Saturday night racing action at Palmer Beach & The Sand Pit!

[TuscoTodd]

APalmer invited a group of us to his home yesterday for fun on his twin tracks - the Palmer Beach Raceway road course and The Sand Pit oval!

Last night's racing featured the first go around using the Race Coordinator Software's "Fuel Race" feature which required racers to monitor their fuel usage and stop under the lap counter to refuel! (the faster your lap - the more fuel you use!)
If you missed the lights and ran out, the system won't count your laps until you stop and refuel - making for some VERY entertaining racing!
:lol:

The racing started with fast and furious action on the newly commissioned bull ring - "The Sand Pit"!
(and yes - those are 6" inside corners! :o )




The first class to hit the track were "Friday Night" cars - which use a stock AutoWorld / Johnny Lightning chassis (with the button traction magnet removed) with double flange rear wheels and weighted front end added. They make for some good close racing and are a fun "driver's" car as you can steer with throttle! :D


The drivers and their cars were:
Our host APalmer and his fresh off the show room floor Yenko Nova:


Breadman and his silver Camaro:


Russell May and his green Challenger:


Steve Reed and his black Camaro:


Slot Therapist and his flamed Nova:


And me and my yellow Boss Mustang:



Pictures from the racing action!

























The new twist of having to consider fuel usage definitely added a WHOLE lot of fun to the action!

The parameters that were used for the race were:
- Max fuel burn set at track record lap time
- Fuel capacity 200 (twenty gallons)
- Fuel fill rate 20 per second (2 gallons per second)
- Delay before refuel starts - 2 seconds - to simulate pulling into the pits
- Fuel level maintained during lane rotation (meaning if you were at a 1/4 tank at the end of the 2-min run, you started the next lane with a 1/4 tank!)

With fast lap times that hovered near 2 seconds, having a 2 second delay before fueling and a max of ten seconds to go from Empty to Full made for some pretty excitable racing! :lol:
You could go from lead to last in short order depending on how you worked your pit schedule and whether you missed the pits, or failed to notice that you were running out of gas!
Everybody had an absolute blast with the format and I think that APalmer will be making it the "default" way to race from no on!


When the dust settled - the finishing order was as follows:


Talk about a heck of a fun way to kick things off!
:banana-dance:

[TuscoTodd]

The next class the hit the track were the Fairground cars!
These are based on stock Aurora Tjet chassis with double flange wheels (wide tires in the rear allowed - but not required).
Similar to the Friday night cars - this class is a WHOLE lot of fun!

The drivers and their cars were:
Our host APalmer and his freshly put together pink Riviera:


Breadman piloting a "rent a ride" blue #5 Riviera:


Russell May and his #115 Torino:


Steve Reed and his #121 Galaxy:


Slot Therapist and his #7 - '53 Chevy:


And yours truly running the white #29 Riviera:


Pictures from the racing action:





























Similar to the Friday Night class - these were an absolute hoot on the tight corners of The Sand Pit - with lots of bumping, banging and drifting going on all while trying to keep an eye on the ol' fuel gauge! :lol:

When the smoke cleared and the laps were tallied - the finishing order fell as:


Definitely good entertainment!
:auto-checkeredflag:

[TuscoTodd]

:)
After two rounds at "The Sand Pit" it was off to the "Palmer Beach Raceway" road course for some stock Tjet action!



The drivers and their cars were:
Our host APalmer and his green and gold Mercury Cougar:


Breadman and his silver Camaro:


Russell May running his orange Camaro:


Steve Reed and his Grand Sport Corvette:


Slot Therapist and black Camaro:


And me piloting my yellow Olds 442:



Pictures from the racing action!





















There was definitely some good tight racing in this class with third through sixth being separated by less than one full lap!
The finishing order finished out as:


:auto-checkeredflag:

[HomeRacingWorld]

Great report and equally great tracks. Love "The Sand Pit" but nice design on "The Beach".

[TuscoTodd]

:flags-waveusa:
After the fun of slip sliding around with the stock Tjets - it was on to the MagnaTraction / X-Traction class (with no button magnets)!

The drivers and their cars were:
Our host APalmer with the only drop top in the field - running his rag top white Challenger:


Breadman and his white and orange Camaro:


Steve Reed running his pink and black Chevelle:


Slot Therapist and his clean orange Daytona:


And me going old school with a grey and white '55 Chevy:



Pictures from the racing action!
(Steve trying to leave the track during practice)






















This was again another REALLY tight field of cars with less than one full lap separating the first four positions!
:banana-dance:

The finishing order shook out as follows:


Definitely a LOT of good close door to door fun!
:auto-checkeredflag:

[TuscoTodd]

:flags-waveusa:
The final class for the evening was Super Stock Tjets (FRAY type) based on Aurora / DASH chassis.

The drivers and their cars were:
Our host APalmer and his Pontiac GTO


Breadman and his green Camaro:


Russell May running his Sunoco Camaro:


Steve Reed and his green Acura:


Slot Therapist and his metallic orange Mercedes:


And me running my orange Camaro:



Pictures from the action on track!



















When the checkered flag dropped - the finishing order dropped as follows:


Definitely a great way to spend an afternoon! Good food, good friends and good racing!
:text-bravo:

[TuscoTodd]

[gonegonzo]

Nice report as usual Todd . Todd , I was hacked and my computer scrambled eliminating me from all my previous contacts . Much data was lost and stolen .

Please put me back on your list with and new e-mail for me as ( hotrod1336@yahoo.com) .

Thx , Todd

[Hangtime]

That looks like fun. Question though. How do you see the fuel level? Picture of the display would be nice. Thanks

[TuscoTodd]

Rick - if you are coming to Aronn's this next Saturday, you will get a chance to see it live. :D
(I will try to remember to take a picture to share here on the boards at the next race though)
But to answer your question - there is a large bar by each racer's name that shows the "fuel remaining" - turning yellow as it nears empty and red when you are about to run out (you also get audible warnings of "low fuel" as you hit the yellow zone)
The fuel burn rate is completely adjustable in regard to not only how fast it burns, the amount of fuel on board, etc - but also the manner in which it burns!
You can set it up as a straight linear line where the faster you go, the faster the fuel drops - but for a more realistic approach that mimics the drop in mileage associated with going faster you can choose on of the fuel "curves"! This allows the fuel burn to actually change with speed - so instead of a 20 second lap taking "1 gallon" and a 10 second lap taking "2 gallons", the curve options can turn it into a scenario of "1 gallon" for the 20 second lap - but "3 gallons" for the 10 second lap! (so if you are running low - but the end of the race is near, you can slow down to conserve fuel and potentially make it to the end without having to refuel)
It makes for a lot of fun! In fact everyone in our group that had a chance to race the fuel race format prefers it now!
:banana-dance: