Saturday, February 11.
While waiting for the arrival of all club members for our monthly meeting, Russell took the time to snap a few shots of the track in the dark:
What a great picture! This track has Soul!
After the club meeting and some discussion about the direction to run one of the second quarter series, our members got some practice time with the BRM Megane cars. As we were about to close the practice session, our friend Lance from San Antonio showed up – Lance came by the track a couple of times but never partook in one of our races, this would be his first.
Heat #1: Right out of the gate Ary de-sloted on yellow and took Jim out on green; Shawn, on blue, escaped the accident and took an early lead. As the heat progressed, Ary and Jim had caught-up with Shawn and were all racing neck-to-neck.
The blue car was not as fast as the other two; the series mechanic will provide a full report at the end of this article.
Right at the mid-point of the race, Ary and Shawn got a little too close. Ary’s car fishtailed at the exit of the Senna esses and pushed Shawn’s car out of the slot, this would have been the second and last de-slot of the first heat. After the 5 minutes mark, all drivers had completed 66 laps.
Heat #2: Shawn stepped out and gave place to Brian, on Yellow. Ary assumed the lead early on the green lane, Jim was close behind on blue until a de-slot on lap 22. Brian raced a flawless race and finished with 66 laps, 3 feet ahead of Jim. Ary completed 69 laps and clocked a 4.278 lap, the fastest of the race.
Heat #3: Brian on green, Ary on blue and Marty on yellow. Brian and Ary started the heat ahead of Marty but it wasn’t long before the yellow car was ahead of the field. This heat saw no accidents, Marty finished with 67 laps, followed by Brian’s 66 and Ary’s 65.
Heat #4: The rotation for this race would place a driver’s first heat on the yellow lane, this was Roy’s turn. Brian, on blue, started the heat at the entrance of the straight; Marty was a few feet behind him on green. Brian was able to keep Marty behind him until lap 15. On lap 20, after a de-slot, Brian was passed by Roy. The blue car just couldn’t keep up with the competition and was lapped one more time by both competitors. The heat ended with Marty and Roy finishing 66 laps, Brian completed 65.
Heat #5: Marty, on blue, would start the heat a few inches ahead of Lance, who was in for his first heat, Roy had a clear path, starting at the entrance of the Parabolica turn on the green lane. After a few initial laps, Marty passed Roy and assumed the lead. Roy was uncomfortable driving the green Megane and was eventually lapped twice by Marty. Lance did an awesome job on his inaugural heat at our track, he had a few de-slots learning the layout and completed 61 laps. Roy finished just shy of 64 laps, behind Marty with 66.
Heat #6: Russell, Roy on blue and Lance taking his turn on the green lane. Russell bolted out of the start line and took the lead. Four laps into the heat Lance’s car stylishly slid out of the lane and almost completed a 360 turn, landing on the path of Russell’s yellow Megane, who didn’t have time to avoid the collision; both cars escaped in one piece. The race progressed with Roy chasing Russell; Lance was behind but seemed to be enjoying the race.
There was a big accident at the half-way mark, Lance’s car came out of the lane and landed sideways on Roy’s route – I don’t think that Roy even had a chance to stop. The result was a crash that probably will go to our books as one of the loudest we ever had, the front-end of the blue Megane didn’t withstand the impact and came apart, not at once but one piece every 2 or so laps (laughs).
Russell finished ahead with 66 laps, followed by Roy with 63 and Lance with 56.
Heat #7: Russell started the heat on the green lane with a 1/4 lap advantage over Kevin on yellow, which also had a 1/4 lap advantage over Lance. All racers were on the same lap until lap 17 when Russell passed Lance; Kevin did the same a few laps after. There were few de-slots throughout the heat, when the buzzer rang Russell had completed 65 laps, Kevin64 and Lance 58.
Heat#8: Shawn is now back after heat#1; Russell, on the blue lane for his last heat and Kevin, on green for his second heat. Very tight and flawless racing, all racers pushed their cars for five minutes without a single de-slot. Shawn totaled the most laps, 66, followed by Russell’s and Kevin’s 64.
Heat #9: Time for Jim to rejoin and finish his race on the yellow lane; Kevin on blue and Shawn on green. Both Jim and Shawn would start their last heat tied, with 132 laps, they needed 65+ laps for a podium finish; Kevin was just behind with 128 completed laps. At this point the remaining competitors were marshaling the turns and started joking about taking their time to re-slot any of the cars. Jim started the race with almost 1/2 lap advantage over Shawn; Kevin was 4 feet behind Shawn.
This was another beautiful heat, without any accidents. Shawn couldn’t challenge Jim’s lead and finished the heat in second place, completing 65 laps. Kevin was third, with 61 laps and Jim first, with 67 laps.
In the end there were ties for 2nd & 3rd places, both with 199 laps; and 4th & 5th place finishers, with 197. Ary took first place with 200 laps; Jim finished 2nd, 4 feet ahead of Marty in 3rd position; Shawn finished 4th, 2 feet ahead of Brian in 5th place.
Here are the Results:
Chief mechanic report: In this round we were still having wheel alignment problems due to the oversized axle holes on the Megane wheels; lack of traction is the biggest problem caused by this misalignment. Our friends at Pendle Slot Car Racing are working hard to obtain proper replacements; hopefully we will receive those before round #3.
All bits and pieces of the blue Megane were accounted for at the end of the race, the car will be sparkling ready for the next round.
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The recorded race can be viewed at our Ustream.tv channel: https://www.ustream.tv/recorded/20382122
These probably need to be adjusted as I just can see how he could have 46 points already.