NASCRC: Slot car acing on a mild February night

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Slot car acing on a mild February night

Race Report for Saturday, February 19, 2011

With mild temperatures outside, inside Fine Scale Hobbies was anything but as NASCRC held their weekly race on Gary and Margaret’s 6-lane road course. Tonight’s drivers were Chuck, Bruce, Steve, Paul, Darry, Joe, and Gary.

For tonight’s classes, drawn at random, were Trans Am, Vintage F1, Modern F1, Modern NASCAR, and Le Mans Prototypes.

Gary and Joe fought hard against the field of Mustangs and Camaros to take the top two finishes in the Trans Am class. After the dust had settled in the magnet-less Vintage F1 class, Steve had slipped and slided his way to a class victory. In the modern F1 class, Paul managed a class win with his soon to be raised higher Ferrari. Next, Steve was victorious in the modern NASCAR class.

We finished the evening off with the nimble and lightning fast Mans Prototypes. Having gotten off to a bumpy start earlier in the night, Steve had clawed his way back into contention for an overall victory if he could beat Paul in the final heat of the night. If Paul beat Steve by one position, a shootout for the championship would have been forced. But as fate would have it, irony reared her ugly head in the form of Joe, who having borrowed a Audi Diesel from Steve himself, took second place, edging out Steve by one position, thereby spoiling the championship for Steve by one point as Paul screamed across the finish line, capturing first place in the heat, which allowed him to take the nights points total by one thin point for the championship.

More Magnet-Marshall discussions cropped up after some members witnessed Paul picking up his Ferrari F1 from the track and the track rising with the car for an inch or so before flopping back down. Turns out, truing the tires time after time will lower a car, giving it a magnetic advantage. Paul agreed to change his tires but the future may hold a Magnet Marshall device for measuring magnetic down-force of the cars. All agree that such a device would be welcomed.

Gary said the track will be open next Saturday, so come on out and RACE!

You can now follow NASCRC on Twitter!

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About NASCRC

Welcome to the blogsite of the North Alabama Slot Car Racing Club. We are a 1/32 scale slot car racing club in Decatur Alabama. Our slot car track is housed and owned by Fine Scale Hobbies. Our slot car racing philosophy is that the bulk of the fun is the camaraderie shared amongst our members, followed by a slot racing format that is simple and accommodating to even the beginner slot car racer.

We race weekly and everyone is welcome to race with us and be part of our informal group of slot car racers.

Our Slot Car Racing Philosophy

Rules! We don’t need no stinking rules! I can almost see the cast of desperados from the movie “Blazing Saddles” saying this as they place their mod motored, magnet stacked, body slammed slot cars on the track. Obviously if we ran our club races using the attitudes portrayed above, our club would not last long.

“No-rules” racing would result in track supremacy by those that spend the most time and money preparing their cars. Not a bad thing if everyone had the same resources, skills, and determination, but we all don’t. Some don’t have the luxury of the time required to experiment and fabricate. Some don’t have the budget for all the possible mods that could be implemented on their stable of slot cars. Others may not have the tools or space for such. So, with some racers trying hard to find an edge, others would surely be left behind on the track.

Most of us, in our lifetimes, have seen various clubs or groups get destroyed by lack of, or even by too many rules. NASCRC’s goal has been to strike a balance that fosters and maintains the original atmosphere and camaraderie enjoyed by the club and appreciated by the track owners.

After opening their track, it didn’t take Gary and Margret very long to see that they had something special. Here was a place where a person unfamiliar with the hobby of scale auto racing, could walk in, buy a car and with some practice, be competitive with a veteran racer. This type of atmosphere is rare and refreshing considering today’s “win at any cost mentality”. What better approach to welcome newcomers to our hobby than to ensure that they too can race with us and even win. This attitude toward slot car racing has been good for the growth of our group as well as the survival of our facilities.

NASCRC Rules of Racing

Racing consist of two types of car configurations:Modified and Box Stock.

Modified Definition:

Anything goes! Run what you brung as long as it has an interior and driver!

Box Stock Definition: Other than exceptions listed, car must be raced as purchased.

Below is a simple guide to Box Stock.

Chassis – No modifications allowed.

Magnet – Only factory stock allowed. See exceptions below.

Flag and Braids – Must be factory stock for that car.

Motor – Must be factory stock for that car.

Gearing – Must be factory stock for that car.

Weight – Adding, removing or redistibuting weight is not allowed.

Wheels – Must be factory stock for that car.
Truing allowed as long as diameter is not changed.

Tires – Any black rubber tire may be used provided that the tires are a natural fit and do not require any modification to the wheel hub and/or tire. Only appropriate tire sizes may be used. Truing allowed.

Axles and Bushings – Must be factory stock for that car.

Interiors – Must be the factory interior for that car with no modifications.

Body – Must be factory stock for that chassis. Lowering not allowed. See exceptions below.

Exceptions:

Trans Am – Scalextric stock button magnet is allowed. Must be centered with and directly behind the flag.

F1 – Scalextric stock button magnet is allowed. Must be centered with and directly behind the flag.

GT40 – Scalextric stock button magnet is allowed. Must be centered with and directly behind the flag.

Vintage NASCAR (Carrera Only)– Body may be lowered. Rear bar magnet must be removed.

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Gluing of bushings, wheels, gears and motors, as well as truing of axles, wheels, and tires are allowed.

Cars may still be raced if they are missing or have broken exterior detail parts such as wings, bumpers, grills, exhaust, mirrors, etc, but a good faith effort to attached said pieces back onto the car would be appreciated.

By necessity, the rules are subject to further clarification in order to maintain the goals of our group as well as the needs of Fine Scale Hobbies.

A Lap Around Gary's Decatur Speedway

Gary's is a nice circuit and is well maintained. I really like racing on it and it offers good speed, some nice corners and elevation changes, and the car can really get up full song on the back straight.

You start out on the short front chute. You can get up to only about third gear before having to brake for turn one. Turn one is a sharp 90 degree left hander and leads onto a short straight where you set up for turn two, the Sherman hairpin. This one is tricky and catches lots of guys out who try to overdue it and pass somebody under braking. You do that and you end up with a close encounter with Mr. Sherman, if you know what I mean.

After the hairpin you have a quick right hander followed by another medium speed right hander. This is all 3rd gear territory until you head onto the straight. The straight isn't a straight per se as it has a kink in it, but it's the second fastest part of the track. If your car is set up with high down force you can pretty much keep it floored along the straight but if you're in a low down force configuration you may have to lift a bit for the kink. That's sort of weird though 'cause it means if you're set up to go slow you can go fast through there but if you're set up to go fast you have to go slow. Kind of a catch-22 if you know what I mean.

Once you get under the bridge and through the kink (or dig yourself out of the barriers) you head into the donut section. This is a quick left followed by a collection of right handers with a gradual increase of elevation. This complex can be deceiving because you can actually carry more speed through there than you may think. Lot's of guys do a "confidence lift" around there but it's where the really best car/driver combos can pick up some valuable time on the guys less familiar with the track.

After the donut there's a short blast across the bridge and then a right hander that leads into a nice 4th gear straight that sets you up for one of the most important turns on the track. As is the case with all race tracks, the most important corner is the one that leads you onto the longest straight. This track is no different. After the 4th gear straight you brake to go into what is sort of a hairpin, but it's not. It's a pair of 90 degree left handers but they have a very short straight between them. It's critical to carry as much speed as you can through the second part of the "quasi" hairpin because the more speed you carry through there, the faster you are all along the back straight.

The back straight is a top gear, full tilt boogie blast that gives your brakes a chance to cool off and gives you time to check your gauges. Only the cars with the biggest motors need apply here.

After you get done doing 200+ mph down the back straight you come to the last turn on the track, and it's very deceiving. It's well lit and wide open and you sometimes think you can carry more speed through there than you can. Of course you're carrying more speed into the corner than in any other corner on the track, so you have to brake a bit harder. If you wait too long to brake or if your brakes aren't up to snuff you end up punching a hole in the barriers. The only good thing is that you can spend the extra time it takes to dig your car out thinking of a story to tell your crew that will make them happy about all the extra hours they'll need to spend rebuilding the front end.

Once you negotiate that last deceiving left hander, it puts you back on the front straight for another lap. All in all it's a great track to drive for both the veteran and rookie alike.

I hope you come out to see me race some day soon. Take a walk through the paddock ("garage" for you stock car fans) and stop my pit area and say "hi". My guys are usually working on my car and do a great job getting it ready for the weekly races but they're more than happy to talk to the fans and hand out a poster or t-shirt or two.

See you at the races,

Speed Brakeless

NASCRC

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Saturday, February 19, 2011

Slot car acing on a mild February night

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