Early start on Memorial Weekend race

redlinederby Friday, 5/28/2010
Site manager

Due to the extreme heat that has come to down (85+), I decided to split up the racing for this last outside race. The 25-feet of track worked great thanks to an extra plank from Home Depot. Thankfully most the track was shaded so it was a little more tolerable.

The track outside:
Diecast Cars, Hot Wheels, Matchbox

The one thing that has really blown my mind is the change in car performance over the longer track. I mean, I'm not a complete idiot, so I knew cars would perform differently going over an additional 6-feet of track, but the drop in speed on certain cars past that 20-foot mark is amazing.

If you didn't adjust your garage for this weekend's race then expect some upsets. Very few of the races were close. The Fire Eater vs. Camaro was pretty tight, and the Ferrari-Firebird race was a good one too. Bottomline, cars that do well on the short track don't always take that attitude to the long track.

I know see very clearly how car selection matters when racing on more than 20-feet of track. I can't imagine running on a 50-foot track...just finding car that would make it to the end would be pretty good challenge. I know my outside track isn't exactly level, but it's not as bad as you might think, the boards really help.

I have one page of races done today and hope to do a second later once the sun has gone down a bit. I'll finish up the races on Sunday and then post results and we'll crown a season winner!

Hope everyone is has a great holiday weekend!


Discussion

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Bandeezee 5/28/10

Oh man, what a huge tease, LOL. I can't wait to see the results. Yeah, when I first started racing (late last year) my dad and I were practicing on a little V-drop drag set. When we finally set up the longer track and started the race on race day we could see all our supposedly fast cars were not as fast as we thought with a longer track. I was kind of upset because I felt like I wasted all that time before testing the cars. The car that ended up winning that first race day (my uncle's Custom V-8 Vega) was one I put in my junk pile because it didn't do so well on the short track, lol.

Yes, the dimensions of the track play a huge role in determining the outcome. That's why I kind of like the fact that my family sets up a different track each race day. I know we're going to have the Blutrack now, but we can still change the height it starts at, the angle of the slope, plus we can also just have the finish line before the end of the track. So, there should still be plenty of surprise winners.

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redlinederby 5/29/10
Site manager

I actually finished up all the races on Friday. I didn't feel like tearing down the track then putting it back up on Sunday. Some very interesting finishes. All results will be posted by Sunday afternoon.

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