127 replies to this topic

[Pappy]

I might have discovered part of my problem besides the fact that I don't drive very well. Both my F1 and Can Am cars were the heaviest in their classes. I guess I need to cut down on the solder.

My GT Coupe chassis is listed as a "Pappy" but it was actually a Warmack which is why the weight was OK and it ran good.

Looks like I had the wrong controller, the wrong bodies, the wrong motors, the wrong pinions, the wrong chassis (F1 and Can-Am), and the wrong finger. So I do have room for improvement.

Thanks for compiling all this information, Noose; it does help.

[Noose]

You were a heck of a pit partner though! Thanks for bringing the extra chairs and electrical connections!

[Ron Hershman]

Great job, Noose!

[tonyp]

Noose, is there any correlation between driver weight and car weight?

[Noose]

Hmm... the heavier the guy, the lighter the car.

[Pappy]

Noose is there any correlation between driver weight and car weight?

 

In my case, "yes".

[Noose]

Popular gear sizing for those running the 4002Bs was 7/28 and 7/27. Some ran 29s, too. As for the Falcons and TSR D3s, it was 8/29 or 9/28.

Rear tire compounds varied. Thursday and Friday found guys switching to untreated JKs and Alphas. As more rubber got laid down on the track, guys started the switch to treated tires and some narrowed them a bit. Nothing major. Hub sizes were predominately the regular type but some ran "Super Duper I'm Ya Big Daddy" hubs to "Is That Tire on a Wheel Teenie Tiny" hubs.

It should be noted that three motors blew during the weekend. One Chinese Pro Slot in the Flexi race, one Falcon, and one TSR D3. From what was realted to me, these were older motors being run. When you consider all the practice and the racing, that's not bad at all!

[gascarnut]

I had a Chinese Pro Slot let its smoke out in practice on Friday, with less than 10 minutes running on it, so add that to the list!

[Larry Mattingly]

Noose:

Good job...

LM

[Cheater]

Guys,

I've split the car pics into their own topics. Forgot that's the way I did it for the Sano pics...

Also, I am updating prior posts with pics as I locate them. You might want to scroll through the entire thread again...

[Cheater]

Well, I probably won't be able to get the F1 pics organized, cropped, tweaked, and uploaded tonight, so how about a little diversion (mainly to keep you guys from sending a lynch mod after me for taking so long to get the R4 pics posted)?

Let's take a stroll in the pits. I'm always interested in seeing the various slot box designs and pit spaces. Most of these pit spaces and boxes are way too neat (how do these guys ever get any work done?), which is why you won't be seeing a pic of my messy workspace.

Now I don't recall whose pits these are all, but we can figure some of them out pretty easily.



This is obviously Matt Bruce's pit... since that's Matt in the picture.



And this one's Ken Swanson's pit. Too bad he's not Matt Bruce's size, as he coulda saved some money on a hotel room and just slept in his pit boxes. But wait, maybe he has another use for a hotel room...



And this is Brian McPherson's retro pit box.



Probably Ron Hershman's pit, but maybe not; he has a lot of acolytes...



The helpful Jay Guard in his pit, kindly mounting my GT Coupe body so's I have time to hang with the big dogs and bench race...



Not sure, but I think this is Bob Oaks pit. Or a reasonable facsimile thereof.



Can't remember whose pit this is, but I'll probably be able to tell when I get to the Can-Am pics.



Jack Beer's pit IIRC, and if I'm wrong please let me know.



The bodies tell me this is Jim Bostrom's pit.



And here's why Ken Swanson needed a hotel room: for an after-hours pit, not for sleep... This snap was taken about 1:15 AM and I'm told Ken didn't quit working for more than three hours.

Building a chassis at the hotel the night before the race: now that's serious RETRO!!!

[Ron Hershman]

Probably Ron Hershman's pit, but maybe not; he has a lot of acolytes...

You would be correct in this being Ron and Rande's pit area.

[Cheater]

Well, the odds were in my favor on that guess...

[Ron Hershman]

I think you got all the others correct, too!!

[Windyracer]

Building a chassis at the hotel the night before the race: now that's serious RETRO!!!

 

Thanks for drawing attention to my already-obvious insanity. If I had just run my "B car" in the Coupe race on Saturday like all my Chicago buddies told me to. But nooo, I had to run the "A car". One very quick rider into the 90 and presto, a very fast, very driveable car became a wad of twisted brass and wire. So why didn't I just rebuild it? Nooo, let's build a new Tony P. Warmack replica instead. I just didn't have enough time to tune the new car on Sunday morning. When I had to put it in tech it was not nearly as good as my car that I had piled on Saturday. Oh well, lessons learned. I still had a blast.

Cheers, Ken

[Ron Hershman]

Ken,

Which one did I turn a 4.76 in practice with??? A or B car??? It was very fast!!!

[Cheater]

Here's the results of Sunday afternoon's Retro Flexi GT Race. Thanks to Mike McMasters for emailing me the results after we had to leave. And to Dave Fiedler and Ray Price for the Flexi GT pics below.

Concours winners for Flexi GT were Joe Neumeister in first, Jack Beers in second, and ???? in third. (If the third place winner will identigy himself, I'll add his name here.)

1) Dave Fielder - 287 laps
2) Dustin Morris - 278
3) Ken Swanson - 273
4) Rande Marshall - 268
5) Shannon Tewell - 263
6) Jason Blackburn - 262
7) Paul Wolcott - 258
8) Malcolm Lovelace - 253
9) Jessica McMasters - 246
10) Mike Patterson - 237
11) Joe Neumeister - 233
12) Eric Balicki - 183
13) Bob Oaks - 176
14) Garry Haworth - 173
15) Jason Vicars - 168
16) Ron Hershman - 79


L-to-R, Ken Swanson, Dave Fiedler, Dustin Morris


Dave Fiedler's First Place car


Dustin Morris's Second Place car


Ken Swanson's Third Place car

Sure looks like the JK Cheetah 11 chassis is now the chassis of choice, for a King track at least.

[Windyracer]

Which one did I turn a 4.76 in practice with??? A or B car??? It was very fast!!!

 

Ron,

That would have been the "A" car that I wadded up in the Coupe race on Saturday. You're right, it was a missile. The best I could turn with it was a 4.87. You drove it for three laps. If I remember correctly they were 4.88, 4.81, and 4.76.

I must admit to you that watching you drive a strange car that well in such a few laps changed my personal opinion of you. I had it in the back of my mind previously that just maybe you were so fast because of "select motors" I now know that you are so fast because you are just an amazing driver.

Cheers,

Ken

[Cheater]

Ken,

I heard that Ron put some comm drops in the motor in that car when you weren't looking...

[Ron Hershman]

Now don't say that... he won't think I am so amazing anymore.

[Windyracer]

Now don't say that... he won't think I am so amazing anymore.

 

The only thing Ron put in the motor was throttle and brakes.

It's a bit discouraging when you see the car that you built go faster than you can make it go. But, on the other hand at least you know you can build. I've always been a better builder/tuner than I have a driver. In a conversation I had with Tony P. we both agreed that we have to "out-car them" cause we can't drive. I think Tony was being modest. I really can't drive.

Cheers,

Ken

[The Number of]

Greg,

The unknown pit box was mine, right next to Brian's. You should be getting the pics I sent to you Thur or Fri.

Thanks for all the work you are putting in on this.

Bill

[bobo]

Hope everyone liked my smoke-out in the Flexi race. The motor had SEVERAL races on it, but I thought it would last... guess not!!

[Cheater]

Okay, time for the last installment of the R4 "Rogue's Gallery".


Definitely not one of the rogues, this is the lovely Sharon Bruce, team-owner for Matt Bruce. LOL!!


Steve Deiters, former Car Model writer back in the day.


Jay Kisling, who looks very pleased, probably thinking about something he snuck by the tech inspectors.


Mike McMasters, owner of Tom Thumb Hobbies. I asked Mike to smile when I was taking this picture, and he said, "I am smiling!"


Eric Balicki


Josh Crutchfield


Gary Echelbarger, father of...


Jason Echelbarger


Larry Mattingly


Paul "Pablo" Wolcott, sporting facial hair grown especially for the R4.


Mike Patterson


Dave Reed. This is the third of three attempts to take Dave's pic; the first two he closed his eyes at the exact moment I clicked the button. So I said, "I'll snap this one on a count of three" and then clicked it on "two". Looks like he was already closing his eyes; I shoulda clicked on "one"...


Rob Voska


Shannon Tewell, who only raced Flexi GT after I had departed.


Vince Del Viscio


Who let this reprobate in the door?!?!?!

I hope I snapped everyone who was in attendance; my apologies to anyone I missed (I think I did miss Jim Bostrom, anyone have a pic to send me?). And if I have misidentified anyone, please let me know so I can correct my error.

It was my intention to list everyone's hometown but I got too busy to track the info down after Friday and we revised the sign-up sheet to eliminate that info. If anyone pictured without their hometown shown wants to PM me with the info, I'll edit the posts to add it.

One more thing: an earlier post of racers at the R4 had a picture of Brian McPherson which I have deleted. Brian experienced some facial paralysis at the R4 which was eventually diagnosed as Bell's Palsy and once I realized that the picture posted was not an accurate representation of how Brian normally looks, I felt it shouldn't remain in this coverage.

[Noose]

Well, you better (bunny) hop to it there, sir.