How
NOT to win the G27 Slotracing
Wing Car World Championship
Below follows the "how to" report of how you should do if you
don't want to win the Slotracing Wing Car World Championship.
Prologue:
I started my slot racing career January 2000 at the age of 33 with buying two Scalextric starter sets. I found the club I'm a member of October 2001 and I started to run 1:24 flexis there. Some members also ran wing cars occasionally on the Hillclimb track the club has. They are ugly not looking like real cars, but they do go fast. And I mean fast.
So I bought one used G27 wing car in February 2002 and tried it on the track. After some bad crashes the motor magnets broke and I couldn't drive it further since I only had one motor.
End of April 2002 I got the chance to join the Swedish team going down to the World Championship in Pilsen in the Czech Republic.
The name of Pilsen spelled out correctly in the Czech langauge
The championship where in several different classes during the period between the 6th and12th of May. All other Swedish drivers from Stockholm where I live, where only going down to drive the wing car G27 and G7 competitions scheduled in the end of the week and I therefore said that I would make a go at the G27 class.
I said yes knowing I would probably perform really bad since I had basically no experience in G27 Wing cars what so ever. But sometimes you have to do some crazy things so I set the goal not to end at the last place in the competition and bough some more used G27 stuff and two new motors.
The weekend before the race I soldered everything together, checked that the three cars I had ran and then on Monday morning we where to go down to Mönsterårs where there is a Blue King track (same type as in Pilsen) to train some before the competitions would begin at Wednesday.
This is the story that followed:
Monday 6th of May
The car we did not go in
Monday morning started with car problems. My club friend Juha whom I was to go with hadn't gotten his only car back from service. It's a Ferrari 355. They had promised it would be ready but it wasn't. My car, a simple VW Bora has problems with the gearbox and although it runs it didn't feel comfy to go on a 1438 kilometer long journey with it in that condition. Juha solved that problem by buying a friends BMW M5. That is a 400 horsepower machine made for the German Autobahn and that was where we where heading so it was a nice addition to the travel plans.
But first down south from Stockholm to the King track in Mönsterås
(or Monsteras as it spells in
English ;-)
We came down to the track at around 6 o'clock in the evening and Juha and I had the whole place for ourselves. We unpacked the stuff and started to practice.
The car we actually did go in, here in front at the track in Mönsterås
It was the first time ever I saw a Blue King in real life. The others Swedes, among them was our club member Lasse Åberg (who have won the G7 World Championship twice) and some others swedish top drivers with numerous titles, had been there the days before us and practiced. The track was rather heavily glued.
The Blue King in Mönsterås
Juha has done some G27 competitions but are also somewhat a newbie. We did extremely badly and I was on the edge of taking the train back home. Driving wing cars in heavy track glue is a totally different bag than driving saloon cars on a Hillclimb or Scalex track I can tell you.
Its quite similar to driving heavy magnetized plastic cars on Scalex/Ninco track but with the difference that if you brake to soon you will stick in the glue and it's is near to impossible to start again and if you manage that you will take off with sparks under the pickup due to the car bouncing in the front, mostly however you will deslot in that situation.
Juha has gotten the hang of it and is quite happy
After midnight we started to actually being able to do some laps before deslotting. At around four o'clock in the night we shut the power down and went to sleep in the sofas in the club facility.
The sofas in the club we slept on
Tuesday 7th of May
We woke up at around 08.30 since it was impossible to sleep any longer. The room had no heating and we where freezing so badly since the northern wind was strong and the room also had bad isolation. We got some sandwiches from the local shop and went to work with the cars again.
The base camp in Mönsterås
Juha built an adjustable power supply from an old PC transformer so we could run in motors. Around 3 o clock in the afternoon we felt quit comfy with how the cars ran and we packed the stuff together to head further south. We stayed over at the place of Juhas girlfriend's parents who happen to live near the bridge over to Denmark.
Wednesday 8th of May
We started early at around 07.30 and went over the bridge and into Denmark and then the ferry to Germany and the Autobahn. It was time to let the German Panzer BMW come into its right element. It has an automatic lock that prevents it to go over 250 km/h but we never got to go that quickly before we had to break anyway. The traffic was heavy on the autobahn, at best we made 230 km/h. We ended up in several long queues and came to the Czech border at around 9 o clock in the evening, There we passed 900 trucks waiting for the border. We know it was 900 trucks since they where tighly bumper to bumper doubled parked in two lanes for 9 kilometres and on that space you get 900 trucks in, since a truck is 18 meters long and you therefore get 5 trucks per 100 meter per lane. 9000/100 x 5 x 2 = 900!
For cars there was also a long queue but not that bad as for the trucks but long enough. Only two booths where open at the customs. We finally came into Pilsen at 23. We dumped the clothes at the hotel and went down to track where we managed to get some few laps before they closed for the night. Back at the hotel I bought me a Pilsner Urquell. The world famous beer that is made in the city that has given Pilsner its name, guess which one! Good to know that if I fail totally in the race I can always enjoy the time with something else…
Brewed in Pilsen, or Plzen as it should be spelled
Thursday 9th of May
We went up after to few hours sleep around 07 and came down to the track at around 8. We got some track time and tested different bodies.
The Blue King in Pilsen
The time flew and suddenly it was time for tech inspection. I handed in my car and the tech inspectors pointed out that my dams where to high. Panic! I had bought everything used from a Swedish racer and I never checked the rules legality of the stuff. I got a scissor and started to cut the dam after a dam gauge I borrowed. I finally got the car through inspection.
Tech inspection. The cars are marked after with a special paint so
you can't switch stuff after the inspection
This day the race was a Warm Up race and we where 24 drivers that came to qualify. I wasn't enough aggressive in my driving and only managed to get one complete lap at 3.195 seconds (compared to the best driver who did: 2.022). The other laps I stuck in the glue in the curves, driving a wing car is not a beginner thing under stress when everybody else is watching…
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| Juha driving his qualify laps, looking at the monitor showing the lap times | |
When it was time for race the tech inspector did a final check and he noticed that my car was a little too wide in the rear (the rubber was sticking out wider than the rim on these wheels I noticed afterwards). After several checks with his gauge he let it through. Boy I was nervous…
In the training just before the race one tire was suddenly teared of
the rim on my car. This came from bad gluing in the manufacturing. This
was a problem several others had experienced with the latest batch of
the Alpha hard and X-hard tires, but I hadn't heard of the problem before
this happened.
I had to switch one wheel quickly and therefore started with one more
worn out tire than the other since that was what was available in the
short time before the race.
In the race I had problems focusing on my car. These things make more than 100 km/h in top speed and when eight of them are on the track at the same time it's rather hard to tell which one is yours, especially when all your bodies are in different liveries (lesson: paint all your bodies the same color and pattern) and you never can train the eye for one colour or pattern on the body. Juha was my mechanic in this race and he fixed with the car during the lane changes and also mounted a new pair of tires equally worned out during the first lane change.
My lane change card. It is placed where the car
stopps and is to be left in the lane as long as
the car is in the pits for service. The function of
the card is to show where the car should be put
back at the track
I managed to drive quite okay at times but often I drove really badly. In the sixth segment I deslotted in the top turn before the long straight and another car smashed into mine in really high speed. After that, the race was over for me. 40% of one of the side dams was ripped out. It looked like someone had taken a big bite out of it. I ended therefore at the last position in the result table. Well, it was just the Warm up race but anyway a bad start…
My car after the crash. Look at dam at the side nearest to
the camera. It doesn't look really good...
Here is a close up of the damage
In the evening we sat at the track and rebuilt the cars for the next days racing. I just hoped I would be able to drive better and that the car would hold together. We went to bed as early as possible and managed to go to sleep at around 24. I slept badly it was very warm in our room and we had the window open but out on the street it was full party with lot's of drunken people arguing loudly.
Postcard from our hotel. Yes, the church in the square is really big.
Like enormously big!
Friday 10th of May
Went up at 07, and where at the track at around 8. The race this day was in a class called G27 light. That is a standard G27 car but the track is not so heavy glued and you are not allowed to add glue to the track (only the tires). Driving conditions is therefore more similar to that of a standard saloon car race. Again I had some troubles seeing my cars in the crowd when 8 screaming G27 cars go down the straight at the same time. I did better than the day before at least. Per Persson was my mechanic and gave some useful instructions as well as keeping the car in good shape between the segments. In qualify I ended 23 of 24 and in the race I ended number 21 of 24 participants - not that bad! A funny thing was that each day you had to pick a number and write in your body. This day I had chosen the number 21. I wonder what would have happened if I had taken number 1 instead? ;-)
After the race I managed to get my older motors reshaped by retrueing the coms and also I worked on my first motor, the one with previously broken magnets by taking a can with magnets for a smaller arm and with a diamond round file take the diameter up to the one of my arm. All the other racers where extremely helpful with tools and knowledge. Really nice! Thanks guys!
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| Juha doing service with his car after the race, and I doing the same | |
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After a visit to a pizzeria where we thought they had missed some items
on the bill until we realized that it actually was so cheap with vodka
drinks (for Juha, he has Finnish blood) and beers (for me, I have German
blood ;-) we came back to the hotel by 24. Again I slept badly, it was
very warm in the room and through the open window very noisy in the street
until 05 in the morning….
Saturday 11th of May
The big G27 race, which every serious racer would attend, was to be held this day. This race was going to be on a hard glued track, I didn't look forward to that especially much since I knew I wasn't very good in those conditions. It was show time. Would I be last or would I be able to hold my goal not finish at the last position?
Again we started the day around 07 and where at the track by 8. I fixed with the car and then left it for tech inspection. It was 42 starting cars!
42 cars lined up for start!
In the qualify I got help from Lasse Åberg, which was comforting. First choice of tires was too slippery and Lasse quickly changed them to grippier and then told me to hit the track again. I could hold full gas the whole track round and managed a 2,431 seconds time. That is an average speed of 69,6 km/h. But only good enough to get me the 41st best time. Best time was 1.979 seconds (85,5 km/h average). Speak about out classing me. And I had my best motor in!
Here Lasse Åberg is interviewed by the Czeck Television. It was
very warm and what you and the TV audience can't se is that all three
of the guys in the picture is wearing shorts. The reporter did look rather
funny in shorts I must say!
In the race Christoffer Johansson helped me as mechanic and I managed to drive quite okay, slowly getting the grip of how to drive in all the glue. On the last segment my car started to behave funny, it flew out in some corners. Some track marshals checked it and said that it looked okay. But still it cornered badly. At some point I thought the angle of the body did look a little strange but I never got any mental warning signs.
Race!
After the race I noted that one rear pin was missing and that the body was loose in the back. That was of course the reason for the car behaving so strangely. Next time I will now what is wrong when that happens. The corner marshals normally squeezes the car quite hardly when they hold them so they didn't notice the missing pin. I lost many laps due to this and would probably have come one or two positions better in the results. But I didn't end at the last one at least meaning that I had reached my goal!
I actually ended on place 41 of 42. Mission completed and I could finally party and celebrate my "victory". Juha who during the whole race had done much better than me and I went out and started to party but we where so tired we actually was back at the hotel by 24 and went to bed.
Again the room was extremely hot and the noise from the street bad. I started to wonder where all that heat came from since it hadn't been so much sun in the day this day (it had been super nice the days before). I went up and felt on the heater radiator in the room and it was of course on max power! I turned it down, closed the window and slept really nice. Well better late than ever they say…
Sunday 12th of May
We slept until 08.30, really luxurary, and then went down to the track and watched the G7 final qualify. G7 has more motor power than G27 but are the same otherwise. They made 1.785 seconds as best. That's an average of 94,7 km/h! Note average. Take a look at the track and see the hairpin curves you must through and still have that speed in average. That means that on the straights it goes fast. Like, darn, that is fast! Or "Stupid Fast" as some of the guys T-shirts stated!
The pits area just before the G7 race
We left Pilsen at around 11 and started to drive back the 1438 kilometres. We had an almost empty autobahn the last hour before the ferry camp and could cruise in 200 km/h and up. That did that we managed to time the speed catamaran from Germany to Sweden. (It does 42 nautical knots and the passage in 3 hours!).
We got to the ferry facility just 10 minutes before departure. This was the only time we had a car incident. When we as the last car were about to drive onboard, the car refused to let us in. It didn't unlock the doors with the remote control. We saw in our minds how we where to be left on the docks locked out from the car while the catamaran ferry headed for Sweden. Trying to open the door look with the key didn't work either. We tried the baggage door and it worked - but off course set the alarm off! But then the remote suddenly started to work again so we could shut the alarm off and roll onboard. Phew!
Finally after a long nights driving through Sweden in somewhat higher speeds than is legal I was home 04 in the morning and went to bed feeling really good - knowing that I fulfilled my goal and also that I'm currently the 41st best G27 driver in the world!
