Snow Ball 200

On January 1st, 2020 The "Dirt" will be hosting the Snow Ball 200.  The "Dirt" was inspired by dirt tracks my Father took me to as a child.  This race will be a look at an old dirt track race program.  It will consist of Time Trials, a Trophy Dash, Heat Races, a Consolation Race, and finally the Snow Ball 200.  This race program will not be your normal rotational slot car race.  It will be a lap based race where everyone will be racing to the checkered flag for positions.  The starts will take place with the power already on and you have the capability of "jumping" the start.  If you do "jump" the start there will be a penalty assigned and the race will restart.

Time trials will consist of 1 minute on any lane you wish to run on.  Your fastest lap will count as your qualifying time.  The fastest qualifier will get an automatic place in the Snow Ball 200.

The Trophy Dash will be a 10 lap race to the checkered flags.  The four fastest qualifiers will take part in the Trophy Dash.  The lanes will be selected in an inverted process.  Number four qualifier gets first choice of lanes and first qualifier gets last choice.  Ten laps to win a trophy, don't make a single mistake!!!

The Heat Races will be with the even number qualifiers in Heat #1 and the odd qualifiers in Heat #2.  The fastest qualifier doesn't participate in the heat races.  The winner of each heat will earn a spot in the Snow Ball 200.  The heat races will be 25 laps on a single lane with the fastest qualifiers choosing their lane first.

The Consolation Race will be the first rotational race of the day.  It will consist of all the racers who have not qualified for the Snow Ball 200.  The Consolation Race will be 30 laps per rotation with a European rotation format.  The winner of the Consolation Race will qualify for the Snow Ball 200.

The Snow Ball 200 will be four rotations of 50 lap races.  The fastest qualifier will choose what lane they want first followed by the two Heat Race winners then the Consolation Race winner starts on the left over lane.

All races will be live start and will start at the start finish line.  On rotational races all rotations will be lap based with each rotation starting at the start finish line.  The rotational races will count the number of laps for the winner and the number of laps finished plus a fractional amount of your last lap based upon when you cross the finish line.  These fractional laps will be totaled by the computer for race results.  If the winner won all four rotations He would have 200 laps.  However, the winner could feasibly have 197.212 laps.

This race will be using the 2020 Dirt Stock Rules.  The only difference in these rules and the 2019 rules is that skinny tires must be run instead of wide tires.  The Dirt Stock class will follow H.O.R.M. Stock rules except for body rules.

This will be an exciting time of racing based on old school dirt track racing.  Oh, one more point.  In a 200 lap dirt track race the cars usually would not have enough fuel to run the whole race and would have to make a pit stop.......In the Snow Ball 200 you will have to make at least one pit stop.  The computer will show your fuel level, if you run out of fuel the computer will stop counting your laps until you make a pit stop.  You make a pit stop by stopping under the light bridge over the photo cell for at least one second.  The computer will then recognize you are making a pit stop and will refuel your car.  You can watch the fuel bar and leave at any time you choose.  Just make sure you have enough fuel to finish the race.

The track will open for practice at 11:00 and the qualifying will begin at 1:00

Changes in Slots New?

Once again we are making changes to this page.  Originally it was to be about Slot Car Racing in general on a local basis.  Then it went to covering races and events regionally.  Next it included HO Racing articles.  After this HO kind of took over as HO racers were the ones who were viewing and were interested in this page.  Then it went exclusively HO.  Now it is coming full circle back to local interest in HO Racing.  I will file away all the old posts that may have interest to people in a category called "Old Stuff".

The reason for the change is pretty simple.  This page does get a lot of hits from outside the area and I hope it still will as people may want to know what we are doing.  The HO community seems like they really try to keep up with what is going on all around.  I have asked about reporting other races around the country and a lot of people would like for this page to report their results.  Problem....nobody seems to want to send me their schedule or their results.  They want me to search it out myself.  It is simply too time consuming to find all this info and then the info is usually incomplete.

From here until things change again, this blog will now be used as a support page to the HO Racers of Mississippi facebook page.  It will cover local race results, and articles of interest for our local racers.  I will also try to cover nationally recognized events such as The Fray, HOPRA Nationals, Echorr Challenge, etc...  If you have something you would specifically know about please let me know.

I will also try to include some info on what N.A.S.A. is doing.  They are the group that helped us get started and they have an interest in how we are doing.

It will take a little while to reorganize all the post into new categories so be patient please.

If you have something you would like to contribute to this blog please send it to slotsnewmonthly@gmail.com.  All contributions are subject to editing.

New Reporter Chuck Hendricks

For Slots New? to move forward in the future, with the new added scope we are undertaking, it will be necessary to bring in other people to report race results and occasionally write articles.  The first of those added race reporters is Chuck Hendricks.  Yes, that Chuck Hendricks.  The one I have written about having a case of dementia.  So, why would I have someone who is a poor demented soul writing for this blog?  The reason is quite simple.  He is one of the best slot racers I know.  He is very knowledgeable in the mechanics and set up of slot cars.  He also is a fantastic statistician.  He can bore you to death with the best of them in describing who turned how many laps or how fast the laps were at a race 10 months ago.  You might as well call him "Rain Man".  If he starts reporting "Yea, he won the race, he won the race, yeah he won the race", I will get rid of him faster than you can say "Uh oh, fart!"

Chuck will be covering the race results at Charlie's Garage in Pearl, MS starting immediately.  Hopefully Chuck will also be writing some tips or do some product reviews in the near future.

We are still looking for more people to cover race results and upcoming events.  Especially with the addition of HO and 1/32 scale coverage, help is needed.  I am looking for people who are willing to help even if they are senile, have dementia, or just bad breath.  That reminds me, Chuck we are still waiting on the results from last nights races at Charlie's.  Or did you think you were just imagining it happened?