Post Christmas Slot Car Racing

Race Report - 12-26-09

Seasons Greetings everyone. I hope you all have had a nice Christmas. Now, with that out of the way, lets get to this weeks race report.

A fair sized crowd of people had the same idea about slot racing this Saturday night at Fine Scale Hobbies. We had nine racers. There were seven regulars, Paul, John, Steve, Rick, Howard, Chuck, and Joe. Ellis, Paul’s son, was in from college. We also had two visitors, Phillip and his son Griffin, who came up from Birmingham to check out the track.
Gary announced that tonight, to celebrate the holidays, he was going to award prizes, two brand new slot cars, one each to the first and second place finishers for over-all points. You could see everyone putting on their race face. This was no longer just for a weeks worth of bragging rights, this was serious, lol.
He set the counter for 15 lap heats and started picking the nights racing classes.

Here’s the run down:

Vintage F1 – A magnetless class with all the skinny tired Ferrari’s, Cooper’s, Maserati’s, and the like from the post WWII period. This is probably the most difficult class that we run. They have a lot of speed, are very top heavy, and those thin tires make them really tail happy during cornering. Just imagine a 1950’s version of drifting.
Paul showed off his fine driving skills, navigating his green Cooper Climax to a class win, five heat wins and 32 points. John was next using his red Ferrari 375, with two heat wins and 29 points. Ellis removed anyone’s thought of his being rusty and scored 25 points for third place. Other heat winners were Joe and Steve with one each.
Class points - Paul 32, Phillip 14, Griffin 13, John 29, Steve 23, Rick 22, Howard 19, Chuck 15, Ellis 25, Joe 18.

Rally – Another magnetless class. These are the cars you see flying down the gravel roads in Europe sliding all over the place at break-neck speeds. This is also a hard class, with the heats rarely reaching completion before the cars wipe out and end the run by attrition.
Steve swept the field with his Ferrari 308, winning all six of his heats and scoring 36 points. Ellis pulled down 25 points, with one heat win driving his Ferrari 308. Rick and John tied for third at 24 points. Paul won the remaining three heats driving his orange Peugeot 307 4wd, but had bad luck in his other heats, which crippled his effort.
An honorable mention goes to Phillip for getting 20 points in this tough class. A good finish, it being magnetless class and his first time at Gary’s.
Class points - Paul 22, Phillip 20, Griffin 14, John 24, Steve 36, Rick 24, Howard 18, Chuck 11, Ellis 25, Joe 15.

Vintage NASCAR – This is usually the old 60’s and 70’s NASCAR’s made by Carrera. We remove the rear magnet, flip the directional switch, and run them the opposite way around the track.
Gary had a surprise for us in this class. He took the Carrera’s, and added the vintage Monogram NASCAR’s to the class. Now there was a scramble with everyone trying to decide which type of car to run. As it turned out, these two types run very close together. But boy was it weird seeing the Carrera’s going the “wrong” direction. lol.
John was king of the hill driving his Carrera ’70 Daytona to two heat wins and 30 points. Steve wasn’t far behind with his Monogram ’67 Ford Fairlane, two heats wins, and 28 points. Paul was right there for third with his Carrera ’69 Torino, winning four heats and with 27 points. Rick won one heat, and Ellis also.
Class points - Paul 27, Phillip 18, Griffin 14, John 30, Steve 28, Rick 22, Howard 24, Chuck 12, Ellis 18, Joe 17.

NASCAR – This class is the modern cars and they are surprisingly fast. They have quick acceleration and corner very well. With six heat winners, this class proved to be the most competitive of the night.
John once again showed why he is the “Iceman” and dominated the class with very consistent driving, never getting less than second place. He tallied up three heat wins and scored 33 points. Steve got second with 26 points but no a single heat win. Rick pulled in the third place spot with two heat wins and 25 points. Other heat winners were Joe with three wins (driving a borrowed car), Paul with two, and Howard with one.
Class points - Paul 19, Phillip 18, Griffin 13, John 33, Steve 26, Rick 25, Howard 15, Chuck 19, Ellis 19, Joe 23.

Over-all –
Now for the over-all scoring and the prizewinners. This was hotly contested, with the final leader change coming in the second to last heat of the night.
Paul took the early lead in the first class, but couldn’t hold on to it. Then Steve came up and took the top spot for a while, and looked fairly strong. But then here came the “Iceman”. John slowly inched back up and was with-in four points of Steve when the last class began. When it was over, he had won by three points.


Over-all points - Paul 100, Phillip 70, Griffin 54, John 116, Steve 113, Rick 93, Howard 76, Chuck 57, Ellis 87, Joe 74.


For first place, Gary awarded him choice of any single car, and he picked a rally class Ferrari 308. For second place, Steve was awarded choice of any high-impact streetstock class car, and he picked a silver Nissan GTR.


The Iceman and Steve

But wait, there’s more.
It being Christmas time, all of us guys wanted to say thanks to Gary and Margret, for having the hobby shop, the cool racetrack, and a nice family oriented place. Mainly, we just wanted to say thanks for simply being a nice folks.
We all went together and when the racing was finished, and as a present from all of us, we told Gary to pick any car he wanted. He was reluctant, but we insisted and he finally gave in. He picked out a rally class Seat Leon with black and white Castrol livery.


Gary with his new Rally car

So now everyone should watch out for him in the rally class, since now he will have a very competitive car in the field. (We should have got him one of Margret’s candles. lol)

Side note – Phillip and Griffin, It was nice meeting you, and ya’ll come back sometime soon.

Next Week:
The shop will be open and Gary is thinking about making a change to one of the other classes, since the vintage NASCAR class worked so well.

So come on out and race.

Later,
Steve

Cold Weather Outside Makes for Hot Slot Car Racing Inside

This is Steve filling in for Paul, for a short time, while he has other things he needs to take care of. He will take the Race Reports back soon, so bear with me since I’ve never done anything like this before. If I get anything wrong, or forget something, please let me know. Thanks.


Race Report - 12-19-09Once again we all gathered at Fine Scale Hobbies to test our cars and driving skills.
The competitors tonight were Darry, Howard with his nephew Jordan, Rick, Gary, Steve, Chuck, and Paul. Darry’s son Richard filled in for one class, but we’ll cover that in a bit.

One of my favorite things to do each week is to see what “new arrivals” there are to Gary’s car selection. This week there were three new Scalextric cars. A white and blue Ford Escort RS1600 for rally class, a white and black Mustang for GT class, and a blue Eagle Gurney ‘67 F1, which currently does not have a class. I bought one of the Eagles and with its magnet still installed it is really quick. I’m going to remove the magnet and see how it compares to the current class of Vintage F1.

During the practice session, Rick brought out his newly acquired “wheelie” car and took it around the track a few times. It was one of the wackiest things I’ve ever seen in slotting. It could hold a wheelie all the way down the long back straight. Pretty cool.

Around six we set the lap counter to 15 lap heats and drew for grid positions. Darry, having drawn pole position, had the honor of drawing the first class to be ran, and he pulled the Vintage GT ball from the bag.

Here’s a run down of all the classes ran:

Vintage GT – This class contains mainly Ford GT40’s with Ferrari 330’s and 250’s, and is one of the fastest classes we run.
With speed comes spectacular wrecks, and Chuck had one. As he exited the last turn onto the backstretch, his GT40 lost its grip and went air born, bouncing along the track, then up into the trackside scenery, and settled back on the track. We had to pause between heats to clean up the mess, but luckily his car wasn’t damaged.
Steve won the class with his gray/black GT40 taking three heat wins. Paul was one point back driving his red Ferrari 330 and winning one heat. Chuck was next in third with his yellow GT40 winning one heat. Rick won the remaining two heats but fell just shy of third place.
Darry 14, Howard 21, Rick 24, Gary 12, Steve 30, Chuck 25, Jordan 13, Paul 29.

Street Stock – These are the “high impact” cars with durable one piece bodies, such as Audi TT’s, Porsche Boxsters and 997’s, Ferrari 330’s, Nissan GTR’s, and Lamborghini Gallardo’s. It is always a lot of fun since you do not have to worry about race damage as much as the other types.
Being the nice guy that he is, Gary let Darry’s son, Richard, have his place it the field. He took the helm of Darry’s Audi TT. As the heats went by, he slowly improved his finishing position, getting a 2nd place in the last heat. Good driving Richard.
Howard won the class with his fast yellow Lambo, setting a blistering pace that few could keep up with, posting five wins. Paul got second with three wins and Steve got third.
Darry 23, Howard 32, Rick 13, Richard 14, Steve 24, Chuck 16, Jordan 19, Paul 27.

F1 – These are the modern F1 cars and there are as many types as in the real series. They use an additional front button magnet, and are probably the fastest box-stock class of all. We also race the A1 cars with these, since they are so alike. One thing about these cars is that they have snap-on pieces to help keep them from breaking so easily. This feature lends itself to having fairly realistic crashes, as parts shed from the car as it bounces off the guardrails. It was during such a wreck that Paul found his car bearing into a part strewn curve. Thinking that he could slip by the wrecked car, he hit a front nosecone, and it rolled under his car and de-slotted it, putting him out of the heat. Boy was he aggravated, getting put out by debris, but he said “that’s racing” and laughed it off, being the good competitor he is.

Darry is still having “wheel” problems. One of his rear wheels is loose on his A1 car, and it pops off every once in a while. Sure enough it fell off in one heat, putting him out. Every time it happens it makes me think of Darrell Waltrip’s “Loose Wheel” song “You picked a fine time to leave me loose wheel” lol.

There was some very close racing in this class, with Chuck and Steve going head
to head in three heats. Staying side by side for many laps until the finish lap. Chuck proved to be the top dog though, winning two of the three battles.

Chuck won the class in style, nearly sweeping it, taking five heat wins. Steve came in second with one heat win, and Paul took third. Howard took heat two wins but didn’t have any luck otherwise.
Darry 22, Howard 22, Rick 11, Gary 13, Steve 31, Chuck 35, Jordan 10, Paul 24.

Slot-it – Our class for any Slot-it brand car. These are endurance types, and they are fast, quiet, and very smooth handlers. Gary’s Ferrari 312 was crippled, so Steve lent him his Ferrari F40, which he has tried many times to get Gary to give a test drive. This may prove to have been a big mistake, as Gary would pull well out in front of the pack in just a few laps, but that greed-for-speed demon would pop up and he would wipe out in the lead. So beware if Gary gets one for himself.

Steve’s black Mclaren F1 won the class, taking four heat wins. Howard’s Jaguar XJR9 took second with one heat win, and Darry’s white Mclaren F1 brought home third with two heat wins. Rick took the remaining heat win with his red Ferrari F40.
Darry 22, Howard 25, Rick 16, Gary 20, Steve 34, Chuck 13, Jordan 21, Paul 16.

LMP – Scalextric’s LeMans Prototype endurance cars. These are the Porsche’s, Audi’s, and Peuqeot’s you see in the famous race. This class is a quick one and usually runs in a closely packed group.

Jordan bought one of these for himself tonight. A white and purple Porsche RS Spider. Since this class didn’t get drawn, we decided to go ahead and race it so he could run his new car. He was feeling pretty sure of himself, proclaiming to Gary that he was going to out race him. He didn’t quite do it, but he had tons of fun in trying. He got forth in two heats, which is pretty good for using a fresh-out-of-the-box car, and on only his second time to race at Gary’s too. I bet he will be back soon.

Paul took top honors in his Peugeot 908 with very consistent driving and three heat wins. Howard came in second with his silver Audi R10 and two heat wins. Rick was next in third with two heat wins. Darry won one heat too.
Darry 19, Howard 29, Rick 26, Gary 19, Steve 24, Chuck 10, Jordan 11, Paul 31.

Over-all score - For the nights over-all scoring, Steve bested the field with 143, followed by Howard at 129, and Paul with 127.
This makes Howard’s second time in just a few weeks to get second place over-all. Those Florence guys are getting tougher and tougher. I think he showed Jordan just what racing at Gary’s track is all about - Enjoying a good natured, competitive, and family oriented hobby.

Darry 100, Chuck 99, Rick 90, Gary 78, Jordan 74, Richard 14 (one class only).

Next week:
Gary said the track will be open next weekend, and he may do something special for the holidays. So don’t miss it and come on out and race.

Steve