Seven drivers turned up for our BTCC, GT and LMP races at our 325th event. It was great to welcome my old friend and fellow car and kart racer Merryl See Tai to his first FRC event as a competitor. We ran a Ferrari Challenge IROC race in which he experienced his first non-mag slot car racing.
When we turned on the Powerbase, we discovered that throttle port 5 was not producing any power, eventually leading to us removing the Powerbase from the track and opening it up to try to identify the reason for the problem. There was nothing visibly wrong, so we closed it back up and re-attached it to the track, resigned to having a maximum of five cars per race instead of six for the event. We did a little online research and discovered that others have had the same issue with various throttle ports, so we aren't unique. We have to overcome this new challenge one way or another.
The event itself went fine, with two races per class run, as well as the single IROC one, a total of seven races for the day. Racing was as competitive as always with some close times, however we also saw some incredibly fast times from a few cars, signalling that others have to step up their game to remain competitive.
We finally closed up shop around 7:30 PM after an afternoon of good fun.
A few pics to start things off:
Practice session in progress:
Peter and Ian marshalling IROC practice:
Merryl (second from left) having his first ever no-mag drive:
Ian and Peter look on as O'Brie and I open the powerbase to try to solve the controller 5 port problem:
The results
Scalextric BTCC
Scalextric BTCC race 1 grid - Gordon/MG6, O'Brie/VW Passat, Steve/BMW 330i, Ian/Honda Civic; Peter/BMW 330i:
Computer Scalextric BTCC race 1 results:
Scalextric BTCC race 2 grid - Gordon/MG6, Steve/BMW 330i, O'Brie/MVW Passat, Ian/Honda Civic, Keith/BMW 330i:
Computer Scalextric BTCC race 2 results:
GT
GT race 1 grid - Gordon/McLaren MP4 12C, Steve/BMW Z4, Ian/Nissan R90, Peter/Porsche 911 GT3, Keith/BMW M1:
Computer GT race 1 results:
GT race 2 grid - Gordon/McLaren MP4 12C, Steve/BMW Z4, Ian/Nissan R90, Peter/Porsche 911 GT3, O'Brie/McLaren F1 GTR:
Computer GT race 2 results:
LMP
LMP race 1 grid - Ian/Toyota 88C, Steve/Lancia LC2/85, Gordon/Toyota 88C, Peter/Oreca, Keith/Lola B09/60:
Computer LMP race 1 results:
LMP race 2 grid - Steve/Lancia LC2/85, Gordon/Toyota 88C, Peter/Oreca, Ian/Toyota 88C, O'Brie/Toyota GT One:
Computer LMP race 2 results:
(How this is computed: https://frcforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=393)
Congratulations to the winners.
Total Championship Points for 2024:
Next event's classes: Clubman, Slot.It Challenge, F1.
Don't forget to see the updated overall fastest times and the fastest no-magnet times by driver and class to know what the benchmarks are for your cars. Older stats can be found in the Archive area of the forum.
See you on the circuit...
Gordon
RACE REPORT #325 - September 7th 2024 (BTCCnm, GTnm, LMPnm)
Re: RACE REPORT #325 - September 7th 2024 (BTCCnm, GTnm, LMPnm)
Great race event as usual at FRC !
Nice to have Merryl show up and actually compete. Also great to see Mark show up, this time with a car that I was able to help him install a DPR chip. I'm not sure whether he did any laps with it though.
It's always exciting for me when new or new-to-FRC cars show up to race. Peter's lovely new GT Class Porsche 911 GT3 filled the bill here. It is a real looker and has performance to match !
Having more drivers than available grid spots meant that qualifying had to be done in two sessions for every race. We had anticipated this and it was no problem. One suggestion emanating from this is to reduce the qualifying time from five to three minutes. This is still to be decided on.
Qualifying was very close in some classes, suggesting that the racing itself would be also close. This turned out to be the case. We did have a surprising moment when the monitor screen seemingly exploded during the course of a race. Fortunately this did not affect anything else and the computer screen under the track still displayed all relevant information.
Congrats to Gordon on winning GT and jointly winning BTCC classes. Congrats also to O'Brie on taking Index Of Performance honours.
Looking forward to the next event !
Nice to have Merryl show up and actually compete. Also great to see Mark show up, this time with a car that I was able to help him install a DPR chip. I'm not sure whether he did any laps with it though.
It's always exciting for me when new or new-to-FRC cars show up to race. Peter's lovely new GT Class Porsche 911 GT3 filled the bill here. It is a real looker and has performance to match !
Having more drivers than available grid spots meant that qualifying had to be done in two sessions for every race. We had anticipated this and it was no problem. One suggestion emanating from this is to reduce the qualifying time from five to three minutes. This is still to be decided on.
Qualifying was very close in some classes, suggesting that the racing itself would be also close. This turned out to be the case. We did have a surprising moment when the monitor screen seemingly exploded during the course of a race. Fortunately this did not affect anything else and the computer screen under the track still displayed all relevant information.
Congrats to Gordon on winning GT and jointly winning BTCC classes. Congrats also to O'Brie on taking Index Of Performance honours.
Looking forward to the next event !
Re: RACE REPORT #325 - September 7th 2024 (BTCCnm, GTnm, LMPnm)
Even though there were Power-Base and Monitor issues at this event, noticed in almost every race ...
The screen pics showing all drivers (almost) on the same lap ... which was most likely very exciting
Too bad I missed out and hope to be present at the next event ... of course with God's Will
Post No. 2234
The screen pics showing all drivers (almost) on the same lap ... which was most likely very exciting
Too bad I missed out and hope to be present at the next event ... of course with God's Will
Post No. 2234
Re: RACE REPORT #325 - September 7th 2024 (BTCCnm, GTnm, LMPnm)
Would take more than a little power base or monitor issue to de-rail our racing !
Re: RACE REPORT #325 - September 7th 2024 (BTCCnm, GTnm, LMPnm)
That I know for sure Steve ...
Hopefully my 2234 post didn't make you feel grimy because sure you remember, who helped with your first Analog slot-car to Digital
At the same time ... what are you'll planning on with the P/Base & Monitor
Post No. 2235
Hopefully my 2234 post didn't make you feel grimy because sure you remember, who helped with your first Analog slot-car to Digital
At the same time ... what are you'll planning on with the P/Base & Monitor
Post No. 2235
Re: RACE REPORT #325 - September 7th 2024 (BTCCnm, GTnm, LMPnm)
Yep, you were the one that chipped the first car for me. Think it may have been an Audi R8 (actually Jono's car). It's still around, chipped and all ready to go but also in Its full magnet configuration in which it will stay.
Re: RACE REPORT #325 - September 7th 2024 (BTCCnm, GTnm, LMPnm)
Peter to the rescue and sounding like a great plan, plus good of you to reply Gordon.
Post No.2236
Post No.2236
Re: RACE REPORT #325 - September 7th 2024 (BTCCnm, GTnm, LMPnm)
Looking forward to having everything up and running again.
Re: RACE REPORT #325 - September 7th 2024 (BTCCnm, GTnm, LMPnm)
Looking forward to having everything up and running again.