37 replies to this topic

[Bob DeWoody]

The higher end 1/32 cars have set screw aluminum hubs on 3/32" axles so they can be trued on a truing machine.  I have an old JK truer.  Most 1/32 slot cars including Carrera have press on plastic hubs that are best left on the axle as they come.  There is a truer called the tire razor that accepts the entire rear or front axle assembly and trues the wheels in place.

 

I have considerable success truing first the plastic hubs and then the hub and tire assembly on my test block with a sandpaper surface while connected to a power supply.  It must be done carefully and slowly to prevent over heating the car's motor.  These cars are considerably slower than 1/24th cars that run on commercial tracks and don't require the same high degree of precision.  I trued my 1/24th Carrera wheels using my test block with the sandpaper surface.

 

Up till five years ago all my slot car racing was conducted with 1/24th cars on commercial tracks of 100' or longer.  Average lap times were in the 4 to 5 second range.  My 1/32 track is now 55' in length on a 16' long table.  Lap times are in the 5 to 6 second range and I get the same feel as when I was racing flexis with hawk motors or FCRs with Parma 16D or super 16Ds.  I have a few 1/32 cars with motors rated as high as 28K and they are a challenge to handle plus the spin their wheels all the way down the straights.  I am by no means a "scale speed" freak so I keep the power turned up enough to make sure driving these 1/32 cars provides a challenge to the driver's skills.  The impression of speed is more related the length of the track and to lap times than actual velocity.  On a 150' track these cars seem to creep around the track.

 

Some people who have always raced 1/24th scale wing cars will not like making the transition to the slower 1/32 cars.  But the advantage to me is that the track is in my house and I can go out there and run any time of the day or night and not worry about when the owner is going to have to close up shop.  Almost every commercial raceway I raced at has either moved to a different location or closed up shop for ever.  Also almost every commercial track I have raced on has gone through multiple owners and locations.  I just got tired of chasing them all around the country side.

 

My track will be here until I die and hopefully after that someone will keep it going at their home.

[Pappy]

Up till five years ago all my slot car racing was conducted with 1/24th cars on commercial tracks of 100' or longer.  Average lap times were in the 4 to 5 second range.  My 1/32 track is now 55' in length on a 16' long table.  Lap times are in the 5 to 6 second range and I get the same feel as when I was racing flexis with hawk motors or FCRs with Parma 16D or super 16Ds.  I have a few 1/32 cars with motors rated as high as 28K and they are a challenge to handle plus the spin their wheels all the way down the straights.  I am by no means a "scale speed" freak so I keep the power turned up enough to make sure driving these 1/32 cars provides a challenge to the driver's skills.  The impression of speed is more related the length of the track and to lap times than actual velocity.  On a 150' track these cars seem to creep around the track.

 

Some people who have always raced 1/24th scale wing cars will not like making the transition to the slower 1/32 cars.  But the advantage to me is that the track is in my house and I can go out there and run any time of the day or night and not worry about when the owner is going to have to close up shop.  Almost every commercial raceway I raced at has either moved to a different location or closed up shop for ever.  Also almost every commercial track I have raced on has gone through multiple owners and locations.  I just got tired of chasing them all around the country side.

 

My track will be here until I die and hopefully after that someone will keep it going at their home.

I went through the same thing. Most of my racing is 1/32 scale on home tracks. I've raced in the Michigan 24 hour race three times now and I love it. It's a 1/32 scale race using mostly Slot It, NSR or Sidewinder cars. We just had a 6 hour 1/32 scale race at my house a little over a month ago.

[Bob DeWoody]

First official race at the new location is this Saturday Sept. 12th at 7:00PM.  Carrera classic NASCARs.

[Bob DeWoody]

DeBary Glen Race Report

Sept. 12, 2015

Larry Granger and his wife Diane were the first to arrive.  Pete arrived shortly afterwards. Then Tony P. and his daughter Olivia came in follwed by Rick Turner.  I got a call from Garold Page who needed a ride due to the rain and Rick volunteered to go pick him up.  Pete had his wife with him and they took off to find a place to eat.  There was a good half hour of practice and then it was time to race. The cars were Carrera classic NASCARs. The race format was round robin with sit outs with 5 minute heats with 3 minute breaks. There was a track power problem that cropped up at the last minute but we finally got under way. Expecting six racers I set up the lap counter with two sit outs putting Pete in as the final sit out driver.  Unfortunately he never got back to race.  Things proceeded well until the fourth heat when a combination of track power and a car with a broken lead wire caused a loss of two minutes.  Final lap times for the drivers in that heat were adjusted to their average laps for their other three heats.

 

Garold Page won the race driving my Ford Torino completing 176 laps

Rick Turner placed second driving his own Ford Torino completing 168 laps

Tony P placed third driving my Plymouth Road Runner completing 164 laps

Olivia placed fourth driving her Dad's Dodge Charger completing 161 laps

Larry Granger placed fifth driving my other Plymouth Road Runner completing 157 laps

Pete never came back from dinner.

 

Rick had fast lap at 5.951 seconds, Garold was second fast lap at 5.962 seconds.

 

For a first time event things were a little bumpy but everyone had fun and hopefully the next race will progress more smoothly. The next race is tentatively scheduled for Saturday Oct. 10th

[Bob DeWoody]

We will be racing Carrera classic NASCARs this Saturday evening.  Track open at 5:00PM racing scheduled to begin at 7:00PM.  Cars to be stock except for tires. No silicones.

[Bob DeWoody]

Well, even though we had to deal with a lack of an electronic means of counting laps, last evening was an enjoyable experience.  I kept it simple, 20 lap heats with points awarded for finishing position.  4 for first, 3 for second and so on.  We ran straight rotation instead on european style.  After each heat I wrote down next to each driver's name which lane they were in and how many points they earned for that heat.  After everyone had driven all four lanes I just added up the points and declared the winner.

 

Driver                       red                            white                      blue                       yellow                            total

 

Larry Granger              1                                 2                           3                              1                                  8

 

Grant Goerner             1                                 2                           3                              3                                  9

 

Rick Turner                 1                                 4                           4                               2                                 11

 

Garold Page                3                                 4                           4                               2                                 13

 

So, Garold took top honors, Rick was second, Grant was third and Larry came in fourth.  This was Grant's first visit on race night and I can see where as everyone gets more experience driving the track the competition is going to get tighter.  After me, Garold has the most time on the track, Rick has been by several times and Larry, due to the fact that he lives way up in Ocala, only gets to come on race day.  Grant lives nearby and should be getting more practice time in.

 

Tony P. and Olivia had other commitments and weren't able to attend.  It appears that this group of people will become the core participants on a regular basis.  Everyone seems to get along well together and we manage to race without getting too serious.  Larry had to leave first, wanting to get home to watch the end of the NASCAR race (we weren't aware that it had been postponed).  

 

Rick had brought his Scaley Trans Am Camaro and wanted to run it so I loaned Grant and Garold a couple of my pony cars and we had a fun run for about 30 minutes.  On my wood track the advantage the Pioneer cars had on plastic pretty much vanished and we all had a lot of fun.

 

Finally after Grant had to leave, Garold, Rick and I spent some time driving my slot.it LMP cars.  All three were Lolas, one has the billboard fin.  My gold/white/red Lola was the cream of the crop.  I'm glad to report that although we ran them hard and had a few crashes nothing got broken, not even a mirror.  I don't trust my top tier cars to just anyone but Garold and Rick are excellent drivers.  If ever we could afford to make it to one of the big time 24 hour races I would want them on my team.

 

Next race date is November 14th, again the second Saturday of the month.  We will continue to run the Carrera classic NASCARs as the main event.  Hopefully I can persuade the guys borrowing cars to buy a trans am car and we can schedule two races soon.

[Bob DeWoody]

Reminder, our next race is Saturday, Nov. 14, at 7:00PM  Carrera classic NASCARS

[Bob DeWoody]

Last night, Sunday, October 25th, the final component was added to my raceway. Garold Page came over and added the lane striping to the track. And now that it has dried everything is ready for racing. No more guessing about which lane a car belongs in after a deslot.

[Samiam]

Nice track. What cars do you run?

 

Just a suggestion: House rule of "NO drinks on or near track surface".

Oops   doesn't fix the track.

[Bob DeWoody]

Thanks, currently we are racing Carrera classic NASCARs.  I run most everything with a hard body on it. So far there has been little interest in metal chassis lexan bodied cars.  That drink can got snuck in but was empty.

 

November race is this coming Saturday Nov.14, 6:00 PM.  Carrera classic NASCARs.  Please RSVP if you are racing.

[tonyp]

Looks good for me so far.

[Bob DeWoody]

Saturday evening we had our best turnout so far. Six racers were present and we waited til 7:00PM for the seventh to arrive. He must have made a wrong turn somewhere. Present were, Garold, Charmaine, Tony P., Olivia, Rick and Larry G. from FUBAR racing. This month's race came off without a hitch. No delays for track repairs and only one car died during the race which was quickly replaced with a spare. Even without much practice the drivers are getting better as they grow more familiar with the layout. Since we had sitouts it was hard to determine who the overall leader was until the last heat. We ran 5 minute heats with 3 minute breaks in between. It was apparent that Garold and Tony were going to be close at the finish. The red lane was the deciding factor and in the end Garold won again with a total of 191 laps, Tony finished in second with 189 laps, Rick came in third with 182 laps, Larry, after a slow start, was fourth with 180 laps, Olivia was fifth with 175 laps and Charmaine, our rookie racer, was sixth with 164 laps. BTW, I was race director for this event. Soon I hope to persuade someone else to handle that job so I may enter a race.

Here are some images from the evening.

The winners from left to right, Garold, Tony and Rick

The results sheets

[tonyp]

It was fun Bob, I got to see if I can get GARY Clinton to show up next time..