Race report #227 - Thursday Feb 16th 2017 (RC, MC, SC)

[gordon]

RACE REPORT #227 - February 16th 2017 (RC, MC, SC)



The results



The rally competitors:










Crash involving five of the six Mini Challenge cars:


Hectic marshalling by Alex and O'Brie during one of the ten Mini Challenge 15-lap races:




Slot.It Challenge final starting grid:


... and the drivers about to do battle:










Congratulations to the winners.

Next event's classes: Class grouping D: Formula 1 (3 races), GT (3 races), LMP (3 races). 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 2015.

See you on the circuit...
Gordon

[steveaca]

Fantastic night of racing at FRC.
The actual racing was good and tight as usual but this night was made even more special by the participation of a few old FRC regulars but who, in recent times had become not so regular. These included Brent, Dougie, Arden and Luke B. These 'old hands' seem to have lost nothing in terms of driving skills in their absence ! Let's hope we continue to see these guys regularly at FRC events.
Looking forward to the next event.
Steve

[gordon]

Steve you forgot Alex!

[steveaca]

Gordon, I didn't forget Alex. Despite his somewhat diminished attendance, I would still consider him a regular ! Wish he would actually race more regularly though.

[Luke]

Indeed - a big turnout of drivers (such as RR above) will always be a very entertaining night of racing and if there were 2 more regulars in Keith and Peter added to this mix ... A total of 12 drivers - MC IROC would have been another groovy night like (Ramesh's B/D Celebration) last week Saturday ...

Anyone looking at the 5 pics must notice the level of warm and friendly togetherness shown on everybody faces and even though there is a hint of racing rivalry (3rd. pic) there are genuine smiles (5th. pic) after afterwards - on all faces.

I am really glad I wasn't in any of the pics because I somewhat had a jaded night and strangely from the time I reached at the Fairways guard booth. Maybe because of how I approached the booth.

The guard rail happened to be up, so with my peace of mind - I forgot and didn't bother to stop to identify myself as a visitor. Right away the guard came running out the booth alongside my car indicating to stop. Which I did abruptly and sent down the 4 windows. I thought this would have indicate my mistake but was still greeted somewhat aggressively and was asked if someone invited me here ..! I told him sorry for not stopping which I normally do and yes to Thursday nights at the Gonsalve's residents - just up the hill on the right. The guy's face still looked very unfriendly and asked if I am sure. I had on my new glasses at the time and held on to it asking if he not seeing right ... with him looking into the vehicle with my kit of slotcars in full view on the LS front seat.

He kind of cooled off and asked me to bring a beer when passing back - with a still harsh looking face. Told him he might get in trouble drinking on the job but he said it cool. I then asked him if he's sure ..?

Anyway - I said okay but softly mentioned make sure to hold your breath.

Suppose this all happened for the not so nice times in T&T and when one is driving around - will have to be on their guard constantly.

On top of that unwelcome situation - had to put up with the pick on me voices chipping my RC car ... Which really didn't bother me at the time but only until I ended up frying (believe it or not) a Slotlt chip in this same car.

However - this discomfort was all put behind and still try to make the the best with MC IROC racing.

Even though (for me) it wasn't grand victory with these cars ...

Noticed - out of the 10 scheduled races the winners were :

• Luke B. ...... 4
  Gordon ...... 3
  Ramesh ..... 2
  Luke ......... 1

Which is an indication of still trying to beat all you excellent 132 racing guys.

Nonetheless - hope this was a good read.

Luke

[gordon]

Sorry you had problems at the guard booth Luke. As you pointed out, it's a sign of the times.

Bad as blowing the chip was for you, yesterday I installed a brand new Slot.It SP15b chip in the GT car I'm prepping for next event and it wasn't working... dead directly out the box. I had one extra brand new similar chip only to find it too completely dead. At US$35 per chip, that's a bit annoying to say the least. I have to run some more tests on them later today. If I can't get any going I'll have to pull a working one from another car. Bummer.

Interesting MC win stats though.

[gordon]

UPDATE:

Tested the chips again and they're fine. Problem turned out to be a very weak 9v battery that's both much cheaper to replace and readily available. Thank goodness for that.

[RameshB]

Hi guys a pleasant week to you all. I had a very enjoyable night of racing and fellowship thanks for the company. Gordon on another note , i am still concerned about the calculations of champion driver of the night, its because of the MC amount of drivers, and the computer tabulates based on the amount of wins. My point is , I won the slot it , also won the RC and 2nd in the MC and did not get champion driver , if they were six drivers in MC I would have won CHAMPION DRIVER. I am asking about this so it can be looked at as a concern as i feel its not fair to anyone who gets into that senario.. I am not a sore looser it has nothing to do with my performance but the way the system is set up. If nothing can be done about it i am cool with it any way , its just my humble observation. See you guys after Carnival for fast classes.

[steveaca]

Hi Ram,
in my opinion, the current points system is a fair one and rewards the driver with the most wins accordingly. Looking at the results, you had a 7 point overall lead by the end of the second class raced. The last class raced had every driver competing in six races for a maximum potential points score of 54 points if all races were won. It turned out that Luke B., by his four wins and other placings was able to garner 10 more points than your two wins and other placings . I'm not sure that it is fair to say that you would have won the class if there were six drivers. If there were only six drivers, the results would have been completely different as the driver lineup would have been consistent for all races.
Steve

[gordon]

Guys, back when Frankie Boodram initiated the Carib Stock Car Series in 2000 he asked me to help out with the way things would be run and to come up with a points system. There were sixteen identical cars in each race so I thought that to be fair to everyone, the points system should be 16 points for 1st, 15 for 2nd, 14 for 3rd, etc. right down to 1 point for 16th. We ran 2 races at each of the 6 events that year, for a total of 12 races. After the final event for the year I had won 6 of the 12 races, Tanko Baboolal and Ravi Singh had won 2 each, Silbourne Clarke and Jimmy Fifi 1 each. Despite my 6 wins, Tanko ended the year with 1 more point than me because I had had a retirement during the year. Luckily we had a rule that only each driver's best 5 race days would count, so I won the championship by 4 points when this was applied. It was after this that I properly understood why points for higher placings are weighted in all motor sport competitions. With this experience, FRC's point system was set up to mimic the F1 world championship point system that was used from 1961 to 1990 - 9, 6, 4, 3, 2, 1 for 1st to 6th place. I modified it slightly to give 1 point to all places beyond 5th.

I did an exercise to see how the points for this event would have worked out had we used a similar point system to the one mentioned above for the Carib Stock Car Series and here are the results:



Here are the total points for each driver:



As you see, this change will still not affect the Champion Driver winner.