27 replies to this topic

[hoffy]

For those of you who don't know, we have decided to run an 8 hour Enduro slotcar race, to our GT grp1 rules (this year we are using Slot.it Porsches).



We have, though, decided to break up the race into 2 four hour nights, where 2x2hour heats are run on each night. Between heats, the cars are in lock down, I.E., no work is allowed (but due to the higher then expected tyre wear, we have decided that the teams can take their rims away & fit new tyres).

Tonight was the first night & we have now made it half way through. I wish I could say without incident, but unfortunately, this is not the case. Within 100 laps (YES 100 LAPS ) my team had managed to pop 2 Orange Endbell motors....I tell you what, I was not a happy camper. The first motor had done our practice sessions (this included running in time & probably around an hour track time). It just got hot & basically stopped working after 28 laps. The second one (which had been bench run in only) lasted about 50 laps before it became sluggish. It appears that one of the polls or something is gone, as you needed to give it a push to get it rolling. With a 3rd motor fitted (this was becoming expensive), it made it all the way through....I have heard of probs with the orange endbells, but never to me. In the end, we ended up 375 laps behind. Funnily, the 3rd motor had not been run in & appears to be going strong!

But, as they say, thats motorsport & now I know how Mark Skaife feels...

There were some other niggles, mainly hand controller & driver associated.

So, after 4 hours of racing (half way there), the results are as follows:



Just for your info, I haven't tallied the partials, I have only tallied the full laps. This is because we are moving the cars across where they finish. The partial laps will only be included for the last & final heat

The next 4 hours will be held in aprox 1 month

Cheers

Edited by hoffy, 02 August 2008 - 02:01 AM.

[Vinno]

Sounds like everyone is getting into Slot.it Enduro racing, we have a series with half sprints and half enduro's. As for the motor popping, I put one in Oldslots car for the Proxy and it popped straight away. They are a bit of a lucky dip.

[hoffy]

Funnily enough, we were going to use scx's when we first came up with the idea!! The only reason we decided to use the slot.its was because we didn't have to go & change the running gear to make them run true!!

[triggy]

As usual it was a great night at 6 pines on the fast flowing track. The 20 min driving stints are just long enough for the fingers, legs, and grey matter.

Hoffy, I think all drivers feel for you, and your team, as, if the motors had popped within 100 laps from the end then we all would have expected it, but within the first 10 mins of an 8 hour race is just bad luck, no, in fact it's just wrong, twice. As we discussed, we might be able to sort out a rule for this unfortunate situation for next year.

I noticed all teams did more laps in the second heat regardless of what lane they were on. Proves the cars must have been run in after the first 1200 laps.

[BMR]

Bad luck Hoffy - my heart bleeds for your team , hahahahahahah maybe you should have consulted a priest or a witch doctor to see about removing (Rick1776) curse .
re ; I noticed all teams did more laps in the second heat regardless of what lane they were on. Proves the cars must have been run in after the first 1200 laps. The higher lap count in the second half of racing could also be put down to all the drivers realising its not a sprint race as they settled into running consistent high 4 low 5 second laps without deslotting so often . Enduros are not always won by the fastest lapping car , the car needs to survive , saying that Triggy's machine looks damn fine and the car to beat but Hoffys is running very well now pity about the lost laps - could be interesting when its all over to see what Hoffy's team could have had in lap counts if we can calculate the lost laps and add them to his final score using a average lap time ? Im sure Hoffy has that lost lap score calculated in his head already Im also sure his co team driver Proffessor Rick will get out his slide rule and plumb bob and work it out as well but if he posts his results most of us won't understand the maths
Personally I hope Imkouwel does some tyre change practise we lost 28 laps doing a change while the other teams only lost around 7 laps In his defense the car had a tight rim so he had to remove the body to change one of the wheels - he said Im welcome to do the next tyre change but I declined as my eyesight is not what it once was and it could take me 28 laps just to find the grub screws , and with my luck I would drop one onto the floor anyway. Our orange end bell motor has had more than a few periods where it slowed down and lost power ? Not very impressed with these motors really The Mickey Mouse brigade are doing well and there motor seems to be over its slow down bugs , Triggy is out in front and seems to have the one good motor out of the lot 1:5 ratio on motors ain't what I call quality control by Slot it . Or are we yet to see the Triggy machine strike some bad luck ?

[3ofus]

yes I agree too it was a great night lots of fun !!!! here are a few pics

[BMR]

3ofus, on Jul 5 2008, 03:11 PM, said:

yes I agree too it was a great night lots of fun !!!! here are a few pics

Nice to see a race grid that has no Nincos and cars that raced in the real world under the same class

[triggy]

3ofus, on Jul 5 2008, 03:11 PM, said:

So that's what the cars looked like with all their mirrors and aerials on!

[hoffy]

Useless stats time.

Thus far, the leading car has travelled 46 real KM, so that makes an average speed of 11.5 Real KM/h (or an average of 368 1/32nd KM/h)

The leading cars average lap time is 5.17seconds & their fastest lap time was 4.668 secs.

The slowest tyre change saw 25 laps dropped. Using 5 seconds a lap, that was 125 seconds

The fastest tyre change saw 7 laps dropped. Again, using 5 seconds a lap, that equates to 35 seconds

Me thinks some practice in tyre changes wouldn't go astray!!

[triggy]

3ofus, on Jul 5 2008, 03:11 PM, said:

You're not nodding off there are you Steve?? You are on a bit of a lean!

[espsix]

Hoffy, see if you can clean the crud out from between the com segments of the "dud" motors (maybe even a little squirt of crc "NOT WD-40!!" on the com) i had this happen to a orange endbell motor, and it came good after a clean.
I've found these motors don't seem to have this problem as much if you don't run them in.


Looks like a great race!!

Edited by espsix, 07 July 2008 - 10:37 AM.

[smallnails]

even break out the voodoo juice..................just be prepared to see the smoke! She will puff out huge then come right!

[BMR]

triggy, on Jul 7 2008, 10:15 AM, said:

3ofus, on Jul 5 2008, 03:11 PM, said:

You're not nodding off there are you Steve?? You are on a bit of a lean!

Could be falling asleep or rocking side to side , I got numb feet standing still for so long on the cold cement . Or I may be leaning to see the car around the outside green lane by Hoffy. Most likely drifting into a trance watching the car go around after 1000 + laps

[rick1776]

We openned the cans up and checked the arms. voodoo juice aint gonna fix open circuit windings on not one but two poles.

Apparently there are still some old motors getting around for sale in Australia. Might have to wait a while longer before being brave enough to buy a slotit.

cheers
rick1776

[hoffy]

Well all, the race has now concluded! & the results are in:



Congratulations to Wayne's (ImKouwl), Steves (BMR) & Damos(Termite1) Team, BTK Racing, for their fantastic win.

While it looked that TTM (Triggy's team) were running strong after the first 2 heats, they encounted some rough handling on the hardest lane, green. They decided to tough it out, but in the end, they were half a second per lap off the pace. For the final lane, they did some hasty repairs & the car was instantly back on the pace again.

Mickey Mouse racing (3ofus), well, they just kept going around & pretty much kept of of trouble.

As for my team (6 Pines racing), well, our troubles didn't end in the first heat a month ago. While we were hardly disgracing ourselves on the lap time charts, we ended up loosing another 40 laps when a lead wire came off, but unfortunately on the motor end.

But after all is said & done, I thought it was a blast & thoroughly enjoyable. The format of running 4 hours per night with a Parc Ferme situation between race nights was pretty good. 4 Hours gave you the sense of doing an Enduro, but to have a total of 8 hours on the cars certainly tested them.

One of the biggest factors in the end (apart from motor failures)was tyre wear. As the chosen tyre for the race were MJK's, we all ended up using at least 3 pair of rears, with 2 teams using 4. Those who used 3, the tyres were well & truely worn by the time that they were change.

& how did the slot.its fair (disregarding the motor issue from the first heat)?

If I were to say to you that the lead car was still doing laps within .1 of a second of its quickest after 8 hours of racing, would you believe me? The cars just kept going & going & really are a credit to the manufacturer. With the motor issues sorted (as they appear to already be), these things are just about as good as you can buy!).

So, thanks to all those who competed & congrats to the Winners & place getters. It turned out to be a fantastic event!

Cheers

[hoffy]

Oh, I forgot to mention.

Thanks to Triggy for making a fantastic perpetual Trophy for the event.

& pictures will follow!!

[3ofus]

Yes another great night at the Pines ,thanks to Hoffy for hosting a great event and I can't wait to do it again next year.
Here are some pici's




well done Wayne,Steve & Damo there was just no catching you

Edited by 3ofus, 02 August 2008 - 09:32 AM.

[termite1]

Big thanks to Ash for putting on such a great event, and to all who participated.
Big thanks to Wayne and Steve for their teamsmenship, great driving guys.
Commiseration's to team Hoff with their gremlins at the start, without which they would have been a genuine contender and to team Trigg who hit a few snags in the second heat.
Good job on the timing system Rick, it worked a treat.
P.S. Could you please blurr my face i haven't had my beauty sleep for a few years.

Edited by termite1, 02 August 2008 - 12:52 PM.

[triggy]

Yes, thanks to all the guys for a great 8hrs of racing with great performing cars. Thanks Hoffy for organising it, a great job as usual.
Can't wait for the next one!

[BMR]

Had a great time again , I really got into the groove regarding consistant lap times and the car was a treat to drive . Excellent sportsmanship by all drivers regarding the overtaking - which was great fun not because of the extra lap gained but the challenge of finding the best place to over take because the cars were all very close in there performance levels . Congrats to young Shannon with the fastest lap of the entire event (correct me if Im wrong) 4.6__
Better luck next time to Hoffys team you must have tripped over a black cat and dropped a mirror while you were walking under that ladder huh .
The motor in the BTK car showed early indications of trouble in the first part of the enduro a few weeks back with some odd power drops but in the second part of the enduro on Friday night it ran perfectly .
Tyre wear adds to some spice to the racing - It tests the mechanics out under pressure .
We started with a 22mm tyre and had one down to 17.5 (from memory) measured after we swapped them over for a new set . We held off the tyre change till just before our time ended on blue lane that gave us some time to bed them in on a middle lane . Brand new tall tyres to run on Yellow lane that has the two tight corners could have made the car a little too grippy / tippy so bedding them in on blue was a good idea in the end. Damo did drop his lap times even lower on blue lane with the fresh tyres and they were perfect on yellow after the lane change over - It was good to have nice taller grippy tyres for the two fast corners on yellow - The corner at the end of the main straight and the big sweeping overpass.
Team Trigg - you would have been closer before the lane change but your car didn't seem to like the green lane so much - that really upset us BTK guys
Team Mickey Mouse - you had the pace but definately no luck in the door slamming department (rubbins racin huh) The slightest battle nudges seemed to put your car out easily. Probably that flag change ? The new grey flag did look to be a loose fit and the braid was wearing at the front of the flag. Im looking forward to another Slot it enduro , whos track next - How about opening Triggys new 4 laner at Xmas time with a Slot it Enduro ? It was so enjoyable can we wait till Xmas to do it again ?