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The final action of the day was the third
Auto World Top Fuel match race. Could Brandon Bernstein grab himself a consolation victory?
Match Race #3
Spencer Massey: RT 0.633 / ET 0.731 / MPH 8.292
Brandon Bernstein: RT 0.628 / ET 0.762 / MPH 7.483
The answer was no. The pace of both dragsters was a little off their best, but the power of the FRAM top fueler got Massey to the line 0.026 seconds ahead of Bernstein for a third win out of three. The Copart crew will be satisfied with improving their qualifying time of 0.895 yesterday to a best ET of 0.738 today. Maybe the Top Fuelers will become a regular sight on the Eighth Mile?
(This post was last modified: 17th-May-20, 07:49 PM by
woodcote.)
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And that's the action wrapped up with a final video of the Street Stock and Top Fuel races...
It was an interesting weekend working through the format, seeing how long it all takes, playing with images, video and results tables. I learned a lot - like what to do if there's a dead heat in the eliminator!
Reporting on a race of my own cars is a bit bonkers (cabin fever kicking in?), but it shows what I'll aim to do for a 'proper' event. How was it? Anything you'd change? Anything extra you'd like to see? I will aim to post pictures of all the cars in future. And in smaller fields (4-8) post each individual race result screen.
Rebecca did watch the Street Stock Eliminator (starved as she is of live motorsport), but didn't recommend it as suitably interesting for live streaming. The cat did briefly test the hastily-constructed finish line grandstand...
A small number of tweaks to the format are necessary, but the hardware worked perfectly. Onward to the first event over Tuesday and Wednesday 9-10 June - about three weeks away. The sign-up thread is here:
https://slotracer.online/community/showt...p?tid=1267
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All made sense to me.
What is the difference between RT and ET?
I love puttering with gears
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Brilliant - well done Andy.
I was reading an old copy of a slot mag last night and there was an article on the 'First' national drag race for slotcars in America. Major focus on the track and being flat ..... how flat is your track? DIdd you have any track issues?
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Thanks Anthony - yes, the strip is pretty flat. It's one of the reasons I chose the new Micro Scalextric track - it is very smooth, made from rigid plastic and very good connectors. Traditional HO track can be a bit 'lumpy' at the joins and the rails always 'click' as the cars go over the joins. The shelf isn't perfectly flat, but not far off. The Micro track deals with any slight variation very well. It is also pretty straight, despite the bulge in the wall - although I want to tweak the track a liitle so it is 100% dead straight.
Jeremy - RT is reaction time, with Drag Basic 0.500 of a second is when the green light illuminates (in real life it is 0.0000). Before that a foul start (red light) is awarded. The time after 0.500 is the reaction of me pressing the button, power going to the lane and each car crossing the start sensor. Any difference between the RT of the two cars in one run is purely the different characteristics of the car making that first movement. ET is elapsed time - the time between the start line and finish line sensors being triggered. It's the time a car takes to travel 7 feet. In the eliminator, the winner is the car that crosses the finish line first (and doesn't make a foul start) - so the winner can record a slower ET because of a quicker RT making up the difference. That is termed a 'holeshot' win.
One of my thoughts yesterday is that a drag racing glossary would be handy. There's this:
www.nhra.com/nhra-101/nhra-glossary - but I might do a more compact version. The entire NHRA 101 section is worth reading.
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Ah....so you are pressing a trigger having watched the light turn green. But I am surprised the cars are coming up with different RTs, although I suppose the numbers are very small.
I love puttering with gears
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The differences in RT between runs is entirely down to me - I'm attempting to avoid false starts. However, the differences between two cars running together - a couple of thousandths of a second - is about how quick a car moves off the line. Usually that'll be a motor thing. They get power at exactly the same time. It was interesting to watch the runs and see how cars behaved differently on the strip. The two quickest cars - the white Nissan and the patrol car - run the strip quite differently, as you can see from the videos. The Nissan was blisteringly quick off the line and the patrol car picking up the pace over the second half. Similar with the two Top Fuelers. It would be interesting to have another sensor at three and a half feet... That is possible with Drag Race Coordinator.
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great program you folks have going on here.
looking forward to more news too.
I was invited by woodcote to join.
I have been slot drag racing in all scales for 30+ years and have owned timed drag strips in several scales.
currently have a 1/64 scale 1/8 mile Wizzard track with Track Mate DP3000 timing system, soon to be extended to 1000 feet timed length.
I just sold my portable 1/64 scale 1/4 mile Maxx Traxx with DP 2000 timing a few months ago.
looking forward to learning from you folks and sharing what I know.
I have been involved in proxy drag racing as a host and racer for years and have sent cars to New Zealand.
I am hoping to enter some proxy races on your side of the pond soon too.
thank you for having me here.
al
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Oops. sorry I thought that this was the actual event.
Leo
Forum Precepts: Don't hijack or divert topics - create a new one. Don't feed the Troll. http://www.scuderiaturini.com
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Leo - it's here and all ready to go on Tuesday for qualifying. The coverage above was the 'practice' run last month. I'll be setting up a separate June event thread in the next day or two. Looking forward to it!
Al - great to have you join us here. It would be awesome to have some cars visiting from the States over the summer. Definitely a chance to hitch a ride back here after your NTRA event next month.
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