 Big Gulp as my team so I'm not totally unhappy but my second driver has yet to sign. Part of the rules is if you have a two car team one driver has to be under the age of 15, Little John is 12, my other driver is 14. More info later.

Big John pulled off a coup last night, not only did he draw Penske Racing (randon drawing from a hat for teams) as his team for this series but also "bribed" (for lack of a better work) John Hamilton to drive for him. I did get details later, it involved a Jamba Juice a week for the next 6 months. I did get 7-11 Big Gulp as my team so I'm not totally unhappy but my second driver has yet to sign. Part of the rules is if you have a two car team one driver has to be under the age of 15, Little John is 12, my other driver is 14. More info later.

WHAT?? A Hamilton driving for Penske?!?! Don't make me pull out the sex tapes from the late nights at Jamba Juice! HAHAHA!!! Just kidding! From the looks of things I don't blame Big John - Hamilton appears to be a great racer for 12! Just remind Hamilton that those Penske cars tend to turn their true colors - yellow. ;)

PD2:thumbsup:

Shhhhhh...I could be on one of those tapes....John doesn't know what goes on there after hours!

For 12 years old Little John has really suprised me. He and his mom came over for a bit the other night and ran on the Infineon layout I had set up and was running times within a couple of tenths of what Yoshi and I werre running. Silicone tires are the equalizers, and other than slowing down more than he needed through the esses he ran the same speeds through other sections we were. This weekend when I get back from fishing we're setting up St. Petersburg for some practice.

The amount of track it takes to create these layouts is to say the least substantial. With the exception of the 12" banked turns and the 15" flat corners we have it all. But here's a list of everything we needed to do this series:

18 - 6" 45 degree corners
5 - 9" 45 degree corners
8 - 9" 90 degree corners
8 - 12" 45 degree corners
3 - 15" 45 degree corners
6 - 18" 45 degree corners

3 - 3" straights
7 - 6" straights
8 - 9" straights
11 - 15" straights

1 - terminal track

The Super International supplys more then 2/3rds of the track necessary for all of this so add about $100 for the rest of the track pieces. We're using the Tomy Electronic Control Center so that takes out another 15" straight.

A few tenths sounds closer than it really is. On Infineon we were running 2.83 second laps (average of 25 laps, no crashes), with a fast of 2.71 and a slow of 3.12. That's over 20 laps per minute, and if you're 0.20 seconds behind per lap, that's over a lap per minute slower. It really shows up on the track. The only real hard track will be Belle Isle because there won't be any place to air out the cars other than the two short straights with the sweeper between them.

I may sponsor a team while I'm gone, not sure who it will be patterend after yet. I've seen the "entry list" for decals, I didn't draw because I sort of want an original team, or at least a single car to be entered. Anyone will be able to do well on the high banked ovals so my concern is whoever I get to drive in my absence will have to know how to drive road courses.

That is just flat out amazing that Little John is getting that good! Yeah, Yoshi, being within a tenth or two will ultimately put you a full lap behind over time, but for this rookie up and comer, that's not too bad for his first rodeo! Especially on the types of track layouts you guys are throwing down.

As for your team, why not put together Team Nissmo F1? Would only make sense for your representation.

BTW Yoshi - A HUGE congrats on the honor of what you are about to embark on! That will be a great experience and something that will stay with you forever!

PD2:thumbsup:

Last night Yoshi decided to have me do a Team Pennzoil-Chevrolet with his cars once the WGP is done. His primary driver will be my grandson David who will turn 13 in November, and possibly a nephew who is currently 18. Neither have experience so they will be used as testing and replacement drivers during the WGP. That's 3 teams so far for the Champ Car series with probably one more team in discussion, the Hick's brothers may enter with Target as their sponsor soon.

Last night Yoshi decided to have me do a Team Pennzoil-Chevrolet with his cars once the WGP is done. His primary driver will be my grandson David who will turn 13 in November, and possibly a nephew who is currently 18. Neither have experience so they will be used as testing and replacement drivers during the WGP. That's 3 teams so far for the Champ Car series with probably one more team in discussion, the Hick's brothers may enter with Target as their sponsor soon.

Eh, I still would have chosen a Team Nissmo in his honor, but a Pennzoil-Chevrolet will work nicely too.

Glad to hear your grandson and possibly your nephew will be joining in - family affair!

PD2:thumbsup:

As our club has continued to talk about this series we've also continued to voice our expectations of what we'd like it to be. As such some changes have been made.

Since Yoshi will be absent beginning September 1st I have been actively recruiting racers from the 1/32nd scale ranks in my area. With the new MG17 cars coming out in late September to early October I have decided to wait to run this program with those cars instead of the SG+ cars we are now using in the WGP. John Berry agrees, this series is supposed to be the premier HO series in our area, we want it to be state of the art. Running an almost 15 year old design when something so much better is arriving soon doesn't help with the appeal to the guys I'm trying to bring over. They want realism, that's why they went to 1/32nd scale to begin with. I want them not only to race but to keep racing in HO so I can continue more series and possibly someday build a permanent track.

I have Yoshi's Electronic Control Station and most of the track needed for the season. I can do all of the ovals, Infineon and Edmonton. I may schedule a few restrictor plate events at Seqioua Speedway if need be, but if we need to edit the season in order to get a few rent-a-racers instead of track then so be it. Generally speaking everyone participating will supply their own cars. Because of the turn out with the WGP I am not soliciting kids participating in this series.

When I announced the car change only the Hicks Brothers said they wouldn't race. Honestly they won't be missed, others will take their place and even with a field of 6 cars at this point that's enough to have some good racing. We can make the races longer, have more heats, or whatever.

Anyway, so this is not a shameless bump of an old string, but a new development in a continuing project. I've placed my order with Santa for the cars, hopefully for Thanksgiving I'll get them.

Nice move Pete. I actually like the idea of going after the 1/32 racers with the new MG chassis. I just hope that the AFX/Racemaster team is quick to follow up with more cars than just the Champ Car/Formula 1. It would be nice for them to follow with cars like the GT40's, Daytona Cobra's, LeMans series cars, and even a COT. They will have to or otherwise the many various choices in 1/32 will just have those guys returning to 1/32 for the scale realism.

I hope you can get some more kids for the WGP series and hope that the racing continues to grow with those kids. Good luck with that and the rest of the season!

PD2:thumbsup:

Thanks Paul. The only bad thing about going with the MG17 cars is some people who were going to have two car teams are only planning single car teams now. Myself included. The only two car team will still be John and his stepson with Penske.

I'd love to see ALMS cars done, the cars that are out there are from the mid 1990's and only vaguely resemble those currently in use. The Daytona Prototype would be the easiest since it's the base for so many teams already. The problem there is that other than the Panoz ABS body I can't see the tooling happening for a while. I'd even settle for some GT Class, like Porsche's, F430's and AM's.

Yeah, if the price tags are true according to some of the pre-orders you see on various sites, an MG-17 is creeping up to the low end of a 1/43 and some 1/32 slot car prices. Single car teams will probably be expected.

And yes, I do agree, it will take a while for them to tool up anything new in body style to resemble the work that they have put into the Champ/Indy/F1 MG-17. Porsches, F430's and AM's would be VERY nice! I really hope they don't waste a lot of time ramping cars and series like these up with the new MG-17 - I just really think it will be important to the trend they take with this new chassis.

Personally, I'm also looking forward to the variable power supply that they will be releasing too. I'm planning on buying one for the HO AND the 1/32 track! I think it will be the first wall wart that can do three different voltage levels as well as maintain its the voltage for EACH lane from one pack (no power surge)! Or you can have a pack for each lane and run different voltages on each lane depending on the skill level! That power pack is going to really change things in the slot car market too!

Lots of great things on the way and they can't get here fast enough! HAHA!!

PD2:thumbsup: