10 replies to this topic

[Jesse Gonzales]

Back in the old days many if not all local tracks held weekly "Run What Ya Brung" races, many of these line-ups consisted of open wheel cars. The sports cars of the day just could not compete against a good open wheel car. As aero additions became popular for sports car bodies the emphasis became sports car only racing. In the late 60's or early 70's an attempt to resurrect open wheel racing was made so many new "Handling Bodies" were made to accommodate the new open wheel angle-winders that were showing up at tracks. The problem was these wild machines had no wings or trim tabs etc. like sports cars, as such they were beasts to drive. Most if not all chattered, bounced and launched. In AZ we had a few of these races at Jacks Raceway in Mesa on his notorious Orange track which was fitted with a clear plastic shield in the bank to keep cars from launching out onto Main Ave.

 

After this period of disaster open wheel racing pretty much died everywhere.

 

I would propose that open wheel racing could come back to the USRA if rules could be drafted for angle-winders or in-lines that include some sort of air control. As for motors how about use what you think you can drive, if you are driver enough to keep an open wheel car on the track with an open more power to you. I suspect that many will find something like C12 or an FK motor is going to be enough to consistently cut laps to win, it's not the fastest that wins, it's the guy that can keep his steed under control.

 

does anyone else want to try making a once unmanageable form of racing work?

 

Jess Gonzales

[blue&orange]

IRRA already has a great F1 class.  Check out the IRRA rules.  In-line with Retro Hawk motors -- and quite honestly any faster motor, in my opinion, would be nuts.  These cars are fast, handle great, and are a blast to drive, and they do that without any air control except the body, which, ;like all other classes, is really a one-body class, at least in Retro East.

[bbr]

how do the 1/32 eurosport F1 make it work? seems like a popular class

[Mike K]

USRA has 1/24 JRL open wheel class.....

[Jay Guard]

Jess:

JK has an Indy Flexi angle winder chassis with a very fast JK Hawk 7 motor and a body with very little downforce, it is blazingly fast and handles great.  There are several locations around the US that are running them as a box stock class.

[Bill from NH]

Jesse, 20 yrs ago in the Northeast, the CASRA & later the ANE AMCA groups ran JRL classes with boxstock 12 C-can motors. Those cars were more than a handfull on some tracks, so after a couple years they changed arms to Super Wasps & Contenders to make them more drivable. In those days, JK was the only manufacturer of bodies & steel chassis for this class. JK started with an inline chassis, but soon had an anglewinder. Today you have several other manufacturers involved, such as Mossetti, FX, & Red Fox. About 2003 it was decided to duplicate the 1/24 classes of ANE AMCA in 1/32. For the F1 class we used Betta bodies on scratchbuilt inline chassis with the latest version of the Falcon at the time, (perhaps Falcon 5)  That was a very popular local class with over a couple dozen racers. Many guya had multiple cars with various chassis designs.

 

Lee Gilbert had a PNW IMCA (Pacific North West IMCA)  in Seattle. J>P<Van Rossin threatened legal action because he said IMCA was his name to PNW IMCA became PNW AMCA. One of our racers went to Seattle to race with Lee's group. When he returned home he started ANE AMCA ( Atlantc North East American Model Car Association). A couple years later, we brought Lee to NH to race scale cars with us for a week. I watched him cut & mount six eurosport bodies at one time. When he was done, there wasn't a 1/32" height difference among the six.

[Jesse Gonzales]

All good input! as is said anyone that shows up with a full blown open like we tried in the way back is nuts. This post was just a way to get guys thinking about racing open wheel cars again with only the size of his ego determining how much pony to put in it. I know from old experience that even a 26 single was too much motor for a n anglewinder F1 in 1971ish 

 

Having a box stock program is nice as all you have to do is clean and oil then off to have fun.

 

Lee was a gifted craftsman, he could figure out and correct problems as good as any of the other guys at the top in years past.

 

I remember the activity as Dave Bernhardt, Neil Kuhns, Dave Fortner and Art Tarver played around with lexan film at Speed & Sport one night and saw the cars get a lot faster as their playing around progressed. It wasn't long before modern air devices were necessary to compete. Before a well known racer and manufacturer adopted air control he said he was getting beat like a rented mule. So maybe air isn't necessary on an open wheeler but who knows.

 

Jesse Gonzales

[Justin A. Porter]

It isn't 1971 anymore. JRL type open wheel cars regularly run in flat track events around the world including monthly at Washington Slot Car Club in Pennsylvania. They feature potent C-can motors, high downforce modern F1 bodies, and sophisticated chassis from the likes of Red Fox or JK. 

[Jesse Gonzales]

I sure miss racing this sort of stuff. Is there the ability to use as hot a motor that you have the "Cohones" to drive or do you have to run an arm that has to go through vetting? On a nice interesting flat track these cars don't need 24's etc, a geared right 27 spinning it's guts out like the euro-sport cars are said to do. Thanks for posting these photos.

 

Jess Gonzales

[Bill from NH]

Here in the Northeast, the C-can arms for JRL have always been specified. They started with Boxstock 12 arms for a few years, then changed to  Challengers/Contenders & Super Wasps. I you want to start something new, make your own rules. No reason you can't specify "No restrictions on motors". If you want to specify "JRL chassis", they have a C-can motor box, so most anything can fit. I'm not aware of what 1/24 F1 chassis may be available from the Europeans, if anything. You could also specify brass/wire scratchbuiilt chassis.

[ropon]

Rob Voska & Dave 'Shadow' Smerka bought a flat track and installed it in Fremont, OH called Fastraxxx. Presently, we'll be running the JK Indy cars w/11-37 gearing. Many local racers have these cars so fingers are crossed hoping for it to take off.
They're also running an Aeolos with a spec Mid America Audi body, Mid Am Eagle motor, open gearing.