50-Lap Test Track Sprint [Race 18 of 20]

The time is finally here to get some racing in. Been a long time, but the move is mostly finished and I'm finding a little time in my day to have some fun. I'm on the rug in the attic, but at least I'm running. I've got more space here and can move around at will.

Today's race is a 50-lap timed sprint on the Test Track. This has been the only design I have built since moving, and I'm going to stick to it for the rest of the races:

This design has proven to be one of my favorites to race. It's got just enough of everything, and running the inside lane is always a challenge.

CAR MODIFICATIONS:

Each car had rubber washers added to the mounting posts, as well as to the front two pod connections. They were then tuned and balanced and tested for 500 laps or so each before the race. Each car started off with clean tires and a 50-lap drone warmup.

Rubber washers were added to the mounting posts to help kill vibrations and help with float, pictured here right behind the axle in the center.

RESULTS [Race 18 of 20]:

Car                      Time              Offs      Points

Alfa Romeo      2:40.44                0          3
Shell #8            2:40.31                0          5
Gulf #11           2:44.18                0          1

Yes, you read that right. Just over a tenth of a second won this one. Pretty impressive that the Shell and the Alfa are that competitive with each other. I figured it would be close, but not that close. I considered running the Gulf car again, as I think I was taking it a bit easy on it as it's prone to coming off the track, but these cars are seriously planted now and there were no offs. But I'm going to leave it as it is, as giving it a 2nd chance would be cheating.

The results compared to Race 17, which is the same length on the same track, are about a second slower, but I attribute that to me not having much time to race. I've run previous trials over the past few days that have shown the cars to be quite a bit faster than before. I'm sure the next race will show that.

STANDINGS [after 18 races of 20]:

Car                Points                 Total

Shell #8            5                        72
Alfa #2             3                        72
Gulf #11           1                        47

For the standings to be so close with only two races to go, especially considering this race was determined by a tenth of a second, is pretty impressive. These cars are great. Mauricio, you guys at Slot.it make some great race cars.

Next race will be 100 laps, with the final a 200 lap endurance race. In case of a tie, a 50-lap shootout will occur.

More Modifications Coming:

Over the next few days, I'll be receiving parts in the mail for the cars. Spacers, screws, weight, tires...a whole mess of things. I will be adding parts to the cars, and these modifications will count for the last [hopefully] two races. I'll document everything and include it here.