This coming Friday will mark the first of a 6 race series for the kids at my community center. A total of 10 kids have signed up and will be racing Lifelife T-Chassis cars.

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z262/FresnoPete/MVC-166S.jpg

The "original" Sequoia Speedway has been resurrected, the 40" wide by 8' long layout features very long straights with 9"/12" corners. Power is supplied by a G-Jet powerpack and the first race will be a Restricter Plate 9V event. A modified CSRA program consisting of 3 rounds of heats followed by 8 main event races will be used, races will be 5 laps in length for the heats, 10 laps each for the mains. The entire program will take about an hour to complete.

I want to thank Paul (PD2) and Mike King for contributing to this series.

No thanks needed Pete - it was my pleasure to help both you and these kids! But you are very welcome! 10 kids is going to be an awesome race bro! And hopefully their excitement will spill over to the others and just grow the series!

Everything is looking great bro! Definitely looking forward to a great race report!

PD2:thumbsup:

I think it's a good thing we moved the track yesterday, woke up today and it's raining pretty hard. Supposed to rain throughout the day and into the weekend here. Yoshi and I pretty much have made this track nearly damage proof, the track is both nailed down through both holes and then glued to the plywood. The barriers are an old Zip-Zap barrier set I had from a few years ago, painted red and glued into place. All of the electronics are removed, only the terminal tracks remain for plug ins. The fences are added to the slot on top of the barriers just before race time and taken down immediately after. This is very little that can be removed when the track is stored in the rec room, and nothing can be removed without destroying that piece. The layout weighs 66 lbs, no single person is going to grab it and run off with it, and at 40"X8' they will need more than a Honda hatchback. If they tag it, we just remove the paint from the track surface with a bit of lacquer thinner and repaint the infield as needed.

All of the cars will be kept locked up in a steel tool box that weighs about 15 lbs. Same with all of the electronics. That toolbox is locked in my office when I'm not there. Kids who are not participating will not be allowed within 6' of the track. Last year we had 6 cars stolen and Sequoia was seriously damaged by a kid kicking a football at it. No other rec equipment will be allowed in the same room when racing is going on and I'll have one rec leader specifically to deal with crowd control.

I keep trying to keep this program going but this will be the last time I'll be given the chance if they (the kids) mess it up. My supervisors are fed up. We've had a lot of gang activity over the time I was gone, even with a constant Police presence it's still pretty bad. In my computer lab not a day goes by that we have to eject someone for looking at porn, gang fights on YouTube or for threatening other lab users. Today there will be no Internet, specifically for this race. After the trouble makers have been excluded hopefully we can have a good race.

Excellent planning! Wow! Sounds like you have covered your basis VERY well my friend! That is awesome!

With these kids that continue to act this way after someone has given them such a great place to help them, it makes you wonder what they are thinking when they make the choices they do? I know and understand that these kids have probably never been told of the consequences of making these choices or think they can justify the choices they make with some kind of personal past entitlement, but if they would just stop to realize that its not about you or any adult and that it is about benefiting and caring for them - makes you wonder if they would get that it is just hurting them to destroy and tear up things that's really theirs. Hhhhm?

Hope the race went good last night bro! And definitely hope that things remained in good standing and control - hoping and praying that they did not mess it up for everyone!

PD2:thumbsup:

In a way it really is theirs. We explained that last night before the races, told them this is their last chance. A few of the spectators laughed it off and said they didn't care if it got destroyed because they were excluded. We pointed out the reasons why they were excluded and they shrugged and said "Oh well". Where the track is being stored now is more secure so the possibility of someone just walking up and damaging it is less likely.

Winner of the A Main was 12 year old Valentine Villegas, who incidentally also won the trophy at the very first Sequoia event last summer. Second place was 13 year old Arthur Johnson, third was 10 year old Christopher Villegas, Val's brother. Only 5 of the 10 racers showed up because of some really bad thunderstorms and heavy rain. It was decided later to make this just a practice session and not have it go to the points series.

The next race will be February 13th.

That's still a good turn out given the weather. Even local tracks have that kind of turn out with the adults, so its good to see the consistency with the kids. Sounds like the Villegas brothers would make a good racing team for enduros. Glad to hear you have two from the same family joining in!

Sounds like it was a good night after all and no "one-race-only" results. YEAH!

What kind of lap times were the kids putting in as compared to the last time? And are you going to run the races every Friday?

Congrats on an, overall, successful race Pete! Must have made you feel good after all!

PD2:thumbsup:

This track is quite a bit larger than Sequoia so the times won't match. With 9V they were running in the 2.6 second range. There were still crashes but the few that were there began understanding to breath the throttle into the corners to prevent spinning out. The Villegas brothers are actually brother and sister, Valentine's real name is Claudia but since she was born February 14th they just caller her that. Both Valentine and her brother ran their 25 lap main without a crash or spin.

That's still not too bad at 9V for new racers. Are you going to leave it at 9V for the entire series? Just wondering if it will slowly creep up. HA!

Oops on the names! Only reason I assumed they were brothers is my wife's friend is married to a guy name Valentine and they call him Val. Still, that is pretty awesome for new racers to race 25 laps without a crash or anything, even from other racers! Definitely sounds like a good racing team though.

PD2:thumbsup:

We may run Friday's race at 9V since half the field was gone, it depends on how many show up this time. This afternoon I'm taking some tools and going to cut a window in the bottom of the plywood so I can someday put some magnetic reed switches in and have longer events.

very nice thing you're doing with the kids there pete!wish there was something like that when i was that age!i just ended up getting up to mischief most of the time!way to go and best of luck!:thumbsup::thumbsup:

i am in the middle of a kids cup series right now, the kids love it! we race every two weeks and they cant wait for the next race as soon as we are done! here is some info/pics/video of the kids cup. click on kids cup link / page #2 2nd post for video and pics! :thumbsup:

http://z9.invisionfree.com/CITRO/index.php?showforum=34

Pete,

Yeah, probably a good idea to keep it at 9V until you have the "regulars" back in on the racing. Great idea on the magnetic reed switch preparation! Small, timely things like that will just help you in the long run.

TEAM D.V.S.,

That's right! I remember checking out your pics and video before! Man it is awesome to see a group of kids that jazzed up about this hobby! Good luck with the series continuing to grow! I think with the things going on in the US right now, tons of people are looking for hobbies like this! GREAT time to be promoting!

PD2:thumbsup:

Unfortunately this series has been cancelled. As of February 24th I will no longer have a job with the city. The 2009 budget is $8.8M in the hole and they have done away with 233 temporary positions within the city, many of them part time supervisors. My entire department at Fresno Connect is slated to be terminated, 11 workers.

I will be picking up the track later this evening from my community center. In the time I have remaining on my job I will be passing out flyers I made tonight and having private races with a kids class. I will unfortunately have to charge entry fees but the cars which you guys have donated will be provided. Hopefully I will be able to find some work again soon and get back to a regular schedule. However losing the nearly $1000 a month, more than half my income, is going to be tough to deal with. I will keep everyone advised as to what is happening when I can.

I'm sorry to hear the news on the job front Pete. Definitely not cool. I went through this exactly a year ago today and thankfully was blessed with a new job within less than 2 months. I'll be praying for you, but if there is anything else that I can do, please let me know.

I am glad to hear that you will continue to do the series, even if you do have to charge. It still will give these kids something to do with their time and now their money, vs. ??? When the series is back up and running let us know how it goes and how many kiddos follow over. I'll be interested to hear that stat - will tell you how many have their heart into!

This really sucks and right at the time when you were getting back up and going and so was the kids series. Don't let it get you down and definitely keep moving forward as much as you can and as much as depends on you.

PD2:thumbsup: