Month: January 2022

Race Report: 2022 Formula-e Series, Round 2

Round 2 of the Formula “e” Series was another hotly contested event but with a much smaller field than initially anticipated. We expected a field of at least eight drivers for Round 2 of the 2022 series. However, just days before the start, nearly half the field notified the Race Director that they would be unable to attend.

Not to be deterred, the race went on as scheduled and we expected at least five drivers to start. The morning of the race, yet another driver reported their inability to make the start. With track preparations and facilities ready to roll, track management decided to go ahead with the “official” race and Round 2 on the SR2 oval proceeded as planned.

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And, as usual, the reduced field did not disappoint the massive crowds or the drivers participating. The race started on schedule and we ran a full program plus one extra race due to the reduced attendance.

The first race of the schedule was the Formula “e” cars that started off the Fe Series back in 2019. These cars are interesting to drive and very challenging, even on the oval. Yes, Round 2 was on SR2’s oval layout.

Race 1: Tyco-Jet IROC(15v)
Place Name Laps Points Total Time
1 Steve Stewart 119 16 433.418
2 Greg Kondrek 112 13 453.726
3 George Peters 107 11 438.915
4 Russ Toy 101 7 443.27

As is customary for a Formula “e” event, we started the day with house vintage Tyco-Jet IROC cars. These cars are always fun on the oval, which is where they got their start at SR2 back in 2019.  This race was pretty much a Home Cook’n affair with only Heat 2  where Russ Toy was banging on the door to upset things. The rest of the heats pretty much ended like the results above show. Detailed Results

Race 2: OS3 TFX “Box Stocker” 68′ Camaros (IROC) (18v)
Place Name Laps Points Total Time
1 Greg Kondrek 119 16 459.471
2 Steve Stewart 113 13 460.814
3 George Peters 107 11 472.603
4 Russ Toy 99 7 470.096

This race was pretty much a G-Man show but George Peters and Home Cook’n fought hard to keep him close. In the end, Kondrek won the race with a well-deserved six-lap advantage over two seasoned T-Jet racers.
Detailed Results

The OS3 TFX is a way cool car and this race was made even more challenging because this house IROC set was completely stock TFX cars with George Peters detailed Camaro bodies. George did a great job “reworking” the house Camaro’s with new paint, decals, and other cool details.

 

Really good-looking cars and great handling characteristics.

Race 3: OS3 TFX “Lites”(18v)
Place Name Laps Points Total Time
1 Steve Stewart 118 16 399.201
2 Greg Kondrek 115 13 404.303
3 George Peters 108 11 403.63
4 Russ Toy 107 7 408.653

The first “Builder’s Class” race of the day. Race 3 was almost more of the same G-Man show but Russ Toy put in a couple of great heats also. In the end, Home Cook’n managed to stay ahead of the many challenges in this one, including botched fuel management. Detailed Results

Ad Hoc: Formula K “Roll Your Own”
Place Name Laps Points Total Time
1 Greg Kondrek 120 16 470.476
2 Steve Stewart 113 13 470.266
3 George Peters 111 11 517.759
4 Russ Toy 88 7 477.861

Threw this one in while we were waiting for lunch to arrive. Of course, only G-Man and I have enough experience with these cars but George adapted to the quirks of these cars pretty quickly. It’s all about way different controller settings. The results show who figured the settings out the quickest. These cars are going to be wild on the SR3 oval, for sure. Detailed Results

Race 4: Jag Hobbies PR-5 F1/Indy “Lites” 400-Laps (17v)
Place Name Laps Points Total Time
1 Steve Stewart 398 16 999.879
2 Greg Kondrek 367 13 1000.635
3 Russ Toy 358 11 998.594
4 George Peters 324 7 1043.976

The “Feature 400” race was a Home Cook’n show. Who not only had the home track advantage but also had way more track time with these cars with the stock magnets, which is the configuration we ran this round. Our first ever PR-5 race in Round 1 was run with the hop-up motor magnets. So, other than Home Cook’n, everybody was driving the “Lite” version of this car for the very first time. The results clearly illustrate the disparity in track time with the “Lite” configuration.  The winning car also benefitted from a 3D-printed body from MTS/Shapeways (2021 F1), which seemed to work better than the narrow wing AFX/Racemasters bodies used by Greg and Russ. George also ran an MTS/Shapeways body but experienced both car and controller issues throughout the race. Detailed Results

Race 5: JAg Hobbies NC-2 GT-40 “Lites” (15v)
Place Name Laps Points Total Time
1 George Peters 114 16 319.923
2 Greg Kondrek 113 13 325.258
3 Steve Stewart 106 11 317.901
4 Russ Toy 104 7 316.774

G-Man was walking away with this race until the final heat gremlins dashed his hopes of another podium. George Peters was six laps down going into the final heat after Russ Toy bagged a second-place finish in the first heat. George kept fighting and took advantage of G-Man’s several unfortunate crashes in the final heat and came out on top–Nice!  Detailed Results

Race 6: U-Build Viper-Jets (15v)
Place Name Laps Points Total Time
1 Steve Stewart 114 16 341.367
2 Russ Toy 113 13 341.844
3 Greg Kondrek 112 11 328.133
4 George Peters 87 7 429.478

The final “official” race of the day ended with some very exciting racing and a relatively close finish of just one lap separating each of the podium spots. This one appeared to be another G-Man show early on but Russ Toy had other plans. Russ stayed extremely close on laps in every heat, which edged out Kondrek’s two heat wins by just one lap in the end.  George’s head was probably already at the Shark Tank when this one went green but at least he came away with some much-needed series points.  Detailed Results

Series Standings After ROund 2:

Place Name Laps Points Total Time
1 Greg Kondrek 1764 157 7109.268
2 George Peters 1597 111 7352.361
3 Russ Toy 1586 88 6747.409
4 Ian Douglass 795 69 4107.164
5 Kevin Webster 675 28 4186.8
6 Jordan Walker 443 15 3296.926
7 Brad Sandahl 149 12 1241.092

Okay, there you have it.  I’m pretty sure everyone had a great time on the oval and we experimented with various fuel management setups, which were interesting. One more oval in this series, which will likely be Round 4 on February 12, 2022.

Round 5 coming up on January 29, 2022. Stay tuned for details on this road course event.

Okay, shut up and drive!

SR3 Construction Update

Mostly doing research on power solutions and waiting on materials needed for the track elevations and banking. Not sure if you’ve noticed lately but FedEx and UPS really suck when you compare them to Amazon and USPS.

I try not to buy CCP products as much as possible but sadly there are simply too many things that are simply not made anywhere else these

days. That’s another subject entirely of course. But even products that are already in the States seem to take forever when shipped by the major players. And, no, it’s not related to the “supply-chain” hoax. In fact, these days you can expect at least three days where the item(s) just sit in some shipping hub location for a long, long time.

Anyway, waiting on spacers  (standoffs), wire, wire sheathing, power components, and other items right now. The track is pretty much secure to the table just need to set the banking and overpass elevations but need the proper spacers and screws to do that. These pictures show the proposed overpass height and shape. I think it’ll be challenging for both L4 magnet cars and our other less stuck platforms.

The banking elevations and shapes will be different on each of the four corners. I’ll decide on that once I get the needed materials and start to shape the oval corners. The banking will likely be less than SR2’s banks but fairly close at the highest points. Of course, I’ll do my best to make each corner as different and challenging as possible.

Once I get this stage completed, it’ll be time to secure each track piece completely to the table and then start the basic track and power tap wiring. I’m planning a “Phase 1” power solution for the track opening, which will be at least the same power control setup we have on the SR2 VSR track.  Phase 2 will be driver-selectable voltage levels for each lane, from 3v to ~28v, which will also be programmable from the track computer by the race director.

Two purposes for these features: one is so that we can test/practice different types of cars in the same practice/test session and not have to switch voltage levels; the second purpose is so the race director can reset each lane’s voltage to the proper levels prior to each race.

Don’t forget to register for Round 2 of the Formula “E” Series this coming Saturday, January 15, 2022!

Also, if you know somebody who you think would enjoy racing little cars with us, please invite them along. We always need new drivers to join the group and it’ll benefit all of us when we have a large enough “club” to always have more than enough racers to support our events.

Remember: SR3 is six-lanes! That means we’ll need at least eight (8) participants to have any hope of full utility of the track and enough turn marshals.  Yea, we can run just four lanes, but that’s not cool!

Okay, shut up and drive!

With All The Recent Rainfall, SR3 Is Moving Right Along

With plenty of other tasks to do the rains have been keeping me indoors. When that happens, I usually play with slot car stuff or hack on computer stuff.  This week has been all SR3 construction.

With the table completed, I started laying down the track and completed the oval course placement. Once you get that set, you can go ahead and lay down the road course pieces. While I didn’t achieve perfection with the oval pieces fitting together perfectly, it was good enough. So I decided to keep going and get the road course pieces fastened to the table.

It’s quite an interesting operation if you’ve not done it

before. Brad Bowman’s tracks are tongue and groove, which is really cool. However, you still have to fit the pieces together very precisely. Like a plastic sectional track, you don’t fasten any pieces until you’ve put it all together and made sure everything lines up–end-to-end.

In the case of a convertible oval-to-road course track, you have to get the oval layout dialed first. Then you have a fixed starting point for the rest of the puzzle. I didn’t get the oval to align together perfectly but it was extremely close and I didn’t have time to start over and get it perfect. These shots show the track in various stages of placement completion and the complete placement of the entire course.

The next steps are to set the banking angles of the oval and elevate the overpass section. I may also elevate or bank other sections of the road course as I evaluate the course complexity and funness.

Gary Fast Body On A Jag Hobbies PR-5 Chassis

Just ordered a couple of these 2010 Dallara kits.

Gary has been casting resin bodies for the MegaG/G+ 1.7 chassis’ for quite a while.

Actually pretty fair prices. The only possible downside might be the “glue-on” rear wing. The 2010 Dallara comes as a 5-piece kit. 1-main body, 1-rear wing, 1-driver figure, 2-glue in mounts. Like all resin bodies, minor sanding may be needed to fit how you want it to.

Cost is currently $12 + $6 shipping. He’s casting some of these right now so could get a couple before the next race.  The usual smoothing and assembly required but most reviews of these bodies are very good.

He claims they’re pretty tough, I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

Here’s where I found him on FascistBook. I reached him via FB Messenger from this page, quick reply.

2022 Formula-E Series, Round 1 Detailed Results Posted

For the more analytical types out there the detailed race results can be found here.

The page listing is a bit whacked but the latest results are at the top. The first race was numbered 393 and the last race was number 403.  For other results just look at the filename dates, time, and numbering sequence.

Detailed results can show some interesting things. For example, G-Man had a horrible second segment in the Viper V-Spec race in the yellow lane (filename 396),  losing what looks like at least eight laps, which resulted in him finishing in 5th place. However, when you look at the final segment results, Kondrek’s race stats are tops in every category.

Tip: If your car doesn’t start refueling after a couple of seconds, go around again. It’s not very common but sometimes the pit sensors don’t detect a car entering the pits.  Typically the sense time is 2-seconds, in a V-Spec race that’s about a half-lap lost right there.