A Backmarker’s View of the 2016 ISRA Worlds – Chicago

[Ben Taxel]

Greg, Thanks for the great coverage! Always look forward to your reporting, only thing better would actually being there...

[Frankie]

Another Back Marker from the World Championship here. Our team results were not what we hoped, though my team mate Kevin Wisniewski and myself had an awesome time none the less. Kevin was a great team mate, a good driver and handled the World Championship stress better than I did. The experience and the lessons learned can’t be found anywhere else than right there at the event. We had no shortage of help from back markers like ourselves to past World Champions giving us tips, no one snubbed their noses at the new guys.

Greg Norris took the time to walk me through the entire process of how practice and qualifying works and how to figure out the practice schedule without a secret decoder ring. The entire process is not as easy as one might think. And they wait for no one, if you’re not there for your practice, you miss the practice round. No exceptions for anyone.

We had a stressful tech, my bad. Our motor was soldered too low in the car, after the nice tech guy (Gavin Wills) checked it about 4 times, he bounced us in tech. I mis-interpreted the rules, knew it was a few thousands low but figured it was okay, I was wrong. The procedure is wild, they impound your car until the entire field has passed through tech. At that point they give you your car and you have 5 minutes to fix the problem and place your car on the tech table. If your late or you don’t pass tech the second time, you go home without racing. No grey area for the new guys like in local racing.

Greg Norris to the rescue! Greg hauled everything he needed right over to the tech area. With the help of Rob Voska, he re-soldered the motor, sanded the gear edge, put the car back together. Handed me the car with 2 seconds to spare and Roger Schmitt screaming “put the car on the f#$^% table Frankie”, I threw the car at the tech bench where it landed on the table as the clock hit zero. We passed!!

Many thanks to all that helped us, my team mate Kevin and especially Greg Norris. And to all our new friends we made, see you folks next year in Italy.

[Mike K]

Great report as always. We will miss the BackMarker reports in the future. As a spectator my two best moments were the last ten seconds of E24 qualifying when Horky came off and then had enough time for one more lap.... To TQ! And the last seconds of the final when Casey Scott had a chance to move into second.

Best quote from the BackMarker -"The collective weight of the drivers is perhaps 500 pounds less than at a usual US slot car race."

Enjoy your "retirement" Greg. See you at the NATS!

[Greg N]

Thanks so much guys!!

The ISRA Worlds is just an amazing show. I recommend it to anyone interested in scale racing. Next year will be in Italy. I haven't heard yet where it will be the year after, but I'm guessing Finland. Both will be great races! Highly recommended!

Frankie,

We had a great time! That business at the tech table was part of the show. You neglected to note that the motor did not fall out during the race. I was really worried about that!!

You should've seen it up there when so many of the 1/24 Euros' bodies weren't right. Wilder yet, but everybody got through. Actually, as far as I know, nobody got bounced out this year.

Greg

[kevgray]

Can't find any results on the official web site, so I've published my version on my Club web site at -

http://www.lslots.co.uk/isra2016.php

Results taken from Lapmaster output (phew!!) and checked in collaboration with Mia Ekman, so I think they're not far out.

Some great stories Greg.