[Mcewan]

Trucks Round 1 - 11th July 2017

Breaker breaker one-nine this here's the Rubber Duck. Any of you Smokeys got your ears on, come back?
That's a ten-four good buddy, we got the front door all they way to flag town…

Our first race night with the new Scalextric Trucks and the early signs in practice were pointing towards a horrible session as every racer struggled to get to grips with their truck. Keeping it in the slot, keeping the momentum to get around the hairpins were the main challenging tasks.

Then the racing started and to everyone's surprise the expected carnage never arrived. Despite still being difficult to drive the trucks have a very short learning curve. Everyone had gotten to grips with them within the first few laps. Some even became Master Truckers!

RichP had the smoothest handling ride and cruised all four of his races to comfortable wins to take the overall win on the night.

Rick and Leon had the fastest trucks and could have easily challenged RichP if they could have kept their Trucks in the slot. Rick beat Leon in both of their race meetings, Leon's truck had the nasty habit of stalling at each hairpin costing him valuable time. So Leon had to settle for third place overall whilst Rick took second.

Keith's truck had a little of both, good handling and a burst of speed when he needed it, making him difficult to overtake as he drove, sorry 'trucked' his way to fourth place.

RichF was off the pace in his first race and by his second was suffering deslots going down the main straight. Having not had the opportunity (since last November&#8230 to do some tuning, his front wheels were in desperate need of truing up. They were a little oversized and crucially had a large hump taking them out of round. Working his magic with a scalpel, the tyres were crudely brought back into round. What a difference it made, in his next race he was right on the pace. He even led the race for a period and challenged Leon for second only to come up a lap short at the flag. The problems in the first two races held him back on the points so he had to share fourth place overall with Keith.

Clive began the racing with a truck that struggled to even move. The problem was the rear tyres rubbing on their mud guards. As Rick had already dispensed with his, Clive quickly set about them with some side cutters. With rear wheels now free to turn he was back in the fight and just fell off the track a few times more than the others, in the end coming sixth overall.

A strong 9.7 seconds lap gives RichF the bonus point to put him on equal points with Leon..

Overall standings after round 1 reflect the nights results.

Despite not being able to challenge for a win, fastest lap honours went to Leon with Rick just four thousandths of a second behind - much to his annoyance. A stable truck in the mid 9′s is enough to challenge for a win at the moment. But can anyone push the lap times down to the sub 9′s by the end of the year?

It's going to be a tall order, but I wouldn't rule it out just yet.

Glad to see the back of these? No chance!

 

[Rick Sirrom]

PhaHa!
Fun write up Leon & a Really Fun Race Night, which requires quite conciderable Slot Skill too.

You Blinking, Blinking Pain in the Butt - Fastest Lap Wise !

Man - We gonna have to ring the necks off them for a maybe, maybe possible Sub 9'scnd Lap !

Excellent, Excellent Fun Thanks Guys - Rk 👍 ✌

 

[GRUNZ]

Cool stuff! What tyres are you guys using on the back?

 

[Mcewan]

All parts on these trucks are stock. Just trued the rears and treated with some oil.

The only modifications we allowed was to split the front axle so it's independent and at the last minute we allowed the rear mudguards to be removed from the chassis as it was causing some tyres to rub.

 

[Mr Modifier]

The rubber on these trucks is really grippy and responds well to light oil. Something that Scalextric have actually got right.

It's a shame the guide is so far up out of the slot on these trucks - they need work on the front to make them corner well.

 

[Rick Sirrom]

This is where a Busy tyre lathe would be Great isn't it.
Be able to lathe the front tyres down, to drop the guide fully in the slot 👍

It's just to Blo#dy an Expensive bit of kit!

 

[Rick Sirrom]

Busy! Spell Check -
I meant Hudy ......

 

[GRUNZ]

Thanks Leon and Richard for the answers.

Actually I want to try the front axle split on the fly trucks to see if I can improve their performance.

 

[Mr Modifier]

Hi Gio,

I recently did a thread on the axle split. I hope to post detailed photos in a few days.

Search split axle and it should come up.

 

[GRUNZ]

Hi Richard

I know. I think it is pretty clear already.

g

 

[Rick Sirrom]

These Trucks Are FUN @ Suprisingly Quick

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https://youtu.be/JMLNb5cbpCg​

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~

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[Mcewan]

Trucks Round 2 - 8th August 2017

A healthy grid turned out for round two of Trucks, the big wheelers proving to be very popular. Club jet-setter RichP needed to leave early to catch a plane so we wasted no time and got straight down to business.

The first race had the current class leader RichP struggling to stay ahead of Keith who chased him down all the way to the flag but eventually finishing one lap ahead to take the win with Keith second. Clive and Gareth also had a close fight until Gareth's truck started stalling at points around the track, so Clive took third and Gareth fourth.

Second race was a title showdown as RichP, Rick and Leon looked to out pace each other. Early leads by Rick and Leon were soon overhauled by RichP who never put a wheel off the circuit all race. RichP eventually taking the win two laps ahead of Rick and Leon who were both fighting on the same lap all race. With Leon chasing Rick into the final bend it wasn't going to be enough as Rick took second place with Leon one second behind him for third. Gareth had his second fourth place with more power issues, looked like his braids were not making good contact.

Third race was another chance for Leon to get one over on Rick, this time with Keith in the middle of it. All three racers took turns to lead the race until Rick managed to build up a lap lead. In the final minutes Leon was closing in on Rick with Keith closing in on Leon. As they raced side by side going around Pen Mawr they touched and spun off the track into the armco. This gave Rick the breathing space he needed to secure the win. Leon fought off the challenge of Keith to take second with Keith third and Clive fourth having done well to keep out of the way of the Trucks knocking each other off.

Race four had Leon up against RichP and not fancying his chances whilst Gareth had got his braid issues under control. Leon got the start he wanted and knew he couldn't make a single mistake, which he didn't. This put the pressure on RichP to catch up and inevitably he crashed a few times eventually falling two laps back and having to be more concerned of the threat from Keith in third. Leon finally took his first win over RichP in this class with RichP just keeping Keith at bay for second. Keith takes third with Gareth back in fourth again but this time managing six laps more than his previous best.

Race five was round two of the title showdown as the RichP, Rick and Leon faced each other again tonight. This time RichP was absolutely flawless, getting the good start and staying in the slot the whole race to take an easy victory and hit a whopping 70 laps, three more than anyone else had managed all night. Leon and Rick again raced each other on the same lap the whole race, changing places constantly but this time it was Leon's turn to come out ahead as he took second place with Rick third just half a lap behind. Clive coming in fourth place but this time just four laps off third as he creeps his way ever closer to getting in the mix.

The final race just needed Rick to take the win to finish ahead of Leon on the night, which he comfortably did. Keith and Clive had a battle over second place, as they exchanged places all race and Clive holding the position going into the last minute. A couple of off's on the same lap saw Keith cruise by Clive and hold it to the end. Clive settling for third with Keith in second. Gareth coming in fourth but had more braid issues as he finished twelve laps down on third place.

RichP takes the win with Rick in second and Leon third. Keith is unlucky to finish fourth as he was harrying the leaders all night but at least he takes the bonus point for his troubles. Clive finishes one place ahead of Gareth in fifth.

RichP now takes a strong lead going into the next round. Rick is the only one close enough to worry him at the moment but that could all easily change as there are another three rounds to go yet. Keith is keeping in touch with Leon just one point behind. Clive has a nice gap over the rest in fifth as the others have already dropped their one round score.

Only Keith is able to better his personal best lap time in round two. Some of the others left wondering if the voltage was turned down as they were way off the pace from round one. It was however, the same...

 

[Mr Modifier]

Good report Leon.

I'm a good three tenths off you and Rick but I guess consistency is the key with this class. My guide is still not fully in the slot even with the tyres trued down to slicks. Such poor design from Hornby.

This class is great fun and I must admit I prefer 9 second laps to the 7 second laps of LMPs.

 

[Rick Sirrom]

I tubed my front axle with the totally wrong type & size tubing!

& i've yet to split my axle, so i'm expecting to get faster

Guys = I've Totally Run Out Of Broadband Allowance on my phone & My'Fi until Next Wk'end,

so you won't hear from me on our Club WhatsApp for a while.

Excellent, Excellent Racing These Trucks / Such Close Racing

 

[GRUNZ]

Nice report, Leon.

I imagine that nerfing the truck on the other slot is not that difficult with these beast.

How do you guy manage this situation? Do you allow nerfing or you policy it some how?

 

[Mr Modifier]

Hi Gio,

Surprisingly these trucks, although about as wide as possible, are actually very difficult to nerf off even in a hairpin. They tend to rattle around and look really unstable BUT they seem to hop in and out of the slot and amazingly they stay in as often as they come out.

With some classes it is possible to "lean" on the car on the outside of the bend and force it out but with the trucks it seems to be more difficult.

Maybe because they are so close they don't get a "run up" at the other car.

The way we play it at our club is if the cars are fairly evenly matched on speed into a corner and there is no lane changer then any incident is a racing incident and allowable. If a car enters a bend impossibly fast with the intent of using the other car as an aid to cornering then we tend to call it and the offender either has to give back the place or suffer a stop-go penalty. Our club members are pretty fair about it so there is no acrimony. They are toy cars after all 😜

 

[GRUNZ]

I see...quite interesting dynamic.

I hear what you say about they are toy cars after all. I notice that this is true until they get on the track (or people start to discuss about them on a forum) then people forget they are only toys

 

[Mcewan]

I wouldn't say we allow it, but if the cars (or trucks) are on different lanes then it is always classed as a race incident. To be fair we are lucky because everyone keeps it nice and clean and if it happens its usually an accident or race incident rather than deliberate.

If you knock someone off in front of you, you can either wait on track to give back the position but if it isn't possible then you take a stop go penalty.

 

[Mcewan]

I didn't see Mr Modifiers post before I made mine

 

[GRUNZ]

At the beginning, I was also using the policy that nerfing was part of the racing.

But there is one guy that does it really well or when he overtakes does not care for the other cars.

So I changed the rule: both of the cars (the nerfer and the nerfed) get a damage point but the positions are re-established (usually the nerfed goes in front of the nerfer).

The idea that both gets a damage point is that the nerfed could change speed to avoid to be parallel with the potential nerfer.

This is especially true when the overtaken car is in blue flag.

I am not saying that this rule is bullet proof but has changed the attitude of some of the drivers.