17-18 July 2010
Rockingham GT/F3 Race Meeting
The Rockingham British GT/F3 Race Meeting was even busier for DHORC than the BTCC weekend, where 512 members of the public raced. At the GT/F3 event we had 649 competitors, with 50 racing on the Saturday. Having packed the van on Friday night, thanks to additional help from Martin Allsopp; Alan Bullock, Jonathon Levers, Paul Levers, Phil Rees and I set off at 8am Saturday morning for Corby and the Rockingham Motor Speedway.
With the track set up by 1430 hours we managed to run 50 drivers on the Saturday, which meant we were already up on the BTCC meeting as we didn’t manage any running that day during that meeting. That night we again stopped at my mothers in Lincolnshire (30 mins from the circuit), where we had a wonderful roast pork meal, Jonathon eating more than anyone (!)
Sunday Simon Sumner joined us and by 0930 hours we were full on, running 599 racers, with the Junior record being broken on several occasions but the Adult record, set on Saturday, not going until the very last race of the day! As always there were several folk who just couldn’t get enough, I reckon both the Adult and Junior winners could have paid for the prize of a family ticket to the next Rockingham meeting by the time they had finished!
Thanks to all who supported the event especially as it took them away from their families for the full weekend.
A picture of the track before we opened the doors is shown below
26 April 2010
DHORC’s Rockingham at the Real Rockingham
Having contacted the UK Rockingham Oval (at Corby, Northamptonshire) over Easter to see if they would be interested in DHORC running a replica HO scale infield circuit at the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) meeting - UK’s top Motor Sport Championship - during the weekend of 24/25Apr10 I heard nothing back for the first week or so.
Then on 12Apr10 I received an e-mail to say they would be interested! With less than two weeks to the event and having never transported our Rockingham track away from Derby before we had little time to work out all of the logistics including renting a long wheel based van as the track boxes were over 10 feet long!
Phil Rees, Paul Levers and I sat down and came up with the 50 line job list, which included carrying out a full audit on just how much Tomy track we had to make sure we could build an infield replica of the Rockingham circuit.
Early Saturday morning, Phil, Paul, Lee Pateman, Simon Sumner and Jonathon Levers helped to load the van with everything we needed for the event
An hour and a half later, after I had picked up Alan Bullock from Nottingham, Alan, Phil, Paul and I arrived at the impressive Rockingham circuit. No UK track has quite the approach with those enormous grandstands dominating the long drive in.
Having negotiated our way through the security gate, thanks to our contact at Rockingham, we unloaded the van at 1130 hours into a holding room. Then we parked the vehicles in the VIP area (very nice!).
The room we were given to set up the track was below the main grandstand with wall to ceiling windows giving us views of the whole circuit, the pits being directly opposite us. We couldn’t see any of this at the time though as the electric blinds were shut allowing us to build the track without any prying eyes!
Phil and Alan took charge of building up and wiring the purpose built Turn 1 of our Rockingham track as well as the 8 foot straights, while Paul and I got on with building the infield. We needn’t have worried about not having enough track pieces to build what turned out to be a 161’ 9’’ eight lane track as we still had plenty of the 15” straights left and never touched the 600 plus 9” straights we brought along for contingency.
Three hours later we sent the first car around the completed track
Once the track was clean Phil set about gluing the tyres onto the Tomy Turbo chassis wheel hubs as the g-force of the flat out Turn 1 was ripping them straight off!
We were using eight identical (except colours and numbers!) Tomy Chevrolet NASCAR’s so that each lane was equal, my only worry was whether folk would see the cars such was the distance to Turn 2.
Alan improvised, using some napkins we found in a box, to add the Rockingham name to Turn 1!
By 1800 hours we were all on the way to my mother’s for the night as she only lives 30 mins from the track in Lincolnshire. All were asleep real early as we were rather tired!
Sunday dawned drizzly after a perfect sunny day Saturday. We were on the road by 0715 hours as we needed to get through security before 0800 hours as there was a lock down on vehicle movements after this time.
Arriving back in the room the blinds were just being raised, making a very different feel to the room. I will never be ceased to be impressed with this facility. Through the mist the real Rockingham track laid out before us in exactly the same configuration as our circuit.
The lanes were all cleaned again and checked to make sure they all worked
Turn 1 looked just as daunting as the one outside the window, but probably less dangerous!
Simon Sumner and Kev Lye joined us on Sunday, the team expanding to six, and boy did we need it. As the racing started we needed every marshal we had, in fact next time we will have to up the support to give everyone a chance of a break.
At one time Phil had to go for a comfort break and when he came back there we eight racers biting at the bit to race, Phil being clapped back to his marshalling post!
The first hour was slow but then, like a tidal wave, the crowd just hit us!
My concern about racers not being able to see their cars was managed by each marshal calling out the number of the car when they marshalled them. Kev had the biggest job as he was at Turn 2 for the majority of the event. All eight cars would leave the start line together, going flat through Turn 1 before having to haul on the anchors for Turn 2. Unfortunately, despite recommendations from Race Control to slow as soon as they exited Turn 1, at least five cars would be off at Turn 2 each time. We even had foot high sponge barriers there but some still vaulted these and headed for the windows! Kev did an amazing job, only swapping with Paul towards the end of the day.
On several occasions we would have all eight lanes running continuously for an hour or so, followed by a lull when the BTCC races were on. One way or another we were kept well busy. So much so I wasn’t able to take as many photos as I would have liked!
Simon Sumner however videoed proceedings in between marshalling duties so we are looking forward to that
He had Simon’s DHORC videos running on a continually loop all day.
By 1700 hours we had had 500+ racers through the doors, the event being a great success.
All that was then left was to pack it all away, which was done within a couple of hours.
We are now in discussions with Rockingham for future events. We just need to sit down as a club and discuss the weekend and cover all of the aspects that went well and not so well so we can improve the show in the future. All in all, considering we had less than two week to organise it, we have to be pleased with the outcome.
I have to thank Phil, Paul, Alan, Kev and Simon for using up their valuable spare time to support this event and Rockingham for agreeing to allow us to run a track at their biggest event of the year. Hopefully we will be back again in the future.
Finally I mustn’t forget my mum for showing such hospitality to two complete strangers (she knew Phil) at such short notice.
This was certainly a great team effort!
Cheers
Nick
28 February 2010
I’m pleased to advise that DHORC’s first “Club Night” Weekend went very well with a capacity grid of 32 racers running in the two races (Open Wheel and Enclosed Wheel) on the 396-foot (revised from original estimated 365-foot) infield on Sunday 28th February 2010.
Unfortunately due to reed switch bounce we were only able to run Qualifying on the Oval we couldn’t run the eight lane Finals. With the track running on tables and the cars travelling at up to 22 mph the vibration from one lane was causing another lane’s reed switch to count as well. The same piece of track at the Le Mans event is on the floor and follows a very tight chicane so does not suffer the same problem. We will sort it though for future events.
However Jonathon Levers (below left) and Simon Sumner were the first racers to start a Qualifying round on the Oval, with Enclosed Wheel (Group C as we call it) running on Lane 4, Open Wheel (F1) Lane 5.
Oval qualifying (taking place on Saturday and Sunday) consisted of running 5 laps from a standing start. The car with the quickest total time for those 5 laps took pole. Martin Chadwick took pole for the F1, Lee Pateman the same for GC, being the only racer to dip below the magic 4 second barrier on the 124’ 4’’ track.
We were able to get an accurate measure of the oval track length thanks to Andy Whorton modifying (adding two pins to run in the slot in the track) a “Home Brew” STRAIT-LINE measuring device. Paul Levers (pictured) and Simon Sumner soon had the device sussed.
We even had own version of a gas turbine engine to clean the track, although I think Peter Barber’s vacuum cleaner sucked rather than blew!
After 11 of us had qualified on the oval on Saturday we converted the track over to the 4-lane infield ready for Sunday. It had been a long day Saturday but we were all looking forward to Sunday.
Sunday began at 8am where the 4-lane track was checked out. We were running 20ths (Katie Levers sorting them below) for the first time due to the length of the track.
Practice was over at 0950 when the track was shut ready for qualifying at 1000 hours. With two races being run competitors qualified both F1 and GC on all four lanes, giving everyone 8 qualifying rounds
The return loop, “The Valley” or the hairpins didn’t cause any major problems, all adapting well to what ever the track threw at them
The juniors lapped up the chance to run on such a large track
Qualifying was continually beamed up onto a screen for all to see
Simon Sumner again filmed the event, check out YouTube soon….
While Paul Levers, ably supported by Kev Lye ran Race Control
The two sets of Finals ran very smoothly once Phil Rees had all of the cars in Parc Ferme
To see the cars running at full velocity down the back straight, and in opposite directions (with closing speeds of 40 plus mph) was amazing
Nathan Gull and Lee Pateman won the F1 event
Katie Levers and Allan McPeake the GC event
Then the infield was torn down inside 25 mins and the oval set up with Turn 3 back in place.
After qualifying we then started the Junior F1 Final where we found the reed switch problem so we called the meeting. A shame, but I am sure with a new light bridge we will soon have it sorted in the future watch this space.
It was a truly memorable weekend, and I have to thank all of the following people for making it all possible
Phil Rees Wiring, Setting Up, Parc Ferme, Packing Away and Everything Else
Alan Bullock Wiring, Setting Up and Web Site
Paul Levers Setting Up, Measuring Track, Race Control and Packing Away
Lee Pateman Setting Up, Car Preparation for All and Packing Away
Simon Sumner Setting Up, Measuring Track, Videoing and Packing Away
Cliff Roythorne Setting Up and Packing Away
Josh Roythorne Setting Up and Packing Away
Katie Levers Tenth Markers and Packing Away
Peter Barber Setting Up, Vacuuming Track and Packing Away
Kevin Lye Race Control and Packing Away
Jonathon Levers Setting Up
Ryan Blake Packing Away
Tom Chadwick Packing Away
Geoff Peach Packing Away
Allan McPeake Packing Away
Iain Hall Packing Away
Roy Masters Packing Away
Jamie Sismey Packing Away
Martin Chadwick Packing Away
Paul Mellor Packing Away
Liam Smith Packing Away
Martin Allsopp Packing Away
Shloke Anand Packing Away
John Chell Packing Away
Running a slot car club certainly keeps you busy as yesterday I spent 10 hours putting together the two magazines covering these races as we have our next Club Night tonight!
Cheers
Nick
25 February 2010
With just two days to go before the first DHORC Club meeting on the Brad Bowman produced 120-foot 8-lane Rockingham Oval preparations are in full swing. The final wiring loom has been completed, the final check of the macro’s in the spreadsheets (below) that will keep the competitors up to date with race positions projected onto a screen (including qualifying position plus who has the current fastest lap and best number of race laps indicated by the numerics turning purple) has been done and the list of competitors has been finalised.
Saturday starts at 9am when we use the RR truck to move the track boxes (each requiring at least four bodies to lift) the mile from their storage facility to the Nightingale Hall. There the 25 tables that will carry the oval will be set up once the boxes have been opened. Each of the 17 pieces of track requires lining up with its two partners before the special screws fasten them together. Each straight is laid down on a minimum of 10 wooden wedges to ensure they have the same aspect ratio as the banked corners, with clamps every foot locking them to the tables.
The wiring looms are then brought out, each of the 17 pieces of track needing 16 connectors to power the 8 lanes. Continuity checks and rail cleaning then follows before the first car takes to the track.
While all of this is going on the infield also needs to be built, the 16 wooden tables and 10 dividers having to be carried across the 20 metres separating the hall from the usual clubroom. In addition the normal Tomy plastic track needs to be carried across from the same room. The exciting 145-foot infield will then take shape, including the crash barriers. The track will be taped to prevent it moving as well as being cleaned. Finally the 19 x 20th markers (normally we use 10th markers but on such a long track we have to use 20ths for the first time) will be put in place.
Once all is happy with the oval, some folk will hopefully qualified on the oval (total time for 5 laps on one lane from a standing start) and then we will convert the track over to the 4-lane infield by taking out Turn 3 and fitting the two converter tracks ready for Sunday morning. Again if we have enough marshals some will qualify for Sunday’s Finals on Saturday afternoon to speed up proceedings. What time we will finish Saturday no-body knows as once you get folk started they won’t want to stop. Probably the Security Guard will throw us out when he leaves at 10pm!
Sunday starts at 8am when the track gets another clean, including a vacuuming and then the 4-lane 365-foot track will be open for practice.
At 0945 the track will be closed and cars placed in Parc-Ferme at Race Control
At 1000 hours the first 3-minute qualifying race will begin.
With breaks and lunch this will take us through to mid afternoon until qualifying for both the F1 (DHORC355) and GC race (DHORC356) is completed.
After another break, during which lane choices in each Final are made, the Finals will then be run. Both the F1 and GC Finals will be divided into Junior and Adult Finals with the lowest qualifiers going first and the winner of each 3-minute Final moving up to the spare lane in the next Final. The winner of each ‘A’ Final will be the winner of that 2010 Championship Round.
Following these two races the converter tracks will then be replaced with Turn 3 (and the infield dismantled as far as it can be until the oval is ready) and the oval brought back to its glorious best.
Once all of the necessary checks have been made qualifying for the F1 (DHORC357) and GC (DHORC358) oval races will begin concurrently, with F1 running on Lane 3, GC on the outside Lane 1. Qualifying should only take about an hour max, especially if some have qualified the previous day.
After another break all will again choose their Final lanes. With it being “Win from any lane”, the top qualifier could choose the best lane in the ‘A’ Final, the second qualifier the same lane in the ‘B’ etc!
These Finals will also be 3-minute races where if you crash you are out and so all of the Finals should be over in 30 minutes or so.
Once the Finals are over the big tidy up will be under way, everything returned to its original place and the room set up for a business meeting for early the next day!
Well that is the plan lets see what the weekend will bring!
A full report will be included in this thread.
Cheers
Nick
7 February 2010
Below is a pictorial view of the 4-Lane Rockingham in-field.
6 February 2010
Latest update re event is that we will have a minimum of 6 Non-Members joining us on the day, with several others that are hoping to commit. The maximum grid of 40 starters is looking promising.
31 January 2010
Thanks to the great help from Phil Rees and Alan Bullock, who worked tirelessly over the last few weeks making up the wiring loom and connectors etc, the Brad Bowman produced Rockingham Oval finally ran for the first time on Sunday 31 January 2010.
To see those HO cars lapping the 119 plus foot circuit in just over 4 seconds (>20mph) was awesome. The track was by no means clean so I am sure we will see sub 4 second lap times in the races on 28 February 2010.
We are therefore now looking to invite entries from Non-DHORC Members to join us on Sunday 28th February 2010 to race in the four races detailed in the first issue of this thread. Please call on 07968 906 491 or e-mail me at nick.sismey@Rolls-Royce.com if you are interested.
Phil was still working at midnight the night before making sure everything was ready with the loom
Similarly Alan could now fit all of the connectors he had spent hours wiring up.
On the day Lee Pateman (seen below working on the infield converter track)…
…Paul Levers (photo below also showing the large number of wooden wedges Phil had to produce)………..
…and Cliff Roythorne (working on the valley section of the infield below) joined Phil, Alan and I to build the track.
The straights were from the Le Mans circuit and so had to be modified slightly but not to the detriment of the Le Mans race. I hope to get the video up onto You Tube sometime, which really shows those cars in their element on the banking!
As you can see from earlier pictures we also had the four-lane infield up and working, which measure 365 feet.
This entailed removing Turn 3 from the oval and fitting two converter tracks, one with just a return loop fitted
As mentioned above this includes a valley section thanks to the use of some 15 inch straights that Paul moulded over his gas cooker some 15 years ago!
The infield has been modified compared to the original design, it now flows much better and is a real drivers circuit.
10 January 2010
The first running of the Brad Bowman built 122 foot eight lane Rockingham Oval (believed to be the worlds largest purpose built slot car oval) will take place on Sunday 28th February 2010 in the Nightingale Hall, Rolls-Royce leisure association, Moor Lane, Derby, DE24 9HY, England from 10am. Please see attached map, which shows our normal Club Room, the Nightingale Hall is opposite this room.
While the four races run at this event are part of the 26 Round 2010 DHORC Championship we are opening up DHORC Membership to those racers who cannot normally make a Tuesday Club Night. For just £10 you can race as a Member at the four Rockingham races above and the Le Mans Club Night on the Thursday night before our Le Mans 24-hour race in November. This is a wonderful opportunity for racers up and down the country to pit their skills against long standing DHORC Members with similar machinery on a brand new track, new to all. Alternatively you can pay just £5 and run as a Non-Member with separate Finals. Racing will be split into Adults and Juniors, with Juniors being classed as those competitors who are 16 years of age this year or below.
Up to date competitor race information will be projected onto a wall-screen so all are aware of their positions.
If you are interested please contact myself Nick Sismey at nick.sismey@Rolls-Royce.com or on 07968 906 491. I can then send you our Rules and Regulations so you can see what cars we use. More details, including a timetable, about the day's racing can be found after the photographs below.
We are having a final trial run of the circuit at the end of January where the first cars will run on both the oval and the four-lane infield circuit, which will be between 300 and 400 feet in length. A further update will be provided after that which will include pictures of some new features never seen before on a UK HO slot car track as well as the final confirmation of the event going ahead in February.
Timings are as follows. Note: Timings after 1000 hours are approximate, depending on the number of competitors, but below are the latest each section will be run.
0900 hours
Four Lane circuit opens for practice in 3-minute sessions
0955 hours
Track Closes
1000 hours
Qualifying begins for the Open Wheel four-lane event.
Each competitor will race their Open Wheel car on all four lanes for 3 minutes at a time. (Note: Each competitor will complete all four of their qualifying races consecutively in line with normal DHORC rules. The total number of laps completed by each racer will be added up and then a series of Finals will take place with the bottom qualifiers in the first Final and the top three qualifiers in the 'A' Final. Therefore even if you qualify last you can still win the event, but you have to win through every Final!
1230 hours
Open Wheel Finals, with lane choice going to the top qualifier in each Final through to the third place qualifier in that Final. These will also be three-minutes in length. The winner of the previous Final will move up onto the lane remaining in the next Final.
1300 hours
Lunch
1330 hours
Qualifying begins for the Enclosed Wheel four-lane event.
1600 hours
Enclosed Wheel Finals
1630 hours
Track closes while it is converted over to the Oval
1700 hours
Qualifying begins for both Open Wheel and Enclosed Wheel
This consists of each competitor completing 5 laps from a standing start on one lane, Open Wheel on Lane 4, Enclosed Wheel on Lane 5 (Note: Two competitors will therefore qualify at the same time and then change over to their other car). The time taken for each competitor to complete the total of five laps will then be used to calculate the Final grid positions.
As the Finals are "Win From Any Final" the top qualifier can choose the best lane in the 'A' Final, the second qualifier the best lane in the ''B' Final etc if they wish.
1745 hours
Open Wheel Finals of three-minute duration.
1800 hours
Enclosed Wheel Finals of three-minute duration.
1815 hours
Track Closes
