Reflections - Post Macc National

[Dave Treacy]

Well, the first national of the year has passed and we have had to contend with some new rules:

EB Motors
Additive
Ride Height
Bodyshells

I suppose I'm trying to canvas views on participant reaction to these rules.

For me, I found it impossible to last 8 mins on the EB motor (Monstor Horsepower) this could be due to the type of motor, spring selection (red/green) brushes (4499) or type of motor and track length. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
As to additive - I used the handout stuff and it seemed to work OK, not as much grip as last year, but I didn't have a smell induced headache at the end of each day.
Ride height - a tough one for me. I thought I was legit, but ended up buying new tyres each day to ensure I met the rule. I suspect this may become very expensive in tyres which is a shame.
Bodyshell, mine were all legal (at least no one told me otherwise - but they all look the same to me anyhow! :) - LOL)

How about you - what feedback can you provide?

Dave

[Jim Spencer]

Hi

Respect to you Dave if you can make a stock go flat on 33's I might lose the title of Mr Throttle Jammer yet!

Although I don't have any problems with actually clearing the ride height rule, and i'll accept it being there as I lost my argument at the EGM we once again have the cars clearing the 3mm when static and then catching the track when moving, (which we now can't do anything about?) also its a real pain in the bottom for the poor old scruitineer!

No problems with the addative at all, whatever the brand.

The new personal transponders added an extra dimension to the poor old scruitineers job too, as with so many people running PT's it didn't half get confusing as to which set was out next etc..

Still for the first meeting of the year, don't think it went too bad, and it identified a couple of areas that will need switched on tech staff at Plymouth to look after ;)

Jim

[Dave Treacy]

Jim,

What happened to the plan to have PT users have a sticker on the windscreen? I thought that was both simple and elegant as solutions go.

[PDW]

Dave, excuse me leaning over your post to get at Mr. S.

Jim, it's spelt ADDITIVE - OK? Jeez, after all these years .....!!!!
(yeah I know, but I think I've been spelling it wrong for about 15 years, hard to break the habit...)

Er, ride height rule. IMHO (Jim, wassat, my opinion never humble...!!) this is for the birds. It causes more grief than it solves. No one is going to run a car that is too low so as to bugger up the handling. Most problems were caused by uneven carpet joints, not low cars. If damage is the issue make everyone fit a piece of PTFE covering film on the bottom of their cars - no damage possible, no ride-height rule required.

Dave, your motor ills could be all the things you mention, but also the solid bearings. These create awesome amounts of drag, especially when they get hot and the oil disappears. Don't forget that you are running them 3 minutes longer than what they are designed for!! IMHO (Jim, don't you start again!!) solid-bearing motors for 8 minutes should be rethought to save you all a lot of money.

[mark barord]

Dave, with regard to the ride height rule were you experiencing problems with the front or rear of the car?
I found that tire wear was reduced with the new additive.
With regard to lasting 8 mins with a monster stock, Paul Wales ran one to qualify for the C final at last years Grand Prix at Chesterfield and he was coming off the track with loads left and that was using 3000's.
On the additive side of things I ran TC2 applied front and rear about 40 mins before and once we had got past round 1 on Saturday the grip lasted well for the whole 8 mins. The grip was different to before as the balance of the car had changed. I had lots of low speed steering and very little high speed steering but as the grip rose this problem was reduced.
One last thing on Saturday the whole of the A final had qualified on 31 laps a situation I can not remember ever happening before. Have we got any 1/12th historians out there who can confirm this?

[Jim Spencer]

Dave

The sticker theory, which we might still do I suppose, was designed to solve the weight problem which never happened to be honest. The problem is keeping track of the handouts which can be easily fixed but it means somebody has to pay much more attention to them.

So we have created a bit of a double whammy for the tech staff, what with pre race height checks and then a bit of complication on the bugs, not a problem now that we're aware of it though as long as the clubs add an extra body to their tech team.

Jim

[steven bough]

I was a bit miffed with the ride height rule,because we said we would check it before we race -not after?
But when we voted it in i guessed then that it would be extra hassle for the checkers..
Perhaps next EGM we could vote a sports man 3mm ride height were it would not be checked but ask people to be a sports men and keep there cars over 3mm..etc

Other than that-i really enjoyed myself,
Thanks for all the effert you put in.

Steve

[Glenn Atterton]

Shame the Sunday event wasn't run in reversve or even slight modifications made to the layout for Sunday.

Was there a reason other than time for not changing the track layout slightly or even running the track in reverse?

Thanks to all Macc members, 1/12 committee (and those I pestered for setup info) for the effort they afforded for the weekend.

[Jim Spencer]

Steve

We did check it before the race, that's what caused the problems / headache for tech.
We also checked it after as well, just so we could let people know if they could have a problem next race (nobody lost a time for being low as its only advisory afterwards, but a couple of people couldn't go out to play, if you wern't there)

Glenn

When I asked half a dozen people round the pits on Saturday afternoon re a change they said leave it alone it'll bugger up the grip, no time issue as the change we had would have only taken 10 minutes max.
And as for running it backwards that was even less popular..

Perhaps I shouldn't have asked and just done it though..

Jim

[B_Final_Bob]

Ride height:-

No problems really, only failed before the race once with a loose screw I had not noticed, but fixed in time for the race.

Bodyshells:-

No problems, I used the Protoform Bentley, which is what I used last year! :P Don't think anyone moaned (even Matt ;) )

Additive:-

I liked the smell of the old additive, but the new stuff worked as well - if not better - than the old stuff.

[Glenn Atterton]

The new personal transponders added an extra dimension to the poor old scruitineers job too, as with so many people running PT's it didn't half get confusing as to which set was out next etc..


Would it be possible to sort the heat listings via the race programme, so that the handout transponders start at car 1 in each heat?

So if you have heat 1 with the 1st six cars needing the handout transponders they are car's 1 to 6. Heat 2 with 3 cars needing them would be cars' 1 to 3 and so on.

All handout transponders would then start from number 1 for each heat and should be easier for the person on transponder duty to see which car/person requires one as they are not spread out amongst the heat listing .

[acurry]

Glen

Good Idea

If you looked at the heat listing and at the number of drivers who were using PT this was high you will find that the prob with handout transponders will be sorted out for the next round.

As there was a posibility of teething probs but overall I don't think the problem was that big and all on tech coped very well.

Alan

[Eric Dunn]

:DI would like to thank both the BRCA officials and the Macclesfield people for providing an excellent venue & well organised event. Jenny who did the grub was great considering the short notice and facilities available to her.

Ride height - wasnt a problem

Grip - better with Orion than Corrally

Transponders - No Hassle due to using PT

[steven bough]

Just a note for people that were not at AGM the new rule says that they don't have to alter track,were has last year it was in the Rules to change-persanlly i enjoyed it being the same for both day's.it ment i didn't have to spend all day again trying a new set up-and could try & go better by driving,not just because i had the best set up at the time. 8)

[Glenn Atterton]

All handout transponders would then start from number 1 for each heat and should be easier for the person on transponder duty to see which car/person requires one as they are not spread out amongst the heat listing .


Missed this of my last post.

At the drivers briefing draw the grid for round 1 of qualifying so that it doesn't start in numerical order and those with Pt's don't feel those with handouts are getting an advantage. So a typical start for round 1 could be 7(pt), 2(ho), 5(ho) , 9(pt), 1(ho), 8(pt) etc. For round 2 go to usual format of time from previous heat.

Work's OK for other classes of racing so a random draw should work fine for 1/12 also

[ccoomes]

Hello Gents.

Thanks must go to the Macc club for a great National.

Sorry to you all about the delay in results.

Having read through a few things, please find below a few 'Cat Among The Pigeons'!

Additive (How ever it is spelt!)

Great I can now go home and not get moaned at by the better half about the smell. She loves it, so it gets my vote every time.

Anyone remeber the 6 minute rule for 6 cell mod with the rear grip going off. Any similarities to the new stuff? No complaints though.

3mm Ride Height,

Sorry Jim, but if i quote the following, the race director does have the power to do the Following:

Rule 7.14:
"Any car that loses its body, becomes a safety hazard or is causing damage to the track will be Black flagged."

So, therefore should a car be damaging the track,the race director can remove the car from the track until the problem has been rectified.

PT's, hmmm could start a long thread here, but won't.

Great, glad i bought one. Anyone who has bought them has seen the light. Need to read the text about peoples concerns about PT's until I try to address any issues people have with them (Only for 1/12 that is).

Anyway, thanks again to the Macc club to running race control while i was racing, and why did I give it up last year? See you at Plymouth.

Anyone fancy the F2 Championship?

Have fun and looking forward to seeing you all at Plymouth, honest.

Cheers

Clive.