Race Report #143 - Thursday 26th September, 2013

[gordon]

RACE REPORT #143 - September 26th 2013

Six experienced FRC drivers provided a full grid for each of our Lambo Series, Restricted GT and Slot.It Challenge races. As usual, the well-matched Lambos produced some very close racing, with four drivers sharing the top spot in the six races. In RGT it looked like it would be a Luke walkover with his pole-sitting Honda NSX, but after wins in the first two races, he faltered, opening the door to challenges by the others, Steve's Audi R8 GT1 being his biggest threat. Nonetheless, as the final points showed, racing was very close and competitive in the class. My Toyota 88C was clearly the fastest SC car, but this was no guarantee of a class championship win, with challenges coming from Arden's Mazda 787, Nicholas and Steve, all of which shared the top spot on the podium over the five races.

During the course of the evening we completed seventeen races - six LS, five each for RGT and SC and, because everyone was having such a good time, a final SC "fun" race. Some of the guys stayed on afterwards and drove a bit longer and by the time everything was packed up and I was ready to hit the sack, the time was 2:00 AM!

New Lap Records

• Slot.It Challenge - 5.420 sec (Gordon, Slot.It Toyota 88C)

The results





















Congratulations to the winners.

2013 Overall Class Points Update







Next event's classes: Ferrari Team Challenge - 6 races @ 25 laps, F1 - 5 races @ 35 laps. 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 2013 Class Points Standings..

See you on the circuit...
Gordon

[Luke]

Hey Gordon,

What in the world are you doing to get a next SC lap record for the 5th. consecutive time in 2013

Race Report Nos./Times ~ 119/5.704, 125/5.649, 131/5.569, 137/5.526 and now 142/5.420

Could it be the testing you told me about with diminishing returns which is causing this phenomena ~ Remember now - that line is going to get straight. You think anyone understood what I just wrote about

Nevertheless your slot car skills was well executed..!

BTW - what kind of times the Power Base dont record again

Luke

[steveaca]

Another great night of racing at FRC. Congrats Gordon , on that new SC lap record as well as on winning the Lambo and SC classes and taking the overall win !
Looking forward to the next event.
Steve

[arden100]

Gordon,

I have to protest!

Your rules state stock magnet for RGT!

Competitors are not running stock magnets. I am running standard 1.5mm magnet in my McLaren which is also countersunk. Yet everyone car is sticking like glue. That is not possible with standard magnet or lower tyres unless there is no light between chassis and track like my NSR.

We are not racing on a level playing field. Points should be deducted and persons demoted to last place.
We have issues when persons use loopholes yet the rules are broken and nothing is being said!


Arden

[steveaca]

Hi Arden,
I think the choice is yours if you want to race a car that comes with a 1.5 mm magnet, but as you have quite correctly stated, the rules allow the standard magnets to be fitted. I'm not sure which competitors you're writing about but in my case, Jonathan's Audi R8 which I race , model no. C3134, comes with a 2.5 mm magnet. You can verify this by checking the specs. on Electric Dreams site .Other similar models with different liveries are also fitted with the same magnet.
Steve

[gordon]

Arden,

When I first got my McLaren MP4 12C, the stock 1.5mm magnet was ridiculously ineffective, especially when compared to other (primarily Scalextric) cars in the class. For this reason I installed a 2mm magnet which made the car competitive in RGT. When Ramesh first saw the car run he alluded to the fact that it could not have a 1.5mm magnet installed and I realised that, based on the written regulations, I had to reinstall the 1.5mm magnet to be legal. After doing this the car became totally uncompetitive again, as expected.

I then went to great ends (and some expense, but that isn't important) to make the car as low as possible whilst remaining legal in the class. It in fact has reached the point where the stock 1.5mm magnet currently installed is too strong and is slowing the car, especially in traffic. (The car - or more specifically the magnet box - is very, very low and almost touching the track rails, just like your NSR.)

Having said that, everyone knows that I prefer lower magnet downforce over higher and therefore tend to prefer the IROC classes and our other low-magnet (or no-magnet) classes. But I also like to be competitive and to win, so I try to do whatever I can to achieve these legally.

So, that's my position in RGT. I know that mine is one of the very strong-downforce cars to which you may be referring, but my car is running the stock magnet. Interestingly, I see the Scalextric website now showing my car as having a 2.5mm magnet:

http://www.scalextric.com/shop/cars/roa ... en-mp412c/

So does this mean that I can now legally install a 2.5mm magnet?

I still believe that for the fairest magnet-racing we need to do two things:

1. Set an upper downforce limit for each class along with a 1mm minimum ground-clearance and police these with the Magnet Marshal and a 1mm plastic strip.
2. To be extra fair, either have a box of regulation-spec motors which are pulled from a box by each competitor and installed at the track, or allow engine-claiming using the replacement value of any motor (plus say 10%) in question.

Gordon

[Luke]

Steve, Thanks for the info - The Scalextric (Item# C3134) Audi R8 comes with a 2.5mm magnet which you race in the RGT class.

My only concern on inspecting your Audi R8 chassis - was so much hot glue required to hold down a stock 2.5 magnet in its original position?

Back to you.

Luke

[steveaca]

Hi Luke,
I haven't touched the Audi since we raced last Thursday. I'll bring it with me to the next event to have it re-scrutineered.
Steve

[Luke]

The 2nd. time for scrutiny‎‎ gone Steve... Remember

Dont worry, the time for scrutineering will come again - how 'bout @ the next RGT event if you win again and in F1 (next event) then thats the car to check.

[steveaca]

Luke, I can tell you from now that my F1 car will not need to be checked. It has proven in the past to be consistently among the slower cars and I doubt that's going to change now !
Steve