Council came and went..... well

General discussions for car and semi-truck racers.
sdupont1
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Council came and went..... well

Post by sdupont1 »

Race went well, very long. About 40 cars took only 7 hrs :shock: .

They decided not to use the 6 lane track, rather they used a two lane track and bracket raced, double elim. Took forever. All in all the car ran fantastic. Didn't loose a race all day, won the overall undefeated. They actually busted some trying to use nickle axles.

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Times were posted:

2.615 was fastest all day. We had all but 3 runs in 2.61's the other was 2.620, 2.621.

The others were around 2.631 on up. All in all great day but just way to long, the kids actually lost interest due to it being to long. The other issue we incountered was that our disrtict doesn't allow the kids to line up the car, well they did, some kids l;iterally took 3 - 4 min to line up the car. Way to long. I understand that they want to get the kids involved but something has to give.

This is the track they decided to use. It looked like someone built it in their back yard.


Here is some pics of the track. Check out that brutal stop section, several fell off. Also notice the start pin, way to short. Several ahd to modify car so the could race.

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GravityRacer
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Re: Council came and went..... well

Post by GravityRacer »

Congrats! If that kid's grin gets any bigger, his face is gonna split!
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3 Cub Dad
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Re: Council came and went..... well

Post by 3 Cub Dad »

7 hours for 40 cars?!? Isn't that against the Geneva convention for cruel and unusual punishment???

Awesome job guys, and that smile says it all!


Steve
sdupont1
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Re: Council came and went..... well

Post by sdupont1 »

Thats all I have to complain about. We started at 9:00am and it was about 3:45 when we took that pic of him with his trophies.
Congrats! If that kid's grin gets any bigger, his face is gonna split!
I think his was bigger than mine. Very proud.
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gpraceman
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Re: Council came and went..... well

Post by gpraceman »

First of all, congrats to you and your son.
sdupont1 wrote:Race went well, very long. About 40 cars took only 7 hrs.

They decided not to use the 6 lane track, rather they used a two lane track and bracket raced, double elim.
That is a painfully long race! And double elim to boot!
sdupont1 wrote:Check out that brutal stop section, several fell off.
I can't say that I have ever seen a stop section like that. :shock:
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BigDozer66
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Re: Council came and went..... well

Post by BigDozer66 »

Congrats! :D

I am glad those guys are not in control of our races. :shock:

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Stan Pope
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Re: Council came and went..... well

Post by Stan Pope »

sdupont1 wrote:Thats all I have to complain about. We started at 9:00am and it was about 3:45 when we took that pic of him with his trophies.
Good show!

What did they do for the nearlly 6 hours that they were NOT racing??? Were they reading the boys' complete bio's as the boys staged their cars?
Stan
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sdupont1
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Re: Council came and went..... well

Post by sdupont1 »

What did they do for the nearlly 6 hours that they were NOT racing??? Were they reading the boys' complete bio's as the boys staged their cars?
Must have been. Actually the race took that long. Very few breaks, good thing. We were told after that they were offered a 6 lane but declined. The track above is their track. I guess home turf or something, but the 6 lane definately would have sped things up. Also for the overall race, they took the top four. same setup, doub elim. Just to long of a race.
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Re: Council came and went..... well

Post by mbb »

Actually that looks like a very good and HEAVY track to me. That appears to be 3/8" to 1/2" aluminum plate, and I only see one joint in the running surface. Its definitely overbuilt and heavy, I would bet it quiet and vibration free as well, also easy to set up and level. Looks kind of short though which would favor some aggressive mods that sacrifice stability on the flat.

The spacing between the lanes is obviously to provide room for the kids arms to adjust the cars. IMO, the track was likely custom built by someone intentionally for high-level pwd racing, and is a cut above the flimsy thin extruded commercial multi lane tracks. THe start pins do look low, I can see anyone racing a high-nose design would get in trouble. They should call out limitations like that in the rules if its a track requirement. The stop section appears to be a gentle upward curve of the guide strip so the cars run uphill on it. Never seen this before, but it ought to work much better than a foam lined stop box.

Im sure it was long, and some kids do overdo the adjustments, but I firmly believe that all cars should only be touched and staged by the kids. Car placement at the start can affect the outcome of close races, and it should never be left to anyone but the kids. It is afterall supposed to be THEIR RACE. Any other way of doing it is simply because the adults involved have other priorities than the kids (like time). On the commercial tracks you might as well not have the kid stage the car because they can barely adjust it without bumping the other kids cars. Those tracks were not designed with the kids in mind.


As for double elimination on a head-to head 2 lane track, conceptually its OK if they run both lanes in each race. The only downside I can see is that it would take long time, and require a lot of heats. Slow starting heats, etc become a non issue. But a plus could be that the kids get a lot of races, and its for the kids.

Sounds to me you got someone who CARED that ran that race. You should be thankful, lots of horror stories otherwise on here. Congrats on the win!
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Re: Council came and went..... well

Post by Teeeman »

Great job and congrats on a repeat Council win!

Monster of a track for sure...


tell me honest... would you have preferred our plastic SuperTrack with the Demolition Derby'ing stop section?

:)


(I bet I know the answer, hahahah!)


Way to go again, congrats!

-T
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Re: Council came and went..... well

Post by quadad »

Yes, super job Sdupont1, and that face does say it all ! I am glad he's young so we can hear more about how you are setting up these cars for a while to come. :lol:

I have to comment on the track too though. It looks to me like someone will real skill and great materials could have used just a little PWD-world guidance. Why not add another lane in the center ? And anyone can build a safe stop section if you have 4-5'.
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Re: Council came and went..... well

Post by quadad »

P.S. (forgot to add prior) I think 7 hours is near ridiculous :roll: unless everyone understands up front that its going to take that long. Seems like it would be very tough on the families with several kids, all typically involved in different activities on any given Saturday. None of the main contributing aspects (2-lanes, double elimination format and kids staging their own cars) are used in our neck-of-the-woods.

I have seen it go what appeared to me as "too fast" also though. The kids need to get to be able to realize who's racing, who won and so on. Modern software is great for helping this all go a lot faster, but I like to see the kids following along.

The "we get to use our track for ____" (fill in the blank - district/council) mentality does though seem to be the most universal aspect throughout the country.
sdupont1
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Re: Council came and went..... well

Post by sdupont1 »

The track really was built stout. I though that it was a 2 laner for the same reason. Letting the kids set up the car. They didn't install the middle lane or lanes due to turbalance. They believe that the cars on the inner lanes would get slower times. I have never heard of that and in fact We won last year on a six lane track and my times were very consistant across the board.
tell me honest... would you have preferred our plastic SuperTrack with the Demolition Derby'ing stop section?
Not a chance. The stop section really worked well. Now some car fell off. I really think that an offset car would hav fallen off.



The Trophy in the middle is something that they started last year. The best of the best. We finished 1st as a tiger but 2nd overall. This year we took it all. The wood trophy sits at the entrance of the council office where kits, patches, books, etc. are purchased. It has a stainless tag on the side (like the stanley cup) with the kids name and rank and year. We were told that its bragging rights and that everyone that enters the office to get supplies will see it with his name on it. each year, they add a plate with another name. They also said its like a miss america crown. Its his for a year. If at any time for any function, we can go pick up the trophy and display it for functions and parties. I thought this was too cool.

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Time to start planning for next years tag. :wink: :biggrin2:
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Re: Council came and went..... well

Post by PWD Dude »

Great job! BIG smile own your sons face.

The people from our Pack that went said it went well. 5hrs not 7hrs, but it still makes a long day.
They liked how the kids were involved. They also noted that all the Scout from the host Pack showed great sportsmanship.

They said that some parents were scared to have their son touch their own car to line it up on the track. That tells me a great deal about some parents. It's for the Scouts!

I have to agree with nbb. Well built track. Much better than any you can buy. Now I see why they say "all the cars from across the river are fast".
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Re: Council came and went..... well

Post by GravityRacer »

On reflection, that track could be made from other materials with like results. Lets say 3/8" plywood with a good veneer, and still using extruded aluminum guide strips. Could be a plan! I built two tracks in my tenure as a Scout leader. As an engineer, I respect smooth transitions, too. I tapered the guide strips into the next section so that there was no sharp edge on any lane. There was also serious time spent on making the transition from incline-to-flat smooth. No bouncing off MY track! All in the absence of boys! A level playing field should be completely transparent to those little guys.
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