Targa Florio Rally – Race 5

Targa Florio Race #5

September 11th

 

On Sept. 11, 2021, a moment of reflection on the 20^th anniversary of 9/11, and those who are still in harm’s way to protect us.

 

SERENDIPITY:  the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way.

“a fortunate stroke of serendipity”

 

Our history and geography of the Targa Florio and Sicily continues with the meteorology of the old Targa Florio route.  (Google a map yourself)  The race was run early in May each year.  The temperatures were low in the mid 60’s to high in the mid 70’s with very little rain.  The north coast of Sicily is arid and similar to the inland area of southern California, while the central and eastern end of the island has a mountain range terminating on the eastern end at Etna, the volcano.  Etna is one of the world’s most active volcanos and occasionally the lava is covered with enough snow to actually ski.  So in a case of serendipity, our rally track has one end quite arid, and the other end covered in white snow.  Who knew we were mimicking the old Targa Florio route from the north shore, over to the Etna area, and back to the north coast?

 

And now back to 1:32 scale.  The temperature in the building was about 78 thanks to our AC and more moderate outdoor temps this week, for this penultimate race of the series.  Our cars racing this week were the same as race 4, with Marty returning with his yellow Porsche 908/3 with the fins.  That made for a nice mixture of Gulf blue and orange, yellow with green, and three red with various colors trim through a snowy pass.

Back in race three David ran the white and “red burst” Porsche 908/3 that represented the team mate of the Gulf blue Porsches.  But alas, he has switched to a red Ferrari 312, faster by 3 seconds in race 5 than the old Porsche from race three.  This was another senso antirario race direction, repeating race 4.  I have been asked not to reveal the race 6 direction, but blind folded has been suggested.  Some internet videos show rally slot car tracks with foreign substances like cocoa or flower on the track.  We wanted to run cars like the Porsche on races like the Targa Florio, Mille Miglia, or all paved Pike’s Peak hill climb.  Therefore, no foreign substances, and the track gets dusted for race 6.

Timing was once again “old school” as we are still having some issues with our timing system.  This system did have some advantages as racers could do a few laps before they started their heat.  They were also able to have a running start when they did start their heat.  Having said that, it will still be nice to have our software working again.

The races saw David’s Slot.it Ferrari 312pb take the win with Steve’s Slot.it Ferrari 312pb in second.  Marty’s NSR Porsche 908/3 was a distant third.  The Porsche was quick with a fast lap below the 6 second mark but it had too many de-slots to make a run at the top podium position.  The fourth place car was another NSR Porsche 908/3 being driven by John.  He had a good race with minimal de-slots but could not get near the pace of the leading Ferrari’s.  Fifth was Randy in his NSR Porsche 908/3.  Randy had a solid race with few if any de-slots.  Mark was in sixth place in his Ferrari 312pb.  Mark’s Ferrari lacked the grip of the top two Ferrari’s.  The car was quick but was sliding too much in the turns to put down quick times.

The final round of the series is September 25^th.  It will be hard to knock David from the top spot.  He will have to run a super consistent race as Steve is only 13.9 seconds behind in second place.  It’s not impossible for him to close the gap on David.   The third, forth and fifth place positions are all but decided so all the attention will be on David and Steve.  It will be a fun race to watch.