SIP 2018 Final Thoughts

[vonsirius]

CAT Racing has race tuned the Challenger and it´s ready to win!!! :auto-checkeredflag:

[dw5555]

D&D Motors is putting Carli in the drivers seat. She's our least experienced driver but she's up to the task leaving Simone to rest up for round 2. Taking a chance :?: :?: :?: yes, but she's confident in her abilities to be able to advance to round 2.

[Dewman51]

DMS Racing is putting Rachel in the seat to start for us. She is confidant she will get the job done! Can't wait to stretch out the Mustang's legs!!

[Z-carfan]

[TuscoTodd]

As Mike mentioned, the teams were definitely ready when the track opened up and let them finally kick this season off!
With the hour getting late - and the teams itching to get their fill - the decision was made to use the full faculty on staff to make for the best racing action possible and WOW! there was action!!!

The Sand Pit oval can be a humbling spin cycle as some of the teams found out with the old "chrome horn" being used to good effect by more than one team to move the competition out of the way!



Racing duties were handled by APalmer (track owner), Slot Therapist, Z-carfan and Steve Reed with yours truly keeping the field in check and helping keep short track Saturday night tempers in check!


First teams to hit the track were:
Fighting the tight 6" radius turn of the inside lane - Slothead Racing fielding their Blue Firebird
In lane 2, ready to rub fenders - T-County Lug Nuts with their Black Chevelle
In lane 3, with more room to run - D & D Motors running their Orange Camaro
In the outer "clean up" lane - Downundathunda hammer down with the purple GTO




Gentlemen... START... YOUR... ENGINES!!!!!

[TuscoTodd]

It took less than two laps for the the teams to start muscling for position!
With Slothead Racing hanging it out, diving into and out of the corners (while using a fair share of T-County Lug Nuts real estate to do it) - it was just a matter of laps into the heat before the Lug Nuts front end dove under the rear end of the Slothead Team's machine and sent them spinning to the outside sand where they collected both D&D Motors and Downundathunda in the process! From there - the game escalated! With lap times in the mid 2 second range - there was no room for mistakes and making up ground was herculean task! But that just appeared to drive the teams harder! At the end of the first round, Slothead racing moved to the infield, awaiting their opportunity to restart in the wide open "clean up" lane while the other teams transitioned in a lane and The Oregon Donors rolled out on to the track in the high speed outer lane!



Apparently the boys from the west coast found one of the rare super charged variants - as off the line and down the straights, The Oregon donors were showing the other team what straight line speed was all about! Unfortunately, with all that speed, good brakes are a necessity - and it seems as though that might have been overlooked as the Hawk's driver more than once over drove the corner! To complicate things, in trying to make up ground the D&D Motors machine tangled with the Downundathunda team resulting in offs more than once! The only team that seemed to get away clean in the heat was the T-County Lug Nuts - who at the end of the heat were rotated to the infield to await their turn to come back in in the coveted outer lane!
Enjoying that starting position at the beginning of the next heat was CAT Racing and their green Challenger!



Off the line CAT Racing's 340 6-pack was a missle! We don't know how they managed to get it to hook up - but The Oregon Donors now had someone who could run lock step with them on the straights - but could out handle them in the corners! With the tail of the Hawk hanging out they were helped around and off track in short order less than a quarter of the way through the heat! On the inner lanes, D&D Motors and Downundathunda didn't seem to be able to get away from each other through the whole heat - bumping banging and deslotting one another multiple times in an effort to get past each other!
With D&D Motors going to the infield at the end of the heat - it was the silver Torino of Racing Bandit into the outside lane to kick things off!



The crew from Racing Bandit seemed to be taking all of the action and at the drop of the next green seemed to approach things with a bit more control... At least until a tangle that send team Downundathunda spinning across the lanes taking out everyone but CAT Racing! Their speed and tenacity picked up quickly from there! The inside lanes were still a wicked mistress resulting in a few additional offs - one of which managed to again catch everyone but CAT Racing - who were knocked sideways but powered on through the wreckage! At the end of the fray, Downundathunda moved to the pits, finishing their four lane stint, to watch the action and see where their run would shake out in the standings!
DMS Racing, the final team to get a start, who had been taking in all the action and making some last minute adjustments, rolled their white Mustang onto the starting grid!

[TuscoTodd]

It was apparent what the the DMS Racing team had been tweaking when they entered the first turn - looking to try to use their short wheel base and maneuverability to their advantage they had cranked up the rear brake bias making for a car that could dive deep into the corner and still get slowed up enough to not deslot! Conversely - the high speed Hawk of The Oregon Donors team had no where near enough brakes for the speed they kept trying to carry into those tight 6" radius corners and every time they tried to push things, found themselves out of the groove!
At the end of the heat the it was on to the pits to see how the balance of the field shook out and the blue Firebird of Slothead Racing made its way back out onto the track headed for the coveted outside lane!



It quickly became apparent that the added braking that worked so well in the outer lane for DMS Racing would become an liability as the corners became tighter, as it tended to hang the tail of the Mustang precariously out into Slothead Racings path! Add in a little "pony car rivalry" and the "bump and run" action was on! Meanwhile on the inner lanes, CAT Racing and Racing Bandit teams were trying their best to pick their battles after a couple early tangles resulted in some nasty offs - including one of which, that had the whole field involved! :o
At the end of the heat CAT Racing rolled off to the pits wondering how badly the full track wreck cost them in the overall standings while the T-county Lug Nut team made it's way out to get a run at the wide open outer lane!



As the lanes tightened the bumping and banging between the two pony cars of DMS Racing and Slothead Racing definitely escalated! With the Mustang hanging it out in one instance, right as the Firebird dove in, lifting and planting the rear bumper of the Mustang on its hood and pushing it with the rear wheels off the ground from corner one to corner three before both drivers lost control! :o
While all of this was a distraction and resulted in some heavy braking action a couple of time for the T-County Lug Nuts and the Racing Bandit teams - they got away through the majority of the heat unscathed.
At the end of the heat it was the Racing Bandit Torino off to the pits for final lap tallies and D&D Motors in for their final lane and the final heat of the race!



With a good time between their prior three lanes and this final lane, the Racing Bandit Team appeared poised and ready to take full advantage of this wide open outer lane! Unfortunately, they were a bit too zealous on the first lap not having sufficient heat in the brakes and managed to drive straight off curve 3! After gathering themselves though, they were picking them up and laying them down in strong fashion, with both the T-County Lug Nuts and Slothead Racing teams running in close lock step! The strong rear brake bias on the Mustang became its bane on the tight inside lane resulting in the team's car wanting to basically lock up and try to diamond the corner - costing them time and a couple deslot bumps from the Slothead Racing Team in the process - but overall a fairly clean heat!

A couple additional pictures from the action:














Finishing positions shook out as follows:


Saturday night short track action - what a way to kick off a series!!
:banana-dance:

[slothead]

Very nice race report and it seems like everyone had a good time. Slothead racing is happy to have survived the action and come out with a 3rd place finish. Our driver says he had quite a time up on the podium and even got the phone number of one of the trophy gals.



We're looking forward to the next event and the rest of this series.

Slothead

[kidvoltage]

Thanks for the report! All go. No stop. We view corners as advisory. And thanks to my drivers. Well done. Perhaps overdone... :text-thankyouyellow:

[dw5555]

Well it was quite obvious that as the owner of D&D Motors I made a huge mistake in putting my rookie driver in first. It was way too much of a deficit to overcome. That being said she did gain some valuable seat time for the next race. Congrats to all the podium finishers.
The Boss

[vonsirius]

Despite the chaos at the track we were able to finish second!

CAT racing are quite happy whith results and preparing our Challenger to the second race. :music-rockout:

[vonsirius]

Thanks to drivers and host for this great race report!

[Pepsi62]

many thanks to the host and drivers for running the round

Seems the team managed to caught up in a lot of the mayhem during the event, the result not reflecting on the teams effort, on to the next round

[dw5555]

[Z-carfan]

LOL, that is a good point!