So, it was a pretty successful day yesterday. I posted this on my slot car racing forum because those are most of the degenerates who helped me get here, but I thought I would post the same update here.
It was a good day!
I won the whole thing. HOLY CRAP!!!!!
At the finish line with my VERY supportive wife:
An earlier heat, from Jeff Burns:
Scuderia Kouba had three cars entered, and all three cars did do extremely well, with all of them earning spots in the finals. Dennis won his first round final's heat but had his off in the semi's. For my semi-final heat, I was lined up with two random others, one of which blew a tire while just sitting on the start line. They then pulled Jenny Burns in the MkII up to replace that entry, so one of the Scuderia cars wasn't going to advance that round, and it was her... I grabbed victory in that round and waited for the final to see who showed up.
It was that gorgeous canoe car and the third place winner from last year. This was going to be interesting.
With the performance of all three cars, I figured whoever lead into the first corner was going to have a massive advantage, and whoever lead into the Learning Curve was going to take the race. For this, I owe it to my pusher, Michael Davis, who gave me fantastic starts all day. What did he look like in action? Check out an earlier heat from the push cam (didn't capture the final heat):
2017 Portland Adult Soapbox Derby - Car #2, heat start - YouTube
For the final heat, he got me out ahead of the others into the first left turn, but the canoe car made up a little ground going into the right. I saw his nose move up along side of me, but I stretched it out into the next left hander with a shorter line to the apex. This got me far enough ahead to drift out onto the main straight and hope that I had enough of a lead. Howie got this from about halfway down the straight:
Google Photos
Turns out, it was EXTREMELY close heading into that final turn. Someone else sent me this slow-mo video of our two cars nearing the turn in for the Learning Curve:
Google Photos
In the first 4 seconds of the video, you can see the nose of the canoe car within ~18" of the tail of the car- about halfway up the pushing tower we added for the start. We were that close(!), BUT I WAS IN THE LEAD. Louis in the canoe car was going to have to drive around me, and would scrub off energy trying to do so... At the line it looked like this:
Google Photos
In the end, it was their closest finish ever, and THE FIRST TIME A ROOKIE EVER WON THE EVENT! Don't me wrong, I wanted to win, and I was aiming to win, and made all my plans to win, but in no way did I ever actually imagine we would pull it off.
To top it off, although she didn't make the finals, Jenny was the fastest in the Formula 8 class and took home the trophy for that. Check out the hardware!!!!:
Jenny with the Formula 8 trophy, me with the Numero Uno and Best Rookie trophies
A MASSIVE THANK YOU is due to everyone who helped get me (and Jenny and Jeff) up to the starting line and down to the finish this year. I can't tell you how much fun I had and what a blast it's been. I will also give a specific thanks to "Downhill" Bill Bostic for being the glue that held the team together. I can honestly say that without his time, effort, energy, and enthusiasm, I'm not sure we would have even gotten entered in the event. Next year, you need to RUN in the event!!!
I also want to specifically thank my wife Bethany for supporting the 12 year old within me, and allowing Bill and Dave to come over and play in the shop on Thursdays, and for all the evenings she got to spend without me while we played and tested.
THANK YOU B, BILL, and EVERYONE ELSE!!!!
Chris