Sprite Proxy 2018 Round 7 Snipsic Raceway - Ellington CT

[Doubl-B]

The cars have arrived from Cornerstone raceway. We have made preparations with the track owners. We will have 4 tracks in our Connecticut group so we plan to do all four tracks! Glenn's track will be the first. Our plan at this time is to qualify the cars on Sunday evening and run the race on Wednesday night. Recently on the Trans Am Proxy, David broadcast the race live using a feature in facebook. I'm not a huge fan of it but seeing the race was pretty cool and easy to hook up, so we will try to broadcast the race live on Wednesday evening. We will test this feature out on Sunday night as well. If everything goes well, I'll list the broadcast information a couple of days before the race.

Glenn's track: (just paste the right side to the left side in your mind...) (btw, that is Frank and Beans in the first photo and Bob and Bob in the second.)

[Doubl-B]

We qualified the Sprites earlier this evening. Everything seemed to go pretty smoothly.
THE TRACK
First about the track. We have 4 tracks in our group. Two are on the smaller side and two are larger. Glenn's track is one of the two smaller tracks. It is pretty fast and smooth. The other small track is very technical and we'll get into the big tracks later.
VIDEO FEED ON FACEBOOK
We tested the video feed. It seemed to go pretty good and it is easy to set up. I know some people have issues with Facebook. I don't want to get into any issues. This is the only way I know how to post the race live and it will also save the video if people want to view it later. It is easy and I did it successfully. If you don't like FB, don't view. I can't convert it and post it anywhere else because I don't know how. Also, we have a crusty group of guys. I'll ask them to refrain from foul language while we are transmitting, but I can't control them - if the language is bad, please turn down the volume or turn it off. I'm just trying to let everyone have an opportunity to see their cars in action on a foreign track. We did have one hang with the video so we had to end the video session and restart the feed. I didn't save the first part so I also deleted the second half of the session. I'll try to save the actual race file.
QUALIFYING RESULTS
Here are the numbers. I tried to get them all in order. Not all of the cars had names so I'll try to find names to go with numbers and fill that in later. Driver impressions also recorded.
CAR #..NAME...BEST LAP...........DRIVER IMPRESSIONS
60 -----JTPrevia--- 6.718------------ Smooth - handles real nice
5-------Doubl-B-----6.773------------ Good handling
198----Chrisguyw---6.788------------Good speed, light in rear, tires don't feel smooth
79-----TF1250-------6.916------------A little loose, smooth, fun to drive!
67-----Brainslot-----7.027------------Loose and tippy but very smooth
16-----Duke777------7.101------------Very smooth, a little loose
22-----RS Slot--------7.131------------Nice, not super smooth but it holds the track
64-----HMGRacing--7.236------------The tail is a little waggy, good power, pretty well seated
75-----Black3SR-----7.281------------Smooth, sticks good, has a lot of brake
14-----TinyAlice-----7.375------------Sticks pretty good but not as smooth as others
10-----CharlesSX----7.388------------Very smooth, good stick, I like it!
9-------VTECFOUR--7.416------------Nice chassis - a bit loose
54------ER-----------7.787------------Pretty stable, feels heavy
12------Austin-------8.372------------tippy but fast

That concludes the qualifying. I forgot to take photos due to working out details with video. Will try to remember photos...
THE RACE
We will run the race on Wednesday May 9 at 6:45 Eastern Time. You can view on Facebook under the name Bob Boulais. You can post comments on the fly and I'll try to have someone monitor the comments while we are broadcasting so we can be aware of any technical issues that might arise.

[brainslot]

Thanks Bob for the great coverage of the qualifying round. Looking forward to the possible live coverage on Wednesday. I don't have a FB account....but will log into my wife's account. Hope she doesn't mind FB targeting her to buy slot car parts!

Brian

[Doubl-B]

It should be fun. Fingers crossed...

[charlesx@xtra.co.nz]

Thanks for a great qualifying run. From comments car sounds nice to drive. All I need is to get a little higher up the also runs.

Have wondered how all the cars are speed-wise. The motors were all tested for consistency as I understand but I am aware some motors were replaced. A difference in gearing could affect cars of course but it is always good to know a bit more about cars.

Look forward to racing tomorrow night. Best of luck to all.

Regards Chas Le Breton (charlesx)

[charlesx@xtra.co.nz]

Hi Alan. $25US paid via Paypal. Please confirm receipt.

Entry No.4 Lotus 30 as driven by Jim Clark. Chassis will be scratch built probably using a modified Slot-it engine mount a made a few years back and a BWA front axle mount. Back-up would be to use BWA motor/front axle mount. Luv these scratch build proxies even if commercial allowed as otherwise it is just a commercial chassis with a different body. The size of the Lotus will add an extra dimension. See you already have a good NZ entry. All the better.

Regards Chas Le Breton (charlesx)

[Doubl-B]

Charles, I think your second post was for the SCCA proxy.

I don't know how the motors were matched but my guess is that just unloaded motor rpm was checked. I think the torque on the motors may well have some variation because some cars did seem unusually fast and some seemed slow. I guess that's the luck of the draw with a hand out motor. The green gears and the orange Slot.it gears were by far the most prevalent. I'll try to show the chassis on the video feed as there is a pretty big variation in chassis and overall weight as well. There is one angle-winder chassis out of the entire field with all others being in-line.

We don't use rubber tires here in CT so I set up my car to drive like my car with silicones, which is to get a lot of grip. It seems like several of the cars that ran well were a bit loose and just did a controlled slide around the corners . Maybe that is why Duke777 has a snake painted on the body - because it slithers around the corners - and very smoothly too. Again, I don't know if that is the goal with rubber tires. I was trying to figure out why Austin's car was so tippy. He has a very fast motor but maybe too much tire grip so it just pitches the car in the corners.

Will try to watch all cars and try to get a better sense of how these rubber tire races work...

BB

[Duke7777]

[Doubl-B]

Brian - thanks for the observation and sorry about mis-identifying the yellow car.
BB

[charlesx@xtra.co.nz]

Perhaps I misinterpret but tyres for this event were supplied Urethane - not rubber. Alternatively are you referring to Urethane Rubber. Silicone tyres are still a kind of rubber are they not. By rubber I think of natural rubber as in NSR. My understanding was some effort was made to equalise motors. Pity if such a difference but this can happen in any event. Event is still most enjoyable. Winning is good but not the main aim as far as I am concerned. Regards Chas Le Breton

[Doubl-B]

Charles, my apologies, I mis-spoke. The tires are Paul Gage PGT urethane tires. I don't know the specific difference between silicone, urethane or rubber but since we don't use urethanes or rubber I just used "rubber" in a generic context. I guess we should refer to the urethane tires.
BB

[JT Previa]

Double-B,

Thanks so much for the great detailed reporting and the race set-up on four tracks.! :banana-dance:

JT

[charlesx@xtra.co.nz]

No problem BB. Just me being pedantic. I am a bit like that but always in good humour. We no longer allow silicones here and even urethanes are frowned upon because some drivers complain they affect performance of natural rubber tyres if such exist. I suspect even natural rubber tyres are still some kind of compound.

Regards Chas Le Breton

[Doubl-B]

we are live on facebook wed 5-9-18 at 6;46 PM EASTERN

[FC47]

Looks good guys, been following this series.
I think I know that Bob guy in green from flying planes near Warehouse Point, and I think he's ridden our steam trains in Southwick with us!