Seven of nine potential drivers showed up to compete in the inaugural race of the Cobra Daytona Challenge Series. Unfortunately, Mark and Joe were absent from the fray. No worries though, a driver’s worst performance will be dropped from the Series points totals.
Six participated in the H&R based IndyCar race (Lowell sat out because his IndyCar, although just acquired, was not yet ready for competition).
Track conditions were quite good for the Cobra Daytonas, however, were a bit tight for the IndyCars
A summary of the Cobra Daytona Race is presented in bullet point form below
• Bob took home the TQ trophy
• Bob and Rich battled for the top spot but in the end, Bob came home the winner by about a lap. Ron rounded out the podium
• When handicaps were applied the results were quite different. Both Scott and Mike blew away prior personal bests to finish first and second while Bob rounded out the handicap podium
• In the team competition, Alan Mann Racing was first scoring 51 points while Shelby American scored 47 points
Below is a summary of the IndyCar race
• Bob cruised to a win, outdistancing the field by about 5 laps
• Rich and Mike rounded out the podium.
• When handicaps were applied it was Bob, Ken and Scott for first through third respectively. All three ran personal bests
The Cobra Daytona 1/20 scale bodies were all cast in resin and reinforced with carbon fiber for strength. Some of these cars have been raced several times over the past few months and have proved their durability. The class calls for H bracket production chassis like 2Naste, Scholer, Plafit, Slotting Plus or Scaleauto. The cars are powered by either Deathstar or ProSlot 16D motors. Production chassis are not new to our True Scale classes. In fact, the same chassis with some adjustment in wheelbase can be used in all of our True Scale classes. This keeps the fun factor up and the costs down (see images below for a typical H bracket chassis).
The Cobra Daytona Challenge Series is to include five races spread over a number of months. Points are to be awarded based upon finishing order and will be tallied at the end of the Series (the lowest score for any given participant will be dropped). There will be trophies for Top Qualifier, Concours, and first through fifth places.
Prior to the first Cobra Daytona Challenge Series race, drivers qualified for lane assignment and to contest the Top Qualifier award (In subsequent races, previous race finishing order will determine lane assignment). Each driver qualified on the lane of his choice for one minute. The Top Qualifier award went to Bob, running clean to complete 10.4 laps with a fast lap of 5.110 seconds. See images below for TQ and complete results.
Cobra Daytona Challenge Results
With qualifying out of the way and lanes assigned, it was time to race. Bob and Rich battled for the top step of the podium. The race was essentially decided in the second heat where Bob managed to put nearly a lap on Rich. In the end, that made all the difference, with Bob finishing first with 91.1 laps and Rich at 90.1 laps. In that second heat Rich’s car stopped just short of the lead-on. There was a track call to investigate the problem. A screw had come loose and lodged in the slot creating an impassable obstacle. It took some effort and a pair of pliers to remove the impediment. Weird!
Meanwhile, there was a battle brewing between Ron, Scott and Mike for the bottom step of the podium. Of the three, Ron’s car was the quickest by .2+ seconds per lap. Even so, Scott made a gallant effort running a more consistent race. In the end, quickness won out. Ron finished third with 83.8 laps with Scott about two laps behind in fourth. Mike finished fifth, about two laps behind Scott.
Before continuing, a few observations are in order.
• Bob tied his own Cobra Daytona class record turning 91.1 laps
• Scott, Mike and Ken all set personal bests in terms of laps completed
• Mike and Ken set personal best lap times in the class
• Lowell’s silver Cobra Daytona made its debut. Several issues were identified which, if addressed, would improve the cars performance. These include, more weight on the side pans, fabrication and installation of a bigger front pan and extending the guide tongue
Cobra Daytona Handicap Results
A few weeks ago, someone suggested that we institute a handicap system and post the Handicap results for each race. After spending some time thinking about the details, I came up with the following system.
• A driver’s best result in terms of laps, for each class and each of his cars was selected over a given time period (For the foreseeable future I will use the data from 1/1/20 through the present)
• Handicaps for each driver were calculated as 90% of the difference between the driver’s best result and the top dog’s best result.
• If the driver enters a car for the first time, the race director (me) assigns this car an arbitrary “best lap total” which is then used to calculate a handicap. In the first table below, Lowell’s name is missing because he had no history in the Cobra Daytona class. I therefore assigned an arbitrary “best lap total” of 75 laps. This resulted in a handicap of 14.5 laps for Lowell (see second table below).
As an example of the handicap calculation, Scott’s best result with his Cobra Daytona prior to the current race was 78.8 laps. In this example, Bob was the Top Dog with his Cobra Daytona with 91.1 laps. So, using the specified calculation Scott’s handicap was (.9 x (91.1 minus 78.8)) or 11.1 laps (see the table below). Perhaps this is too much information.
Below is an image of the cars in the order of handicap finish and a table showing the complete handicap results. Both Scott and Mike ran personal bests 3+ laps better than any prior performance. In the end, it was Scott first and Mike second. Bob tied his personal best to round out the podium finishers
Cobra Daytona Team Results
Just for fun, the Cobra Daytona Series includes a Team competition. The first team, Alan Mann Racing (AMR) includes, Bob, Mark, Scott, Ken and Lowell. The second team, Shelby American (SA), includes Rich, Ron, Joe and Mike (see first table below). Note that AMR includes five team members while SA includes only four. To level the playing field, AMR team points for each race will include only the team’s top four finishers. If a team shows up with only three racers, team points will be added as if that short team’s missing member finished last in the race. This, in fact happened in the inaugural race. SA was missing Joe and therefore he was assigned last place in the team points competition.
Through the first race of the Series, AMR is in the lead with 51 points while SA trails scoring only 47 points (see second table below). SA should do better with a full complement of drivers because Joe should finish much better than his assigned last place.
This was only the second time that our group has raced IndyCars at Electron Raceway. Bodies are all 1/24 scale plastic model kits. All IndyCars utilize the H&R brass chassis with stock blue motor. Custom .062” thick brass side pans are fabricated to conform to the IndyCar body shape. With no hinges or “rattle” motion, these chassis are a handful to drive. With some development work, I hope the group is able to improve drivability. Click on the following link to view complete rules http://slotblog.net/...indy-car-rules/
IndyCar Race
Bob seems to have his IndyCar dialed in. He won easily, completing a personal best lap total of 81.4 (best lap time for Bob was 5.463). The rest of the field, although far behind Bob, is quite evenly matched, all turning fast laps in the 5.7-5.9 second lap range. Each and every one in the rest of the field had a good shot at the remaining two steps of the podium. Rich managed to finish second while Mike was third only a lap behind Rich.
A few observations are in order
• Bob set a new lap record of 81.4 laps
• Rich, Mike, Scott and Ken turned personal bests
• Ken’s performance of 68.4 laps is not indicative. All through the first heat Ken experienced the problem of not having any brakes. Into the second heat, the race was stopped to diagnose the problem. The simple fix was to clean the controller’s resistor bands and wiper. The second heat was then aborted and restarted. If one takes the average of 18.5 laps per heat for Ken’s final three heats, Ken could have turned 74+ total laps putting him in contention for a shot at a podium finish.
• Rich’s motor slowed significantly in the final heat. It appears that the impact was a couple of laps. A new motor is in order
Handicap Results
Bob smashed his own class record by over two laps. This put him at the head of the handicap pack. Ken blew away his prior personal best resulting in a second-place finish. Scott also ran a personal best by about a lap and a half yielding a third-place finish.
