Australian Slot Car Racers Association

Well,...I guess there is No Other way of starting this report apart from using More WOW's !!,..so,...WOW !!!!
As mentioned in the Last race report, regarding driving standards and Toughness,..well,...Last Night Only added to that,..it IS Getting Really Good.

22 starters turned up last night !! and we had a couple of regulars not show up and had 4 New comers, who have cars awaiting them also Not turn up, but who obviously Will,..so it looks like we could regularly be seeing fields in the High Twenties or Over 30 !!,...COOOL !!!,..

As also Noted previously, the Interest AND Intensity IS Growing and the Racing, one would Honestly have to say Last Night, in ALL Heats, Semi's and Main, was Exceptional !! The Racing by some of the Newer Racers, was Clean and consistent, with in fact some of the Scrappier (a term I use Lightly,..lol) occurring towards the Pointier end !!

So,..to the 'Event',...

Qualifying;
As can be seen from the following times, things Are getting a Lot Quicker !!
To the Point where even Wayne was wondering of Cody, "So How Many Motors did you Go through to get That One?",..ROFL
I think we are going to Have to 'Limit' Cody's Track Time !!,..
Once again, we Have a Very Narrow spread of times over the Field with Only the Very New drivers, slightly off what is becoming a Fairly 'Brisk' Pace to say the Least !!

Cody Bramble, to The annoyance of Mark Fox, Topped His fastest TQ time, with a 4.772, by 1/1000th of a second!!
Backing it up with times also good enough for TQ !!
Congrats to Cody on a Fine TQ !!
James Colfax Must also Be Extremely Happy with His 2nd Qual time of 4.942 apart from the Fact that he also managed to Just Out Qualify his Old Racing Nemesis, Mark Fox, who was 3rd Fastest qualifier with 4.943, with Wayne Bramble, last of the Sub 5.00 second Crowd 4th with a 4.951. Well Done Guys.

Lindsay Byron was Next, 5.069, with 'Form' that would Show later in the Event, Myself following with a 5.076, with young Daniel Harron ever so Close behind with a 5.077 and Dale Anderson taking the Last Semi Sit-Out, with a 5.123
It was also Great to see some of the Recent New Comers, to Both the Class and to Slot Racing, returning to Race again, especially the Youngsters Like Declan Russel and His Dad Guy and Joshua, Rob, Robin and Dennis etc...All of Whom I think once again had a Good time.

Don't be Discouraged in Any way, by your performances, in comparison to those around you!,..as at the moment, the Field of Regular Drivers racing in this Class Really are a Very Experienced and Technically 'Savvy' bunch of People Many of Whom have been doing this for Longer than we really Should Mention !!,..so you are competing against a Very High Quality Field!
It's Tough !!,..in fact reminds me of when I was Just a Youngster!,..lol

Oh and if I thought I had Raced Damn hard Last round, just to finish 7th,..well,..this one was even Harder and I Only Finished 8th !!!,..Ouch !!,...Just gotta work out how to Turn Winning My Semi, into Winning the Main,..again !!!,..


HEAT 1;.
You Know, from an Observers Point of View, both this Heat and the Other one, were Both Very good Races and in fact were Pretty Damn Clean, requiring Minimal Marshalling,...well done guys.

This was actually a Very Close fought Race, with Positions changing all over the first 5 places until quite Late in the race, with Young Declan, doing a Very good Job, driving consistently and Creeping up the placings to claim 1st, with 148 laps, closely followed by Rob, who was tussling Race long between the top three and was leading for 4 brackets 2nd on 146, again Closely followed by Dean Fraser on 144 laps 3rd and Dennis taking the Last Move Up with 141, with Matt Byron, being amongst the group that swapped places close by with 138, young Joshua has probably had better races than he had last nite, but still drove well, along with Robin, who was having a good run until a Late Race 'Freak' accident, managed to Rip one of the Side Pans completely off the car and as it was the last bracket decided it wasn't worth the effort, finishing with 120 and 102 laps respectively.

HEAT 2;
This was a Tough race, a bit more variance in lap totals, but Damn Close!!

A Race Long Duel was fought out, between Steve King (the eventual winner), (Great to see ya Back Steve!), Charles Rickards and Peter Hopkins, driving one of Mark Fox's Cars and driving Damn well !!
These guys swapped the first three places between them the whole race, with Steve ending on 172 laps, Charles 172 laps !! and Peter 168.

Hutcho had a relatively good run, to take the Last Move Up with 166 laps and seemed quite Happy with the way his New car was going.
Ivan Levanich, Bevan Halloran and Guy Russell (who was running one of my cars), brought up the rear. Bevan seemed to have some problem with his car as he did Not actually finish the last bracket and pulled out.

SEMI B;
Sheesh!,..what a Race !

I just cannot believe I came off exiting the First damn corner !!!,..Sorry Guys and personally, what a first bracket !!
I normally really enjoy Red lane and can do good laps on it, but tonight!?,..Was one of those Brackets, when you just seemed to get 'Nailed' By Flying cars and marshalled when all you did was Stop to Avoid the accident etc,...sigh.

Got My Adrenalin 'Pumping' though !!,..lol, once again Sorry guys,..now if I can Only Drie Like that in the Main,..I will be doing OK

So first Bracket, Dale's in the Lead, Hutcho is 2nd !! and and Daniel is in 3rd, with Lindsay 4th,..these positions Would change as the Semi continued, with pretty Much Everyone in this Semi Holding or having a chance at the available Move Ups, This was one Tough Semi and was very Much a 'Portent' of things to come as far as the rest of the evenings raceing was concerned, More on That Later.
So I'm 8th,..Damn annoyed I had just had such a Lousy first bracket, but feeling 'In the Zone',..so Off we Go !!,..lol

May I say I was quite 'chuffed' managing to go from 8th, to 5th after Pruple and Black ! and even Happier Managing to 'Snatch' First in the Last Bracket, to Win this Semi.,...
Close?,..Oh Yeah !!

I don't know about you guys, but I had some Damn Fine Side by side Racing with two or three of us at a number of different times for almost Whole brackets!,..Fantastic Close, Fast and annoyingly,..But Great consistent running by everyone,..There WAS 'Sweat" !!,..ROFL

The Outcome of Just This Semi?
Stoo 168
Daniel harron 167
Dale Anderson 166
Peter Hopkins 166

Taking the four Move Ups, with

Lindsay Byron 164
Steve Hutchesson 160
Dean Fraser 151
Dennis Barbato 141
Being the Initial Outcome of the Race,..I say this, as we had some interesting Happenings that changed the Final order of entrants in the main as we shall see.

Once again this Was a Great Race to watch and the first three changed places Race long.
On to,..

SEMI A;
Hmm,..Now this Was always gonna be Fast and Tough, as Due to the way the Semi Sit-Outs were allocated, this already Had the Fastest Guys in it and some Very Fast and Extremely Close Racing was seen, fighting for the 4 spots in the Main.

The Final Lap Total Outcome does in Some ways Not Really 'Reflect' The Possible or eventual Outcome, but That is another Matter and the decisions Taken by Wayne & James in this matter 'On the Nite', were quite OK, as it is How they saw the best outcome for All Involved, (or actually There at the Time), to Proceed.
As a Note, I should Not think the process of Fox 'Regaining' his 'Lost Laps' would be the 'Normal' outcome,..Normally!

So anyway,..Cody was looking like 'Blitzing' it, but got slightly Side Tracked Mid race, with Wayne Taking Command, all the While Fox was 'Snapping' at their Heels,..Until,..Bingo,..DOH !!,..Mark has a 'Homer' moment and runs Blue, (which was Free as young Declan had withdrawn) Instead of Green,..! Ouch,..No Laps,..But Ran Blue Again for the Last Bracket and one would have to suggest on his Form he would have Easily Done a 22 or 23, so Would Definitely have finished 3rd,..BUT, as we Know, Normally, it's "Good Night Irene" when you do that,..Doh !!

Mark, you were Very Lucky !!,.. Great driving though from Charles Rickards as well, as He Also was On Form an Cruising comfortably in the Upper 4 places.

There was then a Slight Gap to the others, who all seemed to be having their own little race.

Young Declan drove Steadily and ran very consistent Laps, but was perhaps a bit Tired and a bit in Awe of running in such a Fast and Much Older group of Old racers.
Well done!, great to see a few of the older guys offering helpful support during the racing as well, to many of the Younger Racers.

Cody B 178 Great Laps !!
Wayne B 177 also great laps
Charles R 171
Steve King 166
James Colefax 166 Close!
Fox 153 6th, but perhaps Really scoring 176 and therefore 3rd
Declan Russel with only 92, but pulling out after the 4th bracket.

We will Have to Start Earlier if we are to Continue with So many Entrants, if Only to allow the Younger Racers to Get Home.

So,..what happens Now,..is that Here we are, about to Have a Great Final, after a Really Great evenings Racing and 'Where Is everybody?',...Drivers,..but Not Many Marshalls !!! And some of those were relatively New and Weren't racing in the Semi's !!,..Oh well

So Wayne confers with James Re a Reassignment of Placings, as Wayne decides Not to Run in the Final, which allowing for Fox's 'Form' allows Him to Enter and James also decides Not to Run in the Final and Daniel has to Leave, thereby allowing Lindsay to Enter the Final,..Phew,..Got it?,..Clear???,...so we have a Final with a Good but Oddly arrived at set of Starters lol

The Final;
So after a bit of 'Jiggery-Pokey',..we Have
Cody Bramble
Mark Fox
Charles Rickards
Steve King
Lindsay Byron
Dale Anderson
Peter Hopkins
Stewart Amos
lining up for the Start of what was a Very Tough Race.

Once again,..Cody Grabbed this Race by the Throat and didn't let go from the first bracket onwards and had established the 'Margin', by about the 3rd bracket
This race had Mark, Charles, Steve and especially Lindsay all tussling for the places below Cody,..Lindsay doing an especially Great job in only his 2nd Retro race here, (but experience tells!!,..lol), and running 2nd for some brackets !!

There was some Pretty good and Serious driving going on for the Whole Race and one would have to say it Was definitely another Great Race, with the Standard Now Definitely set apparently, consistently Higher than Not that Long ago.
One Has to Stay On AND be Fast !!,...Damn Hard That,...

After being so 'Charged' after my Semi Win, I was feeling OK and driving relatively well, having made it up tp 4th at one stage but Just could Not 'Match' the Totals set by Others on Purple and Black, even though I did OK in the semi,..so I ended up Driving Even Harder than Last time and Ended up One place Lower !!!,..Ouch,..the Final Outcome?

Cody Bramble 266
Mark Fox 260
Steve King 259
Lindsay Byron 259
Charles Rickards 258
Dale Anderson 255
Peter Hopkins 252
and Woe is Me,..Boo Hoo,..Last with 251,..

Close?,..Sure was at times and when one looks at the individual lap/Lane totals, seems one Now needs to consistently Need to be doing 33's and 34's Every Bracket,..and as we All Know,..that Means NOT Coming Off at ALL in Each Bracket. !!!
Once again there were Many Brackets of Great Neck and Neck racing or Brackets where you didn't get passed or Pas Anyone, 'cos everyone Else was lapping as fast !!,..lol
Do these Guys Race well ???,..Oh Yeah !! And a couple of Hot Shots weren't even Here Tonight !!

So as I keep 'Harping on about',..the racing Is already Great and appears to be getting even Better !!,...This is getting Tough for an Old Bugger !!! ROFL

See ya at the Next Round !!

Pics to Come,..(although I was Not 'On the Case' last Night), I think SteveK and Others have taken some, so we should be able to Throw a few up here and at the Retro Site

I'll second that WOW

Thanks to Wayne and James for a great nights racing and any issues people might take with your format or timing I understand its impossible to keep everyone happy so keep up the top work

I had the pleasure of driving a Fox original and I can only say it was better than anything I have driven on that track and allowed me to see just how far my driving could take me

Needless to say I was wrapped to make the main and take 7th over Stoo (which was my only reall goal to finish better than 8th)

My highlight was the 7th bracket in the main when me and Dale ran for 3 mins with no more than 2 mtrs bettwen us and no crashes and I dont know about Dale but I was not crusing

As to the length of the night I wonder if a few more drivers would warrant a B grade

Now where is that Jig I need to see if I can build a chassis as nice ans Marks

Pete

Yeah, same again from me. A great night of slot cars with great people, and great report Stoo.

Fox deserved to be in the final, and Wayne was gracious and good sporting enough to stand down to allow Mark to step in, and he proved the point by running a tough second place behind Cody.

I think we have to handicap Cody some how. Maybe an eye patch over one or both eyes might help us. He is on fire with that Warmack frame and carpark motor.

Also, well done to Lindsay for being so tough on the track, in only his second Retro race on that track. I was only able to pip him out for third because he ended on Purple and Black lanes. A future force to be reckoned with, I reckon.

My only downside on the night is that most of the drivers from earlier heats racked off home when they were done, and made it less enjoyable from a marshalling stand point in the main. We need you guys to hang around and help finish off the night. Rant over!!

Looking forward to my next outing.

Great Stuff,

I am stunned that Pete was able to back up after all day fencing our track.

The look on the guys faces in the semi during the first turn crash was funny (some shock and some laughing).

Yep Plucka I was pretty beat by the time it was all over

I am probably grinning at the first turn crash because I managed to sneak past on black and get a bit of a break while the rest of the field was being tidied up (Thanks Stoo)

How did your party go? is the track running now?

Pete

We had a power supply issue and the relays were wired up wrong but after the party i fixed the relay issue and the power supply from the Drag strip is being borrowed.

All in all it is up and running

What time does the racing usually start?

Talking about 6pm for the next one, seeing as so many are turning up.

Last Saturday night we started about 7:30ish, and the final completed about 11:30ish I think.
Must admit that I didn't really check the time, but it was late.

Gee, I hadn't Realisd you were working on the Track all day Pete,..Long Day !!

Track Looks Great Paul !!

I hope it Proves to be So, for the Racing and the Business !!

YTeah it was a bit late,..then again it's all a bit Relaxed as well, so a slightly Earlier start can't Hurt, iy has often been Past 7.30 when we get going.

Paul, if you Happen to have the Opportunity to Drop Over on a Race Night,..Please Do !!,..There are More than enough Good 'Loaner' cars From Fox or Myself, let alone One of HSC's.

Be More than Happy to Have You,..

I am hoping that after Easter i can get a leave pass for the night and head out for the nights racing and absorb as much as possible about these D3 cars.

I already have a HDD packed full of info and plan to build one soon.

the invite is much appreciated and even though i am not as seasoned a racer as some these cars look like a tonne of fun to not only race but to build and would be a welcomed change to the day to day building of Drag Cars (not that i am saying that is boring but change is good).

Paul,

The track has come up very well. I wonder if you would be interested in runing some D3 racing at some stage in the future ? The track would be real fun for these types of cars.

Regards,

hutch at movsd dot com

Hutch,

I would seriously entertain the idea of running D3 cars on the new track.

I think that would be great (as long as it did not affect what Wayne and James (hmm for some reason the brain was thinking its David) are doing at Hornsby).

We could attract new racers possibly here that could travel to Hornsby once a month and then here.

That would Rock.

Plucka

Well, I am almost SURE, that Wayne and James,..Let Alone the Rest of Us Racers,..in Many Classes, Not just Retro/D3, would both welcome and enjoy the Possibility of Racing somewhere Else !!

I reckon Flexi's would be Huge around that Track as well as Many Other classes of Cars.

Must admit, having the Big Turn Flat sure is interesting, compared to Other Kingleman style tracks that have that Turn slightly Banked.

When younger, (as many of the current Retro Racers did also), we Had to Have to Travel to Quite a Few different Tracks around Sydney and as I was reminiscing with LindsayB the other Night, Not Many of them were actually Very Good,..Chester Hill, was a Scary Place !!,..lol, Yagoona,..Oh My, it was so Big and Sooo Far to walk to Put your Car back on, but there Were Good places too.

It can ONLY Make the Slot Racing Scene Better for all, with More People Racing at More Tracks,..Plus it is Challenging and Often very enjoyable to Race on a Different and Good Track.
It Makes you a Better Driver and especially in the Retro 'Scratchbuilders' Class, Perhaps the Necessity of Building a Chassis 'Specifically' for that Track AND for the general interaction and skill/Info swapping that always occurs when Like Minded slot car addicts get together!

No Rush,..Nothing Worse than having a foreign bunch of 'Wankers' turn up and Whinge !!,..lol

Let us know when you and/or a few extra of Your interested Racers want to come and have a Look/Race in Retro (If they do !!??) and I am sure we will try and accomodate Car wise,..it's just Great to Have New Faces/New Interest etc

Great Stuff !!

Paul,

That would be great. I would not worry about effecting the scene at Hornsby as the distance is simply too far to have any effect. The other thing is that with more tracks to race on it works to the advantage of the track owners as this generates more people who are interested in racing which in turn creates more customers.

I say this with some experience as in the 60s when I raced for Dawn Trading there were still over 200 tracks in Sydney and the large number of tracks produced a very large number of customers.

The virtue of D3 style racing is it is within range of many people as the cost of owning and racing the cars is far lower than most classes of wing cars, the other factor is that the D3 type cars still look like cars where most people cannot even see wing cars when they are running let alone afford them or drive them.

Regards,

hutch at movsd dot com