Adelaide Model Raceway

Adelaide Grand PrixNov 4,5,6 2005

Race Report by Wade Farrell

Once again the Adelaide Grand Prix was held in November at the Adelaide Model Raceway, an original 60’s 8 lane slot car track. Unfortunately for the AMR group, 2005 has been a lean year for race meets. We had our regular hot rod race during the Clipsal 500 and we held a couple of FX/FJ races on other tracks to commerate the 40th anniversary of Sunset bodies. We also held a Bathurst soft body race but that was it. This is mainly due to the lack of numbers but also our lack of organisation. So with this lean year behind us, many of us were excited about the up-and-coming November Adelaide Grand Prix. This is the 9th year it has been running and I have to say can be considered as one of the premier vintage slot car meets across Australia. Races are spread over Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday day, with a post race concert by the local band, Speedcar. The AMR grand prix weekend is primarily for vintage cars. There are 7 classes in total, 4 of which are meant to be original cars from the 60’s. The other 3 classes allow for any chassis.

Class CommentsStocker Scratchbuilt or original pre-70’s stock carsFX/FJ Holdens Scratchbuilt clear body carsCox Original fixed gearing Cox sports carsRusskit / Cox Iso-fulcrim

Original russkit sidewinder sports cars Original Cox Iso-fulcrim cars (La Cucaracha etc)

Tamiya Original Tamiya Sports Cars60’s GP Original 60’s GP Slot Cars50’s GP Scratchbuilt 50’s GP Cars, China motor, control tyres

This report is primarily from my personal standpoint. The whole weekend was too full-on for me to collate all of the necessary information and coverage to provide a complete and unbiased race report. Nevertheless, I have most of the correct info and was across some of the controversies that occurred.

This year I tasked myself with running all completely new cars. Of course this meant that I was preparing cars during the weekend outside the racing times as we humans either tend to underestimate jobs or are slack and only get things finished when the heat is on. Bit of both in my case. I certainly only starting thinking about the race meet a couple of months prior. In preparing a new car for a class I will often attempt to build all of the cars I have for that class only to whittle down to 1 (maybe 2) new cars as I get closer to the meet. I am happy to say that I did achieve in running all new cars this year but this didn’t leave much time for tuning them. This year we had quite a few regulars, a few new drivers and the odd person missing. The interstaters are from 2 camps; the Victorians who are from the group that hovers around Gedley’s Melbourne Model Raceway and the WA guys who are from the Checkered Flag Raceway group. Here is a list of all attendees:

Competitor Origin CommentsBill Hollingsworth SA Owner of the track for the last 11 years. Been in the hobby for over 40

years.John Clift SA Co-founder of the track. Dutifully performs a lot of the maintenance for

the track. Innovative slot car builder.Bailey Clift SA Son of John and new to racing this year.

Michael Davies SA One of the top drivers of AMR. Builds and races fast cars.Kym Vogelesang SA AMR Regular who is constantly building up an impressive collection of

carsWade Farrell SA Author of this article. Been into (and possibly obsessed by) slot cars in

general for 15 years and 1/24 slot cars for 4 years now.Steve Kerr SA Recent to slot cars but is totally obsessed by them. Races (1/32 & 1/24)

where ever he can.Lew Bishop SA Relatively new member to AMR. Attends every week but when will he

find the time to finish some of his cars?Bill II SA Relatively new member to AMR. Slowly building up cars and speed.John Ward SA A long time standing slot car racer/builder. Attends AMR occasionally

but has not attended much this year.Bob Crawford SA Been in the hobby for approx 50 years (yes 50!). Owner of Sunset

bodies. 40th Anniversary of Sunset bodies this year.Ashley Hoffman SA Dabbles in 1/24 but primarily races 1/32Gedley Croughan Vic Owner of Melbourne Model Raceway. Makes a number of trips over

from Melbourne during the year.Jim I Vic Long standing member of the Victorian scene.Jim III Vic Another very active member from Victoria. Builds some very nice carsCraig Adams Vic One of the top drivers of the Victorian scene. (recently took out 9 out

of 13 events at the Melbourne GP)Kevin Turley Vic Another very active member from Victoria. Reasonably new to the

hobby but like us all, quite obsessed by it.Steve Krahe Vic Very accomplished and innovative slot car builder. Often builds bodies

for some of the Victorian Drivers.Henry WA Racer from WA. Builds some very nice carsColin WA Owner of Checkered Flag Raceway in WATerry WA Racer from WA. Can be quite a quick driver.Malcolm WA Racer from WA. New to slot cars

There were a few minor changes this year. Firstly concours was performed prior to the heats, allowing everyone to be judged. Last year only the cars in the final were part of concours which was a little unfair. Secondly lane numbers were applied to each car around the windscreen area in order to assist marshalling. Although it detracts from the spectacle slightly, the numbers were a welcome additional and the marshalling was much superior compared to last year.

Friday Night

Stocker Race

Once again it was the stockers up first. They are generally a good warmup class as the cars are usually forgiving slot cars. Although this year the pace was to be extremely quick. Question was whether anyone could beat Michael who has won this race for many consecutive years, using the same car. With 17 entrants, the racing was divided into 2 heats of 160 laps with the top 4 from each heat entered into the final (or which was 240 laps). Note you cannot compare the number of laps between heats as the race time varies given the race duration is dependent on the fastest driver in each heat. Each bracket is stopped when one car reaches 20 laps, with the cars staying in their positions but moved to the next lane in the sequence.

Concours for this event was judged by Bill, with Colin, Craig and Steve Kr taking honours. It is good to get all of the cars on the track prior to the race as it is often difficult to organise after the race. It is also a good chance if you are game to take a closer look at your competition. Although most people declined as it can make you look like you are scrutinising the cars, although it can appear much worse to take a closer look

after the race, especially with the winning cars. Personally I think it should be encouraged as it is good to see what other people do given such an open set of rules.

The 3 Concours winners (1st Colin, 2nd Craig, 3rd Steve Kr)

Onto the racing, and I was present in the first heat. For this heat, it was Craig and myself up front, with Craig having a slight edge. My car was running smooth but being such a big car with a full interior it appeared that it didn’t have the handling when compared to Craig’s light, dynamic chassis + 26D Impala. Kevin was a solid 3rd with Steve Kr sneaking in for a spot in the final.

The 2nd heat appeared to be much tougher with some fast cars seeded together and the fact that 9 cars were entered. Michael clearly took the win with Ged, John C and Terry grouped very close together. Kym and Jim III were the unlucky ones, just missing out. Steve Ke, having arrived late, was a victim of handling problems with his normally quick Dodge Superbee. He normally runs longbeach tyres but changed to AMR tyres that day for the race. That’s worse preparation than me Steve.

Heat 1 Grid (Lew, Malcolm, Steve Kr, Wade, Craig, Bob, Kevin, Colin)

Heat 1 Laps PositionCraig 157 1st

Wade 155 2nd

Kevin 149 3rd

Steve Kr 144 4th

Colin 142 5th

Bob 140 6th

Lew 139 7th Malcolm 119 8th

Heat 2 Grid (John C, Henry, Ged, Jim III, Kym, Terry, Jim I, Michael)

Heat 2 Laps PositionMichael 156 1st

Ged 152 2nd

John C 152 3rd

Terry 151 4th

Kym 149 5th

Jim III 148 6th

Henry 145 7th Steve Ke 144 8th Jim I 135 9th

Heat 2 : John C on lane 8 leading Steve Ke and Jim III into the final corner

Onto the final and from the first bracket it was clear it was going to be a tough race as the pace was extremely quick. The odd glance to Craig in between brackets and you could tell he was overwhelmed by the intensity of the race. Michael as always was fast and Ged had seemed to find some more pace out of his ’63 Impala. Given such a race, I was vying for a place and certainly not a win as I could tell I was just not quite as quick. With racing though you never know what can happen. In the end it was Michael who took the win 1 lap up from Ged. Craig pip’ed me for 3rd by ½ a lap. John C had problems with his Marauder but brought it home in 5th (note it runs a wooden chassis which handles well but he does have occasional problems with body mounts etc.). Terry, Kevin and Steve Kr brought up the rear.

After taking a closer look at Craig’s stockers he has certainly up’ed the ante. He was going to run his red ’65 Chevy Impala but during practice it was faulty. In the end it was his transistor-based controller which was faulty and not the car. A problem which plagued him for most of the weekend. I drove his red impala on Sunday night and boy was it quick. I am now inspired to build some fast stockers (no full interiors for a change) but alas the stocker class is omitted for next year.

Tension mounts for the start of the final (LtoR John C, Bill II, Steve Ke, Lew, John W, Malcolm, Colin, Bailey, Bill)

Stocker Final (order: John C, Ged, Terry, Michael, Craig, Steve Kr, Wade, Kevin)

Final Car Laps PositionMichael Pontiac GTO 234 1st

Ged ’63 Chevy Impala 233 2nd

Craig ’61 Chevy Impala 231 3rd

Wade ’69 Dodge Superbee 231 4th

John C ’64 Mercury Marauder 225 5th

Terry ’66 Ford Galaxie 223 6th

Kevin ’69 Plymouth GTX 221 7th Steve Kr ’58 Chevy Impala 214 8th

FX/FJ Race

Second race was FJ/FX Holdens, using Sunset clear bodies, with any inline chassis underneath. There were some amazing cars this year, which was fitting given that it is the 40th year the FX/FJs have been in production. Bob fittingly performed the concours duties and selected four cars. Two of which were painted in redex liveries, taking out concours first and third.

Concours Winners (Steve Kr, Colin, Terry & Henry (TBC))

In a similar way to formula one, the rules were changed this year to slow the cars down, although this was not done for safety reasons but simply to make the cars a little more realistic. The changes involved limiting the tyres to AMR 004’s together with a china motor (up to Cheetah II performance). These new rules did indeed slow the cars down. This was clearly evident throughout the year when we ran a couple of races. However, also similar to formula one, if someone applies themselves they can extract the maximum speed out of the specification and often get back most, if not all of the lost performance. This was evident in this years race, especially with the Victorian guys. Their cars ran hand selected soft AMR tyres and modified (for inline) plafit chassis. As a result, boy were their cars quick. At the start of my heat I quickly realised I was off the place and had grossly underestimated the competition. It reminded me of the day when I went into one of my uni exams and I had a sinking feeling I hadn’t done enough study. My car was stupidly geared (8/31), thus generating tons of wheelspin of my small, rock-hard tyres. I used a 15 ohm controller to temper the wheelspin which did help a little but it was still well off the pace. I later found that I had a poor front to rear weight distribution which also contributed to the wheel spin problem. It was 45/55 instead of the optimum 33/66, although I think 33/66 is a little light in the front for the AMR track given the bumps and dipper section. Occasionally I could put in a lap to keep up with the fast guys but the car was not controllable enough to do so for every lap. I did end up passing my exam (many years ago now) but I bombed out of my heat. It was definitely a loaded heat with some very fast runners. It didn’t worry me so much given my pace, but Terry in his blue redex FJ missed out on the final by only a couple of feet as a result and really should have made it. So the three to make the final were Craig, Ged and John C.In the 2nd heat, Michael was the class of the field, achieving the maximum of 160 laps, 14 laps ahead of his nearest rival. This was helped by having only 6 runners and that some of the fast lanes were absent when he was on lane 8 but nevertheless it was quite an achievement. Colin and Lew also made the final.

In the 3rd heat, it was Jim III who was the quick runner, achieving 157 laps. Ashley, who is relatively new to 1/24 racing was a solid 2nd and Kym was a close 3rd.

Heat 1 : John C, Terry, Ged, Craig, Steve Ke, Wade, Kevin

Heat 1 Laps PositionCraig 157 1st

Ged 155 2nd

John C 154 3rd

Terry 154 4th

Steve Ke 148 5th

Wade 146 6th

Kevin 138 7th

Heat 2 Laps PositionMichael 160 1st

Colin 146 2nd

Lew 144 3rd

Steve Kr 143 4th

Bob 143 5th

Malcolm 126 6th

Heat 3 Laps PositionJim III 157 1st

Ashley 151 2nd

Kym 150 3rd

Henry 144 4th

Jim I 140 5th

Bill II 132 6th

Bill I 129 7th

Onto the final and since I wasn’t running I don’t have first hand experience on what occurred. I did of course watch and marshall the race and the racing appeared fierce with Craig, Michael, Jim III, Ged and John C all running at a fast pace. Alas without the computer (it’ll be installed next year, trust me) it was hard to follow the exact details during the race. About half way through John C has a drive failure. I decided to have a go fixing the car whilst Steve Ke gave him a backup runner. In the end it was some dodgy wiring near the braid that brought him unstuck. So who won? It was Craig who was the class of the field winning 4 laps up from Jim III and Michael, 1 lap further down. Michael and Ged were on the same lap so it was a tight race. Interestingly it was all of the heat winners that took out the first 3 positions, which meant the seeding wasn’t too bad. However, John C admitted that he was to spend a little more time in dividing the heats for the other races.

Final FX/FJ Race (order : Michael, Kym, Colin, Ashley, Craig, Lew, Ged, John C, Jim III (rear))

Final Laps PositionCraig 235 1st

Jim III 231 2nd

Michael 230 3rd

Ged 230 4th

Kym 222 5th

John C 221 6th

Colin 218 7th Ashley 217 8th Lew 215 9th

Everyone looks pretty relaxed prior to the FX/FJ Final(LtoR John, Lew, Craig, Ged, Ashley, Colin)

Saturday Night

Russkit Race

Changes were once again amongst us for the Russkit race. The inaugural race was run last year and there was confusion over that race. People were allowed to run non-russkit bodies and also super 16-Ds which is a little out of the spirit of the event, although the super 16-D is a lovely fit inside a russkit chassis. This year the russkit race was to be combined with the Cox iso-fulcrim race, as what was intended last year but didn’t happen. The rules were that people were to team up and run 4 brackets with a Russkit and 4 brackets with an iso. Sounds simple enough however the rules weren’t given out early enough and as a result, nearly all except for 3 had solely Russkits. So it was deemed that people could run solely Russkits if desired. I had both a Russkit and an iso but the Russkit was very slow. The iso la cucaracha had potential but I had problems with finding a suitable vintage motor. Craig and I decided to team up this year and in a great collaborative effort, he lent me his vintage 16-D to put in my cuc for the race. Craig said he spent a weekend tuning and balancing the motor so you can imagine how well it run. Initially I had too much wheel spin for the gear chosen so after a smaller crown gear was sourced, the motor taped in (it was popping out), and the AMR rubber tyres trued the car came together beautifully. So we were ready, with Craig’s very smooth Russkit Lotus 40 and my lightning cuc’ we started the race. The pace was quite quick but it was clear that Jim III and Kym were our main competitors. On certain lanes I was happy to say that the cuc’ was the quickest thing out there against the people I ran with. It certainly liked the middle lanes where you can get into a nice rhythm. At the beginning of the last bracket, Bill mentions that we were 5 laps ahead of Jim III and Kym. So the task was for Craig to bring it home. He was on lane 1 and Kym was on lane 2 in his cheetaracha. I put a lane number on and gave Craig my cuc’ as a backup, just in case… During the last heat I didn’t really want to watch as 5 laps ahead should be fine as they pretty much ran at the same pace. However near the end of the bracket Craig was experiencing some problems and was starting to deslot. Kym makes a sly comment to Craig, “nerves getting to you, huh?”. Finally Craig’s car spins out completely on the last corner. The marshal sees that the body clip was half off. Having had enough he grabs my cuc’ but as he hits the straight, the cuc’ goes flying and lands under the bridge which takes awhile to marshal. What had happen was that the centre screw of the Russkit chassis had come loose and Craig’s car was spinning on it for a good portion of the bracket. It had finally came off at the last accident and lodged itself in our slot, ready for the cuc’ to hit it, and the final result? We lost by 1 lap.

Craig was quite devastated and quite unnerved by Kym’s comment because it wasn’t his nerves getting to him but of course the car. Both Kym and Jim III had great delight in taking the win. I think Craig also felt bad for me but to be honest although I was of course disappointed in not taking the win, I was happy with mine and my car’s performance (albeit with a donor motor).

So time for some controversy. Later that night during the Cox race, Kym admitted that his car was running sponge tyres. Given his cheateracha was original and running American mags I suppose this is understandable but the rules do say only rubber tyres. His rational was that he saw another car with sponge tyres on it so if others were cheating he would too. He did have a rubbered iso car and numerous Russkits he could have run. To be fair there was a climate of rules being stretched for some runners but using sponge tyres is one step again. All I can say is that I couldn’t do it. It certainly sets it up for a grudge match next year. I now have the task of sourcing/building a fast vintage motor as alas I had to return Craig’s overly-worked masterpiece. I have to say that teaming up can be a lot of fun if you organise the teams prior and work together to tune your cars. Of course it always helps when you are teamed up with a good driver.

Oh and the other drivers? Ged and Kevin weren’t too far behind to take out 3rd and Lew and Jim I were another 5 laps down to take out 4th. Henry & Terry came 5th, Colin and Bob took 6th and Steve Ke and Malcolm took 7th with my loaner Russkit.

Russkit/ISO Race (Grid Order : Wade, Jim I, Jim III, Ged, Colin, Henry, Steve Ke)

Final Laps PositionKym & Jim III 310 1st

Craig & Wade 309 2nd

Ged & Kevin 302 3rd

Lew & Jim I 297 4th

Henry & Terry 267 5th

Colin & Bob 257 6th

Steve Ke & Malcolm 237 7th

Russkit winners up front (RtoL Kym, Jim III, Wade, Craig, Ged, Kevin)

Cox Race

The Cox Race was again the main event for the Saturday night. It is structured as a teams race, with a maximum of 8 teams. This year the race was extended slightly to 150 laps per bracket (1200 laps in total, up from the 1000 laps of last year). Cars are restricted to the standard fixed gear cox chassis, thus allowing Lotus 40s, Ford GT40s, Chaparrals or Cheetahs to be run. This year we had a couple of ring-in bodies, a Monogram Chaparral 2D and a Gakken Ferrari which are allowed under the rules. With Cox cars being in plentiful supply on Ebay, nearly everyone owns one these days. This is in stark contrast to years gone by when it was difficult to get a full grid of cars. This year we also had a few Cheetahs which made for a nice change, two from Kym who is a little Cheetah mad and one from John C who spent most of his preparation time for this race meet building his Cheetah. This included making his own wheels out of brass – very nice.

So onto the teams and although I don’t think it was totally intentional, all teams were state based with 4 SA teams, 2 WA teams and 2 Vic teams. Maybe this is something we should foster, a little state based rivalry for this race. Although if football is anything to go by, maybe we shouldn’t.

On a personal level, I decided to run my Chaparral 2 which was a quick car but a little temperamental when the track gets grippy. Thus it is a difficult car to drive at times and can not be said to be a good all-rounder as it drives better on some lanes than others. As all cars run 36Ds it is now pretty much standard practice to use a Dick Smith armature and magnets. It would be nice to run only stock cars as the chassis behaves better with less power but it is very difficult to police and with the availability of the Dick Smith arms it is a good compromise in order to combat people using exotic 36D components and obtaining an advantage.

The line up of Cox Cars

Concours was held but unfortunately I do not remember the results. So onto the race and it started a little eventful for my team as Steve Ke ended up watching/driving the wrong Chaparral for about 3 laps whilst his car had deslotted in front of him. In his defence, he had white Chaparrals on both sides of him. With Kym teaming up with Michael to run both of his Cheetahs, his team seemed to be the one to beat as both Cheetahs were quick cars. Although the Victorians of Ged, Craig & Jim III were also quick. John C teamed up with his 9 year old son, Bailey, who has been attending many of the Friday nights at the track and he is getting quicker as time goes by. John C, who seems to have a knack for Cox cars was as quick as the front runners. On one bracket, I was racing next to Bailey and he was discretely making his own car engine noises as he drove the car. Quite a contrast, as here we all are trying to compete with everyone and Bailey is happy to co-exist with his imagination – quite cute.

The 150 lap brackets were tough to do in one stint as this equates to approximately 15 to 18 minutes duration. A few of the teams, especially the larger ones, opted to share the driving duties within each bracket. I like the idea of real-time driver changes as it adds to the excitement and also exposes peoples ability or inability to get up to speed quickly. Maybe we should go for 200 lap brackets next year to push people into this.

Cox Race (Grid : Michael & Kym, SteveKr Jim I & Kevin, Wade & Steve Ke, Craig Ged & Jim III, John & Bailey, Henry & Terry, Malcolm & Colin, Bill II & Lew)

By the mid-way point, Craig/Ged/Jim III were in front, 2 laps ahead of Kym/Michael with everyone else at least 30 laps down. By the fifth bracket, the two teams were equal with Michael winning the bracket on lane 8. This was quite a feat. During the race I did notice how well his car (the Marlboro Cheetah) drove, sliding nicely through the corners. This is partly due to Kym choosing wider AMR tyres to help stability (a slight stretch of the rules given that we were meant to run on a particular AMR tyre, the 001’s, but again many teams didn’t). At the 6th bracket, it all went pear-shaped for the Victorian team. A failure meant they had to use Craig’s over-powered Lotus 40 (has a champion 707 in it) which did not handle well. Coupled with the fact they ran on lanes 7 and 8 meant they dropped 43 laps over 2 brackets. Kym and Michael had no such problem and cruised to victory. Michael managed to win all of his brackets (i.e. he didn’t drop any laps) which is extremely impressive.

Steve and I performed reasonably well but were a little off the pace compared to the front runners. On a good lane we could keep up with them and I actually took out one of the brackets but as mentioned the car was quite unforgiving and we sustained quite a few deslots over the duration of the race. In the end, the problems faced by Ged/Craig/Jim III meant they nearly missed out on 2nd position but they held it together in the last bracket. Terry and Henry performed well and Steve and I only just took out 3rd position, 4 laps ahead of them. There was quite a reasonable spread for the final 4 teams. So on a state level, it was SA 1st, Vic 2nd, SA 3rd and WA 4th. I have to say I was quite pleased getting a podium for the Cox race, having

positioned 4th for the previous 2 races. I am yet to build a great car for the race but will try again next year. I know a few others are attempting to build good/great cars for next years race as well, so bring it on.

Cox Race (LtoR Bill II, Colin, Henry, John C, Craig, Steve Kr, Ged, Steve Ke, Jim I, Michael)

Final Car Laps PositionKym & Michael Cheetah & Cheetah 1185 1st

Craig, Ged & Jim III Chaparral 2 & Lotus 40 1135 2nd

Wade & Steve Kerr Chaparral 2 1121 3rd

Henry & Terry Chaparral 2 & Lotus 40 1117 4th

Steve Kr, Jim I & Kevin Chaparral 2 & Gakken Ferrari 1080 5th

John & Bailey Cheetah & Lotus 40 1022 6th

Bill II & Lew Chaparral 2D (Monogram) 997 7th Malcolm & Colin GT40 886 8th

Sunday Day

Tamiya Race

The Sunday is pretty much my favourite day of the weekend. Normally the track has a nice feel to it during the day and coupled with the anticipation of some exciting races results in a special time. Although this year with such a strong field I think the anticipation was overridden with anxiousness of the racing ahead. Racing was kicked off with the Tamiya race. Not wanting to damage my restored Lola T70 (it is yet to deslot let alone be damaged in a race) which ran last year half finished I embarked on building a lotus 40 I picked up from the UK during the year. I would have built it earlier in the year but was waiting on a special glue to repair the ubiquous cracks in the front. So it was a rush job. I put the clear coat on Friday and was gluing the windscreen, exhaust etc on the Saturday. I did get it finished though and was happy with the look. The car originally came with a garvic 36-D (the pink one) and ran quite nicely with the extra weight so I decided to leave it in. The handling was there as I put some old AMR tyres on it (ones that had seen 2 cox enduro races) but the power wasn’t there so I wasn’t too sure how it would go. Michael graciously accepted my invitation to drive with me (first time we had been paired) so at least the car had 2 good drivers. During practice the Victorians were on show and their cars seemed extremely quick. I would guess that all of the cars bar mine were running 26-Ds which is the more suitable motor given the extra power.

Michael having a tough decision on who is 2nd and 3rd, whilst Kevin and Colin look on

First up it was concours and there were some nicely prepared cars. Quite a few were the same cars that ran last year but their standard was still high. Michael was given honours to judge concours and ended up selecting my car 1st (I don’t believe there was any bias), Terry 2nd and I believe Henry 3rd.

Concours winners (FtoB Wade, Terry, Henry)

Surprisingly there were hardly any teams formed for the race, with most drivers opting to go solo. This is fine especially given the expense of the cars but a little out of the spirit of the event as we’ve known it. One day I expect we’ll get a lot more Tamiya cars than the alotted 8 or 9 but so far each year we’ve had approximately the correct amount. Onto the race and from the first bracket, wow, it was quick. Craig and I were on lanes 1 and 2 and both stayed on the lead lap. We indeed stayed on the lead lap for the first 4 brackets (over 160 laps) so it was very tight. Unfortunately as shown up in practice, my lotus was underpowered compared to the 26-D cars. This wasn’t a problem on the fast lanes where the good handling meant that Michael and I could keep a good pace but on lanes 7 and 8, we both dropped 3 laps each, meaning we were no longer near the front. This is because lanes 7 and 8 demand good acceleration from the last corner onto the straight – something we didn’t have.

Now during the race, it was noticed that discrepancies were creeping into the results. The lap counts were not matching peoples perceptions of where they were in each bracket. The culprit was the stability of the cars across the dipper portion on the track and across the deadstrips. Given the large drop arm of the Tamiya side-winders, the cars were lifting slightly over the deadstrip and missing laps. Many of the cars fell victim, including our own. Craig was hard done by, losing at least 2 known laps. Jim III had lost 4 laps but had these corrected in one of the brackets. After that it got too hard to keep track of so we decided to all accept the lap counter values and make no further corrections. Unfortunately it meant a thrilling race ended

up being a mess and who knows who were the true winners. Next year the deadstrip will be on the straight and we’ll be able to track any missed laps using the computer.

So the winners: Ged 1st, Craig 2nd and Jim III 3rd. All three were very quick and the racing was so close that it was a shame that a random element was thrown into the mix. Michael and I came 4th which wasn’t bad but I am now ruing the decision on leaving that 36-D in. If I only had a champion 36-D I could have had the handling and the power. Maybe next year.

Tamiya Sports Car Race (LtoR Craig, Wade, Terry, Lew, Bob, Kym, Jim III, Kevin)

Tamiya Action with Kym leading Kevin and Bob into the last corner

Final Car Laps PositionGed Lotus 40 314 1st

Craig Porsche 906 Carrera 312 2nd

Jim III Lotus 40 312 3rd

Wade & Michael Lotus 40 310 4th

Kevin King Cobra De Tomaso 301 5th

Kym Lotus 40 295 6th

Terry & Henry King Cobra De Tomaso & Lotus 40 294 7th Lew Lotus 30 271 8th Bob Ford GT40 Spyder 270 9th

Tasman Cup (60’s GP Race)

The 60’s Tasman Cup was next the race. For those who don’t know, it is named the Tasman Cup after the series of the same name that occurred during the 60’s across New Zealand and Australia during the Grand Prix off season. This year I wanted to do well in the 60’s race as it is usually a fierce race, but so far it has been elusive. I won the race in 2003 with a borrowed car from Ged and would love to win it again with my own car. Last year I built up a car which wasn’t too bad initially but had motor problems and also the short wheelbase meant it wasn’t the quickest runner. The rules make it quite tough in finding a good car combination. The chassis, body and motor must all be from a slot car of the 60’s but any combination is possible. Sourcing bodies can be tricky and as a result you will see a lot of Cox’s with different chassis. This year I decided to follow the same path as some of the front runners of last year and use a Russkit chassis with a 26D in it. I had a barebones Japanese (not sure of the make) BRM body which happened to fit the chassis underneath, well sort of. It was a tight squeeze to fit the Classic 26-D inside it but with a little work using the dremel, it fit. The car has been painted up to be Jackie Stewart’s car of 1965 which raced at Sandown, resulting in him winning the Tasman Cup. Forty years on I was hoping to do the same. I spent time watching old BRM movies in order to get some of the details. The ’65 car has the exhaust at the top so I made them out of brass, 8 pieces of rod soldered together. I also put mesh over the venturies – easy to do but very effective. The rear suspension is made from chrome paperclips, partly soldered to the chassis (one of the advantages of using the brass Russkit chassis) and the front suspension was simply cut brass, soldered to the frontend of the chassis. I only finished the car on the Saturday so it had very little time for tuning. The Classic 26D is a very powerful motor and it made the car quite twitchy given the gearing I had (I really must start fine tuning the gears of my cars). Still it was fast and I had some hope of being at the pointy end.

Complete field with concours winners out front (my over-worked car is the no. 3 BRM)

Concours was first, and as I had spent quite some time preparing my car I was hoping it would place. Bob had the honours and in the end selected Kevin’s car 1st, mine 2nd and Kym’s car 3rd. Kevin’s car was a very nicely prepared original Cox BRM. He was very pleased at winning concours given such a nicely prepared field. It was one of the best Cox BRMs I had seen. He mentioned that after seeing John Clift’s Cox Ferrari run so well at the Melbourne GP he got John to prepare the BRM. We lesser mortals are yet to get an original Cox to perform at the same speed as Dynamic and Russkit chassis, like John can do.

So with 18 cars, the racing was divided into 2 heats of 9. The first heat was a little eventful. Terry’s car failed in the first bracket but it was fixed in the 2nd and he continued with the race. Ged’s car failed near the end of the race and was a DNF in the end. I don’t recall why either car failed as I was racing at the time. My car was performing well except for one issue. Similar to what happened in the Tamiya race I ended up missing 2 laps as the car deslotted prior to the deadstrip. And the reason for the deslotting? Well it happened when I was pushing the car hard and the apparently light nose of the car meant it couldn’t handle the dip in the road resulting in the car deslotting at the worst possible point on the track. Consequently by dropping 2 laps meant Kym won the heat by a single foot. Kym did have great delight in beating me by that margin, although placing in the heats does not matter apart from simply getting in the final. Kevin and Michael were a solid 3rd and 4th respectively, only 3 laps down.

Heat 1 Laps PositionKym 155 1st

Wade 155 2nd

Kevin 152 3rd

Michael 152 4th

Henry 146 5th

Steve Kr 141 6th

Lew 134 7th Terry 123 8th Ged DNF 9th

The second heat was also eventful. Firstly Craig’s car was extremely fast and simply unbeatable. His dynamic chassis’ed Cox BRM was silky smooth. I certainly had not seen a car like it be so smooth and so quick. The speed was aided by a 1/16 bent axle dynamic front end with negatively cambered, very thin wheels and Unique Lemans rubber on the back. With that frontend it appears to be more of a slot car than a replica of the real race car but hey what a slot car. Also I think the Unique rubber would make the most difference in the light 60’s GP cars. When you have a light car you want nice soft rear tyres to provide good suspension and bite upon acceleration. As a consequence Craig cleaned up the heat, being a shattering 13 laps ahead of 2nd place car of Jim I and 3rd place car of Jim III. Fourth place was Steve Ke who was a further 7 laps down. Last year’s winner, John C could have been 2nd as he was 6 laps down from Craig heading into the last bracket but his car failed on the last bracket. Strangely I spoke to John prior to the heat and he mentioned that he hadn’t touched the Cox Ferrari since last years race. With so many problems this year I think he’ll be doing a little more preparation for next years race as he would have came 2nd in the final at the pace he was going.

Heat 2 Laps PositionCraig 159 1st

Jim I 146 2nd

Jim III 146 3rd

Steve Ke 139 4th

John C 136 5th

Colin 132 6th

Bob 131 7th Bill II 127 8th Malcolm 117 9th

Onto the final and I clarified with John C prior that missed laps will not be taken into account. So my task was to drive the car on the limit and not push too hard to come off near the deadstrip. Not knowing how hard I could push disrupted my race quite a bit. In the end I did end up coming off, twice, dropping again 2 laps. This would have placed me 3rd or 4th but alas I ended up 6th. Craig again was class of the field, taking out the win, 8 laps ahead of Michael. I think Michael came off a few times during his heat so his 4th place in the heat wasn’t a true representation of his speed. Jim III came in 3rd, just ahead of Kevin, Kym and myself. Jim I wasn’t too far behind to take out 7th.

60’s GP (Grid Order : Craig, Jim I, Jim III, Steve Ke, Kym, Wade, Kevin, Michael)

Final Car Laps PositionCraig Cox Ferrari + Dynamic (16D) 157 1st

Michael Cox BRM + Russkit (26D) 149 2nd

Jim III Russkit Ferrari 147 3rd

Kevin Cox BRM 146 4th

Kym Midori something 146 5th

Wade Japanese BRM + Russkit (26D) 145 6th

Jim I Revell BRM + Dynamic (16D) 142 7th Steve Ke Honda + rubber band 135 8th

Adelaide GP (50’s GP Race)

So onto the big race. By this stage we were running a little late and for those who raced in both Tamiya and Tasman Cup races we were exhausted. John W to travel from Victor Harbor for the race and was quite flusted when he got there, albeit pleased to make it in time. Due to other commitments he only raced in the Adelaide GP. For this race I had the choice of two Talbot Lagos, my blue one of last year and a new yellow one. Yes, a yellow Talbot Lago. It is modelled on the Belgium Ecurie team car from 1950 (No.18 ran in Great Britain). The car has a scratchbuilt brass chassis using the exquisite billet rear bracket available from Professor Motor. The car was only completed a day or so prior to the race meet so again it had minimal tuning time. My blue Talbot is a quick car having won last years race (albeit by 3 feet). However throughout the year the car exhibited a tendency to deslot at the infamous dipper. This maybe due to the tyres bedding in and giving more grip as to why it didn’t do it last year. I added some weight to the front prior to the race which helped a little but did not solve it. The weight distribution ratio is 33/66 which seems to be too light for that particular car. However luckily my yellow car was running well as I put quite a bit of lead in the front and it was ultra smooth due to the rear bracket/bearing combo. The gearing was slightly higher than the blue car which made it softer/easier to drive but with less zip.

All of the runners lined up for concours

Concours was first and as usual there were some very nice cars. Lew was given the opportunity to judge. He picked Jim III’s 1st, a blue talbot (sorry I don’t know whose it is) 2nd and my Talbot 3rd. He admitted afterwards that he was a little rushed and didn’t properly look at all the details some of the cars had. Still he did pick some nice cars.

Concours winners, Jim III 1st, unknown 2nd, Wade 3rd

So onto the racing and the first heat appeared to be a tight race and loaded with some fast cars. John C took honours just ahead of John W and Steve Kerr who were both 1 lap down, followed by Craig, a further 2 laps down. Craig was quite surprised at coming 4th, perhaps underestimating the opposition. He said he didn’t push too hard but knew he wasn’t quite as fast as the others so since he was only 1 lap ahead of Jim I, decided to give his entry into the final to Jim I. I’d say this was partly due to the time and effort Jim had put into tuning his car for the race.

Heat 1 Laps PositionJohn C 154 1st

John W 153 2nd

Steve Ke 153 2nd Craig 151 4th

Jim I 150 5th

Colin 141 6th

Henry 131 7th Malcolm 126 8th Jim III 126 9th

Heat 2 : Henry leading Terry through the donut, as Colin looks on

The second heat wasn’t quite as loaded as the first but there were still some fast runners. Unfortunately I had a serious accident during the race (in the 2nd bracket). Ged deslotted on the final corner and ended up stationary on the middle of the straight. Soon after my car was flat out on the straight and hit his car. My car, which of course was travelling at near full speed went flying into the air, landed back on the straight and stopped somewhere under the bridge. The driver vacated the cockpit in the process. The car still ran surprisingly and I even managed to win the heat with it, however it wasn’t running quite the same. It sounded rough, especially around corners. Craig who was watching the car noticed a big change in the cars performance. Michael, who ran his same car of last year, albeit with his new hand made wire wheels (beautiful work) had problems with the rear crown gear and as a result was off the pace a little. He did manage 2nd however with Terry and Henry close behind for 3rd and 4th respectively.

Heat 2 Line up : Kym, Kevin, Wade, Terry, Michael, Ged, Henry, Lew

Heat 2 Laps PositionWade 156 1st

Michael 154 2nd

Terry 152 3rd

Henry 152 4th

Kevin 149 5th

Kym 144 6th Lew 140 7th

Ged 138 8th Steve Kr 138 9th

50’s GP Final (Grid Order: Jim I, Steve Kerr, John W, John C, Terry, Henry, Michael, Wade)

Onto the final and given how late it was in the day, it was decided that we race 20 laps per bracket instead of the scheduled 30. From the outset, it was clear that the race was going to be tight. I ended up running without my driver given the small amount of time between the heat and final. This was to a few complaints (in jest of course) but I should have glued it back in to help stop the body fouling on the tyre as it was after the accident. My car was going ok but I started on lane 8 (my least favourite starting lane as I like to warm up to lane 8) and dropped a couple of laps in the beginning. Unfortunately after a quick check of the results after the first bracket the counter had me 1 lap less than what I knew was true. No idea why as I didn’t come off but it was very frustrating given the speed and intensity of the race. During the brackets everyone was driving very well indeed. Where people came off during the heats, they held it together for the big race. After 6 brackets, there were 4 cars on the lead lap (Jim I, Steve Kerr, John W and Wade) with John C, Terry and Henry 2 laps down. Michael was 8 laps down by this stage as his car continued to have problems. Unfortunately I was on lanes 5 and 7 for the last 2 brackets so I knew it would be a very difficult to stay somewhere near the front. In addition, my car seemed to be getting progressively worse and I was getting clearly overtaken by John W and Steve Kerr. On the last corner of the track my car would slide considerably, where their cars were gripping nicely and easily passing me.

So in the end it was John W who held it together to take out 1st, driving the same car of the last 3 years. Jim did a fantastic drive to take out 2nd, only ½ a lap down. Not sure what he was doing in his heat though, coming 5th. Craig was chuffed that Jim did so well, having his generosity pay off. Steve Kerr took out 3rd, 2 laps down and I was 4th, another 1 lap down. Steve drove his car very well in the final, much cleaner and faster than he did in his heat. Terry took out 5th and Henry 6th, showing that the WA guys are building faster

cars as neither of them made the final last year. John C took out 7th who unfortunately had problems with his normally very fast Indy racer and Michael took out 8th, due to his gear problems.

Final Car Laps PositionJohn W Alfa Romeo 158 153 1st

Jim I Mercedes 153 2nd

Steve Ke Alfa Romeo 158 151 3rd

Wade Talbot Lago 150 4th

Terry Alfa Romeo 158 148 5th

Henry Talbot Lago 146 6th

John C Indy Racer 141 7th Michael Talbot Lago 139 8th

This year Michael prepared and donated a very unique and beautiful trophy, with one of his hand made wire wheels. Also a box set of hotrod CDs was given to the lucky winner. A nice bounty given we haven’t had prizes for a number of years now. Not that I’m bitter, far from it, but ouch what a nice trophy. This year we also got our hands on a medal that was used as a prize from when the same track was used in the 60’s. I have molded the medal and we used it for the 60’s Tasman Cup prize but this may change for next year as get our act together. We have a similar medal with a hotrod on it which will be used as prizes for the hotrod race in March. Although trophies aren’t that important and Bill gives out certificates for all of the place-getters, it is good to get some history going with the races, as in our eyes they can be epic.

So back to my yellow Talbot. That night I decided to take a close look at it as to why it wasn’t running nowhere near the speed it should have. I knew about the tyre fouling the body but upon closer inspection unfortunately the front end had broken. The solder mount for the front tube had broken on one side, making the frontend quite useless. I didn’t pick up on this in between the heat and final and it would have progressively got worse as the solder loosened, explaining the performance during the race. We all like to win or lose on our ability alone but of course it’s all part of racing and the best lesson to be learnt is to build added strength where it needs it. At this stage I intend to run the yellow Talbot again for next year, hopefully highly tuned, unless I build something quicker. Problem is my slightly innovative chassis design, which helps lower the centre of gravity without using an offset gear, was noticed by a few people so I imagine there’ll be a few new cars next year. Oh and just to make sure, here’s a photo of it.

Close up of my repaired Yellow Talbot

Summary

Once again the weekend was a great success. This year the local boys didn’t quite have it their own way like much of last year. The Victorians were more competitive with their car preparation and their driving. With Craig attending this year helped to demonstrate this fact, as he placed in every final he entered. The WA guys as always prepared some beautiful cars and this year were quicker drivers. I think the SA guys will need to spend a little more time with car preparation for next year as we got caught out this year.

One big issue that cropped over the weekend was the tyre selection. Unfortunately the rules weren’t distributed early enough to all entrants to ensure we had conforming cars. I believe all cars were legal with respect to chassis, body & motor selections which is a great advance from last year. However the tyre rules,

which state all cars must run AMR rubber, were not adhered to. To their credit, the Victorians did clear it with John that they could run their vintage Unique Lemans rubber, given the little time they had to change over their cars to AMR rubber. However unfortunately I believe the Unique rubber is slightly superior and thus can give a slight advantage over AMR rubber. Now this is certainly only a belief as I have not done any specific testing to confirm this. Given the situation, some of the guys felt a little hard done by. This is something we need to address for next year as the bottom-line is we all know of rubber that has superior grip to AMR rubber and if we are not going to police it then it is likely to be a free-for-all. In addition, the fact that people raced sponge tyres in the Russkit/Iso race is a big no-no at AMR and should have been stopped prior to the race. Scrutineering is not performed at AMR as it can cause disputes and Bill prefers people to do the right thing by themselves. However I think next year a very brief check of the cars prior to the race is worth weeding out anyone pushing the boundaries and gaining an unfair advantage. People put in far too much time building and preparing cars for someone to flout the rules. My opinion is that people can run illegal cars in the heats but are disqualified from the final. We shall see if Bill considers this approach.

Next year is to be a big event, as it is the 10th year anniversary of the AMR Adelaide Grand Prix. For those who don’t know, a short film (30 min) was produced for the inaugural event, titled “Waiting for the Green”. It is hoped a follow-up film will be produced for 2006 but this will depend on whether we’ll be able to get the people to do it. The race program will be similar to this year, albeit stockers will be replaced by pre’72 Australian Touring Cars and the Russkit/Iso race will be opened up to include all factory clear body slot cars (pre ’68). Although the 50’s Adelaide Grand Prix is the main event, the touring car race will be a feature of next year, with special emphasis on the concours of these cars and hopefully the running of multiple classes within the one event. Until next year…