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Hello All,

  I am looking for two people to be volunteers for the PDX Adult Soapbox Derby on Saturday, August 20, 2016. Each team is required to have two volunteers to help with track setup and/or the actual running of the race. A team volunteer signs up for "Track Set Up" from 5:30 A.M. to 9:00 A.M.  Again our team is required to have TWO voluteers for track set up.

Each volunteer will be provided with a 2016 Soapbox T-shirt, Grub, Beer/Cider and VIP entrence to our award ceramony at Chopsticks on Sandy and a super big Thank You from Portland Adult Soap Box Derby!

And of course you will be helping out our team, as well as receiving the extreme gratitude of the NASTE Gravity Racing Team!

Please let me know if you are interested!   ==========Bill

I spent some time today working on T-Jets with Dave Smith. I've been playing with these things for over 50 years and I can't believe all that I learned about them and making them handle just today! Thanks Dave!

Chris, I'm good with the 6th. Marked my big paper with the squares and numbers and days of the week!

WHOA............your's looks like that TOO???!!!!!!!!!

Are YOU retired now????

Mine's pretty open, but only Monday through Sundays!!!

There was some great racing at Al's Rippin' Ridin' Raceway Thursday night! We had a good crowd of competitors and some really close races! Thanks Al for the great snacks and fun racing!

Here's the results:

Classic Sports Car
1st    Chris        67.5 laps
2nd    Anthony    67.2
3rd    Gary    66.2
4th    Mitch    64.3
5th    Bill    63.8
6th    Rico    63.6
7th    Monte    62.6
8th    Greg    61.2
9th    Al    58.1
10th    Daniel    57.9
11th    Jeff    54.8
12th    Rene    49
13th    Burns    47.8

F1
1st    Anthony    68
2nd    Amy    64.4
3rd    Mitch    64
4th    Rico    63.2
5th    Daniel    62.8
6th    Al    61.9
7th    Bill    60.7
8th    Chris    60.3
9th    Greg    60
10th    Jeff    59.5
11th    Gary    58.4
12th    Burns    57.7
13th    Monte    56.3
14th    Rene    46

BRM Group C
1st Rico    75
2nd Chris    72.5
3rd Greg    70.3
4th Daniel    70.2
5th Al    70.1
6th Monte    65.9
7th Burns    64.9
8th Mitch    63.7
9th Gary    53.7

Over 50
1st Mitch    67.6
2nd Monte    64.2
3rd Al    63.1
4th Chris    60.1
5th Rico    56.8
6th Burns    53.7
7th Gary    44.5

Hey Chris, do you want to organize a test and tune day here at TooBad?

Interesting info on magnets! In the early eighties when the "rare earth" magnets first hit the slot car scene we were racing HO cars. A couple of use did a lot of experimenting and also visited a business that specialized in magnets. At the time it was located on southeast 52nd. When we talked with them and showed them what we were working on they were also very interested. They introduced us to the newest hottest thing just coming out - neodymium magnets! At that time we were experimenting with them as traction magnets on HO cars. It was crazy! Anyway I experimented with them as motor magnets. Back then I was rewinding a lot of armatures for HO cars, and experimenting with different "winds". Through experiments I found a basic rule of thumb applied in regards to the ratio between a motors magnetic field and the number of laminations on the armature. If I increased the motor's magnetic field they seemed to perform better if I increased the number of laminations on the armature's plate stack, regardless of what "wind" I put on them.

As for your F1 car, for me the F1 cars are the hardest to set up and to drive! I don't know all of what Goose does, but he IS the F1 MAN........or "GOOSE"...........whichever..............

I've used striping tape before to hide the bleed where I've taped off lines. I've always had mixed results with my masking jobs too! I do like the choice of color on that car!

Sure thing Dan, that would be great! If you want you can just bring it to the next race at my place. Either way is fine, whichever works best for you.

Thanks!   ======Bill

Crew Member/Engineer Evil Jimmy tries the car on for size!

It is a tight fit for Crew Chief/Builder/Driver Dennis Hart!

Today was the third work session on the NASTE Gravity Racer, or the Hawksbill Flyer as we like to call it. Al and Jimmy worked on the body work while Dennis and I adjusted the steering system and worked on the electrical systems. After an excellent lunch provided by Charlotte (yes Dennis, I am giving Charlotte FULL credit for that!) we worked straight through until the three o'clock hour. At three o'clock we loaded the car into dennis' mini-van and set out for a shake down run!

A section of road was chosen with a slight incline followed by a pretty good hill into a gully and then back uphill on the other side. It was definitely a good test section for the car. I gave dennis a push off then jumped in the Jeep to give chase. Even on the slight incline Dennis was able to get the car up to approximately 10 MPH and pretty much maintain that speed until the road levelled out too much. After another push, this time by the Jeep (I'm old and was much too tired after the initial push!) Dennis approached the hill. On this incline which was only moderately sloped and of short duration, Dennis was able to reach 20+ MPH ! Although that doesn't sound all that impressive, given the short length of the hill and somewhat gentle slope the car hit that speed very quickly!

The test run prved a couple things; per Dennis the steering and brake systems worked to his liking (it is always most important for the driver to be happy with the car!), and this thing is going to be FAST! By the next work session I believe the car will be pretty close to finished. I must commend Dennis on the amount of work he gets done on the car working on his own! I also expect the next work session will involve more advanced test runs! I can hardly wait!

This Thursday is Classic Sports Car and F1.