Australian Slot Car Racers Association

Hi All,

Well racers came from every corner of the globe to contest the very first 4 hour Enduro for CanAm Aussie Retro.

The venue was HSC and the racing was on the absolutely brilliantly prepared Short Track which is just the ultimate track for Retro racing.

I have said it before but it bears repeating that we racers are extremely fortunate to have James Colfax as owner of HSC. He is a racer himself and James and I first met racing at Rushcutters Bay Bowling Alley (another great little track) in our early teens – I have known James longer than anybody else excepting family. Cutting to the chase however; as a racer he is meticulous in track preparation for the races he holds; I appreciate it immensely as do others.

There were questions aplenty regarding the cars and motors as they had not ever had a 4 hour test since we started racing them at the very same track on Saturday night, 16th August 2008. A few years ago there were a couple of 2 hour races but these are really just glorified sprints in my opinion – 4 hours would be a bit of a real test for the cars and a great race to boot.

Eight teams comprising 19 drivers in total signed up for the battle as follows.

FASTUFF (Mark Fox and Stoo Amos)
Southern Racing (Paul Ring, Bill Wall and Wayne)
EBO (Neil Bolton and Gregg Erskine)
RACEWORLD (Wayne B and Cody B)
Ric’s Raiders (Steve King, Darryl Toole and Kevin Sherwood)
RAZ (Ron Griffin, Ando and Ziggy)
BJ (Brad Yarrow and Jake)
On The Buses (Stevo and 'Sir' Richard)

Team Raceworld (father and son Brambles) promised to be thorny challengers as did the reformed Team Fastuff (Fox Amos Stuff). Southern Racing have form in the sprints around HSC and Bill always make a great car and on his day Paul is an unstoppable force on a controller whilst Wayne was a dark horse. Ric’s Raiders with Darryl building and backed by Steve King and Kevin were a bit of a good thing with the bookies. BJ were obviously going to be in contention and it was good to see Jake team up with Brad as we had not seen Jake for a while and Brad always gives it a good shake. Neil had been carefully cultivating Gregg’s driving talents from years past for Team EBO (pronounced EeeeeeeBO – as many ‘e’s as you like here). Whilst Reg Varney was unavailable for ‘On the Buses’ anything can happen in races like this and Stevo and Sir Richard (demoted from ‘King’) are fast and enthusiastic (and also erratic on occasion). Team RAZ was a team of relative newbies as Ron and Ando had limited experience on the track whilst to my knowledge this was to be Ziggy’s first showing on this tricky track.

So it was and we set off to race on a cool Sunday morning in so called Dry July (but not dry on my account at least).

The tech inspection garnered the following information (if I got it wrong let me know and I will edit but it was a bit hectic for me being chief cook and bottle washer on the day). Starting Lane was decided by a drawing of tokens and so off we set: -

BJ Red
EBO White
Southern Racing Green
Ric’s Raiders Orange
RACEWORLD Blue
FASTUFF Yellow
On The Buses Purple
RAZ Black The race got off to an inauspicious start with the race computer system crashing after the first bracket on the lane change #%&$$#@*&%.

Anyhow once the problem was solved we restarted the race.

Well the story of what unfolded is shown in the race sheet and to summarise it was FASTUFF all the way blitzing the field. Most laps on all lanes. Fastest lap on all lanes and most laps in every bracket regardless of what lane we were on (except Black as we were just cruising here - nursing the 120 lap lead we had established.

RACEWORLD, Ric’s Raiders and BJ were mixing it up early on and it was not until the 6th bracket that the smoke cleared a to have RACEWORLD peg down 2nd spot and Ric’s Raiders 3rd after hitting Purple and Black.

After starting on Purple and Black On The Buses clawed their way to 4th just 2 laps ahead of BJ who struck some issues in the 7th bracket to finish in 5th spot. Team RAZ went really well to come home 6th and for my money this was a great result given the limited amount of experience on this track.

EeeeeeeeeeeeeeeBO hit a little trouble but managed to finish on top of the absolutely luckless Southern Racing who hit major dramas in the 7th bracket and retired. The Podium L-R
2nd RACEWORLD, 1st FASTUFF and 3rd Ric's Raiders. Modesty prevents me from describing how good it was (if you believe that you will believe anything) the car was great and I reckon Stoo and I were on fire with our drives. Stoo drove as well (if not better) as he has ever done in the 45 years I have known him and of course I was superb .

As part of the wrap I can say that this race was fantastic and I can’t wait to do it again – win, lose or draw as they say.

The motors easily last 4 hours, FASTUFF motor is barely run-in and still is tracking two lines on the comm. We used only one set of tires and finished with close to legal clearance although I started the car with 840 diameter rears as I did not want to have the hassle of changing. I would really like other teams to share their experiences on this – how many tires?, motor changes?, what issues did you encounter etc.

The racing was a bit hectic and there were 55 minutes of track calls – that’s right – 55 minutes so for every 4 minutes of racing there was virtually a minute of track call. Lots of deslots under the bridge, cars on the floor, losing it entering the straight etc made for a bit of frustration all round but that’s the way of it sometimes.

I really tried to get photos of the cars – chassis top and bottom, bodies etc but if you reckon rounding up cats is hard try getting a bunch of slot car racers to organise themselves in an orderly and timely fashion.

I am missing the odd shot but if the relevant team were to provide shots of their cars - mfox54@gmail.com or MMS to 0414 790 640 I will edit this report accordingly – please do this as it was a great day and a complete record would be really neat.

FASTUFF RACEWORLD Ric’s Raiders On The Buses BJ RAZ[/b] EBO
(well the secret is out – only the bottom of Neil’s car is polished!) Southern Racing The happy winning Teams (L-R)

Third Place - Ric’s Raiders
Kevin, Darryl and Steve Second Place – RACEWORLD
Wayne and Cody First Place – FASTUFF
Stoo and Mark Well that’s it for now but remember the upcoming races as there is quite a busy couple of months ahead: -

Tuesday 25th July
SRC Round 4 for GT1 and Retro CanAm at SSME
Saturday 5th August
HSC Round 7 - ST for Coupes and F1
Saturday 12th August
Retro Nats for CanAm and F1 at HSC ST
Tuesday 22nd August
SRC Round 5 at HSC - GT1 on BT and CanAm on ST

See you all soon I hope

Good report as usual Mark, and I'd like to echo your thanks and sentiments to James on the track condition. It was impecable, and we are definitely lucky to have James and HSC to race our little toy cars with.

There were some very fast cars and teams on the day, but you, Stoo and that pink/black polka dot thing were in a class of your own.
Well done on showing us how it is done.

A big thank you to all drivers on the day, we had some good racing.

Thanks also to Darryl for preping our nice car, and for Kevin for driving with us.

As far as our car goes, Darryl is chief mechanic, and hopefully give us the low down on how it shaped up after the battle.
The body suffered a few good punches in the face, requiring some support plaster.
We also didn't change anything on the car.
Motor was good, tyres started out at around 0.835 (I think. Darryl?), and the braids were worn, but still totally usable (thanks to the great condition of the track braiding)

Roll on SSME 4hr.

Thanks Mark, as usual great report.
I concur with both you and Steve - the track was 1st class, thanks James.
Thanks to Greg for agreeing to run with me. We gelled well and probably wanted to kill each other an equal number of times.
Not only did Greg have to share the drive duties but he he had to run the pit by himself and do all the lane changes. It kept him busy and he did a great job.
I set the car up to be an easy driver. Perhaps a little porky but it was very docile. The plan was to run consistently and build laps. That went away on blue, when we caught a rider into the wall, getting hit by every car in the race and ending on the floor with a bent Warmack and a broken pan stop.
Some great work in the pit and a great deal of body tape by Greg, saw us back on the track with some work ahead of us.
Apart from that we had no equipment issues. We started with .840 Big Boys and ran them to the end. We didn't change braids. The body was knocked around a bit but with some minor repairs, it could probably be used again. The little Cheetah 4 ran hard all day carrying 135 grams. At one stage late in the day we thought it might have gone off. But it turned out the pan was dragging again. Some slick work in the pit and some more body tape by Greg saw us back on the track.
It was a great day and i hope it becomes a regular event.
BTW I could not believe the noise and excitement coming from the kids parties on the big track. Hopefully some new slot racers will come from them.
Neil

Thanks Mark.Team BJ started the race with a set of Big Daddys that had two races on them already.They still had rubber on them when I changed tires with a bit less than two brackets remaining.I only changed them after my wheel came off after trying to adjust the axle play and breaking my wheel wrench off in the wheel.My only regret is making the silly decision to solder my motor in.One hit to many and out she come.Still it did cop a few.We got through half the race with one screw holding the motor.The chassis ended up very good and the motor was brand new at the start and still is.Other so called manufactures could learn a big lesson from Plafit,but they wont.All in all we now know what the cars will do and Im pleased with the days result.I think for the next race I'll be looking for a third team member so I can have a smoke and some tucker.Regards Brad.

Thanks Mark and the guys for organising the enduro(s).

Thanks Neil for letting me do some "crash testing" of your car.

I really enjoyed having my first drive on the little flat track. I believe it only takes about 12 months to learn it properly, so you guys will have to put up with the carnage for a quite a while yet.

regards
Greg

Hi Mark and all,,,,,well Mark and Stoo drove a great race ,,setting the bar really high,,,well done. To everybody who competed ,well done,,,it made for a great day of Retro racing, and for the track,it was was perfect, must add, I'm sure James mentioned that it was Joe that prepared the track for the day,,,,he does do a lot of behind the scene stuff, so a big thanks to Joe as well as James for the day.
The car we raced was old faithful, and except for a bent guide tongue no probs. The cheetah 4 are tops ,,like others ,,no motor changes and the motor is still running in,,,amazing,,,,started with JK 0.835 and the tyres are still legal to start another race,,,,never changed the braids,,again,amazing.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,so except for body repairs,,really happy with everything
Looking forward to the next one in November with STEVE and KEVIN
Darryl

Mark, Southern racing will not be competing in the next 4 hour at SMME, Paul