2019 Awana Grand Prix is in the books. The Cup comes home again!

[Jimmy & his 2 Kids]

Another Awana GP and the Awana Cup comes home again. What a fun time and I worried this year as they got sick of our cars dominance the last couple years and added rules taking away allnspeed tricks. Most rules they relaxed after further consideration and also after realizing our churches kids will get embarrassed at Regionals building under such a strict rule set.
Only rule left was no bent axles. I was only able to tune an inch using the axles as is and worried he’d wiggle like mad. Didn’t matter, sons car dominated the TNT class and took the all class Awana GP CUP. My daughters and my car dominated the Open class and I sat out the finals so the other racers can race at Regionals.
Took a few pics and a couple vids just to show how the cars ran. If kids want to race at regionals we will reprep and set steer on son’s Awana class car and be ready. I hope to help the other racers with their cars for better tune before regionals if we go. Doesn’t seem to be much interest in the other folks. I think we are the only Derby freaks. Hopefully I’m wrong.
Now I need to put up more shelves for the trophies!

Daughter told me she wants to send a car with mine to APR. And another league racer is born! Lol
LETS RACE!!!

 

[Chief]

WoW ! Nice job...Dont lose that camo car...haha Did you race the three together for braggin rights???

 

[Castoro Racing]

Another Awana GP and the Awana Cup comes home again. What a fun time and I worried this year as they got sick of our cars dominance the last couple years and added rules taking away allnspeed tricks. Most rules they relaxed after further consideration and also after realizing our churches kids will get embarrassed at Regionals building under such a strict rule set.
Only rule left was no bent axles. I was only able to tune an inch using the axles as is and worried he’d wiggle like mad. Didn’t matter, sons car dominated the TNT class and took the all class Awana GP CUP. My daughters and my car dominated the Open class and I sat out the finals so the other racers can race at Regionals.
Took a few pics and a couple vids just to show how the cars ran. If kids want to race at regionals we will reprep and set steer on son’s Awana class car and be ready. I hope to help the other racers with their cars for better tune before regionals if we go. Doesn’t seem to be much interest in the other folks. I think we are the only Derby freaks. Hopefully I’m wrong.
Now I need to put up more shelves for the trophies!
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Daughter told me she wants to send a car with mine to APR. And another league racer is born! Lol
LETS RACE!!!

Congrats Jimmy, great job!

 

[Jimmy & his 2 Kids]

WoW ! Nice job...Dont lose that camo car...haha Did you race the three together for braggin rights???

I would have but they literally TEAR the track down the second the event is over. Hence the reason I’ll never run my league cars on that track. Lol
But all 3 were very consistent and all ran 3.02-3.03 with a couple 3.01’s and a slowest of 3.07. All 3 were about the same and it would probably come down to lanes.

 

[Jimmy & his 2 Kids]

And thanks for the kind words guys!
Jimmy

 

[DuckOfAllTrades]

Congratulations to your family and you Jimmy!

I know you guys put in the work and do it the right way! So it’s amazinf and impressive to see you guys dominate and win hands down with fast and consistent times! You guys amaze me. Can’t wait to see how you do at the next level considering you guys are next level!

 

[Dizzy]

Nice job Jimmy, looks like you guys had a blast. I'm sure some great memories were made.

 

[Thinkin'Bout Racin]

Way to go!!!! Keep trying to educate them. Some will even listen and get faster and there will be others that "just race".

I'm glad you could make these great memories with the family!

 

[derbydentist]

wow that black car in your daughters race started off fast and then tanked at the hill. Great job guys! Some large margins there haha!

 

[Jimmy & his 2 Kids]

Congratulations to your family and you Jimmy!

I know you guys put in the work and do it the right way! So it’s amazinf and impressive to see you guys dominate and win hands down with fast and consistent times! You guys amaze me. Can’t wait to see how you do at the next level considering you guys are next level!

Well, don’t feel like next level yet but with help we’re headed in that direction! Thanks man!

 

[Jimmy & his 2 Kids]

wow that black car in your daughters race started off fast and then tanked at the hill. Great job guys! Some large margins there haha!

Yeah I am focusing on how I will get more speed from the gate. (Prep I think) that black car is the dad whose daughters each won their divisions. Though they all lost to my son by a huge margin in the Cup finals. Their cars would fall flat as soon as they came out of the transition where our cars would keep speed and pull away. But I want to address that next. Each year we’ve gotten about a tenth faster though we’ll start to chip away at it by hundredths and thousandths from here on out.
I won’t stop till we are sub 3.0. Still experimenting.

 

[Prozach2]

wow that black car in your daughters race started off fast and then tanked at the hill. Great job guys! Some large margins there haha!

I saw that a lot in the pinewood derby race I went to last weekend. The car that won was slower than several cars right out of the gate, but absolutely blew everybody else away once it hit the flat. Any idea what causes that?

 

[Jimmy & his 2 Kids]

I saw that a lot in the pinewood derby race I went to last weekend. The car that won was slower than several cars right out of the gate, but absolutely blew everybody else away once it hit the flat. Any idea what causes that?

Well as for what causes the slower start I don’t know... yet... but as to why he pulled away hard afterward I would think has a lot to do with good prep and lubricants. My bores had a lot of work done on the inside rubbing, polishing and good sealer, same with axles and also using Jig on them and then also running oil. Our cars wouldn’t even sit on the scale at check in since it wasn’t level and our cars rolled so easily.
But again the slower start when compared to the cars that had no where near as good of prep is still a mystery. Other than bad staging which our staging was horrible. He put my sons car onnonce with a wheel on the center rail. It didn’t even make it down the hill. It was my sons first run and he was so sad. I thought someone dropped the car. Then they re ran that heat and he blew by them all so I knew it was a bad stage. Then the guy almost sent my car into a car still on the track. A lot of cars wouldn’t make it all the way. And he also sent a car backwards. Lol but he also doesn’t know so I am sure he was doing his best but it was frustrating. But yeah, some of that problem could be staging I think... I think...

 

[derbydentist]

not sure what the rules were but may be lighter wheels on the black car but poor wheel prep. hence gets a fast start and then looks like it hits the brakes. Or if he was rail riding he didnt set up his car properly to be right on the rail at the start gate and had way to much steer. So the car would not ride the rail until the end of the hill and hit it hard and slow down significantly. Hard to know for sure

 

[Jimmy & his 2 Kids]

not sure what the rules were but may be lighter wheels on the black car but poor wheel prep. hence gets a fast start and then looks like it hits the brakes. Or if he was rail riding he didnt set up his car properly to be right on the rail at the start gate and had way to much steer. So the car would not ride the rail until the end of the hill and hit it hard and slow down significantly. Hard to know for sure

Well, I can say this with confidence... I know the guy... and I know what I did... safe to say the wheels on my daughters car were substantially lighter than his. Definitely puzzles me.
If he chooses to go with us to regionals since he placed I’ll know because I am gathering them all together to tweak their cars for speed and get them set up right. Have us a teaching workshop. I’ll have them polishing those wheels and axles proper. I’ll be able to look and try to figure it out. I’ll let know know what I find.

 

[Prozach2]

Well, I can say this with confidence... I know the guy... and I know what I did... safe to say the wheels on my daughters car were substantially lighter than his. Definitely puzzles me.
If he chooses to go with us to regionals since he placed I’ll know because I am gathering them all together to tweak their cars for speed and get them set up right. I’ll be able to look. If he’s racing that car at regionals I’ll have his wheels off and axles to redo his prep and alignment. I’ll let know know what I find.

I bet you're right; it was probably staging. Also, probably staging at the race I went to last weekend. The race I was at sounded similar to yours. I don't think all of the volunteers were necessarily paying attention when they were putting the cars on the track.

 

[Jimmy & his 2 Kids]

I bet you're right; it was probably staging. Also, probably staging at the race I went to last weekend. The race I was at sounded similar to yours. I don't think all of the volunteers were necessarily paying attention when they were putting the cars on the track.

To be honest most of the folks running the Awana races are there just for the fun. It’s very loosey goosey and they just don’t know any better. They probably think folks like us are off our rocker! Lol I know I was the only person there darting to the timer to see the times of our cars after each heat. No one else could have cared less.
I don’t even think any of our racers want to go to regionals. In our text thread one parent replied they weren’t going as they already roasted their car in the fire pit while making s’mores. Lol

 

[derbydentist]

Well, I can say this with confidence... I know the guy... and I know what I did... safe to say the wheels on my daughters car were substantially lighter than his. Definitely puzzles me.

very weird, not sure then

 

[Jimmy & his 2 Kids]

very weird, not sure then

As I think more about it... probably is just the staging.
Not too worried. Just curious more than anything.

 

[Bw56]

"they already roasted their car in the fire pit " And I thought I was hard on old cars.