We made it safe and sound - 11hr drive took almost 13hrs, but better safe than sorry.
Hi All,
This race, for all of the participants, is one we will always remember.
First - I'd like to thank Duane Stevenson and Lance Perry for continued support and dedication for our group. These guys keep us going in the Metro-Atlanta area and there's no two better guys and their families to run a slot car track. Their store, specifically, is what brought our group together - I still remember the days when each of us had our NINCO Moslers with 30,000 rpm motors and tons of magnets competing for the top spot on the hot lap board. We thought no-magnet racing was the silliest thing at the time, but look at us now . If Slingshot Speedway, formerly JD Modelraceway, did not exist, I'm sure we would all have never crossed paths. Thank you
Many thanks are in order:
Jeff Goldberg - thanks for organizing this event. We do not have many 1/32 events like this in the states, and I hope more turn up as a result. Thanks for your hard work
Slotcarcorner USA/CANADA - thanks for making truly great products. Parts that fit well are becoming harder and harder to come by lately, but you guys strive to make great products that serve their intended purposes very well. The C.B. Design LMP wheel is a great wheel that has all the aspects covered - strong, relatively light, great fit to 3/32 axle (designed for Slot.it), and a competitive price. Keep the designs coming Claude!!
Mike (Smokieo) - thanks for weeks of your labor. Truing Supertires is not an easy task - this great man deserves a medal. Every tire that was used in this competition was trued by Smokeio and tested by Smokeio. No other individual is more qualified for this job.
Supertire - thanks for adding to our choices of 1/32 scale slot car tires. I will admit that one thing I did not miss is having to do a 45second pit stop to change tires, BUT, I'm happy to say I am back in the home of mongo-pad-free slot car tracks, hehe.......and for those of you thinking Supertires don't wear - you are wrong! The majority of the racecars in this event lost around 1mm outer diameter for the 24hr duration. Even Smokieo learned something this weekend
Slot.it - thanks to Maurizio F., Maurizio G., the entire Slot.it crew and Galileo Engineering for their continued hard work in developing 1/32 racing cars, components, and all that neat stuff I'm sure they've got coming. The environment the cars were in this weekend was tough, but the closed-can Boxer2 motor showed its worth to all of us.
Dave Kennedy - thanks for doing the race reporting along with your continued support for this hobby. Dave had a small showcase of SCX products that were given out as prizes at the end of the event. The showcase included cars like the Slot.it Commemorative SCX Pro-Audi (which Jayslow Stanley of our team won), Spirit Peugeots, and others. Thanks for doing what you do.
Alan Smith of Slot Car Illustrated - thanks for giving The Chicago 24 an online home. None of this was possible without the SCI forums. Thanks to you and the SCI crew.
Mary Ann Braatz - thanks for being at the event and helping the long haulers with a supply of Mona-Vie energy drinks. These things are great folks - worth a try.
Last but not least, thanks to all the racers who made this event possible. Without the support of all of us, this race would not have taken place. It was great to put faces to screen names. Neal, Frank, Rich, Mike, "The Saw", and all of the GLSCC guys - it was great to meet all of you. You guys have got a great group and you guys know how to have a great, fun, and relaxed time. Christian, Claude, and George - if I am ever in Quebec, I know who to contact . You guys are great. I met Steve & Dickie of Slotcarcorner when they graciously helped George Bagley get Georgetown Raceway built. Because of you guys, we are beginning to succumb to the US standard of countertop racing starting with Georgetown. The person I was looking forward to meet most was Mike (Smokeio). I was hoping to learn a lot from him and SCC in general this weekend, and I did. Most Important lesson - don't listen to Mike if he's not on your team . Thanks for all the tips
Jeff has the official lap counts and actual mile coverage. All the teams did well. Four out of 6 teams surpassed the 200mile mark, which that to itself, is a big accomplishment. Congratulations to all of us!
Here are some pics of Team Slingshot's Scaleauto Toyota GT-One.
This shot shows the innards of the car:
-Slot.it Boxer 2
-Scaleauto front axle
-Scaleauto motor mount and motorpod
-1100B Supertire top view
-P/N Slot delrin lightweight 26t crown
-Slot.it 10t brass pinion
-Slot.it wood guide
-MB Slot tinned copper stiff braids
-Slotcarcorner lead wire
that crown gear looks rough!!! Did you have to change braids, tires, gears? Note a bit of lead on the rear of the pan, just a couple grams each side? Did you run the body/motor pod tight, loose, medium. And you had a couple backup cars too? Did the motor get soft later on? Was there a break-in period, then some when it was very fast, then slowed down later?? Any residual glue on the track? Did you have to clean tires?
Did you drink your cup of questions today? Good grief!
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Did you have to change braids, tires, gears?
No - the car rides on the front tires
No - supertires last a very long time
No - this gear probably has a good 6hr left in its current home. Our motor came unglued. The motor was glued back in w/o removing the body by laying superglue down the sides under the car and spraying accelerator. Unfortunately, the motor was glued in a manner that caused misalignment with the pinion to the crown. My fault. If the gear didn't last, I'd never hear the end of it
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Note a bit of lead on the rear of the pan, just a couple grams each side?
A couple and a half.
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Did you run the body/motor pod tight, loose, medium.
Pod screws were half turn loose.
Body float was changed as race progressed depending on track conditions. The track loosened up at night which called for more float to tighten up the car. In the morning, the track came back in and the car really tightened up, but by that time, the Slot.it motor was getting really tired which helped the car's drivability even though it was getting tighter and tighter.
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And you had a couple backup cars too?
The car with black front wheels was the practice car. Between Doug, Jon, and myself we had enough Toyotas to test and tune and compare with. You cannot just swap cars in the middle of the race. If you had a big failure IE-broken chassis, pod, etc. the car has to be re-tech'd before track re-entry.
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Did the motor get soft later on? Was there a break-in period, then some when it was very fast, then slowed down later??
Ours got soft in the end. Part of this was that we had an on-going gear/rear axle issue that binded the rear. After George ran the 3rd heat, the rear axle was almost locked up - we re-adjusted the wheel spacing and greased the gear, but the damage on the motor was probably already done. In the first 12hrs, we were re-greasing the gear and oiling rear bushings once every hour/heat. On the second half, it seemed we could get away with only lubing every 2hrs.
We did not break-in our motor. We ran it as it was handed to us. Our motor showed it was not the fastest from the beginning. It was definitely faster at the beginning of the heat compared to the end of the heat. There were 1minute time intervals built into the clock where it gave us time to change lanes, re-sticker the car, and do driver changes. This 1minute helped our motor cool off and helped it last 24hrs.
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Any residual glue on the track? Did you have to clean tires?
The entire group of racers cleaned the track Friday morning. There was residual glue on the track, but not much. When you put your finger on the racing line, it did not feel sticky. On average, we cleaned tires twice every heat.
Jay, one thing on the motor fade as the race wore on. In my third heat (21st hour, or something like that), I had to dial the sensitivity all the way up on my controller to get any life out of the motor. I've had this controller for four years, and I've never had to dial the sensitivity all the way up for any car.
We were all trying to preserve the car in the last hours -- lighter acceleration, lighter braking, swinging the tail of the car less, and this car was still turning fastest laps every heat. EVERYBODY's motor had to be fading. They were still running decent laps, but there was a very significant difference from hour 1 to hour 24.
The MA flat track track length is a subject of some debate; I think it was re-measured recently for the ISRA Worlds.
Have Dave ask Roger what the average lap length was calculated to be; actual distance covered would of course have to be calculated on a per lane basis. Average lap length is probably OK for the purposes of this event.
Hi Guys,
I remeasured the track after the move by using a piece of wire shoved into the slot
lap length came out to 148 feet and 7 1/4 inches in both blue and orange. all lanes have equal length since it is a flat track with a cross over.
For those that are not familiar with the lane color code on this eight lane track, blue and orange are the two "center lanes". With constant, equidistant lane spacing between all lanes, it's safe to base the record claim on a lap length of 148.5 ft.
I'm getting ready for a trade show this week and have some work to catch up on. Please be patient as this (still) foggy brained guy get's this stuff done before posting individual heat results. I'll post more as the week goes on.
Thank you Mark and Kurt for all of that information, and the pictures etc. It's an education. Sounds like you must have had your fingers crossed toward the end.
Thank you Mark and Kurt for all of that information, and the pictures etc. It's an education. Sounds like you must have had your fingers crossed toward the end.
We did, but Mark was on top of the situation at all times. Looking at the rate of wear, there was confidence that the gear would make it, but it was important not to stress the gear by doing something over-the-top. There was no reason to push the car, which was still turning fastest laps when running at 8 tenths. We were well beyond the pace to break the record, and had a 400+ lap advantage going into the final hours, so allowing the back end to come around, braking late, and accelerating hard were really unnecessary.
There was actually more worry about the gear in the 5th hour. I was running in black, and pushing probably more than necessary while we were trying to build a cushion. The lap times were good and the car felt great, but there was a slight noise from the gears. This turned into a long pit stop when Mark noticed that the motor had come unglued. When it was glued in again, the motor was positioned slightly off, orienting the pinion slightly differently to the crown. There were a couple anxious hours of watching the gear, but everything eventually quieted down once the gears got used to each other again.
In a way, it was helping that the track was getting more loose. Early on there was more bite than slide, but later it was almost all slide -- controllable with grip, but not grabby, which really helped the longevity, I think. The guys did an awesome job preserving the car, which is pretty tough. When you get out there, you want to run 10 tenths and show what you can do, and race the guy in the next lane, turn fastest lap, etc. But all that does is wear the car down, so we tried to keep each other in check.
Did the build rules compel you to use shaft-aligned crown gears, or were the axle spacers aligning the gears?
And did you have to use glue rather than screws into the endbell to hold the motor?
I had axle spacers aligning the gears, but something shifted.
We were using the factory Scaleauto motor mount and motor pod. If you look at the pictures, Scaleauto designed the motor strap to hold the motor in place, but the motor wiggles around if not glued or taped. I used glue sparingly just in case we had a motor failure - I did not use enough glue obviously. Slotcarcorner used a Slot.it pod, so theirs was also glued in because no modifications are allowed - drilling holes for motor screws is illegal.
The effort was Mark's and the other guys'. All I did was show up and drive, handled some marshal duties and occasionally cleaned some tires. That was a heck of a car build. I respect Smokeio's car building more than anyone else, and Mark put a car together that if it wasn't equal to Mike's, was darn close. Having a car that can withstand 24 hours without a lot of time in the pits is more than half the battle.
. If Slingshot Speedway, formerly JD Modelraceway, did not exist, I'm sure we would all have never crossed paths. Thank you 
. You guys are great. I met Steve & Dickie of Slotcarcorner when they graciously helped George Bagley get Georgetown Raceway built. Because of you guys, we are beginning to succumb to the US standard of countertop racing starting with Georgetown. The person I was looking forward to meet most was Mike (Smokeio). I was hoping to learn a lot from him and SCC in general this weekend, and I did. Most Important lesson - don't listen to Mike if he's not on your team 
Looking at the rate of wear, there was confidence that the gear would make it, but it was important not to stress the gear by doing something over-the-top. There was no reason to push the car, which was still turning fastest laps when running at 8 tenths. We were well beyond the pace to break the record, and had a 400+ lap advantage going into the final hours, so allowing the back end to come around, braking late, and accelerating hard were really unnecessary.
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