Round 9 - Manx Rally - Part 2

[slotcarmann]

Hi folks

 

I must admit I am hooked on the proxy rallying as well. Tremendous fun and some very nervous nights waiting for the results.

 

I have no one, single, logical explanation as to why some cars went well on a track in one direction and relatively poorly in another. But one of the factors on the Manx Hill Climb was that the undulations and off-camber parts are slightly different and caused real problems for some cars, like No. 66, for example, which had 10 offs in 7 laps , even with one of our top drivers on the controller. Others suffered badly too, including Alexis, but the Aussie contingent seemed to thrive on it...!

 

I can't reconcile how my car was 25th on Rd 8, following a win at Wolverhampton, and up to 3rd (and only a whisker of top spot) in Rd 9. No idea why it was so poor in Rd 8. Such is life and proxy slot rallying.

 

Cheers

Dave

[alexis in greece]

So far we've had 7 different winners from the 9 rounds run,

 

That's what makes this proxy a huge success

 

the pressure is now all on him to maintain his lead.

No pressure at all,I never had expected this outcome,look at my other proxy cars,except IPS,they are from dead last(RAA) to midfield at best.It seems that trying to tune various stock SCX cars paid off.

 

With 4 rounds still to go, there is still a chance to catch Alexis, albeit a slim one,

 

Dont forget that i was:

-17th at Wolves,if Jons track has anything in common thats what to expect and

- 14th at R3,Luffs Targa,if it has anything in common with Grahams tracks then i'm doomed.

Then at R4 reek was 1st with a 17 point margin from second and 20 from me(3rd) which vanished at R5 where got the lead with a 5 point margin.Nothing is over until it's over

[slotcarmann]

Hi guys

 

I have sent Jon a message asking if he is ready to go with Round 10 and if he is ready for the cars yet. I can send them out on Saturday, after the final photo session.

 

Cheers

Dave

[Garyw1960]

Well done to all the winners and also rans. This series is amazing, I have had podium places and 2 last places, will have to get the plastic track out to see what's going wrong! I can text Jon if you like as I think he is on holiday according to his facebook status. Best regards Gary

[slotcarscrapyard]

Just to echo the above, thanks for the huge effort everyone has put in so far.

 

I'm another one now hooked on proxy racing and I have learnt alot watching this one so I hope to have a more competitive car built for the next one. With some proper testing carried out before the start.

This years car was pretty much chucked together with a quick blow over with paint and at the time the only scx 4wd that I had bought.

So alot learnt, still looking forward to the last few rounds and I'm really enjoying seeing the battles for the top placings!

[Mohawkk]

Big thanks to all. Congrats to the pointy end

Wow 2nd in the first stage is awesome, then back to where i belong

gotta love proxys

[Graham Lane]

In view of the withdrawal of the Norwegian and Danish rounds I propose a slight change of plan.

 

If I put my track up in the local sports hall as used for the Mini Mille Miglia I can run two stages there - the two-lane section and the complete track - then run two more stages at Brama - their four-lane Ninco and their two lane Ninco rally track. What do you guys (and gal) think?

[snurfen]

That's a good suggestion Graham, I'd give it my vote.

[slotcarmann]

I'm with Angus on that one.

 

Not sure why the Scandinavian rounds are off, but it's a great shame.

[alexis in greece]

That makes, if i got it right, a total of 4 stages,which is too much for 1 round and too little for 2 rounds,if some of the stages can be run in reverse direction then,if Graham is not bothered by 1/1 life obstacles,we could have 2 rounds in Italy.I could also investigate

running 2 rounds(we could run the 2 stages reversed and the red-internal-lane of our Ninco 4 laner that we use as superstage) in Athens to compensate for the 2 lost Nordic rounds and save time.

[slotcarmann]

I'd forgotten you needed 3 stages per round - I'm not sure Jon has realised this, hope he will reply after his holiday, as I still have the cars.

 

Another option, as I still have the cars and won't send them out until I know Jon is back home, if there are any further problems, is another round in the Isle of Man.

Edited August 23, 2012 by slotcarmann

[Ember]

It's not a matter of needing 3 stages folks. It's only a recommendation. A serving suggestion, if you will. Refer Round 2 at Craig's Minto Park.

 

In fact, I think you'll find Mel is only planning one round on Mt Salt Panorama, but it'll be a very long enduro run.

Edited August 23, 2012 by Ember

[slotcarmann]

OK, thanks for the clarification Embs.

[Graham Lane]

Reckoning on three hours per stage I see no reason not to run four stages here. It's up to the others how many stages they want to run - two, three, four, or even two separate rounds as Dave has done. I wouldn't want to do two rounds with a total of six stages with my other 1:1 commitments though. The two rally tracks at Arezzo beckon though...

 

 

 

Ninco, always Ninco.

[alexis in greece]

Nice tracks,i wasnt aware though that Ninco produces a rally loop.

[Graham Lane]

Oh absolutely, Alexis. Check this out We have a pair at Brama.

[slotcarmann]

Graham

 

I think you'll find you may need more than 3 hours per track. Total running time per stage for the 42 cars (3 stages per round) for us was about 4 hours, including warm-ups, problems, photos etc. Plus extra for breaks. That was based on around 2 and a half minutes per track for an average car.

 

Cheers

Dave

Edited August 23, 2012 by slotcarmann

[Graham Lane]

So, you're telling me you did two rounds of three stages each and each stage took 4 hours so 24 hours of rallying altogether!

 

Arggh! That's a marathon Dave! No wonder people are so appreciative of the hard work put into these rounds. Still, I'm looking forward to it.

 

 

Edited August 23, 2012 by Graham Lane

[kidvoltage]

And that's the reason we chose to run our event over three different days. It's supposed to be fun, not a job. Have a good time with it. Those are some nice looking tracks. Even for Ninco.

[snurfen]

Haha well done Dave, you caught your hours/minutes mistake - was going to ask "What was he doing? Burying the cat?"

 

I think we took about 8 hours in total for Round 5, but that included building and dismantling the tracks. And fixing two cooked motors and some loose wheels.

 

**EDIT** sadly, kidvoltage, I live 50 miles away from the club, so I had to do it in one hit. It was great fun! Would do it again this weekend if I had the chance.

Edited August 23, 2012 by snurfen

[Graham Lane]

And that's the reason we chose to run our event over three different days. It's supposed to be fun, not a job. Have a good time with it. Those are some nice looking tracks. Even for Ninco.

 

What do you mean 'Even for Ninco'? Ninco is fabulous track. OK, it's a bit grippy but you can buy the white slippery stuff for snow, and beige stuff if you like lumps and bumps. There are some superb track sections too. Unlike routed track you can change it around every club night, and we do. Having said that, my track is SSD and routed MDF.

[gazza]

Generally, the idea of a proxy race is to get the most out of the car entered, in as fair and even track time as possible.

 

Nominally 8min has been the min time frame for each car, but as we are dealing in laps, this is usually done by working out a fastest lap time and adjusting the total laps to suite.

 

The 8min min minimum is the race time, not the total time the car is on the track ie warmup time and testing time does not count in the overall time, and as in any event there is always slight hiccups and major problems, some can be fixed instantly others take a little longer, some cars perform well on that track others not so, all adds to the total time of the event

 

As with an ever increasing field of cars, running the whole field in one hit is a bit daunting and not to entered into lightly, so it is usually split into a number of "stages" with the total time for each car being accumulated and the lowest time after the final stage the overall winner.

 

If a track host feels that they can accomplish entire round in one stint that is fine, but not encouraged, we have run a full round a while back, in total it took 14 hours to finish and by then we were sick of slot cars for quite a while, not to mention the RSI. eg 42 cars x 8 min = 336 min, that's with no gap between car's and every car doing exactly the same lap times, add say 4 min each for cleaning tyres and braid plus warm up that's 504 min, that's nearly 8 and a half hours straight and that doesn't include running repairs to the cars ..... wheels loose (glue back on) braids fouling, bad pickup, motor problems, track problems (try and find that damn screw), timing problems, controller problems, food breaks, toilet breaks (hopefully taken separately) and as said that's assuming all the cars run exactly the same times.

 

I encourage hosts to have at least 2 or 3 marshals, and at least one official "car warmer upperer" who warms the next car up while the designated driver has a short break., leak, coffee, finger exercises.

 

Generally it's best to have the person who owns and knows the track the best doing the driving as we try and get the best out of the cars at every track and not to find out who's the best driver of a particular group.

 

It's all about the cars ........

[Graham Lane]

I hope all is well with Jon (ferraif40) Grainger for the next round. He hasn't posted here on Auslot for two months! It's Saturday and the Round 10 thread hasn't been started either. Perhaps he's too busy finishing his track, as Dave said.

[Ember]

He's not been sighted for awhile on Slot Car Builder either.

[Graham Lane]

I checked SFI and he posted on there just a week ago, so I guess he's OK.