[nkarres]

Congrats to Bill for a flawless race!!!!!!

My maintanance department will have a meeting tomorrow morning to look at the data of the TopFuel

Great racing there!!!!!!!!

Nico

[935 fan]

Congratulations to Nico and Bill on your hard won victories

Iain

[KensRedZed]

Congrats to Nico and Bill! 

[woodcote]

I forgot to post the ladders for last night's classes. Here they are...

   

   

From around 5pm, you can expect the XTraction and 4-Gear classes, plus some match-racing.

The Micro Scalextric Street Stock competition will run on Saturday evening.

[woodcote]

Pancake Power Qualifying - XTraction & 4-Gear

Welcome back - qualifying has just taken place for the final two pancake classes.

   

The XTractions - including a few Aurora Magnatractions too - went first...

   

That was an absolutely sensational sub-0.600 run by Bill's aptly-named Motown Missile - interestingly a non-Ultra-G AW chassis - and then there cars separated by 0.009 of a second. A rather compelling qualifying session.

Congrats to Bill as XTraction Top Qualifier!

   

Next were the 4-Gears...

   

A very mixed bag this time...

   

Despite a significant amount of warm-up, some just didn't get going - but Iain's Funny Car certainly did! Congrats to Iain on another blistering 4-Gear Top Qualifier performance...

   

Before the elimination races, we'll run some match races - those skinny T-Jets were a lot of fun in the shakedown, so stay tuned...

[woodcote]

Pancake Power Match Racing - Round One

Two pairs of quite different cars - original Aurora Thunderjets with skinny wheels & tyres, plus the independent front axle Magnatractions that we've seen before...

   

Starting with the new kids on the block. These are cute vintage cars that Iain and Clive have sent - and very smooth on the strip too. Underneath are standard Aurora T-Jet chassis, Clive's Cheetah with a solid rivet version. The Cheetah was produced by Aurora between 1969 and 1972, the Chevy a more modern 1990s Model Motoring mould. Both were very evenly matched for speed, although the Cheetah's softer tyres gave it an advantage over the first third of the strip - the Chevy a little squirrelly off the line. Race one went to Clive by 0.107 seconds - the ETs 1.196 and 1.244 which looked rapid for these cars and was fun to watch.

   

Now for the Funny Cars... Nico's Vega flew down the strip, whereas Kev's 'Cuda needed all the encouragement it could get from the crowd. Great fun though - the winning margin a huge 1.064 seconds and the ETs 0.656 and 1.666.

The second rounds a bit later...

[woodcote]

Pancake Power XTraction Eliminators

Round One started with Ken up against top qualifier Bill in a North American showdown...

   

Ken matched his best time from qualifying, but the Motown Missile was too quick - winning by 0.264, the ETs 0.626 and 0.880.

   

The next race was too close to call with the naked eye... on the scoreboard Nico had the win by 0.004 of a second over Iain's Dodge pick-up - the ETs 0.659 and 0.662. Just what you'd expect from that tasty fourth vs fifth tie in the eight-car ladder.

   

It was back to a routine win for Andy over Clive - the gap 0.318 and the ETs 0.659 and 0.968.

   

And the last race of the first round saw Rebecca beat Kev by 0.202 seconds - the ETs 0.674 and 0.848.

XTraction Semi-Finals

First up was Bill vs Nico...

   

Close in the early stages, but Bill's low drag at top speed saw him stretch his legs to a 0.052 win margin - the ETs 0.613 and 0.666.

   

This was another extremely close-run thing... Rebecca just pipping Andy to the line by 0.007 of a second. The ETs 0.640 and 0.648.

That gives us another Bill vs Rebecca final - California Flash up against the Motown Missile.

[woodcote]

Pancake Power XTraction Final

   

It was an all-American final - Chevy vs Mopar, California Flash vs Motown Missile...

   

This is what happened (you may need to watch direct on YouTube)...



Rebecca got the better drive off the line...

   

But Bill was absolutely mighty over the final third...

   

It was a win by 0.044 of a second...

   

Huge congratulations to Bill, challenging that Ultra-G orthodoxy and winning the XTraction medal...

   

I've remembered the ladder this time!

   

And here's all the data from the XTraction qualifiers and elimination rounds...

       

A really enjoyable class with some fast times and close racing.

We'll be back around 7.45 with the second round of match-racing and the 4-Gear competition...

[Mazda]

Congratulations to the winners so far some good races there. As far as the t-jet match race is concerned, the Cheetah that I sent is completely stock vintage Aurora t-jet with silicone rear tyres. Better luck next time Iain  .

[woodcote]

Pancake Power Match Racing - Round Two

Starting this time with the independent front axle Funny Cars...

   

Nico's Vega had another rapid run, but all the cheers were for Kev's 'Cuda, which was a little smoother and almost half a second quicker this time. The winning margin was 0.614 and the ETs 0.643 and 1.204.

   

The second T-Jet round was a close one - just 0.026 of a second at the line. Iain had the quicker ET - 1.208 to 1.214 - but a massive holeshot gave victory to the Cheetah. That should have wrapped up the match 2-0, but Clive rather generously offered Iain a winner-takes-all third run. The two T-Jets were straight back on track...

   

It was another close one, but Clive took advantage of his superior grip - winning by 0.085 seconds, the ETs 1.211 and 1.235. How fast were they going? Clive topped out at 3.289mph and Iain 3.409mph. Congrats to Clive on winning the match!

I reckon this could be something a little different for our pancake match-racing and maybe a new class for Pancake Power 2023. For our oval racing on the Rock County Raceway bullring oval, we ran a 'Nostalgia' class for T-Jets with original skinny wheels or Vincent size B replacements - fully stock Aurora (or Dash chassis), with a minimum 16-ohm armature and strictly ceramic motor magnets. The class gave very different racing to the Tuff-Ones T-Jets.