Intro & story of 2014 race, updated with hub question
Re: New guy intro...
Yea, I was kinda shocked as well. However I guess after turn in the leaders are who place the cars on the track and handle the cars, which was the case at some races back in my scouting days. This being an Awana race, there are quite a few cars, possibly close to 200. I am told they run preliminaries during the week to prevent the race day from being a six hour affair. Racing starts at 6:00, and should be concluded at the normal meeting ending time which is 8:00. I guess in that regard it makes sense, especially since some of the racers are as young as five years old, that is a long time to hold their attention.
Re: New guy intro...
Duplicate, see next...
Last edited by glider90 on Mon Mar 10, 2014 2:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: New guy intro...
Well last night was the race. Much different than as it was 30 years ago! Twin aluminum tracks, video boards, sound system. It was really cool. The kids were a bit overwhelmed.
They ran two races with about 50 cars in the "sparks" division for K thru second grade. They ran 4 cars per race with no timing system. Leaders watched each lane and sorted the cars by place.
My daughter won her two heats, and my son was second in both of his. In the first heat my son lost to a blue car, in the second heat he lost to a Block "O" Ohio State inspired car. Surprisingly, both my son and daughter transferred to the semifinal of 16 cars. The semifinals were comprised of four races, with the winner of each advancing to the finals to race for 1st thru 4th overall. Win or go home!
By luck of the draw, my son had the same two cars that beat him in the preliminary heat in his semifinal! This time he beat the blue car in a close race for second, but no matter as only first place went to the final. The Block "O" car beat everyone cleanly, and would do the same all they through the finals. The finish of our semifinal is in the shot below. The blue car that got third in this race was also very fast, it won all of its preliminary heats.
My daughter also placed second in her semifinal heat, in a close race with the car that ultimately ended up second to the "O" in the final. The Block "O" car won the final by the same margin as he did in the image above over second place with 3rd and 4th back another car or so. I think had my kids had 3rd and 4th place speeds based on comparing the finishes but the luck of the draw pitted them in semifinal heats with the fastest two cars. Double eliminations or timing would have been cool to figure out how well we really did for sure. But they had fun, and my son was excited to get a third place trophy in the static portion of the event.
At home I looked at the pictures and the videos. I was amazed at how fast the "O" car was, even more after watching the video. As it turns out the family had an O-H-I-O set of cars. All of their cars advanced to the finals in their group. The "O" won Sparks and the "H" won for the 3rd thru 6th grade division. They had a race between the fastest cars in the two divisions and the leader cars. The O and H dominated again, with basically a tie at the finish.
In looking at the pictures at home I noticed some interesting colors behind the hubs of the wheels. These cars had a hubcap which concealed the axle head. It appears as though the entire hub may be machined from a different plastic, possibly delrin? There is also a yellow area in there as well. Now the rules do clearly say that "Modification of wheels IS permitted. However the 'Awana Grand Prix' logo must be visible". I was shocked when we initially received our rules that they allowed wheel mods. We trued our rear wheels on a lathe to within .0005", and we put a mild point on them. I give credit to the winning car, they certainly did some major effort to build some fast racers. I am curious what the pro's think is going on with those hubs. I wish I would have seen this at the race, I would have taken a closer look and congratulated the builder in person.
So we had fun, made the Semifinals, won a trophy, and the kids love their cars which (if they are like me) they will treasure forever. I wish my daughter would have won something as we had determined in the winter that we would likely not be continuing with Awana next year due to other activities. This was probably her only race ever. She worked hard on car that looked great and ran well but cam up empty handed. My son will start cub scouts next year, so we will be back!
~Curt
They ran two races with about 50 cars in the "sparks" division for K thru second grade. They ran 4 cars per race with no timing system. Leaders watched each lane and sorted the cars by place.
My daughter won her two heats, and my son was second in both of his. In the first heat my son lost to a blue car, in the second heat he lost to a Block "O" Ohio State inspired car. Surprisingly, both my son and daughter transferred to the semifinal of 16 cars. The semifinals were comprised of four races, with the winner of each advancing to the finals to race for 1st thru 4th overall. Win or go home!
By luck of the draw, my son had the same two cars that beat him in the preliminary heat in his semifinal! This time he beat the blue car in a close race for second, but no matter as only first place went to the final. The Block "O" car beat everyone cleanly, and would do the same all they through the finals. The finish of our semifinal is in the shot below. The blue car that got third in this race was also very fast, it won all of its preliminary heats.
My daughter also placed second in her semifinal heat, in a close race with the car that ultimately ended up second to the "O" in the final. The Block "O" car won the final by the same margin as he did in the image above over second place with 3rd and 4th back another car or so. I think had my kids had 3rd and 4th place speeds based on comparing the finishes but the luck of the draw pitted them in semifinal heats with the fastest two cars. Double eliminations or timing would have been cool to figure out how well we really did for sure. But they had fun, and my son was excited to get a third place trophy in the static portion of the event.
At home I looked at the pictures and the videos. I was amazed at how fast the "O" car was, even more after watching the video. As it turns out the family had an O-H-I-O set of cars. All of their cars advanced to the finals in their group. The "O" won Sparks and the "H" won for the 3rd thru 6th grade division. They had a race between the fastest cars in the two divisions and the leader cars. The O and H dominated again, with basically a tie at the finish.
In looking at the pictures at home I noticed some interesting colors behind the hubs of the wheels. These cars had a hubcap which concealed the axle head. It appears as though the entire hub may be machined from a different plastic, possibly delrin? There is also a yellow area in there as well. Now the rules do clearly say that "Modification of wheels IS permitted. However the 'Awana Grand Prix' logo must be visible". I was shocked when we initially received our rules that they allowed wheel mods. We trued our rear wheels on a lathe to within .0005", and we put a mild point on them. I give credit to the winning car, they certainly did some major effort to build some fast racers. I am curious what the pro's think is going on with those hubs. I wish I would have seen this at the race, I would have taken a closer look and congratulated the builder in person.
So we had fun, made the Semifinals, won a trophy, and the kids love their cars which (if they are like me) they will treasure forever. I wish my daughter would have won something as we had determined in the winter that we would likely not be continuing with Awana next year due to other activities. This was probably her only race ever. She worked hard on car that looked great and ran well but cam up empty handed. My son will start cub scouts next year, so we will be back!
~Curt
Re: Intro & story of 2014 race, updated with hub question
Those are odd wheels. I have never seen a wheel with barrings. Perhaps they have barrings?
Congrats to the team!
Noskills
Congrats to the team!
Noskills
"Nunchuk skills... bowhunting skills... pinewood derby skills... Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills!"
Napoleon Dynamite
Napoleon Dynamite
Re: Intro & story of 2014 race, updated with hub question
Any other comments on the wheel hubs?
