Race One, Here We Go!!!

I love it when people show up to race, no bullshit, no whining and crying, just throw the car out there and get it done. I love it. Too bad it didn't happen today.

Early in practice Champion accidentally yanked 2 of the 4 optical sensors out from under the start finish line, which pretty much killed the program we had in mind. So we shifted back to the old program of short races and short mains. We had to use a Micro Sizers timer, which was OK, but it meant that cars couldn't advance their fast times as the program moved along. This made some of the guys unhappy who tend to go faster later in the program. After quelling threats of Champion being lynched we got on with it. No new track records were set, as a matter of fact everyone's times were about a full tenth off what their earlier practice times had been. Here was the entry list:

#2M Pioneer Concrete, owned by John Champion and driven by Jose Mendoza.
#10 Casey Luna Ford, owned and driven by Pete McKay.
#10R Mobil1/Penske, owned by Paul Daigle and driven today by Sarah Nagura.
#11 Vivarin, owned and driven by Yoshi Nagura.
#23s Shoff Motorsports, owned by Yoshi Nagura and driven by Dan Yslas.
#27 7-11/Big Gulp, owned by Peter McKay and driven by Ray Yslas.
#67 Car Quest, owned and driven by John Champion.
#69 Kreitzer Excavating, owned by Martha McKay and driven by Carlos Mosqueda and Ron Campbell.

Interesting enough that is also the order in which the cars qualified. The cars were then randomly drawn into heats with lanes decided by drawing order. We ran three sets of 5 lap heats, points were given for finishing position, 1st place got 1, second got 2, and so on. After the heats were run the points were added up, and the cars were arranged from the lowest to the highest by heat points. The order was:

#10 - 3 points (Perfect on the night)
#67 - 3 points (Perfect on the night)
#11 - 4 points
#27 - 5 points
#10R - 6 points
#2M - 6 points
#23s - 8 points
#69 - 9 points

In the A Main it was #10 and #67
In the B Main it was #11 and #27 (two would transfer)
In the C Main it was #10R, #2M, #23s and #69 (two would transfer)

In the 10 lap C Main #10R and #2M transferred, and in the 15 lap B Main the #27 and #2M transferred.
For the A Main Jose (#2M) had first lane choice and took lane 3, I (#10) had second and took lane 2, Ray (#27) took lane 4 and Champion (#67) took the inside lane. There was a 10 minute cooling off period before the A Main, and during that time Yoshi filed a protest against the 2M car, citing possible illegal magnets. Champion and I did a visual as well as a Magnet Marshal exam of the car and found it met all of our specs, and the protest was dismissed.

The A Main was 25 manually counted laps, each car had it's own scoring spotter so the drivers pretty much didn't have to worry about counting their own laps. After three fouled starts Champion was sent to the back, causing more discussion until the rule book was pulled out and the matter decided. On the fourth start we got a fair start and ran 5 laps before two cars deslotted causing a caution. On the restart Champion jumped the field and was black flagged a lap, then promptly crashed out of the ball park and sat the rest of the race out. By lap 15 I had lapped the field with Jose in second and Ray hot on his heals. On lap 23 Ray and Jose tangled and we would have a green-white-checkered finish.

When the green dropped I was off, Jose leaned on Ray going into the corner hard enough they both bicycled up onto two wheels. One lap to go I was about to lap them a second time, they tangled again but stayed on the slots, and as I crossed the finish to take the win they both crashed in turn one. This immediately brought a protest from Champion that they crashed before I crossed the line and that another restart, according to the rulebook, would be needed and another green-white-checkers would be run. As I was still a lap up I went along, and on the restart again I was gone. This time Ray was wise to Jose's methods and backed off and let him sail past him into turn one and over the wall into the Christmas tree farm. I went on for the win, Ray finished second with Jose finishing third. After the race Champion AGAIN placed a protest, saying that since his car was off, and then Jose was off, that meant two cars were off and again we'd need to run a green-white-checkered. This time I put my foot down. Champion had dropped out, he could have resumed but voluntarily chose not to, he was no longer part of the event. There would be no restart on the promoters option. Champion smiled and knew he'd been had.

For the first time in a long time Yoshi and Champion did not finish in the top 3, Yoshi didn't even make it into the A Main. He had finished last in the B Main, which meant he was 6th on the night. 6th out of 8 cars, even his very pregnant wife beat him. John Mears didn't even show up, instead he chose to return to 1/32nd scale racing until later this summer. So it went, race one is in the books.

First, congrats on getting race one in the books guys and gals! Sounds like it was an "eventful" day at the track and with the cars, but at least the show went on!

Secondly, a HUGE thank you and props to Sarah for wheeling the #10R! Nice mid-pack qualifying and way to advance the team from the C-Main to the B-Main! No worries not making the A - I think the car is running good and any issues with it can be ironed out given what we learned from this race before race #2. Thanks for driving!

Thirdly, that has got to be the most green-white restarts I've seen in slot car racing! GEEZ guys! Kudos to Ray for finally figuring out Jose's tactics and letting him wreck out alone. We used to have a lot of this when I raced Indy/F1 night in 1/32 - those donuts go to rubbing and all sorts of people end up out. You had to constantly figure out who was on the inside of you and how they drove to make sure you could beat them into the corner or if you had to back off.

Finally, sorry to hear about John Mears heading back over to 1/32 racing. Always nice to have more racers at the track, but as long as he is back from the fall it ought to be all good.

Congrats guys and gals for getting this one in the books! Where is the next race - who's track is up next?

PD2

It was all in good fun. For the first ten minutes they had me second guessing because Pete had turned all of the wings backwards (tall panel on the inside) on the cars he controlled. Yoshi mumbled something about a hot set up and for a second, just a second, I was about to turn mine around too.

Then there was the unpainted 7/11 car that was supposed to be qualifying, but Yoshi claimed it had stealth paint and the timers wouldn't pick it up (the beam would shine through the body and not register it). Oh yeah, and the monstrous non-working controller that Yoshi made that had it's own batteries for "nitrous boost". It had a heat sink the size of a cell phone on it. Totally non-working though.

We had an evacuation for a yellow jacket that got in through a hole in the screen, it's amazing all the things a shop vac can be used for. And then there was the bug, not sure what it was, that made the mistake of stopping with feet on both rails of one lane and got a 12v send off.

But the racing was really good, the track was fast despite the slower times and the competition with the rookies were actually surprising. John will be coming back in two weeks after the regional and will take over for Sarah then. And I want to apologise for yanking out the timer lights, we had time to hot glue them back in but everyone decided to run without them. The next race is at Yoshi's 3/4th mile and there are no computer controls there for timing.

Would love to see a picture of the car in the Christmas tree farm!!

Sounds like it was a good night of racing.