Topic: Slot's n' Brauts - 2016
After the heavy rains of Saturday we expected more of the same for Sunday but were pleasantly surprised to be rain free for the day with partly cloudy giving way to bright sunshine by afternoon. Dogs and brauts were grilled by the dozen, food was a-plenty and no one went hungry. No one even tried.
And after some practice and a good stuffing teams were formed and rules were discussed. The new rule this year was to reduce the plowing habit. Drivers would actually need to try and pass rather than just boost the leading car off the track. I'm OK with nerfing, it seldom results in damage, but the plowing of a slower car that can't get out of the way doesn't sit well with me. So we threatened penalties for the plow drivers. I'm pleased to say the threat of a penalty seemed to work wonders and none were handed out though a few were suggested by the competitors (imagine that).
Finally, colored leis were handed out so teams could easily be identified and it was time to rumble!
On the track, despite a false start or two, teams were putting down laps with ferocious abandon, managing the fuel situation and working like teams.
At the half way point we stopped for a 15 minute break to manage a little car servicing and cheesecake. Wonderful cheesecake.
After three hours there was only a 30 lap gap from first to last. And in that final hour teams were on the attack going after the leaders. Unfortunately half-way through the last hour gremlins attacked resulting in program failure. The race was concluded at the halfway point with no way to resurrect the results of the half-heat.
Here are those results based on the first three hours:
Team 4 - 1183 laps
Tracy
Monte
Victoria
Levi *
Todd
Team 1 - 1164 laps
Mitch
Mike
Al
Kasia *
Ivan *
Team 3 - 1153 laps
Terry
Greg G.
Jessica
Rock *
Hannah *
Team 2 - 1153 laps
Greg P.
Lance
Dorothy
Jacob *
First I'd like to thank Victoria for countless hours of planning and preparation not to mention all those sausages we had to try just to decide which to use. A big thanks to my daughter Jessica for quite a bit of the food prep not to mention the Cheesecake. And thanks to Bill who didn't have time to stay and race but did make sure the BBQ was plumbed so we could all eat hot food. I was able to wrangle one of Dorothy's cheesecake bites and a couple of the chocolates I favor and then they were gone. And finally thanks to all the rest of the contributors.
Thanks for coming, we'll hope to do this again next year.
* New racer