RevoSlot Group 2 Rally Series
Race 1 Report
April 1st
The first race in the RevoSlot Group 2 series on the club’s rally track took place on Saturday the 1st of April.
The race had over 25 racers in attendance with greats such as Walter Rohrl showing up to do battle with Juha Kankkunen and Miki Biasion. This would be a real battle as heavy rain was coming down all around the circuit making conditions “slippy-slippy” as the Finish drivers would say.
OK, so none of that is true but I had to write something for a race that took place on April Fools’ Day. Let’s try this again.
The first race in the RevoSlot Group 2 series on the club’s rally track took place on Saturday the 1st of April.
Before we start the story about the race we need to acknowledge the hard work of Ary, Brian, and Steve to get the timing system on the club’s rally track working again. Many hours were spent trying to figure out the issue and come up with a fix. It’s good to have the timing system working again and not have to worry about timing the races by hand. It is also better to have the timing back for practice sessions where someone is not always there to time your laps to see if you are getting any quicker.
Even though this series has been on the schedule since the start of the year there were many racers who were focused on the Q1 series than getting a completely new car ready for this series. It’s one thing to run a new series with a car we’ve used before but this series was the first one for the new RevoSlot Group 2 cars. The club has run the RevoSlot Porsche GT2’s previously but this is the first time for the Group 2 cars. Even though both cars are made by RevoSlot and both are 1/32 scale there are many differences between them. The biggest – the chassis attaches to the body differently on the Group 2 cars where the front part of the chassis attaches with two body screws and the back of the chassis attaches to the body with the other two screws. On the GT cars, all four body screws attach to the front section of the chassis, and the rear part floats on the four brass nuts on the chassis.
The other interesting thing about the Group 2 cars was the varied measurements for all three of the car models. Each of the three models had different overall weights, body weights, wheelbases, guide to rear axle measurements, and front and rear wheel tracks. It will be interesting to see if one of the three different models comes to the top of the timing charts over the six races in the series.
The rules for the series have the cars running in almost stock configuration. There were some other questions when it came to setting these cars up. Should I run the spring guide, should I run the stock tires or the Paul Gage tires and what durometer Paul Gage tires should I run?
Having a completely new car to prepare with only one weekend off between the race series proved challenging for many of the racers. This meant that there were various levels of preparation for many of the cars. This would be very apparent in the race results.
One of the challenges for these cars was the tight tolerances for the rear wheels/tires and the body. If not adjusted properly you could easily have the rear tires rubbing on the body – not that helpful if you are trying to go fast.
It was great to see nine racers show up for the first round of the series. It was better still to see such a wide range of cars running. There were three BMW’s, three Ford’s, and three Alfa’s. It doesn’t get more divided than that. It will be interesting to see if any of the three models had an advantage on the club’s rally track.
One of the cars missing from the group was the series manager’s car. David was unable to attend as he was out with a fever. It’s unfortunate he couldn’t make it as he is hands down one of the fastest on the rally track.
The races started with the club’s newest member – Tanner. He had a solid run with few deslots and a consistent pace. It was a good first run for him and his BMW. Tanner finished in 9th spot with a good run for a new member on a very tricky track.
The second racer on the track was John and his Alfa. John had a good run with a car that didn’t have much tuning done and this made the car harder to handle and push. John finished his run in 7th place over one minute down to the winner. This is still the first round of the series and there are five other rounds to make that time up.
The third racer on the track was Marc with his custom-painted Ford Escort. Marc is one of the club’s biggest fans of the rally track and he usually does very well on it. This outing was no exception. Marc was consistent and quick and ended up finishing in 3rd place.
The fourth racer was Jeff visiting the club from Houston. Jeff is always fast and has raced on the rally track before and set the pace. It will be interesting to see how he does with his BMW RevoSlot Group 2 car on this track. Jeff had a solid run but did not push it choosing to be conservative and put in a solid time without the deslots. Jeff finished 4th overall and is only 15 seconds behind the leader. This is not a big gap and it will be interesting to see if Jeff can bring it back.
Fifth on the track was Melvin and his custom-painted Ford Escort. Melvin is another new member to the club and is doing a great job getting to grips with the hobby. Melvin finished in 8th place with some tire rubbing issues. He will surely be more competitive once he resolves the issues with his car. It will be fun to watch him in the next round to see how his times compare.
The sixth racer was Marty and his Ford Escort. Marty had some good pace but had too many deslots to take the top spot. His car showed pace, now it’s time for him to do a better job of driving it. Marty finished in 2nd overall, 5.6 seconds behind the winner.
Seventh on the track was Russell and his beautiful Alfa. Russell did not have a lot of time to get his car sorted out and it proved challenging to drive. He did a great job for a car that came straight from the box to the track. Russell’s run may not have been the quickest but it did set the club’s record for the most jumps from one lane to the other – six total. Well done, Russell. Russell finished in 5th overall.
Eighth on the track was Steve with his BMW. Steve absolutely flew – figuratively and actually. His BMW was the fastest thing on the track yet. Not only was it fast, but Steve was doing a good job of driving it. He obviously has some mad skills on the club’s rally track. Steve finished in 1st place with a time of 4 minutes-41.5 seconds. Congratulations Steve.
The final runner, ninth on the track, was Randy with his Alfa. Randy had a good run and didn’t push too hard with the goal of fewer deslots. Randy finished in 6th place with a solid run.
The race was tons of fun to run with these new cars. I am sure the competitors will get significantly quicker in future rounds with more time to prepare their cars and time to practice on the rally track.
Congratulations to Steve on the win. Don’t enjoy it too much, the others are coming up quickly behind you. I can’t wait for the next round on Saturday, April 15th.
You can check out all the action on the clubs YouTube channel.
