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We wanted to share a bit about our experience this year to help promote the craft of slot car building and teamwork. I cannot tell you how many posts, threads and articles we read going back years and years on how to tune a slot car, if you toss in tons of conversations it felt like a full-time job sometimes instead of a hobby.

The Headline:

In a test of personal (the drivers) and building endurance (the slot car), the QuickSlicks #1 Scaleauto A7R Corvette driven by Cloverleaf Racing won the 8th Annual Michigan 24.

The Story:

This year’s journey started in January with a team meeting called by Corey Jett to discuss the race and what we needed to do to try and finish better in 2018, then in 2017. Collectively as a team three of us Mike Stott, Craig Jensen, and myself wanted to run a corvette, we did not have success testing the C6 or C7 NSR corvette but held out hope that the new ScaleAuto A7R was going to be a winner. During the 7th Annual race we ran a ScaleAuto Viper that was very good but was missing something and finished 3rd. Once the A7R corvette became available we started a testing and tuning schedule, we ended up building 8 different ScaleAuto A7R Corvettes for the event with all different set-ups to get to the top of that podium. While we spent a considerable amount of time (and money) building we also knew we needed to drive to the best of our abilities if we expected to beat the other teams. We ended up with the following build.

QuickSlicks #1 ScaleAuto A7R Corvette:

• ScaleAuto A7R White Kit (Craig Jensen paint scheme)
o Besides the Body and Chassis, the only other Scale Auto parts we kept were the body screws and front axle spacers.
• Lexan Interior
• Slot.it 1.0mm sidewinder offset pod, prepped for ball bearings (before Slot.it made their ball bearing pod)
• Avid Ball Bearings
• NSR 22,4k Red Shark Motor (shoo-goo used to glue the motor in.
• MR Slot Car 13/31 pinion and gear
• Sloting Plus Titanium Rear Axle
• Professor Motor Lead Tape
• Slot.it pod screws
• SCC Lead Wire
• SCC Thinned Braid
• Sloting Plus Guide Flag
• Sloting Plus Steel Front Axle
• SCC oval point set screws
• SCC Axle Spacers
• Sloting Plus 16.2 x 8 front wheels
• Slot.it CH15 zero grips - coated
• CB Design 15 x 12 rear wheels
• Quick Slicks XF rear tires glued and trued by Rob Hall
• American Flag “Duck”-Tape
• Z-Machine light kit (blinking when stopped)


In testing the cars it was a surprise to us now that up until the event the QuickSlicks #1 we felt was our 3rd best car, it wasn’t until testing day, which is the Friday before the race, that the team agreed on the QuickSlicks #1 as the car to run. Our Quickslicks #2 and Compuware #4 which had NSR 25k shark motors ran extremely well in testing and tuning but had too much kick and were just more difficult to handle, therefore we went with the best handling car. The last thing we did Friday night was put on a set of Hall “trued and glued” tires and we had a race car.

The driver line-up:
Mike “mikeinclover” Stott – Red Lane
Dave “wicked mini” Wickham – White Lane (our best driver)
Craig “corvetteman” Jensen – Blue Lane
Corey “cj74”Jett – Yellow Lane
Paul “Oscar Racing” Brotz – Black Lane
Cal Crum – Marshal and Pit Lane

Some of the teams have drivers that run multiple or switch lanes, we prefer to run one lane only per driver.

We then raced hard for 24 hours with a few bumps along the way:
• Blinking lights to which we think was caused by a Guide Wire came loose.
• A body screw that was lost (and never found).
• The set screw on the spur gear came loose and needed to be tighten.
• Rookie Tire Changer (changed tires once)

The proud part of winning an event like this is knowing that our team competed as hard as it could against 4 other teams from different parts of North America for a trophy that now has 3 winning teams on it, Slot Car Corner 6 wins and Team Hazzard 1 win. We also believe we never would have tried as hard as we did if it wasn’t for Mike “Smokieo” Chiocchio, Steve Sawtelle, Christian Gringras, George Hamel, Kurt Moser, and Dickie Pearson who as champions of this event are the classiest and most gracious champions you would ever meet, they brought out the best in us. They also provided years of advice.

We now turn to the 9th Annual Michigan 24 knowing that Grizzly Racing, Team Can-Am, Great Lakes, and Slot Car Corner are going to…

Please look for pictures of the QuickSlicks #1 to be posted by “cj74”.

Hi Paul

Thank you for posting the exhaustive list of components used in your team's Corvette(s). I can certainly appreciate the time spent in preparation and testing.

Congratulations to Clover Leaf for a well deserved victory!
:auto-layrubber:

Bob G.

Great post Paul. But you forgot one important thing. You guys drove a very smart race after our early lead wire problems. You managed that lead until the end of the event by not trying to break any lap records. We drove the hell out of our car to catch you (and we did, in part) but you still managed that lead smartly. And winning a 24-hour requires a great car, great drivers, great team spirit AND smart driving. You combined those four elements this year and you came up with that long-awaited win.

Bravo!!

Don't count on an easy cruise to the top of the podium next year... :clap:

Well said Paul. I hope to add comments later. Until then, here are a couple of photos of said car.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

Well put Paul! Well deserved!!! Congratulations!

Priceless information for the racer, well done.

Although I must agree that the DRIVERS deserve the most credit. A fast car in the wrong hands? Not so good...I can certainly prove that :lol:

(Not a word Dickie)

Very nice write up Paul. It's nice to see everything that went into the car.
Well deserved win, congrats to Cloverleaf for a long overdue win. :text-bravo:
Dave

Congrats guys. Well deserved win. Not only did you build a good car that lasted, all of you drove the heck out of it.

This was truly a team effort. Paul and Corey spent countless hours building and testing the winning car. MIke, Craig and I gave feedback and suggestions but the car building came down to those two guys and their ability to work together to build a selection of cars.

I believe our success was due to capitalizing on the strengths that each person brought to the team. I also believe having a 6th person standing in the shadows (thanks to Cal Crum) contributed to our victory.

Corey developed a rotation schedule that allowed us more sleep than in previous years.

Craig drove as well as I've ever seen him drive in this event.

Mike, as always, put on a spectacular event. There was always plenty of food, drinks, COFFEE, sweets and such.

Kurt, from Slot Car Corner, and I battled every time we took to the track. He was on the inside in the Red lane and I was next to him in the White lane. We chased each other around for 48 minutes each heat. There were times when we would run 30 laps nearly side by side neither willing to give in to the other. Yet when it was time Kurt would slow ever so slightly to let me pass unhindered. I liked to think I was able to do the same for Kurt when he overtook me. It was very intense racing. My hat off to Kurt for being a great driver and fierce competitor.

Nice write up Paul. I did find the missing screw by the way. I was very happy with the way the car ran during the race only minor things needed to be addressed during the race and at least two of them I think we can fix before the next race. Thanks to everyone who helped make this win happen.
Mike

Thank you , but the car was fun to drive. Paul did a great job on building it.

Great post, Paul. Shows that attention to the details; all of the details, really pays off for the winning team.

Allan

Any eta on the decorated Corvettes ?




Steve