Have you ever thought how difficult it is to run a perfect race? A good while back I put out the challenge to find a perfect race. I offered to write a post about it and let everyone who sees Slots New? find out about it. It is that rare! I put a number of stipulations on it to prevent a set up type situation. Some of those are as follows:
It had to be an organized race and not an impromptu affair. There must be at least 4 racers on the track at the beginning and the end. The person with the perfect race must finish on the podium. Also the perfect race must result in a top 25% finish. This means if only 4 are in the race the person also has to win to qualify. If there were 8 in the race then the finish could be as low as 2nd. The race must take place on a commercial grade track. No scale below 1/32 would be allowed. (This rule was made before I understood just what all was involved in HO). The rotations must be a minimum of 2 minutes. Break out classes are not accepted. Upon reviewing the race if there is any sign of creating the circumstances for a perfect race, man-made or by accident, it will not be accepted. If the race appears more like a practice run than a competitive race it will not be accepted. It must be a fully competitive race.
On Nov. 15th, 2018 a race was run by Chuck Hendricks at Charlie's Garage that meets these requirements. It was run on an tri-oval track which really only has one turn you have to think about to make it around, but it was still a perfect race. Chuck had been barking at this achievement for a while now. In a previous race he was able to run the entire race with no de-slots until the last minute of the last rotation. It was then another car came out of the slot and drifted in front of him ruining his effort.
The perfect race started with 5 cars on the 8 lane track only to have one pull out early due to mechanical difficulties. This left the 4 required cars on the track to make it a qualified race. I am sure if Chuck had thought about the qualifications for the race he would have been sweating another dropping out. No one else dropped out and it was a competitive race. Or, at least as competitive a race as you can have with Chuck racing at Charlie's Garage racing on the tri-oval. Chuck has managed to latch on to almost all the records established at Charlie's Garage in Pearl, MS.
Chuck has been dominating at the track pretty much since he went to the Dungeon in Prattville, AL to race the first time. The guys at the Dungeon are really good and can be competitive at any track they race at. It was racing against these guys that Chuck learned about tuning a car to get more out of it and how much faster he could go through the turns. He was finally starting to pick up on some of the things I had told him about for months. It just took him hearing it from someone who was a better racer than me for him to take it to heart. Since racing with these guys Chuck has taken most of the track records locally and is constantly on the podium....usually the top step.
So Why do I tell the story of Chuck's improvement and domination instead of going straight to the details of the race? It is important as this is part of the reason why he was able to run a perfect race. Chuck's skills on car tuning and set up have made his cars much faster than everyone else and his timing is so good on the turns that he can relax a little instead of having to run full out every lane. Does that mean he sandbagged to get his perfect race? Not at all, there are no hints of sandbagging or a set up race. In qualifying Chuck set a new lap record on the black lane only to be followed by qualifiers #2 & #3 by a spread of on 8/100 of a second. He qualified at 2.140 and the #3 qualifier turned in a blistering 2.222 only 0.082 second behind him. This was going to be no easy race by any means. The entire field of 7 racers was only separated by less than a quarter of a second with qualifying on what could easily be claimed as the most difficult lane of the track. In this race Chuck did not take the lead until the 4th rotation. Once he took the lead it was "so long fellows". He had been patient through the outside lanes where most of the danger is for getting caught up in someones problems. It is on the red and white lanes where the cars always finish after a de-slot in the only difficult turn on this track. After clearing the dangerous outer lanes he started his move for the win. You have to remember the other guys were all running on lanes the inside of him at the beginning of the race. With the other guys running inside of him, he wasn't capable of making up the distance for the longer lanes as they were all so close in speed. After moving inside the gutter lanes others were starting to run the longer lanes and he was running shorter lanes. Chuck wound up winning with a 13 lap lead over 2nd place. With that kind of lead after trailing in the first 3 rotations you cannot say he laid back. In fact, on rotation 6 he set a new track record turning 54 laps on the purple lane, more than anyone had ever dreamed of. On rotation 7 he was on the inside lane and had to watch out for de-slots as people would come out of the lead on turn. These de-slots would drift directly in front of him as they slid down the straight headed to the largest bank turn. This was what had cost him a perfect race only a week before in the last minute of the race. The last lane had him on a more comfortable yellow lane and he was able to drive cautiously to preserve his perfect race. Before you get excited and say he was sandbagging on this lane, let me make sure the picture is properly painted. Yes, he was cautious on his last rotation and I can't blame him for that, but he actually increased his lead. So, how can you say he was sandbagging if he was still running faster than anyone else on the track.
A little about the class Chuck was running in and the car he was driving. The class was Super Modifieds being run on a 75' tri-oval. It was on a tri-oval and not on a road course, so some may doubt the validity of it being a perfect race. I say, any time you run for 16 minutes without making a mistake and preventing yourself from being taken out by others, it is a perfect race even if it is on a track with only one difficult turn. After all that turn comes around every 2.2-2.5 seconds. So that is 403 times on this occasion without a mistake. These cars are modified 1/32 scale Womp Womps. The chassis is modified by having the right side of the chassis cut off making it a left turn only chassis (see Super Modifieds Racing At Charlie's Garage part 1). Originally these cars were being run with any motor we wanted to run in them, but the carnage was too great. In order to slow them down a new rule was put into place limiting the motors to Hawk 25 motors which are supposed to only turn about 25,000 rpm. Problem, they are now running as fast as they did when we had Hawk 6s and Hawk 7s in them. I have described these cars as flying bricks in the past. Anyone who has run Womp Womps knows this to have at least a spark of truth to it. However, these little cars truly can get around the track well. No, it wasn't on a road course. It did not have the carnage of a road course race with a full track. But it was still a great piece of driving.
Congratulations to Chuck Hendricks on not only achieving the perfect race, but setting new track records in qualifying and racing in the process.
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| Chuck Hendricks perfect race Nov. 18, 2018 75' tri-oval, Super Modified class, Charlie's Garage, Pearl, MS |
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| Cut down Womp Womp with Hawk 25 motor and super modified body |
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