What's Coming.

I'm always one to look ahead. This time I'm trying to look far enough ahead that whatever decision I make regarding the sanctioning body I'm currently President of is not only in the best interest if its members but the hobby itself. The CSRA has a total of 28 members, all but 3 live in California, and more than half live within an hours drive of Fresno. Those 16 race irregularly, but they do race, and we all stay in contact nearly constantly. I have been President of the CSRA for 3 years, and for the CCRA which the CSRA spun off of for 18 years before that. I had been an officer in the Western World Championship since 1984, so for the last 25 years I have been very active in local area HO slot car racing. We are a small club but we make big decisions regarding what we do.

Last year we lost a good racer in an accident that nearly cost me my life as well. This year we welcomed a new member with the birth of a beautiful baby girl to Yoshi and Sarah. It's a trade off, one that I'd rather not have to make but I never, ever second guess the decisions made by God. I still find myself longing for James' friendship each time I hear the cooing of that baby girl.

The Pancake Outlaws was a great choice for a series, and even with just 8 drivers/cars we have been having a blast. The decision to have a single car per person may not have been the best one but going back to the 1980's we have allowed up to 6 cars per driver and had huge 25 and 30 car fields, and the programs ran extremely long. Sometimes starting in mid afternoon and running well into the evening. This series is a third of the way done and will wrap up on July 25th, and then we will take some time off before we start again on August 8th.

The coming series will be the longest in the CSRA's history, and the second longest in any series I've been a part of. Consisting of 25 races over the end of 2009 and into early 2010, we will race every Saturday, including Halloween. Each driver will be allowed 3 cars, fields will be limited but those limits will be adjusted as the season progresses. We have 2 tracks at our disposal and Yoshi and I will be building what we call the ultimate T-Jet short track, which will be even smaller than Sequoia Speedway. The "Ultimate Bullring" will be named James Hicks Memorial Speedway in honor of our fallen driver.

The cars we will use will be the more than 40 year old Thunderjet 500, or commonly called the T-Jet. This car is now available as a new build vehicle, and many original cars are out there for less than $15 a running chassis. We have specified a wheel and tire set for these cars to make them handle a bit better and bring some equality to the series. Road Race Replica's wheels, either the steel wheels in choice of color or the slots in chrome will be allowed, and the drivers may also use the even better white letter tires available from 3R. Other chassis related items such as Mean Green armatures, aftermarket guide pins, motor brushes and pick up shoes, will also be allowed. A chassis claiming rule will be in effect however, and you must race against the car, and lose during a points paying main event, to post the $50 claiming fee to the driver. The body will not be part of the claim.

The bodies will be from a single source. This way we can absolutely judge how they are supposed to sit on the car, how much they weigh and what they look like. The DASH body has long been favored and they were the only real choice. These cars will be:

'60's Sedan (possibly an early Fairlane)
Racing Camaro
1960 Chevelle
Falcon
Galaxie
1965 GTO
1970 Olds 442
1968 Road Runner

All cars MUST have the windshield and back window glass in place, side windows may be removed at the owners options. Any factory installed bumpers will also be required, nerf bars may be added to the bodies as long as they do not exceed maximum width restrictions. You may also model a through the hood air cleaner and add a rear spoiler not to exceed 1/8" in height. You may NOT change the ride height of the body but you may add tire clearance not to exceed 1/16" where necessary. No body may be lightened and all will be inspected with templates developed for this series, just like contemporary NASCAR cars experience.

The dealer we recommend for all parts and pieces for cars to be built for this series is JAG Hobbies (http://www.jaghobbies.com/ho_slot_cars/slot_cars.htm). While my experience with Jag is limited they have everything needed to build a car in stock, and they come with a very good reputation for delivery and customer satisfaction. The estimated cost to build a stock car, that is one that is ready to race but has no performance equipment, is $27.89 plus delivery. Mean Green armatures are available for between $5 and $7.50, motor brushes are $2.00 a pair, and other items like long guide pins are only a few dollars here and there. You can very quickly build a car equal to the claiming value so choose your parts carefully.

If anyone has any questions about this class, suggestions or other comments, please post them here (membership is required) or email me. We have time to allow some variances in these rules, but everything must be written in stone by the end of July.

FYI - Dash is selling RTR cars with some of them being the bodies you mentioned above for $15.99 or less at their website! I know that some are the AFX cars, but there are some that are RTR with the T-Jet chassis. Great base to start before upgrading!

http://www.dash-motorsports.com/shopping/index.html

Just thought I'd help. Great series coming up Pete! I like the name of the bullring and definitely a good memorial to Mr. Hicks.

PD2

OK, there have been some additions and substitutions to the list. In the name of "fairness" and availability we have allowed resin cars into the list. The list allows American made 2 door hard top sedans only.

So here is the nearly complete list of allowed bodies.

FORD MOTOR COMPANY

Fairlane (Dash/JL/3R), Marauder (MEV), Falcon (Dash/3R), Galaxie (Dash/MEV/3R), Mustang (JL/MEV/3R), Cougar (3R/JL/AW), Torino (3R/AW), Cyclone (3R) and Starliner (MEV).

GENERAL MOTORS

Camaro (Dash/JL), Firebird (JL), Chevelle (Dash/JL/MEV), GTO (Dash/AW), Olds Cutlass/442 (Dash), Riviera (3R), Biscayne (MEV), Bonneville (MEV), BelAir (MEV), Impala (MEV), Catalina (MEV), Nova (JL/MEV) and Wildcat (MEV).

MOPAR

Road Runner (not Superbird)(Dash), 'Cuda (JL), Charger (not Daytona)(JL/MEV"66"/3R), Challenger (JL), Dodge 330 (AW), Belvedere (MEV), Polara (MEV), Savoy (MEV), Coronet (MEV), and Dart (MEV).

"All bodies must have front and rear glass in place. Cannot be lightened, must be resin or injection molded plastic. Only modifications permitted are to wheel wells to allow 1/16" tire clearance. Stance, ride height, or rake may not be altered. A rear spoiler not to exceed 1/8" in height may be added but may not exceed the width of the rear bumper."

"Numbers must be placed on each door and on the roof with the number oriented with the bottom towards the driver's side of the car, and must be readily visible. All other decals are entirely at driver's option."

"Road Race Replica Steel or Slots are required. See other class rules regarding optional white letter tires."

"350 Class: May not have any performance motor modifications, must have OEM armature, magnets and motor brushes and springs. Axle gear may be changed but all other gearing must remain stock. Long guide pins are permitted but must be plastic only. Pick-up shoes and springs may be aftermarket and performance variety. Only black sidewall 3R tires permitted, compounds will be verified."

"The 350 Class has a $30 claiming rule. See comp rules and regulations for a full explanation of this rule."

"427 Class: No person may enter a 427 Class car without also entering a 350 Class car. This class allows for Mean Green armatures, Polymer magnets and performance motor brushes and springs to be installed. Gearing may be machined, lightened or otherwise modified but remain in OEM locations. Guide pins may be aftermarket pin type only, no blades, and may be made of plastic or metal. 3R White Letter Tires will be permitted in this class."

"The 427 Class has no claiming rule."

"Maximum width permitted is 1 5/16" with a maximum allowable offset of 1/16"."

More to come.

Drop all the Trans Am cars: The Camaro, Firebird, Mustang, Cougar, Road Runner, Cuda and Challenger.

I'd say also drop the Falcon, it's just not a good race car with its short wheelbase. The Road Race Replica Riviera is not the best of his line, drop it too.

Expand the line to allow the newer Chevelle from Auto World, I believe it's a '72 but it would be a nice variation from the '66/'67. And then allow the '72 Monte Carlo from 3R, it's one of his better molds.

Check to see if MEV is even still in business, last I heard he wasn't. Either way his prices are way out of wack for the quality you get. Drop his entire line just on cost principal. That will give you this:

FORD MOTOR COMPANY

Fairlane (Dash/JL/3R) Galaxie (Dash/3R), Torino (3R/AW), and Cyclone (3R).

GENERAL MOTORS

Monte Carlo (3R), Chevelle (Dash/JL), GTO (Dash/AW), Olds Cutlass/442 (Dash), and Nova (JL).

MOPAR

Charger (not Daytona)(JL/3R) and Dodge 330 (AW).

The two classes are keen but drop the claiming rule and put the $5 protest rule back in place. It'll still keep everyone honest and won't
drive off those of us building really good cars that are legal just to have some jerkwad lose on purpose to claim the car.

I reserve the #11 (Mario's '67 Daytona Fairlane) and #14 (A.J.'s Copenhagen Olds, this time a 442) in exchange for a 2 car sponsorship.

Drop the Nova then too because it rides way too high or allow it to be lowered. Mine looks like a 4X4. The Dodge 330 is an early 1960's model so I'm not sure if it's going to fit the theme, early NASCAR.

Possibly on the Nova.

Right now here is the entry list of cars either already built, being built or planned:

#00 Vel's Ford Fairlane (Champion)
#2 Deppe Enterprises Dodge Charger (Yosh)
#3 Holly Farms Dodge Charger (Yosh)
#8 10,000 rpm Speed Equipment Dodge Charger (Yosh)
#11 Bunnell Ford Fairlane (Champion)
#12 Coca-Cola Chevrolet Chevelle (Rental)
#13 Smokey's Garage Chevrolet Chevelle (Rental)
#14 Copenhagen Oldsmobile Cutlass (Champion)
#21 Purolater Ford Torino (Me)
#68 Bob's Auto Clinic Ford Galaxie (Me)
#95 Terminal Transport Ford Fairlane (Me)

With the exception of the #68 Galaxie all of the cars are either JL or AW bodies. All will use Patto's decals to you can visit his site and see what the decals look like. We have 11 cars already and I expect a few more as time goes on. With opening up the AW and JL bodies it reduced the price to build a car to about $25.

Wow Pete, you really want to go with a Galaxie, eh? I thought you might consider it a "curse" and would steer clear of it. Just messin with ya bro.

NICE, short, focused list of car guys! I like it! Sounds like an update to the Fairgrounds type racing.

PD2

I had the Galaxie from the old LSMR days, and it is one of the fastest T-Jets I have. But each "new" car is going to have a new chsssis and be built up from the ground up. The Dash Galaxie is heavier than, say, the JL Torino because it's modeled after the original MM cars with the interior so that might even help traction.

Yosh suggested we call the new series "Legends of NASCAR"...possible.

Now those are some interesting points. I'm sure every body adds it's own characteristic to the overall handling of the racer, so this ought to be interesting to see which car becomes the dominate racer.

I remember when I raced at the local 1/32 track that would happen all the time. As different cars came out the guys would check lap times and see if a particular car's body and chassis was better than the current track leader. Sure enough, every time this happened you would have an entire field of the same car. Got to the point that guys would have to repaint their cars just to distinguish which car was theirs. LOL

"Legends of NASCAR".....hhhmmm......maybe "Legends of Stock Cars"...the ORIGINAL racers!

PD2

Legends of Stock Car would be a better deal, I'd have for Mr. France to send his goons to my door wanting me to write them a check.

The interesting thing is we have guys like Mario's 1967 car and Waltrip's 1975 car schemes being applied to cars of the chosen period. And A.J.'s Olds from the 1980's as well. I didn't impose a year limit on the paints but maybe I should have to keep it all within a reasonable period. So maybe decal themes from 1976 or older will be allowed, that way we don't have a Jimmy Johnson Memorial Day car applied to a Chevelle. And by the way, that decal sheet is OUTSTANDING. I just got it to do a couple of NASCoT's and he rendered it perfectly.

OOOO! A JJ Memorial Day NASCoT?!? SWEET!!

I hate limiting people on their creativity too, especially when they are customizing their own car. But in the spirit of things, maybe that would be a good thing for this race?

PD2

John Champion said he would abandon his Copenhagen plans for a different car, as yet undecided. So we're going with the 1962-1972 car paints. We've also talked and decided on class is enough, allow Mean Green's but not Polymers. And allow the sticky 3R white letter tires too. Easier to tech that way.

Dropped a new Mean Green and a set of brushes and springs into the DASH Galaxie tonight and set a new record for T-Jets at Sequoia of 2.61 seconds, bettering the old record of 2.69 seconds. I then swapped bodies from the Galaxie to a primered JL Fairlane body and dropped it even lower to 2.59. This is on standard 3R rubber, the kind that comes with their steel wheels. I have one set of white letter rubber that I'll try out tomorrow but I need to do some tuning first. The old record was set by a JLTO with a Dash Cobra body on it, that car will be getting it's Torino body next week.

Ran laps with a brand new JLTO using a '68 Torino body and 3R Narrows and clocked a 2.16 second backed up with a 2.18. All laps were under 2.22.

The 3R narrows fit under the bodies well, no modifiecations required and are the same price as the steels, slots and factories. There are no white letter tires for them so there is less to worry about teching. Plus these look more like T-Jet wheels and tires should.

This is going to wind up being all Torino's, Chargers and Chevelles. The Fairlane bodies are only available now on pull backs, and few will pay $12 for a Dash body if they can get an $8 JL body instead.

Yoshi wrote:

The 3R narrows fit under the bodies well, no modifiecations required and are the same price as the steels, slots and factories. There are no white letter tires for them so there is less to worry about teching. Plus these look more like T-Jet wheels and tires should.

This is going to wind up being all Torino's, Chargers and Chevelles. The Fairlane bodies are only available now on pull backs, and few will pay $12 for a Dash body if they can get an $8 JL body instead.

Except that I already have 10 sets of steels or slots on their way. Both Mario's car and DW's car already have their wheel sets even though neither have decals yet. I can't switch now, it just wouldn't be economical.

On the car makes, I have no problem with it being like that, actually the Road Runner will be reintroduced because some of the drivers ran them in the late 1960's. I have 21 cars planned over the next 2 months based on the running cars John gave me tonight. 10 will be Fords (8 Torino's or Cyclones, 2 Fairlanes and 1 Galaxie), 6 Dodges (all Chargers at this point but that may change) and 4 Chevrolets (all SS454 Chevelles). The only car that will not be carrying a real-world paint scheme will be my personal #68 Bob's Auto Clinic Galaxie. While the other 20 planned cars will they won't necessarily be on the exact model and year that paint job was found on in the real world. Here's the planned line up:

#00 AJ Foyt Vel's Ford Torino
#06 Neil Castles's Doudge Country Charger
#1 Ramo Stott's Housby-Mack Charger
#3 Junior Johnson's Holly Farms Charger
#6 David Pearson's Dodge Dealers Charger
#11 Mario Andretti's Bunnell Ford Fairlane
#12 Bobby Allison's Coca-Cola Chevelle
#13 Smokey Unick's Torino
#15 Parnelli Jones's Ford Dealers Torino
#21 Jack Bowsher's Purolator Torino
#22 Marty Robbin's Charger
#28 Fred Lorenzen's Piper Trash can Liners Torino
#43 Richard Petty's East Tennessee Ford Dealers Torino
#54 Lennie Pond's Pepsi Chevelle
#56 Jim Hurtibese's Miller High Life Chevelle
#68 Pete McKay's Bob's Auto Clinic Galaxie
#71 Dave Marcis's K&K Insurance Charger
#72 Benny Parson's Montgomery Motors Torino
#87 Buck Baker's Thor Chevrolet Chevelle
#95 Darrell Waltrip's Terminal Trucking Fairlane
#98 Lee Roy Yarbrough's Jim Robbin's Torino

By the start of this series about a dozen cars will be done, the rest will be added over time. By the end of this month I should have 6 or 8 finished, enough to have some match races.

Wow! Now that is a sweet field of race cars bro! Man I wish I could be out there to race with you guys! This is going to be a fun series too!! Try to post some pics of the cars as you get them done - I'd love to see them.

Thanks for sharing the updates guys!
PD2

I have a total of 22 running chassis, not all of them have tires, insome cases no wheels either but they do run. Parts will be ordered every two weeks as money allows. Once a car is done anyone who participates in the series can visit the car lot and either buy it for $25 or rent it for $5 a race. When it comes to figuring points, etc. for the series the car and the "driver" who appears on the side of the car will get them unless the *driver* owns the car. I'm still working on this aspect of it.

As far as pictures I have one of Mario and DW in practice and testing a few nights ago:



Mario (Yoshi) kept blocking in the cornets, driving in deep then brake checking. After about 6 laps of this I got tired and punted him in turn 1. Mario's car is painted in the 1967 Daytona winning scheme and DW's car is painted in a modified 1975 scheme from his first WC ride. Both cars will have decals in about a week.

NICE! Thanks for posting pics bro! Cars look good, but I know you guys will make them really stand out with the decal layouts! That Mario is always running his mouth more than DW....and that's saying a lot! LOL!!

PD2