MONDAY OT (Open Track) (Page 2 of 6)

well walked out side at 2pm and  turned right around and walked right back into the house.  way to hot today. try again next week after it cools down.

It's cooling off nice now, it was 116 in Tigard about 3 hours ago, now it's 86.

I hear ya Mitch and I'm with you buddy! I didn't even like the walk across the deck to the shop let alone actually going anywhere! I know I wouldn't have gone anywhere to run slot cars!

Good news is I'm really pleased with how cool it stayed in the shop even without air conditioning! Downstairs and track side it never got above 83 degrees, even after two days above 105! Upstairs it got up to 95 degrees just before it started cooling down this evening. But even upstairs at 95 is still 20 degrees below today's high temperature!

So I have a portable AC unit I bought used for the upstairs. Problem is it did not come with the exhaust ducting, which I thought was no big deal. Well, color me wrong on that! I thought I could use dryer duct parts and components to complete the install. WRONG! Dryer duct is 4 inch and the AC unit uses a 5.5 inch flexible duct. Try finding that.......what I found out today was, you can find 4 inch and 5 inch but that's it. So today I ordered the parts I need to get the AC unit up and running for the upstairs. After all it is only June.............we may have some more hot weather before racing season!

Basements are AWESOME! I've had two houses with basements and loved them both for those basements! The perfect place for a slot car track! The temperature rarely varies at all, all year long!

Those temps are very good Bill!
There are a variety of exhaust hoses for the units.
Does yours have a place for an intake hose and exhaust hose?
If so, highly recommend getting two hoses (double hose kits are usually in the $75ish range)
It will allow the unit to dispel the water it builds up so it will not shut off due to having to be drained.

One of our units (No Central AC) has the dual hose and never needs to be drained.
Our other unit is a single hose.
Depending on temp and humidity it can run for 45minutes to several hours before needed to be drained.
For this heat wave I bought a single step stool (300lb. limit Rubbermaid, $11) and put a large plastic storage bin under the drain hole and would only have to be emptied once every 4 hours or so (about 2/3 full so I wouldn't spill it all over the room)
That could be an option for long hot days in the shop.

We set ours with the back end over the kitchen sink and just let it drain as it will.  It's kept the kitchen quite livable the past few days.  After we replaced all the windows the house stays pretty reasonable until the mid-90's then it starts heating up.

We just did back in March and I believe it did make a difference, plus we got paid to do it. That’s a win win!

Good news on your track Bill. I plan on making it one of these Mondays, I have a couple cars to test and just as important: a lot of BS'n to catch up on!!

Thanks Doc, and you're welcome!

The Monday open track days have been fun! Interest is growing to do some actual racing along with the open track session. Here is what I am proposing and this next Monday we can work on the details. After discussing this some more with John Gill, what I would like to try is running a couple short lap based races in between open track sessions during the day/evening. For example: doors open at 1:00 PM. At 3:00 PM we run a short race for those in attendance that wish to participate. Depending how many people participate, I'm thinking one hour max to complete the race. Then at 6:00 PM we run a second race, same scenario with a different class (or it could be the same class).

When we first started the NASTE races we raced 10 lap heat races in a work up type format, leading into a 20 lap mains. The racing program moved along very quickly and sit outs were short. I'd like to try something similar along these lines. So for this next Monday (July 12th) I am adding to the Monday night schedule on the calendar a 3:00 PM race for the NASTE Over 50 Class, and a Flexi Class race at 6:00 PM.

A note in regards to the Flexi Class race scheduled for 6:00 PM. Bob Nakamura has a 4.5" Flexi NASCAR race scheduled August 14th. I don't know if everyone has a 4.5" flexi type chassis, so for the Monday Open Track Days I am allowing any flexi-type chassis to compete. We will loosely follow the rules for the 4.5" NASCAR Flexi Class (http://naste.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1259) with the exception to allow 4" wheelbase chassis and other body types.

These short races will give us some opportunities to race cars we don't race often, and give us a chance to dial in cars for upcoming races. I'm open to suggestions but this is what we will start with for this next Monday.    =======Bill

maybe adding a 1/32 class also to the night say gt1 cars from slot it and revoslot
Nissan R390 GT1, Ferrari f40 McLaren F1 GTR, Porsche 911 GT1 RS0043 Toyota GT1 Mercedes CLK