Amy took some great photos during the move. Thought I'd share some of them here.

Thank you Amy!

The first thing we did was cover both track pieces. I did not want to take any chance of water damage if it started raining. Of course it never did start raining but, if we would not have covered the track it surely would have!
http://www.naste.org/members/bill/tm1.jpg

We moved the section of track that was located closest to the overhead door down the driveway and under the carport. This gave us enough room to get the larger piece loaded onto Howie's car trailer first. The plan was if it did not fit into Howie's trailer we would try to fit it into the U-Haul. I knew the smaller section would fit into the trailer or the U-Haul easily. The larder section was the wild card!
http://www.naste.org/members/bill/tm2.jpg

I had hoped for at least 12 people for the move. Thanks to AWESOME friends we exceeded that number!
http://www.naste.org/members/bill/tm3.jpg

More photos from Zack.

http://www.naste.org/members/bill/doc4.jpg

http://www.naste.org/members/bill/doc5.jpg

A big thanks to Zack Morgan for these great photos from today's race!

http://www.naste.org/members/bill/doc1.jpg

http://www.naste.org/members/bill/doc2.jpg

http://www.naste.org/members/bill/doc3.jpg

Had a birthday party for our grandson to attend today, but this morning I got all the tools moved back into the shop. It's a little bit tight on space right now but, my plan is to raise the track up about 5 inches from where it currently sits. That extra few inches will give me a lot of valuable storage space underneath!

1,955

(5 replies, posted in Events)

I have my hotel reservation!

I have a vacant seat if anyone is interested in going down for this year's Fray!

We missed you Doc. We finished up around 3 or 3:30. I took the U-Haul back around 4-ish I think.

More move photos from Howie:

http://www.naste.org/members/bill/IMG_0405cf.jpg

http://www.naste.org/members/bill/IMG_0406cf.jpg

http://www.naste.org/members/bill/IMG_0408cf.jpg

http://www.naste.org/members/bill/IMG_7486.jpg

A huge thanks to all the folks that came out today to help with the track move! I am very lucky to have such great friends and to be part of the awesome slot car racing community here in the Northwest!

Thank you Bob McFarland for allowing me to take over the stewardship of Checkered Flag Raceway! I will strive to continue its great tradition and PASER heritage, and to make it available for slot car racing enthusiasts throughout the Northwest.

Thank you to Howie for these photos from the move:

Yes, it was as close as it looks in the photo! Howie had less than 3 inches from either gate post, and about 2 inches under that TV dish! Awesome backing job Howie! It was about that close backing in the 20 foot U-Haul also! It was definitely a team effort getting the rigs backed up to the shop!
http://www.naste.org/members/bill/IMG_0403cf.jpg

1,959

(9 replies, posted in Events)

Stan, I apologize again for having this track move scheduled for the day of your race, but I just need to get it done ASAP. I'm really going to miss this race because I was looking forward to checking out your track. Hopefully I will be able to make it next time.
=======Bill

Well the upstairs is crammed full! I also rolled most of my tools into the house garage to get everything out of the way for track assembly. It will not look this way for long!

The shop awaits the arrival of InSlot's Checkered Flag...............Delivery tomorrow!

http://www.naste.org/members/bill/IMG_7481.jpg

A couple of videos from the racing on January 17th:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da5q5MnCtDA&t=3s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeGXGKJIlRY&t=9s

It was great to have the BRM 1/24 Group C cars back on the track.
http://www.naste.org/members/bill/IMG_7477.jpg

Racing these cars is just way too much fun!
http://www.naste.org/members/bill/IMG_7479.jpg

Would you buy a used slot car from this guy?
http://www.naste.org/members/bill/IMG_7465.jpg

Around the room at Rippin' Ridin' Raceway. Starting at left Doc, Rico "Chet" Locati, Kevin, Monte, Chris, and Jake.
http://www.naste.org/members/bill/IMG_7472.jpg

Left to right: Kevin, Monte, and Chris.
http://www.naste.org/members/bill/IMG_7473.jpg

Around the room from the left: Jeff, Rico, Kevin, Monte, Al, and Jake.
http://www.naste.org/members/bill/IMG_7474.jpg

Daniel "Doc" Fritz turn marshalling the back straight.
http://www.naste.org/members/bill/IMG_7467.jpg

Jeff "The Kid" Fields turn marshalling the banked curve.
http://www.naste.org/members/bill/IMG_7469.jpg

Chris Kouba on the left. Jake "The Snake" on the right. Keven Lagassa and Monte "Smooth" Saager in the background.
http://www.naste.org/members/bill/IMG_7471.jpg

A few of the racers at last night's race. Left to right: Al, Kevin, and Jake.
http://www.naste.org/members/bill/IMG_7463.jpg

The view from the driver's perspective at Rippin' Ridin' Raceway.
http://www.naste.org/members/bill/IMG_7464.jpg

Daniel on the left side of the back straight, Rico on the right.
http://www.naste.org/members/bill/IMG_7466.jpg

NASTE 2019 Point Series Championship Race No.8 @ Rippin' Ridin' Raceway January 17, 2019

Le Mans Class:
1 Rico 72.7 Laps - 11 points
2 Al   72.6 - 10 pts.
3 Monte   71.3 - 9 pts.
4 Daniel  70.5 - 8 pts.
5 Chris  69.9 - 7 pts.
6 Bill  68.9 - 6 pts.
7 Jeff  68.3 - 5 pts.
8 Zack   66.7 - 4pts.
9 Mitch  64.6 - 3pts.
10 Kevin Lagassa  59.8 - 2 pts.
11 Jake  55.8 - 1 pt.

Current Standings for the 2019 NASTE Point Series Championship After 8 Races:

1st Monte - 69 points
2nd Al  - 66 pts.
3rd Rico  - 52 pts.
4th Daniel  -46 pts.
5th Mitch  - 31 pts.
6th Bill  - 30 pts.
7th Jeff - 25 pts.
8th Chris - 17 pts.
9th Greg   - 16 pts.
10th Zack - 13 pts.
11th Stan  - 11 pts.
12th - tie Gary  - 9 pts.
12th - tie Fernando  - 9 pts.
14th - tie Jake - 3 pt.
14th - tie Kevin Lagassa - 3 pt.
16th  Farmer Bryan Dickerson - 2 pts.
17th - tie Terry Redeau  - 1pt.

We had eleven racers at last night's Odd Thursday race. The first race of the evening was the GT3 Class. Although Al won the race by almost a two lap margine, the rest of the field was pretty close. Second place was a tie for lap count with Jake beating out Monte with a quicker fastest lap time. This class will be one of the point series classes starting with the next race. Here are last night's results for GT3:

GT3:
1 Al   71.4 Laps
2 Jake   69.1
3 Monte  69.1
4 Rico  66.1
5 Mitch  65.2
6 Chris  65.0
7 Bill  63.2
8 Zack 62.5
9 Daniel  61.9
10 Jeff  61.4
11 Kevin Lagassa  53.6

After the GT3 race the Le Mans Class cars were lined up for the point series race of the evening. This week Rico showed everyone he was on his game by taking the win. Al finished second just one tenth of a lap behind Rico, and Monte finished third just another seven tenths of a lap behind Al. This class provides some very close racing!

Le Mans Class - NASTE 2019 Point Series Championship Race No.8:
1 Rico 72.7 Laps
2 Al   72.6
3 Monte   71.3
4 Daniel  70.5
5 Chris  69.9
6 Bill  68.9
7 Jeff  68.3
8 Zack   66.7
9 Mitch  64.6
10 Kevin Lagassa  59.8
11 Jake  55.8

It had been quite sometime since we last raced the BRM 1/24 Group C cars, but last night they returned to the track, and in full furry! We had a blast thrashing these old beasts! It's been too long!

1/24 BRM Group C Class Results:
1 Rico 75.0 Laps
2 Chris   73.9
3 Al   73.0
4 Daniel  71.6
5 Mitch  68.9
6 Bill  63.3
7 Zack  59.3
8 Kevin Lagassa  58.2

1,969

(139 replies, posted in Rapid Raceway)

Thanks for the soldering tips DC. I struggle with the soldering of chassis!

1,970

(139 replies, posted in Rapid Raceway)

Very nice chassis DC!

I fixed the photo for you by uploading it to the website. It did display fine by clicking on the link you supplied.

1,971

(91 replies, posted in Race Rules)

........AND how big the screws are!

Good suggestions Monte.

NEW RULE added to Official Rules under General Rules:

7. All screws that pass through the bottom of a car's chassis will have their heads taped over. This is to prevent them from falling out onto the track surface should they become loose. This includes the heads of body mounting screws, as well as chassis motor pod mounting screws, or any other screws accessible or visible from the underside of the chassis.

Electrical tape works very well for this application. I will see that there is tape on hand at Al's Rippin' Ridin' Raceway for those that do not have any. Same will be true for InSlot's Checkered Flag when it is up and running.

This rule will be enforced at future races on InSlot's Checkered Flag.

1,974

(91 replies, posted in Race Rules)

NEW RULE added to Official Rules under General Rules:

7. All screws that pass through the bottom of a car's chassis will have their heads taped over. This is to prevent them from falling out onto the track surface should they become loose. This includes the heads of body mounting screws, as well as chassis motor pod mounting screws, or any other screws accessible or visible from the underside of the chassis.

Electrical tape works very well for this application. I will see that there is tape on hand at Al's Rippin' Ridin' Raceway for those that do not have any. Same will be true for InSlot's Checkered Flag when it is up and running.

This rule will be enforced at future races on InSlot's Checkered Flag.

I think the last event we had with PSSRA was for the early Scalextric F1 cars. That's where our NASTE F1 class started. It was a two day event scheduled on two different Saturdays if I remember correctly. One Saturday the PSSRA group came down to Oregon for the first race at TooBad in the morning. Then we all loaded up and drove out to Monte's for the second race (I think - memory is a little foggy). On another Saturday we all carpooled up to Tacoma and raced there all day on two different tracks. I do remember very accurately that it was a total blast!