35 replies to this topic

[Cheater]

Didn't have time to get a car ready and couldn't find anyone to loan me a ride... LOL!!!

[John Gorski]

Thanks for the info, Ron.

[Windyracer]

Congrates to Ken, Jay, Dave, Howie & Ron. A fun Broadcast!
What Gears & Tires were used in CanAm King podiums?

Hey John,

Thanks for the kudos.

I ran pink gears, and black tires.

Seriously, I ran 7-27 with Alpha Untreated Big Hub Piranhas. I tried the Big Full Hubs, too. The Big Hubs had just a tad less bite which seemed to suit the track conditions a little better.

Cheers,

Ken

[M. Lovelace]

Way to go, Ken, you were great. I watched the whole thing live, did you hear me cheering you on?

What chassis were you using. Will you build me one?

[Noose]

The IRRA entry form doesn't collect this data. Perhaps the car owners will post what they used for this race.

Uh, yes, it does Greg and you have all the sheets. Check 'em out.

[Noose]

Very interesting stuff on the tires used because it was bit opposite of what is normally done. As more rubber got down some tried wonder rubber. The softer treat but mostly untreated tires were the ones that really worked. A lot of guys were geared 7/26 or 27.

[John Gorski]

Thanks Ken & Noose. Ken I had to go out and missed the Can-Am on Cheater TV.
Sound like you had a gem of a race.

Special congrats to Mike Swiss, Cheater Greg, Noose, and all the people that helped Mike make this
a Sano SANO for everyone, even the racers that were computer fans.

[Windyracer]

Hey John,

My Can-Am car for the King was self-built as well. It's based on a JK kit with a little bit of cutting and grinding to reduce weight.

It was powered by a Pro Slot motor that I had sent to Fast Ones to be rebuilt about a week before the race (Thanks, Ron). I sent in four of them at that time. All four came back much faster. Bear in mind that these motors did not have a lot of run time on them before the rebuilds. They were only run at the past two R4s and the last Sano (maybe two races on each). We don't run them for our local races because we race on Chicagoland's flat track where the Falcon 7 motors seem to be better.

The point I'm trying to make is that they were not really worn out. They were still very fast when I sent them to Ron. His reconditioning made them absolute missiles.

Cheers,

Ken

[Windyracer]

Ken was outstanding... drove the best race I have ever seen him run. He was untouchable and unstoppable. I gave him all I could and he made no mistakes the entire race.

A big congrats to Ken.

Ken drove almost a perfect race. As far as I know all he had was 2-3 small deslots on black.
He ran two 38s, four 37 s, a 36 on yellow (after he finished his heat on black right after the lap counter), and 34 on black.

Before the race, I thought the winner might hit 290 laps. Kenny went 294. A "perfect" run would of been about 296.

Anyway, Kenny, along with driving great, tuned on his car until it was superb.

Ron and Mike,

Thanks so much for the kind words. They mean so much to me coming from what I consider to be two of the best racers in the world.

This win really meant a great deal to me. I had begun to question weather I could still be competitive at this level of racing. I made myself a promise as the Sano III was approaching, that I was not going to do my typical thrash all night building a new car, and put it down for the race with little or no testing. My cars were all built when I arrived at the track on Wednesday afternoon. My box never left there until Sunday night. I left the track at a reasonable time, went home, and got some sleep (not quite enough) each night. I did a lot of testing of motors, tires, and tuning on my cars at the track.

I had a tough race in F1 on the King. I made a bad motor choice in F1 on the Flat track. I ran second to Sano Dave in Can-Am on the Flat track.

All in all, I did reasonably well in all of the classes that I entered. I was even able to spend some time visiting with all of the great people that were in attendance from other parts of the country. Most importantly, I had a really good time with a great bunch of guys.

Cheers,

Ken

[Windyracer]

Larry, don't worry Ken did a little thrashing at the Sano. Seem to remember him re-building Mike's perfectly good F1 chassis that he raced at last years Sano just minutes before the F1 flat track race.

Ahhh Rob,

You allways seem to feel the need to pick out that one tiny little poodle turd in the otherwise pristine rose garden. Though I did have two F-1 cars up and running when I arrived on Wednesday, the plumber style flat track car was just not as good as I thought it would be. I asked Mike on Thursday night if I could try his older torsion car to see if it might be better. It is the one that I tweaked on, and used to place second in the F-1 flat track race at last years Sano. Although it was a different design, it produced about the same lap times as the one I had built. I had an idea that I thought might work better. Changing my car from a plumber design to a floppy pan design would have been major surgery. Changing Mike's torsion car to floppy style pans was quick and easy. With Mike's permission, I rebuilt it, and had it on the track before I left on Thursday night. On Friday morning, I tested both cars, and tried several different tire combinations. I decided to run the floppy pan car. I tested about six different motors, decided on one, and put the car in to tech very early, and qualified well. So, not quite "minutes before the race" as you described.

As it turned out, my decision to run a Pro Slot motor on the flat track was a bad one. Although the Pro Slot was faster than a Falcon while out there by myself testing, it did not fair well with eight cars on the track for three minutes,. The difference in power was just enough to make the car feel sluggish. The fact that the Pro Slots have ceramic magnets versus the neos in the Falcons was a factor. The Pro Slot got a bit hot and slowed down with all the accelerating and braking on the flat track. They are much happier singing around the King track. Oh well, lesson learned. I still had a ball.

By the way, nice job on the Tripod design chassis, and great job putting together the raffle.

Cheers,

Ken

[Mopar Rob]

Ken:


The trashing was meant as a compliment. Your thrashing is better than most peoples weeks of preparation. Your famous for it. Your the only one I know who can build or rebuild a car minutes before a race and make the A main. I figure you did about the same as when you thrash, you just were a little more relaxed this year by not doing the usual thrashing for every car in every class.


On another thread people are debating concours and one color jobs. Your cars multi color cars were under concours consideration and received votes. I know you were actually masking a couple of them in the SUV while the power was out. Just think of what they might have looked like had you taken some time like most of your entry's?

BTW: This wasn't meant to be another poodle turd in the rose garden, it's a compliment of your ability. I can't think of anyone who attends a big race who doesn't do any thrashing?

Like I said good job on the WIN