ForestRaceway

Hi Chris & Peter, Yes I should have posted the link earlier however I do intend to write up a race report (half written). For now the photo album is available here https://photos.app.goo.gl/KrY2vZXWu8QbMmKX7 Cheers, Wade

The 29th of June 2018 saw the 3rd running of the AMR Cox Cup. We managed a good turn out of 11 drivers and plenty of marshalls. It took some time to get the track clean and rubbered up, ready for racing as it is always better to ensure the lanes are as even as possible. However the track always seems to get quicker at the end of the race as more rubber is put down. The race consisted of 8 x 5 min brackets, so long enough to recover if you are involved in the odd incident (which is inevitable). This year Kym decided to run a Cheetah (instead of the Chaparral 2D) but with the team modified chassis. I decided to run the same car as last year, which uses a fixed gearing chassis. This year John teamed up with Alan and they proved to be a good combination. My car seems to be very well suited to the track and once again was the car to beat. This year Kym wasn't as quick as last year which meant it was a close battle between himself and team John/Alan, with Kym taking out 2nd place and John/Alan 3rd after Kym was very quick on the fast lanes and John/Alan had some bad luck with accidents on the straight (which are always messy given the high speeds and the bridge near the end of the straight). Lew took out a solid 4th ahead of BillD, Alby, Michael, Charlie and Bert. Both Rick and BillH had car issues during the race. So with my car having won the Cup three years running it is being retired. Thanks to everyone who attended, especially Charlie for travelling from Vic for the event. Wade

Hi Peter, Yes I have been a bit slack of late. The Cox Cup is on Friday 29th June 2018 - rules the same as last year. And the Adelaide GP is on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th of November. We still need to finalise the program. It is mostly the same as last year, except for the addition of the 50's sports cars using aluminium chassis (Revell, Monogram etc.) and Avant 21k motor. Full details to come. Cheers, Wade

Great weekend. Photos are available here https://photos.app.goo.gl/c8F1aFWZ8odSXkmj1 I will write a race report later on. Wade

Just a reminder that the 22nd Annual Adelaide Grand Prix is on again, this time from the 2/11/17 to the 5/11/17. Should be a big one with 6 coming over from Victoria. Program is: 2/11/17 Thursday Practice 7pm 3/11/17 Friday Practice 5pm Event 1 (Pan-Americana) 7pm Event 2 (55 to 60 Vintage Stockers) 8pm Event 3 (61 to 66 Vintage Stockers) 10pm 4/11/17 Saturday Swapmeet 1pm Practice 2pm Event 4 (Aus Touring Cars + Mini) 3pm Event 5 (FX/FJ) 4:45pm Dinner Break 6:30pm Event 6 (Tamiya Sports) 8pm Event 7 (Vintage Can-am) 10pm 5/11/17 Sunday Practice 10am Event 8 (Pre-34 open-wheelers) 12:30pm Event 9 (Tasman Cup 60’s F1) 2pm Event 10 (Adelaide GP 50’s F1) 4:00pm Event 11 (Concourse) 6:00

This year was the 2nd running of the Cox Cup. We thought the Cox cars deserved their own race, given they have been off the Adelaide GP program for some time now. The race is a little longer than our normal races, consisting of 8 brackets of 5 minutes each. With some cancellations we ended up with 8 runners for the 2017 Cox Cup. On a personal level, I had two cars to choose from - a Lotus 40 and a Cheetah (last year's winning car). After I did some small tweeks to the Lotus 40, it was running sweetly. It has more brakes than my Cheetah and thus would punch out slightly better lap times. I was nearly to the point of considering it when the motor moved and the gearing mesh got mucked up. This made my decision easy - the Cheetah it was. Kym (last year's runner-up) decided to run his Chaparral 2D with fixed gearing chassis. Entrants were: Alby - Cheetah BillH - Lotus 40 Charlie - Chaparral 2D (adj chassis) John - Lotus 40 Kym - Chaparral 2D Lew - Lotus 40 Michael - Lotus 40 Wade - Cheetah Given we race on lane numbers not colours, Bill decided to give us each a gloss roundall each, where the lane number was written on the roundall for each bracket. The system work really well. Onto the race and it was Kym out in front with Alby and myself not too far behind. I started quite conservatively, not having confidence to start with, running on reasonably new rubber on a slowish lane. Alby started well but had just a few too many offs to keep up with Kym and myself as the race continued. I then managed to claw back the couple of laps lost to Kym and when Kym was on the slow lanes, managed to get a lead of 9 laps. I then had to finish the race on the two slowest lanes. The penultimate bracket went ok, where I only lost close to 2 laps but in the final bracket, I was on lane 8 and Kym was on the fastest lane, lane 2, which he is a master at. I was in the position of being the hunted. Under the pressure of finding a comfortable but fast laptime, I came off twice and was losing laps fast but I managed to put in a reasonable stint at the back end of the 5 minute bracket and ended up holding the lead by 2 laps at the end of the race. Alby came in 3rd ahead of John, then Michael. Charlie hit trouble during the race and had to swap cars, but drove very cleanly with the 2nd car. Both Bill and Lew hit troubles. For Bill, he also had to swap cars and Lew had issues with his controller.

After the success of the inaugural running of the AMR Cox Cup last year, we are holding it again this year. So for your chance to get your name on the perpetual trophy come along in May: Adelaide Model Raceway Presents the 2nd running of the Cox Cup Sports Car Race for 1/24th Scale Cox Sports Cars May 26th 2017 Details Original 36D Cox Slot Cars Only Bodies available; Lotus 40, Cheetah, Ford GT40, Chaparral 2, Chaparral 2D Bodies can have replacement parts Choose from the fixed gearing chassis, adjustable gearing chassis or the ackermann steering chassis (16D chassis not eligible) AMR 24001 rear tyres only 36D can be modified internally No extra weight anywhere (body and chassis), although repairs are acceptable Race consists of 8 x 5 min brackets. Race starts at 8:30pm Perpetual trophy (no entry fee) Wade

FRIDAY NIGHT Pan-Americana Racing kicked off with the Pan-Americana cars running the Strombecker Devastator motors. These are always a good way to start the race weekend, being slower than most classes. Racing was close given the speed of these cars are closely matched and the racing was pretty clean. John and Kym was consistently quick, however I managed to get a 2 lap buffer going into the last bracket. Unfortunately at the start of the last brack a car came off and it knocked mine onto another lane. My sight of the track was then obscured and I lost sight of my car. When I could see the track again I couldn't find my car. I eventually spotted it and could start driving again. However John had caught up the two laps and we were at exactly the same point. We were only together for 1 lap though as he came off pushing a little too hard, giving me a small buffer until the end of the race. Kym drove a very clean race and was 3rd, 1 lap down. Kevin from Victoria took the fastest lap, ending up 4th. POS RACER LAPS FASTEST AVE 1 Wade 150 6.067 6.297 2 John 150 6.053 6.363 3 Kym 149 6.096 6.378 4 Kevin 146 5.952 6.491 5 Michael 146 6.112 6.476 6 Lew 141 6.162 6.682 7 Alby 141 6.145 6.733 8 Charlie 139 6.253 6.89 9 Paul 139 6.416 6.842 10 BillH 137 6.468 6.949 11 Bert 124 6.393 7.643 55-60 Stocker In this race my car started off lightningly quick on a slow lane. However unfortunately for me, Paul's car came off on the straight and I cleaned it up (see photo). The car drove but only just as it deslotted on most corners with the chassis locked up against the body so I managed to get my spare and ran that. With Kym just out in front, it was going to be a very close battle for 2nd place with Alby, until my spare too smashed into a stationary car, braking the front mount and ending my race. Although reviewing the plot Alby looked to have had 2nd place wrapped up anyway. Kevin drove a clean race to take out 3rd. POS RACER LAPS FASTEST AVE 1 Kym 237 5.570 6.008 2 Alby 236 5.527 6.081 3 Kevin 234 5.755 6.097 4 Wade 224 5.563 6.181 5 John 222 5.789 6.463 6 Charlie 221 5.910 6.449 7 Lew 212 5.996 6.737 8 BillH 205 5.999 7.019 9 Michael 202 5.767 7.026 10 Paul 202 5.859 7.148 61-66 Stocker I nearly missed this race due to family commitments but in the end could race it. I once again drove my freakishly good AMT Ford Galaxie, which took a solid win. Kym had a close battle with Michael to take out third. POS RACER LAPS FASTEST AVE 1 Wade 253 5.328 5.675 2 Kym 245 5.393 5.818 3 Michael 243 5.533 5.886 4 Alby 240 5.537 5.961 5 Kevin 237 5.535 6.04 6 Lew 230 5.737 6.21 7 Bert 214 5.785 6.728 8 Charlie 211 5.78 6.755 9 John 208 5.265 7.099 10 Paul 201 5.922 6.601 11 BillH 181 6.091 8.282 12 BillD 86 5.799 6.593 SATURDAY After a quick swapmeet at 1pm where there was plenty of parts and cars to buy, we had four classes to get through for the Saturday. Aus Touring Cars In this class you need two cars to compete; a pre-73 Australian touring car for 6 brackets and a mini for 2. This is a class that Kym has dominated over the years. I've tended to go with my Porsche running a Plafit chassis which has great cornering ability however this year the tyres were so grippy they started to ball up. As a result I decided to use my Plafit 1300 1970 Mustang - a car that in the past has never run well but bizarrely ended up being quite competitive. I also upgraded the motor in my mini from a Cheetah to a mini-brute and this improved the overall lap time. Kym ended up having issues with his main car and dropped back a little. BillH ended up driving really well with a car prep'ed by Kym (an AMT '70 Camaro) and he took out 2nd. Unfortunately no plots for this race. POS RACER LAPS FASTEST AVE 1 Wade 248 5.371 5.790 2 BillH 242 5.334 5.928 3 Kym 241 5.350 5.940 4 Lew 239 5.427 5.978 5 Michael 235 5.292 6.094 6 Kevin 229 5.602 6.244 7 Alby 228 5.167 6.256 8 Charlie 226 5.485 6.410 9 John 226 5.619 6.153 10 BillD 222 5.785 6.431 11 Paul 215 - 6.637 12 Bert 207 5.648 7.013 FX/FJ Sunset Challenge The FX/FJ class is quite a builder's chassis class. With the car limited to 103 grams, narrow tyres and the small (but powerful) Mabuchi S motors it is a challenge to get a car to go well. I seem to have a car that is now well sorted and it won with some ease, with Kym 2nd and John just pipping Alby for 3rd. Notably John's car actually runs a wooden chassis. POS RACER LAPS FASTEST AVE 1 Wade 244 5.514 5.868 2 Kym 232 5.523 6.193 3 John 224 5.711 6.419 4 Alby 224 5.822 6.41 5 Lew 223 5.909 6.388 6 Kevin 223 5.906 6.459 7 BillH 219 5.663 6.58 8 Bert 212 5.973 6.742 9 Paul 211 5.912 6.781 10 BillD 210 5.887 6.891 11 Charlie 202 6.017 7.087 12 Michael 189 6.395 7.381 Tamiya The Tamiya cars generally drive really well at AMR, however they are always a challenge to get the tyres just right. There is not much margin before the diameter reduces and the gear touches the track. Unfortunately this is what happened to my car. It started off really well, admittingly on the fast lanes however when it got to the slow lanes it was having issues and deslotting. Kym drove a much cleaner race to take the win. Lew also drove a very clean race to take out 3rd, with Bill not too far behind. POS RACER LAPS FASTEST AVE 1 Kym 249 5.410 5.739 2 Wade 244 5.242 5.893 3 Lew 241 5.466 5.929 4 BillH 239 5.452 5.99 5 Michael 237 5.396 6.052 6 Alby 234 5.519 6.179 7 Kevin 232 5.458 6.175 8 Paul 230 5.704 6.231 9 Charlie 221 5.480 6.538 10 Alan 166 5.922 7.331 Can-am The Can-am cars rounded out the Saturday's racing. We all had Russkits except for Paul, however he ended up changing the car to a four wheel drive Russkit for the race. Kym has always had fast Russkits and this year was no exception. He took an easy win with his Chaparral 2. In fact he took out the most laps for the race, of all of the classes for the weekend. Michael drove well to take 2nd and Kevin third. I had a shocker but was never really in the hunt. My car used a 26D which I think just doesn't cut it in a Russkit chassis. Time to soup up a Russkit motor or go with an old 16D (as the motor cans and endbells must be vintage). POS RACER LAPS FASTEST AVE 1 Kym 259 5.106 5.506 2 Michael 248 5.176 5.606 3 Kevin 243 5.346 5.916 4 Wade 238 5.281 5.947 5 Bert 232 5.579 6.141 6 Charlie 226 5.493 6.348 7 Paul 224 5.503 6.218 8 BilJon 224 5.677 6.479 9 Alan 221 5.455 6.537 10 Lew 147 5.042 6.619 Pre-34 The Pre-34 class is becoming the pinnacle of scratchbuilding for the Adelaide Grand Prix weekend. Many cars with hand-built front steering and some with hand made balsa bodies, they all represent significant hours of work. Unfortunately mine wasn't ready (same state as last year) but I was more than happy to watch the race - they are a great sight on the track. It was clear early on that Charlie, last year's winner, wasn't driving clean enough to be out in front. Michael, who didn't drive well for the first couple of brackets, got it together and managed to put in some very fast and consistent laps. Kym, who missed last year's race but was probably the favourite going into the race, had some big offs/slow marshalling but in the end didn't quite have Michael's pace. John would have been able to vy for second but had a mechanical issue which brought him back to 4th. Lew had a clean race and took 3rd. POS RACER LAPS FASTEST AVE 1 Michael 151 5.805 6.261 2 Kym 148 5.936 6.444 3 Lew 146 6.073 6.490 4 John 146 6.106 6.393 5 Max 142 6.043 6.731 6 Alby 140 6.310 6.745 7 Charlie 138 6.066 6.889 8 BillH 138 6.406 6.903 9 Bert 137 6.286 6.851 Tasman Cup (60's GP) This year I replaced the 26D in my Russkit GP car with a slightly better 26D and the car felt strong. However I hadn't setup the rear axle well and in the 2nd bracket the car chewed up the pink parma gear (something I didn't think was possible given how strong they are) and I had to run my spare for a short period. Luckily I had the next 3 brackets off where I could replace the gear in between marshalling and the car was back. The car was quick however I came off a couple of times and the car was difficult to marshall so it would lose quite some time each time. Going into the last bracket, Kym was ahead by half a lap and on a slower lane and I managed to take the lead and keep it (having the slight advantage by being able to read the computer whilst racing). Kevin who wasn't far behind took out third. You'll notice in the photo this year that John Ward's Brabham was included. This was for a mark of respect given John passed away 3 years ago (thanks to Kevin for bringing it). John loved both 60's and 50's GP races. POS RACER LAPS FASTEST AVE 1 Wade 246 5.306 5.828 2 Kym 246 5.341 5.817 3 Kevin 240 5.329 5.966 4 John 239 5.430 5.958 5 Lew 237 5.328 6.015 6 Alby 236 5.594 6.065 7 Charlie 229 5.720 6.243 8 Bert 227 5.802 6.297 9 Paul 219 5.779 6.576 10 BillH 191 5.448 6.399 11 Michael 184 5.460 6.523 Adelaide Grand Prix Heat (1 min brackets) On to the 21st running of the Adelaide Grand Prix. Eleven entrants presented cars the 50's front end steering GP cars and we ran a tense 1 min x 8 bracket heat in order to obtain 8 entrants for the final. Alby showed his car was quick this year taking out the heat. I wasn't far behind and John third. Unfortunately Paul and Max just missed the cut, with Bill having a mechanical failure to also put him out. POS RACER LAPS FASTEST AVE 1 Alby 82 5.369 5.737 2 Wade 81 5.410 5.865 3 John 78 5.577 6.081 4 Michael 76 5.715 6.176 5 Kevin 75 5.621 6.445 6 Charlie 74 5.882 6.401 7 Lew 73 5.762 6.429 8 Kym 71 5.582 6.621 9 Paul 70 5.824 6.593 10 Max 69 5.792 6.679 11 BillH 8 6.312 6.312 Adelaide Grand Prix Final On to the final, and I managed to get an early lead with Alby having a few offs to start with. Kevin starting out very cleanly to not be too far behind with Charlie in third place, starting on the fast lanes. Then in the 2nd bracket Alby lost a wheel however Bert managed to get it back on in good time, only losing 20 secs in the process. This gave me a buffer to the top qualifier, with an aim of staying out of trouble, although Kevin wasn't far behind and Kym was always a threat. Given the bumpiness of the track this year for lanes 7 and 8 I took it a little easier on those lanes. Kym, who would normally be vying for the win had loads of issues, losing many laps with a car that was difficult to marshall. Alby showed during the 15min mark whilst on lane 4 that he was fast enough but with too many offs/incidents he ended up having a very tight battle for 2nd place with Kevin who drove very cleanly except for his stint on the slower lanes. In the end Alby was only a couple of metres ahead of Kevin, for the 2nd place. John who is normally a very consistent driver was fast enough to be vying for the 2nd place, also had too many incidents and dropped back to 4th. POS RACER LAPS FASTEST AVE EFFICIENCY CRASHES 1 Wade 252 5.347 5.688 6.383 1 2 Alby 243 5.316 5.888 10.751 9 3 Kevin 243 5.479 5.903 7.736 6 4 John 234 5.457 6.091 11.622 9 5 Kym 232 5.335 6.084 14.047 9 6 Michael 228 5.646 6.301 11.599 11 7 Lew 226 5.673 6.302 11.096 3 8 Charlie 224 5.782 6.396 57.181 8 AGP History Here's the complete known history of the race. Still some results lost over time. Note the first race was done using laps per bracket. We changed over to timed brackets around 2006. Concourse The race weekend ended with Brian (who marshalled all weekend) to vote concourse. He picked cars that he identified as desirable from his youth (Brian raced real cars when he was young). He picked the Mercedes 300SLR, Brabham GP, Jag e-type. Thanks to everyone who attended, we really want to keep this yearly event going for as long as possible and it only happens because people are enthused enough to join us. Special thanks to Kevin, Charlie and Paul for coming over from Victoria. It makes for a much more special event when it is also a good chance to catch up with friends you see once a year. It was Paul's first AGP event and I could tell he was excited and captivated by the event like I was the first time I joined in. Please contact me if you want to join us for 2017 as we definitely welcome new faces.

Just a reminder that the 21st running of the Adelaide Grand Prix is on the 11th/12th/13th November 2016. It's a full program of ten races spread over 3 days, for 1/24th vintage and scratch-built slot cars. Race program Friday Night Event 1 : Pan-Americana, '48 to '54 Event 2 : Vintage Stocker Race, ’55 to ‘60 Event 3 : Vintage Stocker Race, ’61 to ‘66 Saturday Day, through to Night Event 4 : Historic Australian Touring Car Championship + Mini Event 5 : Sunset Racing Shells FX/FJ Sedan Challenge Event 6 : Tamiya Sports Car Race Event 7 : Vintage Can-am Race Sunday Day Event 8 : Pre-1934 Open-wheelers Event 9 : Tasman Series Race Event 10 : 2016 Adelaide Grand Prix Event 11 : Concourse Message me if you want further details. Wade

Nice to see some inter-club action (I still think this sort of race meet should be in the special events section, not club racing but I've given up trying to get that changed). When there are spreadsheets available for the races here in SA I often generate the plots of the race (using some python code I have written). Given that someone posted the spreadsheets of the times means I could generate the plots for round 1. The plot shows how far a car is in time (at any point in the race) from the winning average lap time. This means the winning car can go above and below this average time but will end up at the 0 sec point at the end of the race. I found it to be the best way to convey a race. At any point in the race you can see the current positions and how far away they are from each other (in time). Note the software doesn't consider the delta laps at the end of each heat so if the cars are brought back to the startline, then there is a small error in the results. Part 1 Race Part 2 Race Wade

Unfortunately there is a major issue with getting the magazines as Gregg is having issues with the printer, who is withholding the remaining copies of #4. They were distributed to other dealers but it looks like it might be some time before I'll be able to get some copies. I'll inform everyone when I have an update. Wade

For those unaware, there is an excellent slot car magazine available. http://www.slotcarsmag.com It is produced in the US, very much in the style of the 60's slot car magazines. It is a very professional, high gloss, colour magazine covering both scratchbuilt and ready to run cars (1/24, 1/32 and some HO). However it hasn't taken off in terms of sales as well as Gregg, the publisher, would have liked and he needs more of us to support it for it to survive. He is now at the crowd funding stage in order to continue, however he has managed to just get issue #4 out. http://slotblog.net/topic/68949-scm-issue-4-is-finally-here/ Note anyone can write an article for the magazine. So if you think having a real print magazine (slightly more angled to the scratchbuilding side) for our hobby is worthwhile, now is the time we need to support him. I have spoken with Gregg and am looking to do a large order and then distribute them within Australia to make them more accessible. Issue #3 is available and hopefully issue number #4 will be available as well (issues #1 and #2 are no longer available). The magazines will cost $AU17 delivered but I am hoping to be able to deliver the 2 issues together for $AU30. So if you are interested please PM me (with your email address) as soon as you can. Thanks, Wade Farrell

Hi Chris, That is John Clift's car - I believe it is a Sunset Bodies copy (although I'm not 100% certain of this). Wade

The Adelaide Grand Prix 2015 didn't go quite to plan. The ebb and flow of things meant we had a number of people who couldn't make it. The most notable was Rob Richardson, who passed away from a heart attack far too young. Rob first attended the Adelaide Grand Prix in 2014 and was super keen to attend the 2015 event. His immediate affection for the event reminded me of my first event back in 2003. The magic of building and racing vintage slot cars with like minded others, in a very creative space such as Adelaide Model Raceway, is a great experience that I aim not to miss. Rob was a wonderful fit for our group. He was very friendly and also creative with his slot cars. He was and is still sadly missed. Now many others also couldn't make it, Lew, Kym, Harry, Kevin and Ged were all cancellations for various reasons. With Kym not running meant that the racing at the pointy end wasn't going to be as intense. We still had many good races however. For many of the races we had a mixed number of marshals (between 2 and 5 during the race meet, where 3 to 4 are the required number). Thanks goes to Jim, Yoshi, Dennis and Graham for various marshalling duties over the weekend. Without these guys the event would have been compromised altogether. Racing was kicked off with the Pan-Americanas. With only 7 runners we decided to run 3 min brackets. Cars were a little faster this year, breaking into the 5 secs. Michael and I had a tight battle at the front with John not far behind. POS RACER LAPS FASTEST AVE 1 Wade 227 5.897 6.32 2 Michael 224 5.961 6.384 3 JohnC 220 6.04 6.478 4 Charlie 215 6.102 6.653 5 Alby 211 6.264 6.77 6 BillH 187 6.254 8.117 7 Bert 183 6.48 7.912 The 55 to 60 stockers were next. I ended up with loads of trouble. I thought my car was faulty but it ended up being my controller (broken wire) and I lost lots of laps. Although having the faster car (my car has always been a rocket) the race was in the end extremely tight with John and myself on the same lap. I only just managed to take the win by a couple of seconds, will BillD only 1 lap down to take 3rd. POS RACER LAPS FASTEST AVE 1 Wade 226 5.592 6.33 2 JohnC 226 5.404 6.348 3 BillD 225 5.876 6.374 4 Alby 222 5.691 6.289 5 Charlie 215 6.025 6.623 6 Michael 208 5.639 6.841 7 BillH 206 5.884 6.887 The 61 to 66 stocker class. My AMT Ford Galaxie has been the car to beat for some time and it dominated again this year. For 2nd and 3rd, the two Bills had a very close race. Bill H was using Jim's old stocker to great effect, just pipping Bill D for second. Both Charlie and Bert had failures which killed their races. POS RACER LAPS FASTEST AVE 1 Wade 249 5.344 5.757 2 BillH 238 5.622 5.988 3 BillD 238 5.614 5.935 4 Alby 235 5.616 6.097 5 JohnC 231 5.745 6.185 6 Bert 111 5.744 6.537 7 Charlie 34 6.183 6.876 On the Saturday, Alan H joined us and we had the highest number of entrants (9) for the weekend. The Australian Touring Class is a fast class where we run a Mini for 2 brackets and any Touring car for the other 6 brackets. It was a tight race between Michael and myself. I took the win with my Porsche 911, with Michael just 1 lap down in his Mustang. Time to build a new Mini to take on Kym next year, as he is usually the one to beat in this class. POS RACER LAPS FASTEST AVE 1 Wade 245 5.359 5.825 2 Michael 244 5.426 5.869 3 BillH 233 5.375 6.072 4 Alby 232 5.592 6.168 5 Charlie 219 5.704 6.491 6 BillD 218 5.704 6.551 7 JohnC 214 5.802 6.702 8 Alan 211 6.066 6.708 9 Bert 190 5.747 7.792 For the FX/FJ race we managed to have the perfect number of 8 runners. The race was increased to 3 mins for this year given the reduced number. My car ran well and was well out in front. It was a good race for 2nd though with Alby beating the two Bills by a narrow margin. POS RACER LAPS FASTEST AVE 1 Wade 237 5.562 6.054 2 Alby 218 5.873 6.664 3 BillD 215 5.814 6.202 4 BillH 213 5.99 6.724 5 Michael 200 5.947 7.112 6 Charlie 199 6.273 7.132 7 Bert 161 6.225 9.562 8 JohnC 16 6.576 8.265 With only 4 runners for the Tamiya race, we decided to run on 4 lanes of the 8 lane track (3 min per lane). My car was a joy to drive and a little quicker than the rest of the field. Michael struck trouble early and missed out on the podium, with BillH 2nd and Charlie 3rd. POS RACER LAPS FASTEST AVE 1 Wade 128 5.283 5.554 2 BillH 121 5.472 5.88 3 Charlie 112 5.584 6.427 4 Michael 106 5.597 6.897 With 6 runners for the Vintage can-am race and only 2 marshals, we decided to run on 6 lanes (3 min per lane). With only 2 marshals, drivers had to marshal two spots close to their station. My car was running on its front tyres too much and deslotted a few times near the bridge on a bump. On the last bracket I had to make up 4 laps on Michael. He was on the lane 7 and I was on lane 2. I just caught up with 10 secs to go but one more marshal event in the closing seconds meant second place. Well done to Michael for taking the win and Alby for a solid 3rd. POS RACER LAPS FASTEST AVE 1 Michael 186 5.206 5.787 2 Wade 185 5.170 5.803 3 Alby 180 5.597 5.94 4 JohnC 171 5.764 6.216 5 Bert 160 5.444 6.68 6 Charlie 24 5.861 15.73 Onto the Sunday and for the first time we had 3 open wheeler classes on the one day. This was because of the introduction of the pre-34 class, primarily due to Rob's enthusiasm for the event. This class allows both grand prix cars and also American stock cars, as long as they are open wheelers. The rules specify narrow AMR tyres, single magnet motor and front steering. The reason for pre-34, is that after 34 the body styles changed with the influx of the Auto Union and Mercedes cars. The pre-34 cars appear to all have a verticle or near-verticle front grill. With the grand prix bodies very scarce, it is a real scratchbuilders class. Also given the huge variety of body styles of that period, you can effectively design your own car (the car doesn't have to be a replica). I had grandiose plans of building a balsa wood body but ran out of time during the chassis building stage, given I was also building the steering out of brass (like some of the others). So we had 6 entrants for the race with a nice variety. Notibly, Michael made actual wire wheels for his car (check out the photos). In not racing, it was great to be a spectator. It ended up being a very entertaining race to watch. Charlie had the quicker car but wasn't a consistant as John. It all came down to the last bracket, both on the same lap John was catching Charlie but uncharacteristically he pushed too hard at the end of the donut and came off. The car actually left the track but will still operable. However this incident left Charlie to take the win by 1 lap. POS RACER LAPS FASTEST AVE 1 Charlie 109 5.72 6.536 2 JohnC 108 6.165 6.544 3 BillD 102 6.491 6.906 4 Alby 97 6.569 7.324 5 Michael 93 6.103 6.937 6 Bert 90 4.71 7.007 The 60's GP cars were next. This proved to be a very close race between myself and BillD. I took the early lead but had a couple of bad incidents in the 6th bracket which gave BillD the lead but only just. I then managed to just claw back the lead. We were together on the lead lap in the last bracket and I only just took the win. John started well (on the same pace as BillD) but had mechanical issues which dropped him down to 4th. POS RACER LAPS FASTEST AVE 1 Wade 248 5.333 5.750 2 BillD 248 5.367 5.740 3 Michael 241 5.468 5.926 4 JohnC 236 5.527 6.014 5 Charlie 228 5.431 6.238 6 Alby 227 5.515 6.237 7 Bert 214 6.024 6.636 8 BillH 199 6.369 7.087 Onto the big race and with reduced numbers (7 entrants) meant there was no need for a qualifying race. This year saw a change in tyres given the 24004's are no longer available. Unfortunately some cars were still running the older tyres but with so few runners I wasn't going to omit anyone. My main car didn't make the starting grid as it just violated the 1/8" chassis clearance (thanks Dennis) given the difficulty in running the new tyres with a chassis built for the old tyres and also after some spirited practice wore the tyres lower. So I got to run my just finished Maserati 4CLT (a John Bacon copy of the Merit body I've had for many years but decided to build it this year). Onto the race and Alby was quick to start with, running on the fast lanes, he took the lead and kept it for 3 brackets. However he struck mechanical trouble in the 4th bracket and never recovered. This meant I took the win reasonably confortably in the end (although it never feels comfortable with these cars). Charlie who took 2nd would have been a lot closer but had a shocker on the last bracket on the slow lane 7. John had a relatively clean run to take the final podium spot from Alby. Given Alby's fastest lap, if he didn't have trouble it would have been a close race between himself and myself. POS RACER LAPS FASTEST AVE 1 Wade 241 5.421 5.941 2 Charlie 234 5.657 6.158 3 JohnC 229 5.643 6.214 4 Alby 227 5.407 6.569 5 Michael 217 5.846 6.651 6 BillD 217 5.504 6.866 7 BillH 216 5.813 6.487 At the end of the racing we held a concourse for 3 classes. Everyone voted once for each class. For two of the classes we ended up with joint winners Sports Cars: BillD and Wade Sedans: Charlie and Michael Open wheeler: Michael So for being the 20th year running it was a bit of an "off" year, we had a smaller weekend than normal however the race is still going strong and the numbers should be stronger in 2016. It was still a fun weekend with lots of humour as always, especially when Charlie is in the room. I look forward to seeing everyone again next year and hopefully any new-comers. For more photos, see: https://picasaweb.google.com/108763121651542889768/AdelaideGrandPrix2015

So there are essentially 3 tiers - National - State (inter-club) - Club but of course it is quite grey (some state events attract national competitors, some club events are big events for the club, attracting other people). Wherever this info is placed I hope that it isn't too distributed - for instance this is why I tend not to place single event notifications in the club racing section, where many people wouldn't bother looking. Here is a list of the remaining SA (and 1 Vic) events, that I know about, for this year (in chronological order). I'm sure others are interested to see what's happening. Some of the events and even the tracks themselves have never been posted on auslot. SA: 2016 W.A.R. Group C Race - 1/32 Slot.it Group C - 1/24 BRM Group C SA: 2016 FPR Slot.it Teams Enduro - 8 teams of 4 race, 16x10min brackets day/night enduro SA: 2016 AMR Cox Cup Sports Car Race - 1/24th vintage slot car race Vic: 2016 Hopetoun Model Raceway GT Challenge SA: 2016 FPR Adelaide F1 Championships - Inaugural event (1/32 and 1/24 scratchbuilt) SA: 2016 BRM National Championships - 5 classes of 1/24th scale BRMs - Held at FPR this year SA: 2016 AMR 4 Heures du mans - Pre-71 1/24th Lemans cars - 8 teams of 3, 4 hour enduro SA: 2016 SSCR Lemans Race - pre-68 MJK chassis 1/24th Lemans cars - 6 lane 1/24th scale track - 6 teams of 4, 4 hour day/night enduro - Annual event, been going for about 15 years or so. SA: 2016 AMR Adelaide Grand Prix - 21st running of Australia's premier vintage slot car meet - attracts interstate competitors - runs for 3 days Across Adelaide I suspect there are about 40 tracks so it is somewhat fragmented. With our hobby being so obscure, it can be hard to get numbers. So the more we publicise these big events we have the more we show that this is a great hobby to be apart of. Most of these races are annual events that tends to get entrants from different groups across Adelaide. My vote is that this info should be in the special events section and not buried/scattered as it is now. Maybe it should be called "Racing" which then breaks down to the 3 tiers. Wade