IPS 2018 round 11 Athens

[alexis in greece]

At last the box containing the cars arrived safely yesterday.But first things first.
I owe an apology to all entrants as recently things were not running as they should.But the summer (23 july)bushfires when 100 humans lost their lives seem to have affected me more than i initialy realised.Our summer home sustained non critical  damage (around 30k euros worth) but most of all, next door  neibhors ,13 y.o.  boy (that my wife used to take to cinemas and playgrounds as mother was working hard) along with his oncle and grand parents were trapped and burned to death (along with another 22 people) a few meters from the sea as blinded by the smoke they could not see the passage to it.Then i got involved with the citizens coordination commitee  (SEKMA) where we tried to convince authorities to do their duties.Just to give you an example against what we had to fight for, the escorts of hospitalised people had to pay for the seat for sitting next to them,we managed get it for free but it required serious efforts.What we could not achieve though was the public health system to cover the costs of special silicone sleeves needed after hospitalisation costing ~1000 euros /pair.Fortunately there have been privateer sponsors who covered the cost
Now there is only a couple of individuals still hospitalised and some issues solved,a light depression treatment and i am back to normal or so i think.
Just to make things more difficult the cars got stuck in Canada for about a month  because of Canadian post strike and arrived  to Oregon(penultimate round) just before Xmas adding further delays.

As if we had not already enough problems,the box containing the cars landed Greek soil apparently on feb 4 but there has  been  a fierce  exchange of emails with customs as they required an invoice.Finally a certified statement from Monte was the solution but they charged me TVA on postage cost and a clearing fee ,a total of 32 euros which is affordable.
A visual check showed the following damages:
-170 rear tyres rubbing the body
-30 missing 1 exaust
-9 drivers head loose in the box
-64 front body post broken
-33 hood loose in the box
-25 decals scratched
-46 roll bar colour flaked off
-an exaust pipe found loose in the box 
My aim is to repair damaged cars and run a shakedown on Nick's track in the next few days and run qualifying before march 7 (that i fly off to London for babysitting duties) so the final round will  be raced after  march 21 that i return.
Stay tuned

[arroldn]

Alexis,
So sad to hear of the loss of life and property. Glad to hear that you made it out safely though it may have taken a toll on your mental health. Take care of yourself and your family. Prayers and thoughts are with you.

God's Peace to you.

[Audi1]

Thanks for the update, Alexis. Sorry to hear about the fire damage and the loss of your friends.

Where can we see the results through Round #10?

Allan

[BARC 1]

First off, let me pass along my deepest condolences. For some reason I missed this post earlier, and only discovered it on my quest to find out the status of this event.

Such a tragedy. North America has also suffered some horrendous wildfires over the last couple of years, so the devastation and aftermath is painfully clear to us.

Hopefully some routine has crept into your life over the last few months where you can even consider some time for a slotcar event.

[alexis in greece]

Hi all

the good news is we are racing the last round friday.Things are geting smoother,repairs of our summer home ( main reason for my absence from slot activity) are almost complete and life is returning back to normal.

[BARC 1]

Good to hear that life is getting back on track. Looking forward to the race

[Brumos RSR]

Glad to hear you're doing better Alexis

[alexis in greece]

Race postponed for tuesday due to hard disk crash after qualy run

[alexis in greece]

The laptop is not going to be ready today (main reason being hangover from subdays celebrations for electoral victory) so race before the end of the week

[alexis in greece]

After many delays,both slot related and not ,we managed to run qualifying of the last round on Nick routed,copper braided track,anticlockwise.








It is the first time we raced it in that direction and it prodused some unusual results.


The critical section was dowhill bends that were a problem for many cars

Nick drove all 32 cars,except #23 that had twisted braids and was desloting in every other corner,fixed for the race.Here are the results

[alexis in greece]

Last night we raced the first half of the race,we had not enough hands so we raced the 2 center lanes ,Nick and his son Stavros driving and me marshalling.Some photos from the cars .not all of them as my camera run out of battery,but we will shoot some more tonight that we will race the 2 external lanes















I know that you are bitting your nails for results but i will give you only the top 3,54,98,60 ,because the downhill section on the outer lanes will make many cars suffer,especially 6 19,21 and 17

But i will give you fastest laps table which is unllikely to change as the lanes we raced are easier

[alexis in greece]

We got a bit late ,final results,standings and photos tomorow

[GAS41T]

Wow
Worst round for my car ...
The 30 car wow ...
Don’t like this proxy anymore....

[Brumos RSR]

WOW what a finish. Did the numbers from the 3 and the 33 get transposed? Thanks for the run Alexis

[kidvoltage]

Thanks for the efforts Alexis. The #46 car had a great ride throughout the season.