Al’s Paceway, Clontarf
Well if you missed it, it’s gone forever. What am I talking about? Sometimes I wonder myself, but this time, totally sober and coherent, I witnessed what must have been one of the most entertaining events in 1/32 RTR yet!! You think I jest? well I will tell you.
A lonely legal entrant!
In true form for Brisbane ‘Slotcar Legends’, we mix and match the formula to maintain interest and to ‘keep it fresh!’ . So, First up was the track owners choice and I have to say that this time Alan picked a doozie! Unrestricted pre 1970 rally, with spare wheel!! Yep, the model had to have a navigator, (simple request) and an external spare wheel! And be pre 1970, this was a bit of a stumbling point as some guys didn’t understand the meaning of the term pre! and others didn’t have a model!!
A lonely compliant Jaguar in the background
So what to do. Well in ‘Legends' we never stop anyone racing. It’s just a case of compliance. If you comply all is fine if you don’t there is some sort of penalty and the penalty this time was for non compliant cars to start in front of the timers, therefore having to do a lap before their counter kicked in Mmmmmmmm?. Simple, I thought so but it wasn’t to be so!! But naively, off we went!
Mad Max in the non comp line!!
First heat saw the lap counter on one lane clock the laps up independent of vehicle tripping so this had to be abandoned. The race was restarted but the computer was not reset and this was to compound the first heat. But we didn’t know that til the end!! The timing sensors were dusted off and off we set again. This time Paul was having the worst of heats on white lane. with blame placed firmly at the foot of the track surface, it proved confusing when successive white lane drivers had good heats!! But we did at least offer to lick his tyres, which he politely declined!
Three out of four ain’t bad!!
A heat or so later Eggy’s Teamslot Lancia Stratos was the first model to be the butt of personal attack. But I have to say the model was NC1 powered and had the compliant navigator and external spare!! The fact it was POST 1970 was the only stumbling point , but Eggy went on and drove a good race with a very manageable model. Heat eight saw me scoot off into the lead and after a mishap I fell back again. Glen was the only compliant driver which meant I had it all to do and at least one lap needed to be caught up. At the closing stages Glen had a couple of spills and thanks to some marshalling excellence I was able to catch up. Glen amazingly sped up to my race speed making the last three or so laps very hard. Finally we crossed the line side by side and it wasn’t until the results were up that it showed I took the heat by the narrowest of margins.
Absolutely zilch legal cars here, are the rules too lax??
At the end the result were displayed and there were mystified looks on some peoples faces and scenes of elation for others, but the computer, the start and who knows what else conspired to jumble all results up. I duly noted all the salient information from the computer and decided the best solution was to take them home and digest them there. I managed to make a little more sense than the initial results. Four drivers in the first heat recieved double time because the computer was not reset after the first false start. this showed up in the heat times. A couple of drivers did not complete the full sixty laps, this also slewed the results. And the fact that the guys starting in front of the timer weren’t accruing a penalty complicated it more. In the privacy of my study the next night I sat down and worked it all out. The four drivers who had a double length heat one had their heat time halved. The non compliant starters had four times their fastest lap ADDED to their final time except Alan who complied three heats. All Glen’s heats were compliant and he only needed his first heat halving.. Finally I was able to achieve, not an exact result, but something that was a lot more representative of the actual event. Final results were as follows
Event One Rally, pre 1970, with nav AND spare wheel Overall Group B Driver Time (min:sec) 1. Perro 14.17 2. Phil 15.23 3. Eggy 16.11 4. Paul 17.18 5. 1. Alan 17.19 6. 2. Peter 17.37 7. Rob 17.45 8. 3. Ken 18.09 9. 4. Bob 59 laps 10. Kev 55 laps
There's that red Ferrari!
Next up was what I expected to be the hardest event due to the squeeze sections and all those open wheels! But it proved that the majority of drivers demonstrated the maximum restraint to make the event good clean fun. The event was for Scaley and SCX F1 Post 2000. Once again I think dyslexia must have struck as there were a selection of models from all eras on the track. I even caught a glimpse of a McLaren M23 in one of the closing stages!!! All good fun though and If there was a prize for the widest variety of models used it could well have gone to the Eggmeister.
There it is again!
There were some good wins for people driving above their class and Al had a good win in the later stages against group A leaders. Paul had things under control with his Schumacher Ferrari and from his opening heat it was fairly obvious this event was to be his. Peter did surprisingly well but his 1990’s Scaley wasn’t really a class car but what the heck! Glen gave Ken a model for the event with which he pulled off at least one heat win while Glen struggled with a quick, but not that quick early SCX car. Rob also ran one of the early ‘wide’ models but with much better results. I managed to get some MJK’s to fit my SCX McLaren and apart from some silly oversteer deslots, managed to keep up with the pack. Final results were as follows
It's EVERYWHERE!!!
1. Paul 11’44†2. Rob 12’24†3. Phil 12’29†4. 1. Peter 5. 2. Ken 6. Kev 7. Perro 8. 3. Alan 9. Eggy 10. 4. Bob 55laps
You can't have too many Subarus!!
From the start of the first heat it was a good event with the pace dropping into the high tens at times. My job was not to relax when I was in a soft heat. I noticed that some of the other guys were a bit laid back in the absence of strong opposition and this contributed to my cause. Heat four saw Paul and I push into the lead and a mistake by Paul left me a third of a lap in front. He clawed his way back to my tail and deslotted again. This happened once more to my advantage before I crossed the line in front.
Rob, driving one of Paul’s SCX Subarus was probably second or third fastest on the track and not letting up. Other moments were shared with us all. Bob deslotted in one heat and Ken reslotted him on a closer piece of track but unfortunately it was back round the lap. On Bob’s insistence he placed him back on the track in the original deslot position, but this time he placed him on the track backwards. Knowing the bunch of guys who witnessed this I need say no more as to their reactions!!
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Apart from this, Eggy struggled with a garage of sick cars. For someone with a home track his preparation left a lot to be desired. Ken bombed badly in this event and his only observation was that everyone had changed their cars since the last round! Finally, the results were up and after a hard fought round the results were as follows.
1. Phil 15’26†2. Paul 15’59†3. Rob 16’08†4. Perro 5. 1. Alan 6. Kev 7. 2. Peter 8. 3. Ken 9. 4. Bob 10. Eggy
Finally, the last official meeting of the season will unofficially be a joint Q32/Legends shenanigan at Jordan and Therese’s. There will also be the prize giving for this years racing. I look forward to seeing you all there so we can swap ideas for the coming year.
