[Graham]

Many thanks to those who have already completed the form,

I have sent directly a PDF file of the Questionaire to David & Tony, and also put a link to it on the leading page for others suffering from "google docs" access issues.

[Graham]

Many thanks to all those who have replied so far, most were of course the current proxy participants.

There is a clear message that there is a desire for them to continue which is heartwarming, there is mixed feelings in regard to the structure and tech composition but there is also some clear messages.
Some very interesting ideas regards to themes or events, I think many of these can be incorporated into a future proxy. A few might be very difficult to accommodate, even if I personally like them.
At the end of the day they have to be topics where you stand a chance of fielding a reasonable number of cars. 

I will leave the questionnaire open for another few weeks, but I feel that by mid November I will need to start preparing something to launch in January.

But thank you all for you continued interest, whether your participating or just following.

[Graham]

 Good Morning

I am really very greatful to all those who participated in the questionnaire, in fact I had 15 replies, most of which are regular participants which is very good and shows that that there is a continued interest in running this form of Slot car activity. I think that the information I have needs careful analysis which I will set about doing, before we look at a possible theme. But with 15 responses, I doubt that any additional responses received would change the picture that has emerged so far.
So I can look at summerising the findings over the next week.

[Kevan]

I suspect the summary will make interesting reading.

[Graham]

Good afternoon,
whilst waiting for the next round of the current proxy, I spent a little time looking through the questionnaire answers 

Q1 How often would you prefer to enter my proxy series ?
ANS:12 said twice and 3 said once

Conclusion is that there is plenty of interest in these continuing, although perhaps as this year 1 and a half might be better for me.

Q2 What type of proxy structure do you prefer.
(a) a proxy with single event
(b) a proxy with two events
© a proxy with 3 events
ANS:
(a) 4, (b) 4, © 6

Conclusion is that there is mixed response, probably continue with 3 if appropriate for the theme, alternatively 2 for some and not likely to do single events (really just not my style)


Q3 Construction Classes
(a) Each Event seperated into 2 classes (eg Mod RTR & Procar)
(b) Open structure without construction classes for all Events
© Each event having one specific Class only
ANS:
(a) 6, (b) 4, © 5

Conclusion more entrants prefer to have Classes than not, personally I favour © going forward as we do tend to get some very low running numbers with an Event of 10 cars split into 2.

Q4 What Construction Type Events would you like included ?
(a) Modified Standard (Home brand modified)
(b) Procar (NSR, Slot it, Revoslot, Avant, Policar, SRC etc)
© An additional New scratchbuild class based on (George Turner or similar Resin or 3d printed kits)

ANS:
(a) 10, (b) 14, © 12

Conclusion I opened a can of worms here 
So what I see here is a desire to continue to include the Modified Std & Procars Classes, but perhaps surprisingly there is also a desire to have a new "Scratchbuild Class" 

So the question is going to be what would a Scratchbuild Class look like ???
In my opinion it should be class where the body and chassis "are assembled/decorated" Someone did ask the question as to whether this means B&W chassis only, but honestly I think this is beyond the scope for the majority of those who voted for the new class.So I would see it as a new Class of Resin bodied/3d printed decorated body cars with free choice of chassis construction, probably a limited motor choice for early generation 1950 or 1960 models ?

Thats about all I am going to say for now, as it needs some thinking about, especially in regard to the next choice of theme.

More later on the rest of the questionnaire answers

[Graham]

And so onto the rest of the questions:

Question 5
What style of proxy do you prefer ?
(a) Rally or Road race style (running time trials on single lane tracks)
(b) Championship Based (cars running in heats against each other)
© Both the above run Alternately
ANS:
(a) 1, (b) 6, © 5

Conclusion generally I think there are not too many "Rallyists" in our group of entrants, so probably a straight forward Rally theme is not so popular (it was not proposed in the final question). However there seems to be an appetite for the "Road races"  like the current Targa Florio proxy.
I have warmed to the idea of having more regular "Road Race" themes as we are doing now as it does allow more of the entrants with home based tracks to get involved, then when we just use club based tracks for Championship style proxies. And  it does offer a different type of proxy from the regular ones run by others.


Question 6
What type of chassis choice do you prefer using?
(a) RTR home brand
(b) 3d/Universal
© Premium RTR (NSR, Slot it, Thunder etc)
(d) PP
(e) Revoslot
(f) B&W Scratchbuild
ANS:
(a) 6, (b) 12, © 10, (d) 5, (e) 5, (f) 5

Conclusion  3d/universal and Premium RTR seem the most popular, the other types are spread across the entrant responses.It would make sense to try to keep each of the lower preference types competing in the same events, rather than spread across events.

Q7 Which motor choice would you prefer ?
(a) Mixed types for each event
(b) One type only (eg S-Can & slimline) for each event or entire proxy
ANS:
(a) Mixed =10
(b) One type only = 5

Conclusion I think whilst most seem to prefer mixed, I think there can be a bit of both across the the Events with perhaps mixed for one particular Event and a single choice for another depending on the theme.

Q8 Max Motor RPM
After the first 3 or 4 replies, I changed the choices a little, originally it was 18, 20 & 23K.
Later it was changed to 20, 23 & 25K
ANS: Most entrants choose the maximum rpm by preference.

Conclusion  basically entrants favour the highest rpm permitted. But I think everyone would  understand that it depends alot on the era of the cars being run, so I think some events could allow some 25k rpm motors in the right context but probably not an entire proxy.

Q9 What choice of tyres ?
(a) Open choice
(b) Control 
ANS:
(a) 9, (b) 5

Conclusion in general I think control tyres are  best in "driver" type live competitions, where the driver plays a significant part in the overall results. For a proxy of our type with different tracks, I think having choice adds to the character of the proxy, after all it is a builders competition so different tyre compounds influence the results quite significantly and its up to the builders to make the "right decisions"

Q10 Do you have any ideas for a different proxy structure or car class structure than offered above.
This was an open question, most of the entrants proposed proxy themes rather than offer anything different from the Questions listed earlier.

Q11 If this was to be the last series of "Triple Crown Proxies" what would be your favourite race car topics to be included.
 ANS:
Well lots of the regular ones of course, Historic  types like Le Mans, Group C, Gr5, Touring, Trans Am, Can Am etc
We did have a few asking for modern GT3, Hypercars and modern F1
And a few more than I expected for GP (Pre wing) cars 
And perhaps some more limited interest ones like trucks, Minis, etc although I do have a soft spot for Dakar Trucks 

Conclusions whatever we choose must have a wide appeal amoungst the group we have around us, topics like the modern racing cars I could see working with an event for each type perhaps. But historic still seems to have a wider appeal overall.

[Graham]

 Good Morning,

in recent weeks I have been encouraged by the idea of including a "Scratchbuild " proxy Event or even an entire scratchbuild proxy as a one off.  The notion seemed popular on my questionnaire and having also aired the idea on a "Scratch build" facebook page, even some serious Scratch-builders might be interested 

Although I don't feel that I have the prominence in terms of a "Scratch builders experience" and expertise, I do some of my own kit building etc that I am satisfied with and do enter some live National Slot Racing Competitions which feature these modelling skills. Even (to my surprise) won 2 concorse competitions in the past, and this year a 2nd place in one.

So the idea of running a dedicated proxy for "scrachbuilders" appeals to me. Recently I was able to get hold of the technical rules from the eminent Scratch builder David Wisdom from a previously run one in the UK in 2018.

Firstly in order to be meaningful and respectful as a "scratch build" proxy, there must be an understanding that the rules are aimed primarily at those builders, so that the awards must equally recognise Race finishing positions in the series and the Concours aspects equally, This is not entirely without presidence as in fact some National Classic live competitions have Race & Concours winners and Event winner (based on the combination of both)

Secondly to respect the quality of the builders cars, this must be a "soft" racing series with motors no more than 16K rpm and host tracks running no more than 12 volts max.

Cars bodies made from Plastic, Resin or Fibreglass would need to have appropriate self decoration to attract any Concours points.
Chassis although technically "free choice" of materials, would need to have fixed motors or motor pods and same motor orientation. 
Wheel size & tyre widths will need to be realistic to scale for the era of the models.

The theme would be Classic Racing cars of the periods 1950's & Early 60's.
With 3 events, Sports Cars, Touring Cars, and Grand Prix Cars

I am still in the process of designing the Technical rules etc, and would welcome any feedbaack.

[73emgee]

What is the reasoning behind "fixed pods"?  It doesn't seem to fix the scratch building theme.

[Graham]

What is the reasoning behind "fixed pods"?  It doesn't seem to fix the scratch building theme.

Hi Bob, 
I guess my primary concern is that from experience with these events, that the "floating motor mounts" had shown a destinct performance advantage over the fixed motor chassis which are common in many of the Resin build kits available in the UK, so I wanted to avoid having a two class Events for those with and without such set ups. 
And my thinking is for example you could still fit a Slot it type motor mount but it would need to be screwed in. 
However at the moment its just my concept of how things could be, and I am open to discussion.

[Kevan]

If you include a 'scratch built' event, you'd need to define 'scratch built'.

To some, 'scratch built' means built from scratch i.e. home made chassis or car bodyshell.  In days gone by that meant brass chassis and wood carved or fibreglass molded bodyshells.

To some, painting a white kit isn't 'scratch built'.

To me personally, 'scratch built' means you've made some part of the car yourself or clearly modified a standard part to suit a different car.