Slow starting car

[agentp]

My son's Pack had their race yesterday and my son took 1st place. I feel like many of you are like the pit crew of a race team that never gets the deserved praise, but my son and I thank every one of you for providing tips and advice for a rookie dad and son.

My son's car ran an avg. 3.04 on a 42' Best Track using graphite. We used DD4H 92 straight axles and DD4H BSA wheels, three wheel car. I noticed a strange situation with each race. The car starts off slow and was in fourth place each race at the bottom of the slope. It maintains speed and passed everyone on the flat and won easily by a car length each race.

He has 12 cubes behind the rear axle, a row of six cubes in front of the rear axle and then a row of three cubes on the DFW side in front of the rear axle. Steer is 4" over 4', but I do not have a test track.

Any ideas on why the slow start happens and what I may want to change? Should we not worry about it? Going to Districts in three weeks.

 

[GravityX]

Maybe the other cars were not staged on the rail? Maybe the other cars did not have any steer and this is why they ran good until they hit the transition. Did you over pack the graphite into the wheels bores? I'd say the bottom line here is, do you want to start out fast or cross the finish line first? Were your wins in car lengths or fractions of a inch? What was the 2nd place finisher's average time?

 

[ngyoung]

My guess would be the graphite or staging. Did he stage it himself or does a adult do it? For a RR car if it is staged completely centered front and back the car will be traveling toward the rail at first. If you can stage it so the DFW is close to the rail it will take less time getting into the position it wants to travel on the rail.

Did you notice an increase in speed after a few heats before trailing off again? For graphite make sure you give each wheel a few good spins after applying. Did you burnish graphite in the wheel bores before you installed them on the car? If not that may help get you a little more speed in the later heats.

 

[HurriCrane Racing]

In cub races you could be running against cars tuned to go straight.
While they may drop faster because the do not touch the rail as soon as a rail rider, they will eventually contact the rail.
Once the straight running car contacts the rail, it will set off a series wiggles back and forth. This is where the rail rider will blow past them for the win!

Congratulations!

 

[agentp]

Avg time for 2nd place was 3.09, 3rd place 3.10. Cars were all staged by Pack leader, but not sure how. I think he was centering the cars with all wheels off the rail.

Our times were consistent, 3.044, 3.041, 3.041, 3.042.

 

[BulldogRacing]

Congrats on the wins. Be very confident in the parts you have used to build the car. You will be fast in any cub race with the set up you have, the only car that will compete will be someone else who is as addicted as you are. Great job and good luck at district.

 

[~JBD RACING~]

Prep is usually the cause of slow start and steer

 

[Knotty Racing]

I've heard that bad rear axle alignment can be cause for a slow start also.

can anyone confirm?

 

[Skippy Kicky]

Sounds like it was a fun race! Was the car stable, or did it have any wiggles? If not I would just be tempted to clean the wheels real good and add more graphite. If there were any wiggles I'd add another inch in steer before the next one. Best of luck at districts.