Fairways Racing Complex Forum

RACE REPORT #224 - December 3rd 2016 (FLH)

FORMULA LIBRE HANDICAP SPECIAL EVENT 2016

Twelve drivers participated in our year-end Formula Libre Handicap special event. We had a really large number of cars on hand and of these, fifty of them did qualifying runs. Here's Ramesh's stable for the evening with their IDs being set:





Results

Following are the times for all cars that did qualifying runs:


After the computer hashed through the fifty qualifiers, the final race entries were computed based on qualifying times, group A being the fastest six, group B the next fastest, etc. Cars with times below 5 sec were excluded and duplicate drivers in each race were removed, resulting in a final schedule of six actual races. The first race would be 100 laps and race laps were reduced by 10 for each subsequent race. We also treated the qualifying positions as full point-scoring races to reduce the likelihood of drivers sandbagging.

Here are the final qualifying positions with each race shown in reverse starting order for handicapping purposes. The "Gap" column is the number of seconds after the start car that each of the following cars were released. If during a race any car did a quicker time than 95% of its qualifying time it would be demoted to last place. This time for each car is shown in red:



The first race run was a Ferrari Challenge for marshals:




Qualifying points "race" results. These are the points given for all qualifiers that made the grid:




Cars were all started from the pit lane in reverse grid order at varying handicap intervals:


Handicap race results. In all but the first race we had one non-starter:









Drivers pose for a pic before one of the handicap races:


Luke B and Peter:






Congratulations to the winners. Unfortunately we basically ran out of time and were unable to run the final two races. A special mention must be made of Dion's performance in his Boss Mustang which was running well and being driven very well when it lost a wheel. He was able to repair it and rejoin the race but his result did not reflect his very controlled yet well-measured driving in the race.

This special event closes off the FRC race calendar for 2016. It was a good year of racing with 19 events run after a late start in early March. In total, 24 drivers faced the starter, not a bad number for the year. Now we just need to get most of them racing at each event in 2017!

As usual, don't forget to see the updated fastest times for the FRC classes to know what the benchmarks are for your cars, the updated class average qualifying times and the updated fastest times for 2016.

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish everyone and their families a Merry Christmas and all the very best in the coming year.

See you on the circuit...
Gordon

Whew ! What a race report Gordon. I'm getting tired just reading it !
Fantastic afternoon/evening at FRC, despite the early showers. As expected, the variety of cars on display and in action was quite something to behold. For some drivers,free practice before qualifying was very instructive in helping to decide which cars to actually qualify as they had too many on hand to qualify all. In my own case, my qualifying times were all slower than my predicted times by 0.5 (Porsche 911 GT1) to 0.8 seconds(Bill Thomas Cheetah). Practice and qualifying times were closer to predicted times with some other cars which were not actually raced.
Driver turnout for the event was very encouraging, with the likes of Luke B. and Peter (hopefully to be more regular participants) showing up for the main event and newcomers Naresh , James, Keith and Bethany in the supporting Marshal's race. The old, regular suspects of Gordon (naturally), Luke ,Ramesh, O'Brie and myself, as well as recent regular Dion completed the field. Missing unfortunately were the likes of Boo, Arden and Alex.
Racing was as exciting and enjoyable as expected. The 'ole talk' and liming in between, as well as the lovely food so generously provided by Ramesh and special chow provided by Luke made the event even more special.
Congrats to the winners of the various races and to Gordon on taking the event's overall victory.
Looking forward to racing (with new regulations in some classes) in 2017.
Have a very Merry Christmas and a happy,peaceful and productive New Year !
Steve

I always remembered how exciting the very first FRC racing event was April 2009 ...

When each driver's race results was called out and points were written down on a sheet of paper for a final total. Plus, who could of have figured out back then, that racing slot-cars would have reached this far in 2016 with such technical programming and interesting racing results ..?

Now, although I didn't spend the entire Saturday night of racing with you guys (my sincere apologies to all) because I had to leave so unexpectedly ... My daughter and myself still had a very enjoyable and entertaining time at FRC's 224th. racing event. The overall racing plans was well organized but was a bit fast and furious at the start - me trying to qualify what cars I had digitally ready on my display board of slot-cars.

I even noticed how, when a person walking pass the house and (it's not the first) looking in - had an amazed look on there face. Probably wondering (not seeing from that angle of the road) what could be so entertaining on that neat looking huge table for those people to be enjoying themselves ..!

However, every feature of the event (Practicing - Qualifying - Intermission - Racing) was worth the time for all (5, 6, 7 & 8 sec. lap times) stages of the racing competition. Also with every aspect of the evening - everybody made such strong contributions - making it yet another very recognizable FRC Event ..!

Anyway - from what I experienced with this method of racing, varied lap times and with different models of (sedan/saloon type) slot-cars ...

I truly believe the only direction for this form of racing and for any person wanting to easily compete is ~ UPWARDS

A special thanks to all for 19 race days in 2016 and God's blessing in 2017

Strange enough - did anybody noticed there's exactly 19 slotcars on the front straightaway

Luke

Fixed the Formula Libre Handicap ( Q) grid starting positions. The computer automatically inserts the finishing place of the previous class race as the start positions and I missed this in the hurry to get the race report out. This has also affected the Index of Performance result which I've also fixed. Race points were not affected.

Fixed some of the tabulated info above to show the correct cars.

OK. I noticed that my Porsche 911 GT1 seemed to appear in a few races !

HI guys around this time of the year we try to close up a lot of jobs thats in the shop plus a lot of functions to attend so it has been quite a buisy time but all is well.. I am firstly responding to the handicapp event which was very enjoyable and intresting. Coming out of that event i spoke to Gordon briefly about developing ASR suited for a class like this. Thanks to all who came out and supported in some way Congrats to the winners.