Racenight recap from proxieken's 1/9/14

[goosenapper]

Yesterday was the first race at proxieken's newly redesigned track, and it was a load of fun.

The new track is slightly longer than the old one, (about extra 5ft) with lots of twists and elevation changes.


Here is a shot that shows the amount of elevation changes:


There are bridges, dips, and bumps. You can't nap during a lap on this course!


There is also this turn of doom. It reminded me of the carousel on the Nurburgring, only with more mayhem. If you're in the outside lane, you can take it fairly safely. However if you're in the outside and there is someone next to you in the inside, it's better than 50-50 that there will be a wreck!


Wasn't there are old Disney cartoon about a guy who wants to get off the interstate to visit a service station, but all of the ramps just lead back to the same road? This poor gas station reminded me of that.

This station used to be right next to the pits on the old track, and it took a beating. We'd send cars flying in to this building and take out all of the pedestrians near it. I suppose it deserves to be out of harms way on the new layout.

We ran several heats in 1/32, two modern GT runs and a potpourri of old American iron and whatever else we felt like racing. Then it was on to 1/24 scale.


It didn't take long for the first 1/24 scale pile-up of the night. Somehow three of the cars escaped this mess on the back-stretch.
We should add a terrified factory worker poking his head out of one of those windows on the backdrop. :lol:

The Parabolica of Doom claims a couple of victims. Luckily there were enough of us there that we always had a turn martial or two ready to lend a hand.


It was a great night of racing that also saw the birth of a new slot racer. That fellow in the middle there had never run digital before, and I hear that he'll be back for more!


Having fun and spreading the hobby is what HRW is all about, and the races that Ken puts on accomplish just that. Yesterday was my birthday, and laughing it up while running slot cars with a great group of guys was about the best present I could have hoped for. Thanks! :D

[HomeRacingWorld]

Yes Happy Birthday!

What a great race report. This is what I like seeing.

"Turn of Doom"...heheh, good one.

These 1/24 Carrera's are getting to be too hard to resist anymore.

Congrats Ken on a great layout and successful race night.

[proxieken]

It was nice breaking in the new design. The 1/24 cars are all over the place and in some spots fall off the track. The underpass and over pass were created by using the hill section of the crossover and connecting it to a banked curve layed down flat. It then acts as a counter to the hill and levels things back up a bit. The goal was to make things more 3-dimensional but it also made it a bit more challenging. A 1/24 car has some weight to it and they tend to coast a bit more going downhill.

The track is 6' wide. The one end is bowl shaped. I screwed the top on to the sides but left the center support 4" lower and then forced the wood down and screwed it to the center support. The OSB flexed enough to make this adjustment. The track lays on it nice and you wind up this angles everywhere.

I am going to correct the problem of falling off by adding some more borders, but other than that I am happy with it. There is no grand straight to barrel down, but there are a lot of little straights. I noticed this is where most of the action was before and for the most part the main straight just allowed cars to build up a ton of speed and hurl off the track harder at the end.

With the old track we all figured out that one lane was better than the other, so there was not a real need to switch. When I worked this one out I tried to figure out how to make switching a lot more important. To get around the track the best way you have to switch 2 times per lap. One half the track is better in the one side and one half is better in the other. I tried to hit that groove as often as possible.

Now to work on some cars...... I built a Cobra using a Cheetah chassis and now found out it fits perfectly under a Chaparel model kit I have. A new car to run next race. :D

And since I forgot last night- Happy Birthday Jesse!