Snowbirds. ???
 

Surprised no Snowbird thread, and no class roster lineup on the site, am I missing something ?

I was unable to find anything for the 'Birds except on Facebook.

There is also this...

http://www.snowbirdnationals.com/

It is odd that there is no thread though.

Even the site is not showing who signed up or anything much

This race is a week away and there seems to be NO buzz, normally there's a Snowbird thread 30 is pages deep around this time

That's weird. I'm almost sure I've seen a thread for the 2017 race before but can't find it either.

Aside from an entry list, it's all there, as best I can see. Classes, schedule and all that.

I would definitely like to see a entry list . Might enter a few more classes if I knew who was in what!!

What he said

No real activity on the site or Facebook but I'm signed up and going so....

Yeah, that in itself is weird. I guess this is the event thread now. Oh well, I'll be watching what I can on LRC.

I will be driving over on Sunday to watch the mains.....always a good time.

I agree it's word. It's my first so not sure what to expect.

At IIC they had us take apart our motors, they checked them fully and gave back for us to put back together. Does the Snowbirds race also do this?

Tech
 

Birds will tech very similar as ICC

You'll have a great time at the Snowbirds. Mike and the team are awesome, and if you have any questions there are plenty who will be happy to help.

There is motor tech at the Snowbirds, and you will need to take your motor out of the car for it. Previous years it has not involved taking the motor apart. There has been a label and marking put on the motor, and varnish on the motor screws.

(Tip...leave enough time for the varnish to dry before putting the motor back in your car for your next run. If time is tight wait until after the run :D)

Im surprised they did it the same weekend as Super Bowl this year.

Its usually always the same weekend as the Superbowl as the hotel bar has a nice superbowl party! All the racers hang out, eat, drink and watch the game. I can only remember a couple of years where it didnt fall on the super bowl weekend.

EA

Thanks for the tip. Can't wait.

So was this race a success?
Classes?
Layout?
Traction?
Looking for feedback

Easy answer is YES to all, track also had the Lyons curbs which I think helped. I enjoyed the competition and atmosphere, ready to sign up for next year.

Prefer one sauce next year so its not so greasy. Less curbs and more technical layout but that is what I am used to.

I agree with chris. The track lyons were nice in some spots not so much in others. Id prefer those over the dots though.

I do agree with the one sauce just for simplicity and consistency.

As you know, I didn't attend this year, for several reasons that I won't get into. But, I'll offer my opinions anyway.
1. Classes- too many TC classes. Just Stock, Super Stock and Mod. Amateur needs to go away, with only 16 entries it's a dead horse. USGT could go away as well, leave that to the "scale" racing guys.
2. The layout looked fun, like last year.
3. Traction? I now it had to be good.

Like I said, just my opinions.

I will disagree in a way 25.5 amateur should be kept but maybe as USVTA if so, there were plenty of 21.5 or even 17.5 drivers that would had a good time in 25.5 amateur, maybe a little ego not sure, but at a race of that size an amateur class should be appealing not sure why it wasn't. Next year I'll run 21.5 for sure, the progression from class to class is a good option in my opinion. No real thoughts on USGT other than I like the bodies.

Rodney

The track was awesome. The experience is like no other. The layout was great. Yes there's a lot of classes but they run the program very efficiently. Keep in mind they are running oval too.. Racing and practice all day n night.

Amateur attracts new people to the hobby who are newish to TC like me. It's a chance to get the experience at a big race and to also meet people you simply read about , hear about etc.

25.5 is a great class to learn on, it teaches how to maximize everything you got, how to optimize your setup and and forces you to drive the best line to achieve the best time.

It seems the VTA class is dead, that was what initially attracted me to onroad.

Even in 25.5 the top drivers were very serious about winning, it wasn't like it was a bunch of clowns that never driven an rc car before.

The 21.5 class is chock full of Pro level drivers , there's a big jump in competition.

Had a good time at the birds. Traction for me in my classes WGT-R and F1 was very good and had no problems, Wished they add GT17.5 foam class.
Even had a good time at the end - Raffle! Now I've gotten rid of all my old oval cars and now getting back in. Can't wait to try the new Pembreton oval car and building a Bush car.
I did notice they were missing some of the oval guys I 've seen over the years. It was also great seeing most of my sponsors and friends I've communicated with on the internet and never seen (Wayne Gerber). Wayne has helped me in my oval car set-up and helped me again with some Fenix diff parts.

Exactly I've been back into rc for 5 months or so and 25.5 was perfect for me to determine my commitment level as well as what I need to work on. At a race of this size, nerves and preparation are definite factors amateur class was/is perfect for that.

Nerves tell me about it. When they had that technical issue and we had to wait on the driver's stand for like 10 minutes but it seemed like 10 hours lol

I'm thinking the curbs really helped the avg Joe's to have cleaner races and tighned up the top drivers times . I know I was approached by 5 guys to comment on the use of the curbs have saved them 2-3 bodies over the week . I can say Matt and I agree both of us came with 3 bodies from each car and only used 1 of each all week.
Also btw the "cow bells" were not our product .
And I will also comment that a few curbs needed to be in different areas .

I raced on the new curbs for the first time two weeks before the birds. All the pan cars liked them and the only complains came from the TC guys.Since I also raced the birds I liked them more than the dots.They did not upset my car like the dots. But other cars upset my car- not the dots or the curbs.Wish we had the curbs at our home track-386......

The curbs were well made and were a nice edition to the track. The placement on the other hand was an issue. The one coming off the sweeper into the right hander essentially became a launching ramp back onto the straightaway.

Only if you hit it...Steve.

The curbs needed to be incorporated into the corner rather than placed around them. The clicktrack needs to terminate into the curb so the curb is the actual corner rather than an add-on. As we saw, cars were flipping over the track, off of it, and onto the straightway in nearly all heats.

A few other details which to me, and the many racers I spoke with, that are far more important to the racing program at the Snowbirds than the curbs:

1. Seeding/sorted heats for the first round of qualifying: Randomly sorted heats for round 1 made the round effectively a complete waste of time. Pre-sorted heats based on some calculation of practice time would make the first round matter.

2. Qualifying points: The changes that go on with the track during the week show that qualifying points are a must have. That said, for this to be most effective, practice must be sorted so racers can race with those of a similar level. For most carpet races, qualifying points is more fair, and at no races does it make more sense than at the Snowbird Nationals.

3. Triple A mains: Several mains as Snowbirds were, quite frankly, a disaster. Triple A mains can help mitigate, at least to some degree, incidents that can occur during a single 5 or 8 minute final. I point to both 12th scale spec races and the TC stock race as examples here.

Hopefully all of these ideas will be implemented into next year's program. If not, I know many racers who will not return.

Good ideas. Wish they would also tighten the schedule somehow. Two days with one round of qualifying is nuts.

How many entries did they have?

I'd like to see motor tech scheduled a little better. Having to stand in line for an hour to get two motors inspected was a little rough...

Motor tech wasn't even a issue for me . I went up there with motor disassembled handed it over and within 10min it was ready to put back together 5min later it was locked and stickered . Did that 2 times . Both times was that quick and easy

Actually the corner that kept throwing racers into the strait didn't have a curb ... It needed one I'm my opinion which might have had same outcome but requardless the curbs were not the reasoning for strait away ejections. Even your set back in the main was cause of the first infield corner NOT having a curb . As far as the curbs being cut to fit the track , is a great ideal that several tracks are doing with our curbs but given the different materials used for track barriers I don't cut them that is up to each individual track to do .

Hi All,

Would like to bring my experience on the snowbirds.
It was my first time racing on carpet and also my first time competing. I'm used to practice in whatever parking lot spot we can find and most of the time we are less then 5 racers.
To me it was definitely a very fun learning experience, I registered for TC Super Stock 17.5 but changed it upon my arrival to TC Amateur 25.5, the level of the top 40 guys in Super Stock was all I needed to make the switch.
Amateur 25.5 is called that way only by name, every racer in the amateur class ran perfect lines, I taught I would really find Amateurs in this one but they were very good racers. Each time I went on the track I was able to better myself. I qualified last on the grid in the B-main and in the main I managed to run my best times and even had the fastest lap of the main, to my own surprise I finished third and brought back with me a nice trophy.
I would recommend this class, TC Amateur 25.5, to every racer who is attending such a big event for the first time, you learn a lot if you are willing to ask and get help.
Me too saw many 21.5 and 17.5 racers that could have done way better have they registered for 25.5.
This class needs to stay, racers just need to be fair to themselves and know if they are Amateurs.