Rules and Regulations

RULES AND REGULATIONS

Conduct:

Members should remember they are invited guests at the racing venues and should behave accordingly. Offensive behaviour and/or unsportsmanlike conduct is not appropriate.

Venue:

Hosts will provide a 4 lane track, with a reliable electronic or mechanical lap counting system. No other restrictions apply to the type of track, power source or hand controls used. All lanes and hand controls should, as far as is possible, have equal power/performance. If you wish to host please talk to Stephen Farr-Jones aka "The Benevolent Dictator" for help. The more tracks the merrier: we have gone from one track in 2004 to eight tracks in 2006!!

Loaner Cars:

Host will provide 4 loaner cars, each assigned to a specific lane for the day. Drivers will have option of using these 4 cars in the lanes assigned or using their own car. The goal of this rule is to minimize the impact on the host in terms of car preparation while encouraging people to have their own cars to race. Again we stress you do not have to own a car to participate, there will always be 4 loaner cars available but they will be assigned by lane so you might (i.e. likely) be driving a different type of car in each heat if you do not have your own. Loaner Cars can always be sourced from Stephen.

Controllers:

All racers will use the controllers provided by the host. The goal of this rule is to provide all racers with equal equipment to make for closer and cheaper racing.

Sourcing Cars:

To help as many people as possible to be able to get their own cars, we have offered to help source cars for anyone in the club. As several of the classes depend on cars no longer in production we will try to find the car you want at either internet stores or other sources for you. You will of course be paying for them but we won't add a fee J Just talk to Stephen.

Rules and Regulations for Cars

1. If it is not written here it is not allowed. Please take this VERY literally. If you have any doubt at all ask Stephen first.

2. The intent is that we race all cars in box standard form, running the same type of motors, gears, wheels, tires, chassis', guides and axles that it came with. All items can be replaced with the manufacturer's identical OEM product unless specifically noted in the class rules. Absolutely NO upgrades of these items, no exceptions. Over the years each class has been allowed small changes from stock SO read the 2006 Race Classes page very carefully. E.g. SCX 2WD and SCX 4WD must use specific Ninco tires on the rears and GT1 Le Mans, 1950's Le Mans and some 2WD's are allowed weight. Please see this page for all the details 2006 Race Classes

3. You can:

· Sand your tires to make them truly round. You do not need to retain the tire tread but there should be no holes in the tire. Just remember your car will bottom out if you remove too much of the tire.

· Glue your tires on the rims, however for most cars we race this is really not needed as the engines are not strong enough.

· Add shims to remove excessive sideways or vertical movement of your front axles and sideways movement of your rear axles.

· Replace plastic axle bearings with brass bearings. Note: ball-race bearings of any sort are specifically not allowed.

· Glue in your motors, motor shafts, axles, lead wires, bushings to reduce vibrations. You could use a reversible glue if you want to avoid damage to car e.g. hot glue instead of superglue.

· Loosen body screws a 1/4 to 1/2 turn to encourage a little body rocking. You cannot trim or shave the chassis in any way.

· Lubricate any moving parts such as gears, axle bearings, guide posts etc.

· Sparingly use braid conditioner (such as Tiger Milk, Parma PSE, Slick 7 Voodoo) on the braids. The sparingly comment is to prevent lots of fluid on the tracks J

· Clean your tires. Don’t underestimate the amount of extra grip available from doing this (and getting your tires true) versus using silicon tires or the like. Good old-fashioned spit, and tacky tape for removing lint are very effective. PPR Slots Super Tire Cleaner (www.pprslots.com) can be used to clean the tires as well. No other fluids of any sort may be used on tires, period, NO exceptions at all. Specifically no type of "zero-grip" additive may be used on the fronts e.g. nail-polish or superglue and no grip additive of any sort may be used on the driving wheels - including lighter fuel, glue's, wintergreen, rubber renewer, boiling or oiling the tires in any way etc. etc.

· With consumables like wire, spacers, screws, eyelets, and bushings you are free to replace as needed with whatever works for you. Again, you cannot change bushings to ball-bearing types.

4. Vehicle liveries may be changed and vehicles, wheels etc. may be painted as desired.

5. Windscreens and small parts such as mirrors and bumper bars may be removed to prevent their loss or damage.

6. Totally new models will be eligible to race once we have tested them relative to the cars in that class. We will try to do so as soon as they come out.

7. For vehicles over 10 years old, where genuine replacement parts in good order are not readily available, the use of reproduction, custom manufactured or non original manufacturer parts which are as near as possible original material, dimensions and specifications may be used. See The Benevolent Dictator aka Stephen for specific advice

8. If you choose (and you are definitely encouraged to do so) to use a different resin or plastic body on a class approved chassis / drive-train you need to complete the following 3 steps with The Benevolent Dictator: a) check that the body is appropriate for the class b) check what chassis you will use c) get pre-approval to move the horizontal location of the front axle if you need to adjust the wheelbase. This is the ONLY time you are allowed to modify any chassis at all so please check with Stephen first.

Rules and Regulations for Racing Meets

2 people will volunteer at each race meet to support the host. The roles will be assigned as follows:

Host: Prepare track, controllers and loaner cars. Solve any tech issues with these three during race day;

Score Keeper: call the heats and document the results in the spreadsheet. Be Race Director when RD is racing;

Race Director: run the individual heats, decide on all Track calls.

Benevolent Dictator: manage club; post and manage results; setup heats pre-race; provide loaner cars in all classes and controllers for host, if needed; make inappropriate and sarcastic comments because he won’t be the Score Keeper or the Race Director in the future; adjudicate if the rest of you cannot get your act together.

Between the 3 of them the Host, the Score Keeper and the Race Director will make sure things go smoothly and on time. This responsibility will be from the start of practice through to the end of the last heat. To keep things moving we will have a few new rules that the new Gang of 3 (it is a Dictatorship after all) will enforce:

When the racer is called for their heat the racer will be ready - end of discussion, the only exception involves blood, a lot of it, like a river and it better be yours!
Practice immediately before each race heat will be limited to 1 ½ min. max, and be more like 1 min, at Race Director’s discretion. Basically check your car works and you know the lane a little – which you should have tried during the available pre-racing time. Race Director determines when pre-heat practice starts and finishes. You can choose to do other stuff during pre-heat practice and between the end of pre-heat practice and the race start you can clean tires and braids BUT…..
When called for your heat start, if your car doesn't work, pick-up the lane’s loaner car, if that doesn’t work, pick up the spare loaner, if that doesn’t work beg for a car from another racer. If no one will lend you a car then you are one lonely guy and you should pick up a beer instead!
Track calls: last meet was a bit over the top so here is the official guidance: