Motor City Raceway Feb 5 2011

Well, another race has come and gone. Unfortunately for me, my day ended early, with a broken CVD before the first qualifier. Instead, I spent the day calling races, only taking a break to record the 2WD & 4WD A mains. The 2WD main was particularly good, with a very tight battle for the lead between Steve Bortolotti and Chet Kelsey the entire race.
2WD A main:


4WD A main:


I forgot to get the race PDFs off of the race computer, so results won't be posted until I can get my hands on them. Also, if anyone got any pics or vids of the onroad layout, let me know so I can post them here.

[/Tim Sanderson]

Motor City Raceway club race jan 22 2011

Yesterday was the 3rd installment/2nd club race at Motor City Raceway in Oshawa. Some changes were made to the track, like adding white pvc pipe for most of the track barriers. This system worked quite well, and the white is a great contrast to the dark carpet. I found I was able to cut very close to the inside corner when entering the sweeper, much faster due to the increased visibility of the corner. It also makes setting up the track much faster.
This one went much smoother than the first one, with no computer problems at all. I saw a lot of faces I haven't seen since either when FastCats closed, or during the Summer Depot series, like Super Pit co-founder Bill Jones, the Khan's, Stefan Kolody and the Kelsey's . Some of the on road guys came out too, like Chris Butao and fellow Team Five % member Joe Bielski.

I managed to qualify for the a-main, but just barely. I squeaked in last on the a-main grid. Like usual, my best qualifier by far was my 2nd one. (I forgot to take a picture of the results for that qualifier, but i feel like I should let it be known thatI actually beat Bill Jones for the first time ever !) I'm not even sure where I placed in the main, but it probably wasn't too far off from my qualifying position. Still, I'm always happy to make the show!

I recorded both the a and b mains for 2WD, but again, my camera crashed during the 4WD a-main. I think it's time to by a new camera. My Kodak Zi6 doesn't seem to be working too well these days. I researched the problem online, and it sounds like the crashing is a problem costs as much as a new camera to fix. Aside from that, I can't seem to get a sharp picture on it any more. The vids I've taken at MCR seem to be out of focus most of the time, and there is no way to manually focus or adjust the camera.

2WD b-main


2WD a-main (thanks to Joe for recording this as I raced)

I also recorded one of my qualifiers with my key chain camera. This time I tried mounting it on the nose, between the front shock tower.

It makes for a pretty cool perspective, almost like playing a video game. Unfortunately a little bit of fuzz got on the lens, so it's not as clear as it could of have been. The lens is only a millimeter or two across,so it doesn't take much to block the view.

[/Tim Sanderson]

Motor City Raceway race/news

There's less than one week until Oshawa's Motor City Raceway's 2nd club race. This is the message posted on MCR's forum:

Next Race Sat. Jan. 22nd:
Looking forward to seeing everyone again. Our software delay issues have been resolved, so we will be starting ON TIME and have everyone home in time for dinner.
Please register a few days ahead of time so we are able to get all the names in the system which helps make the day go smoother:
http://events.rcsignup.com/events/di...nt.cfm?ID=1762

I think I will only be running my RB5 in the Open 2WD for this one. It's all ready to go. I rebuilt the shocks, cleaned off all the carpet fuzz, and rewired the entire car. It's looking great! I'll post some pics of it soon.
______________________________________________________________________

Also announced, was the news that MCR plans on running offroad & onroad simultaneously in the near future! That's right, two tracks in on location. Other than FastCats, I'm not sure if any other track in the GTA (maybe even Ontario) has had both formats simultaneously in one location before. Here was the announcement posted on MCR's forum:

ANNOUNCEMENT....
Starting in the very near future, Motor City Raceway will be hosting on-road racing in addition to our off-road program. That's right - TWO tracks in one convenient location. More details to follow however, get your on-road cars dusted off and ready for some ozite-racing action at Motor City Raceway.
See you all at the races.

Apparently, the offroad track will remain the same size, (100'x40') and in the same gym as it's been in the past. The onroad track will be in the smaller gym, but still a great size at 80'x40'. The first few race days, onroad will just be run as open practice, until they can gauge the interest in the onroad crowd. Personally, I'm looking forward to running my Sprint2, hopefully there will be either a 17.5 or a 21.5 rubber TC class.

Motor City Raceway - Jan 8 2011

It was another great day at Motor City Raceway! Here are a few videos from Saturday's first official club race. I managed to get the 2WD and Short Course A mains, but unfortunately my camera messed up during the 4WD A-main.




I attached my keychain camera to the top of Tony Ayala's car for the 1/8 scale a-main:
The sound is pretty messed up for the first few seconds, but gets better.

[/Tim Sanderson]

Slash Carpet Bomber

A few days ago, I decided that seeing as I don't plan on running my ZX5 in Motor City Raceway's first official club race this weekend, (which I'm super looking forward to, btw!) I need something to run as my 2nd class.I decided I'd get my Traxxas Slash cleaned up, and ready for some rug runnin'.

Ordinarily, my Slash would only be run indoors, or a carpet track, but I took it out to a nearby outdoor track a few times in the summer. The dirt was still caked on it from sometime in July or August.

Other than cleaning it, I didn't make any changes to truck. It still has my FastCats carpet offroad setup on it. It's pretty basic,really. I put buggy shocks on all four corners to lower it stance by at least a few cm. When I set it up last year, I put on whatever shocks I had laying around... a set of Academy on the rear, and a set of Losi on the front. Heavy shock oil, (I think 45 or 50 wt.) and some stiff springs, makes it corner like a dream. Topped off with an LRP 8.5 and an LRP esc, it should have more than enough getupengo.

Once again saving the day, Joe Bielski will be bringing a set of brand new of stock Slash tires for me replace my very worn rubber with at Motor City. Seeing as there is no traction compound allowed in the gymnasium the track is set up in, the extra grip the new rubber will get me should help.

I was going to take it out for a test run tonight, but was worried it may be too wet. Maybe I'll try again tomorrow after work.

20-ELEVEN Race, Jan. 8th

This was taken from offroadrc:

MOTOR CITY RACEWAY, OSHAWA Registration: 20-ELEVEN Race, Sat. Jan. 8th Our first scheduled race date is booked for Saturday January 8th. Classes:** 1/10th 2WD Buggy 1/10th 4WD Buggy 1/10th 2WD Stadium Truck Short Course Truck 1/8th Buggy **7 Min. Mains for all classes Please make sure you enter in your Personal Transponder numbers in your profile - it will help speed things up on race day. Here is the link to sign up, payment is required on race day: http://events.rcsignup.com/events/di...nt.cfm?ID=1761 Looking forward to fun event!

So far, I am only signed up for 2WD. I haven't yet decided whether or not I am going to run my 4WD.
[/Tim Sanderson]

MCR Dec 18

Yesterday was the first Motor City Raceway practice day, and I have to say it was really fun!

The track is a good size, and was well run by the organizers. There is tons of pit space... a space almost big enough to have another track! We ran a few hours of controlled practice, and ended the day with a few heats of practice races. Because of the size and width of the track, it's possible to smoothly run ten (maybe even twelve) 1/10 buggies in a heat. There was no problem even running eight 1/8 scale buggies. At one point during practice, there was more than 10 1/8s on the track, running with very little difficulty. Here's the first of a few videos I'll upload of the days action:

To get a better look at the track, here are a couple of pics:

John Stewart mentioned he will be changing the landing on the table top jump to an 8 footer, about twice the length it was on Saturday. This will make overshooting the landing a little more difficult to do. The next meet will be in early January. I'm looking forward to it!
I'll post a little more on the day a bit later.
[/Tim Sanderson]

Motor City Raceway indoor offroad

Here's something many of us racers in the GTA are eagerly looking forward to. A new indoor carpet offroad track called Motor City Raceway will be setup weekly in an Oshawa gymnasium. Here's a video the organizers made during the setup test this weekend:

Is that a crash mat filling the gap of the table top? Total Euro-style!

Here's a wide angle pic taken from an offroadrc.ca thread:

It looks like the cat is out of the bag... The gymnasium is in the O'NEILL COLLEGIATE & VOCATIONAL INSTITUTE. 301 Simcoe Street North, Oshawa, ON L1G 4T2.

Although Oshawa is a bit of a haul from me here Mississauga, I'm still going to try to make it out there at least once or twice a month. (Hopefully more!) Thanks to the Hobby Show's racing last month, the dust has already been blown off of my RB5 & ZX5 . I'm ready as soon as Motor City is ready!
*EDIT* Word is the first day of practice will be on Dec 18th *EDIT*
For the latest info on the track, click on the Motor City Raceway link in "tsan like's" on the right side of the blog.
[/Tim Sanderson]