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Kai
Posts: 22
Registered: 26-6-2004
Location: Denmark, CPH
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
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posted on 2-11-2004 at 06:55
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Technical inspection
Hi Tåmår.
Thank you for showing me whats important and what's not on the slotcars.
I have a Q? more for you, concerning Nascars.
How can I be sure that the drivers haven't been using any secret chemical on the tires ?
I suspect fair play, but sometimes some of the riders are riding a bit to fast, I think, and I'm suspecting the tires to be prepped.
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tamar
Posts: 804
Registered: 5-1-1989
Location: Gouda
Member Is Offline
Mood: A new beginning 
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posted on 3-11-2004 at 13:47
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Getting a grip on Sponge tyres
Hello Kai
First of all, thx for the work you did on the 6h technical inspection, it's a very important job that usually gets too little credit.....so well
done!
Sniffing out the "Chemists"
The answer about checking if guys are using "secret chemicals" to prepp their (Nascar) tyres is simple.......
You cant 
Sure enough there are tell tale signs that you can litteraly sniff out (strong chemical smell), but proving as an T.C it is an other matter.
So there's no quick fix for your problems as an Organiser/T.C . However below I have listed some of my experiences that I have encountered as an
organiser/racer over the past years.
No secrets
First of all You can do something about the "secrets" 
Just provide your racers with more info on what they can use on their tyres.
For sponge tyres these are usually petrol based products that:
- make the tyres softer. In general these are product originally used in RC racing which contain plastic softners. The downside of these products is
that they can damage your body and track surface as well.
- improves the contac patch on the track surface. In general you can use most types of oil. The oil sort of seals the small holes of the sponge
tyre, creating small suction bags as the tyre compresses a little where it touches the track surface.
Chemistry Control
As an organiser you can go one step further and provide some of these products for everybody to use, but as you series will progress each racer will
start to bring their own. By by secrets, by by advantage.
Many rulebooks try to control the use of these products by a rule that states that:
"Tyres must be dry when used on the track".
It's not perfect, but at least it will prevent the excessive use of these product to damage your track or greatly influence the amount of grip
available on the track.
Hand out tyres
If you want to keep a lid on the chemicals, one way to illiminate this problem is to use hand- out wheels & tyres.
For their Nascar races IMCA uses ready to run NSR wheels as hand outs .
This is possible as all Nascars can run on the same size of wheels.
The wheels are mounted on the cars at the tech inspection, after which the cars are immidiately placed in a Parc fermé (controlled enclosed zone).
The downside of this system is that, unless the cars return to the Parc fermé immidiately after the race, you can only use them once! You will have
to hand out new tyres for each race...which is a costly affair
The way we do it at the LMS races ( also used for the Fredriksund 6hrs) is more of a compromise. In the LMS we have a bigger variety of cars, and
each may need a different size of wheels.
So here the hand-out tyres are glued on the rims but the teams have to sand them down to their desired size.
This way all use the same materials, but there is a bit of room for that "personal" touch in the way they grind and shape the tyres.
Too much grip to start with
So in theory even with hand outs there will always be a margin for "special" prepping, in practice however this will hardly become an issue.
On frequently used tracks, slot(nas)cars fitted with sponge tyres tend to have "almost" too much grip to start with, and certainly won't need
any extra grip enhancing additives.
Balancing grip with weight 
For a basic sponge set-up, adding extra balast weight at the front of the chassis is an easy and simple tool to balance the handling of the car. A
thumb rule is; the more weight is shifted to the front the more the car will start to slide.
Even when your car is already above the minimum weight it can help to add extra weight on the front. The "lighter" car may be faster over a single
lap, but the "heavier" car (with more weight on the nose) could be safer and do more laps over the full race period.
Illiminate the need for grip additives: Prepp the track instead of the tyres
If for any reason the track is low on grip, (which will temp the racers to use grip additives) an organiser can choose to prepare the track to make
sure that there is more than enough grip availlable.
A widely used method is to spray the track with a mix of some "Stick it red" (Parma) and a bit of oil diluted in 1 liter Wash benzine. (as was
done by 2H for the Danish race)
No rule book is perfect
Last but not least...no matter how well written, no set of rules is completely 100% fool proof.
Even the FIA with its immensly detailed rules frequently get's a black eye from a smart designer or racer finding a loophole by which they manage
to gain an advantage. 
This is in fact an integral part of the sport, and although smaller in scale, slotracing is no different.
The best an organiser can do is try to minimise the effects that these loophole may have. Concerning Sponge tyres I believe that with the examples
mentioned above you can cover most of them.
Luckily in slotracing the rules don't have to be completely perfect to have fair racing 
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