A Backmarker’s View of the ISRA 2014 Worlds

[Greg N]

Heat 6: Piero just changed tires, lost 2 laps. 2minutes in, Nabokins, Horky, and Raivus tied for the lead. Vojtik is 5 down, Fhyr and Karlik are are running, but out of it. With 3 minutes to go Piero is 1 down. With 2 min to go, you've got all 4 within one lap, but Piero has new tires. Near the end, Piero lost 3, I missed why. At the end, Nabokins is in the lead, Horky is 1 down, Piero 2, and Raivus 3.

[Greg N]

Heat 7: Raivus and Horky with new tires. Horky just lost 6, slow tire change and stopped by mistake in the lap counter. Raivis also with a very slow tire change, now 16 down. So near the end, Nabokins, on old tires leads, Piero is 3 down, Horky 7, everybody else still running, but out of it. At the end, Nabokins is ahead, Piero 4 down, Horky 7.

[Greg N]

Heat 8: Big question is whether Nabokins on white will need to change tires. He has a 4 lap lead. Piero's on red. Nabokins is lapping in the 4.5s (not fast), but Piero's not faster. Horky is hauling a$$ and just passed Piero. With 1 minute, Horky is still 4 laps down.

[Greg N]

Nabokins won, a bunch of Latvians were tossing him in the air for about 45 seconds. In the end, it was Nabokins with 538 laps, Horky 2nd, 2 down, then Piero 6 down and likely out of tires, Recek 10 down, Matti 11 down, Vojtik 13 down, Raivus 19 down, and Jiri Karlik last 20 laps down.

Now it's time to clean the track and start practicing in F1.

That's probably it for the day in terms of reporting. It was a very close race, with Janis Nabokins winning essentially because he made no mistakes.

[zipperi]

Yes, the most stable performance. Congrats!

[Greg N]

Last night we practiced 1/32 F1 till after midnight, then back to the track at 7 am today. Note that the practices are mandatory, well sort of: you don't have to practice, but you do have to marshall after your practice session.

Couple of things worth talking about:

Yesterday I took a nice walk on the Baltic Sea beach near here. Absolutely gorgeous. I've neglected to mention that this country, or at least the area around here, is as clean as Germany used to be 40 years ago. (The Germany of today isn't really so clean anymore, and the trains also no longer run on time. :-) ) No litter on the beach at all, not even a beer can. The raceway venue is wet mopped every morning. The restrooms are always as clean as can be.

In past years, I've written about the Finnish kids. They are now young men and women (except for Artu, who is still a kid) and as always, they are polite and pleasant, and to a person, very fast on the track. The news is that many of the Baltic state newbies are fast, and about half of them are adolescents or young men and women, including three women. Many of them are fast, some very fast. All three of the women are among the fast ones. Very good news for all of us.

Today we had three more school classes here, and last night the news cameras were here for the baby euro finale. I'm sure that they got footage of Nabokins being tossed in the air.

I did poorly today, but it's no big deal. Aside from a really nice two day practice session two weeks ago at the Washington, PA gun club (Ron Culp has his beautiful track there), I hadn't run since a slot car since the Tacoma USRA Nats. Despite the many hours we spend here, we only get 4 minutes practice on each lane prior to qualifying for each class. F1s are just so very different from 1/32 ESs. If you haven't driven either, think maybe hardbody FCRs or sprint car womps on the flat track immediately following the Open-12 race. It took me until the 3rd lane of the race to finally drive my car correctly. I couldn't get on it in qualifying, and I never got fast, but would have gotten much faster if I were to race again now.

This brings me to the last point for today: Not just for back-markers like me, but really for all of us US ISRA drivers, with the exception of maybe Paul G, but maybe not even him, we need to run 1/32 ES and 1/32 F1 (and preferably Team/A Production) regularly monthly if we intend to do well in events like this. The ever so popular sequence of 3 near identical classes B-prod, Open-12, and 1/24 ES will not help us get better on an international level. And we do need to get much better. The best ISRA drivers in the world are right here in this room with me. I propose that all of the US ISRAs groups change to the 4 world ISRA classes starting next year, and that we drop JRL, B-Production, and Open-12.

Now that you all think that I'm totally nuts, I'll sign off. I have the morning off tomorrow, but will be back on-line for the 1/32 F1 A-semi and the main right after that, so about 3am Eastern.

Greg

[Wallbasher]

Greg per your above post. Where is that hard corner? before going under the bridge or the turn before the lead on?

[Greg N]

Rob,

See my post in the photos thread.

Greg

[Greg N]

Sorry for the rant about US ISRA last night. Now you guys probably don't want to read this anymore.

Nothing special in the 1/32 F1 Semis, with one big exception: Paul G came in 9th overall, 1 1/2 laps back. I'm sad about this, as he's driving really well, I think.

A little good news: Olli Kantamaa, one of the Finnish kids, and Chris Bruyninx, obviously Belgian by the name, but also long-time friend of many Great Lakes ISRA racers both made the main. Chris was in A semi, and finished, I think 3rd, and Olli was the only one who moved up from the B semi. As almost always, no one moved up from the C Semi.

The main is all usual fast guys, otherwise: Matti Fyhr is the 2nd Finn, then Paolo Trigillio and El Bandito Castricone from Italy, Janis Nabokins and Raivis Jansons from Latvia, and Vladimir Horky as the only Czech. Can't remember a Worlds main with only one Czech.

Race starts in maybe 10 minutes.

[Greg N]

Some good news: Yesterday, Stanislav Polic started breathing on his own and moving a hand. Still asleep. His daughter is here with him. As before, if you believe in prayer, consider some for him.

[Greg N]

And the 1/32 F1 main is about to start: photos, parade laps, etc.

Olli and Matti are red and white, Horky and Raivis are on purple and black.

[Greg N]

Midway thru the first, Matti is off, changing a gear or tires.

[Greg N]

20 secs later Paolo blows a gear,

[Greg N]

At the end of 1: Nabokins turning 4.8s on orange, Matti 10 down, Paolo 16. Everybody else is 2-3 back.

[Greg N]

Heat 2: Clean heat, couple of simple offs. Nabokins in first. Piero 2 back, Matti 12, Paolo 16 back. The rest 4-6 back. Nabokins doing multiple 5.0s on white.

10 secs to go, Nabokins blows a gear. Castricone now 2 up, but Nabokins will lose 7-12 more, I'm thinking.