A Backmarker’s View of the ISRA Worlds 2013, Kiev , Ukraine

[Wallbasher]

Peiro flying about .15 faster than the rest..... does he have time?

[Greg N]

Heat 7: Karlik on black, Castricone flying on green, Horky on yellow. Michael got warned for unsportsman-like conduct, don't know why (there were no raised voices) and promptly dropped out. He'd been in 7th. Dunis had a hard red. Going into the final heat, you've got Horky in the lead, Karlik down 1, Piero down 2. Karlik lost 2 laps to both Hory and Piero, but he was on black.

[Wallbasher]

Piero flying but crashed & lost a few.

[Greg N]

Mid 8th: Horky ending on orange, Karlik yellow, Piero blue. Horky and Karlik tied, Piero down 3. Great race!

[Greg N]

It's over. Horky and Karlik ran the whole heat within a few feet of each other, until Karlik fell off pushing really hard. So it's Horky 1st, Karlik second 1 down, Piero (who stopped with a 30 secs to go, a really good sport!) down 9. Don't know the rest yet, as they're fussing with the computer. Leaders now being teched.

Greg

[Greg N]

Horky 499.27
Karlik 498.30
Castricone 490.84
Recek 483.32
Dunis 476.77
Bruyninx 471.71
Vojcik 467.94
Landrud 362.00

More tomorrow. Hope you liked that final!

Greg

[Tmoore]

Exciting reporting Greg. Thanks!

.. now back to my spreadheets ..

Tony

[Greg N]

Everybody's through tech and qualifying just started in F1.

Two additions to the 1/32ES report:

1) I checked: Michael Landrud's warning and his dropping out were no big deal for either him or the race director. He'd changed axle bearings between races and inadvertently soldered his rear axle to one of the bearings. He blew a gear, and in trying to get the axle out he was slamming his car (the rear axle) into the driver's panel. So he got warned and told to stop. He tried for a few seconds further to get it out, realized that it was soldered in tight and decided to drop out.

2) Dunis knocked off one of his front chassis ears in a crash during the final. It was found at post-race tech: it was riding around stuck to the front magnet of Jiri Karlik's car.

Greg

[GearBear]

Great job reporting Greg! Sounds like you are having a great time... Good luck in the rest of your racing!

[Greg N]

Thanks, Gary!

The C semi is running. We've got Andrey Remmel (Russia, I think), Peter Taurins (Latvia), Janis Rage-Ragis (Latvia), Jan Zemlicka (Czech), Anders (Gus) Gustavsson (Sweden), Peteris Dunis (the fast Latvian kid from the other night), Maxim Tretyak (Ukraine), and Antonio Merlini (Italy). Half way through it's Zemlicka in the lead, Dunis 2 down, Rage-Ragis 3 down, and Remmel 4 down.

After a disastrous time in the heat races, the entire US team is out. Mechanical problems for many of us, and additional slow driving by me were the causes. In Paul's case, he was driving well, but his chassis wasn't working properly.

Greg

[Greg N]

Three of them are kids, and Rage-Ragis is the only gray hair, tho he's the craziest gray hair in the ISRA community, probably really any community. :-)

As an aside, the speeds that these guys are driving the F1s around this truly tough track are amazing. There are 3 to 5 fall offs per 4 minute heat total, and those mostly on black and purple. And it's only the C-Semi.

[Greg N]

I forgot, you'd asked me about all of the disqualifications in the team production race. That was also simpler than it probably seems from the outside.

After the races, the top 3 cars undergo detailed tech. 1 car was disqualified. But the next 3 (I think) that were teched (in order to find a third place) all failed, too. So it was decided to tech all of the cars. Of them, a total of, I think, 4 more were also illegal, hence the high number of disqualifications. Most were for front axle diameter (1 mm carbon fiber rod is actually 0.8 or 0.9 mm diameter) and for ground magnets. You're allowed to grind the can, but you can't touch the magnets.

As to why this wasn't picked up pre-race, the front axles should have been. The cans are harder. Currently you're allowed to run glued gears in production. You can't remove the rear axle on a production car without unsoldering the motor.

As to why you'd want to run an axle/gear combo that you can't change in a 60 minute slot car race, I don't have a clue. :-)

[Greg N]

Zemlicka 338.38
Dunis 328.89
Remmel 325.14
Taurins 316.40
Gustavsson 312.66
Tretyak 310.93
Rage-Ragis 271.00
Merlini 206.00


Greg

[Greg N]

If you compare Jan Zemlicka's 338 here with Raivus Jansons 385 in winning the C semi in 1/32 ES you can see how fast they're going.

In the B semi it's Castricone (Italy), Raivus Jansons (Latvia), Pavel Flaisig (Czech), Jiri Karlik (Czech), Andrey Zhabanov (Russia), Gavin Wills (England), Sandis Spricis (Latvia), and Alex Leite (Brazil).

Gavin is an interesting story. He wasn't in Chicago, so most of you won't know him. He's only been racing for a couple of years, and progressing rapidly. He's a huge fan of funny car drag racing, even took a course in the US on driving them. He also is the director of a large and successful Formula 2 (1:1) racing team. He missed the team race because he was at Monza, where his cars ddi great, I think 1st and 2nd. Personally he is very quiet, polite, and very nice.

Greg

[Greg N]

Half way through the b-semi you've got Piero projected at 333, Flaisig at 331, Zhabanov at 328.

Greg