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Post by David Lawson on Nov 10, 2013 8:11:44 GMT -5
A brief update about tomorrow's race at Southend.
I spent this morning checking each car after their trials and tribulations at the last round. I checked nothing was falling off and was all secure followed by a light oiling.
I adjusted and shimmed Charles and Al's gears which were just starting to get a bit noisy at Cuckoo Pines.
Chris's Matra had a detached front body mounting post so I glued it. It arrived from Canada with the rear one detached and I repaired that at the time but as the car hasn't had one "off" yet I can only assume the front one was also already coming off on it's transatlantic journey.
I have tried to improve Nigel's Ferrari. There is a slight twist in the chassis so one front wheel is about 1mm up. The guide was a bit too high and a little floppy as well. I noticed Nigel had packed the guide in the chassis with spacers so I replaced these with a brass tube soldered into the chassis and it is now secure. I had to be really careful as there is quite a bit of plastic detailing around the front axle/guide area. I would like to have re-jigged the chassis and squared it up but it wouldn't be a simple job with the plastic detail parts attached to the chassis, front axle and motor area so I left it, hopefully the guide repair will help a bit.
I then re-attached a few detail parts that came off several cars at the last race.
Tomorrow's race is scheduled for 12 noon UK time.
David
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Post by Mark Huber on Nov 10, 2013 18:18:09 GMT -5
David, Thank you for going beyond the call of duty by attending to the cars nicks, scrapes and more serious issues so diligently. I am sure the 'team owners' appreciate that you are keeping our cars able to report for duty. I know I appreciate it. I promise that next year I will build a car where the exhausts do not fall off every five minutes! I don't know if you mentioned this on the forum, but I want to remind the entrants that David has been putting in full days at the office AND attending to our proxy series AND building a rather spectacular Lotus 49C. (And probably a few others that we haven't seen yet.) Frankly I don't know when you sleep! Tomorrow is a big day as the ten cars move from the smaller venues to the longer lanes at Southend. I think my Lotus is fast enough for Southend, but I have a feeling it isn't going to do any better cornering than it did at Dave's and Pete's. And it seems that acceleration and brakes will be at a premium at this track as well. I am curious to see if there will be any reordering of the front runners, not that I expect to be among them. Well, we all should know in about 24 hours. (or less).
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Post by f143 on Nov 10, 2013 20:07:15 GMT -5
Thank you very much David for the considerable effort put in to help improve the performance of Ferrari number 20, it is very much appreciated. The long straights at the Southend track look a daunting challenge. It will be very interesting to see how all the cars perform. Thanks Nigel
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Post by David Lawson on Nov 11, 2013 14:30:12 GMT -5
We ran the third round of the Montana proxy series today at the Southend Slot Racing Club track. The drivers were Vic Bettell, Colin Nicholls, Chris Pomeroy and Paul Elliott. David Lawson was race controller and photographer. Paul raced at the last round at Cuckoo Pines but the other three drivers saw the cars for the first time and were all extremely impressed by the standard of car preparation and the track performance. There was a half hour practice session but believe it or not I have lost the times...... I remember that Chris's Matra got pole but I'm very sorry that I haven't got the times from the session. A couple of pictures of the drivers judging concours and discussing the cars. As an entrant I didn't take part in this and the results were sealed and were put in the box of cars which will travel to the next round at Pendles Slot Club. The cars on the grid at the start of the first heat of the race with the others sitting on the track apron behind. A couple of group photographs of the entry. I didn't take that many photographs as the track isn't as scenic as Dave Wisdom's and Pete Shepherd's. Todays race was all about high speed racing. The drivers all looking very focussed during one of the heats. Left to Right: Chris, Colin, Paul and Vic. Race ResultsPosition | Car Nos. | Heat 1 | Heat 2 | Heat 3 | Heat 4 | Total Distance | 1st | 6 | 17.15 Laps | 16.27 Laps | 16.20 Laps | 14.35 Laps | 63.97 Laps | 2nd | 8 | 16.16 | 16.19 | 15.18 | 16.26 | 63.79 | 3rd | 1 | 16.26 | 13.32 | 16.20 | 16.15 | 61.93 | 4th | 36 | 15.20 | 14.29 | 16.27 | 16.01 | 61.77 | 5th | 7 | 14.20 | 15.21 | 15.14 | 15.26 | 59.81 | 6th | 19 | 15.19 | 12.17 | 15.12 | 16.27 | 58.75 | 7th | 20 | 14.24 | 14.17 | 10.26 | 15.20 | 53.87 | 8th | 14 | 12.11 | 13.27 | 14.13 | 14.03 | 53.54 | 9th | 9 | 13.30 | 9.27 | 15.11 | 15.13 | 52.81 | 10th | 17 | 10.11 | 11.31 | 11.26 | 12.09 | 44.77 |
Fastest Race Lap TimesPosition | Car Number | Lap Time | 1st | 6 | 10.265 sec | 2nd | 1 | 10.515 | 3rd | 36 | 10.846 | 4th | 19 | 10.996 | 5th | 7 | 11.026 | 6th | 8 | 11.166 | 7th | 9 | 11.346 | 8th | 14 | 11.837 | 9th | 20 | 12.333 | 10th | 17 | 15.002 |
Congratulations to Chris for another victory with his superb Matra. I know there was some concern about how the cars would perform on the very fast track but they all ran very well and there were no mechanical issues with any of them. Mark's Lotus managed to shed a few parts - he must use glue when building his next car bodyshell!! Tony's Lotus had its boodyscrew come loose in a heat when the car was leading and going well, because the performance dropped off gradually before the body came off he lost quite a bit of time sadly. Nigel's Ferrari also lost its body when the brass insert pulled out of the balsa mount and this launched the car over the barriers onto the floor fortunately without damage. Other than that Taffy's BRM lost a wheel insert as did Charles's Cooper. Chris Pomeroy's comment after the race summed it up, "Each car is different and a challenge to drive", but everyone agreed that this was some of the most fun they have had at the club. My views of the cars today are that Chris's Matra once again has great grip and superb handling, Charles's Cooper was so predictable and easy to drive but just a touch slow on the straights and very slightly tail happy but in a controllable way, Taffy's BRM is superb in every department, Al's Eagle performed really well and was very close to the front running pace, my Cooper was lacking in grip and the motor is too slow, Mel's Brabham went very well just lacking a bit of grip and a bit twitchy on the larger circuit, Nigel's Ferrari was a rocketship on the straights but lacked brakes and is prone to some tipping but it is very driveable up to 9/10ths, Mark's Lotus was also very driveable and controllable up to 9/10ths but then gets too tail happy, Tony's Lotus was a good solid performer just lacking a bit of grip and poor Dave's BRM just wouldn't run that quick despite lots of lighter fuel on the motor to try and revive it. Well that is Southend's race over and after re-attaching the parts I will hand the cars over to Bryan King this coming Saturday. David
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Post by Mark Huber on Nov 11, 2013 16:39:31 GMT -5
Thanks David! Thanks driving team! Congratulations to Chris, Charles and Taffy. I noted that you shimmed Charles Coopers gears before the race.. perhaps you'd better shim mine too! Taffy, Chris is catching up slowly but surely. But you're not worried are you? I think the cars still look great; the $64K question is how many times can you keep gluing on the Lotus exhaust system. Next time everything will be metal! I hope you folks had fun; Dave, I really appreciate the prompt reporting. Here are the standings after 3 races: | Car Number
| Results thru 2
| Race 3 points
| Results thru 3
| Taffy
| 1
| 47
| 20
| 67 | EM/Alan
| 36
| 38
| 18 | 56 | Charles
| 8
| 30
| 22 | 52
| Chris
| 6
| 25
| 25
| 50 | David L
| 7
| 32
| 16 | 48
| Tony
| 9
| 32
| 8
| 40 | Mel
| 19 | 24
| 14
| 38 | Dave J
| 17 | 30
| 6
| 36 | Mark
| 14 | 20
| 10 | 30
| Nigel
| 20
| 18
| 12 | 30 |
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Post by Mark Huber on Nov 11, 2013 17:03:51 GMT -5
Mark's Lotus managed to shed a few parts - he must use glue when building his next car bodyshell!! David Yikes.. I just noticed that my Lotus lost its injection trumpets and screen as well.. and that was glued in with superglue... oh lord...
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Post by f143 on Nov 11, 2013 20:52:32 GMT -5
Thanks one and all for the effort put in to making this a great series, and congratulations to the guy's on the podium Obvious improvement in dynamics David making the bottom order a bit more interesting. The racers were obviously taking the judging very seriously as well. Regards Nigel
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Post by Dave Wisdom on Nov 12, 2013 8:32:04 GMT -5
What better way than to spend a Monday racing beautifully hand built slot cars! Certainly beats the usual, more mundane start to a working week. The cars are all still looking in pretty good fettle too. I'm just sorry Chris’s Matra did not make it in time for round one, although I'm looking forward to taking a close look at it this weekend during the ceremonial handover to Bryan.
It’s reassuring to hear all the cars drove well on the fast and vast expanses of the Southend circuit. I did have concerns of how some of the entries would cope with the high speed tracks, but all looks well so far.
All credit to David for getting the Southend round organised so proficiently; especially in light of also having to prepare his own cars for this weekends Half-Tonner meeting at Wolverhampton.
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Post by Taffy on Nov 12, 2013 14:04:04 GMT -5
Hello, gents!
Congratulations to Chris and Charles. Men, you did it!!
My thanks to the drivers, who handled the cars with care and once again to you, David, for your concern for all our cars and for your work as the "local organizer"
I had a little bit of what we Germans call "Angst", that my BRM could get in trouble on this track because of a wrong gear ratio. So I am more as pleased to see Pedro Rodriguez on the podium again. A loss of two rounds to Chris´ Matra is much on this very long track, but it is less, than I feared.
The additional round (what a nice track!) will make it more exciting, the result is more open, and to be 16 points ahead now might be not enough for the rest of the competition....
Did I say, that I would like to see every single track in my next holidays? :-))
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Post by chrisguyw on Nov 13, 2013 9:45:26 GMT -5
Congratulations to all the entrants, and many thanks to David et al, for contributing their time and efforts in making this round a success.
Taffy........considering the scoring system, and the way your car has performed to date, it will likely take a DNF, or very bad race (neither of which I wish to see,.... he said with a twinkle in his eye) for any of us to catch up, although the additional race does give us a glimmer of hope.
The series (as it should) requires a solid performance in each round, and latecomers (me) have no one to blame........I will commence my 2014 pre season testing soon!!
Cheers to all Chris Walker
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Post by Taffy on Nov 13, 2013 14:11:57 GMT -5
Chris, you are right, but you also know the old sentence: "to finish first, first you have to finish"... ;-)
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Post by David Lawson on Nov 13, 2013 15:49:01 GMT -5
Chris and Taffy I don't see that a DNF is very likely with either your car or Taffy's as they are both so well "screwed together" they are bullet proof. This series will go down to the wire although as Chris has said he did handicap himself by not building his car in time for the first race.
David
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Post by chrisguyw on Nov 13, 2013 16:49:33 GMT -5
Chris and Taffy I don't see that a DNF is very likely with either your car or Taffy's as they are both so well "screwed together" they are bullet proof. David Especially now that you have reglued my body post(s)!! Considering that we have added another venue to the series, I move that we scrap the points from the first race, and call it a practice session............any seconds???......no one??........ah c'mon guys Cheers Chris
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Post by Mark Huber on Nov 13, 2013 18:04:49 GMT -5
Chris and Taffy I don't see that a DNF is very likely with either your car or Taffy's as they are both so well "screwed together" they are bullet proof. David Especially now that you have reglued my body post(s)!! Considering that we have added another venue to the series, I move that we scrap the points from the first race, and call it a practice session............any seconds???......no one??........ah c'mon guys Cheers Chris Nice try, but as you know the great thing about organizing a proxy race series, is that the rules aren't subject to a vote. That would be like herding cats.
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Post by Dave Wisdom on Nov 18, 2013 15:19:11 GMT -5
Last weekends Half-Tonner/3 Litre F1 event at Wolverhampton, saw the entry of proxy ceremoniously handed from David Lawson to the host representative from Pendle; Bryan King (left) for round 4 of the series. The cars all looked in excellent condition and have now made their way to the North West of England to compete on the Monza like straights and curves of the Pendle Club 'SlotFire' track. Good luck to all the car owners and drivers for round 4.
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