Monee 2013

Discussing who likes nitro fumes more

Got back in a little late last night and just got a minute to start looking at the pictures from the weekend.  My performance, well let's just say I had a better time than I did results, so I'm going to focus on the positives.

The Real Slim Brady

Several folks from Michigan made the trip including: Butch Beebe, Steve Bahr, Jody Flipse, Pee Wee, Scott Brady and myself.  I think most of us had a pretty good time regardless of how we finished.  More on that in a minute.

Flag man is too much responsibility for me

Monee is a special race track in the RC world.  It may not be the oldest track in existence, but it's got to be damned close.  They've been running the Big O race now for 23 years.  In the world of Dirt Oval RC racing, that's the equivalent of being one of the pyramids at Giza.  It is said that Roy Moody, the late founder of the race track invented Dirt Oval RC sprint racing.  I have no idea if that's true or not.  I only know that it's a bad ass track with a mind of it's own.

Close racing

The track itself seems gargantuan compared to most of the tracks we run indoors.  The facility was purpose built for RC racing.  You can tell because the cement in the building is poured only on the outside of the track surface.  They tell me it's somewhere between a 220 and a 240 foot run line.  They keep the surface fairly high bite although it only seems to develop a black groove when the eighth scale nitro cars run on it.

Their track prep man Mike Hannah is there at the crack of dawn every day spiking the track and running in the moisture with a Cub Cadet tractor.  They've been doing this stuff for a long time so they've got their methodology right down to having a rolling machine specifically created for painting in the lines of the track.  They tell me that they don't get a great turnout, which is hard to believe given the condition and layout of the track.  If only it were two hours and twenty five minutes closer, I'd be there every week.  I love the place.

Getting it done on the stand

The track is not without it's downsides though.  It's a huge track with huge traction which means insane speeds when we're running mod sprint.  I had a 6.5 motor in and could barely control it.  There were those there with 4.5 and lower motors.  Good stuff to be sure, lot's of opportunities for broken parts too.  Even carbon fiber has a tough time taking an impact at what has to be somewhere around 30 miles an hour.  It's a good thing we had a few of there.  We were trading spare parts like a swap meet at times.

Tell Me a 10 car main isn't badass?

Friday was a practice day.  They mixed the gas cars with electric which made for a foggy, loud day to say the least.  My ears were ringing at dinner after we left and I'm pretty sure I didn't gain any brain cells breathing those fumes all day.  I made some gains in my late model and went backwards in my sprint car the whole weekend.  It didn't help that I got hit by an 8th scale car halfway down the straightaway that sent my car a good 4 to 5 feet in the air.

Steve Bahr was doing his usual mad scientist routine, swapping parts and setups at an alarming rate.  He went through a ton of parts trying to get it going.  In the end, he took his GBX3 sprint car back to the hotel and returned it to box stock.  It turns out that this was a great move because he almost made the show with his under-motored car.

Monee does things their own way.  They've been doing it a long time.  No IFMAR starts.  Per Greg, the race director "This isn't Europe, you don't race a clock, you race cars.  If you want to win, you have to pass somebody.  We've never done IFMAR starts and we never will".  Agree or disagree, you've got to love their moxy.

Late Model B Main had 3 Michiganders in it.

They also do something unique that I haven't seen at any other RC race, but I have seen at every other race I've gone to, be it short track dirt or the Daytona 500.  Monee plays the National Anthem, complete with a pace car and US flag circling the track.

Heats are also waived by one of the marshalls with a green flag and ended with a checkered flag.  It might seem a little hokey to some.  I like it.  We're playing with toy race cars, why not simulate a real race as much as possible?

Clearly giving some sagely advice

The heats were average to say the least for everyone except for Butch.  Butch's old GBX late model was right up there with just about any of the 13.5 blinky cars.  Steve and Jody both had decent qualifying in late model and sprint, but neither were rocket ship fast.  There were some guys there that looked like they were running mod, except that they weren't.  They just had everything dialed in to go fast.

We were all geared to the moon.  I ran out of gear in my late model or I think I could have been a tick faster.  I had my rollout to about 2.15, just didn't have any gear to go any higher.  The 45 tooth pinion gear I used barely allowed me to tighten up the motor mounting screws.

Getting it done in the B Main

Like I said, my mains were less than eventful, so I'll tell the tale of others.

Before the Sprint B main, Bahr noticed that he had out qualified CW sponsored driver, Rob Mulvaney.  I wasn't watching the other qualifiers too closely.  He must have had some trouble getting hooked up.  Steve was pretty happy about that anyway.  I told him to hang on before he started feeling too good.  Sure enough, Rob won his main and bumped to Steve's.

I marshalled for the Sprint B and for the first three and a half minutes, Bahr was locked into second place (and the transfer spot) by half a lap.  All of a sudden, Steve's car shot up the track his run ended.  It looks like he either broke something or a screw came out of his upper controller arm.  Even though he didn't make the show, he had a shot at it and that should make anyone feel good.  All you can ask for is a chance.

Sprint Car Dash

Tough to make the A with this setup

Butch Beebe was the star of the Michigan contingent.  His GBX late model was fast all weekend.  I didn't think it was that fast, but when the heat finishes started rolling in, he came in about 11th out of 30 or so Late Models in the field so he had to have something going.   Jody, Steve, and Butch all ended up in the same feature.  Jody and Steve managed to find a green car that was less than courteous at times or they would have been right there at the finish.  In the end, it was Butch who transferred to the big show.

He ain't done by a long shot

I don't know for sure how old Butch is and I won't say even if I do  I do know that he's getting up there in age, yet doesn't seem to be dropping off at all in his ability to wheel an RC car.  I felt really good about because I've been with Butch at a lot of big races where one thing or another has kept him from the finish he deserved.

Friggin tight racing for how fast they were

In the A main, Butch lined up at the rear of the field.  The rest of the field was set by a two minute dash that was a spectacle to behold.   The top eight cars duked it out nose to nose and the chaos was minimal. There were some serious heavy hitters in the filed including Dustin Mallicot from Hyperdrive/Go Fast.  It was fun just watching the best in the business to see how far off I am from fast.

Double file rolling starts

About ninety seconds in to a five minute main (they do things their own way at Monee), Butch managed to get up to about fifth or sixth out of ten cars.  His luck finally ran out and he got caught up in a little mayhem and ended up finishing near where he started.  All in all, a very respectable showing for one of the all time greats in RC racing.   Ten cars in a heat are badass.  Let me just say that.

Late Model Dash

I will be rebuilding all of my cars before I race again.  I hope to have at least one done for next week since I haven't been out to BFG in a couple.  I may take a break from Sprint Car racing for a bit to focus on my late model.  The Sprint Car is just too far out there at the moment.  If Butch drops a 21.5 back in that Late Model of his, I'm going to be glad I run 13.5.  That thing was on fire!!!!

See y'all at the track soon....