CT24 hour race at Area 51

[nhdungeonracer]

Again, apologies for the lack of updates throughout the race. As been said, the racing was close in many of the heat races. After the first 4 hours, Team Can(less)am, was only 4' behind the Shoreline team. From that point on, Shoreline did begin to open it up gradually and pull away for the win.

In case anyone is wondering what Can(less)am means, well, here goes...
At one point, we were the CanAm team, because we had members from GA, NH and Montreal (Canada-America mix). When one of the members of the Quebec team became unable to make the trip, they took on a member from MI that wanted to go, but didn't have a team to be on. Then the Quebec team, wanting to keep it an all Canadien team, offered to trade their US member for our Montreal member. The trade was made, and team CanAm lost it's "Can" member, making us unofficially the Can(less)am team, which became official once the race began. Yeah, weird, but true... :lol:

Overall, the event went very, very well. As Smokeio mentioned, guys pretty much stayed around and helped keep the event going smoothly. Marshall's were always present, and while sometimes there were moments of "excitement"', it was often hilarious afterwards. It truly was a memorable event. A big thanks to the Sawtelle family for having 25+ guys over to race toy cars. :banana-dance:

[HomeRacingWorld]

Cool story. Only you guys could do it :)

Great race too, wish I was closer.

[SlotCarCorner]

To all of the participants, thank you for giving up a long weekend to participate. We had a great bunch of racers from Georgia (greater Atlanta area), Michigan (greater Detroit area), Montreal, Quebec City, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut. While this was a competitive event in the sense we were tracking laps and lap times, the general atmosphere was relaxed. For many of the racers, this was a great opportunity to put some names with faces, catch up with old friends and make some new ones. While there was only one first place trophy for the actual race, everyone who participated was a winner - it is events like this that help grow and promote our great hobby.

As Dickie mentioned earlier, once the actual race starts, things get pretty hectic. At any given time, 3 members of each team are 100% focused on the race (driver, marshal and mechanic). The other 2-3 members are generally eating, sleeping or watching the racing unfold. The racing was very close - it was not unusual to see 3 or 4 teams finish within a lap or two after 300 laps of racing in a given heat. As a result, we didn't have an opportunity to post as many race updates as we would have liked. Give us a day or two and I'm sure there will be more pictures posted.

For those of you wondering from afar what it's like to participate in an event like this, you'll never know if you don't give it a try! This type of racing isn't for everyone but it's a great way to improve your car building skills, become a better racer and most importantly, meet other slot car racers who share your enthusiasm for this great hobby. I would encourage local clubs try an endurance race - maybe some 4-8 hours long for starters. If you decide it's your cup of tea, you can schedule longer events.

My personal favorite part of this event was the night time racing segment. It is really, really cool to watch the headlights and tail lights as the cars go around the track. Since it was very, very dark during this segment - you'd swear it would be a crash fest but there were probably less off's and crashes than the daytime (lights on) segments. Lap times don't drop off much either - maybe a tenth or two for most racers.

Again, thank you everyone for the opportunity to host this event - my family enjoyed opening our home to such a wonderful group of people.

:)

[SlotCarCorner]

A few pictures:

Friday was an all-day practice/tuning session for teams. On Friday night, we had a pasta dinner to fatten everyone up before the actual race. Here Jason (left) and Bob are battling each other for some meatballs. The wine bottles in the background are just prop's...



The first heat (of 30...) in the actual race shortly after the race began. From left to right:
Team Quebec - Red Lane - Georges
Team Can(less)Am - White Lane - Dickie
Team CT - Blue Lane - Peter
Team Clover Leaf Racing - Yellow Lane - Craig
Team Shoreline - Black Lane - Bob



Marshals and Mechanics. From Left to right - Christian (legs crossed) - marshal, Matt (yellow shirt) - spectator, Rob (mechanic), Georges (mechanic), Craig (mechanic), Bob M. (mechanic), Bob B. (mechanic). Each team was assigned a designated marshal station - if the team's marshal was not at the station when a heat began, their driver could not move the car until the marshal was in place. Each team was also required to have a mechanic in the pit area. A given team member could not do double-duty in a given heat (i.e. they could not be a marshal and mechanic at the same time).



A view of Area 51 Raceway from just behind the Pit Area.



Each team had a schedule for the entire event - for any given heat, the schedule showed who was driving, marshaling, and in the pits (mechanic). Team members not assigned a duty during a given heat could spectate, eat, sleep, etc.. Here Pascal is checking his team's schedule.



Here's a shot of the general team pit area - with as many as 25 racers in the basement at one time, we made good use of all available space.



As the race progressed, this was an increasingly common sight. While there was a room upstairs filled with cots, air mattresses and the like, many racers would just take short "cat naps" whenever they could sneak one in.



Quite a few participants had cameras so I'm sure more pictures will be posted.

:)

[redlynr]

Details on winning car? Or all of the cars??

[nhdungeonracer]

[ElSecundo]

[cgingras]

The complete results are here:



It was a fantastic race to be in. The racing was fast and very close all throughout the event. It was so close our team occupied every position (except 5th) in the standings at one time or the other during the 24-hour race. Sometimes, we had 2, 3 or even 4 racers on the same laps for more than 30 minutes at a time. A lot of my racing stints with Mike from Clover Leaf were epic, being so close on two adjacent lanes. And I know a lot of other racers also had many great battles on the track.

But most of all, everyone that was there was fun to be with. The atmosphere around the track was the best I've seen in a long long time during a race. The pit stop area was busy with discussions and trash talk and laughter could be heard everywhere.

Steve and his family were exceptional hosts. The food was great and plentiful, the track is the reference in basement slot car racing and everything ran smoothly and perfectly. Perfect race!

A 24-hour race is not easy, really not. But it's a wonderful achievement for all of those who make it to the end. And it's the best learning experience you can have if you want to get better at slot racing. After all those years, we still learn a lot at each race. And I can still say that even if it was my 7th 24-hour enduro, along with an 18-hour and countless 12-hour races.

[cgingras]

You will find here on my Flickr account 70 pictures I took during this fantastic race last weekend. It was GREAT to see you all. What a wonderful time we had!



Some of them:

[mether05]

WOW, where to begin. thanks Steve for hosting this amazing event! Thanks to your family too, lots of guys hanging around going in and out of your house etc... Food was great and just kept coming :text-thankyouyellow: Special thank you to Tommy too, he was busy all through the event keeping things running smoothly and he wasn't even racing! :music-rockout:

Thanks to the other coordinators too, Dickie and Mike, so much background work goes into these events.

Thanks to Team CT captain, doubl-b, who built and tested our car and put a lot of time into this. and to the rest of the team, great job guys (Team CT), first time for most of them.

Good to see everyone again too, some were old friends, and some were guys from the forum that I put faces to. Incredible that guys will travel from Quebec, Georgia and Michigan to race these little cars! Wish I had more time to touch base and meet the racers, but come Saturday everyone had their game faces on, strategies being devised etc... the pace of the race kept everyone on their toes, always some place to be. I'm sure in coming days many stories will surface, it's quite an experience.

Congratulations to all the teams, although I think everyone's a winner just by completing something like this! Not to take anything from the winning team(s), they raced hard and after 24 hours came out on top.

Good bunch of guys! All last night I kept seeing Smokeio's car speeding by me, lap, after lap, after ... :auto-driving:

(This post is a few days old, was having account problems)

[Almafan 55]

First I would like to thank Steve & his family for a 1st class event!!! :text-thankyouyellow: 4 teams finished within 200 laps over 24 hrs. WOW. There was some of the closest racing! Real get down dog fights for 48 mins. I had a total blast. Racing was fun but the friendship,joking,laughing was the best part! For those of you who have never raced in a event like this, your missing out big time.Thanks to the Michigan guys for the fun travel time.Congrads to the Shoreline team on their victory! :clap: We had the FASTEST & BEST car,but as we know the fastest car doesn't always win. Thanks to Dickie & Bob for putting our car together.dont worry team Cam( less) Am will be back to race again!