Derby Talk

I inspected a beautiful car for a Mom and her scout and found oil around the nail head of one wheel. We are graphite only. If not for that one wheel the car would have gotten by me. Mom said a "friend" built the car and she knew nothing about the build. The scout was a Wolf. Our leader pulled the wheels, cleaned the wheels and axles with alcohol, applied graphite and we let him race. I have no idea if he won or not since I was busy inspecting and forgot about the car. Being overweight is one thing I expect. Oil Lube on a beautiful car I do not expect.
Suggestions? Thank You.

I am no expert but it sounds like you handled it well. The boy still got to participate but any advantage he was going to have from a car built and tuned by someone else was destroyed the moment all the axles were pulled. It probably still performed decently and he got to enjoy the event. Had it been left alone and he won a trophy would have been unfair to the boys that put work into their cars. A rule is a rule. That being said I still don't understand how oil used in moderation could possibly foul up a track more than all that dirty graphite. I suppose people get a little oil happy and put more than a drop or two on.

I agree, Sounds like you handled it in the best way.

Since I've been around so long I suspect "Graphite Only" is because "We've always done it that way". Although, one year long ago someone put so much oil on his car it was dripping off the car and I didn't know it until another scout said, "I got oil on my wheels". It was all over the track.

Our Pack has a graphite only rule specifically because the folks who bring the track (rental) specify they don't want oil getting on the track. Which I completely understand. I just wish he's spring for a new aluminum track soon, because his current aluminum track is kinda shot.

We've never had a rule restricting lubricant, but we have had cars show up with illegal wheels/axles. We handled it pretty much the way you did: We had them swap their wheels for legal ones, and let them race.

Long term, my preference would be to stop restricting lubricants. We started providing Krytox at our workshops several years ago, and it's been a big improvement over the mess created by graphite.

I like your racers. That Yellow one looks FAST !!!

Sounds like it was handled very well indeed.

Problem with any lubricant is that most folks feel that "if a little is good, a lot must be better!". Thus, they over apply graphite or oil, which can be messy. However, over applying oil can be even worse in terms of causing problems for other cars. It is one thing for a car to pick up some graphite on its wheels. It is another for those wheels to get oil on them. I find graphite isn't very difficult to clean off our track, which is why I've kept the "dry lube only" rule in place for our District.

birddog