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Dennis' Hawksbill Flyer drawings:

Clarification was added to the Class 5 - F1 Rules and reads as follows:

"**This class will be raced with cars compliant to the NASTE Formula 1 Challenge Rules where applicable. For class divisions not listed in and covered by the NASTE Formula 1 Rules, cars must comply to the rules as outlined in those separate divisions. "

========Bill

Here's Beau Frazier's Vintage F1 Class winner. Beau dominated the Vintage F1 Class with this car equipped with a traction magnet. I think even after he removes the traction magnet this scratcbuilt beauty is going to be a class contender!

John, it was great to see you back on the grid last night! You have been missed!

============Bill

Odd Thursday on September 3rd - 15 racers on hand and a wild night of racing!

First on the grid were the Vintage F1 cars. Beau Frazier showed up with a beautifully built Sharknose Ferrari. Beau scored his first Odd Thursday Night win with an impressive 57 lap run. Impressive for a Scratchbuilt Narrow Tire Division car, even with a traction magnet in place! I can't wait to see how this car runs without the traction magnet! In addition to Beau scoring the overall win, The Goose was first in the Scalextric Vintage Division, Amy was first in the Modern Division, Greg was first in the Scratchbuilt Narrow Tire Division, and Dennis was first in the Scalextric Historic Division.

The highlight of the night had to be the near ignition of Rico's controller! In F1 race his controller emitted a cloud of smoke reminiscent of the Mt. St. Helens eruption! Afterwards Rico commented that his newly acquired no-brake condition might have been an improvement! At any rate he still posted a second place finish only 1/10th of a lap behind race winner Chris Kouba with his stock Ninco Corvette! Al Christensen and Amy Fields tied for third place just one more lap behind Rico. The racing was so close, there was less than two laps difference between first and eighth!

Nine racers were able to stick around to run the BRM cars. As usual for the class the racing was brutal! The punishment these cars seem to just take in stride is amazing! In a shocking turn of events I was able to BEAT my way into the first place spot, literally! This is not a race for timid or kind racers. It's nerf or be nerfed! If I unintentionally pissed anyone off with my "BRM Class racing technique/etiquitte, well.......to bad!

Al Christensen posted his first win in the Over 50 Class with his awesome KTM powered Cheetah. Al has been massaging this car since he started racing with us, and now it is started to really perform! Al was able to beat Rico's killer Vette by 4/10th of a lap. A commendable feat!

Here are the results:

F1 Class Results:
1st Beau Frazier SND 57.0 Laps - w/TM
2nd Jeff Fields MD 55.9 - N/C - T/M
3rd Goose Gossett SVD 54.8 - First in Division
4th tie Chris Kouba SVD 50.7
4th tie Amy Fields MD 50.7 - First in Division - T/M
6th Gary Howie Howard SVD 50.3
7th Greg Petrolati SND 49.8 First in Division
8th Bill Bostic SVD 49.4
9th Al Christensen SVD 48.5
10th John Fisher SVD 47.7
11th John Morse SVD 47.5
12th Dennis Hart SHD 46.1 - First in Division - T/M
13th Rico Locati SVD 45.1
14th Monte Saager SND 44.9
15th Mitch Brooks SVD 43.6

Classic Sports Car Class:
1st Chris Kouba 51.5 laps
2nd Rico Locati 51.4
3rd  tie Al Christensen 50.4
3rd tie Amy Fields 50.4 - N/C non-elligible car
5th  Gary Gossett 50.2
6th  John Morse 50.0
7th  Monte Saager 49.9
8th  Jeff Fields 49.6
9th  Greg Petrolati 48.8
10th Mitch Brooks 47.9
11th Gary Howie Howard 46.0
12th John Fisher 45.8
13th Dennis Hart 44.6
14th Beau Frazier 43.3
15th Bill Bostic 41.6

BRM Porsche 962 Class Results:
1st Bill Bostic 60.6 laps
2nd Chris Kouba 60.1
3rd John Fisher 59.5
4th Rico Locati 58.9
5th Goose Gossett 58.2
6th Beau Frazier 58.0
7th John Morse 57.6
8th Al Christensen 54.0
9th Mitch Brooks 49.0

Over 50 Class Results:
1st Al Christensen 53.6 Laps
2nd Rico Locati 53.2
3rd John Fisher 51.5
4th Goose Gossett 50.9
5th Chris Kouba 50.5
6th John Morse 48.0
7th Bill Bostic 46.3 - N/C
8th Mitch brooks 42.9

*N/C = non-compliant
Note - There was a scoring error in the BRM Class race. One extra lap had been recorded for first place. First place scoring total was corrected on these results.

Put me on your assist list Dennis.

========Bill

Again in an effort to better track race results and statistics, for the upcoming vintage F1 race this Thursday I will be asking racers to declare what class their F1 entry is competing in. I'm sure this process will be confusing at first and it will take a few races for us to all get a system down. To serve as a quick referrence for which cars fit into what classes I have made a consolidated list below:

Class 5 - F1 – short referrence sheet
Divisions:

Cartrix Classic Division - (CCD)

Scalextric Historic Division - (SHD)
Cooper Climax, Ferrari 375, Ferrari 156 Sharknose, Maserati 250F, Vanwall

Scalextric Vintage Division - (SVD)
Lotus 49, Eagle, McLaren m7c low wing, Brabham BT26/3
*this class has 19 or 20mm dia x 10mm wide rear tires - measured at contact patch.

Early Nostalgic Division - (END) (Scalextric, Fly, Etc. - early '70s cars)
Lotus 72c low rear wing, Tyrell 002 low rear wing
*this class has 22mm dia x 12mm wide rear tires - measured at contact patch.

Mid Nostalgic Division - (MND) (Scalextric, Fly, Etc. - mid '70s cars)
Ferrari 312t2 low wing, McLaren m23 low wing
*this class has 18mm dia x 15.5 wide rear tires - measured at contact patch.

Modern Division - (MD)
Scalextric A1 GP

Scratchbuilt Narrow Division - (SND)
Open to scratchbuilt F1 cars with narrow rear tires

Scratchbuilt Wide Tire Division - (SWD)

Feel free to copy this list and print it out if you'd like.

============Bill

A new class has been added to the cars we race at the Odd Thursday Night races. Class 7 - USRRC /Can Am Class has been added as one of the rotating classes along with Classic Sports Car, GT, Trans Am, and F1. Please check out the rules, any questions should be directed to the class sponsors Gary Goose Gossett and Greg Greenman Petrolati. Time will be allowed for racers to get cars together, so watch the schedule for the date of the first USRRC / Can Am race!

===========Bill

I have added Class Sponsors to each of the car classes listed for competition in Odd Thursday Night races. Questions regarding the rules for a particular class should be directed to the class sponsor(s) of that class. Rules interpretations will also be directed to class sponsors.

Aug.27th - The racing in last night's Odd Thursday race was extremely close! Highlights of the night included a Birthdday Boy celebration for Mitch, and my successful completion of adding a late racer to our computerized racer line up (finally)! In the Trans Am race the difference between first and eleventh was less than 5.5 laps! The same was true for the GT Class race with a spread of less than 3.5 laps between second and tenth! The Goose swept the night scoring two more wins and proving once again, Geese truely do fly! New racer Cash Shepski showed great improvement in his car control skills, increasing his previous race average by 10 laps! We only raced two classes so the racing was over early and the bench racing started around 9:00pm. All in all it was a fun night and I had a great time! Thank you to all that made it out!

Results:

Trans Am:
1st Goose Gossett 53.5 laps
2nd Bill Bostic 52.5
3rd  Greg Petrolati 52.4
4th Rico Locati 51.2
5th  Dennis Hart 51.1
6th  Jeff Fields 50.9
7th  Monte Saager 50.6
8th  Glenn Heath 50.5
9th  Amy Fields 50.3
10th Al Christensen 48.2
11th Mitch Brooks 48.1
12th Bryan Dickerson 46.3
13th Victoria Saager 46.2
14th Cash Shepski 44.2

GT Class:
1st Goose Gossett 58.5
2nd Jeff Fields 56.1
3rd Glenn Heath 55.7
4th Rico Locati 55.3
5th tie Monte Saager 55.0
5th tie Bryan Dickerson 55.0
7th Bill Bostic 53.9
8th Greg Petrolati 53.0
9th Dennis Hart 52.8
10th Amy Fields 52.7
11th Al Christensen 50.5
12th Mitch Brooks 48.4
13th Victoria Saager 44.2
14th Cash Shepski 41.2

I am conducting all my testing at the 10 volt setting we race at. Because I am taking readings off the rear tire the actual motor RPM is not relevant. I am looking for a reading or value that represents the upper limit of a cars performance based on Ft/Min (feet traveled per minute). Our rules specify what motors are legal by the official chart's RPM readings of motors at 12 volts. It does not attempt to specify what actual RPM the motors produce at our race voltage of 10 volts. One can assume the actual motor RPM is less than what is specified on our official chart. For a motor to be considered legal it's stated RPM rating at 12 volts must meet the specifications for the intended class. What RPM it actually makes at 10 volts is irrelevant.

I've been promoting and holding slot car races for over 35 years now. In that time I've learned that rules are an important part of a successful racing program, and that for the most part, the simpler the rules the better. Here at TooBad Motorplex the written rules ar simple, and even those are loosely enforced. That has resulted in some great racing on odd Thursday nights. However as we develope and refine our cars, and improve our driving skills on the race course, the racing becomes closer. As the racing tightens up the rules become more important as a car's performance becomes more of a factor as skill levels equalize.

At the last race I stated for a car/driver to claim an official win, the car must be compliant to all the rules. What bothers me the most about out of spec car wins is that it skews the race statistics. A lap record is of no value if it cannot possibly be met or broken by a legally prepared car. So that brings us to rule enforcement, and I just totally HATE that! It seems lately the biggest issue with the rules seems to be motors that are above spec, producing more RPM than allowed by the rules.

I am currently conducting some testing using a hand held mechanically driven electronic tachometer. My goal is to come up with a "spec" number to use as a guide to determine if a particular car's motor is within the rules. Where this becomes difficult is in obtaining a measurement from a car without total disassembly and removal of the motor. I addition to RPM, this particular instrument I have measures in FT/MIN. I have found that the FT/MIN reading may be usefull as the reading can be obtained without disassembly of the car, by measuring rear wheel speed. I understand that there are other variables that affect the rear wheel reading such as tire diameter, friction, and gear ratios. From testing I have seen that these variables do not have a great affect on the FT/MIN readings. The RPM readings on the other hand vary much more according to tire diameter and gearing, and the readings also fluctuate more as the car runs. To date I have test data from more than 60 cars of all makes and configurations.

I will continue with the testing and may even try to validate the test results at the next race. Please keep in mind NOTHING is really changing at TooBad in regards to the current rules. The testing to be done is simply accomplished, and will only be required of the "official" winning car. The Traction Magnet Rule for new and less experienced racers that have not won a race is still in effect. The only difference is in my data collection as cars with traction magnets will not be elligible for establishing records (excluding the BRM Porsche 962 Class). In addition there are other reasons a racer may wish to race a car that is out of compliance with the class rules, such as car developement and testing for another race or track. TooBad's policy of WHAT a racer can race or put on the track is not changing. What is changing is a car's elligibility for an "official win".

==========Bill