August 24, 2024 ushered in our 2024 Monte Carlo series on the newly refurbished rally track. Work is ongoing, but with the new braid replacing the problematic copper tape (Thanks, Russel!) and a good start on landscaping, running on the rally track was definitely a fresh experience! Although not without some teething pains.
We had a bit of a reprieve from the brutal heat of the previous week, it only got into the upper 90s in Austin that Saturday.
A coin flip determined that the race be run in the clockwise direction, a direction nobody had any experience with. As it turned out, if a car is traveling fast enough to jump the hill in the middle of the straight, there is a chance it will land beyond the in-slot sensor, costing a lap with the scoring software. This caused some issues, but final scoring has corrected the errors (thanks Marty). This should be sorted by the next race.
The Group B cars performed well on the new braided track surface with fewer deslots overall, but perhaps lap times were not as fast as they had become with the old surface. This probably comes down to practice and experience with the new surface. There was a good variety of cars entered from Mel’s chunky MG Metro, to Marc’s much longer Opel Manta. After one event, there is no clear advantage wheelbase-wise, but it is still early in the series.
Would like to welcome Kim to the series. This was her first outing on the rally track. Her Avant Slot Nissan 240RS was a bit hard to tame, just a matter of track time.
On the Podium were:
Marty in first with his Nico Lancia 037 with aftermarket chassis. With a time of 285.637 sec.
Marc T in second, driving an Avant Slot Opel Manta turning in 288.225 sec
Melvin B. With a Scaleauto MG MetroR64 with a 292.155 second time.
All times above corrected for laps uncounted by computer. Full results below.
