Major fail at Districts today! :(

Jan 4, 2014
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So, after dominating at the pack level today was Districts. Last year we came in 2nd place and this year I felt like we could take it all with a first place finish. Everything was looking good. Came in a little under weight at the scale so I decided to throw a little tungsten putty in there. Rechecked on the scale and we were right on the money. And thats when it happened. Thats when.......... I dropped the car! OMG! "You have to be kidding me!" I thought to myself as I bent down to pick it up, praying that it looked worse than it was. Well, it was bad. Chipped off wood from the axles slots and an axle bent to hell! Gluing the wood was the easy part, but with minimal tools there wasnt much that I could do with the axle. I got it bend straighter than it was but it was not good enough. The car shook like crazy on the way down the track each run. The best we could manage was a 4th place finish which honestly, could have been much worse given the conditions, but it still doesnt bring home a trophy.

This one really hurt. Hurt much more than just being beat straight up. I guess the lesson is to not be such a dumbass, and to maybe have a spare car waiting on deck.

Oh well. /images/boards/smilies/frown.gif
 
Sorry to hear this. Lesson learned.... I think every one of us has done 1 of these in our PWD career. I let one my prized cars roll off a staging table. Another car of mine had a fender to close and stopped the car at the bottom of the drop. Sometimes when you're confident in your build, don't mess with it after tech. This will make you hungry for Districts next year.

Glad you atleast repaired it enough to race. Don't beat yourself up too bad, shrug it off and build another.
 
This is a pic of my street pro car at a local district this year. It flew off the side of the track immediately after the pin dropped, due to improper staging. I was pissed...but glued the fender back and replaced the broken wheel.

DSCF6488_zpsd0c8800e.jpg
 
Its all good, but still makes me want to curse the world and say screw the rules and run oil next year. Haha, I wont do this though. Gonna try and get my a silver bullet and try our first rail runner next year. Still trying to decide if I should get a cheap drill press or buy a proxxon.
 
Kinser Racing said:
Sorry to hear that man. 4th is still respectable! /images/boards/smilies/thumb.gif

So now you're ready to come race with us right? /images/boards/smilies/wave.gif

Ha! You guys are just looking for a good laugh then huh?
 
Happened to my son's car last year. We had a really good car. He had won Pack and finished 2nd at District as a Tiger.

His Wolf car was dominating at Pack, by 3+ cars. Last run, the Cubmaster got distracted as they were staging and let the gate down slightly as he turned away, then snapped it back....ejected my son's car off the track from the starting line.

Won that last heat by barely a car. So he won Pack anyway, but I was having shoulder surgery a few days later, and although we re-prepped it, we never could get the speed back. Wasn't competitive at District.

But he won something in the raffle, so he was happy, lol.

Redeemed ourselves this year, though. Pack and District and overall District champ.

There's always next year, don't feel too bad.
 




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Originally Posted by Kinser Racing
Sorry to hear that man. 4th is still respectable! /images/boards/smilies/thumb.gif

So now you're ready to come race with us right? /images/boards/smilies/wave.gif

Ha! You guys are just looking for a good laugh then huh?[/td][/tr]




92hatch-

Sorry to hear about your car today... That does blow and like Kinser stated .. you were able to hold on to something... I carry a small tool box with everything possible... as I fixed a car at the pack race and it took a dremel and new axle and wheel with super glue.. You got it Cub Scout/Boy Scout be prepared for any accident..
I hope you choose to come race with NPWDRL you fit right in and John and his crew are top notch!!''

Papa V
 
Darn stroke of bad luck there 92. Glad you were able to salvage a 4th place out of it. Could have been a whole lot worse. Go get them next year!
 
Well, congrats on your 4 place. Sounds like you had to grit and pull it together. Good Save/images/boards/smilies/thumb.gif
 
Ouch! Sorry to hear about the drop. I guess just be glad you did it and not someone else. Yeah you beat yourself up a lil about it but you'd really want to beat someone else up if they dropped it. Still a very respectable finish.

At our district race, they had a very professional registration/check in and then handed the cars off to a few little girls that looked around 7-8 yrs old to put in the staging area. They were running back and forth staging the cars and one of the lil girls tripped and almost fell while running with my sons car. I was not happy about that at all. Then during the rank races, the adults did all the work putting the cars on the track carefully staging them to race but when it came to the championship races, they let the Boy Scouts handle the cars and races? What the blank? The kids were roughly handling the cars and plopping the cars on the track not lining anything up and dropping the gate while looking away. My wife heard some of the parents complaining to the leaders that the kids shouldn't be handling the cars or track. I'd have to agree after what I saw.
 
I agree with 45T. At my districts, the leader was kind of mad I handled my own cars for the open class and wanted me to let young 7 year old scouts handle my cars. Not 5 minutes later a scout carrying cars back from the finish decided to start dancing and dropped a car. I said right there's why!! I know they want scout kids involved, but leave them to the flag ceremony and let the adults handle the cars from point of check in all the way to end. Also...these young kids bumped ours stop section over to the side so the rails were off, which sent several of my cars off the track at the finish (breaking 1 wheel). If you're going to have kids involved, assign them an adult chaperon to stay by their side at all times.
 
Our District race yesterday was better than I thought it would be on the car handling... The boys registered their own cars, they had to take them to an adult that had cases to put them in, when they were on deck they went to get their own car from the adult walk 10 feet to track hand it to the adult who staged the cars, went to the end of the track to watch the race, and collect their own car and walk it 25 feet to the adult and return to the chair.. It was really cool... No one just tossing them around... Each adult handled the car as if it was their own.. very carefully.
 
I normally bring a secondary car with just in-case. I saw a scout drop his car and it break in half. There isn't much that could be done to getting back to racing shape.