I am not posting pictures, at least not yet, but there are some available on the www.blackhawk500.org site along with the results. The link for the 2014 results also has a link to car and event photos. It was an exciting day and a lot of fun for us. The race is held at the Blackhawk Auto Museum so in addition to the race you get to visit the museum. It is a race open to all the scouts in the council.
We found out it was a wooden track on one of the impound nights when we submitted his car. So we did not know what to expect for the race. The first couple of races I saw it was a bit bumpy and rough. A couple of cars jumped lanes. The stop was a little scary but with our low profile and fenders the car slid under pretty safely on the first race so there was a sigh of relief from all of us. On lane 1 there was a pretty good bump and my son's car did catch just a bit of air on the front wheels but not enough to hurt too bad. His car came off the line good but did not start pulling away till near the end. They allowed anyone to apply graphite again before the finals but we did not. In the pack races he did not lose any speed in the later races so we just left it alone. The Zero Friction Graphite Lube holds up very well for us, 12 heats was no problem today or for our pack races.
Unfortunately we had some things going on and were not able to prepare a car for the open race. We ended up just re-prepping his pack car. The parallel axles and flat wheel rule kept us from using any of the other cars we had so my son raced solo.
Our car was prepped using DD4hire supplies and the the techniques we learned on the forum. We drilled our own makeshift plug and play block with a lot of trial and error testing. Not sure if that was the smart thing to do but it worked for us good enough to win. The rules wanted "parallel" so we experimented to get the toe right for steer, no bent axles. We kept the axles and wheels such that they were flat per the rules. We shaped it using the Rigid oscillating belt sander which made it easy to get the shape right quickly.
My son has a taste of winning now and just wants more. He always did ok in pack races but last year we stunk. So we spent 10 months thinking and preparing to build this car. We put a lot more time in this years car. He just wanted fast so we built plank style, monokote, and fenders. He does like the bright colors so Neon Orange and Black stripes made it stand out.
Anyway it was a blast for us. Winning made it even better.
We found out it was a wooden track on one of the impound nights when we submitted his car. So we did not know what to expect for the race. The first couple of races I saw it was a bit bumpy and rough. A couple of cars jumped lanes. The stop was a little scary but with our low profile and fenders the car slid under pretty safely on the first race so there was a sigh of relief from all of us. On lane 1 there was a pretty good bump and my son's car did catch just a bit of air on the front wheels but not enough to hurt too bad. His car came off the line good but did not start pulling away till near the end. They allowed anyone to apply graphite again before the finals but we did not. In the pack races he did not lose any speed in the later races so we just left it alone. The Zero Friction Graphite Lube holds up very well for us, 12 heats was no problem today or for our pack races.
Unfortunately we had some things going on and were not able to prepare a car for the open race. We ended up just re-prepping his pack car. The parallel axles and flat wheel rule kept us from using any of the other cars we had so my son raced solo.
Our car was prepped using DD4hire supplies and the the techniques we learned on the forum. We drilled our own makeshift plug and play block with a lot of trial and error testing. Not sure if that was the smart thing to do but it worked for us good enough to win. The rules wanted "parallel" so we experimented to get the toe right for steer, no bent axles. We kept the axles and wheels such that they were flat per the rules. We shaped it using the Rigid oscillating belt sander which made it easy to get the shape right quickly.
My son has a taste of winning now and just wants more. He always did ok in pack races but last year we stunk. So we spent 10 months thinking and preparing to build this car. We put a lot more time in this years car. He just wanted fast so we built plank style, monokote, and fenders. He does like the bright colors so Neon Orange and Black stripes made it stand out.
Anyway it was a blast for us. Winning made it even better.
