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 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]