Derby Talk

Reading the rules as they are written, I would say the way the rules are written, it would allow for modifications to the inside of the wheels including coning the hubs, narrowing the tread with and lightening the inside of the wheels as long as it is not done on a lathe. I would suggest revising th...

Thanks for the thoughts guys. We use a 4 lane track and a format where only the winning car from each heat advances. We have an electronic timer but only use the times for track et records. I was thinking of just rerunning heats for some reason as a car jumping a lane or some other condition. It was...

Last year we purchased a BestTrack for our Awana program. When we received the track, I only had time to touch up some of the worst joints on the track. This helped some but there was still a .05+ second difference between a couple of lanes. This year I will have time before the race to do as much w...

This year I have been asked to organize our Adult Awana Grand Prix. One question I have on the race is what conditions would normally constitute rerunning a race? Is there is a widely accepted set of conditions for re-running a heat?

Thanks Stan. I was thinking the router table would be my preferred method.

I am wondering what technique people use to narrow the front width on the wheel spacing? I am planning on narrowing the front wheels 1/16" per side. I am also wondering about narrowing up where the wheel contacts the body. In essence, having a flat, square area about the thickness of the axle a...

Whatever you do, do not try to do the inside of the wheels by hand. This is a serious injury just waiting to happen. I have not tried it but if you have a fairly heavy duty drill press that runs accurate, I don't think turning the I.D. would be that difficult. You would need to have some type of man...

I am planning on bending the front axle on my next car. We use the Awana axles and I am a bit confused about how the kit would work for this. The axle press says that it will not work with the Awana axles but the RR tool says it requires the press. Am I missing something on this?

I was very surprised at hos much oil there was. This was a friendly adult race and there was very little tech but with the amount of oil I found on my wheels, I can't help but think they were applying it between rounds also.

Last year was my first race and I could not believe the amount of junk my tires ended up picking up on each race. We were allowed to retrieve our cars at the end of the track and return them to the starting area. After one race, two of my wheels were covered in oil from the track. It was a good thin...

I have used graphite on the inner part of the wheels that rubs on the rail but I was wondering about using it on the tread. Would this improve performance or would it cause the wheel to skid and loose performance? if it makes any difference, this will be a RR.

Thanks for the tips. I used most of the thoughts that you have included in your post last year. The car was a RR with the COM of just over an inch from the rear. Last year the car with wheels and axles with no weight added weight 1.2 oz. I ended up being undefeated and set the track record during th...

I have been bitten by the pinewood bug recently. Last year was the first time I have every built a pinewood car. It was part of an adult AWANA race with our church. I found this forum and used some of the tips. Now I have some more questions. On wheel placement, last years car had the rear wheels al...