216 replies to this topic

[Bob Chaney]

I would like to express my thanks to everyone I met this past weekend at Buena Park Raceway. I would also like to express my appreciation to them, and those I did not get to meet, for not ROFLTAO as I set the fastest time for entering the deadman during qualifications for the CanAm race (preserved for posterity for those who missed it and would like a good laugh, in the CPC video report on UStream)

I am forever thankful to Barney Poyner who helped sort out my car before qualifications, and patiently put it back together after the deadman incident; and thanks to Bob Crane who pitted for me during my "E Main" debut in SoCal D3 racing.

Hello to Lee Hines, Doug Matthes, Dale Yamashita, Garry Haworth, Adam Kirchhoffer, Tom Hanson and my old NC/SCRA friends Gus Kelley, Jonathan Forsyth, Dave Larsen and Herman James who each treated me like I was just one of the guys .. no introduction necessary.

Nesta! I tried to metcha! but man .. you are intense!

A special thanks to John Cuckras, Howie Ursaner, Duran Trujillo and Philippe, who all graciously endured a bit of my bubbling excitement.

And it would be hard to say enough about Paul Sterrett, Keith Tanaka and all the rest of the SoCal D3 crew whose effort was brilliantly reflected in the success of the Third CheckPoint Cup gathering.

Whether they are ready to admit it or not, in a very short time, The CheckPoint Cup has become one of the premier events in slot car racing-dom.

I wanta do it again!

[Keith Tanaka]

Bob, it was very nice to meet you. Sorry I didn't get around to talking with you and Gus at the dinner as PdL needed to leave early. I must say Dokk drives his Benz just as fast as he drives his slotcars. I'm sure glad he doesn't crash his real cars as Paul, Haruki and myself as passengers would have been the recipients of his lead foot on the accelerator

Hope to see you again for the 2012 Checkpoint.


Keith

[TSR]

Hey Keith, I was cruising! No speed was ever involved in that trip to Mary Callenders...

I had a great time at the Checkpoint. While I had no time to build new cars and used the same old tired ones, I also had loaners from several racers that I truly thank for their kindness. I am pleased to report that the cars were returned with no more dents than they had before I got hold of them.

I would like to thank Jim and Debbi Watterson, the new track owners, who did their best along with Jeff Easterly as hired help, to keep everyone happy. Mostly Jim stayed out of the way and simply enjoyed himself watching from afar and it worked very well for all.

Many thanks go to Paul and Keith who ran a tight ship as there were virtually no issues, conflicts, world wars etc. the whole weekend. Both did race directing, taking care of all issues and Keith taking the pictures ans video while Paul built cars for several other racers including yours truly. The bogus tire controversy never took place because there never was one. 99% of the cars did pass tech inspection in my hands and in the hands of other inspectors. There were virtually no issues, save for ONE F1 car that pushed the limits a bit beyond the margin of error, and ONE racer who earned a disqualification because of the use of a glue board, a true no-no in D3.

Several noted racers from the past showed up and some even raced: Tom Hansen came from Seattle, Charlie Nelson from Utah, John Gorski from NYC... all did really well and were contenders. Tom also donated a wonderful collection of his famous steel cars to the Los Angeles Slot car Museum, so we re-payed him with a private tour and a good lunch on Santa Monica Blvd along with "Howiewood" Ursaner. Mike Steube made an appearance but could not join the tour as he had a previous obligation.

The racing was very competitive and very intensive and especially, very FUN. The various race directors did a very good job and there were no complaints that I am aware of.
The King track power was very clean, the charger (that remained "on" at all times) set at 13.2 volts, meaning that it never over-powered the batteries and the power was always DC clean. Net result: not a SINGLE motor failure, an performance parity NEVER achieved with any other form of slot car motors I have ever witnessed, and virtually zero brush wear in the 3 motors I used for my NASCAR, F1 and Can-Am cars. It was truly amazing to see all eight cars in each of the races go down the long straight at exactly the same speed, like if all controlled by an invisible grid, only to separate themselves through various cornering speeds depending on lanes. The cars were able to run 10-tooth pinions with 27 or 28-tooth crown gear and not even get hot. Most racers purchased only 2 hand-out motors.

As far as the racing itself, it was very obvious that tire management was critical. The wrong rubber on any of the tracks and you were toast. On the King, a combination between the very hard "wonder" rubber and the "treated" tires was best, but the true experts won the day. Using bity rubber slowed you so much on the straights that it was a grave mistake to use untreated rubber for most.

I would like to give personal kudos to several racers for their outstanding performances: first of all, Duran Trujillo who is really in a class of his own. Bill Vanderziel who nearly piped him in the F1 race after a brilliant drive, this after being the race director for a long while. Bryan Warmack who did an outstanding job of placing so many of his cars in the main events. Dennis Samson for a truly fabulous 1/32 scale angle-winder race with a beautiful car, plus having 3 or 4 other of his chassis in the main event! Dennis drove a brilliant race, but Duran stayed cool at all times and that's hard to beat.

I also would like to congratulate Phil Nyland for great performances, even if he lost a chance to the Can-Am podium by having a bad day on the red lane, and Haruki Kan who came all the way from... Japan to race with us! Haruki is starting a D3 class in Japan.

Everyone in the raceway was gracious and behavior was impeccable.

Thank you also to all the prizes donors, from Alpha to Racemasters (AFX cars and sets, thanks to John Cukras) to the various other kind gentlemen and companies which donated to our event, I cannot list them here before inquiring first, my apologies. I ended up with 4 bottles of wonderful Chateau Charles Shaw wine, and will drink them in good company, thank you!

The ones who did not make it and enjoy the fun lost a good opportunity of truly good company.

[HarV Wallbanger III]

Thanks Bob your welcome .... I just wish we had more time to work on it. Hope to see you again soon.
I also want to thank all the sponsors and I'm sure Keith will re-list them all. I hope next year we will have another great time racing with all our new and old friends!

[68Caddy]

Hi Bob, I was just mellowed out at the Event, and sure would have love to have a chance to talk to ya.
I'm almost as calm as Duran!
Now reading your post Philippe I sure need to read your new book. The wine I'm saving for you till I see ya next time.
Enjoy my friend!


Nesta

[usadar]

"I also would like to congratulate Phil Nyland for great performances, even if he lost a chance to the Can-Am podium by having a bad day on the red lane, and Haruki Kan who came all the way from... Japan to race with us! Haruki is starting a D3 class in Japan. " by PDL


Hello D3 racers, Jim and Debbie,

I am safe back in Tokyo, Japan.

What I would like to say is already said by Philippe-san, so I am not going to repeat.
But thanks again, Paul and Keith, for me to have a great opportunity to enjoy great racing this time.

I am so happy to find out Phil, Gary and I have a mutual friend, Shigeaki Hattori, Japanese racer(1/1 Scale!), who is the guy who took me to BPR for the first time when I came to see PDL several years ago.

We are going to have our first D3 race on February 20 in Tokyo.
The first race is just a Retro Can-Am race, but some racers can not helping waiting for me to expand racing class as shown in the attached photos.

Good Racing,

Haruki

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[TSR]

Nice!

[The Bugman]

tho i had a wonderful time this weekend (not so good racing results) the best was getting to visit and talk with you Haruki,
you are really a wonderful person,i hope the best for your FAR EAST BPR D3 CONNECTION,
im glad to call you a good friend too.
see you next year if not before

oscar morales

[Bob Chaney]

For those interested, I have posted my CPC Race Report to Hold Your Ticket http://ttf3289.wordp...y-working-good/

[TSR]

Bob, a cool personal report! We really enjoyed to have you at the races.

[Bob Chaney]

Bob, a cool personal report! We really enjoyed to have you at the races.

Thanks DOKK!

[usadar]

tho i had a wonderful time this weekend (not so good racing results) the best was getting to visit and talk with you Haruki,
you are really a wonderful person,i hope the best for your FAR EAST BPR D3 CONNECTION,
im glad to call you a good friend too.
see you next year if not before

oscar morales

Oscar,

I enjoyed your company a great deal!
The best ting to race at BPR is to see such wonderful people like you.

I hope I will see you at the Western States.

Haruki

[TSR]

A few pictures I took at the Checkpoint so as to amuse the confused masses buried in the Eastern snow...

John "The Jet" Cukras brought a pair of pre-production AFX Peugeot 905 and Audi R15 diesel-powered racers in the HO scale, the best production HO cars I have ever seen.



Since I was politely told to stay away from anything that had to do with D3 motors (I mean, you know, I could actually have found a jet motor for me and marked it with my name all over it... ), Barney and Keith distributed the hand-out mills to anxious racers. Not too many were disappointed, least Duran "The Machine" Trujillo who could have used a wind-up motor from a toy car to the same effect...


The super-secret double-probation motor box...



Keith doing what he does best: everything.



Charlie Nelson, Phil Nyland, Barney "Bear Killer" Poynor and Haruki Kan having a good moment watching poor racers destroying their missiles in the Kingleman crashfest.



Mill "Chemical Ali" Conroy qualifying. Mill put in serious performances at the races, using his stable of Warmackmobiles...



I loaned my "spare" NASCAR hunk to Duran but made the mistake of adding too much weight to it. By the time we had all that lead off the car it was too late for the driving ace to move forward enough.



The Noosester mailed me this really cool body that won the Concours, but the chassis was desperately obsolete and I ate it in the "B". It is now permanently retired in my collection of D3 losers...



Charlie Nelson won the very first Western States Championship Race in 1968 at age 16. Now a bit older, Charlie came back and handled his cars in such a manner as looking like he never stopped racing. He was very impressive and as nice as one can be.



Howiewood and Charlie watching Bryan "The Brain" Warmack play with toy car. Warmack and his friends placed an incredible number of his own chassis in all the races...



Post your own pictures and comments so that we can all enjoy them!

[Howie Ursaner]

Here are some pictures i took.

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[Howie Ursaner]

[Howie Ursaner]

I had a great time at the 2011 Checkpoint Cup.Everyone was a winner that was there as it was an event that will be remembered.Congratulations to the winners,Johnathan, Bryan and Duran who was really on the game.I had some great races and a few forgettable moments.On my first Kingleman race, stock cars, i had my best chance to win and was leading after heat 6 but fell to a simple Kingleman mistake.I touched the wall in black,sucking the body into the gear.
The other race i will mention is the Can AM where i cannot remember a race in which 3rd through 7th was on the same lap basically in one group.Hope to be there next year and try again.Thank you to all of my friends that made this possible.I could not be there without you.The party was fun and it was great to see everyone.Thank you Keith , Paul and all the others for keeping it together.

[Keith Tanaka]

Howie, thanks for posting the photos. It's always special when you're at the Checkpoint.

Maybe next year you can corral your old gold dust partner Sandy Gross to come by the Checkpoint for a visit.
We might even schedule the Checkpoint after the CES show in Vegas so Sandy can visit his old racing buddies at BP.

Keith