American Flat Track Worlds race experience

**"Dub" Wade** · 07-17-2013, 04:10 PM

Got into Puyallup Monday night and hung out with the Colvins whos room was next to ours.
Had a great time hanging out with the neighbors, Colvins, Mr. 3rd eye and Jay all week.

1st race was Thursday night. I was offered a car to run by Tom Hansen for Retro Can-Am.
Fortunately, I hit the jackpot on that car. It was awesome.
I TQ's and set the track record with it. Led about half the race battling with Dale and Tom most of the race. The last couple heats Tom drove incredibly, and beat Dale and I by 2 laps. Dale got me by about a half a lap. Very close racing. Thanks for the great car Tom

Next was Nascar Friday night. I was having a some speed issues, and handling issues with this car. It had to be a chassis that the motor mounts on top of the chassis. So I ran Odies Cheetah 21. It wasnt handling great and had a turd motor, so I bought a new motor and gave it to Mike Colvin who set it up great. Ran a couple laps, new it was good and put it away.
Qualifying came and Radford set a time well above the old track record and I qualified 2nd also above the old track record. It was fun tight racing. Unfortunately, in the 4th heat my Hawk 7 went up in smoke. Nothing more frustrating than losing the crap shoot on a crap shoot motor class, but it was fun while it lasted.

Saturday was the start of the long days of racing.
1st was JRL, another class I have never raced. I ran a loaner chassis from Hermanator. It was an HNR chassis. Seemed to handle well, but Im not familiar with the class. I ran a .540 45° Superwasp in a redfox can, proslot endbell and mura red dot mags. Felt good. Seemed strong enough to win. I think I ended up finishing 7th. I'll be building a car for nats and getting to know the class a little better in hopes of doing better at nats.

The next class was LMP.
I ran another chassis of Odies and put a new Hawk 7 in it. The car handled fine. The motor was slow, but I didnt want to buy another motor, so I just raced it for trigger time. I had a hard time avoiding crashes in this class and the body was a problem for most of the race. I finished poorly I believe.

Next was a class I like. Built motors and something I race often. GTP. Ran a redfox fighter long, most of the other guys were running Bentleys, but I was comfortable with my car. Lee went out and set a new track record and I qualified shortly after him. I ran a 3.6something and Lee informed me I was the only person besides him to qaul in the 3.6s besides him. I was feeling pretty good, but then I think 3 more qual'd in the 3.6s. Still a good A main car. Honestly, I dont remember what happened in this race, but I dont think I did well. Probably just out driven by the locals. I do remember it being a blast though. Great way to end the 1st big day of racing.

Finally Sunday
1st up was 1/32 Euro, another class I have never raced before. I tried one of my experimental motors, and it seemed good. I borrowed a Horky chassis from Radford and Im positive I didnt set the guide height right. The car was very tippy. I had to tip toe around every corner. I did terrible! I will be working very hard on this class before nats as well.

Next was a class I love. GT12
I ran the new PMP chassis and a motor I used last year. The car got maybe 5 practice laps. It was perfect from the start.
I qualified 2nd behind Dale and was happy with that. Got into the race and struggled a little in the gutters. In the 4th heat I noticed the car slowing alot and acting weird. Didnt notice anything in the lane change, but when the heat restarted, Bill clemens pointed out something was broke on the front of the chassis. I broke the bracket that holds the front of the pan down. Went and soldered the pan solid to the center. I finished the race like that, bit it was much slower. Again, crashing into cars is my greatest challenge.

1/24 Euro.
This class was all experimental with a new chassis, and new experimental motor. I didnt qualify well, I tried to go straight up and almost took Alicia's head off. So all I got was my 1st couple heavily choked laps in. Got me in the B main. The race started out as a crash fest, but I felt like I had a great car. Handled awesome and the motor was way better than expected. Attrition hit this main hard. There were 3 of us on the track until I ran out of Motor brush. Then there was just 2 cars until Jay got my not very good back up motor in the car. I finished 3rd in my main, but poorly overall.
I learned alot about my Euro motors and plan to have some killer stuff for Nats. So I was actually really happy with what I learned in the race. Gotta thank Grampa and Jay for pitting my car for me between heats.

Howard Smith of 3rd Eye did some upgrades to my controller. The controller was smoother and felt faster than before. Definitely get in contact with him for his new wiper resister and brake pot. They are awesome.

PMP chassis exceeded my expectations for handling and speed. I do feel like it was the best chassis on the track for GT12 and Euro. I could drive it really hard in both classes, they were on rails.

Now the highlight of the entire weekend was Diane's chicken. The crew at Pacific fed us great, but Diane's chicken was incredible, the only downfall Is I ate so much I wanted a nap before 1/24 Euro.
I might be able to convince a few more racers to make it to Nats in the spring, but only if there will be more of Diane's chicken!

All in all it was a great event as usual. It ran smoother than any race Ive been to. Had a great number of entries with alot of quality racers. Very limited amounts of poor sportsmanship, Jim did a great job of keeping everyone in check. I have made every "Flats" race since Pacific has been open and it keeps getting better. It is a permanent race on my yearly calender.