So I pretty successfully stayed away from slot cars for the xmas holidays. It was difficult at times, but the vertigo kept me in check. I also had a pretty heavy bout of Covid as well. Instead I focused on getting through the holidays and playing my guitar.
But one thing I didn't do was buy slot cars, and that was pretty much the point. I didn't even look at the websites until just days before xmas, and then only briefly. I didn't want to find a car I needed to have. And up until tonight I hadn't looked for any length of time. I found at least two "buy now" cars that I wanted, but I haven't bought them yet. I probably will eventually, but I'm taking my time. I want the cars to matter, and I feel like if I get too many at a time they won't have any significance.
I'm curious how a few of the cars I've gotten recently are going to run. My last significant race day was not long after I got the P68. There are at least six cars that are midway through their initial first tuneup and haven't set a lap time yet. There's the Policar Ferrari 412P, which looks way better than I expected Policar to be, and will put it in a curious position wherever it ends up.
So since I'm at 55 cars [57?] and taking a break from purchases, as well as feeling better from vertigo, I think I'm almost ready for a race weekend. I'll need a few days to tuneup the new cars, but that'll happen. I'm going to go with one of the more familiar track plans for me so I can go back and compare old times as well. I'm going to use my race plan that I wrote up in September 2022. Looks like this:
Racing Rules
All cars are eligible to race with exception of the F1 cars. Elimination races will consist of three events: the first 25 lap race will eliminate 12+ cars, bringing the field down to 20 for the next round. The second 50 lap race will eliminate 10 cars, bringing the field down to 10 for the third round. The third 100 lap race is the final.
Each race will be held on a new layout, with design focus on the inside lane.
All races are crash included, which means any car that crashes does not stop the clock.
Each car has tires tape-cleaned before each race. New cars may have tire sanding and other adjustment done. Any other adjustments are noted and must be finished before race.
A car that cannot finish the race is a DNF. A car that cannot start the race is a DNS.
If a car progresses to a higher round and then breaks down, the top car to not make the round will be substituted in. The Breakdown car will lose all points and shuffle to the back of the points grid.
Team Scoring Rule allows for only two cars maximum to carry over their points as team points at any given race.
A team that has a car DNF is still considered a team, even if only one car is left to compete.
3-lap crash rule is in effect for all races. This means if a car crashes within the first 3 laps, they can be taken off the track, inspected and tire-taped if needed, and restarted on lap 0.
Each car will be referred to by its sponsor, model number and car number if necessary. For example, the NSR Bosch Porsche 917/10k #2 will be known as the Bosch 917/10. Gulf 917 #9, Gulf 917 #10, Gulf 908 #1, etc.
Race scoring would look something like this:
Car Time Lap Offs
__________
I like this scoring for a number of reasons. First, I think it spreads the scoring out a little bit with round bonuses provided. This will award consistency throughout multiple events. I also like that the early victims of elimination get no points, which will help inspire more competition on the slower end. There are a lot of cars that will come home with nothing, so they'll need to work just to get the smallest amount of points.
This will make it harder for teams to dominate. Short races yield unexpected results. Not entirely uncommon for a really fast car to be derailed by something, hurting their chances for a good result.
To win, you'll have to be dominant in three races. And while yes, you only have to score in the upper half of the field to go onto the next round, it's still going to be a challenge to find out where that cutoff is and how fast to go on the track.
Plan is to get started in the next couple of weeks, maybe as early as next week.
If, during the first race, the results show significant grouping...and I'm thinking of the Revoslot cars in particular...I might have to look into breaking it off into classes. If all the Revoslots race near each other but well off the pace of the rest of the field, then I'll have to consider making a GT class. This would likely change the scoring, but I think that's something I could probably do after the race has been run. If all this were to happen, they would still race Le Mans style and compete for an overall win as well as a class win. And it wouldn't bother me at all to break it up into classes. I have 10 of the GT Revoslot cars, which is more than enough to have a great race. That would leave 45 cars to race in the Classics class. But since those are all Le Mans and Can Am cars, they can all race together in the big group. This would be more in case the Revoslot cars, with their aluminum chassis and different setup and design, couldn't keep up with the rest of the field. I'm not sure about that yet, so I'm waiting to see the results. I'll probably know halfway through the first heat whether it'll work or not.
