221 replies to this topic

[Jairus]

I am not sure Mark. No car for myself yet but might be able to get my Son to drive me. Jeremy will be busy that night with family obligations and Jerry and his son do not have any cars for the race. Maybe we can twist my son's arm into joining us for a change?

[Phil Irvin]

Went to the track this weekend. Put in about an hour and a half and about 200 plus laps on the NASCAR Flexi. The next race is in two weeks and I wanted to get in as much time as possible. Normally I wear out a set of tires in two races and one practice. This set of tires only lasted one race and this last practice. Wow!

But... my lap times are getting better and better. During the last half hour of practice I found my "zone". Didn't know I had one but was a sudden revelation to me when it happened.
It went like this... full on then blip the brake, then full on. Blip under the bridge full and blip the donut then full on all the way around the next turn and don't let off until the timing strip blip and back to full on till the bridge. It got so repetititive that I found I didn't even need to keep my eyes on the car unless someone deslotted ahead of me. Noticed that my times started decreasing by then and did a great bunch of laps at 5.410 which is the general rarified atmosphear the rest of the pack seems to be running at so ... might have a chance next race day. Oh... and I turned down the brake to min. Seems to help keep the tires stuck to the track. But try as I could, just couldn't manage to do a 5.3, but THIS IS FUN!

Sounds like you finding the fast way around. Its lots of fun hanging the rear out. I get 1 race & practice to a set of tires. I have 3 chassis with different axil hights so I can start at .790 and go to .750... Won't pass tech but I get 3/4 races out of them.

PHIL I.

[Wade Raceway]

Come check out the track in Nampa Idaho. We have a great flexi class started. sealed 16D on fridays and Mod. S16D on saturdays. So far have Great turn outs .All slot Racers Welcome

[Jairus]

Northwest Flexi Racing January 2010 update.

Dateline, Depoe Bay Raceway
The current crop of racers met again on the field of battle for the first time since my car accident.
Competition was heated with a slight upset when Jimmy took pole position and never lost it through out the entire race. Jeff got close a couple of times and Jeremy managed to nurf Jimmy once but it was Carrie who ended up breathing down Jimmy's neck during the last heat taking Second. I forgot to write down the laps and times.... but the results were Jimmy 1st followed by Carrie, Jeff, Jairus and Jeremy.
I ended up only 13 laps from 3rd place! Both Jeremy and I are getting closer and THAT is a fact!
Jerry Kruger and his son were suppose to join us making the field 7... but Jerry being a hot rod builder by trade, will drop everything for a good swap meet or auction of auto parts. Which is what happened today, so.... maybe next time Jerry!?!?!

My car is running fantastically considering I am the only one driving with Parma power with all the other cars utilizing Proslot 16D motors. The car just seems to get faster and faster!
This race I found the rear fishtailing a bunch during practice. So I added a touch of weight to the pans and that helped a little. Car seemed to tracked all corners flat and smooth with brakes turned down as far as it would go but still a touch of slide. Nobody would out run me in the straights... but I always let off before anyone else so after a couple of laps I ended up getting overtaken in the corners. (Did this because of the sliding....) Not sure why as I was running a brand new set of JK treated tires which usually serv me very well. This set is the loosest pair I have ever used, however they were not as tore up on the edges as usual. Must be the tire batch is all I can figure.



The race was pretty much a crash fest most of the time with something spectacular happening each heat. I stayed out of much of it by plodding along making up laps when the others were "turned turtle" or on the floor. Jeremy's car one time ended up UNDER the pool table! It was probably the best NASCAR race I have ever enjoyed.

The rogues gallery prior to POWER ON.




Jairus got a new body. The old "Taurus" was too tore up to continue and as Tech inspector Mark said... it was cut "pretty low"! I went with a Pontiac Grand Prix for this race being the only one NOT running a Toyota. The Toyota has a slightly higher down force due to a rear spoiler being about .0125 higher.... however. I am not convinced this is that big a benefit. And since I spent all of 3 hours painting and detailing my Pontiac... think I will get all the value out of it before moving on to a Toyota Camery.

Yeah... I copied Dave's Number 7 graphic and gold foiled the numbers. Whatever.... I like it and more importantly, I can see it! Never lost my car the entire race.

Oh, and Depoe Bay Raceway now has a WEB SITE! Whoo hoo!
The race schedule is now posted up to April... so anyone interested in "showing us how it is done" can mark their calendar thusly.
Current manager Mark Faccone is offering to buy the track from the current owners who will retain ownership of the building under lease. Mark has some great ideas for promoting and moving forward with this location which might include establishing a second track somewhere in the Willamette valley with the other Hill Climb track now currently in storage.

Things are looking up here in Oregon!

Dinner was taken at a little Irish pub just down the road from DBR. Jeremy and I enjoyed a nice view of the bay, seagulls and our very pretty waitress with the dreamy eyes..... (sigh).
She asked (should've got her name) what we were in town for and seemed very interested while we bored her with race talk. Might be able to drag her to a race sometime this year! Who knows.... stranger things have happened to me for damn sure.
Ciao

Respectfully submitted,

[munter]

Great report Jairus but next time I want a picture of the dreamy eyes,OK?

Maybe your fishtailing was partly due to using a different body...less downforce?

regards

[Tex]

Good race report, Jairus! It's a great feeling, seeing improvement in your performance, isn't it? A podium can't be too far off. Good job!

[idare2bdul]

Nice gold foil job! Is it on the inside or outside and what do you use for sizing to get it to stick?

Fishtailing can be from not enough traction due to tire or body, getting the car unstable by too high an entry speed or too quick an application of power on exit. Get an experienced racer to try your car and see what they think after driving the car and watching you drive it.

[Jairus]

Nice gold foil job! Is it on the inside or outside and what do you use for sizing to get it to stick?

Fishtailing can be from not enough traction due to tire or body, getting the car unstable by too high an entry speed or too quick an application of power on exit. Get an experienced racer to try your car and see what they think after driving the car and watching you drive it.

Mike - Foil is on the inside and I use a 30 year old bottle of "Micro Metal Foil Adhesive". Purchased it back in the day for applying chrome foil to model cars. Back then there was NO "Bare Metal Foil" brand self stick stuff so we had to source our own. The foil adhesive I use was originally sourced from the sign painter industry just for gold leaf adhesion. I believe it is still available and my bottle is still 3/4 full! I also protect it further by applying clear tape to the back side to prevent scratches since we race fairly aggressively.

[Mark F]

Jairus... The lap count was:

Jimmy 157
Carrie. 156
Jeff. 152
Jairus. 140
Jeremy. 116

podium runners were in the 5.2 - 5.4 sec. range
you were pushing 5.9 close running mostly low 6's
Jeremy was in the mid 6's

Carrie would have won this race if it weren't for me messing up a marshal by putting her car on the wrong lane and running over to retreive another one, leaving Carrie dead for a couple laps

[Gus Kelley]

Hey Jarius! Nice to see you back, you were missed. Try untreated tires, especially the JKs. They'll grip a little better, probably just enough to make all the difference in the world. Gus

[Pablo]

Gus is el correcto, the untreateds give more grip.
Hi Jairus

[Jairus]

Welcome back kiddies, time for yet another report ...


Takes an hour and a half to make the drive from Salem Oregon to Depoe Bay. During that time we usually do a lot of catching up, discussing politics, globalwarming, holiday plans, cars and Jeremy's RatRod!
Today joining me are of course my racing pard. Jeremy...

.. and for the first time, David Ferguson, also known by some members of this forum as "Fergy"! David decided to take the trip and see what all the talk was about.

Fergy has tons of racing experience in building and racing HO, but only a little in 1/24th... "but how hard can it be he says?"


We shall see.....


On the way we pass through Lincoln City as the road turns south onto Hwy 101. On the left is "D" lake and on the right the vastness of the Pacific with nothing but ... Japan!


Passing Siletz Bay...



...to our goal, Depoe Bay!




Well, we arrived later than usual. Jeff and Carrie were already setting their cars up and since none of us had had a thing to eat we decided to walk down to the Irish Pub for a pint and some Irish Stew first! Julie was there again and she actually remembered us! Julie asked if we were there for the race and seemed genuinely interested! She is a very approchable young lady, about 27, quite attractive and one of the very reasons I love this part of the country. After a fantastic dinner she came by and actually sat at our table while we 4 discussed politics (a little) her dragon tat (a lot more) and the price of real-estate on the coast. She is soooo freaking beautiful (Sorry Munter, I took my cam but didn't have the courage to take the pic) with the most gorgeous heavenly brown eyes with green rings (sigh) and a very shapely.... (sigh)... wedding ring.

Anyway, dinner was great as usual.



Back to the race.
After an hour of practice David and I and Jeremy determined our cars were perfect! I went with a set of Alpha full hub wheels this time and ran the first 5 heats with nothing but zip grip. But switched to glue on the 6th heat and suddenly my lap times increased by two tenths to a personal best in Flexi Wing racing of 4.33! But... again the edges of the tires started to fragment because of the use of the glue. I tried the JK untreated tires during practice and nothing, not even using glue, kept the rearend from swinging around. Best times were 5.3 with the JK untreated. I was tempted to try the JK treated tires but I KNOW that Jeff is going to use glue.... he always does. Glue just ruins my precious JK treated tires and so .... I went with the Alphas...... and my lap times kept dropping as practice went on. I guess the die is cast, with the combination of glue and getting no more than two races on a set of tires for the Flexi Wing class "der rigor!"

Rogues gallery: L to R Carrie, Jeff, Jeremy, Dave, Jairus

Final results:
#1 Jeff 187 laps with a fastest lap of 4.016
#2 Carrie 182 laps with fastest lap of 4.219
#3 Jairus 171 laps with fastest lap of 4.332
#4 David 146 laps
#5 Jeremy 141 laps


Only reason I took 3rd is because Jimmy didn't show... however one must note that I was only 11 laps behind Carrie!
In Jeremys defense, during the 6th heat he spun a pinion and lost probably 8+ laps until the end of the heat repairing his car.
David didn't really seem to have the killer instinct even tho he drove probably the lightest car on the track. Jeff was impressed with the quickness of the car I loaned Fergy. The chassis is a Champion steel center that has been severely cut down and the aluminum pans are about a half what they used to be! The motor is the little ProSlot motor with the Big Dog arm and it turned some hot laps at 4.3 under the careful trigger finger of track mgr. Mark Faccone. But as Fergy said on the drive over to the coast ... that he "has nothing to prove and just wants to have fun." He also complimented me a number of times that the car was a great handling car! (hmmmmm, maybe I loaned him the wrong car!?!?!?!)
I spent 3 hours Saturday night going over Cheaters Tome and flattening the pans and rails on both his and my cars to make sure the chassis were set up right. But his car really is cut up and very light! Combined with the little P.S. 4002C mini motor, it might just be the new big thing on this track for our Flexi Wing class!
Next time I go over to Depoe Bay I am going to put some hard laps on it and see if I want to drive that little feather weight instead of my car.

At any rate I felt my car was running FANTASTIC and a great time was had by all! Nothing I want to do further but practice, practice, practice!

See you next time and I hope someone reading this will join us for the next race: NASCAR Flexi on 03-28-10.

[munter]

Thank you Jairus that was a great read.
I loved the intro photos and the captions,nice insight into your race trip.
Thank you again
John

[MrWeiler]

Good to see you are having fun!

I'll be up to play wing racer one of these days.

[Jairus]

Tons of fun Mike!


Next race:


Got two motors ready for this one. Both ProSlot motors which have had the com wire professionally tied and epoxied by John Havlicek (balanced too, thanks John.) along with the crap zapped out of the magnets. They now have that fantastic "thump thump thump" one feels when spinning the shaft. Very quiet and smooth on the bench - should be bottled lightning on the track!

I cannot wait for this weekend!!!
We are heading over to the coast very early for at least an hour of track time prior, to make sure things are SOLID. No goofing around other than a short visit with Julie...
Report later....

[MrWeiler]

Go get 'um J

[Jairus]

Thank you Mike!
2.5 hours before we leave for the track. Want to get in a lot of laps before the race at 5:00, which is why we are leaving so early.
Camera has fresh batteries and the car is about as good as it can get so I am spending the morning working on T-shirt artwork for the Mercury Club of Norway!
(strange but true)

[Jairus]

The three of you who read this will be disappointed at this months race report.
No photos.
First off, Julie was not working when we went to dinner as she changed shifts and is now working at Jacks Steak House down the road on Sundays. I was getting tired of Irish stew anyway.... LOL.

Not much to report regarding the race results. Pretty much the same line up as usually happens:
Carrie 161 laps - 5.25
Jeff 156 laps - 5.21
Jairus 126 laps - 5.49
Jeremy 119 laps - 5.94


Only problem with my car was the rear tire kept sucking up the rear bumper in the black lane whenever it nurfed the foam padding. I trimmed it out as much as I could but it kept happening even during the race. As far as the driver (me)... by the 4th heat I started making mistakes, lost my grove and my cool. Nearly quit on the 7th heat and simply cruised out the 8th praying for a quick end to it all. If I could have driven all 8 heats like I did the first 3, I'd do fairly well. Instead I pretty much came apart once the car desloted more than three times in any one heat.

Mostly it was the track marshals this race in my humble opinion.
You see... they own the track and building!
If I can digress, Roger and his wife drop in once in a while (I hope they do not read this post...).Both smile and are friendly enough... but I sense that they think they're above it all.
Short story is that the structure the track is housed in, is pretty much a loss for them money wise. They made their millions years ago and use the building and property to store a huge motor home and two race cars. The track and the putt-putt golf are only there to create a little income in order to offset sizeable property taxes. Any profit the rental cars and other stuff create do not cover the overhead so it is all a loss for tax purposes.

They live in Las Vegas and fly up here a few times a year (private plane) to a second home somewhere in the Cascade Range. (never seen it)
Mark Faccone is the hired help and treated as such. Mark has been managing the track, Putt-putt golf and video games since the thing opened 12 years ago and I have never met a better more even tempered person to deal with the public as he is! He will not only give the kids the best cars to play with but spends all his time marshaling the cars and giving pointers instead of sitting behind a counter scowling like a troll. Never have I seen him lose his patience with the kids! As far as I am concerned Mark is the reason that track is so successful under the current restrictions.

At any rate, Mark is smart and wants to buy the business, rent the space from the current owners, and then run it HIS way with decent advertising. But the owners wanted tooooo much for that honor so Mark passed. Now Roger's wife complains that Mark spends too much repairing the rental cars at $700 per year when 90% of the income comes from those rental cars!!! (I refuse to post my personal opinion at this point.....)

At any rate, Roger, his wife and Mark did track marshaling last night. (Mark by himself is way better!)
So the feel of the room was off from the beginning in my opinion because THEY were present. Then the wife was giving Mark the evil eye all evening so I was on edge because of this.

As for the race, the body on my car kept interfering with the performance even tho I was only a three tenths of a second behind Jeff and Carrie when I was on my game.
Actually my car in the straight would out pull Jeff's car and barely out pull Carrie's car plus they had a hard time passing me because it handled flawlessly.
I can build a good car thanks to Cheater and John Havlicek. The big problem the way I see it is the space between my ears and a definate lack of experience!

During the 6th heat my car deslotted under the overpass and was totally overlooked by all marshals for a full 15 seconds (That is a lot of laps).... despite my protestations.
That happened twice and the second time during the 7th heat I got rear ended so Roger slammed the other car down first... then mine which barely moved because the rear fender had sucked back up by the rear tire... which took Roger the space of about 4 laps to figure out.

Pretty much the race was a wash for me. I had built the best spec NASCAR car I have EVER constructed.... and found out that I couldn't drive it!

So, NOW I have a new body and some of those neat "ninji" stars to strengthen the pin holes. Paint may look simple on this one but the thing will be armor-darned-plated when I am done!
Oh, and the painted interior is thusly retired for a time since nobody else is running them.

Respectfully submitted,

[Bill from NH]

Jairus, try a piece of "body armor" on the inside of the rear quarter panels. I found it helped some stockcar bodies not to be so easily sucked into the tires & gears. I taped short pieces of .032 piano wire back there once & that worked too.

[68Caddy]

Jairus a big thumb's up for you sticking to it, and I know you will get better at it, myself I think I getting a bit better because I start to tune the guys out, the audience that is?
The guys here at BP is great but sometimes they tell me to much what to do and I know they mean well.
It's crazy I find it hard to focus for 24 minutes?
Please keep it up and one day you will take a trip down here to race and I can meet ya.
Jairus I hope this makes sense because I start to doubt my self.


Nesta

[Mark F]

Just a couple clarifications Jairus...
The raceway has been open for 6 years not 12 albeit it seems like 12 some nights.
The owners live in RENO... not Las Vegas, and have a house here on the coast, besides one in Reno, besides one in Cabo San Lucus.
They are nice people... just that sometimes they become unrealistic and out of touch with what's going on. They seem to think I should be some kind of rodeo clown for everyone that comes in to play. Let them tear up the track without any type of order or rules asked to follow. They haven't a clue as to what it takes to keep these cars running on the track... or how much money should be spent on them. I have saved them a bundle over the years buy buying my own tools, tape, solder and flux, wires, etc.
Having said that... I do respect their requests since they do sign my paycheck... although recently its been harder to accept it. I may look into some buildings over in the valley and rogue out.

I am sorry about the tension there last night. It was thick. I have always thought I was a patient person, with a pretty level tolerance. Last night just had some buttons pushed and I couldn't roll it off.
I'm sure they will not be around the next time you race there. I know it goes a whole lot smoother when I can do it myself, even when there are 8 kids and a crash fest with racers hanging in the wings ready to race.
You're doing fine... lap times are OK. Your car was running good, just that those few body problems lost you a few laps. Putting that heavier pan on Jeremys car will help him out a lot... but try those tuna or alpha tires on your car next time. Use glue if you have to... should make a big difference for you. I'd hate to see you lose interest over a few minor things that can be improved upon. Jimmy being one of them

[munter]

Thanks again Jairus,nothing quite like racing to get the bodybuzz cranked up.
An interesting situation you guys are facing but at least you are racing.

What type of controller are you using? are you happy with it?

Enjoy the journey to the top spot...it is great to have a goal isn't it?

regards
John