TSRF 1/24 Scale races, October 22, 2006

Buena Park, CA

12th So-Cal Championship Race

Report by John Kallas, photos by Stacy.

Sterrett's lightweight wins after De Lespinay, Steube falter.

The 12th TSRF So-Cal Championship Race was for 1/24 scale NASCAR machines. John Kallas drove his first race in TSRF class there, and I will let him describe the race:

"Today's race was really fun! I highly recommend to anyone who has not yet raced one of these hard-body NASCAR's, to do so at their earliest chance, as we all had such a blast racing them. They are able to rub fenders while racing, just like their 1:1 counterparts. They are reasonably inexpensive to build and run, and to keep things as even as possible, the motors are handed out before the race.

Here are a few pictures of the race today:

Several of the cars before the race.

Racing the lead onto the main straight.

A beautiful # 17:

Keith Tanaka's gorgeous Dale Jr. Car getting ready to pass one of two # 17's in the event.

Mike Steube drove this white Jeff Gordon car, but unfortunately, it was the first TSRF car to ever have a motor problem.

Philippe loaned this nice and great handling # 20 car to Jeff Bell who drove it quite well.

John Sinz's awesome # 99.

Paul Sterrett's beauty, the # 75 Pet Dairy car with Casper the friendly ghost driving...  Casper drove extremely well!

Three racers, yours truly, Mike Steube. and Philippe (many people don't realize that Philippe is taller than Conan O'Brien.

A few shots of my Mark Martin-mobile.

Here with John Clayton's car.

Jeff Bell nailing the throttle on the # 20 in the bank:

This photo is of the three racers that made the podium, and coincidentally, in the order they finished, left to right- Paul Sterret (1st), Philippe (2nd), and Me (John Kallas) (3rd):

The computer shows the results.

Regards,

John Kallas"

Thanks John for this great report and pictures by Stacy. Yes, it was great fun indeed, we all had a great time. We experienced some weird and unusual track problems, with the red lane stubbornly refusing to work as well as the C&B program, so this race was run as a standard marshaled race on 7 segments.

Both John and Keith had a great race, Keith Tanaka slowly re-learning his past skills with a very competitive and great-handling car, John Kallas driving brilliantly and conservatively in his first TSRF race. Paul Sterrett won with his usual smooth and efficient great drive, but poor Mike Steube experienced the very first EVER failure of a TSRF motor in a TSRF race, losing him any chance to win with a very competitive car. Poor Mike was a bit bummed out after this one.
These motors are the same from the beginning of the year, so some maybe a bit tired by now. Also these cars weigh between 200 and 250 grams, lots of weight to carry around with those inexpensive little motors . . . Of course there will a new batch of motors for next season.

John Sinz was also unlucky, his car losing electrical power after a good wall blasting that popped the motor out of its cradle, the car subsequently refusing to move, probably due to a bad lead-wire contact. He was able to fix it but lost lots of time.

John Clayton did well in his first race, nursing the unfamiliar bulky machine around.

De Lespinay looked like a possible winner, keeping the best average until the 6th heat with what was clearly the fastest car there, handling sweetly after last-minute, uh, lead adjustment (read, adding another 20 grams of the lethal substance) was performed. But at the beginning of that heat, the Evil Dokk mis-connected his controller to the panel and the two subsequent wacks before Mike Steube figured it out for him (Philippe is very confused at his age and needs all the help he can get) deranged the handling and affected the motor that also died with one lap to go. The car crawled in the last two heats, allowing Paul to take over and distance himself.
All in all it was a lot of fun! John Kallas won Concours over John Sinz after the points from 3 judges had been added.
Jeff Bell did a heck of a job for his first TSRF race with Philippe's back-up Chevy, ending in 4th place after a spirited drive.
These cars really teach you how to drive, but are really sweet and quite fast considering their bulk. Just like the real thing!
Philippe has been considering introducing a TSRF 1/32 scale NASCAR class mix into next year's classes, since the Scalextric bodies are easily available. He built a prototype and it did handle quite well.

 

Results:

*  Fastest lap

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