Vince's thoughts on his hobby.
Question for me? Drop me a line at 'eAddict at yahoo.com' (had to change the e-mail format due to a large increase in SPAM)

We have had some good turn outs and some first wins too.  Steve T and Blake S got their first 1st place finishes since they have joined the club.  We are averaging 10 people a race now too.   A few more and we might have to hold off on IROC to get done at night!  Fingers crossed that the new year will bring us some new folks.

My goals for the rest of the year are (a) complete the cars that have been voted in, (b) sell off my extra cars, Bill S and Scott V stuff, and (c) scratch build some chassis for the cool 1/24 models I bought.  I'd like to finish fleshing out my track next year too with scenery.  Mike P offered to lend a hand, once the year ends I suspect I will be taking him up on his offer.  I'd like to get something other than bare MDF around the course.

We are adding a new annual race in the 1st quarter. Called The Chili Bowl.  Loosely based off of the real one run in Tulsa OK every year.  We are running the sprint cars during the year and will also be running them for the race.  I am going to try to get 1 or 2 ready.  I like Mark P's suggestion: have one you run and one you tweak.  When the one you tweak does better swap roles.  That has worked for my Flexi NASCAR cars this season.

I'd also like to make an app or database for record keeping.  The results are kept in an Excel spreadsheet that can, I am sure, easily be converted to a database for easy input and update.  Since Android development is open too, it would be nice to be able to update the results from the event as it is happening.  Maybe in my spare time.

We had 10 racers show up, a record for plastic track.  Blake S and Rich were the new additions.  Steve T and son showed.  Paul H too though Paul had to use a different LMP car cause I didn't have time to finish working on his. All of the racers stay for DP and LMP races.  Only 5 stayed for IROC.  We took the blue lane out of the mix and made it longer heats.  We also used the 4WD cars vs the SCX cars.  There was only 1.5 laps between 1st and 5th with 3 people tied in laps with feet deciding the finish.  Close racing.

Again, I would like to give kudos for all the racers who showed extreme patience during my stress of getting the track up and running.  I think I will start Sunday morning next time to make sure all is happy.

Thanks to Mike P, Amanda (my daughter), and Theresa (my wife), for all the material and help on getting my shelves up and full.  I might have a few too many cars.  The date on the PO for the mirrors was Oct 2009.  So this project has been a long time in the coming.  I have a few more details to full out but it is finally useable space AND I can show off my cars AND I can sell off all the duplicates I accidentally bought over the years.  I think I am going to use this as a high water mark.  If the car can't fit I won't buy it unless I let one go in it's place.

The new racing season has begun as well.  Not without problems for yours truly.

	No sooner than I put my flexi on the track then it didn't move.  I had forgotten to replace the blown motor.  Luckily I lived about 10 min from where we race.  I ran home and swapped it with a fresh one.  As you can see from this photo, the windings came free.  Not a good thing.  I think I will carry both my soldering iron as well as backup motors in my case from now on.
My WOMP ran like crap.  I had the same gearing and motor as the winning guys but finished WAY behind.  I was out only once in 4 heats so it wasn't that.  I found an older WOMP chassis in my drawers and have decided to put together another one.  The guys have given a few tune up suggestions and I will put them to work on this chassis as well as my existing one.

Since we are running brass chassis for the two classes we decided to run EuroPlastic for the IROC.  I got a set of Carrera NASCARS with silicones and tossed them on the track.  They were horrible.  The wheels are so out of round it was like running a Flintstone mobile.  Gordon P has offered to take them home and see what he can do to make them run better.  I sure hope Carreras quality control has improved since these cars! Ouch!

We are nearing the end of the Spring/Summer season.  I am so disorganized this season that I am unsure I will make all the races.  I have my Flexi NASCAR and Retro car ready.  I need new tires for my WOMP.  This will be an interesting season with really only 3 cars to work on.  I hope we find a home for the oval, though.  While I do like running at Ballwin Speedway there isn't any change in the track less you get someone new or inexperienced below you. 

I have also been working on the display cases at my house.  I have the borders done and need to place an order for the glass.  Hopefully it will be done by the next time we race.  Then I will start to work on the scenery on my track. 

The new schedule has been posted.  I had hoped to have 2 or 3 new road courses to add but since I haven't heard back from the owners they (and us) will have to wait to 2011 unless something opens up.  I also need to schedule the trophy party.  And order plaques... and get trophies for Thunder Road and ...

From the ever so fast hotslots I got borders for my track.  I thought I ordered 4 sets of 1 but instead got 4 sets of 4.  3 are going back for store credit which I am sure I will burn though quickly.  I also got 2 SCX 42H motors.  These are much faster than the stock 42B.  I will be putting them in the LMP cars that we use on the plastic track for IROC.  Ought to make a bit more of a difference from the GT class cars.

I took the straight borders and put them on the track. I like what it did.  I am pondering whether to add the other ones on now.   Hopefully this will cure the bouncing off the rails.

Front stright before	Front straight after	Back straight before	Back straight after

Today I met Dave Kennedy of Carrera USA for lunch.  Dave is now in charge of doing what he did for SCX and the hobby for Carrera.  It was a good time talking about cars, racing, the industry and more.  I wish Dave the best in his endeavor and have to hide my jealousy to be able to have a job that is also a passion/hobby!

The web site will most likely be taking some hits and have some downtime over the next few weeks as I try to move software and other things around.  As always the latest and greatest news goes on in the group discussion board.

I have been working with the guys at 3rd eye to get my new (used) controller working.  I already sent it in once to get a trigger upgrade.  Now it seems to have another issue OR it is supposed to work the way it is working.  I do appreciate all the work the 3rd eye folks are putting in for their product.  I want it to work - it is a GREAT controller when it does!

Here is the controller I am talking about.	They had me set the voltage and run a test to check for the relay working.	Here is a video of the relay working or at least how hope it is supposed to be working!

	Well, finally finished putting the track together and even copper topping the rails.  It took about 4 hours to do it all and countless rolls of tape.  The power all around is nice and even and the clickity-clack of the joints is really reduced.  Thanks to Scott VA for the motivation to do so.  In fact, running as 12v is a bit tough.  We will have to see what happens when the club comes out to race.
	So I open the track to club folks and only one person shows.  Gordon P comes out and starts running.  My timing HW/SW isn't working.  Unless the car sits over the sensor it doesn't count the lap.  I try a lot of different things.  I contacted the HW and SW makers for suggestions too.  Nothing seems to work.  I end up pulling the section of track out to see if it is joint related.  Nothing.
	So I decide then it is time to do replacement debugging.  I have another PC to swap out but that would take the longest.  So I start with the smallest component.  The relay.  That worked.  The HW/SW works fine now.  Everything was hosed because of a $2 part.  Go figure. I then put the track all back together and ran it for many laps all is well.

Gil came over last night to work on his plastic cars.  He hadn't had a chance and I had an open night.  First thing we did was fire up the magnet marhsal.  Between what Gil brought as spare magnets and what I had on hand we improved the down force on all the cars he brought.  Like me he snapped the magnet holder on his DP car and will have to kludge a fix.  Once everything was weighed and measured it was time to hit the track.

We ran a few laps, cleaned tires, ran more, cleaned tires, and so on.   Once the track was clean Gil started running some impressive times.  Where I was about 7sec Gil put a 5.91! My Avant Slot had 2 major issues during the practice too: snapped a guide and flew off the table.  Separate incidents.  I pulled a guide from another AS car and reglued the snapped motor support.  I still could not put down what Gil had.  I will have to work on it before the 28th!  I also think I will hold off on scenery till after the first race.  I will have plenty of tape available to constantly clean tires too.

Turn the Magnet Marshal  on and zero it.	Weigh the car on it's side.	Put the car in the slot (we will put it all the way back) and get the down force reading with weight and magnet.

In this example we have a total downforce of 235g and a weight of 83g.  That gives us a magnetic downforce of 152g. We will take 3 readings and average them out.  What happens if you have too much magnetic force? Easiest solution is to shim the magnet up a hair and get another reading.  Another method that takes a bit longer but can cause up to a 20% loss of magnet strength (your mileage may vary) is to heat the magnet.  Here is a test I did the other day.

I zeroed out the MM with a sheet of paper and some tape.  I marked where I was going to place the magnet.  I put the magnet on and took a reading (66g).  Then I took it off, heated it for an unscientific amount of time (10-30sec) then remeasured it.  Each time it dropped a but more.  It was a painfully long process and I had to take a reading, move the magnet to a place I could heat it up, let it cool to the touch, put it back on and take another reading.  I think shimming is the way to go.  This was a pain.

Needless to say it will be VERY interesting doing tech Sunday night.

Update #1: Magnet surprise!

I went to take the magnet off the magnet marshal and is SLID off. It seemed to have NO magnetic force.  So I took it off and fired up the MM.  It read 24g.  Sitting overnight after heating the magnet went from 66g to 24g! Be careful if you use heat!

Update #2: Tape on a magnet

Someone suggested tape on a magnet.  Since the Fly Racer has too magnets I decided to cover just one. There was 0 difference on the MM.  Sorry for not taking a photo.

Update #3: Spacers

Someone asked about spacers.  I decided to take one of my Riley DPs and use it as the example since a lot of folks will be running this one.  The Riley has a single magnet in one location.
Since I was just testing down force I really didn't need to have the body on.  The DP showed a total down force of 299g with the stock magnet completely unmodified.
It took a small piece of electrical tape and wrapped it around the middle of the magnet.  I did it there since that is the only spot that needs to be raised on the magnet.  If you had a flat bar magnet you would have to wrap the entire side.
With the tape in place and the magnet back in we now have 236g of down force.  A thin piece of electrical tape removed 63g of magnetic down force.
Time to go thicker.  I happened to have a thin piece of stock around so I cut a shim and folded it over.  I wanted it to be really thicker than the tape.
It was a bear to slide in but it took.  This shim knocked the force down to 169g.  A total drop of 130g from stock and 67g lower than tape. Tape is the thing to use vs a shim especially since you can layer it.

There is an ongoing discussion I hope to get resolved tonight too.  200g vs 300g of magnetic down force on the plastic track cars.  There really has been no discussion or feelings put forth either way except by the 2 track owners (and Scott VA who wants to have 0g magnetic down force - something I am leaning toward now).  Watch the rules section for the DRAFTS to become OFFICIAL this week.