FFW Round #12 - Pebblestone Model Car Circuit

[gascarnut]

A loud knock on our door this morning and a large box in the postman's arms signaled the arrival of the FFW Cars from New Zealand, now safely in sunny SoCal.

I have not opened the box yet so cannot comment on any possible transit damage, but from the outside the box looks good so I am hopeful that the cars are good too.

Right now, we have the NA Gp5 Prxy to run on December 17, then it's the Christmas weekend so I doubt we can fit in anything then. I will try for December 31 or perhaps actually on New Year's day, as that was popular last year with the guys here, we don't party as hard as we used to, so we are usually quite clear-headed on January 1!

I will be streaming the event on twitch.tv, details closer to the time.

Dennis

[Audi1]

OK! The cars are on the home stretch.

That timing sounds fine, Dennis.

Separately, good luck as the NSR Nationals in MI this week!

Allan

[gascarnut]

With the prospect of poor weather here in SoCal over the New Year weekend, I have decided to push Round 12 out to Saturday, January 7. I hope everyone is OK with that.

I did open up the box and take each car for a short run yesterday. Glad tidings - they all run well still, no apparent damage or tuning issues. I think it will be a tight and competitive race.

I will stream the event on https://www.twitch.tv/samsonclassics as usual. You can check out some previous events on this link if you like.

We will start the day with Qualifying at Noon PST, then take a short lunch break before starting the racing around 1:15 to 1:30pm PST.

Depending on the number of drivers attending on the day we will either run each car two minutes per lane twice, or just once per lane for 3 minute heats. We will split the cars ointo two groups by their qualifying times, so as to give the drivers a break, as running 25 heats straight through is a stretch for some of us "oldies"!

More later as we get closer. I will also try to find some little USA stickers to go along with the South African "ZA" and New Zealand stickers that are on the cars now.

[Audi1]

Thanks for the update, Dennis! Sounds good to me; looking forward to the quali and the race. Live streaming will be a real treat for the Ford vs. Ferrari Wars series!!

Allan

[gascarnut]

Well, here we are a day before the proposed date, and the weather report is not looking very promising. On my phone app, the chance of rain tomorrow is listed at 62%, but on my wife's phone app, it is 8%. I would like to believe her app more than mine!

So, we are planning and working as if we will run tomorrow, but may have to change those plans at the last minute. I am going to pre-qualify the cars today to save time tomorrow, and I am going to try to start the racing and the web stream at noon PST.

The link for the stream is: https://www.twitch.tv/samsonclassics

I will try to film the qualifying today and post it tonight as a video, but tomorrow's racing if it happens will be live.

Watch this space for more updates, and hold thumbs for us.

Dennis

[Audi1]

We'll keep our fingers crossed for the So-Cal weather god to smile upon your track. But, if it doesn't come off tomorrow, we'll still be around for a later race date. Looking forward to seeing these cars run again.

Allan

[gascarnut]

Well, the weather held out this afternoon for a round of qualifying. I did not have any help so no video , I'm afraid. Tomorrow is still on for streaming though.

This is how I went about the qualifying:

I loaded the car numbers into Trackmate and set up the new Qualifying option. If you use Trackmate and you have not downloaded the latest version with Qualifying, do yourself a favor and get it, it works really well.

I decided to set up a random quali order, and then for each car I ran about a minute without timing, to set my controller and get a feel for the car and its tires. Then I recleaned the tires, set the timer and ran a minute for fastest lap, using the track call button for any "offs'.

Here are the results:



In general the cars were good, some very quick, notably the opnes on rubber tires, although Chris seems to have a secret to his urethanes as the #241 car was very nice and grippy. Some of the rubber cars had so much forward bite that they were lifting the nose of the car out the slot on acceleration out of the tight turn under the bridge. You will see it tomorrow on the video, we had a similar occurrence with the Group 5 Proxy cars a few weeks back.

None of the cars suffered any major damage, Aloha's #19 Ford has lost both tailpipes they are in a packet with the car. the #87 Ferrari steering wheel was also lying in the bottom of the box, but that is back in place, and the #33 Ferrari lost its rear wing, also now back in place. Otherwise they are all working OK, just starting to show signs of the long distances they have covered.

So, congrats to the TQ, that car is very very nice, and to the other podiumites as well.

Hopefully tomorrow we can complete this round, watch this space.

Dennis

[gascarnut]

Unfortunately, the weather has taken a turn for the worse and we will not be able to race today. With other commitments next weekend, the race will have to be rescheduled to January 21st.

My apologies to all, if there is a need to expedite this round, I could run the cars on my own during the week, but I would prefer to wait until we can give the cars a full run with multiple drivers as usual.

Thanks for your understanding, this will be the first time in 8 years of racing in my patio that a race has had to be delayed twice for weather.

Dennis

[chappy]

Dennis it looks like you are in for some rough weather over the next while.
I am in no hurry so as far as i am concerned take your time, enjoy the proxy as was intended , and stay dry.
All the best
Bob

[Audi1]

Hi Dennis, The 21st will be fine for the race; no need to rush it.

Best,

Allan

[redlynr]

Dennis, thanks for the Q!

Still kicking myself for not coming to Cloverleaf for the NSR race to meet you personally...

Cheers

[Brumos RSR]

Thank you Dennis for the qualifying run. Sounds like the 33 might be faster with less downforce on the rear. Keep having fun guys, looks like it's going to be close between the top contenders.

[gascarnut]

To all entrants:

Despite miserable weather today, the forecast for tomorrow is optimistic, so I am going ahead with arrangements to run Round 12. This may change at the last minute if the weatehr does not do what it is told, but we hold out hope.

We will open at 11:00am PST for track prep and practice, and racing will start sharp at 1:00pm. The proceedings will be streamed on my Twitch.tv channel:

https://www.twitch.tv/samsonclassics

I will also try to update some results here as we go, but bear with me if that does not happen, there's a lot to organize.

See you all tomorrow hopefully!

Dennis

[gascarnut]

Finally!

The weather is clear, the racers are on their way and we are a GO for racing today.

I am going to try to start the racing a bit earlier than 1:00pm, so please try to tune in to the twitch feed around noon for the first rounds.

Depending on exactly how many guys turn up, we will run either two rounds of two-minute heats or one round of 3-minute heats, I prefer the former as that allows more guys to drive, but until everyone is here I am not sure which will work best.

Good luck to all!

Dennis

[Audi1]

:handgestures-thumbup: :handgestures-thumbup:

Allan