We had a small turnout for our final 2022 event, with just Steve, O'Brie and Keith joining me for our scheduled classes, Vintage Sports GT, Vintage Sports Prototype, Kitbash and American Pony car. Since we never got the Vintage Sports classes run to complete last events schedule, I thought we'd take up where we left off, so we did these two classes from Class Group A, followed by the first two classes of Class Group B.
There was quite a bit of car practice and testing done before starting our first qualifying session at about 4:15pm. We ended up running four three-minute quali sessions and five twenty lap races, two of the latter in the case of Vintage Sports GT. Everyone had the usual good time both driving and liming, despite the ID-setting device apparently giving up the ghost (all the lights were just flashing), necessitating pulling out the old powerbase and power supply to set IDs. The other issue was that, despite turning off dynamic braking in the new SSDC race management software, all the cars were getting dynamic brakes, making driving them a very jerky affair. There were also a few occasions when the software unexpectedly turned brakes off for the odd car, ending in an inevitable de-slot.
I'll be looking into these two issues, the first probably requiring getting a new ID-setting device from Sweden, the second hopefully by updating the C7042 Powerbase firmware. Lastly, there's definitely been a reduction in interest in slot car racing in the north (at FRC anyway), so I'll do a separate poll to try to get feedback from past regular attendees to see whether there are changes I can make to attract them back. Maybe we can also invite friends and family who might find the hobby interesting and challenging like we do.
The results
Vintage Sports GT
Computer qualifying results:
Vintage Sports GT race 1 grid: My Cobra, Steve's Porsche, Keith driving another of Steve's Porsches and O'Brie's 250 GTO:
Computer race 1 results:
Vintage Sports GT race 2 grid: My Cobra Daytona, Steve's Porsche 911, O'Brie's E-Type Jaguar and Keith driving another of Steve's Porsche 911s:
Computer race 2 results:
Vintage Sports Prototype
Computer qualifying results (Keith's fastest lap of 0.871 was not a valid time):
Vintage Sports Prototype grid: My Ferrari 330 P4, O'Brie's Ford GT MkIV, Keith driving Steve's Ford GT40 and Steve's Alfa 33/3:
Computer race results:
Kitbash
Computer qualifying results:
Kitbash grid: Steve's Mustang GT350, O'Brie's Peugeot 205, Keith driving Steve's Ford Sierra and my NSU TT:
Computer race results:
American Pony Car
Computer qualifying results:
American Pony Car grid: My Dodge Challenger, Steve's Mustang Notchback, O'Brie's Camaro and Keith driving Steve's Javelin:
Computer race results:
(How this is computed: https://www.frcforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=393)
Congratulations to the winners.
Next event's classes: To be announced.
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
Track Electricals, Lane-Changers, Power-Base & ID-setting Device ... 
