[Coopdevil]

Well, I'm back from Studley, fed, watered and bathed and would like to offer thanks to Jon S and the Phoenix gang for a good day (and previous nights) racing.

I went down on Saturday evening straight from the football, met some people from this forum and spent the evening in 'don't bother counting the results' racing. (Amazing how competitive yet totally relaxed racing is when run like this!)

Special kudos to Jonny - at half-ten I discovered that the teeny, weeny little immobilizier button had dropped off my car keys keyring without which my MR-2 can't be shifted - suffice to say when this happens in pitch blackness at night in a muddy field in rural Warwickshire you do tend to assume that you will be going home via the back of an AA flatloader and facing an auto-electricians bill of staggering proportions. Fortunately it turned up under the drivers seat, but Jon, a man who had never met me before, had already offered to put me up for the night on his settee. Top man.

I'll draw a discreet veil over a certain Scooter-riding West Midlands slot racer and forum favourite and his dreadful experiences with a certain Margate brand today and will not mention the fact that I lent him something from Catalunya to allow him to race. Oh no, not going to mention that at all (Sorry Gary

)

Coop

 

[BEEJAY7]

Thanks Jon for a great day out, you certainly can organise an event.

Well Done.

Regards

Alan

 

[Difflock]

Jonny,

I'm sorry that I couldn't attend. Don't know if you saw my post re: apologies, but it got deleted quite quickly with good reason - I was ranting about life the universe & everything!

Well, accoding to Beejay7 you done good Jonny

Mark.

 

[Intergrali]

I managed to get there, was great planning at 2am

a few shocked faces when I appeared

was a good, day quite liked the digital

only because the side swipes were terrific and the shunting was hilarious

Matt's rally track was awesome and for once I didnt destroy anything! well dont think I did

cheers for the prize is mint!

18.5 eh... you'd a never thought it!

thanks to lotus for being the day clown and forever knocking me and my driving although it did stop once I prooved I was quicker

t'was a good day knackered now though

 

[astro]

Thanks to Jon for all the work to make a great event, had a brill time, and great to meet some slot forum members too! Nice to meet Adrian from scalextric too

 

[slot-tech]

had an exellent time at phoenix, caught up with a few old friends and put faces to names from the forum. special thanks to jon and his wife for their very generous hospitality. looking forward to the next one.
jim & bernie

 

[Pendleslot]

Jon, congratulations on a super event. I hope it hasn't put you off organising one next year! It was good to catch up with familar faces from clubs around the UK. Thanks also to the Phoenix lads who helped to run the SCX digital track on my stand
Cheers Guys

 

[Doug]

Sound like plenty of fun was had. Anybody have a photo or two to show us people that weren't there what it was like?

 

[JEXY1]

A big thankyou to Jonny for organising yesterday's event, hopefully everyone had a good day.

Good to put faces to names from the forum and even managed to sign up some new members.

Also a big thanks to Slik for all his help setting up the display - not sure if his legs work any more - sorry!

See you all again at the Slough event in May.

Regards

Gareth
NSCC

 

[bobothebear80]

Indeed it was an excellent day out,we had good fun but were completely knackered by the time we got home which was about 10.30.

My highlight of the day had to be watching the Senior Non-Mag races. They were absolutely awesome.Especially Iceman's and Darbs first heat where they matched each other nearly all way. Myself and Scott(who came last in the non-mag final

) marshalled every single heat of the non-mags in the 2 chairs by the bridge. It was amazing how very little people came off compared to the magnet racing. I was lucky to recover 1 car a race.

Thanks alot Jonny,we will definitely visit again.

 

[Guest]

Good day out, Richard and I had to leave early as he was not well But as soon as he recovers he will post some of the hundred and odd pictures he took yesterday.

RR.

 

[moped rider]

Heh! Heh! I have lots of picis! And a good day Jonny. This has to be an event that will grow in future years. It was worth it just to see the big grins on the winning juniors as they walked up to pick up their Scalextric prizes from Adrian.

Now that you know how to time things Jon maybe a scheduled programme of featured events for next year might be a good idea.

I'll have a bit of fun over the next few days as I put captions to the pictures. So watch out folks, it could be you!

And Adrian Norman is a very cany enthusiast.

Respect.

He pointed out to Astro and myself exactly the issue that had caused my BIG failure.

Amazing.

I knew in pre-race practice that I was doomed. What had gone wrong?

I will know better next time.

Thanks to coopdevil

for coming to my aid after a third car failure in the third heat!

At least I was starting to finish races and came third and fourth with the Fly Marcos that had a button magnet and was a car that I had driven occasionally and not had the chance to practice with. So thrown in at the deep end literally. Jon, bin that bus stop! I kept giving your lady marshall lots of practice with Coopdevils loaned Fly.

Adrian also witnessed me beating Mooster in the final heat once I had got my stock RTR untuned bog standard Knighthawk SPORT MG Lola to the start line. I am used to 12 second laps at Phoenix and form was returning but too late to save the day.

My "detuned" cars were giving me 15 seconds or worse not even completing the course and giving up after 3 or 4 laps! Total frustration after 2 days of hard work at home. I will be having words with my tuning assistants at SCI

(including Intergrale. Come on matey what do you think I did wrong?

)!

Adrian knows but does anybody else? (don't spill the beans Astro, lets see if anybody else can work it out!)

I had totally forgot that the MG Lola was in my lunchbox until I was looking for some screws that had gone missing whilst mtucker666 was desperately trying to sort my "tuned" (

) Trans Am cars.

Mooster came third in the final! Well done Mooster for being consistent. But if I had had the MG Lola from the start what might have been .....

Did not the winning magnet junior win with an MG Lola?

Scalextric clearly know how to set cars up better than me. More on all this latter aswell.

Those who were there will relate to all this.

Click here to go to a tuning thread that relates to my disaster. I will take it all on the chin like any good slot jockey should!

More later folks.

Moped

 

[mtucker666]

Jonny
well done for an excellent event which adds an excellent new dimension to the events we slotters normally get together at. Hope after you recover from your exhaustion and your batteries are recharged you'll fancy taking on another!

Good meeting more SF members including Peter, Kevin (who is truely addicted after only 3 months), Moped and numerous others.

The rally track went down really well and I was really impressed it lasted the transit. Lots of the kids kept on viying for fastest times but then Inte posted a decent time of 19.33 seconds which could not be matched by the Phoenix racers. Lotus beat it with a 18.98 seconds and then Inte who refused to be beaten posted an excellent 18.56 and walked off with a Ninco Pajero (the drop arm needs fixing after intitial abuse round the track)

My racing in the non-mag class was abysmal - the main reason was most of the drivers (incl Inte and Lotus) were just much better than me. My only good race was one I placed 3rd and just managed to finish on the lead lap behind P1 Darbs and Skippy (Phoenix racers). My motor packed in on first race so I used a Jonny S car and then Inte gave me a motor pod to resurrect my car for my last race. Had to leave before racing finished as I needed to say good night to my son, otherwise I'd never be allowed out again - it was a shame as I missed the Q&A with Adrian Norman which I really wanted to see.

Thoroughly enjoyed the day and a big thank you to all who put the effort in to getting it organised. Hope lots of dosh was raised for the lung charity.

Matt 'need more practice' Tucker

 

[bobothebear80]

Moped,
I think you'll find that the MG lola that won the Junior Class was actually a magnet with wheels disguised as Lola.Rumours i heard during that final was that it had 3 magnets in it cos boy did it rub on the rails.

 

[Intergrali]

just finished fixing the drop arm now.. works sweeet

points and laughs at Lotus

hey mope cant blame it on meeeee! you put it together! although I think it was too low

had a good day after the initial breakages

oh and I cleared the bus stop first time in the vectra, virrrrrp, bang, clatter, silence, CRASH!, that would be cleared in mid air!

then I broke it.. and it wasnt the best car , needed that lexan body.

Oh Alfa, BSN, how are your thumbs?

 

[astro]

good to see you back on board Moped

There was loads going on, lots of racing, stalls, vendors, lots of tracks, RC racing, various 1:1 racing cars, official scalextric representation...

It was my first time at any sort of club, and newbies were made very welcome and given lots of support on racing by Jon and his two sons Rob and Sam - thanks! - and it was loads of fun! managed to come third out of 6 in most of my magnet races, which I was very pleased with (think it was my racing skills that held me back more than my car tuning, though think I could have done with a bit more accelleration). Even made it to the final - but only because lots of the people who really should have been in it had gone home!! Also thanks to the great marshalling, including a pheonix junior who - when my car came to a halt making a grinding noise, grabbed the car, did something to it, and returned it to the track all in the space of 2 seconds, in perfect working order again!

It was fantastic to have pendle and get-slotted there when after a race you suddenly realised you needed different hubs/tyres/new motor or something! Though pheonix club had a shop of its own on hand too for such emergencies.

Had a go in practice at non mag racing, omg that is very different. Not going to be entering that in a hurry without LOTS of practice. Seeing the qualifying and finals of non-mag racing, driven by people who knew how, was very impressive. A LOT less crashes and offs, which when they occured were less damaging to the cars scenery and marshalls! I can see the arguement for 'this is how slot cars should be raced'. On the other hand - more realistic? The magnet crashes looked more convincing, as did the way they took curves, to me anyway.

A great day

 

[kevin hunter]

just a word of thanks to johnny and all at pheonix for what was an amazing day as me an the lil one have just taken up slot cars this was a great day to see slot car racing and our first "big track!" lil one was absolutely blown away and talkin of blown away he blew away 2 fly vipers and a scalextric renault f1 racing on the "other" tracks !!!! as hes only 8 "corr dad did u see that fly off an crash on the floor" doesnt really hold any monetary significance

just to see his face as shane lynch signed his tvr car and box makes the day !
managed to also spend yet more with the get slotted pendle slot 32
<nice to see they still keeping the british economy bouyant>
nice to see them there too and all the valuable advice they seem to impart without an invoice which is great

on the way home in the car the lil one turns to me and says
"after seeing all those people racing dad were not taking this serious enough"
to which my bank manager at the listening bank replied you are def taking this serious enough !!!!

once again a big thank you to all who worked hard to make this a great day including all the sponsors and stall holders
we truly had a great day and i cant remember having this much fun fully clothed !!
kev an the lil one connor

 

[Difflock]

QUOTE (kevin hunter @ 29 Mar 2004, 12:04)on the way home in the car the lil one turns to me and says
"after seeing all those people racing dad were not taking this serious enough"
What a classic

Kids say the best stuff, apart from the banter between mickl and alfa sometimes!

A shame I wasn't there to meet you guys! I know I don't need to blow sunshine up jonny S 's rear end, but well done for planning the day.

Mark.

 

[Mooster]

A great and memorable day! Many thanks to Jon and the Phoenix crew for all their very hard work, to Adrian and to all the stallholders. It was brilliant to see so many SF folk there, and there was some great racing too. Matt's rally track was another highlight, and I must thank vfr750 for his timely intervention with some Evostik during the mag heats. Nice to have the opportunity to do something charitable too, nice to 'do my bit' by letting the downtrodden Moped beat me in a heat!

A classic!

Mooster

 

[McLaren]

Great day Jonny!

Had a great time checking out all the other stuff you arranged. Tucker's rally track was great (1 - 0 to Inte...) and the other tracks, displays and shops were excellent.

Shame I didn't get to the final though... lol. Before we started racing I thought I was miles off the pace! Beat Inte by a point so that evened things up (1 - 1) but I'd have liked to have a straight race with him. Unfortunatly all my trash talking didn't work and he still won a race,

.

Moped... what can I say?

Again, great day out, same time next year? Or maybe sooner...

Lotus