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I'm thinking ANYTHING might be better!

I used to have LOTS of them. I don't have much left of that old stuff, but I may have one. Which version are you looking for?

WOW! That looks great Rico!

NASTE 2024 Point Series Championship Race No.5 @ Rippin' Ridin' Raceway January 11, 2024

Race Results - Slot.it DTM Class:

1 Doc 77.8 laps - 4 points.
2 Al 76.0 - 3 pts.
3 Mitch 72.2 - 2 pts.
4 Doug 60.0 - 1 pt.

Current Standings for the 2024 NASTE Point Series Championship After 5 Races:

1 Daniel - 21 pts.
2 Al - 20 points.
3 Rico - 11 pts.
4 Greg - 8 pts.
5 - tie - Zack - 7 pts.
5 - tie - Mitch - 7 pts.
7 Chris Kouba - 6 pts.
8 - tie -  David - 2 pts.
8 - tie - Douglas - 2 pts.

The second race of the 2024 Columbia Gorge Championship for Porsche 962s was held at Rob's Redline Raceway in Vancouver. This track is both fast and challenging! With approximate lap lengths of 80 feet, fast lap times for the Porsche 962s on this track are in the high three second to low four second range. Add to that the tight four-inch lane spacing, and it makes for some exciting racing to say the least! Four-inch lane spacing with these Porsche 962s places them in close proximity to each other in traffic! And on this course you are ALWAYS in traffic! There is never a moment when you can rest and cruise, you are contently passing or being passed! As expressed by Jack Black in his famous movie quote; "It will test your head, and your mind, and your brain, too."

So, this race report will be from MY perspective as a racer/participant. Please keep in mind, historically I do not have good luck racing this class of cars. As near as I can tell the Porsche 962s hate me! The race format is the traditional four rounds of four-minute heats. Note here that in the last Porsche 962 race I was sent to the pits when my motor was dislodged in a wreck, which resulted in less than optimum alignment of the gears. The resulting noise indicated immanent gear failure! So, in my prep work for this race I reinforced my motor position with some E-6000 glue. Just a little on each side of the motor, but enough to ensure correct positioning despite any wrecks. This will prove to be an important factor during this race at Redline Raceway.

Here we go, Round 1 and John is setting the pace with high three second lap times. Right behind John is Bob . As is expected, there is quite a bit of “rubbin’” going on! Towards the end of my first heat my car is acting kinda funny....When I went to place my car on my new and ultra cool Inslot Service Station and car cooler, I checked it for any damage. Motor placement and gear alignment was good thanks to E-6000 reinforcement, and no chassis damage. I figured any performance issues must have been from improper guide flag braid alignment. I fool with the braid a bit and put the car on the cooler. Just a few seconds into my second of the four heats in Round 1 it becomes obvious I have a problem! My car stops, then it goes, then it goes fast, then it slows, then it stops and won’t go at all.....I take it off the track and give it a look. No broken lead wires, and the braid looks good. Back on the track. It goes. It stops. Off the track and into the pits I go.... I pull the body off and everything looks OK. I check the motor. One bruch spring is so loose it almost falls off the spring post. I pull the spring off the motor and extract the motor brush, no easy task without removing the motor (remember the part about the E-6000 reinforcement?). With the brush out of the motor it is obvious it is worn to the point of being useless (less than half the length of a new brush). I spend my last two and a half heats of Round 1 replacing the bad motor brush....54 total laps for Round 1...Not a good start!

Round 2, Bob is now stepping up the pace with John close behind. Al is very consistent, and Howie seems to be getting dialed into the track. Rob is fast as always, but man he is tearing down some walls! OK, I’m back in. Yellow lane, not my favorite but I’ll get through it. In the first ten seconds or so of the heat, my car is looking pretty good. The chassis is handling well. What the heck? It comes to a stop again. I check the car, braid is good, no broken lead wires. Back on the track, I’m racing again. Then it slows quite a bit, and finally it stops again. I pull the car off the track and head to the pits. The same motor brush spring is loose again! I pull the spring off and it has no tension left in it... I install a new brush spring and head back to the track. Back on the track the car takes off just fine, although not very fast. Then all of a sudden it is super fast! Faster than it has ever been! Then just as suddenly it slows up and then comes to a complete stop...OK I give, there is something else wrong! Back to the pits I go. I decide it is time to pull the motor out and see what’s going on. The top of the brass chassis plate, between the motor can cooling opening, is blackened like it had been heated with a torch. I’m thinkin’ this motor has issues and is DONE! At this point, as a racer, I am DONE!....29 total laps for Round 2....

Round 3, Bob has definitely stepped it up! John is still battling him hard, but he is contending with a lot of traffic issues. It is clear at this point in the race that these are the guys to beat. Al is still running a very consistent and fast race, but Howie is starting to gain on him. Tim has also picked it up and is getting more consistent. By the end of Round 3 I had figured out that what the computer was showing us for "Fastest Lap" times was inaccurate. After the third round I changed one of the race settings which corrected the timing error in the fourth round. I am, at this point an official DNF!

Round 4, in this round Bob finished us off! After the first round he was consistently the fastest. John had a good lead over Al in third place, and kept it throughout the last round. Howie kept pace with Al in the fourth round, finishing just four laps behind him.

   

In the end this second race of the 2024 championship proved to be exciting, challenging, and must of all fun!  Rob hit his highest lap total of the race in the second round, 30 laps higher than his other rounds! Tim only had one bad round, with three of the four rounds having lap totals over 160. Mark improved dramatically after the first round, becoming much faster and more consistent by races end. Hersch arrived late but was running fast out of the gate, with multiple 150 plus lap rounds. Congratulations to Bob on his win! And kudos to all the racers that finished! Overall it was quite a spectacle!

Race results:

1st Bob (Nak Nak) 750.5 laps

2nd John (Turing John) 732.4 laps

3rd Al (Meat) 696.3 laps

4th Howie (Howie) 677.8 laps

5th Tim (Tiny Tim) 619.0 laps

6th Rob (Rob) 603.0 laps

7th Hersch (Squirt) 592.2 laps

8th Mark (Skid Mark) 478.5 laps

9th Bill (Bad Billy) 83.0 laps DNF

The first race of 2024 was held at Inslot's Checkered Flag Raceway on January 4th. The Even Thursday race had 10 racers in attendance. Two classes were raced with the first race for the Flexi Class starting at 6:00 PM. One round of four minute heat races made up this race. Since the new JK cars have been introduced to local racers, this class of cars has become extremely fast! Add to this the improved skill level of all the racers and you have some exciting and very close racing! To prove the point just take a look at the results. John won the race by just one lap, and third, fourth, fifth, and sixth were all within one lap of each other! Here are the results:

Bob (Nak Nak) had a plus one lap for a total of 196 laps.

After the track was cleared of Flexi Class cars, the grid was set with PASER NASCAR entries. For this PASER NASCAR Class, any hardbody NASCAR legal for any club's NASCAR hardbody class was elligible. One round of four minute heat races was again the format for this race. There was a lot of contact and close calls throughout this race! John completed the clean sweep of the night by winning this race with his scratchbuilt hybrid NASCAR entry. Here's the results of the night's second race: 

Doc had a plus one lap for a lap total of 160 tiend him with Bart. Gerry also missed a lap count making his total 120.

It was a fun and exciting night of racing for sure! Highlights included helpings Doc's world famous salsa, and Rice Krispy treats brought in by Kirk! Thanks guys! We completed two full races with four minute heats, and were still done racing before 9:00 PM. I am calling it a success! Thanks to all that attended!

For the last Even Thursday Race of 2023, racers met up at Rob's Redline Raceway in Vancouver. It was a good turn out with 10 racers on the grid. We had one new racer (Jon) that impressed everyone with his rookie performance! The first class we raced was the ever popular Womp Class. With the recent rules update specifying the motors that are used in this class, the racing was even closer than in the past! We raced 4 minute heat races with one complete round. In the end there was a three-way tie for first place. Doc won over John by less than 6 feet! Third place was less than half a lap behind John. Three laps separated first from fifth! Here are the Womp results:

1st Doc 165 laps
2nd John 165
3rd Bill 165
4th Rob 163
5th Bob 162
6th Kirk 158
7th Bart 144
8th Jon 121
9th Tim 120
10th Gerry 113

After things settled down a bit after the Womp race the grid was set for the Flexi race. Things were not settled for long! We were set for another round of 4 minute heats, and the Flexi race quickly escalated into total chaos! Super fast lap times combined with super spectacular crashes made for spectator excitement as well as racer excitement! I had so many really hard wall hits, I was surprised my car survived and kept running! The racing was so intense and fast, Kirk actually spun a tire off one of his rear wheels! Due to this break down he was unable to finish the race and was scored as a DNF (Did Not Finish). The finish of this race was not quite as close as the Womp race, but it was definitely just as challenging! Here are the results:

1st John 205 laps
2nd Bob 198
3rd Rob 196
4th Doc 193
5th Bill 182
6th Tim 173
7th Bart 164
8th Jon 143
9th Gerry 128
10th Kirk 43 (DNF)

A big thanks to Rob for hosting this race and feeding us pizza and cookies! An awesome night of racing!

Race results from December 21st: