1,026

(3 replies, posted in The NASTE Library)

Thank you Bill for getting this new portion of our site rolling. This should be an amazing reference for years to come.

Cash prizes.  So we're racing with professionals!

1,027

(29 replies, posted in NASTE)

Maybe Dorothy needs more rum balls.

1,028

(29 replies, posted in NASTE)

Dorothy did not finish second in a race with the experts but her total from the "amateur" race was so high that it placed her second overall.  As I understand it. 

One of the problems with points series is events where there are few entrants.  I won my first rally trophy on a day when we ran an extremely difficult event not knowing any better.  There were three of us in the Novice class.  They gave us all trophies and instantly promoted us to the advanced class based on the rule of once you trophy.  Felt like we got short-changed.  But at least we got the first place trophy.

In my opinion you should not advance during the season but after/prior to the next.

However, I also did once win two classes in the same season.

1,029

(29 replies, posted in NASTE)

Exactly.

1,030

(29 replies, posted in NASTE)

The 19 is a result of the points garnered in the NASTE Challenge race, not the expert event.  As it turned out she had the second highest total regardless of division.

1,031

(29 replies, posted in NASTE)

You have all the fun!

Had a Thanksgiving dinner interrupted when I was young.  A car had smashed through the front of my dad's drugstore.  Damage was significant.

1,032

(29 replies, posted in NASTE)

Thanks Dorothy for the kind comments.   According to my wife it was the worst slot car decision I have ever made so it's unlikely we'll be doing that again any time soon.

My apologies to everyone, especially Bill who we totally failed when we didn't get his car moved to the correct lane.

I'll work on doing better.

Since the NASTE championship is a cumulative total of all events rather than an "X of so many" the most important strategy is to attend all the events.  Look at the big picture.  Think long term.  Try to use patience to get the best result each time and realize it won't always be easy nor will things always go your way. 

Two seasons ago Bill Bostic won the championship without winning a single event.  However he garnered enough second and third place finishes to be the most consistent performer.

As for myself I've won more races with good driving than I have by having the fastest car. 

I know it sounds simple but relax your pace and learn to keep your car on the track.  It will do wonders for your results.  When you can finish heats without offs, then it's time to go faster.

Speaking of formats...

I spent the past Wednesday in Tacoma visiting with Tony at Fantasy World with an intended stay-over to go to their weekly race night.  As for the racing, it was quite fun and a fun and interesting format.

By the end of the evening we would race two classes of cars - a set with IROC Fly Porsches and then a set with Slot.It Classics - I'd brought my Alfa 33//3 which was unused except for a few practice laps to make sure it ran.

Once out of FW we stopped by Tony's and he set to work adjusting my car so that it would be competitive with the locals.  Added a spacer to the gear side, changed the tires and a few minute touches here and there and it was deemed ready.  One of those touches - some motor time on his DS break-in box that automatically ramps the voltage to predetermined intervals.

After meeting up with a few of the other racers for dinner it was off to Victor's for an evening of racing.

Victor's track is a larger Scaley Sport 4-lane setup - rather familiar in layout and not too tough to get the measure of.  Good thing since I got zero practice laps.  Those that know me know that I'm ok with that.  Rally men want to experience the track in real time at full tilt.  Or something like it...


http://slotcarillustrated.com/portal/forums/picture.php?albumid=2113&pictureid=35040


So here's their race format:

A two-minute "Crash'n'Learn" heat.  One off and you are out.  They stop the time after one minute and re-slot any cars that have come off.  Then restart the heat and race another minute.  Once again, one off and your heat is over.  As for scoring, just like our Sunday program - laps plus points.  And they assign those after each minute.  Nerfing, you bet.  Taking cars out, yup.  No one complains.  All good fun.

Though this sounds like a tough format for a beginner I managed the first complete set without a single off finishing 5th out of 13 with the IROC Fly Porsches.  Felt pretty good.

The second set was the Slot.It Classics.  It was apparent right from the get-go that I had one quick car!  Won a heat or two, didn't lose too many laps to the leaders.  About halfway through I had my only off of the evening and spent a good part of a minute watching cars go by.  At the one-minute reset when my car returned to the track I vowed that wouldn't happen again and it didn't.  So I used the off-road mantra - "fast as possible, slow as necessary".  It worked out well as once again I was 5th of 13.  Not a bad night for the Oregonian!

I enjoyed the format so much that we're going to give it a try at the next NASTE race here.

That looks great, glad to see a new track!

A splendid group of racers turned out for our First Sunday despite running opposite the big football game.  Victoria made my favorite of her soup offerings, Albondigas, always a crowd-pleaser.  Dorothy showed off her new traveling snack drawer.  A fun time was had by all.

Ninco - any car, any motor
Terry Abbott - 47 pts.
Tracy Flood - 47
David Harburg - 43
Thomas Flood - 43
Dorothy Abbott - 42
Victoria Saager - 42
Monte Saager - 42
Tyler Petrequin - 41
Perry Petrequin - 40
Mitch Brooks - 39
June Petrequin - 36
Todd Flood - 34


IROC - Fly Classics - Porsche 908, 906, 908/2
Monte Saager - 40.5
Tracy Flood - 39.1
Terry Abbott - 38.5
Dorothy Abbott - 38.2
David Harburg - 36.1
Mitch Brooks - 35.6
Tyler Petrequin - 35.5
Thomas Flood - 35.0
Perry Petrequin - 34.7
Victoria Saager - 34.5
June Petrequin - 33.6
Todd Flood - 31.8

For the first Sunday race of the year 17 racers came to play.  In the first set of Ninco's Rico brought out his new bottle rocket - a shiny Ninco Megane - and promptly blew the field away.  Those  23.5K motors look pretty sharp once the car is tuned.  Monte was able to take second despite runnng a car powered by an ancient Ninco 2.  Taking a surprising third was Tyler!

Here are the results:

Rico Locati - 52 pts.
Monte Saager - 50
Tyler Petrequin - 49
Tracy Flood - 48
Terry Abbott - 47
Russell Flood - 46
Mike Lombardi - 45
Frank - 44
Thiomas Flood - 44
Victoria Saager - 44
Dennis Hart - 43
Mitch Brooks - 42
Dorothy Abbott - 40
Perry Petrequin - 39
David Harburg - 37
Jimmy Jones - 37
Todd Flood - 37


In the second set we raced Fantasy World Tony's Racer 250 LM's.  They are great cars to race with many heats having all three cars on the same lap.  Taking top honors was Monte followed closely by Terry with Tracy in third.  There was just a 4 lap spread between the top 10!

Monte Saager - 44.0 laps
Terry Abbott - 43.0
Tracy Flood - 42.8
Rico Locati - 42.3
Tyler Petrequin - 41.5
Mike Lombardi - 41.3
Russell Flood - 40.8
Thomas Flood - 40.2
Fearless Frank - 40.1
Victoria Saager - 40.0
Dave Harburg - 39.8
Dennis Hart - 39.5
Mitch Brooks - 39.4
Todd Flood - 39.1
Dorothy Abbott - 39.0
Jimmy Jones - 37.2
Perry Petrequin - 36.9

Thanks Rico, we all had a great time too!

1,039

(12 replies, posted in NASTE)

Awesome job, this is a wonderful resource.

1,040

(2 replies, posted in NASTE)

That's the spirit trooper!  Victoria commented that everyone seemed to be getting the groove.  (She didn't realize the cars had magnets ;-)

1,041

(2 replies, posted in NASTE)

It went like this:

Lightning: 518
Thunder Hammer: 516

and
The 5 Storms: 492

I'm gonna go work on the track and get that fast lap bit under control for next time.  Among other things.

A fine field of 12 racers turned out for the First Sunday in November.  Two races were run - the Ninco class and the IROC class featuring the Racer Ferrari 250 LM's generously sent down by Fantasy World Tony.

Ninco Class:
Rico Locati - 50 pts.
Tracy Flood - 48
Tyler Petrequin - 47
Russell Flood - 45
Dennis Hart - 44
Greg Petrolati - 44
Perry Petrequin - 42
Victoria Saager - 42
Monte Saager - 40
Thomas Flood - 40
Todd Flood - 35
Jimmy Jones - 31


IROC Class
Russell Flood - 42.7 laps
Rico Locati - 41.7
Tracy Flood - 41.7
Monte Saager  40.6
Greg Petrolati - 40.5
Tyler Petrequin - 40.0
Thomas Flood - 39.6
Dennis Hart - 39.2
Victoria Saager - 39.0
Jimmy Jones - 38.2
Todd Flood - 38.0
Perry Petrequin - 37.9

1,043

(15 replies, posted in NASTE)

A handful indeed.  I think I hand my hands full of it a few times too.  A fun event.  I'm also glad to see both of my cars survive despite the Dragula taking a header into the top bank rail.  It also survived unscathed!  A few minor adjustments and both should be fine for next year.

Thanks to all involved, we had a great time.

It was nice to see some of the kids come in costume.  And the Bill-mobile with all those lights, fantastic!

1,044

(15 replies, posted in NASTE)

Hey, I started early and I'm STILL not ready.  I feel your pain.

1,045

(6 replies, posted in Slot Talk)

Easy there big fella!  Don't pick on us old guys.

1,046

(6 replies, posted in Slot Talk)

Too freaking cool!  Now there's your head start program in action.

Nicely done, by both of you.

1,048

(8 replies, posted in NASTE)

What a crowd!  That was a fun time, enjoyed myself greatly.  Food was great!  Congrats to Flyin' Bryan on the win.  And it was good to see Dorothy and Tyler get a little extra time.

1,049

(2 replies, posted in Penguin Point Raceway)

He looked pretty big to me.

1,050

(2 replies, posted in Penguin Point Raceway)

It was a most beautiful and unusual day at Penguin Point yesterday.  The weather was in the 70's with clear, blue skies.  The track had been just cleaned and was ready to race.  A somewhat smaller field of 8 racers arrived to do battle and what a battle it was.  In the first set Victoria stunned the crowd with a second place finish.  But as we would soon learn, she was just getting started, but I digress.

For the first round we ran our standard Ninco class - any Ninco, any motor.  And once again Tracy maintained his recent dominance in the Ninco class heading the field with a fine score of 51 points.

Tracy Flood - 51 pts.
Victoria Saager - 50
Rico Locati - 49
Russell Flood - 47
Greg Petrolati - 46
Monte Saager - 43
Todd Flood - 36
Thomas Flood - 36

For the second set it was time for something different.  We took three Carrera classic spo's ca's (Aston Martin, Ferrari 166MM, Mercedes) and reversed their switch and ran the track backwards.  For the very first time.  That no one had any experience in this direction was quickly obvious.

Halfway through the first heat as Monte was trying to guide the slicker-than-deer-guts-on-a-door-knob Aston Martin around the track he was chased away from the racing area by bees!  And in true Top Gear style his competitors (Rico and Tracy) were happy to continue racing in his absence.  His resultant 6-lap total would prove hard to equal.  Especially after the first set when he foolishly suggested they might want to sand some tires.

In an amazing turn of events, Victoria took to the reverse direction like she owned it stunning the field for her FIRST EVER WIN!  Congratulations Victoria.  Clearly you've just been going the wrong direction.

Victoria Saager - 39 pts.
Rico Locati - 38
Greg Petrolati - 38
Tracy Flood - 37
Todd Flood - 36
Thomas Flood - 34
Russell Flood - 33
Monte Saager - 33

And the food was pretty good too!