SPX 2014 Results and Scoring

[retro racer 44]

The first session of the 2014 SPR took place this morning at Luf's in Burnaby, BC.

Dan and I took pictures of the cars on the hill-climb and then he took the HP cars and did the climb, while I qualified the SPX cars on the Targa. When we finished we switched cars but continued the plan, thereby making it even for all cars.

I've been fighting with my computer for the last two hours to try to export the results from my spreadsheet to here, obviously without success.

So back to the old way.

SPX
Car Owner Qualifying time Position

8 VTECHFOUR 9.43 4th
44 Retro Racer 44 9.36 3rd
63 BRAIN 9.44 5th
39 JT Previa 8.98 1st
13 MNewns 10.64 8th
77 PhilKalbfell 9.57 7th
9 CharlesX 9.33 2nd
71 Black3sr 9.54 6th

HP
23 Alexis in Greece 10.16 5th
98 JT Previa 10.47 8th
7 Doubl-B 9.68 1st
45 Retro Racer 44 10.06 3rd
33 MNewns 12.49 10th
17 PhilKalbfell 9.86 2nd
5 CharlesX 10.31 7th
15 Mether05 10.10 4th
71 Black3sr 10.85 9th
27 Pete Shepherd 10.22 6th

Well, the program mushed everything together instead of nice neat columns, but I hope you get the idea.

I will post the Hill-climb result next and also the tech comments.

[retro racer 44]

The Burnaby Grind Hill-Climb Results

Dan ran the cars up the hill-climb. He gave the car a practice run to familiarize himself with it, then ran five timed runs. The slowest time was discarded for a total score of four runs. Points were awarded in the usual way.

Ok here it goes again the hard way.

Owner-Total time-Position-Scoring points

SPX

VTECHFOUR - 89.45 - 6th - 3
Retro Racer 44 - 86.31 - 5th - 4
Brain - 83.35 - 2nd - 9
JT Previa - 82.80 - 1st - 8
MNewns - 107.04 - 8th - 1
PhilKalbfell - 98.41 - 7th - 2
CharlesX - 83.56 - 3rd - 6
Black3sr - 85.22 - 4th - 5

HP

Alexis in Greece - 95.40 - 6th - 5
JT Previa - 99.77 - 8th - 3
Doubl-B - 86.94 - 1st - 10
Retro Racer 44 - 89.19 - 2nd - 9
Mnewns - 112.04 - 10th - 1
PhilKalbfell - 89.35 - 3rd - 8
Mether05 - 90.50 - 5th - 6
CharlesX - 90.40 - 4th - 7
Black3sr - 107.11 - 9th - 2
Pete Shepherd - 95.64 - 7th - 4
Please Note- The HP positions are now official
Car notes to follow,

[retro racer 44]

Car notes and Driver Impressions

After we had completed both events, Dan gave each car a few laps on the Targa, and together we came to the following impressions.

First let me say that as a group we have really stepped up a notch from last year. The quality of builds is excellent and innovative, and most of the cars used scratch-built chassis.

Technical-

So far the only problems we have found were tires on two cars and loose body mounts on two cars.

Mike- both of your cars hop and bounce going along the track. It feels as though the tires are out of round. They work well at low speed and have good traction, but the cars hop around on the track when pushed harder. Dan has them now and will see if he can fix them.

Black3sr- both of you cars had issues with the rear body post coming loose from the body. The glue you used did not bond to the resin surface. I repaired one with Goop and it is holding fine now. The HP had two problems. The post came loose as we were running it today, plus the front wheels were rubbing the body. I put a small washer below the front body post and taped the body on with a bit of masking tape for now, and it worked fine. We will Goop on the body post there also before the Targa race.

SPX

Car 39- smooth, very fast, hugs the track and loves the sweeping turns.
Car 9- well planted and handles well, very easy to drive.
Car 44- smooth, solid, easy to drive.
Car 8- smooth, handles well, hard to see on grey track, a "Stealth Sprite"?
Car 63- very smooth good handling car, lacks a bit of top end speed.
Car 71- smooth and very fast, tips out on corners if you are not careful.
Car 77- smooth and very drivable, lacks some top end speed.
Car 13- very fast, but needs tire truing to allow its speed to be used, very bouncy.

HP

Car 7- very smooth and fast, hugs track, handles well.
Car 17- smooth, easy to drive.
Car 45- smooth, solid, easy to drive.
Car 15- very quiet and smooth, easy to drive.
Car 23- smooth, quiet, easy to drive.
Car 5- lots of acceleration from a small motor, easy to drive but lacks top end. Perhaps a different gear?
Car 98- smooth, quiet, easy to drive, lacks some top end speed.
Car 71- smooth but lifts inside wheels on fast corners. Could use a bit more weight.
Car 33- Same tire issues as SPX, also very little chassis clearance. More speed than can be used.
Car 27- very smooth and quiet, handles really well, lacks a bit of top end speed.

Thanks for letting us play with your cars, more to follow. Next race, the Targa Burnaby, will happen next week-end.

[JT Previa]

Woah! You folks don't mess around! No sooner do most of the cars arrive, and bam - racing action!

Glad to see some new names and cars on the leader board - that's you CharlesX and Phil K!. Looks like DoublB is the man to beat in HP so far, with Retro and Phil in a close pack behind, swapping second and third on hillclimb and Targa.

Some guy named JT did well in SPX hillclimb (thank you! ) with Brain's formerly out-of-control 4 wd monster converted to a pod-tastic 2wd second place winner! CharlesX only 21/1000 of a second behind Brain in his new entry - nice job!

Over in SPX Targa its JT again, the only car to crack the 9 second barrier, with CharlesX up into second ahead of local hero Retro Racer.

Thanks to Dan and Retro for wrestling with the numbers and of course to Luf for sharing his legendary tracks!

JT

[charlesx]

Hi JT and all.

Great start to what is looking like an interesting event. Have to admit I am surprised at both my cars as I was expecting to struggle. Clearly though I have selected the wrong gear for my HP so the longer/faster tracks may be a problem. More than happy with a 3rd and 4th place for the first hill climb round.

Congrats to organizers and my fellow competitors and all the best for the rest of the proxy.

Big thanks to Luff for the use of his tracks.

Regards

Chas Le Breton (Charlesx)

[retro racer 44]

Fastest Run

I forgot to include the fastest run times for the Hill-climb competition.

These are for bragging rights only as no bonus points are awarded for fastest lap.

The fastest lap in HP was run by Doubl-B's car at 21.52 seconds. All four of Doubl-B's counting runs were faster than anyone else, so I guess he owns the podium. Phil's car was the best of the rest at 22.14 with Mether 1/100th behind at 22.15 and Retro one more hundredth behind at 22.16. Although Doubl-B was clearly the HP King of the Hill, you can see how tight the competition was right behind.

The fastest lap in SPX was JT Previa's car at 20.46, with BRAIN's car close behind at 20.70. and Charlesx close behind at 20.84.

The track record is somewhere in the 19 second range, so these little Sprites made a good showing on the hill.

The runs by most of the cars in both classes were in the low 20s.

[retro racer 44]

That didn't work. See next post for spreadsheet.

[retro racer 44]

Sprite Result Spreadsheet

Sprite Results spreadsheet is attached. This will be updated after each race.

[charlesx]

That is great Retro Racer 44. Can you perhaps sort on points column then you will have cars in order.

Better still a total column so we can track progress as you add the other rounds.

Regards

Chas Le Breton

[retro racer 44]

Learning Curve

Hi Chas;

I'm a neophyte when it comes to doing anything with spreadsheets. My attempts at "sort" were unsuccessful as it only sorted the one column. The totals are in the part of the sheet that shows on the second page. I would have liked it all on one page, but I haven't figured that out yet. One of my daughters helped me through attaching it to my post. I will get my other daughter or one of my sons to help me clean it up. They are all better at computers than I am. I have already added a bit more space to each column and added names at the end as well so you can follow whose total score it is. I'll wait until after Saturday's Targa race before I post up the newer version.

I tend to take on these kind of jobs as a learning experience, so bear with me, I'll get it right eventually.

[charlesx]

Hi Retro Racer 44.

Practice makes perfect. Get one of the kids to show you how to reduce size of borders and reduce the font size for the top row at least and you might get it all in one page.

Alternatively you might just be able to select "fit to page" and achieve the same.

Regards

Chas Le Breton

[retro racer 44]

Update News

The points for the hill-climb are now official. The qualifying time for Pete has been added, and comments added about his car. Since Pete's total on the hill was mid-pack, the slower drivers' position and points have been changed. See posts 1,2 and 3 above for changes and additions.

Dan now has Pete's car and will add his pics to the file.

The Targa Burnaby goes tomorrow morning with Dan, Alwyn and Don C. doing the driving, Luf taking the videos and I will handle the logistics.

Watch for results tomorrow afternoon or evening.

The Laguna Douga will be held on Thursday, with Dan, Don M, and Doug driving. We may only have static pics for this race as Luf may not be able to attend. Results will be posted Thursday evening or Friday. Stay tuned to Sprite TV.

[retro racer 44]

Targa News

We ran the Targa this morning and have the complete results for the HP class. In SPX we had a couple of mechanical breakdowns, loose pinions, that prevented these cars from competing. Dan has taken them home to work his magic, and then we will run time trials for them and complete the results. i have updated my spreadsheet, but will not post it until these are done, hopefully in the next couple of days.

In HP we had a great race with a three minute heat on each of three lanes. These heat numbers were added to give a lap total. Most laps wins.

The Podium

17 Phil Kalbfell - 60.1 - 1st
7 Doubl-B - 59.1 - 2nd
27 Pete Shepherd - 58.9 - 3rd

There was a tie for 4th

15 Mether05 - 57.9 - 4th
45 Retro Racer 44 - 57.9 - 4th

98 JT Previa - 57.25 - 6th
5 Charlesx - 56.75 - 7th
23 Alexis in Greece - 56.1 - 8th
71 Black3sr - 51.75 - 9th
33 MNewns - 46.55 - 10th

The fastest heat was Doubl-B with 20.65 laps in three minutes. That is an average of 8.72 per lap.
Phil was only 1/10th behind at 20.55 laps for an average of 8.76 per lap.

SPX Result

We ran the two repaired cars and the results of the Targa are now complete.

39 JT Previa - 65.00 - 1
9 Charlesx - 61.95 - 2
71 Brain - 60.25 - 3
44 Retro Racer 44 - 59.75 - 4
77 Phil Kalbfell - 59.50 - 5
8 Vtecfour - 59.20 - 6
71 Black3sr- 57.80 - 7
13 MNewns - 53.35 - 8

The three fastest heats were by JT's silver bullet that appears to be cleaning up in SPX class. They were 22.15, 21.9 and 20.95.

[JT Previa]

Congrats Phil, edging out DoublB for the win! Nice to see new arrival Pete S on the podium. Methe moves up, tying with Retro for 4th (Methe's car was the fastest HP sprite of all at his track last year - will it regain its speed?).



JT

[Phil Kalbfell]

Wow very surprised with that result, I did not think my HP was fast when it left here, but was comparing to the VRAA GP cars. Thanks for the great run. Looks like being an interesting proxy.