Racing Blog 4-20-2006
	Alright, well after a short hiatus, I’m back with another edition of the Salt Lake Mini-Z blog.  We had a huge event this last Thursday, April 20, 2006, in more ways than one.  We’ll go into more detail on that later.  We had a real busy night with Salt Lake Mini-Z point races, April’s HFAY OLPS races, and Monster Truck racing.  Turnout was better than ever, with a few new faces joining us.  In attendance were: Brian (aka briankstan) Chad Luke Lynn (aka Clanure) Kelly Mike (aka Stepchild) Mike S. Jacob (aka LibertySyclone) Josh Those missing were: Chris John Brandon This time we did something we as a club have never done before.  We assembled a track using mostly all of Brian’s 5 Wide-L’s, Wide Insides, 45’s, and expansion pack.  The track was huge and measured roughly 34’ x 23’.  It was the largest track any of us have ever raced on and was also the first time with a 3 tile wide straight.  A track this size takes some serious man power to build, so we were running a little late right off the bat.  Additionally, this was the first race of the season that was warm enough for us to run outside.  This of course meant we had to worry about lighting, and it did get a little chilly towards the end of the night.  Well, enough of that, let’s get right to racing. The first race of the night was the Salt Lake Mini-Z Overland point race.  Luke, as always, provided us with some killer jumps and we set them up so that we could jump sections of the track to shorten it up some (OL’s aren’t the fastest things on the planet).  Those of us with OLs lined up for the race, with Mike (aka Stepchild) as a newcomer to the OL scene.  He was using a loaner car from Luke.  So, we had Brian, Chad, Luke, Mike, and me on the track with our OL’s.   Normally, we run 25 laps, but due to the size of this track, we decided to shorten it to 15 laps.  It was probably a real good thing, as most of us didn’t realize the workout we would receive marshalling our cars.  As always, the OL’s are a great source of comedy for me, and I really enjoy racing them.  The OL race finished like this: Chad (15 laps) Luke (15 laps) Brian (13 laps) Lynn (11 laps) Mike (11 laps) Once the OL race was finished, we tore down the jumps and everyone began the preparations to run our Salt Lake Mini- Z point races.  Because the track was so large we decided we would try and at least qualify with everyone on the track.   We had 9 cars on the track, but it actually ran pretty smoothly.  The start was a little bumpy, but everyone fell into their groove and ran a pretty decent 3 minute qualifier.  Qualifying turned out like this: Chad Lynn Luke Kelly Brian Mike Mike S Jacob Josh Our first race is an 8 minute race, and we start in reverse order of qualifying.  It was a great race, and to give you an idea of the size of the track, Chad was only able to get 27 laps in 8 minutes.  Our two new members, Jacob and Josh, really got to experience what racing is all about.  It was an excellent race, with smooth racing by all members.  This is one area I feel we as a club have made great improvements.  Everyone is much more conscientious of the other cars around them.  The 8 minute race ended like this: Chad (27 laps) Brian (26 laps) Lynn (25 laps) Luke (24 laps) Kelly (22 laps) Mike (21 laps) Mike S. (15 laps) Jacob (15 laps) Josh (13 laps) We prepped for the 12 minute race, which starts in regular qualifying order, and that’s when things started getting messy.  We ran into a curious Core glitch in that it wouldn’t count certain drivers as they crossed over the loop.  It took quite a while to figure out what was causing the problem, and we ultimately ended up splitting the 12 minute race into an A and B main.  Core seemed to like this better, and on we went.  The B main consisted of Mike, Mike S, Jacob, and Josh.   The racing was good and the results were: Mike (33 laps) Jacob (23 laps) Mike S. (22 laps) Josh (18 laps) On the 12 minute A-main, it was Brian, Chad, Lynn, Luke, and Kelly.  It was an exciting race with some lead swapping between Brian and Chad (and I got to lead one too).  Everyone ran in really good form, and the race ended like this: Brian (41 laps) Chad (40 laps) Lynn (37 laps) Kelly (36 laps) Luke (35 laps) Now it was time for one of my favorite parts of the event, the shootouts.  Man, I still absolutely love these things.  3 laps of all out racing for one bonus point.  They are both ran in reverse qualifying order.  As usual, even with 3-tile wide long straight and first corner, there was a major wreck in the first and second corner which took out every car.  The key is to be the first car to recover.  In the first race, Chad had the dubious honor and secured another bonus point.  I was lucky enough to pull the bonus point on the second race.  Man, I can’t say it enough.  These things are fun! By this time, not only was it dark outside, it was starting to get a little chilly.  Because of prior obligations next week, we had to run our HFAY OLPS races this week or risk not getting April’s races completed.  We quickly tore down the massive track, and built the dinky 2 Wide-L track.  It’s amazing how small that sucker seemed after running on such a massive track.  The only redeeming quality was that it was an extremely fast track with excellent lines.  Mike S. had to leave, so it was just 8 of us at this point, which worked out perfectly for the OLPS stuff. We quickly ran our OLPS races with Mike, Jacob, Josh, and Kelly in the B main for each and Lynn, Brian, Chad, and Luke in the A main for each.  These ran smoothly with nothing to exciting to report.  The only thing worth mentioning was Josh losing his gear mesh on the loaner car and barely able to sputter around the track for the last few minutes.  It was worth a good laugh for all of us. Unfortunately by the time we finished the HFAY OLPS stuff, it was so late we decided to postpone running the monster trucks.  I think this was probably best, as it was already past 11:00 PM and most of us had to work the next day.  This is also good for me, as I should have my Venom Mini-Giant up and running by the next race, I hope. Well, stay tuned for another edition of the blog as our club is really swinging into high gear and we can expect some really fun things through the summer. Until next time, Lynn (aka Clanure)