For the third year in a row it was time for us to go to Germany and the Northland
500 race. Here on the picture the competing cars are posing for a photo session
before the race. But the journey to this point took a long time, in this report
you can follow along!
First we had to build the cars. The rules for this race is different from the
ones we use in our club so we build cars specially for this race. Here on the
picture you can see the decaled body of Lars Johanssons car.
This is how the Sakatsu chassi looks like that sits under these cars. The rule
for Northland 500 says that this is the only chassi you can use and you are
not allowed to change it at all. The chassi on the picture still has the old
motor, the so called V8 mounted. This year we had, according to the rules, to
use another motor called F10 since the V8 isn't available any longer. The F10
has less torque but higher rpm so you have to gear it totally different meaning
all the old knowledge about the best gearing for this track went bye bye...
We started to slowly plan for this race in january, six months before. In the
spring we booked hotel, rental car, flight with Ryanair (very cheap 60 Euro/USD
both ways). We planned which cars we should use and started to build them in
the spring. But as usual time is to short and here Torbjörn Lundkvist sits
just one week before the race and put decals on his car.
On thursday, with half finished cars in the luggage we took the flight from
Stockholm, Sweden to Germany and Lars and his dougther took the car from thier
summer place in Southern Sweden.We arrived at the hotel and had a small welcoming
drink.
Then it was time to work on the cars. Here Niclas Lindblom is in action.
And here Torbjörn works on his and his son Jimmys car.
And Hans Kihlén did the same in his room.
Hans just had the body ready freshly clear coated, still not 100% dry. He seams
to believe that the checkered pattern in the box will affect the car to go to
victory lane...
And Lars sits in his room and fixes with his car.
And I sit and work with my car..
The only two persons in the team that didn't sit and work on a car is 12 years
old Jimmy who has full service from his father Torbjörn on his car. And
Lars 13 year old dougther Linn that doesn't drive but wanted to see the race.
Apart from a visit to the local restuarant we spent the whole thursday in the
hotel fixing with our cars. And we spent the whole friday too until the afternoon
when it was time to go to the track for practice when they opened the doors
there. Here we finally stand and test drive our cars friday evening. The race
starts saturday morning. Time is short. Still lot's of things has to be tuned.
The track is really nice to drive on. It is in excellent condition, has a very
nice rythm. The section on the picture is rather tricky and it takes practice
to go through with the perfect speed, it is easy to loose several 1/10 of seconds
here with the wrong driving.
The landscape adds to the realism and makes the cars look really nice.
Even a sand trap exists and it does a good job as you can see. Jimmys #17 car
just makes a visit when he misses the timing in the tricky section.
Back in the pit area Matthias Parke, who has several victories in this race
(to the left) discusses details with Pitter Schwaar.
Manfred Geue is one of the leading person in arranging this nice race every
year. Here on the picture he is truing tires.
In Pitter Schwaars slot car box I found this nice old 1966 slot converted Nascar
model and had to take some pictures of it.
Around 22 o'clock in the friday evening Hans Kihlén has come so far that
his car is ready for track testing for the first time. Back at the hotel in
the night he has several things to fix. For instance if you look closely the
inserts are missing in the wheels.
Saturday morning has arrived and in the pit area there is full action. 29 people
are going to race. Final practice is made at the track and also the commerce
with buying and selling stuff from eachother is in full action. On the picture
some guys looks at decals that Matthias has for sale.
Here some guys looks at a body specially made for slotracing. It is not in styrene
plastic but glassfiber.
It's crowded in the pit area. Matthias works at his computer writing on a race
report.
Many people have beautifully made slot boxes with them that acts as garage for
thier cars and the tools they need. You can glimpse the track to the left in
next room.
All cars shall be documented by Rüdiger Krieger and he therefor has his
computer with him so he can write on the race report when he have some spare
time.
Picture by Rüdiger Krieger
Here is the official picture of Jimmys #17 car that Torbjörn has built.
Note the handmade 2003 version front.
Picture by Rüdiger Krieger
Torbjörns own car. Note the handmade 2003 version front.
Picture by Rüdiger Krieger
Lars #43 Cheerios, almost in the same colors as the swedish flag.
Picture by Rüdiger Krieger
Niclas #3 car, built for and raced in last years Northland 500. He had a new
car going for this year but time ran out for him as he had to move to another
appartment the week before the race.
Picture by Rüdiger Krieger
My 1990 #66 car with a donut on the side. You can read about how it was built
in the "Modelracing" section of this site.
Picture by Rüdiger Krieger
Hans Kihléns car. The original ran in 1988. It looks really nice. Clean
you could say :-)
It is so crowded inside so there is some benches and a tent outside. Later after
the race there will be the annual "after race grill party" here but
for now it serves as an extra pit area.
Lars is one of the guys that sits outside, waiting for the race to start.
Back inside I found this imaginary decaled early Nascar that is going to be
a slot car, built by Johannes Breiding.
Before the race the cars are all put on the track for pictures and also we had
brought a special price with us from Sweden for the "Best in Show"
car. All drivers had to pick out thier favorite car and put in a vote for it.
The car with the most votes would get the price.
So many cars, which one would get the most votes?
Hans Kihléns cars is actually ready, he got it together during the night
and it looked amazingly fast at the morning practice. The color looks somewhat
strange on this photo but it is the lighting conditions that made that.
Final look before putting in the votes.
When we counted the votes two cars had the same points. Lars #43 Cheerios and
Beate Schulz #35 Tabasco. We decided that Lars being a Swede was automatically
disqualified from winning the Swedish brought price so Beate got it. A Volvo
PV544 1:18 Die Cast model. It even has a moose (elk) sign in the rear window!
All cars where technically inspected so that they follow the rules and then
they where placed in Parc Fermé.
Torbjörn put up signs on his and Jimmys cars that they where for sale after
the race for 230 Euros (same in USD roughly).
The #17 Smirnoff Ice car he got a buyer on. Pitter Schwaar bought it. He is
himself a very good model builder but liked the car so much he had to buy it.
Both the #17 and the #40 Torbjörn built has updated noses so that they
are 2003 versions and not 2002 as the kit comes with.
Here you can see some of the work Pitter has made himself. Not a bad looking
slot car! Or is it the girl I mean? :-)
Note the eyes popping out of the man that looks at the girl and the nice detail
work on the driver.
Here is another little somewhat different driver I found sitting in the parking
lot :-)
Picture by Matthias Parke
It was time for qualify. Since so many people where present, the qualify was
just 30 seconds for each driver. Depending on the best lap time from each driver
we where divided into groups of five persons since the track has five lanes.
In the slowest "F" group first out on the track was Lars with the
#43 who was here for the first time. The winner will be the guy with the most
laps during his 60 minutes of track time (5 x 12 minutes, all people drive on
all lanes) so basically the winner can be in any group. The groups are made
so that cars with roughly the same speed will be on the track at the same time
which makes it easier and more fun to drive.
Picture by Matthias Parke
In the next group, the "E" group was Jimmy with the #17 car. Pitter
was a little nervous it would get damaged since he had bought it, but Jimmy
made a really good run and stayed out of most trouble.
Picture by Matthias Parke
In the "B" group, Hans Kihlén with the #17 Tide and Niclas
Lindblom with the #3 Goodwrench, started.
Hans closest to the camera and Niclas furthest away in thier race. Hans had
really good speed and managed to pull most laps of all the guys in the B group
being in the lead at this point of the race, but would it stand any chance when
the fastest guys in the A group had done thier run?
I was in the A group together with Torbjörn and whilst we waited for our
turn I made a visit to the model building shop that owns the house the track
is in. They have made some of the buildings on the track but mostly do boats.
This is a ferry they make in HO scale for model railroads. It is a copy of a
real ferry and they will make it in a few copies. It is mostly hand made, only
the hull is fabricated, and yes the price is really expensive, somewhere in
the 1000 Euro/USD region if I remember correctly.
Here is another ship they are building in 1:100 scale. It will be sold in a
shop in Hamburg that deals with model boats. Price in the 5000 Euro/USD region!
Picture by Matthias Parke
It was finally time for the A group to race.
I qualified my #66 car at 7.083 seconds which was the second best time and Torbjörn with his #40 had the third best time with 7.127 second. Best was Matthias Parke at 6.982. I had driven 6.86 in the practice the day before and 6.97 on the practice this morning. Both me and Torbjörn was quite confident that we could perform really good this time and give Matthias a match.
On the picture the cars are on the starting line. After just a couple of laps in the race I deslotted and Torbjörn crashed into the side of mine since I ended up on his lane.
After that the speed wasn't the same in my car, something had happened. I stopped and checked if I could see anything with the guide flag or braid but it seamed okey. I couldn't hold the speed of the rest and stopped again and found that a part of the interior in the rear had broken loose in the glue and it hanged down on the rear wheels and caused friction. I managed to solve that problem and got the speed back.
Torbjörn did a really good race but deslotted a little to much he too, several times we managed to kick each other out of the lanes wanting so much both of us. Torbjörn was involved in one crash near the end that somehow slowed his car somewhat so he couldn't really pull the lap times he had earlier.
I was about 10 laps behind after the technical problems but drove like a madman and managed to drive really fast and had several laps below seven seconds, the best one at 6.935 which was better than the best qualify time. I deslotted a little to much in the stress but managed to slowly gain on the rest of the pack and regained contact. The problem with the interior was my fault, I had simply glued this piece of the interior badly and with Murphys law involved nothing ever breaks at practice just during the races...
When the day was done. Lars came 24th of the 29 starters not bad for the first
time. Jimmy came 18th up from 22th last year and Niclas on the picture getting
his diploma came 9th place this year with the same car he used last year and
came 16th with - that's improvment in driving! And as usual the diplomas are
handed out by the grill meastro Dirk Stapelfeld (the grill is visible in the
background).
Torbjörn had the third most laps in the A group but got the fifth place
totally. People from the B group had "sneaked" in before him with
more laps driven.
Picture by Matthias Parke
I came second in the A group and forth totally. Two people from the B group
had more laps than me and Torbjörn. Who where they?
Well one was Jens Badenkopf who won the first Northland 500 and has been in
the top on the following ones (sorry no picture of him) and the other guy that
took the second place totally, was the miracle man - Hans Kihlén! With
a car beeing finished in the late night / early morning just hours before the
race. Amazing! Next year I will also try to pack my car in a checkered box like
his, maybe that is the trick?
And the winner for the third year in a row, Matthias Parke taking the very nicely
made prize with him home.
The car, the prize and the diploma.
Picture by Matthias Parke
Here the whole swedish team stands together. When the day was done we where
three swedes in the top five and four within top 10. Not bad at all!
Back at the hotel for celabrating the results from the race and also celebrating
"midsommar" (the biggest swedish national holiday after christmas)
which this year landed on the same day as the race. If it hadn't collided we
would have been even more swedes, some guys in our club couldn't negotiate leave
from thier families this weekend.
Hans Kihlén beeing really happy - and he should. He made a really good
race!
Lars with his doughter.
Torbjörn empties the glass and it is time to say goodnight. Next year we
will be back!