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Editor's Column
Starting Grid has been published every month since 1989. It is THE magazine for the hard core racer. In addition to the "news" articles listed below, check out the technical and travel articles, listed on the left side of the screen.
BACKTALK CONFERENCES
In addition to the news and technical articles, there are the SGRID Backtalk Conferences which are available to subscribers. The conferences require a separate login-id and password, which is available at no extra charge.
To create your Backtalk account, click HERE and follow the directions at the bottom of the page. Please note - until you send the email with your Paypal receipt and Backtalk login-id, your Backtalk account will not be validated. It's a manual process.
NEWS
The 15 most recent news articles are displayed below. For full news coverage, click HERE. This will bring up a list of all news items published here since we went on-line. Please feel free to submit news for any event you would like to see covered. |
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1/8 Scale On-Road Nationals - Finals Day |
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by Mike Myers
Sunday, September 7 was Finals day. With Saturday's rainout, the final
qualifying order was based on qualifying points for Friday's four rounds
of qualifying.
The weather forecast for today was cloudy skies, but with all remnants
of the hurricane moving out so quickly, we were greeted with bright
sunny skies and the prospect of an excellent day for racing.
The track was re-sprayed, and with an hour or so of practice it should be
in reasonably good condition for racing. As the day goes on, it should
improve.
The Finals are being run in an "IFMAR style" ladder system. The first
two finishers in each lower final will bump up to the next higher Final.
The next three cars in each Final will receive the awards for 1st, 2nd,
and 3rd for each race.
Scott Kimbrow, TQ, 1/8 Open
Eli Ezrow, TQ, 1/8 Masters
Chris Whitney preparing the track at dawn
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Posted by mikemyers on Sunday, September 07 @ 09:54:24 EDT (44 reads)
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1/8 Scale On-Road Nationals - Qualifying |
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by Mike Myers
301 Raceway during Qualifying
Scott Kimbrow on his way to another TQ
Mike Swauger, Up Close
Because of oncoming hurricane Hannah, the race schedule was adjusted
to hopefully get in as much racing as possible despite the nasty storm.
The forecast remains good weather until tonight, when we get clobbered
with lots of rain. We are expecting Saturday to be lost
to the weather, and therefore the goal is to get in four rounds of
qualifying today. The plans call for a re-sort of the qualifiers after
the first two rounds.
As this is being written, early Friday morning, it's bright and sunny
outside. The track seems in great condition. Practice started early,
just a little after sunrise. It will continue until the driver's meeting,
scheduled for 9am. Racing starts at 9:30.
There are 12 heats, most with twelve cars per heat. There are two classes,
1/8 Masters and 1/8 Open. A few additional racers showed up today, but there
are still many racers signed in who never made it to the race. This
includes Ralph Burch, Barry Baker,and Chris Tosolini.
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Posted by mikemyers on Friday, September 05 @ 12:14:35 EDT (140 reads)
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1/8 Scale On-Road Nationals - Thursday - More Photos Added |
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by Mike Myers
The track opened at 8am Thursday, as racers came in to set up their pit areas and started
practicing. It's unusual in much of the USA to find an r/c track with as much space as
is available at 301 Raceway. Chris Whitney owns a huge tract of land. There's plenty of
space for everything, and lots of room for future expansion. The available space reminds me
of the World Championships at Club Pegaso, in Mexico. It's a far cry from the limited space
at most race sites here in the US. The actual track size is currently 250 x 130, with a race
line of 1125 feet.
The rest of the race officials flew in last night. Steve Webster will be the Race Director,
Ted 'X' Brown will be doing Announcing. Bob Ingersoll will be the Tech Director.
Rubin Benitez will be doing Timing and Scoring. Ed Hill will be the DRO (Designated ROAR Official).
Track owner Chris Whitney has signed in, and may run himself. Chris usually races in the
1/10 scale class.
The Racers
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Posted by mikemyers on Thursday, September 04 @ 14:31:03 EDT (117 reads)
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1/8 Scale On-Road Nationals |
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by Ted 'X' Brown and Mike Myers
ROAR (Radio Operated Automobile Racing) is the sanctioning body for Radio-Controlled (R/C) car
racing in the US. This year, the 1:8 scale (eighth scale) on-road National Championships are being
held at 301 Raceway in Brandywine Maryland.
1:8 scale cars are the scale equivalents of the LMP cars in the LeMans Grand Prix series. They
run on a road course, and are the fastest cars in R/C racing. They run on .21 cubic inch fuel-powered
engines, have two speed automatic transmissions, four wheel drive, independent suspension, and vented
disc brakes. These cars have everything their full scale counterparts have, including camber, caster,
toe adjustments, and many more adjustments. If you can change something on a full-size car, you can
make the same adjustment on these model racing cars...
Click on the images below for a larger view.
301 Raceway during open practice Wednesday afternoon
A view from behind the Driver's Stand
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Posted by mikemyers on Wednesday, September 03 @ 22:59:57 EDT (70 reads)
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1/10 200mm World Championships, Lisbon, Portugal |
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by Mike Myers
The IFMAR 200mm World Championships for 2008 are over. Daniele Ielasi is the new
World Champion, after a hard fought hour-long race. Chris Tosolini finished in
second place, complaining about rough driving on the part of his team-mates. Martin
Hudy got a third place finish, having started out in tenth place. Paul Lemieux put in
a fantastic race, putting in the fastest lap, but couldn't make up for a flame-out during
a pit stop. Although Paul led the race by a good margin early on,
by the time they got his car fired up again, he was way back in the pack. Congratulations to
Daniele, and Team Kyosho!
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Posted by mikemyers on Sunday, August 17 @ 17:51:51 EDT (108 reads)
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Practice Day, Homestead RC Raceway |
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by Mike Myers
This is likely to be more of a 'blog' than a race-report, so if you're
not interested in a lot of random text, maybe skip the reading, and move on to
the photo, or wait for the upcoming write-up on the 301 National.
If you're interested in r/c photography and GPS units, read on.
Saturday, August 16 was a simple practice day at Homestead RC Raceway. About a
dozen people showed up, some just to have a fun day at the track, and others
getting ready for a club race at Ft. Myers scheduled for the next day, with
Hurricane-to-be Fay heading for the same place. There's a
big State Series Race coming up in just a few weeks, but I'll be off at a major
Quarter Scale event that Friday and Saturday, and I doubt I can make it to Homestead
on Sunday. In the meantime, just about every Saturday at Homestead is a practice day.
Lazaro Alonso at Homestead RC Raceway
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Posted by mikemyers on Sunday, August 17 @ 15:24:50 EDT (77 reads)
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Homestead RC Raceway Club Race |
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by Mike Myers
Friday, August 8, 2008. I'm finally finished up with most of the reporting from the Great Lakes Challenge, but I've still got a ton of interesting photos that ought to be written up and displayed on SGrid Online. However, I'm tired of going through photos endlessly, and I've already posted what might be too many articles on the race. It seemed like a good idea at the time, as lots of good people wrote me with information they'd like to share, and I know that as a reader, I'd find all of it fascinating.
After going through my email, I find a rather puzzling message from Doug McNeely. Apparently there's something posted on the forum for the Homestead Motor Speedway that some well known international photographer would be showing up at the track's r/c club race the next day, Saturday, and all racers should put on their best t-shirts and clean up their cars for photography purposes. I wondered if he was referring to me, but then again I didn't even know there was a club race this coming weekend. So, an email goes off to Doug, with a copy to Art Carbonell. It turns out that the race is for real, and Art's going. It sounded like a great way to spend Saturday, so I finished up my reporting, put some batteries on charge, and made plans to go to the track with Art the next day, with the goal of spending the day at the race, and then doing another write-up with Art on Saturday evening.
The Homestead Track - start of the 1/10 A-Main
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Posted by mikemyers on Sunday, August 10 @ 21:38:31 EDT (109 reads)
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Shepherd Racing Velox |
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by Dan Louis
As a thirty year veteran of almost every type of RC car, I'd like to share
my experience with what I would call one of the best engineered 1/8 cars on
the market. Having designed complete cars (EV10), helping with the stealth
off-road design and quite a few weird innovations like the "Ugly Axle" and
"Jump Jets" I really appreciate when someone builds a car that not only has
all the right geometry but the biggest deal is that you can wrench this baby
in a New York minute! Try infinite front belt tension adjust in maybe twenty
seconds. Try pulling the wheel, axle and CV joint out of the car with one
"c" clip in less than ten seconds. Try not having to get carpal tunnel
screwing into plastic all day. All the bulkheads are precision German
made anodized aluminum. I even thought about weighting my Hudy wrenches
so I could spin them till they then stopped tight, cool, huh?
Dan Louis wiht the Shepherd Velox
the Shepherd Velox
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Posted by mikemyers on Friday, August 08 @ 01:59:16 EDT (133 reads)
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First look; Robitronic prototype GT class car. |
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By Ron Trobaugh
This project was a joint effort between myself and the US importer for
Robitronic, SK Motion. This is an up and coming class, and I felt that
the BR50 from Robitronic would make an excellent platform from which to
build a GT class car.
The BR50 is a desert trophy class truck, built upon the Mantis Truggy
chassis but uses shorter, buggy length arms. I received the BR50 less
than a week before the GLC. I proceeded to remove the bits that would
not be needed, and scrounge around for parts for the conversion. I found
a 2-speed that was originally produced for the Lightning Street, a
bumper for the OFNA GTP, a Losi LST clutch bell, some Mugen aluminum
clutch shoes/1.1 springs, OFNA CLK body, wing stay for the Robitronic
buggy, pinions were a mix of Losi and HPI.
A look at the car, body off
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Posted by mikemyers on Friday, August 08 @ 00:48:17 EDT (109 reads)
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Bobby Flack's 2008 GLC Report |
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by Bobby Flack
Well the Great Lakes Challenge has come and gone. This is one of my
favorite races of the year. The Toledo track is one of the finest in
the country and I am lucky enough to call it my home track as well. In
the five years I have been to this race it has transformed into one of
the major national events, drawing racers from all over the country. Of
course what everyone loves about this race is the emphasis put on FUN and
enjoying our time spent not only racing but hanging out with good friends.
Bobby Flack, 1/10 GLC Champion
Bobby Flack in the 1/10 A-Main
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Posted by mikemyers on Thursday, August 07 @ 21:46:05 EDT (109 reads)
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Great Lakes Challenge 2008 - Scott Kimbrow Finals Report |
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by Scott Kimbrow
Oh boy! Where do I even start..... It's now Wednesday, and I am just getting
things back to normal after a great week of r/c racing. There really is
something special about hanging out with good friends, being engaged in
fierce competition, and enjoying racing an r/c car.
Unfotunately, things didn't quite finish up the way I had hoped. After
four days of everything going perfect, the last day went all wrong........
Scott Kimbrow, with fiancee Sherry
Scott in action in the Main
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Posted by mikemyers on Thursday, August 07 @ 03:30:44 EDT (129 reads)
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My first race with my first RC car (GLC) |
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by Gianfranco Becattini
Hi, I am Gianfranco Becattini. I am 13 years old and I live in the
Dominican Republic. For my summer vacation I came to visit my father
to New York. My dad has raced 1:8 scale for many years and one of
my dreams was to stand in the driver stand next to him driving
my own car. I told my dad that I wanted my own RC car. I got
inspired with the 1:10 scale cars because they are interesting
and at the same time they are fun. My dad bought me my own
Kyosho FW-05 ready-to-run sedan.
My dad told me that he was going to go to Ohio to a big race
(GLC) so I convinced him to talk with the Race Director to see
if I could only practice the first two days of the week that
aren’t official practices for the race. The Race Director said
I could but only the first two days.
Gianfranco Becattini
Gianfranco on a nice line!
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Posted by mikemyers on Thursday, August 07 @ 02:55:49 EDT (131 reads)
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Great Lakes Challenge Report - DJ Apolaro |
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by DJ Apolaro
After not being at the GLC for a couple of years I decided to try
and get some track time with the Serpent 960 08'. Since I am mainly a
sedan driver I felt I needed to race some 1/8 scale and this would be
my third race. I did not register for sedan; this way I could focus
on 1/8 scale only and provide tech support for the other serpent racers.
I arrived to the track Thursday around noon and started with a stock
setup on the 960. I tested the Central body and the new Zytec that
did so well in the Euro's. I must say the new body was great. I first
wanted to learn about the motor and clutch and was going to worry about
the chassis later. I knew that getting a setup with a bad clutch meant
nothing, since the clutch is so vital to the cars performance. Thank
God I went to this race. I fought the motor and clutch package the
first two days before I learned how to tune the motor and clutch
properly. This will save me time at the nationals. After the first
day of qualifying I was happy to be in 8 or 9th considering my
problems. I knew I could improve the next day with the knowledge
I now had about the clutch and motor.
DJ (left) on driver's stand during the A-Main
DJ's Serpent 960
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Posted by mikemyers on Thursday, August 07 @ 01:55:41 EDT (125 reads)
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New Parma R-12 |
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by Paul Ciccarello
Parma has produced the new R-12 body for 1/8 scale on-road. Racers seem to be
very pleased with
the performance. At the 2008 Great Lakes Challenge, Josh Cyrul
used one to win the 1/8 4WD, and
Skip Starkey used one to win the Masters Class.
Josh Cyrul at the 2008 GLC - Click on image for larger view
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Posted by mikemyers on Wednesday, August 06 @ 15:38:46 EDT (114 reads)
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Josh Cyrul's GLC 2008 Report |
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by Josh Cyrul
Going into this year's GLC there was already so much that had changed from last year and the years prior
to that. New sponsors for both car and engines for the '08 season has really left me doing a lot of testing
and learning to find not only good set-ups to generate fast lap times but also the feel I am looking for from
the cars. In 1/8, the switch to Motonica after nearly 6 years at Kyosho has been relatively easy but at the
same time hard to break old habits that I had developed. With help from Garen at Motonica USA, my initial
start was pretty good but finding exactly what I am looking for has been tough testing at some of the major
races early in the year. After Ft. Myers, RAMS 40th, 301 and some club races at Toledo, I finally found a
set-up that is very comfortable to drive, easy on the tires and will run the fast lap times without having
to push the car over the limits. In 200mm TC, the switch to Xray has been the same but different. The Xray
car is extremely fast but finding the set-up that makes the car "feel" the way I would like has kept me on
my toes and searching. With their super light drive train and quality of the parts it just always feels
like there is so much more out there if I could find out the little details of the set-up I feel I am
missing when I hit the track. Again, I think just a product of running something else for so long and
having such a comfort level with it.
Josh in action in the Sedan A-Main
Josh following Scott Kimbrow in the 1/8 A-Main
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Posted by mikemyers on Tuesday, August 05 @ 20:31:52 EDT (152 reads)
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