Summer 2009 Racing Program

[Blake]

Hello all,

See below for this summer's racing program and rules.  Most of it is very similar to last year.  Differences are highlighted in Red.  Sorry Rob....


Summer Club Membership
$20.00 for the entire summer.

Weekly Race Fees
$5.00 per class.  Kids are half price.

Classes
Touring Stock (Some changes for 2009)
Touring car chassis, 4WD, Rubber tires, 190mm width, 1500g min weight
Sedan bodies, Wing below roofline
ROAR legal 27T brushed motors
ROAR legal 17.5 brushless motors
6-cell NiMH/NiCd, 7.4V LiPo
Race length: 6 minutes

Touring Nitro (No changes for 2009)
Touring car chassis, 4WD, Foam tires, 200mm width, 1725g min weight
Sedan bodies
Any 0.12cid "race" glow engine, or any 0.15cid/0.18cid "RTR Kit" engine
Race length: 5 minute qualifiers, 20 minute main

Pro10 (Very minor changes for 2009)
Pan car chassis, 2WD, Foam tires, 200mm - 235mm width, 1200g min weight
GTP bodies, 4.5" max height for body/spolier/side-dams
ROAR legal 19T brushed motors
ROAR legal 10.5 brushless motors
6-cell NiMH/NiCd, 7.4V LiPo
Race length: 5 minutes


Race length
Touring Stock will follow ROAR's guideline, and be bumped to 6 minute qualifiers and mains.  Pro10 will remain at 5 minute qualifiers and mains to try and reduce excessive tire wear and cooked equipment.  Nitro will remain at 5 minute qualifiers and a 20 minute main as per ROAR's guideline.

Track Setup is at 9AM
Craig had the truck parked in the lot by 8:30AM every Sunday last summer.  There is no reason we cannot start track setup at 9AM.  This will help us with our schedule throughout the day.  If Craig hasn't taken time out of his Saturday to outline the track, then we will do this at 9AM, and track setup can start at 9:15AM.

Daily Race Schedule (roughly)
9:00AM Track Setup
9:45AM Open Practice
10:30AM First Qualifier
11:45AM Second Qualifier
1:00PM Lunch
1:30PM Third Qualifier
3:00PM Mains
4:30PM Teardown
5:00PM The latest anyone should be heading home

Classes/Heats Ordering
We may be playing around with the order in which we run the heats.  Depending on the numbers for each class, and the people running in each class, we may shift around the sequence to make marshalling/pitting the Nitro race a little more efficient.

Nitro Class
While the race organizes do try and jam as many Nitro cars into one heat as possible, we must realize that Nitro racers are humans too, and scheduling any more than about 8-10 cars in one heat is unfair.  In the cases where we have 10 or more nitro racers, we will have to break into two heats.  Warmups will be reduced to three minutes, and the lunch break will be shortened.

Lunch Break
We all enjoy a lunch break, but it will be the first thing to be sacrificed if we're running late, or have extra entries/heats on a given day.  We'd like to get everyone on their way home by 5PM.

Generator Etiquette
The pit area can get a little toxic at times with all the generators.  Please plan to bring a long extension cord so that you can place your generator down wind from the pits.  If you're uncomfortable having it "out of site", please bring a lock so you can secure it to a tree/car.


Blake

[Gorden]

6-cell NiMH/NiCd, 7.4V LiPo

As mentioned above, anything goes, as long as the manufacturers rated capacity is less than or equal to 6000 mAh, with a nominal voltage of 7.4 volts or less.

is this still in effect from last year?

[Blake]

As far as I'm concerned, the mAh limit should be removed.  Any 7.4V LiPo should be allowed.  If this opens the door to some "performance enhancing" loophole that I'm not aware of, please let me know.

Blake

[Shawn68z]

The bigger capacity battery should allow for  a faster overall run.   Higher average voltage for the 6 minutes.   I personally think the 6000Mah rule is goodt to help to keep costs lower.



Just my 0.02.

Shawn68z.

[BigDawg]

just a question,whats the highest cap batt available?

[Gorden]

maybe it's the C-rating we should be looking at here's something from SMC

Actually the 40C packs have better IR and voltage but on the track it's not a huge difference as our 24C and 28C packs have really good numbers as well. In limited motor classes the difference is not that noticeable. In higher amp draw situations you definately can feel more power.

We just got a new shipment today and were doing our best to fill out backorders.
__________________
www.smc-racing.com

maybe we should cap the battery at 30C since most of us already have 28C cells

[RC51]

Many of the guys have 30+C batteries which is only an issue at draws of 90 Amps +. We generally do not get close to that with stock racing. We've tested both on and off the track with a custom dyno, custom software and telemetry systems. As with the other types of batteries, the average discharge voltage is an advantage, but it's minimal at best since the first drop occurs early and then pretty much levels out with a small decrease until it then drops when it dumps. Since our consumption is 2000-2400 mAh or so, we're really not getting to the point where it would make a difference. The perceptible advantage may be in lower IR for stock and higher C for Super Stock and Mod. Limiting the batteries at this point is somewhat arbitrary. So, all of this is to say, that from my perspective any rule will do, as long as it doesn't necessitate some drivers having to buy lower spec batteries simply to race no matter where they may place.

Phil

[Shawn68z]

just a question,whats the highest cap batt available?

The biggest I have seen in a hardpack for racing is around 5600 currently.  You can jam a 12000 in if you want, but it would be a custom fit. :-)  Its about the size of a brick.


Shawn.

[Shawn68z]

just a question,whats the highest cap batt available?

The biggest I have seen in a hardpack for racing is around 5600 currently.  You can jam a 12000 in if you want, but it would be a custom fit. :-)  Its about the size of a brick.

Okay. Just found a 6500 that would fit my Xray.

[BigDawg]

thanks shawn,with that info it would seem to me a 6000 mah cap pretty much makes it so there isnt any cap at all

[Shawn68z]

thanks shawn,with that info it would seem to me a 6000 mah cap pretty much makes it so there isnt any cap at all

huh?  I have to admit, i am not following you on this one.  I think the 6000 rule is a good one, keeps the battery capacities stable for acouple of years.   Lipo batteries should last acouple of years, so, by keeping the capacity limited to 6000 for acouple of years, it means members wont feel the need to have the latest greatest pack, helping to keep the costs lower.

(rant coming up)

The problem with racing and RC Racing in general is its self destructive.  it costs money to go fast, so as soon as a competitor has something that may make them faster, everyone else thinks they need it to. People will spend more then they should, and the next thing you know people will stop racing because it costs to much.   Keeping costs low, especially during economic hardtimes, should be considered. Battery, motor and tire rules really help with costs.  One way would to have  a tire issue at the beginging of the year, say for 3 sets of tires for the season.  (Exclude speedweekend though) Put an Irocc'09 stamp on them, and thats all you can have for the year.   Small capacity batteries are less expensive then high capacity batteries, so by limiting capacity, you are indirectly keeping batteries less expensive.


Shawn.

[BigDawg]

well would seem to me every year we review the rules ,so for a 6000 cap this year means basically there is no cap ,i don't re cal the club ever making any rules that stand for anymore than the season in question,keeping the costs low is a good idea hence the stock class, but limiting everything  just to keep costs low  seems a little unfair  specially for those who like to go on road trips and such,and would like to have  some good equipment on hand that they actually use other than just out of town  or maybe the club should just put a limit on everything from the car we use to the batts  and maybe the charger to charge them batts and how about that radio and them servos as well everything we put in our car helps out in someway and it all cost money  ,what are we talking about again??? 

[Blake]

I'm perfectly happy to keep the 6000mAh limit if it's perceived to keep costs down.  I personally will be running my 4000mAh pack from last year.  I just didn't want to screw anybody that happened to buy their first LiPo pack over the winter, and it just happened to be a 6100mAh pack or something....

You are correct in that R/C racing is self destructive, but I firmly believe that *most* IROCCers are more mature than that.  The only person I can think of that would have bought a new 6000mAh+ pack this summer, because they felt it would have been a noticeable advantage, is no longer racing with the club....


Blake

[WhoDoYouThink]

As always, the IROCC Executive TRIES to keep costs down and make racing as exciting, FAIR, and as competitive as possible for everyone. It's an almost impossible task, especially with new(better?) technology coming along all the time, but we do try our best! We realize we can't please everyone all the time.

[Grinder]

A cap on the mAh rating isn't going to make any difference either way.  The difference in tires is going to make WAY more difference than batteries now....  if you want to regulate racing regulate the tires....