I've sent Bruce my address and the cars are on their way to Atlanta. I will handle qualifying once they arrive and I've lined up a stellar group of drivers for race day.
First up is track designer, Jim "Zoom Beedo" Basels, 2007 member of team USA at the Ninco Nationals, Jon "low tech" Grizzle, (only missed it this year due to mechanical failure), 2006 & 2007 member of team USA at the Ninco Nationals, George "SouthernSloter" Bagley, and last but not least, 2007 & 2008 member of team USA at the Ninco Nationals, Mark Azarraga. No wonder I'm bringing up the rear every week racing against these guys!
I'll keep you posted once I firm up the schedule with the racers.
In case you've forgotten, we'll be racing at beautiful Grand Loop Raceway Park, a painted, 4 lane, 50 ft. Ninco track.
Jay - The cars are on the way to you via Priority Mail...should be there for a weekend test session. I think you'll find them just right for your layout as to speed.
I have tried my cars on a Ninco track and they ran very well. Now a painted Ninco track with the possibility of having rubber imbedded in the groove wil most likely be a completeley differant scenario.
He does have a stellar group of drivers lined up. I am looking forward to seeing how this all plays out....
Quote:
Originally Posted by Robert Livingston
Boy, am I curious to see how the cars do on Ninco.
The cars have arrived safe and sound and while I've been busy, I have had a chance to run about half the field. For the time being, urethane is king. I'm sure that will change as I run practice laps leading up to qualifying and the silicone tires get a chance to clean up any laid down rubber.
I'm going to try and run qualifying this weekend and hopefully have some video to go with it if I can make it work. The cars look great on track and I really appreciate the opportunity to host. I'll post some photos later this week.
I've created a spreadsheet for qualifying with updated standings through Round 4 at Da Vols based on a post where it appears that points are awarded 20 - 1st, 18 - 2nd, 16 - 3rd, 15 - 4th, and decrease by a point from here on down to one point. If this is incorrect please let me know.
For the time being, urethane is king. I'm sure that will change as I run practice laps leading up to qualifying and the silicone tires get a chance to clean up any laid down rubber.
Easy solution - no more practice!
And run the silicon tire cars after the urethanes, please.
next question. some confering in the background, mumbling in british and american hardly audible.
er no we can't change things to favour silicones all the time.
er no fairs fair, Gascarnut does have a point and all cars need five minutes in the sun during the twighlight of their lives. I mean look at present day historic racing people put modern compound tyres on the car and they are going faster than ever, really defeating the object of historic racing.
Chair Next motion
Ban silicon tyres(aghast back to confering) well I will put it to the vote, yes appearence is an issue, the cars are faster but they look all wrong, I know well we will put it to the committee for 2009. mumble , mumble over a pint or two, thats avoiding the issue...grhhhh locking the barn door after the horse has bolted...
I hope we can get better looking tires on these cars next year. The problem is not the material, it is the shape. The Super Tires look awful. I chose them for my car to go faster, not to look good. I also think we went too wide, by 1 or 2 mm or so.
I also agree that a brief moment in the sun for the urethane tires is appropriate. It will shake up the order; it will also be interesting to see if the sillie-tired cars retain their places, relative to each other.
Remember, F1 is supposed to be a research tool to help us build better and faster GT cars tomorrow.
Just my single thought - why not a "spec rear wheel/tire"...??? Perhaps a YellowDog SuperTire which has been said to work well on varied track surfaces and a set screw wheel (BWA or ?).
At least there'd be a consistency in "appearance" rather than the wide variance in sizes now...???
Well, the Super Tires are just plain (fast) but ugly, Yellow Dogs are the same coming out of the cheap molds (look like slices off a garden hose to me, Yet are much easier to sand and re-contour.
Hard call to limit tires to one brand though. I like Tru-Grips as well as the Yellow Dogs & they are a buck cheaper per tire. Hard to ban something like Indy Grips, as well, which, I believe, are a silicone/rubber blend. Set screw wheels would be nice, but once again, I can't see limiting manufacturers. Might as well limit to one body style and material, one gear ratio, specified mag & weight placement, and turn the whole thing into a COT series. We wouldn't even have to ship cars back & forth, because they would all run the same.
Dennis, did you use Ortmann repros of Monogram F1 tires on your car (#7)? They look good to me. The Ortmann-Monograms I have here are 7mm wide across the contact patch, and 9mm over the sidewalls. I think that should be the maximum size next year.
I agree as well on the tire width. As I was pulling some of the cars out of the boxes, I thought, what wide tires some of these cars have. Then I pulled my own car out and I thought, what wide tires this car has. 7mm looks to be a good scale width. I also think we should leave the tire & wheel choice open as long as it falls within the proper width. I like the idea of being able to try different compounds. With the different surfaces that we are running on it certainly makes for a more interesting series.
As far as Round 5 goes, in early testing of the cars, it looks like Ninco may be an equalizer when it comes to tires. At this point I would compare it to a Grand Prix race in the rain. You just never know what to expect. We'll see if it plays out this way.
I should be able to run qualifying this weekend and it looks like we'll race either next Thursday the 6th, or Tuesday the 11th.
Should there also be a minimum tire height/diameter too and perhaps a little narrowing of the overall tire track width to get things more in scale...???
Round 5 at Grand Loop Raceway Park
Linear Mode
