Cruzin' @ SCR '06 Scale NATS

[CruzinBob]

It was rather hard leaving a sunny Ventura beach Wednesday after so much rain but fast cars and women were waiting in NorCal...well maybe fast cars anyhoo...

Arrived @ SCR @ about noon to equally beautiful skies Pulled in to find Steve Forsyth waiting at the door...sign says open @ 3 PM Steve Green Flag Racing had already laid claim to prime RV parking but we then negotiated for better spots still!

Frank has the store extra clean and stocked very well. He displays his usual very enthusiastic and racy attitude! Biz has been good says Frank...is it the NATS or is it the weather?!

Lots of folks on hand today checking in, laying claims and taking names...local hot shoe Ron Southern suspiciously eyed the crowd. Herman came to help break in the freshly cleaned roadcourse, scrubbed super clean by SCR employee Randee. Several other locals dropped in to see what all the fuss is about..

Took a nice ride on my scooter 9 miles South to Mr. Pickle, Paul Gawronski & Wife's new Deli Sandwich Shop. Mr. Pickle was founded by a friend of Paul's and there are about 10 shops in the area.

The ride to Petaluma is sweet, nice rollings hills dropping into a small valley nicely laced with the Petaluma River. I am particularly fond of this area as The Sonoma-Marin County Fair was my first Fair in 1995. I exhibited there for about 3 years and then began doing the San Diego Co Fair which runs at the same time.

Mr Pickle is located about 1 mile East of the 101 on Lakeview in a developing area. The center is new. Lots of corporate parks for them to draw from which, Krista (Paul's wife) says is working well.

Their store is located next to a Star Bucks drive thru, and it just couldn't be any better as patrons in the drive thru can look directly into Mr. Pickle!

Paul & Krista's store is very nice with a particular style lends to success. 100+ excellent framed racing memorbilia, UPS, Pepsi and many other die cast smartly placed. Even a unique fruit holder on the table with fresh pears!

Nuff of the decor, the sandwich was superb, delicious on Dutch Crunch sourdough bread that will make it hard going back to Subway! Can't not mention the Garlic Sauce either...O man it was goooood!

Take the trip there if you want fine food, racy atmosphere and beyond friendly service. BUT if racing 24/7 is yer game Guess Wat?!! Frank's & Paul are working together again...and the sandwiches will be in house for sale!

The visit with Krista was a grand one, I got a Mr. Pickle T, got a photo of me in front of their store on me scoot and it was back to SCR. I missed Paul as he was at SFO picking up Brian Saunders.

Back at the ol corral the talk was quick and in short bursts...Frank was busy cutting coms, assembling customer rides and cursing UPS...Herman was in and out and in again when Paul showed with Brian. All were intent on cutting laps with their track cleaners and the mood is good.

OK then, let's take a check on the weather... http://wwwa.accuweather.com/forecast...95407&metric=0 . The week looks good but the weekends, particular this one will most likely be wet.

[CruzinBob]

Serious SoCal racers are arriving in droves! Late last night the Grinsteads pulled in and were at the door @ 9:30 AM peeking in! Well, Frank has enlisted me to work the odd hours and I opened @ 10 AM for the feverish crew.

3 PM update - The Burnsides from Florida arrived safely after driving 3047 miles! Think they win the long distance award for vehicular travel?! Great folks who came in, scoped it out and began situating (and even building) their pit space w/o complaint! Thanks fellas, we all know it's tight and the better we make it for each other, the better we can deal with other situations that will no doubt crop up from time to time.

Russ Toy is in and dialing in his stuff.

Track is really coming alive! Some are getting ready for the NASCAR 16D race tonight. I'm ready!

I'm snapping photos and wondering if there's anyone I can send to for posting?

6:45 PM and it's almost race time! 16 entries and half the field are locals! The place is buzzing as Paul, Brian, the Burnsides and some of the SoCal gang pound rubber into the roadcourse.

BTW, you gotta get one of the NATS T's, they're colorful and designed to inspire PURE speed

Yessir Frank's King Track is much flatter than the BP King but it's o so sweet! What 90 says Frank?!

We ran a 16 man round robin, 3 on 1.5 off and it was a fairly clean race...at least for me Fast guys Jonathan & O Dan ran into some difficulties. Paul G gave his son Frank his 1st slot car and he showed his stuff by racing well and was a gracious racer.

254 Cruzin Bob
249 Jonathan
247 Steve Forsyth
245 Oh Dan
244 Zac
238 Keet
235 Mikey
233 Mucas
233 Russ Toy
232 Steve O
232 Big Jeff
202 Jake
198 Austin
188 Wayne
176 Frank G
161 Lil Dan

Still lots of action on the roadcourse. Hasta

[CruzinBob]

Up bright n early to let the boyz in @ 9:05 AM...GOOD MORNING Rohnert Park! Rain again, what's new?! Supposed to be an awesome week next with temps in the 70's

Very active already with the SoCal crew - Green Flag Racing, Grinsteads, Forsyth Racing, Tim Hould; the Burnside boyz filed in and Bill from NY flew in safely not wanting to drive the coast to coast route!

11 AM Chris Radisich pulled in and set up followed shortly by the Arizona crew of TJ Albu and Chris n Chris Rodriguez...NO JERRY OH NO, I was placing big bets on Jerry Johnson, specially on the flat King. Bummer! Thanks for making the 16 hour trip!

Greg Gilbert just walked in and is busy unloading, setting up. (Look Ma, no arms... )

3 PM and Bill V piggybacking Duran blasts thru the doors with an evil grin. They're so ready

Frank seems to be getting extra attention today as folks keep strolling in the door who've never been here...I sold a Parma kit even!

Fred has arrived and is taking reservations for his motorhome...O wait, whaddaya mean you can only hold 3?!

10 PM and they're still going strong...on the roadcourse that is. The track is screaming with sounds of cobalt motors! Herman, Gilbert & Gawronski are looking quite fast

It's been a hectic day! Worked on arranging pit space again, lots of bootie bumpin going on so be prepared.

[big tim daddy]

any results of the races i always enjoy the reports

[zoomzoom]

Originally posted by CruzinBob


I'm snapping photos and wondering if there's anyone I can send to for posting?

Send me the photos and I will post them for you!! Sent you a pm with my email!!

zoomzoom

[CruzinBob]

Originally posted by zoomzoom



Send me the photos and I will post them for you!! Sent you a pm with my email!!

zoomzoom

Aha! Another very enthusiastic slot racer and track owner in Sacramento, CA, Kim of Riggs Racing ! Welcome aboard Kim & Bobby. They have a 135' 6 lane 1/24 scale "Punchbowl" in a very nicely decorated room inside Bobby's auto shop. They also just bought a mobile Tri Oval which they have set up for the Easter Family gathering at their place this weekend!

Thank you for your offer, I could really use the help. Do you have somewhere we can post so we don't use up big space here? We would then just post the link to them.

[zoomzoom]

Yah, I've been surfing here for a while now!! Very nice and informative site!!!

I have a fototime account for pictures. I was planning on just posting them here, but like you said it would take alot of space. So later after Easter activities are over I will see what I can do. I think I can put a link to my fototime album here and we all can view the photos but not sure about actually posting comments about them on fototime server!

A long time ago I had a bulletin board (forum thingie) on my website! I will try to find that again and see if I can set something up!! If not we will just have to view at fototime and post here!!! That is if it is ok with the boss here!!!

I'll see what I can do and email you later!!

Oh, and when are you comeing for a visit?!!!!!!!!!!! I have a few cars I need some help on!!! hehehehe. No seriously we look forward to your next visit. Really enjoy your company and besides I got to try to knock you out of you lane!!!!!!!!!

Hope to see you soon,
zoomzoom

[CruzinBob]

Originally posted by zoomzoom
Yah, I've been surfing here for a while now!! Very nice and informative site!!!

Oh, and when are you coming for a visit

Kim,

Once again, thanks for the help and I'll be hanging out here as there's just too much fun to be had! The day after we're finished I'm going to go to the closed track in Livermore to take down the tracks for the fella who's moving them.

[CruzinBob]

Open @ 9 AM for slotcar mass...

And the masses are here again, not quite 11 AM and there's 2 dozen racers tweaking cars, and pounding rubber into the King & Roadcourse!

Did I say Lou is here from NY?

We're patiently awaiting the arrival of Monty as well as the fierce Seattle gang. The roadcourse is going to be VERY busy today!

If it seems I'm short on statements, it's hard to balance all I'm doing here, working the counter, trying to visit buddies and put a little time in building & dialing in for GT-1 & GT-12 on the roadcourse. It's no wonder team efforts abound in serious slot car racing. I'm also trying to be as politically correct as I can...

2 PM and it's rather calm Still plenty of action as Monty & Alan arrived bearing goodies! 8 of the new 12 motors were quickly perused and local talent nabbed 4 straightaway!

The rain has left the area Say's it'll be back this weekend...

TJ kindly loaned me one of his GT-12 backups (brand spanking new) and after playing with a couple bodies I'm good to go. Just need to tour the lanes as each are quite different.

Lee & Alicia just arrived, courtesy of Herman. OK folks, the line forms here

Well, it's 11 PM and I've notes here umpteen times and my keyboard freaks out and deletes what I've written...just did it again...

I mentioned earlier team efforts are almost a requirement of racing and I failed to mention that one of the Southeasts finest has been here, Jay Guard, sponsored in part by Greg Wells with some 20+ motors!

Here's a rough sketch of entries:

1. SoCal - 14 here and 1 still coming.
2. NorCal - 5 and probably another 10 locals + wildcard
3. Speedshop - 6+.
4. Florida - 5 - the Burnside Boyz!
5. Central CA - 3 (Fred Hood+)
6. AZ - 3
7. NY -2
8. Alabama 1
9. UK 1
10. PA - 1

There's more coming, of course but after a good start, it's trailed off.

NorCal has had a succesful scale program for about 10 years now and still is #1 or very close to it for entries. We're hoping to see many more familiar faces come race day. Anyone passing up this opportunity to race against the best of the best is just plain nuts.

I understand Paul C is coming to pump up the Gp 10 programs...I was hoping to watch him participating in some of the high end classes. He's recovering from the flu and we wish him well.

Stu Koford is reportedly making an appearance also.

[CruzinBob]

Here it is Monday and I'm still on Sunday, how'd that happen...well I see Fred and his crew are still up

There are 4 RV's and would have been one more but Mark lost a waterpump on the way here and was forced into retirement

BTW Paul, I have a loft reserved for you...are you up for the challenge

Open @ 8 AM and the Seattle crew filed in promptly! Mark Greene from Keystone kindly introduced himself and we cut it up shortly about this biz we're so fond of. If anyone wants to see a first rate proposal for hosting a NATS event, see the Keystone proposal for the 07 Scale NATS!

8 PM and it's been a busy day! Had problems you bet, fixed 'em too! The mood is festive, very competitive and good, very good.

More racers are arriving and it was great to meet young 12 y/o Danny Wagner from Vallejo, CA. Danny has been a front runner in his class for some time now.

I haven't mentioned the awesome local partiicipation we've had. Some have been here every day running errands and doing odd jobs as needed. Steve O has been very attentive and Ron Southern is behind a huge amount of preparation here. Mark Manion is now back on board after suffering mechanical difficulties.

SCR employees who will allso be racing are NuMar, Randee and Vegas, who steamrolled over the competition in GT 12 at the warm up. There will be many more local entries also.

There's been a LOT of practice for 1/24 Euro on the roadcourse and here's what I've seen: Paul G appears fastest with some 2.8's and rumererd to have done 2.7's but Greg G is right on his tail. Herman is right there with them too. Mr SCR Frank cannot be ruled out and local Joe Carr has been in the 3.0's. Lou Pirro & most others are 3.1's+. Brian Saunders started early and had difficulty but has dialed in quite proper of late. The Speed Shop crew are dialed and are also at the top of the game. SoCal Jason Stone found that the 3rd car he built in the last 2 days worked...

We had a bit of difficulty today interpreting the rules about clearance on banked tracks for GT-12. Frank had declared .063 clearance for all races on the King and had all his customers cars set up as such. SoCal had planned on running the way they had been running @ .032. After some warm discussion Frank said he'd suffer the workload in favor of a resolution.

Cleaning the roadcourse @ 10 PM and then it's 1/32 Euro practice only!

Here it is Tuesday RACE DAY and what am I still doing here....1/32 practice was very intersting, clean! Paul G's new car was fastest but Greg wasn't hitting his choke bypass and almost kept up...same top 3 in my book, with Herman on the tail. Couple wild cards in Alan & Mike from Seattle but it all depends on how clean they run, don'tcha know

Getting up @ 6 and I just went off on the hold outs...GET THE HELL OUT!

[Quickerthanu]

Keep up the good work Bob!!! So, they're not racing today? I guess that means it starts tomorrow then, lol....Who are we missing from So Cal?


Josh Bauer

[John Emmons]

but not to race unfortunately, not enough time to spend the week and too little time spent driving the fast cars in the last year to even want to try. But I'll there tomorrow and Wednesday
to snap a few pics and help pit Chris R's Eurosport.

Bob, ask Fred if he's got room on the floor of the "Hood Hotel" for one more sleeping bag...

Is that Chinese restaurant still next door to the raceway...?

See ya...

John Emmons

[CruzinBob]

First race tomorrow morn 1/32 Euro.

John, Fred's little 20' motorhome is housing Fred, Chris & Jay The Chinese restaurant has been feeding the racers on a regular basis - Chinese In/Chinese Out Please.

Back to the post above to update.

[John Emmons]

I guess I'll sleep under the "Hood Hotel"...or maybe at the "Cruzin Motor Inn"?

Tell Chris to answer his phone sometime.

Can you order me some bbq pork fried rice, I should be there before noon...;^)

John

[Quickerthanu]

John, you know Chris never answers his bloody phone!! lol....might as well buy lotto tickets, have better chances there!!

Josh