Thunderslot Series 2022 Race 1

 

 

Last Saturday was the opening day of the 2022 racing season for the Austin Slot Car Club.  The first race saw the return of the Thunderslot series.  A popular series, the Thunderslot cars are wicked fast and controllable.  We had a somewhat late start as two club members were unable to attend.  Steve is our Race Coodinator and setup guy and he was sick at home, but he was able to remote in and set it up.  Ary and Mark worked on it at HQ and we were able to get going.  Many thanks to the guys for getting us up and running.

It was a little chilly to start with at the club—55 degrees.  As the day progressed the temper rose and it was actually pretty comfortable inside.  Track temperature rose for 55 degrees to mid 60’s by the end of the race.

Some of us have not had time to prep the cars since the last time the series was run two years ago.  Ary brushed the cobwebs off of his car and it took off like shot, quickly turning a 3.589 lap.  David tried keeping up and but couldn’t catch him.  Ary covered 81 laps; David was 76 and Mark turned 70 laps.  Ary continued with 80 laps in the second heat and lowered the lap time to 3.568.  David ran 74 laps and Erik ran 65.

In the third heat, my car ran faster than I was expecting and I completed 77 laps with a low E.T. of 3.661.  David was just behind, also with 77 laps, and Erik improved to 70 laps.

In heat 4, I completed 78 laps with a best lap of 3.607.  John was at 74 laps and Erik was 69.  This heat was noticeable for a high speed wreck on Lap 11, 29:07 minutes into the YouTube video; 

Austin Slot Car Club -Thunderslot 2022 – Race 1 – January, 22th 2022 – YouTube

Erik’s car deslotted on the bridge and ended up in my lane.  I ran smack into him at full bore, catapulting Erik’s car into the air.  I think it cleared the edge of the track, higher than the landscaping tree, and landed on the floor.  Check out the video!

Normally we do not allow tire cleaning after a deslot during a race, but Erik’s car deserved an exception

I completed 78 laps in Heat 5.  In Marty’s first heat, he came in second with 76 laps and John had 75.  For heat 6, Marty ran 78 laps, followed by John at 75.  Mark had some trouble with his car and wound up with 66 laps.

The final heat saw Ary and Marty facing off but Ary was still in a class by himself.  He turned 81 laps again to give him a staggering total of almost 243 laps!  Marty followed with 77 laps, which was good enough for third place and 231.45 laps.  Mark came in third in the heat with 70 laps.  I had finished up with 233.45 laps, a new record for me, good enough for second place overall.

The race was fun, and as one can tell, very fast.  We are looking forward to the rest of the series.