Lots more photos and another video coming tonight.....

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Mike Swauger, Qualifying Round #3

Paul Becattini leading Robert Ronas in the third round of qualifying.
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Mike Swauger, GLC Final Qualifier - Doing great until another car died in front of him...

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To see Saturday's Photos, click on this link:

http://www.sgrid.com/cgi-bin/backtalk/peek:onroad,25

GLC Track, Early Morning

The beautiful weather we’ve been experiencing continued, and got even better if that’s possible. You couldn’t ask for better racing weather. The nearest reported rain cloud was rumored to be somewhere in Transylvania.

The plan for today is to run practice all morning, have a driver’s meeting at noon, and then run the first two rounds of qualifying. The race schedule got a bit longer than expected, when 140 racers signed up, with others still on the way. Even with running 14 cars in the 1/10 scale Mains, and 12 cars in the 1/8 Mains, it’s going to be difficult if not impossible to stay within the goal of only 16 Mains - and this is with running all eleven (more coming??) 1/8 GT cars together.

Everything is running smooth as silk. Everyone is just doing the right thing without needing to be told. Part of this is because everyone already seems to know what to do, and part because of the *fun* atmosphere at the event. Josh Cyrul’s wife has set up a food stand alongside the track, so even that need is now taken care of. The PA system is loud and clear, so no matter where you are, you’re informed of what is going on - and in case you want to work indoors, you can tune your FM radio to 89.7 and listen in your camper or trailer.

Brent Gottfried, out of retirement?
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Today was the first "official" day at the Great Lakes Challenge in Toledo, Ohio. My plan for today was to spend the whole day trying to get a photo of everyone competing at the event. I probably missed a few people, but it's not from lack of trying.

The next question was how to post all these photos. Usually I create a web gallery, but as a test, I posted all 113 images in a single discussion item in the Starting Grid Forums.

To access this item, just click here:

It may take a while for all the images to load.

Mico Racing has developed a new V-Cam (Variable-Camber) System to maintain zero-camber on R/C cars, keeping the tire firmly planted on the ground.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9B1-PZCb8A

V-cam installed to front suspension of an 1/8 4WD on-road race car

Anyone who has been racing a radio control car already knows one nasty fact about car setup. Push the car up and down on the suspension, and the amount the tire "leans in and out" (the camber) constantly changes. This makes it very difficult to keep the tire flat on the ground for maximum grip, and causes tires to wear unevenly, often causing the inside or outside of a foam tire to wear more than the other side.

By using the idea of a "DAX" suspension from full-size cars, Art Carbonell was able to modify the suspension on a 1/8 on-road car such that the wheels remain level, fully planted on the ground, no matter what position the suspension is in. This will be clear in the video posted below. Once you see what is going on, the function of the new components in the following photos will become obvious.

V-cam installed to rear suspension of 1/8 4WD on-road race car

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V-Cam system demonstration

When you do something over and over again for many years, it gets to be an integral part of your life. That’s how I feel about the Great Lakes Challenge R/C car race. For the past dozen or so years, August means finding myself at 30,000 feet up in the air, heading to Toledo, Ohio.

I’ve now been to r/c car races all over this planet, from my own backyard to so far away that if I had gone any further, I’d have been around the globe, heading back home. Of all these races, the GLC stands out as a unique event. The Toledo club, the "One-Eighth Racers of Toledo", has always focused on the fun part of r/c above all else. This used to mean a group of friends from Toledo getting together to play, which grew to people from all over the Midwest, which has now grown to people from all over the country. There is something addictive about the place, the people and the track - if you go there once, you always want to come back.

Flying into Detroit takes you to a very modern airport terminal!

What a beautiful track to race on!!

The following information and full set of photos were taken of the new super-secret Serpent Cobra GT prototype. The new car is being developed by Joaquin DeSoto, Chris Tossolini and Art Carbonell. The team has been able to create a high-tech GT class contender, using mostly off-the-shelf Serpent buggy parts! The car uses a Serpent 966 1/8 on-road transmission. Production cars will come with a typical buggy clutch - the Centax clutch will be an optional extra. The photos below show lots of details of the new car.

The Serpent Cobra GT is expected to become available for sale towards the end of this year, and sell for a street price of under $500, the same price as the Serpent Buggy. The Novarossi "Basic Sport" engine shown in these photos will have a street price under $200.

While the track was drying off from a rainstorm, I got to ask Art Carbonell and Sean Leu what they thought about the track design. Before reading further, click here for a short video of Art getting around the track. If you can, be sure to change the setting to high-resolution, or you'll miss much of the detail...

CLICK HERE

Art:
The track flows pretty good, much better flow than the first time I ran here when the track was being laid out. There are some tight spots, but that's just part of the track. Traction is fairly good - I think they just put down a little sugar water, but even without it, it would be fine traction. Tire wear is decent, it looked like my tires wore about 1.5 mm in fifteen minutes (hardness 35 front and rear). The visibility from the driver stand is pretty good; the only thing, Shawn was next to me on my left, and I couldn't see my car when leaving pit lane. If people step back it would be better, but the rail is right there. I had nobody on the right of me, only Shawn on my left. I'll know more about this once we run the state race.

The Miami RC Speedway Track

Looking left from driver's stand.

The track, looking right.

It’s amazing what a team of dedicated workers can accomplish in a week. Miami RC Speedway went from a rough unfinished track to a semi-operational racing facility in all of seven days. Led by Johnny Wong, the team spent most of their free time (and lots of time taken from other tasks) and had the track ready for its opening practice session on Sunday, August 01, 2010.

World Championship Track, Gulf Coast Raceway, Porter, Texas

Racers in the Final - click for larger image

The A-main as I remember it... Ralph Burch and team X-ray started the race with a couple of lessons in mind from the preworlds. The car does not handle or produce fast laps for the final 5 laps without rubber on the rims. A flame out 3 laps before the end can be very costly. These lessons were incorporated into the race strategy.

The trial start came very smoothly with no incidents. The real start had an incident in about the middle of the field coming off the sweeper. That car was punted about 5 times before it finally came to rest. This created a split field the first five cars tightly bunched.

This bunch held on for quite a while until refueling started. Robert Pietsch was leading, Ralph Burch approximately fourth. After the third fuel stop things started to go badly for various teams. Robert Pietsch had a complete runaway in the pits. This created quite the exiting moment for all teams in the pits at that time. See the second photo. He came out of the pits in last place.

We’re all friends here so ill share...

Note to self “racing crosseyed is difficult!” (see elaboration below)

Wow. Racing for me has become a brief interruption for my daily chaotic life filled with a thriving 6 day a week business and a beautiful and quite demanding little 9 month old 1.5 foot tall tower of terror my daughter. So Sometimes Selfishly Sunday comes and I want to escape the clutches of my middle aged obligation and let my hair down for some RC racing.(im actually 1-2 mm from bald…GI joeish to be exact).

But sometimes my little piece of the pie has costs. Often its nothing more than a kiss on the top of the head and some shopping money, and sometimes it requires a little more. In an effort to stay married and have a happy home you just gotta give back. And this weekend was a doozy.

A rare phone conversation of explicative’s and choice words of exhaustion coupled with blasphemy towards my rare Sunday enjoyment prompted the full package of an art long lost called dating. That’s right a date….with my wife! I know I know.

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The recent developments in 3D cinema are truly staggering, I went to my first viewing as sceptical as ever, expecting the cheap red/blue glasses, headache inducing fuzzy picture that passes itself off as 3D, but I couldn’t have been more wrong! From the first second I slipped on the proper shades I was stunned at just how good it was, speechless, a whole new era in cinema is here, and way beyond the dreams of mere mortals. If you haven’t seen one yet, go now!

Now I see SKY are to start the same 3D broadcasts so we can enjoy it in our own homes, and I’m sure computer games are heading in that direction too, but why would you want to drive a 3D car round a 3D circuit when you can do it for real? R/C racing is losing the youth element we so badly need to keep the sport moving forwards, the average age of drivers at every meeting I’ve been to this year is well into the high 30’s, because Dad’s are driving while their sons stay home to play on their X Box or at best sit in the pits with two or three friends racing each other on their DS Lights.

In the not too distant past it would be the lad driving while Dad cheered him on and handled all the pit work, while son learnt the craft of swinging the spanners. Ask a lad of 13 these days to undo a wheel nut and they sit their trying to figure out which way to turn it, which I personally find simply amazing!

Yes there are a few exceptions, as with any rules, and a few young lads are doing very well for themselves, but they are the exception rather than the rule. Next time you look at the A Final drivers on the rostrum just look for school kids standing on milk crates to get a better view of the track, I bet you don’t see any which is a real shame. Without new talent coming up through the ranks, we will be seeing the same old faces getting older and greyer, claiming trophies for another ten years to come. To this end race publications should be concentrating on more race reports on the younger generation, to give those that are making the effort to race for real, in proper 3D, the coverage they deserve. We’ll see some rising talent at the Ardent Raceways Juniors, and BRCA Juniors likewise, plus more fun events like the Carisma GP at Bedworth, so feel free to let race publications know of any events they should cover.

So come on Dads, put down the transmitter, take the time to teach your lad hand/eye co-ordination, depth perception and race craft. They need to feel the adrenalin rush of a tight race, the exhilaration of a victory, and the bitter sting of a crash and it’s consequences in terms of both the cost of replacement parts and the loss of race position. Kids today need to learn that there’s no reset button in real life, and it’s a hard learnt lesson that will serve them well for the future.

See you Trackside

Saturday's Report