79 replies to this topic

[Pappy]

No problem Mike, it just caught me be surprize. Sorry Cheater.

[MSwiss]

If you read every new post religiously like you are supposed to you,
you would of spotted my "warning".

[Pappy]

I'm not that religious.

[JK Alan]

I for one had a blast at the Sano . I only raced on Friday in the spec class, but it was good to race again. I have been reading a lot of these threads since the race and people are complaining about the same old stuff. Having not raced at a "big" race since back in the day (1998?) , I thought the format worked well and moved along at a decent pace (once it got started). Sure it was a late night but who cares? We are all in it for the fun. I watched the live feeds a lot on Sat. and Sun. and they got really smooth. You could actually follow the racing action. This greatly increases the exposure to our sport and will get more people involved in the long run. As far as the complainers go, things always seem to take longer when you are waiting (think Six Flags) and pro bodies will always have a minimal paint job. Get used to it because you may lose the motivation to spend waaayyyyyyy too long on your body like I have. My 3 color fade with simple parma masks took 20 mins and the driver took about as long. I am not saying I don't appreciate a truly researched and well executed scale body but I have come to understand that it is not practical for everyone. Thanks to all for a great time and keep the trigger pegged and the shiny side up.

[Ken Barry]

An outsider's view of SANO III. I have attended both SANO II and SANO III. AS far as racing goes, I have no experience in either setting up the cars or racing on either a flat track or a Blue King. I normally "race on Carrera" plastic track with 1/32 scale cars. The excitement of the SANO events is finding this many people willing to build and race the Retro cars. Obviously most were way better at it than I was. The SANO II was the very best two-day vacation I have ever taken. The SANO III was a very nice but not as good as the SANO II event.
At both events many people were very friendly and very willing to help all the time. Thanks.
Here is my two cents on possible improvements to your event, hopefully everyone's event.

What I did not like about SANO III was that I spent a considerable amount more time marshalling than I did racing. We were always short on marshals with the method used for this years racing. I marshaled, I believe three heats and raced one on Sunday. The same is true for other Saturday's racing; I marshaled more than I raced. This was not true for the SANO II event. I did enter and race 5 events this year.

There were mostly older racers, my self included, 55 at the time. We need to create more interest for younger or possibly just newer racers.

1. Make several levels of competition.

A – Expert may be determined by qualification time, reputation, or possibly level of competition one normally races at.

B- Novice – Some predetermined lap times for qualification as a min requirement.

C- Absolute amateur No qualification required. Just ask the racer what class he wants to compete in.

Give awards for each class; May be let the winner of each class race the next higher class, but not two classes. This will reduce the time required to get to the main event because if you start out on the bottom you will not be allowed to enter the main.

I think you will find like racers will enjoy racing against like racers.

One of Mike Swiss comments was about some local races wanting to get more experience prior to entering. I think the whole fun was being there and having so many to race against. I am working on a much improved car and some Blue King lap time for next year. The nearest Blue King for me is more than 100 miles away.



May be run a chassis building and tuning class for amateurs on Thursday. Buy and build program the day before the event. Build JK specs or? Possibly build the whole car. Another option would be to have expert ready built cars for sale.

One last comment, some of the paint work entered was very nice.



In any case, the SANO tracks and people will always attract a crowd of racers. I think we all race slot cars because we like them. Therefore potential racers should not be waiting for there skills to improve to enjoy the event. I hope I did not either insult or bore anyone to tears.

Thanks,

Ken