TSRF 1/24 Scale races, September 3, 2005

Buena Park, CA

Sterrett again but barely.

The race for 1/24 scale TSRF cars was again run on the King track as the Hillclimb is not back in service yet after the Wing-Car Nats. Again, horsepower made some difference but new setup on both Mike Steube and Philippe de Lespinay's BMWs made them handle better than they previously were. Philippe geared his motor taller than everyone and had top speed on everybody, which did not hurt his quest for a win.

Indeed, if Mike ran in a bit of trouble and was 10 laps in arrears at the end, Philippe hounded Paul after an awful first heat when he got knocked by another car early in the first minute, sitting out 7 laps. At the end, he was only 3 laps behind Paul, and anyone who knows how competitive these races are can figure out how difficult it is to "come back" from an off-track excursion. Paul had no problems as usual with his well-prepped but utterly stock car, and just drove away.

Sam Brown drove a consistent race in 3rd place, while Mike Steube finished in the same lap after setting the fastest lap so far on the King for a TSRF car at 6.589". It is interesting to note that this time would have been a world record in early 1968, when the cars already had tiny wheels and were powered by 25-single wound arms with ARCO White Dot ceramic magnet. It shows that modern exact-scale cars with the correct tall tires, powered by $9.00 toy motors with none of the exotic performance of the aforementioned, can plain out-handle the professionally built racing cars of the time fitted with chopped semi-scale bodies and aerodynamic down force-generating spoilers.

Paul Sterrett's immaculate Porsche 956 is utterly stock but totally blueprinted. That plus excellent and consistent driving have made Paul the King of TSRF.

Paul uses early TSRF production harder braid on his car. Apparently, he has never changed it so far after many races.

Scott Jarrett ran very competitive times but had an electrical contact problem that he had to resolve during the race, costing him precious laps. Gil Gundersen also had a similar problem with an otherwise very competitive car: his motor un-hooked itself from its negative contact rail. We strongly recommend to form the negative terminal on the motor with a 90-degree bend to wrap around the rail, which eliminates such a problem.

Newcomer Scott Bader did quite well with a car in need of top speed, a previous winning machine on the Hillclimb. Paul Wilde ran into driving problems and was on the side lines waiting for the re-slot quite often.

		Ron Kiyomura ran an injected Dodge Intrepid and did quite well with the new car. In Ron's' own words:   "During the TSRF race, I ran a hard-body Revell-Monogram Cheerios Dodge Intrepid body. Since this was a new car, I was sorting out teething problems and lost the car several times in the donut of the King track.  My car would de-slot, become a rider and ultimately crash onto the floor.  This resulted in the body detaching from the chassis twice.  To add insult to injury, the body later detached itself again in a spectacular fashion down the straightaway.   So, I ended running at best 4 1/2 heats of the race. I used the balance of the running time making temporary repairs to reattach the body to my racer.  I have since made drastic revisions to the way I mount the body to my TSRF chassis. During the Hard-body Sportsman race, Philippe ran an exceptional race as documented using a Revell-Monogram Ford Taurus body adorned in Matt Kenseth livery."

Main event results:
 

After the TSRF race, Philippe entered a TSRF NASCAR stock chassis fitted with a 1/24 heavyweight Dodge Intrepid in the Hard-body Sportsman race. Against the hand-built brass chassis fitted with Mabuchi FT36 motors in various stages of tune, some with newly-wound armatures and ARCO magnets, the TSRF car did well indeed and with 175 laps, ended in third place only 1 lap out of second place and 7 out of first, proving once again the versatility of the TSRF concept.

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