The Racing Thread

[chicagokenji]

The mini/micro forum now has a lot of traffic. Let's use this thread to discuss anything specifically about racing mini/micro's or 1/14th scale vehicles.

[chicagokenji]

We're getting a new indoor track up and running for 1/18th scale vehicles. What amazes me is how many different manufacturers are now into smaller than 10th scale vehicles. It seems just about every car manufacturer has a small scale vehicle.

At the new track there's going to be a mix of off road and on road vehicles and we'll need to accomodate all that we can. I'm guessing that as long as there's three of a kind of vehicles that will make a class.

Keeping in mind that race day will need to move along efficiently it seems the only thing to do for off road and on roads racing on the same day is to move the jumps that will be used for off road in between heats.

Anyone have lots of experience running in races that have both on road and off road vehicles on the same day?

[chicagokenji]

What classes does your track regularly run for 1/18th and 1/16th scale?

[duneland]

That's the way we have allways done it. Just changed to sepperate race day a few weeks ago. Like it much better that way. Sepperate days, gives me a chance to build more jumps & make them heavier-duty. People have a tendancy to think they are capable of being walked on, jumped on, etc.

[jaejw1]

at my track,, we have both offroad dirt and onroad asphalt indoors... and the races for both are held on different days.. that way the onroad guys arent complaining about the dust and dit getting on their track,,,, an also it frees up space for the pit areas..
have you thought of building a dirt offroad track for the mini's or if you already have a dirt offroad for 10th scale.. is anyone interested in using that track for the minis aswell..

[chicagokenji]

StrictlyRC can't have a dirt track because the track is indoors and it's a carpet. Although dirt/clay does sound fun.

Around here the close indoor clay track is Leisure Hours Raceways. On the night of their electric off road racing they do run 1/18th scales, but they put jumps on their carpet track. The carpet track was specifically built for 1/18th scales. The clay 10th scale track is aprox 130 feet x 60, IIRC, and running an 1/18th scale truck or buggy race on something that size isn't condusive to a fun race.

[chicagokenji]

We met with Ron from Duneland Hobbies this past weekend and Strictly RC thinks they might be following Duneland's program as far as classes of vehicles are concerned. Duneland Hobbies is currently running these classes for on road and off road:

On Road Racing Classes:

1/14th Touring Car (Recoil) Stock Class

• 6 cell
• 2/3AA Battery Pack
• Stock Motor (subject to change as better motors of same performance become available)

1/18th 4WD Stock Class

• 5cell Batteries
• Venom Fireball Motor

1/18th 4WD Open Class

• Any Battery
• Any motors

1/18th Pan Car Class

• Scalpel in stock form

Carisma Spec Class

• box stock

================================================== ===

Off Road Racing Classes

1/18th Buggy Stock Class

• kit motor
• 6 cell batteries

1/18th Buggy Open Class

• Any batteries
• Any Motor

1/18th Truck Stock

• box stock

1/18th Truck Open Class

• any batteries
• any motors

[Mini_Me]

1/18th Truck Stock

• box stock

What do you guys do for larger trucks and/or 2wd? Doesn't seem fair to both types of trucks/scales to run them combined (unless not enough for own classes yet). Also, since some trucks come as kits or ARR, how does box stock work in that case?

::::::::::::::

To give a point to this thread. We run on and off road at the same time. What we do is we have jumps that the on-roads can bypass by going around. Sometimes even allowing the off-roads to jump a part of the track the onroads must take. This slows down the on-roads enough as so the laptimes are closer. We currently don't have enough people to have separate classes, so this allows each type to compete. The only real issue is newer on-road drivers taking the jumps accidentally, or some off roaders specifically trying to bypass the jumps on straightaways.

[duneland]

Mini me,
Our stock truck class is not 'box stock'. I wrote the classes down in haste, and sometimes my scribeling is difficult to make out... .
It is same as stock buggy...Kit motor and 6 cell 2/3 a pack. We do run Mini ts with 18ts. But only because we get from 0 - 1 mini-t per race day! Indeed, they should be in seperate classes, if you have enough racers & time for the additional classes. The Mini-t can be competetive against the 18t or the Xray truck, it takes a lot of set-up work though. This only applies to small carpet tracks... The high grip levels the playing field. Mini-t main problem is horrible steering geometry. Once you have that worked out so it handles as it should, it runs quite well against the 18t.
When you have a fairly small track and room for only 20 to 30 racers, you have to be practical in your class offerings.
Offering more classes to improve fairness and broader appeal, is another reason for seperating on & off-road days.