Almost time for the Pack race!

[HMH Racing]

He sent me back a response that gave me a chuckle...

Sounds like you guys have a GREAT PWD chair. Most experiences I've heard about and experienced were very much the opposite.

Rule: "Wheels and axles: Your choice!"
Show up at the race with a three wheeler with a pin.
Official: "You can't do that. It has to have four wheels touching!"
Me: "The rules do not say that."
Official: "Your car has to have four wheels touching." *points to rules in a different class*
Me: "The rules for this class [adult, essentially Outlaw] do not say that."
Official: "Fix it or don't race."

(I added a fourth wheel, ruined my tune, and won anyway)

OMG this is exactly what happened to us last year. I argued as politely as I could, but they did not budge. They also didn't know "why" it would be unfair to the other scouts, just that it probably would give us an unfair advantage. Had to dremel out some weight on the spot and add another wheel and axel. They gave us 10 minutes. We finished 3rd and to make it worse they did not know how to run a double eliminaton race. We only had 1 loss and the 1st and 2nd place car never raced each other.

 

[bracketracer]

Since we're talking scout racing here, have any of you guys tried this on the axles or where the wheel rubs the body?
http://www.napaonline.com/Catalog/CatalogItemDetail.aspx/Lubricant-Graphite-Based-Spray-On-9-25-oz/_/R-MCR1413_0075098551

 

[Kinser Racing]

I've never tried any spray on graphite. That reminded me that I have a can of Jig-A-Loo spray on graphite. I bought it went Pep Boys discontinued all the Jig-A-Loo products. I wonder if it would work.

 

[W&K Creations]

ya better enter a car in the next race Kinser so we can find out!!! That sounds really interesting actually....spray on JIG graphite.....I bet it has some silicone in it as well!

Possible new "dry" powder process for strict rules that only allow graphite lube...spray on the axels, let dry overnight.....spray on the body where the wheel rubs, let dry overnight, buff in graphite powder into the bores....put wheel and axel together and add a puff more to each wheel...spin and run....and with spray on process will now last 20 races plus rather than give out due to graphite loss after 8 to 10 runs...!

 

[GravityX]

I have a can of the Jig Graphite, forgot I had it until it was brought up. I have the Green can of the stuff. I don't see any silicone on the ingredients Wes. I think I would spray the axle while it's spinning to get as even a coating as possible.

 

[Kinser Racing]

Mine's the grey and black can. I wonder if there's a difference.

 

[GravityX]

I don't know, they could be the same.

Thinking out loud here. So... would the process be something like this? Normal axle sanding prep. Spray with the graphite, allow to dry and then spray with Pledge. Prep bore as previously stated earlier in the thread. Thinking that Pledge works so well with graphite would it work better if it was between layers of it???

 

[Kinser Racing]

I don't know. I would think that if you were going to go that route, you would want the graphite on top not underneath the pledge. I really have no idea without testing though.

 

[GravityX]

With Pledge down first the Dry film graphite may not stick to it. I'll have to check this out when I get home tonight. Stay tuned......

 

[GravityX]

The dry film graphite does not stick to Pledge, as I thought. Dry film first followed by Pledge at first look appeared to work well until pressure was applied, with finger, the Pledge softened the graphite and caused it to lift, (maybe more dry time) but it did not ball up like I had thought it would. I'll need to try this again later, but this time use it in a prepped wheel bore with graphite to see if the dry-film lifts again after a "spin test".

 

[bracketracer]

Just to follow up, I tried the dry graphite spray that I posted. Pledge makes it come off easily. No good. It doesn't appear to want to stick to a polished axle, either, but if you spray it on an unpolished axle you can burnish it in. But since none of us are going to run unpolished axles.....well I guess it's not of much use!

 

[bracketracer]

We had a short day at the district race today. They put the cars in groups of twelve to make a heat. You had to win your heat to advance to the finals. We raced on a six lane Besttrack, 42' long. They obviously had the start switch adjusted differently from the league track, since this graphite car ran an average of 2.9868! We finished second in the heat, the first place car clocked an average of 2.9606 so it wasn't even close! Next year, we need to build two cars. One for the Pack rules and one for the district.

 

[Guest]

Hey BR,

Nice time in any case.

If you won district would it go onto council?

Would that be another car too?

Great job to you and your boys!

 

[bracketracer]

laser,
I don't think we have a council race here in STL? I haven't seen it advertised anyway.

Thanks for the kind words!

 

[Spirit Racing]

That graphite car you guys lost to, appears to have been on oil with those time differences

...SPIRIT.....

 

[bracketracer]

That graphite car you guys lost to, appears to have been on oil with those time differences

...SPIRIT.....

While I didn't examine the car myself, I'm thinking not. The guys doing the check in had a high powered flashlight and they checked our car for graphite in the bore. They did that to everyone I saw. I don't think we got cheated, I think I just missed the tune this time. Our car didn't appear to be as stable this time around and it cost us. Next time we'll do better!

Our car was not nearly as consistent as it was in our Pack race. Our times varied from 2.96 to 3.04(!) at district. So the other youngster wasn't really any faster, but his car was more consistent so he knocked down a better average time. They do toss out the slow run be we had a couple so that didn't help us!

 

[MOFAST]

I get it Bracket, my son's car ran awesome during test/tune but during race day it had the wiggles. Barely won, where if it had ran like it did during test/tune it would have won pack. I'm tuning it again the day before districts and see if I can get those wiggles gone.

I hope your son still had fun racing at Districts, sounds like your district race is huge? We only have 42 packs in our district race with one boy from each pack per rank.
'

 

[Guest]

That graphite car you guys lost to, appears to have been on oil with those time differences

...SPIRIT.....

While I didn't examine the car myself, I'm thinking not. The guys doing the check in had a high powered flashlight and they checked our car for graphite in the bore. They did that to everyone I saw. I don't think we got cheated, I think I just missed the tune this time. Our car didn't appear to be as stable this time around and it cost us. Next time we'll do better!

Our car was not nearly as consistent as it was in our Pack race. Our times varied from 2.96 to 3.04(!) at district. So the other youngster wasn't really any faster, but his car was more consistent so he knocked down a better average time. They do toss out the slow run be we had a couple so that didn't help us!

Hey BR,
You are way too cool to ever say it, but I think we all know what happened here.

Are you telling me that they examined the black wheels, for graphite inside the bore, with a high powered flash light?

LOL! You are very modest.

Either way you made it to districts and your boys had fun with the old man!
It looks like a 1 in the win column to me.
Congrats again!

 

[Kinser Racing]

Congrats!

 

[bracketracer]

That graphite car you guys lost to, appears to have been on oil with those time differences

...SPIRIT.....

While I didn't examine the car myself, I'm thinking not. The guys doing the check in had a high powered flashlight and they checked our car for graphite in the bore. They did that to everyone I saw. I don't think we got cheated, I think I just missed the tune this time. Our car didn't appear to be as stable this time around and it cost us. Next time we'll do better!

Our car was not nearly as consistent as it was in our Pack race. Our times varied from 2.96 to 3.04(!) at district. So the other youngster wasn't really any faster, but his car was more consistent so he knocked down a better average time. They do toss out the slow run be we had a couple so that didn't help us!

Hey BR,
You are way too cool to ever say it, but I think we all know what happened here.

Are you telling me that they examined the black wheels, for graphite inside the bore, with a high powered flash light?

LOL! You are very modest.

Either way you made it to districts and your boys had fun with the old man!
It looks like a 1 in the win column to me.
Congrats again!

If that yougster was running oil, then he sucked at it, since on a good run we were running the same time as his best. I don't want to discount his work, he had a well prepared, consistent car, and he earned a berth into the finals. I am going to shoot an email to the chairman to see if I can get a copy of the times from the finals just to see how they shook out.

Our district race is an all run event. Any cub can enter regardless of how they did in the pack race. They accept entries for about five hours and run a heat whenever they get a full heat of twelve ready to go, so people come and go all day. If you win a heat, your car is impounded until the finals. We were only there about a half hour total!