32 replies to this topic

[usadar]

I would like to announce that I am going to optimize our Retro racing program for the next year, 2013.

Although our present program, Tokyo D3, started in February, 2011, as a local D3 racing group in Tokyo, D3 unfortunately have stopped working as a Retro racing organization except for Hardbody racing.

Having studied the regulations of D3 and IRRA™, I have decided to run our racing program basically as a member of the IRRA™ racing groups but with our local options.

In 2013 and after, we will run two classes, Can-Am and F1, as we have been racing until now. Our local option is to allow both Can-Am and F1 with TSRD3/Falcon 7 motors to race without any minimum weight requirement. The cars using PS Puppy Dog motors (PS4002B and PS4002B-B ) should follow the IRRA™'s minimum weight requirement of 100 grams.

D3 F1s can use .225 inch wide fronts but they should follow the maximum chassis width of 1.375 inch except for the front axle carriers and body mounting pin tubes up to 1.625 inch length for easy mounting of IRRA™ wide F1 bodies.

The track power will be 13.8 volt from two Rivergate Bulldog 90 AMP power supplies with four Optima Yellow Top batteries (975 CCA each).

Until the end of this year, we gradually modify our racing program to prepare for the new racing program.

The name of our Retro racing program will be changed to "Retro Tokyo" at the beginning of 2013.

This is where we are now.

Good racing,

Haruki

[Lucky Me]

Congrats, Haruki!

"Retro Tokyo" sound's really cool and way "Sano"!

Good luck on an already very successful Retro program.

Good racing.

[Noose]

Good luck, Haruki-san! Sounds like a great plan.

[Ron Hershman]

Yes, it does indeed... great job, Haruki and good luck and to you and all of the Tokyo racers.

[HarV Wallbanger III]

Good luck, Haruki and racers.

[Cheater]

Welcome to the IRRA™ program, Haruki.

[The Bugman]

Great news. Haruki-san... for you and all my Tokyo teammates!

[Tim Neja]

Glad your Retro Tokyo program is growing and going strong!! Congratulations on another great year - keep up the good work!!

CYA at the races!!

[Jay Guard]

Great news!!! A new addition to the truly international IRRA™ family!!

[Phil Smith]

In 2013 and after, we will run two classes, Can-Am and F1, as we have been racing until now. Our local option is to allow both Can-Am and F1 with TSRD3/Falcon 7 motors to race without any minimum weight requirement. The cars using PS Puppy Dog motors (PS4002B and PS4002B-B ) should follow the IRRA™'s minimum weight requirement of 100 grams.

That's a great idea!

[Hipsticker]

IRRA™ goes global! Yippie!

Good racing,

Hip

[redbackspyder]

Haruki,

Just a question, you now run on 13.8 volts? Just so that I see that the lap times on your King track and how they compare to ours at Buena Park. We are running a pretty consistent 12.5 to 12.6 volts on the new power supply, so the increased voltage that you run should be where marked time improvements are. The IRRA™ motors need the increased voltage to run well, and it will be interesting to see how the FK motors vs the Pro Slot motors are on your track.

As we found on our flat track, the Pro Slot motors do not like the lower voltage. They run better on an increased power. Dennis Samson and Mike Kravitz ran them in Can-Am cars versus our TSR D3 motors in a couple of races, and the Pro Slot motors had more brakes, but needed more power.

[Ron Hershman]

Just a question, you now run on 13.8 volts? The IRRA™ motors need the increased voltage to run well, and it will be interesting to see how the FK motors vs the Pro Slot motors are on your track.

As we found on our flat track, the Pro Slot motors do not like the lower voltage. They run better on an increased power.

Yes, it will be interesting to see how they run on the Tokyo Gerding King track. The P-S PD motors seem to run fine on some King tracks that run 13.0 to 13.5 volts... Chicagoland Raceway and Rt 93 Raceway are two King tracks that come to my mind where they run in the 13.0 to 13.5 volts and the PD motors run GREAT at these power levels.

Of course these tracks are wired differently than most Gerding Kings and I am certain the Toyko Gerding is wired differently than the BRP, Gaithersburg, TR Motorplex, Mid-America, and Port Jeff Gerding Kings.

Wiring plays a bigger part than voltage numbers alone.

[usadar]

Just a question, you now run on 13.8 volts? Just so that I see that the lap times on your King track and how they compare to ours at Buena Park. We are running a pretty consistent 12.5 to 12.6 volts on the new power supply, so the increased voltage that you run should be where marked time improvements are. The IRRA™ motors need the increased voltage to run well, and it will be interesting to see how the FK motors vs the Pro Slot motors are on your track.

As we found on our flat track, the Pro Slot motors do not like the lower voltage. They run better on an increased power. Dennis Samson and Mike Kravitz ran them in Can-Am cars versus our TSR D3 motors in a couple of races, and the Pro Slot motors had more brakes, but needed more power.

Hi, Mill,

In terms of track voltage, until our monthly race this June, we had been using just batteries for racing (13.2v at their full charge, normally around 12.6v at our controller posts), putting the Bulldog power-supplies (two 90A units) on just for qualifying. As you know, Puppy Dogs need higher voltage.

When we tested IRRA™ cars with PD and 100 gram minimum weight, they were not faster than our D3 cars with TSR D3/Falcon 7 motors.
With the power-supplies( around 13.5 V at controller posts), PDs seems to run faster. Of course, at 13.5v, TSRD3/Falcon 7 cars become faster than at the battery power only.

At our recent race on July 29, we, for the first time, kept the power-supplies on from qualifying to the end of race. TSR motors ran very well without burning until the end of the race. My TQ/second place Can-Am car still runs very fast after the race.

We should continue our testing to run both TSRD3 cars and PD cars at this voltage to compare their performances in actual races.

At Port Jefferson Raceway in June (RetroPalooza 3), I brought my D3 Can-Am car with TSRD3 and Kamo-Speed chassis, running it on their Gerding King at 13.6-8v. The car ran around 4.2. My IRRA™ Can-Am with PD ran around 4.1. Around 0.1 difference, I remember. My IRRA™ cars had a good PD motor, qualified at 4.09.

My D3 Can-Am qualified at 4.069 at around 13.5v at our last race on July 29.

This is what we have found out up to now.

By the way, thanks a lot for your Tire Magic. It works so well. My Can-Am TQ at the last race owes much to your tire treatment.

Keep racing,

Haruki

[usadar]

I forgot to mention a couple of points about our change of racing program for 2013.

1.625" wide F1(IRRA™) with TSR D3/Falcon 7 are allowed to race with .225" wide fronts without 100 gram minimum weight requirement.
Whether or not, the extended front axle carriers allowed at SCRRA, are legal will be discussed.



Our intention is to provide our Tokyo racers with opportunities to race D3 F1s which we have been racing since the start of Tokyo D3, as well as the cars (including Can-Ams) they could bring to the racing events both at SCRRA and IRRA™ in the States.

Regardless of the name change to "Retro Tokyo," I will keep the spirit of D3 in my racing program.

Thanks a lot, Paul Sterrett, Keith Tanaka, and Phillip De Lespinay and other D3 racers for helping me start up our Retro racing program in Tokyo.

I would like to thank Noose, Ron, Mike, and other IRRA™ racers for their warm welcome for us to join their racing program.

I hope "Retro Tokyo" will be a good experiment for both D3 (SCRRA) and IRRA™ cars to compete in the same race.

Good Retro Racing,

Haruki

[The Bugman]

Haruki-san,

Good for the Tokyo racers. I believe you guys are really going in the right direction with the rulings for Retro racing.

[JoB]

Hi,

Of course Retro Tokyo will be successful since you have adapted a flexible policy and are ready to change when necessary... and still attract enough racers.

So my experience is if you've erred, forgive, regret, don't repeat, and learn from the sometime hard experience and then move forward... let history be history.

Good racing!

[redbackspyder]

Thanks, Haruki, for the power explanation. As you know, at BPR we have the new, single power supply for racing. Are your dual Bulldog amps split, four lanes to each power supply?

And could you explain why you need the batteries if you have the Bulldogs?

Thanks in advance for your answer, just trying to figure out why?

[The Bugman]

Of course Retro Tokyo will be successful since you have adapted a flexible policy and are ready to change when necessary... and still attract enough racers.

So my experience is if you've erred, forgive, regret, don't repeat, and learn from the sometime hard experience and then move forward... let history be history.

[usadar]

Thanks, Haruki, for the power explanation. As you know, at BPR we have the new, single power supply for racing. Are your dual Bulldog amps split, four lanes to each power supply?

And could you explain why you need the batteries if you have the Bulldogs?

Thanks in advance for your answer, just trying to figure out why?

Hi, Mill,

The track power and wiring of my King track were done by Gary Gerding, when he installed the track at my place in September, 2010.
At that time we had some choices, but we decided to make it to accommodate Group 7 wing car racing.
The track power was decided based on Gary's experience to install a King at Stuart Koford's factory as their test track.
I am not an expert in electricity, but the two 90 amp Bulldog Power Supplies are connected parallel, so are the four Optima Yellow batteries (975 CCA each).
As DC power, batteries are ideal source for the cleanest power.
DC power supplied from AC by power-supplies is apt to have AC ripples, which may damage motors.
Batteries could minimize those ripples, I think.
Again, I am not good at electricity, so somebody else like Barney would give you a better answer.

Good Racing,

Haruki

PS: The future change of our racing program in Tokyo is aimed to make it easier for us to race both in SCRRA and IRRA™.
Buena Park Raceway is still my home raceway away from home.
I am also very interested in racing with IRRA™ racers at different raceways in the States.
For us to race outside of the remote island of the Far East would prevent us from being a big fish in a small pond.

[redbackspyder]

Thanks, Haruki. So basically the batteries act as a filter for the power supplies.

[Hipsticker]

Mill your correct on the batteries being a "filter" to a point ....To explian in a way us common man can understand , A "power supply" of any brand that converts AC current to DC current [ like your small phone charger] is more apt to reain a hint of AC current in its output to whatever device ....with the "power supply" feeding the 3 optima batteries THEN that DC current from the batteries going directly to the track for the cars it is a real CLEAN DC current free of any AC debris [ripples]
Basically the power supplies are big battery chargers ,more refined than one say you use on your car or truck battery,but a charger the same.Converting AC current to DC.
If you would really want to talk to a electric geek, a walking computer,Roman Kromulac[sp] the man in charge of the power at Gaithersburg,Md.king track [THE TRACK owned by Mimi Wong] could talk to you and clarify very specific details .. this cat is genius kind. THE TRACK phone number is in the MD track listings on here,and Roman frequents here on slotblog you could P.M. him.....hope this helps sir.

[TSR]

Roman Kromulac

Roman Kormeluk.

Roman frequents here on slotblog

He used to but apparently it is (some of us are) no longer good enough for him so he resigned his subscription.

[JerseyJohn]

Good for the Tokyo racers. I believe you guys are really going in the right direction with the rulings for Retro racing.

Oscar, you should move to the East buddy. You would be a perfect fit...

[Rick]

Good batteries will filter out AC ripple. Modern switcher power supplies also are pretty good concerning AC ripple.

Back in 1988, when we still used battery chargers to boost voltage, we put an oscilloscope on my track and with six 8D batteries there was almost no ripple present...