111 replies to this topic

[Jonathan Forsyth]

I'll start with my loan few positives of the weekend. It was great to see all my friends I rarely see, Howie, the speedzone guys(great meeting Wes, awesome dude), Tracy, Herman, Gorski, Jimi Bling, Duran, and most of the other BP locals.

 

The handout motors were as bad as ever, I went through 14 motors to find one average one that ran a "blistering 4.4 to get me in the D-main" and 13 absolute duds, that couldn't break 4.6. That's a lot of money to spend on motors that I left in the trash can, when I left today.

 

The handout process is becoming a joke as well. Tell me where you can buy all your handout motors 48 hours before the race, and they aren't even assigned to any racer, so I can race my motor in can-am and hand it to Wes so he could race it in F1 the next day. The only marking is a number engraved on it, god that's hard to copy. PDL was going to let a motor run today that wasn't even a handout motor, until I spoke up calling BS, since I had to buy 14 of these turds, that I'll never race again.

By the way all the cars were teched this weekend with a gauge ten thou to small, that wasn't caught until the end of tech for the F1 race.

 

It was impossible to prep a car ahead of time, because you never know when they're going to clean the track. The track was good after the can-am race and people were testing and setting up their cars for those condition, however when Cukras came in before the F1 race and his car wasn't working great he up and announced the track was being cleaned,(kinda reminds me of the old dictator of this organization that was run off). He made another decision to only have 1 guy move up from the C-main to the B, despite there being 2 open spots in the B, until another board member spoke some sense into him, maybe it was because Cukras was in the B and didn't want to have to try and race with the other guy for a move-up to the A, I don't know?

 

 

Track power was another issue this weekend, we tested motors for 8 hours on the 11 volts Friday that we have to race on, so the lousy TSR motors can look good by never blowing up, and then find out 20 minutes before the can-am race we are going to be running on 13 volts, great decision. Watching qualifying today the first half that qualified were on about 12.7, then the next half were on 13.4, but I guess only Wes and I noticed that.

 

What happened to all the race prizes that were donated? I never saw or heard anything about them all weekend, were they only distributed among the "good ol' boys club" after over half of everyone left?

 

This race left a really sour taste in my mouth and I don't see myself returning to race at an SCRRA race for quite some time. It's a lot of money to travel to a race like this, and some of the process and decision making is pretty poor. Several other people I talked with who spent good money to travel from out-of-state had the same opinions as I did, so I know I'm not the only one that feels this way.

 

[bbr]

Opps, well that's racing... winners are happy and everyone else not so happy.
I raced my race, had some fun, enjoyed everyone's company, saw some good racing, learned a few things.
Met some great guys from back east.
Being at the CPC this weekend was much better than vaccuming the house, lol.
I'm looking foward to the next big race.

[DCR]

....I raced this weekend at the CPC,,yes it was a long weekend,and I had,lets call them "Mixed Results",,{LOL} but overall I had a good weekend at the race,and even though Im ready for a break,,I look forward to the next SCRRA race at BPR.The people from BPR & The SCRRA have been very nice to me,and I have no real complaints about the way the hold & run there races.

Iv been attending toy car races since 1966,both Slots and top level RC racing,and Iv seen promoters and shop owners pull some real crap on the racers,and I feel the people at BP & SCRRA mean well,and try there best to keep all of us "Big Kids" happy,so thank you to Debbie,Jim,Jeff & Greg at BPR,and the SCRRA.

I did get to meet some cool people at the race,The gang from SpeedZone in NJ seem like some good people,that like to have fun,and there also some GREAT racers,,also Gorski,Herman,Tom Hansen,Howie Ursaner and the Great Jersey John.I can't forget the great group of local Socal racers also,good people.Mike Lles wanted to know if I was going to come to the "Fall Brawl" in NJ,now that would be fun,so who knows?

I did get to watch the Retro Pro A main,and Jonathan Forsyth had "The Car" it was a MISSILE,,and even though I don't know Jonathan,I felt bad for him as it looked like his race to win.

I need to thank the Dennis "Foamy" Hill for all his help and time,and Dennis Samson for so great chassis............Thanks to everyone............Don

[idare2bdul]

I really feel Jonathon's pain about the motors being slow. These are cheap motors with poor quality control and with handout motors what you get may vary greatly; that said, the reason they are being run is that most of the racers like this system.

 

I sincerely doubt that John Cukras did anything to improve his own personal race finish. Good intentions can result in frustrated racers when race procedures aren't done according to the announced and written rules. With all the problems, real and imagined I still wish I could have been there and I suspect that in time the race organizers will smooth out some of the difficulties.

[TSR]

Jonathan, we are all perfect.

[backintheslot]

Some days you are the dog, Some days you are the hydrant.

[redbackspyder]

To all concerned :

 

    The HANDOUT MOTORS were not just marked by engraving a number on it alone.   There were other invisible markings that I shall not go into, and all the motors that were teched passed rigorous inspection....  The fact that Jonathan thought there was only an engraved number is that he is not privvy to all the processes that go into the handout motors at Buena Park.  At least I hope that he is just not aware, because I believe if he knew that there were multiple markings, he would apologise for his remark.

 

   Many people , or teams of people bought numerous motors all weekend long.   GREAT FOR THE TRACK !!!   Do not forget that we race for fun, but also supporting the track keeps the doors open and a place to race.....   ANYONE THAT DOES NOT SUPPORT THE TRACK  , well , tell me how you like racing at home.  Record motor sales, and good for business, because many people feel that there is that Magic Bullet out there, and if you are a believer, you could buy till your heart was content.  

 

   I BOUGHT 4 MOTORS ON FRIDAY .   I QUALIFIED FOR THE A MAIN, AND FINISHED SECOND TO DURAN.   Many other people bought 14, 16,  or more motors and found some good , some okay , a few dogs.  You are still able to run these other motors at any of the other monthly races, and some of the so-so ones will be great Flat Track motors. 

 

   A BIG THANKS TO ALL THE RACERS THAT ATTENDED, TO ALL THE OUT OF TOWNERS THAT CAME, TO THE BUENA PARK RACEWAY FOR OPENING EXTRA EARLY, TO ALL THAT VOLUNTEERED AND HELPED RACE DIRECTING, CLEANING TRACKS, TECHING, AND FOR THE DONATORS THAT MADE THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS WHICH INCLUDED NOOSE, PARMA AND MYSELF.  

 

   The SCRRA will look into making every big race even better with constructive comments ..  Believe me, everything that gets said at the track gets heard by the board of advisors and they try to do their best for no pay.    Not bad for not even a thank you.

 

   I apologise if anyone did not have a good time at the Checkpoint Cup.   I certainly tried to make people feel welcome, gave out numerous things to racers, and we all got through some blips in the road, but NOBODY DIED .....

 

   All I can say is that I met a lot of great people, mended some broken fences, and found some new friends and had some great laughs with some great racers.   Oh, by the way,  ANYBODY SEE A BLUE HANDLED THIRD EYE CONTROLLER ? ? ? 

 

P.S.   YES , THE YELLOW SHIRT MADE AN APPEARANCE ON FRIDAY !!!   Just for my East Coast Fans !!!

[TSR]

Mill, thanks! 

[redbackspyder]

PSS: Great thanks to Bryan Warmack, Terry Schmid, John Wakamatsu, John Cukras, and Philippe de Lespinay for their work in the SCRRA to make this event come off. Thanks to Greg Carter, Jeff Easterly, the Wattersons, Alex Freund, and all the volunteers who tried hard to please everyone !!!

Hope everyone has a safe journey home, see you all at the next big one, the Pete Zimmerman memorial, or the Western Summer Classic, or the new October race that I will be planning, the Can-Am/Formula One Revival Festival, a two-day, flat and King track event with additional twists of an overall point challenge!!!

[gascarnut]

   All I can say is that I met a lot of great people, mended some broken fences, and found some new friends and had some great laughs with some great racers.   Oh, by the way,  ANYBODY SEE A BLUE HANDLED THIRD EYE CONTROLLER ? ? ? 

 

P.S.   YES , THE YELLOW SHIRT MADE AN APPEARANCE ON FRIDAY !!!   Just for my East Coast Fans !!!

 

I saw it, then I didn't, then I did, then I didn't, then I did... guess I am not going to live down that one for a while.

 

Hopefully people will remember the jacket and tie on Sunday longer than the lost controller(s) on Friday!

 

I want to add to what Mill said about mending fences - this event was a great show of what Retro racing was envisaged to be from the start, guys racing cars with their friends. The image of Jay Kisling in the Race Director's stand helping run a race for the SCRRA will live in my memory for a long time as a great example of the camaraderie of the whole weekend.

 

On a more personal note, my apologies to those who struggled at tech with slightly undersized front wheels, I will do better on the next batch so that it does not happen again.

 

Thanks to those who ran my frames, I hope you had a good experience, and congrats to a number of people for their performances:

 

- Mike Iles 2nd in F1 using last year's F1 frame that was again the quickest car out there. Once Mike learns to drive black on the BPR King track, watch out.

- Don Campbell, a great qualifier to make the B Main first time out with a Retro F1

- Ben and Ben Jr, and Earl McCutcheon, thanks for the support and I hope you all enjoyed the event

- Dennis Rios, good job staying ahead of me in CanAm for the move-up (not that I like to beat my Customers, but I was trying!) and then still making the podium in the next Main as well.

- Duran, Herman, and Alex - great job by all in the Retro32. We narrowly missed a 1-2-3-4, with Bryan managing to squeeze a 3rd by about 15 feet.

- Tracy Chin - a great battle to win the Retro Pro B Main then do pretty well inthe A as well, with an off-the-wall frame and a bag motor, complete with bushings!

 

Hard luck story of the weekend has to be Mill, who had his Retro32 car bent and broken by a rider in practice right before the race, and then lost his brand new F1 frame 3 laps into practice when the car hit another racer's thumb putting a car onto the adjacent lane on the King, deslotted and punched into the wall in the banking. Tough breaks, but he came back and carried on without complaint.

[Jason Holmes]

Hi All

Had a great Time Talking to a bunch of Friends and a Fun time racing the BOD did a great JOB keeping thing running Wes thanks for the motors if they are slow flat track time if not I have a hand full of fun to try out. Jonathan sorry you had such a poor time But the odds are about 1 in 1000 that you are going to get that super motor so buy a few and play and put the money else where in you program. Jay, Mike & Wes hope to see you at the F/B in Nov. please post some dates ASAP Quite a Few were talking about coming.

Thanks to All Who Attended

Jason

[kuni123456]

Jason,

I bought fourteen motors and ended up racing you in the CanAm "D" main. I think that the it was not the motor, but how well the car handled. The F1 cars used some of these motors and John Cukras TQ in F1, and I qualified 10th. The F1 were great and you should have used our 3rd car for the F1 race.

John K. Wakamatsu

[Jason Holmes]

John

Was not unhappy with the motors Just stating that you don't have to buy a bunch to have a good time and Jonathan was the one you raced in the D Main not me That is why he was not HAPPY

Jason

P.S. Dennis we are taking Donation for a Chip for the (Blue Lady) My name for his Controller

[Tom Eatherly]

John , you are so right about that. I don't believe its the motors, its car set-up. Look what happened to me!

[Bryan Warmack]

    Jonathan,

          Just a few comments regarding your Parma Checkpoint weekend. You described the handout motor process as being a "joke" in regards to the motor markings. Do you not recall that several months ago we had a conversation on the phone and I explained to you that the handout motors were indeed marked with more than just a number? I told you that ever since we stopped welding the cans we have also identified them with a very small and virtually unnoticeable mark that can be changed at random and is VIRTUALLY UNREPRODUCEABLE.

        As far as the handout motors being "as bad as ever" do you also not recall that at the last big handout motor race, the SWC in July, you finished THIRD in the Can Am and came within feet of WINNING the F1??? I believe you have also won several BIG handout motor races at BPR using these same bad motors............... I'm sorry that you can't win em all.

       The race prizes were handed out by John Cukras on Sunday. Perhaps it could have been a bit more formal but John just looked over all the results sheets I had and just started rolling some dice and personally began handing out prizes. No announcement was made and maybe you didn't notice or had left by this time. Some few items were left on the flat track later when the F1 race was over and I told several racers to take an item if they desired. I was in charge of a random handout of "Noose" body certificates which I did. The SCRRA wishes to thank Parma, Noose and Gil Rivera for their support and generous donations of race prizes and all the racers for their attendance.

       I think some of the other stuff you addressed just kind of boils down to the fact that you can't please everyone. The SCRRA will try to do better next time and appreciates all comments, positive or negative that will help insure more fun for all. 

[redbackspyder]

The fact still remains that many feel that the Magic Bullet Motor is only a few dollars away.   God bless them, for they spent their money and took their shot. 

Just like the guy that buys one thousand lottery tickets, yet the guy that bought one wins it all.....  LUCK OF THE DRAW......

Motors play a big part in these races on the King Track, but the cream of drivers usually rise to the top anyway, and the usual suspects seemingly always get there...... Why ????   Because they take the cards that are dealt to them and they find the way to win........

Jonathan lost a wheel in the race.....  Was that the fault of the motor ? ? ?   Jonathan had the single, best Retro Pro car in the race and he lost because he stripped gears.....  Whose fault was that ? ? ?   Luck plays a big part in what happens.......But it is funny how those that work the hardest seem to be the luckiest.....

 

If you do not like hand out races, DON'T RACE THEM !   67 guys put a car on the track  Saturday and had the balls to race......39 more showed up to race the F1 race on Sunday despite all that was going on.   Why ?  Because they are slot racers, who compete for the fun of it, who love to race and I watched all 3 days as we all helped each other to get cars ready to race, loaning tools, truing tires, breaking in motors, loaning cars and parts......All so that someone could be a little better prepared to race...... Even Jay Kisling and I mended our fence, and I have a new found respect for Jay, and he helped out at the directors podium......  Just goes to show everyone,   pitch in - help a little - get a lot in return .... Be like Jersey John,  soak in the atmosphere and the pure fun of hanging out with old and new friends and do your best, win or lose.....

 

The SCRRA will take into account all that happened this weekend and review and reflect on what changes need to be made to make future events go more smoothly for the benefit of all.  

 

Do not forget, the SCRRA is not just John Cukras, it is all the regular racers that makeup the group, and we are all apart of what started at Imperial Burger on a Saturday afternoon......

 

Just like the guys in the East that feel that I am a S+++ stirrer and a complete A hole, at least this weekend proved one thing,  I am at the least a fast A Hole who cares about his home raceway and pitched in to try to make sure that anytime a problem showed up, I brought it to someone's attention to try to get it fixed.  Because I do care about the out of town racers that came, and I do care that we leave guys with the feeling that they want to come back and hang out again.....

 

Haruki and Dave, we surely missed you guys this weekend...  

[Tom Eatherly]

Bryan and Mill: WELL SAID!! Thank you. Thank you SCRRA.

[TSR]

Ditto. Saying that the handout process was a joke, when the raceway owner picked them herself from a box, without the racer being able to "select" his handout motors, is a joke.

Jonathan, we all love to race you because you are a damn good racer, but you sound like a spoiled child. Time to grow up.

[Steve Deiters]

I certianly don't have a dog in this fight, but statisticly what are the chances of having 14 motors with 13 of them being "dogs" without that ratio being reflected across all the motors being passed out from the same box that same race weekend?  From a probability standpoint it just doesn't "add up" so to speak.  I guess it comes down to a subjective evaluation or collective hunch of what is good and what is not so good.  What is "slow" to one guy might be "fast" to another.

[TSR]

Steve,

No one had a "fast" or "slow" motor. Jonathan's and Mike Boemker's comments are simply out of sync with reality.

[Jonathan Forsyth]

For everyone saying all the motors are equal, you obviously didn't try 1 of the 14 motors I went thorugh. Yes, I agree car set-up is very important. As Bryan and Mill pointed out I've done very well in the past, I don't think all of a sudden my car set-ups went down to D-main quality. All my cars handled as well as ever. Yet I still couldn't go faster then 4.6!!! That's the fact, so I don't want to hear how all these motors are equal.

 

I wasn't looking for one motor that was faster then everyone else, I was looking for one that was competitive with everyone else. I have no problem supporting the track, I bought all my parts for this race at BP when I got there, including tires, pinons, and so forth. But when I have to get 14 motors, just to try and find one that's competitive, and still can't get one that's where I have a problem.

 

As the handout process goes my bigger point is the fact you get your motors 48 hours before the race and you can share them with any other racer you want, sorry that's not a handout motor race. That's just a race where they are making you buy new motors to race that weekend. They may have secret marks or not, that fine. A true handout motor race, you get your motor when you signup an hour before the race and it's marked and assigned to you. PDL you stood there and agreed with me and a few others on the handout process should be getting the motors when you signup, but you say "I'm not in control and have no say in the matter", and if you deny that then you were either lying to me and the other guys or everyone on here.

 

PDL you can call me a spoiled child if you want, the fact is I spent a lot of my own hard earned money to come and race this weekend and all I did was line your pockets to race with your terrible TSR motors.

 

You guys can say it's just a fun race, that some of us are taking to serious, but you guys advertise it up as the premier retro race on the West Coast and pound your chest on the # of entries and how fast you guys went. If this race has no extra importance over your weekly races then why do we even run handouts?

[bbr]

I feel your pain... racing, any sort of racing is not equal, there are those that have more resources than others.

maybe the handout process could be better... up to the boa to decide.

[gascarnut]

Albert Einstein said " Insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different outcome"

 

After 3 or 4 motors that are all "slow", isn't it time to look elsewhere for the problem?

 

Pity I didn't know about the 14 motors in the trash - I would have been dumpster-diving! That would have kept me in motors for two years, especially on the flat track.

 

There are those who need to win, those who like to win and those who like to race. The guys in the third group have the most fun.

[TSR]

Jonathan,

A guy called Duran Trujillo won with one of those "terrible motors", another called Alex Freund won with another of those "terrible motors", and all the races were very competitive with those "terrible motors".

Yes, it is possible to tighten the handout system, forcing the racers to thrash within the short time between the raceway's opening hour and qualifying time.

Instead, the SCRRA (of which I have no part other than volunteering my physical help of tech inspection), chose to trust the racers with the simple caveat that IF someone's motor appeared to be faster than it should, ANY racer can enter a protest and the motor in question stripped and inspected.

I did not hear ANYONE saying that "this guy has a missile motor" during the event.
 

Your complaint is based on the fact that you did not succeed, so it must be "unfair". I am sorry but it sounds of a crying baby here.
The weekend was certainly not perfect and lots of issues need to be improved by the SCRRA management, but these hardly relate to motors, type of motors, selection of motors or anything related to motors. Calling a motor that D3, then SCRRA and MANY other organizations in the USA have used since 2006 a "terrible motor" because you did not find "that special one" (one in a thousand?) that would give you that extra 2/10th just like that is simply a case of whining. So are you accusing the races winners to have cheated and have modified their motors in those "48 hours" to get where they ended? Is that it? Please spell it out.
 

By the way, not a single one of those "terrible motors" had the indecency to fail during the whole weekend, putting Mr. Boemker's comments back to where they belongs, in the whiners court.

[Jonathan Forsyth]

I guess you still aren't seeing what I'm saying. I wasn't looking for that ballistic motor better then everyone else. I was looking for one that would get me higher then the D-main. They were tried in several different cars from Can-am to F1, different gear ratios, tires, bodies, controllers even, all with the same result being slow. Another racer told me he bought 11 and had the same results, couldn't get out of their own way. His cars as well as mine were built by some of the best builders in the country too, including Sampson, Tony P, and Duran. So if your trying to say it's on our ends why the motors are so slow, your delusuional.

 

You can brag all you want as you usually do about none of them blowing up, but it's kind of hard to blow up on 11volts of power.  Although if i'm not mistaken I beleive I read Gorski's blew up when leading the A-main in F1.