Race Report Blog
Open Wheel Race Report 8/2/2014
After canceling the July race due to venue scheduling mixups, One-9 practically bent over backwards to make us feel welcome for the August meet. During setup, there were about 20 kids running around the gym, and of course allot of curiosity on their part as to what we were building. Many of them asked if they cold race, and of course w=the reply was a positive "yes". However all the kids had to leave before the setup was complete (they were there for a basketball clinic), so unfortunately we had NO junior racers for the evening.
Two of the club "regulars", Darryl and Gary were also absent. Darryl is on vacation, and Gary recently had a surgery and couldn't make the drive from New Mexico. We did however have four new drivers attend, including two ladies, Hallie and Kayla. Chris and Ronald rounded out the newcomers.
Mike and Ron acted as marshals for the practice session to allow the new folks to get as much track time as possible on the huge (32 x 12 foot) Conquistador layout. Practice was a crashfest as the newcomers tried to get the hang of controlling their cars, and trying out different cars to find one that suited them.
With practice over, racing commenced. The first few heats showed that the newbies had itchy fingers and some nervousness as there were crashes left and right. The more experienced drivers were not immune as they fell victim to nerfs and pileups ahead of them. But once everyone settled down a bit and started concentrating, there was some really close wheel to wheel racing on the track. Ron and Mike put on a clinic at one point with the cars within inches of each other for the majority of an entire heat, giving the newcomers an idea of what racing HO cars can be with some practice. Towards the end of the race, four car packs racing around the circuit were becoming more common.
Our eventual winner was Chris Brown, who after driving a couple of the faster cars in practice decided to go with a car that was a tad slower, but handled the technical sections great. There were allot of joke's about the "Turtle Car", but he beat all the hare's with a steady and consistent run each heat.
The blue lane (lane 3) proved to be the most difficult lane on the track, and was the undoing of the majority of drivers. In fact the blue lane was where Chris won the race and Mike lost it. Again showing that the superior handling car is an advantage on the large technical tracks.
Hallie had to retire halfway through the race as she was feeling hypoglycemic. Ron had a very fast car, but suffered from problems with the stock Mega G body. After several laps of constant crashing it was discovered that he had a bent front wing that was catching the track. It was a problem that was reoccurring, through 2-3 heats, until eventually the wing simply broke off.
All in all, a good race. Everyone had fun, and our winner Chris was running around whooping it up and getting high fives for his victory. The newbies had fun, and everyone promised to return. With club photographer Gary absent, we won't have a video of the race. Mike was simply too busy at race control, driving, and marshaling to take any video. Pics will be posted when they arrive from Ronald, who was kind enough to take some pics of the event.
Open Wheel Race Report 6/7/14
An unusual evening unfolded at the One-9 for our first ever points race. It seems there was a scheduling mixup and someone at One-9 had booked a graduation party in the gym even though THORN had the gym booked several weeks in advance. A call to the One-9 big cheese confirmed that we had first rights to the gym, and we were told that we could tell the graduation party people that they had to leave, but that seemed more than rude. Rather than getting uptight about the situation we looked at it as an opportunity to get a few more people over to race. We weren't disappointed, and were soon swarmed with kids wanting to try out the cars during the open practice session. It wasn't long before they were chomping at the bit to really race.
A quick meeting of the primary members, and the decision was made to make the evening all about the kids. We turned the voltage down so the kids could negotiate the technically difficult track which was giving fits to the best of drivers, and let them go at it. The kids were very excited, and very interested in the overall race standings as the race progressed, wanting to be sure they knew where they were in the order.
Marisol, Tristan, and Johnny lined up for their first real race. With Marisol scoring 24 laps in the first heat and jumping out to an early lead. Tristan fought back in the ensuing two heats, and help a one lap lead over Marisol going into the final.
In the fourth and last heat, Marisol handed it to the boys driving the pink Breast Cancer Awareness Mega G car which had been previously setup in high down force mode. It wasn't the fastest car on the track, but nothing could touch it as the car breezed through the technical sections while faster cars were crashing left and right. Marisol became history as she will be remembered for a long time as THORN's first official medal winner.
All were in agreement that the kids were the highlight of the evening by bringing out allot of enthusiasm and excitement to the meeting.
In the Adult class, Mike ran away with the race from the start and was never challenged, proving that setup trumps raw speed on a very technical layout.
It was a first time experience for all involved to race on a real "big track" road course, and everyone agreed that while the course was difficult, it was very enjoyable. Much was learned about the chassis setup required to compete on this style of track, and I'm quite certain that our next Open Wheel race will prove more competitive as the drivers make setup adjustments for the next Open Wheel meet.
All in all a great night of fun racing!
IROC Race Report 5/3/14
A little late with the Race Report blog, but better late than never. We had originally planned to start setting up the track at 4pm on Saturday, but Tony at One-9 said we could have the facility anytime from 2pm on, so we took advantage of that and started setting up just before 3pm. We figured if there were any technical issues the extra hour would give us time to work things out. Knowing we were a couple saw horses short of holding all the tables, we went in with the plan to attach foot long 1x4's to the tops of the sawhorses so we could use three instead of four sawhorses for every two tables. All told, the track was built in about an hour. The tables were very sturdy, power good, and Race Coordinator was humming along not missing a beat. A quick cleaning of the track, and we were ready to go.
Turnout was a disappointment. Some folks were sick, others out of town, A few teenagers wandered in and wanted to race, but couldn't stay. Gary Jones, a member of the RC Flying club that also uses the facility came in to check things out and decided to stay and race. So, there were four of us, Darryl, Ron, Gary, and myself. We put Race Coordinator in practice mode at 6pm, and hoped more folks would show up.
Darryl had built nine LifeLike T chassis cars specifically for the IROC race, and I had some some extensive times trials to find the optimum chassis for the various lanes so we could have potential for some close racing all around. During practice however, we broke three chassis at the guide pins, and lost a front wheel on another. Darryl decided that he would get some more robust M chassis cars race ready to use instead. he did a great job putting them together on short notice, but two of the cars were roughly a half second faster per lap than the other two. We put the slower cars on the gutter lanes, and continued practice.
7pm arrived, and still no one else had arrived. We decided to proceed with racing. We began with some two lane racing, but everyone was itching for some four lane action. There was some discussion about marshaling since there were only four of us, and it was decided on the spot each driver would be responsible for marshaling their own car. That decision would affect the outcome of the race in a couple of ways. First, I have rarely seen a race with so few crashes, as everyone was trying to stay focused and talk a little smack at the same time. Darryl had the fast lap of the race on the dominate blue lane, and also owned the fastest lap on the red lane, but a couple crashes did him in, as the big guy just didn't have the speed to run around the track to fix his car that his more svelte competitors had.
Going into the final heat, Mike held a 11 lap lead over Ron, however Ron would finish in the fast blue lane, and Mike in the outside red gutter lane with a much slower car. As the heat progressed, you could see it was going to be a close finish in total laps as Ron's blue car was dominating the field. But with only seconds to go, the game changer of the race occurred when Ron crashed in turn 3. He sprinted around the track, put his car in the slot, and sprinted back to the drivers station, and grabbed his controller just as time expired for the heat. In the end Mike was one lap and three sections ahead in the total. Its hard to say if the crash cost him the win, but if not for that crash, the finish would certainly have been much, much closer.
In the end, it was a fun evening, We had several unofficial races as well. The four of us decided that we were all going to renew efforts to get more drivers for the June Open Wheel race. Thanks to Ron and Mike for getting things setup, to Darryl for building and providing the cars, and Gary for the bulk of the video and still photography, and for rounding out the field. Gary had not driven a slot car since he was a kid in the 1960's, but the race stats show that he represented himself well on the track. I found out that photography is one of Gary's hobbies, and recruited him to be the club photographer.
A special shout out to Dave D, the creator of Race Coordinator. The program worked flawlessly. The drivers really liked the audio callouts, and I like just about everything about it as the race control guy. Darryl was particularly impressed, I think he went home and downloaded for his home track.
Looking forward to the Open Wheel Points race next month with a bigger road course, and bigger turnout. See you June 7th!
Mike
After canceling the July race due to venue scheduling mixups, One-9 practically bent over backwards to make us feel welcome for the August meet. During setup, there were about 20 kids running around the gym, and of course allot of curiosity on their part as to what we were building. Many of them asked if they cold race, and of course w=the reply was a positive "yes". However all the kids had to leave before the setup was complete (they were there for a basketball clinic), so unfortunately we had NO junior racers for the evening.
Two of the club "regulars", Darryl and Gary were also absent. Darryl is on vacation, and Gary recently had a surgery and couldn't make the drive from New Mexico. We did however have four new drivers attend, including two ladies, Hallie and Kayla. Chris and Ronald rounded out the newcomers.
Mike and Ron acted as marshals for the practice session to allow the new folks to get as much track time as possible on the huge (32 x 12 foot) Conquistador layout. Practice was a crashfest as the newcomers tried to get the hang of controlling their cars, and trying out different cars to find one that suited them.
With practice over, racing commenced. The first few heats showed that the newbies had itchy fingers and some nervousness as there were crashes left and right. The more experienced drivers were not immune as they fell victim to nerfs and pileups ahead of them. But once everyone settled down a bit and started concentrating, there was some really close wheel to wheel racing on the track. Ron and Mike put on a clinic at one point with the cars within inches of each other for the majority of an entire heat, giving the newcomers an idea of what racing HO cars can be with some practice. Towards the end of the race, four car packs racing around the circuit were becoming more common.
Our eventual winner was Chris Brown, who after driving a couple of the faster cars in practice decided to go with a car that was a tad slower, but handled the technical sections great. There were allot of joke's about the "Turtle Car", but he beat all the hare's with a steady and consistent run each heat.
The blue lane (lane 3) proved to be the most difficult lane on the track, and was the undoing of the majority of drivers. In fact the blue lane was where Chris won the race and Mike lost it. Again showing that the superior handling car is an advantage on the large technical tracks.
Hallie had to retire halfway through the race as she was feeling hypoglycemic. Ron had a very fast car, but suffered from problems with the stock Mega G body. After several laps of constant crashing it was discovered that he had a bent front wing that was catching the track. It was a problem that was reoccurring, through 2-3 heats, until eventually the wing simply broke off.
All in all, a good race. Everyone had fun, and our winner Chris was running around whooping it up and getting high fives for his victory. The newbies had fun, and everyone promised to return. With club photographer Gary absent, we won't have a video of the race. Mike was simply too busy at race control, driving, and marshaling to take any video. Pics will be posted when they arrive from Ronald, who was kind enough to take some pics of the event.
Open Wheel Race Report 6/7/14
An unusual evening unfolded at the One-9 for our first ever points race. It seems there was a scheduling mixup and someone at One-9 had booked a graduation party in the gym even though THORN had the gym booked several weeks in advance. A call to the One-9 big cheese confirmed that we had first rights to the gym, and we were told that we could tell the graduation party people that they had to leave, but that seemed more than rude. Rather than getting uptight about the situation we looked at it as an opportunity to get a few more people over to race. We weren't disappointed, and were soon swarmed with kids wanting to try out the cars during the open practice session. It wasn't long before they were chomping at the bit to really race.
A quick meeting of the primary members, and the decision was made to make the evening all about the kids. We turned the voltage down so the kids could negotiate the technically difficult track which was giving fits to the best of drivers, and let them go at it. The kids were very excited, and very interested in the overall race standings as the race progressed, wanting to be sure they knew where they were in the order.
Marisol, Tristan, and Johnny lined up for their first real race. With Marisol scoring 24 laps in the first heat and jumping out to an early lead. Tristan fought back in the ensuing two heats, and help a one lap lead over Marisol going into the final.
In the fourth and last heat, Marisol handed it to the boys driving the pink Breast Cancer Awareness Mega G car which had been previously setup in high down force mode. It wasn't the fastest car on the track, but nothing could touch it as the car breezed through the technical sections while faster cars were crashing left and right. Marisol became history as she will be remembered for a long time as THORN's first official medal winner.
All were in agreement that the kids were the highlight of the evening by bringing out allot of enthusiasm and excitement to the meeting.
In the Adult class, Mike ran away with the race from the start and was never challenged, proving that setup trumps raw speed on a very technical layout.
It was a first time experience for all involved to race on a real "big track" road course, and everyone agreed that while the course was difficult, it was very enjoyable. Much was learned about the chassis setup required to compete on this style of track, and I'm quite certain that our next Open Wheel race will prove more competitive as the drivers make setup adjustments for the next Open Wheel meet.
All in all a great night of fun racing!
IROC Race Report 5/3/14
A little late with the Race Report blog, but better late than never. We had originally planned to start setting up the track at 4pm on Saturday, but Tony at One-9 said we could have the facility anytime from 2pm on, so we took advantage of that and started setting up just before 3pm. We figured if there were any technical issues the extra hour would give us time to work things out. Knowing we were a couple saw horses short of holding all the tables, we went in with the plan to attach foot long 1x4's to the tops of the sawhorses so we could use three instead of four sawhorses for every two tables. All told, the track was built in about an hour. The tables were very sturdy, power good, and Race Coordinator was humming along not missing a beat. A quick cleaning of the track, and we were ready to go.
Turnout was a disappointment. Some folks were sick, others out of town, A few teenagers wandered in and wanted to race, but couldn't stay. Gary Jones, a member of the RC Flying club that also uses the facility came in to check things out and decided to stay and race. So, there were four of us, Darryl, Ron, Gary, and myself. We put Race Coordinator in practice mode at 6pm, and hoped more folks would show up.
Darryl had built nine LifeLike T chassis cars specifically for the IROC race, and I had some some extensive times trials to find the optimum chassis for the various lanes so we could have potential for some close racing all around. During practice however, we broke three chassis at the guide pins, and lost a front wheel on another. Darryl decided that he would get some more robust M chassis cars race ready to use instead. he did a great job putting them together on short notice, but two of the cars were roughly a half second faster per lap than the other two. We put the slower cars on the gutter lanes, and continued practice.
7pm arrived, and still no one else had arrived. We decided to proceed with racing. We began with some two lane racing, but everyone was itching for some four lane action. There was some discussion about marshaling since there were only four of us, and it was decided on the spot each driver would be responsible for marshaling their own car. That decision would affect the outcome of the race in a couple of ways. First, I have rarely seen a race with so few crashes, as everyone was trying to stay focused and talk a little smack at the same time. Darryl had the fast lap of the race on the dominate blue lane, and also owned the fastest lap on the red lane, but a couple crashes did him in, as the big guy just didn't have the speed to run around the track to fix his car that his more svelte competitors had.
Going into the final heat, Mike held a 11 lap lead over Ron, however Ron would finish in the fast blue lane, and Mike in the outside red gutter lane with a much slower car. As the heat progressed, you could see it was going to be a close finish in total laps as Ron's blue car was dominating the field. But with only seconds to go, the game changer of the race occurred when Ron crashed in turn 3. He sprinted around the track, put his car in the slot, and sprinted back to the drivers station, and grabbed his controller just as time expired for the heat. In the end Mike was one lap and three sections ahead in the total. Its hard to say if the crash cost him the win, but if not for that crash, the finish would certainly have been much, much closer.
In the end, it was a fun evening, We had several unofficial races as well. The four of us decided that we were all going to renew efforts to get more drivers for the June Open Wheel race. Thanks to Ron and Mike for getting things setup, to Darryl for building and providing the cars, and Gary for the bulk of the video and still photography, and for rounding out the field. Gary had not driven a slot car since he was a kid in the 1960's, but the race stats show that he represented himself well on the track. I found out that photography is one of Gary's hobbies, and recruited him to be the club photographer.
A special shout out to Dave D, the creator of Race Coordinator. The program worked flawlessly. The drivers really liked the audio callouts, and I like just about everything about it as the race control guy. Darryl was particularly impressed, I think he went home and downloaded for his home track.
Looking forward to the Open Wheel Points race next month with a bigger road course, and bigger turnout. See you June 7th!
Mike