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Monday Open Track days are going well. Attendance throughout the day and evening is good. I'm having a good time.

So here's what I see as the overall goal for Open Track Mondays at Inslot's Checkered Flag Raceway:

1. Provide ample time for all racers in attendance to practice and tune cars.

2. Have a minimum of two short races during the day and evening. These races will be designed to allow racers to compare their skill and equipment to other racers.

3. Keep the atmosphere low key and casual.

With those three goals in mind here are three classes of cars we will be racing. These classes are nothing new, and will be used for the short races. They are existing classes with some changes allowed specifically for running at Checkered Flag.

1. 4.5 Flexi NASCAR. This is the Northwest True Scale racing class. 4 inch chassis will be allowed at Checkered Flag.

4.5 FLEXI NASCAR General rules

BODIES

Body must completely cover the frame and guide flag, from both top and front views.
All wheel openings must be cut open to reveal the full tire. Must have clear windows and a painted 3-dimensional driver figure. NASCAR paint styles with three numbers are required. Body height is 1.750”, measured from bottom of chassis to center of roof.

FRAME

Any 4.5 stamped steel chassis. Chassis may be modified to run a 1/8th inch axle. Wheel base must not exceed 4.5”. Frame may be weighted and reinforced. Frame may be bent. Motor plate may be slotted. Lead wire restraints may be soldered to frame. Pin tubes no longer than 1.25” may be soldered to frame to attach body. No other cutting or grinding is allowed. Car must have .055” ground clearance without guide flag supporting the car. Any commercial guide and wire may be used. No weighted guides.

MOTOR

Proslot #2101, 2001, 2003 or Parma 502 motor. No ball bearings. Motor may be soldered, taped or siliconed in place. Armature may be shimmed and the commutator may be trued.

AXLE AND GEARS

Cars must use 1/8” axle on the rear. Front axles may be 1/8” or 3/32”. Gears must be plastic 48 pitch. Gear ratio open. Oilites may be glued, LOCTITE’d or soldered in place. No ball bearings.

TIRES

Front: minimum allowable diameter is 13/16 (.8125). Minimum width is .500”.
Rear: Any rear tire combination may be used. Maximum track width is 3.25”. Appropriate spacers may be used to achieve this width. Minimum rear wheel diameter is .750”.

*These rules are the same as Tom’s World rules except for the motor rule which states:
“Anybody’s 16D, balanced or not.”
Checkered Flag will allow 4 inch chassis entries.

2. Production Hardbody 1:32. This is basically the NASTE Open Class (only a little more open).

Full fendered 1/32 scale RTR production sportscars  which ran in FIA, IMSA, or SCCA sanctioned events. Must use a readily available production chassis. After market 3D chassis are allowed.  Any stock unmodified production motor available for 1/32 cars. Any wheels, tires, gears, and guide flag. Bodies must be injection molded or resin cast and not vacuum molded.

3. Over 55. This is a loose (very loose) version of the NASTE Over 50 Class. Think of it as an semi-open vintage class.

Any vintage slot car that is not of an angle-winder motor configuration. Chassis may be production or scratcbuilt, but may NOT use a floppy pan design. This is to limit entries to the technology of pre-hinged pan designs.

* Lowest points of chassis must meet .055 inch minimum clearance.

* Chassis may have weight added in the form of lead pieces.

* You can NOT add side pans to the chassis.

Everything else is open. This will be a "bracket" or Break-Out" class with the break out lap time set at 6.5 seconds. If you complete any laps quicker than the break out time those laps will not be counted.

All of this is subject to change if racers think it is necessary.   =========Bill

* Rules amended 7/15/2021

Matt, yes, the shop panel runs off the house panel. I did order an "extender" that plugs into an outlet. It should be here by next Monday.

However, I think I have taken care of the connectively and programs download problem this morning. I just took the computer into the house where I could get WIFI connection. Who'd a thunk? Sometimes my stupidity is limitless!

Anyway I may have it dialed in now. I'll do some testing, maybe tomorrow. Right now I'm kind of tired of dicking with it!!!!

I don't see why not?

We could even race them together and just score them differently?

Motor speed wise there probably won't be a whole lot of difference. The biggest difference will be in chassis design improvements over the chassis made for 36Ds.

Yes, those are the current rules. Sorry I didn't post them here.

They're pretty basic. If you have an old slot car from the '60's with either a 36D motor or older motor, and it is not scratchbuilt it is probably legal.

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

I decided it was time to strip off the rubber that's been laid down since April and clean the track. I started a thorough cleaning today, including the cleaning of the braid. This also gives me the opportunity to inspect the wear and tear on the new braid. Some of you may recall my comments when I was installing the new braid about what a sloppy job I had done. My hope was that the running of cars would clean up some of the mess. Well I am happy to report that is exactly what transpired! Not only does the braid look really good now, I found no spots of damage to the braid yet. No rolling or loose spots, it all looks really good, and I am very happy with the final product!

Today it reached 79 degrees in the shop with the overhead door up/open, so I suspended my cleaning for the day. There is not much left to do so I will finish the cleaning in the morning when it is cooler. After a vacuuming, around noon I will glue the track back up with the sprayer and Bob McFarland's patented "Track Zamboni" (trust me, you'd have to see, but it works awesome!).

The overhead door will closed by 9:00AM to keep the shop cool. Track will be open at 1:00PM as usual for anyone interested.

NASTE 2021 Point Series Championship Race No.6 @ Rippin' Ridin' Raceway July 1, 2021

Race Results - LMP Class:

1 Daniel 80.6 Laps - 6 points.
2 Al 80.1 - 5 pts.
3 Rico 77.6 - 4 pts.
4 Mitch 74.4 - 3 pts.
5 Jeff 73.0 - 2 pts.
6 Greg 71.3 - 1 pt.

Current Standings for the 2021 NASTE Point Series Championship After 6 Races:

1st Al - 27 points.
2nd Daniel - 26 pts.
3rd Rico - 20 pts.
4th Zack - 13 pts.
5th Mitch - 9 pts.
6th - tie Greg - 5 pts.
6th - tie Jeff - 5 pts.
8th Tom - 4 pts.
9th Chris - 1 pt.

We had a ton of extra insulation blown into our attic in the spring of '19. It definitely paid off!

Matt, I was having trouble finding a hose kit to fit this unit. The exhaust host for the unit is 5.5" which is an oddball. Most are 5" or 6". The factory replacement hose kits are out of stock with no know restock date. I ordered a 6" universal kit and I'll just make it work.

There is a place for a drain hose for condensate, but of course I do not have the associated fittings to make that work either (buying used is not always such a good deal!). Once I get the exhaust hose connected I'll try it out and see how long it will run before it has to be drained. If that is an issue I'm sure I can jury-rig something there too!

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!

I'm planning on it Bob!