OWH's "Almost Live" 2004 USRA Wing Nats Coverage

[oldweirdherald]

http://www.oldweirdherald.com/2004USRADiv1Nats/2004USRAWingNats.gif

OWH will be on hand this week at the 2004 USRA Wing (Div I) Nats at Slot Cars International in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The Wing Nats will take place beginning Friday July 23 through Sunday August 1, 2004.

As usual, we will have current race results, commentary, discussion, etc. (as well as the usual "attaboys") right here in the dedicated OWH Race Coverage Forum. As in the Scale Nats coverage - all the results will be in the top post of each thread, with each class getting it's own thread. This worked out real well - making it very easy to find each class, and even easier to find the actual race results up on top - with all the commentary following.

We will also have links here to the special Wing Nats Photo Gallery, where we will be posting photos throughout the week. Much thanks once again to Tony Hobart (THOBART) and Roger Schmitt (strombecker67) for their continued afforts of posting numerous galleries full of race photos on the OWH Gallery. Tony has also been a big help on many of my computer and web problems as well.

OWH is proud to announce that ProSpeed Racing Products is sponsoring OWH's coverage of this year's Wing Nats - helping to make it possible to bring you news and photos from the racing, for those who can't be there in person, and those who want to follow the racing of friends and fellow slot car racers.

A BIG thanks to Prospeed!!!

http://www.oldweirdherald.com/2004USRADiv1Nats/logopro.jpg

http://www.slotcar1.com/

Check out the OWH 2004 USRA Wing Nats Photo Gallery every day for new photos to be posted throughout the Nats!


Nats Photo Gallery #1 (http://www.oldweirdherald.com/photos/gallery/2004_USRA_Wing_Nats?page=1)

Nats Photo Gallery #2 (http://www.oldweirdherald.com/photos/gallery/2004_USRA_Wing_Nats_2)

USRA Nats Schedule (http://www.usra.us/nats.htm)

[Slotracer152]

glad to see that you will be making it Paul...I was starting to wonder...this year will be a lot easier for you with the dedicated, high-speed, wireless connection

make sure to remind me to take you to the Metro Diner....its the one on Rout 66 that is pictured on the wall of the Port Jeff women's bathroom

[oldweirdherald]

Chili,

I am a very big fan of Diners - I would love to go there! And on Route 66!!! I'll be sure to bring my camera.

Can you save me a nice spot for OWH's "Field Office" - laptop & photo booth, etc.???

Off in the corner out of the main flow of frantic pit traffic would be great, if possible.

I look forward to the wireless high speed connection. I have my Linksys wireless card in my laptop, and Tony H will have his laptop and hook me up as well. I'll even have a couple webcams, but I don't know if we will be able to handle enough of a connection for that or not.

See ya Thursday!

[Zippity]

I'll be sitting here eagerly awaiting each day's informative race report and accompanying photographs.

A web cam sounds like a great idea :)


Ron

[oldweirdherald]

Nats or Bust!

I'm on my way!!!

http://www.oldweirdherald.com/owh.GIF


Hey fellow geeks & geezers!
Check out the new cover page for OWH!!!

Old Weird Herald - gets a face lift! (http://www.oldweirdherald.com/)

The tummy tuck & butt lift are coming soon! :p

[prologix]

Paul K - The face lift has been a long time in coming. I like it.

[JoeD]

Originally posted by oldweirdherald
Nats or Bust!

I'm on my way!!!

http://www.oldweirdherald.com/owh.GIF


Hey fellow geeks & geezers!
Check out the new cover page for OWH!!!

Old Weird Herald - gets a face lift! (http://www.oldweirdherald.com/)

The tummy tuck & butt lift are coming soon! :p


Paul, definitely like the new look!

[Slapshot]

Remember we drive on the right side of the road whilst driving to the Nats in the OWH mobile.

http://www.oldweirdherald.com/images/comic-header.jpg


http://www.oldweirdherald.com/images/BETTY57.GIF

[oldweirdherald]

Well I'm now "Livin' In Tulsa Time!

I just got to Tulsa, at 3:15 Tulsa Time - and it's at least 90 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. This dry heat is not like back home in wetsville, where it's been a nice comfy 72 - 80 drgrees lately, so it will take some getting used to.

I'm at Slotcars International now - and Chili just fired up the wireless router, and BINGO - I'm now online.

OWH's computer guru is here with laptops,scanner, printer, digital camera, and all the tech support I could ever need, along with Roger Schmitt with his trusty digital camera - so we should have plenty of pics all week.

First priority was to sample the food from the walk up window for Donnie's Burgers!

Uh oh..... either I should have knocked on wood, or my custom wound, unobtanium multi-magnet, hard drive - must have been pulling down too many amps.... cuz we just had a blackout here.

:(

After a little break in the action (and the sounds of whining motors breaking in), power was restored, and everyone was back inside from their smoke break , and back to breaking in motors and thrashing.

Working on photos now - Roger already has some pics, so I'm getting the software to read his photo disks, and should have some loaded to the Nats Photo Gallery here soon....

[Zippity]

Hey Paul,

Gonna post some "puting faces to names" photos?? :) :)

Hope you are having fun :)

[oldweirdherald]

Tony just uploaded the first batch of photos to the Nats Photo Gallery.

Photos will be from 2 cameras - the first ones by Roger & Colin Schmitt, and then some from me.

Tony's got the hookup for fast uploading the pics now, so we'll be posting pics from his laptop, while I'll go hide soon on a table I found in the corner of the back room to put some captions on photos and post race results.

Here's the link once again, for those of you with short attention spans or scroll bar resistanse:

OWH's 2004 USRA Wing Nats Photo Gallery (http://www.oldweirdherald.com/photos/gallery/2004_USRA_Wing_Nats)

[Zippity]

for the events being contested??

I know that it is probably in one of the forums, but I just can't find it :( :(

[SpaceCowboy]

Great pictures Mom. Hope to see more. Please let the group from Red Jack's in Cary, NC we said good luck in thier events. That is Jeff, Spencer, Mark and Brent. I hope everyone has a good time.;)

[LSS]

I see Greg is wasting no time!!!

Lorin
:D :D :D

[Bill Fulmer]

Originally posted by Zippity
for the events being contested??

I know that it is probably in one of the forums, but I just can't find it :( :(

You have to go to the USRA homepage and link into national championships page. Bill

[prologix]

Ripped from the USRA web site just for Zippy.

Friday, July 23
SPEC 15
Rules Pre-meeting
6 AM to midnight
Registration for Spec-15 at 7 AM. Motors to be handed out at 7:30 AM. Tech opens at 9:30 AM and closes at 10:30. Qualifying and racing starts at 11 AM. USRA pre-meeting will follow the Spec-15 race at location TBA. Practice for only group 12 classes will follow the Spec-15 race.

Saturday, July 24
Amateur GROUP 12
6 AM to midnight
Tech opens at 9 AM and closes at 10 AM. Qualifying and racing to begin at 11 AM. PRO GROUP 12 practice to follow.

Sunday, July 25
PRO GROUP 12
GR 27 warm-up
6 AM to midnight
Tech opens at 9 AM and closes at 10 AM. Qualifying and racing to begin at 11 AM. GR 27 warm-up race follows. International 15 and COBALT 12 practice to follow G27 warm-up.

Monday, July 26
AM and PRO International 15
8 AM to midnight
Tech opens at 10 AM and all (AM and PRO ) qualifying and racing to begin 11 AM. COBALT 12 and GROUP 27 practice to follow.

Tuesday, July 27
AM and PRO COBALT 12
8 AM to midnight
Tech opens at 10 AM and all ( AM and PRO ) qualifying and racing to begin 11 AM. GROUP 27 and GROUP 7 practice to follow.

Wed., July 28
GEEZER 7,
GROUP 7 warm-up
USRA General meeting
6 AM to midnight
Tech for geezer opens at 8 AM, closes at 9 AM. Qualifying and racing to start at 9 AM. USRA general meeting to start 30 minutes after conclusion of geezer race. Tech for GROUP 7 warm-up will open 2 hours after conclusion of meeting and will close 1 hour afterwards. Qualifying and racing to follow. Practice for GROUP 27 to follow.

Thursday, July 29
AM GROUP 27
8 AM to midnight
Tech opens at 10 AM. Qualifying and racing to begin at 11 AM. PRO 27 practice to follow.

Friday, July 30
PRO GROUP 27
6 AM to midnight
Tech opens at 10 AM. Qualifying and racing to begin at 11 AM. GROUP 7 practice to follow.

Saturday, July 31
SEMI PRO GROUP 7
6 AM to midnight
Tech opens at 10 AM. Qualifying and racing to begin at 11 AM. GROUP 7 practice to follow.

Sunday, August 1
PRO GROUP 7
6 AM to midnight
Tech opens at 10 AM Qualifying and racing to begin at 11 AM

[Slotracer152]

I just stopped by the track on my way to work and they are about to get SPEC 15 underway

[Fredman]

saw the captions under the pics of Greg Mills: that's not what I would be thinking.........

[prologix]

Those are nice chairs.

[Slotracer152]

Greg bought that chair and keeps it here...it usually stays at my apartment when he's not here...Greg hates it when I tell him about sitting naked in it

uh oh....gotta go charge "mom" for track time

[Chubby]

51 entries am box

joe sss

[J Diamond]

Hey joe how did you know there is 51 entries. Thats a lot of people. How many were at Maryland last year?

[Chubby]

53 entries

[Slotracer152]

race director is going to get $102 for his or her job...thats not bad

[oldweirdherald]

Hot Dam!

And who says you can't make money in this hobby!

But before you give up the day job and drop out of college....

have you calculated what that comes out to per hour by chance?

Let's see.... it's now about 1:30 AM and they're in the Semi now.... that's 16 hours and counting.....

How much is that per hour? :D


I don't think anyone does this to get rich - it's gotta be either love for the hobby..... or some form of masochistic dimentia! :p

[purple haze]

Originally posted by oldweirdherald

I don't think anyone does this to get rich - it's gotta be either love for the hobby..... or some form of masochistic dimentia! :p

Sometimes I believe they are one and the same!

Awesome coverage Mom .... almost as good as being there.
Now ... if you can email one of Donnie's burgers .... I'm hungry! LOL

Track surface looks very inviting ... nice glue trails on the lead-on ... and it's only Group 12! Looking sweet!

Nice job by the Mid-Atlantic crowd! Third qualifier, good runs in the lower races, and two places in the main! Roman must be very proud :D

[Zippity]

Guys,

Thanks for the great feedback and answer to my question about the Nats race programme.

I know that you will probably tell me to go read the rules, but I am wondering how long the breaks are between semis, consis, and individual heats etc. What time is actually spent on the track racing, what time is spent "gooing" the track, what time is spent just muckin' about? :)

If one event takes all day and most of the next night to run, what is happening out there? :) :)

Anyone care to explain to an ignorant "non-wing car" racer? :D :D




Ron

[Slotracer152]

thank you Paul...you did a wonderful job and we couldn't have done it without you

you set a new record for most people on your board at one time...124 people watching the main....thats impressive

[weedracer]

"you set a new record for most people on your board at one time...124 people watching the main...."

I was watching that myself...beat it by one viewer.

Great coverage and pics Paul, thanks.

[Aubin 3 sixteen]

Zippity - the amount of time between heats is 3 minutes for all races except main events where it is 4 minutes. The amount of racing varies depending on the class. For example Group 7 is 5 minutes per heat in the main, 3 in the semi and 2 (I think) in the quarters. Group 12 is 3 minutes in the main and 2 in all other races. Others range in between. Track calls take twice as long as either the racing or intermissions, depending on the grapefruits of the race director.

[Zippity]

Appreciated :) :)