Hello everybody!! Yes, I’m still racing slot cars, never did stop, just took a break from writing articles. Where to begin?
Some may think it is absurd that our club has been racing, three weekends of every month, for almost five years and this past July 11th was the start of our first ever NSR racing series. Nevertheless, here we are:
With four racers registering for the first round of the Mosler Series, one for Group A and three for Group B , this was a quick race. I’m guessing attendance was low due to Summer being in full swing, but since this series will race monthly until December, there is a very good chance that more will join in the fun.
To all that did not enter yet: prepping the car for the race didn’t take a lot of time.
I arrived at the club a couple of hours before the race with a brand new #9 Gulf livery Mosler and got to work. The chassis had not been straightened and, luckily, looked pretty good out-of-the-box. I did spent a good half-hour treating the tires: adding o-rings to fill the “air ride” hub gap, gluing and truing the rear tires and shaving the fronts very slightly. Took the car to the track to check gearing – it was a bit hot. I added a few round lead weights but they were not slowing the car enough – gear change needed. Checked my box for gears and realize I never ordered any; checked my pinion stash and found a 10 tooth pinion (one tooth smaller than the factory pinion), which saved the day! Car goes back on the track and after a few turns I get a 3.90Xs lap – that was good enough for me.
Moving to the start of the race: I’m on the yellow lane, Richard on blue and David on green.
First lap around the track and I notice something is wrong – I’m having intermittent braking issues. While I try to sort the problem out, Rich and David engage on their battle; one turns a fast lap, the other counters. About half way into the heat I can tell that my issue is on the controller and switch for one of the club’s loaners; at this point I look at the track and see my competitors’ cars simultaneously crossing the line to complete 26 laps. Another few laps in and Steve tells me the controller I grabbed was acting-up recently, he hands me another loaner – what are the odds, right? What if I told you the third controller trigger was getting stuck? Yeah, that happened! LOL.
I resume racing with 1:30m left in the clock, by now David just completed 43 laps, Rich is a quarter-lap behind and I’m pushing 21.
Nothing much changed until the end of the heat, David finished 65 laps, half-lap ahead of Rich, and I completed 45.
Heat numero dos: Rich is out for now; I’m on green, David goes blue and Mark joins on yellow.
Again, issues from the get go: all those crashes knocked one of my lead weights out, which lodged right in the slot; Mark was also having a bit of trouble getting power to his motor. Racing resumes and I start to chase David, Mark is a couple laps behind. By mid-heat I’m a half-lap behind David (38 laps) but struggling with the controller’s sensitivity – if I’m not extra gentle with the trigger, the car will simply torque itself out of the slot – the race is stopped to retrieve my car and I decide to go back to my controller and troubleshoot it. As we continue racing, David keeps his steady pace and Mark finds his groove. By the end of the heat David completes 68 laps, Mark 57. I end-up with 62 laps and pinpointing my controller’s issue to the full blast brake relay switch (tiny little bugger).
Rich rejoins third heat on the yellow lane, I jump to blue and Mark to green.
… before I continue, let’s pause a little and take a look at Rich’s livery/outfit/racing colors:
ROFL!
Very well done, I must say.
Back to heat #3: Rich takes the lead from the start and maintains it till the very end, completing 66 laps. Mark kept a strong pace but had recurring connectivity issues, finishing with 46 laps. My heat total was 17 laps as I continued to tinker with my controller. As I was the only Group A racer to compete, I take the podium for the Group (hahaha!) but last overall race position with 124 total laps.
The final heat will decide Group B: David starts on the yellow lane with a three lap advantage over Rich (130 laps) on green; Mark is on the blue lane.
The first car to complete the first lap is Mark’s, soon followed by David’s then Rich’s. A few laps later David jumps to the lead, his initial pace was two tenths of a second per-lap faster than Rich’s, in second. Rich’s pace improved as more laps were completed but David held his track position till the very end. Mark completed 63 laps and totaled 166, taking the third spot for Group B. Rich completed 66, totaling 196 and taking the silver. Congratulations to David, completing 70 laps for a total of 203, taking the top podium for the race.
See you again on race 2.
Ary.
Here are the results:
