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| The Fray 2002 Team Championship One View From Team Southern California Great Bunch O' Racers! I've just returned from another wonderful Fray in Ferndale, and since Our Esteemed Editor would like to have this article by Tuesday evening, Monday evening is none too early to start! Before getting into Who Won What When, I must point out that The Most Wonderful Thing about the Fray is getting together with what must be the largest group of dedicated T-Jet racers in the United States. Great bunch of folks, I'd say, and while there certainly is the odd-duck contingent (and aren't we all, to some degree?), I would have to point out that The Fray is a most friendly (yet competitive) event. If you are at all inclined to race the occasional T-Jet, I would certainly encourage you do whatever may be necessary to make it to next year's Fray. Sorry you missed this one, but there's no reason it shouldn’t happen again! And its guaranteed to change your life, at least the HO Slot Racing part, and definitely for the better. Fray History? Since there are other places in the HO World archives to fill you in on all the Fray History, plus tell you what it is, what to expect and how much fun you'll have when you get there, I won't bore you with that here. Suffice to say that Rick Phillis has done his homework and a lot of hard (physical and organizational) work once again. So, all the good words you read in the historical Fray section are just as applicable to the 2002 event as they were to previous Frays. Maybe more so, really, since there were more teams (and tracks) than ever before. This Time . . . There were 16 Teams in this year's Fray, and speaking for Team Southern CA, we took off for the Far North (of CA) feeling as if we had a reasonable chance for victory. Mike Engelage and Rick Jocham had been working on improving the Team Cars, Milt Surratt and Gary Patton had been putting in equal amounts of testing and development time on their cars, and I hadn't really been doing much of anything for the cause. But . . . they let me be on the team again anyway! Okay, well, I had taken care of getting the team sweatshirts all embroidered, but nothing to make the cars go any faster, or turn the corners with any more confidence! Due to timing conflicts with his computer consulting business, Chris couldn't make it this year. His place was filled by Fray Rookie Dan Perkins, who did a great job for us, entering the driver's names in the computers at the start of each race, and even getting a drive here and there when another team member wanted to take a break. Take a Break? Yes, it's true that The Fray is not the 24 hr. slog that H:O Le Mans can be, but with a new race against a different team every 45 minutes or so, it is pretty much constant hectic intensity from eight in the morning until six at night. And that's just the Team Racing! There was a bit of diversity this year, with the Blue Track being reduced to 8 lap sessions, while the tan (figure 8) track was increased to 20 laps. The norm is a 10-lap race, with ten heats making up a race session. Every team races every other team, of course, and since there are eight tracks (this year) the drill of completing a sessions and then running off to the next table ("We've got Carnage on Purple!" for example) tends to keep your heart pumping. That's true even when you're not trying to remember your breaking points, and (at the same time) keep an eye on your competitors creeping up on you from around the previous corner! New Track? We also had a new track this year, designated the "Black Track" since the table it was mounted upon was indeed black. I have named this one My Favorite Track, without hesitation, and in fact I felt a definite need to adopt it and take it home with me. Unfortunately, someone else already owned it, and was simply being loaned to The Fray (by Rick Martin of Team Petaluma). Brad had done a lovely job on this beauty (as usual), and someday I'd like to have him make one for me; probably in a four lane format (6 lane tracks are the rule at The Fray). Brad also pointed out that it wasn't really new, however, this was the first time it was seen in Fray Competition. Our Esteemed Editor hasn't shown me the photos to be used with this article, but hopefully the Black Track made the cut! On the other end of the spectrum, the Dreaded Purple Track was still in use; sorry about that! All this is just my humble opinion, of course, as opinions on the various tracks were none too scarce at The Fray! The Way Up Fighting traffic and fatigue on the trip up from Southern CA was the usual slog. Beginning on Wednesday evening, we piled into the motor home and drove north, into the usual wind and rain. If it weren't raining, it wouldn't really be The Fray! Having said that, I should point out that the weather did clear up nicely the day after we'd arrived, and stayed lovely for the balance of the trip. Not that anyone noticed, particularly, since we began our practice sessions almost as soon as we hit the hall. Having driven up in a small motor-home, we'd had a chance to discuss the important topics of the moment, the set ups of the cars, the driver line-up (the batting order, so to speak), and who would be the team(s) with the hot set up? We may have discussed a few other topics as well, but when it comes to The Fray we tend to be a fairly focused group! Practice and Set up We'd arrived on Thursday mid-afternoon, giving us a day and half to practice on the tracks, dial the cars in, get used to the set ups and make sure everything was right for the Big Event on Saturday. Not that one can ever be Really Sure, but we felt a day and half would be long enough to get used to driving the tracks again. We could also work out any conspicuous discrepancies between the way the cars performed on the test tracks at home, and the real tracks at the Fray. As a non-engineer kind of driver, my job was simply to go out and learn the tracks, drive them as fast I could, and get comfortable with each lane. Back at the pits the question was always the same: "How are the cars?" I was driving a couple of Ferrari GTO's that actually belonged to Rick Jocham, and one Mako Shark that was the work of Mike Engelage. For those who don't know, The Fray is a three-car entry race. You can enter three cars through Tech, and drive any of the three throughout the race day. All that aside, I was very pleased with the way the cars were driving. The GTO's each had a plastic track they preferred, and the Mako was very happy on any of the Bowman routed tracks. I was less than pleased with the way I was driving, but since I really only race twice a year (H:O Le Mans and The Fray), what did I expect? The practice days were good however, and more so as more teams arrived at the Portuguese Hall. . | |||||||||||||||||
| The Other Teams (Practice) There is an up-side and a down-side regarding practice with other teams on the track. On one hand, if you get into a dice with someone out there on the track, you really can gauge your potential (car and driver combined) against the other car-driver partnership. After several laps, and on the Grand Assumption that the other driver is really trying his best to go fast, you really do know where you stand. If you can catch and/or pull away from the opposing car relatively quickly, it's all good, no problem. "That poor sucker doesn't have a chance . . ." you may think. If, on the other hand, you can pretty much stay with him (or her, in the case of Pam Barker, the only woman racer at the Fray this year), but not pull away, you have a serious cause for concern. "Okay," you think, "The cars are pretty even, so it's all down to how well they're driven. While you're doing all this speed assessment, of course, you're watching the other drivers offs. Lots of offs, no worries. Very few offs; cause for concern. Deeper still, you're looking at where you're gaining or losing time. As in, "That car's a rocket on the straights, but it sucks in the turns!"; or vice versa. Multiply this by several hundred driver/car/track combinations and it can get a little confusing. Overall, though, you come out of practice with a pretty good idea of who is To Be Feared, and who is really No Problem. The down side is that they get a chance to analyze you and your cars. If you really blow their doors off in practice, they're immediately back in the pits with the car apart; looking for more speed. So its a trade-off, but I don't feel it's something you can just not do! Team Meeting After practice, the whole team gets together for what I would call "Group Therapy and Risk Assessment." At least our team does. I would imagine the others do too, particularly the ones that have come to The Fray to win. With all the diversity noted above, the drivers all had pretty much the same opinion. Kansas City was to be feared. Yet, it was a "positive concern" in the context of, "Yes, they will be tough, but yes, they can be beaten. K.C. had been the strongest opposing team last year, and they'd been doing their homework in the meantime. Eureka could also be tough, but did they have the depth needed to collect the points? Carnage had potential, but they weren't quite there yet. And so on down the roster. So yes, we were confident, but not overconfident. I should also add that Mike is a great Team Leader, perhaps the HO Racing equivalent of Roger Penske and Colin Chapman rolled into one; with a personality much friendlier than either, I might add. After taking in everyone's input (our cars, their cars, their drivers, which tracks do you like, which ones don't you feel comfortable on, etc.) he had A Plan for The Fray, and "Four Very Important Things to Keep In Mind." I won't bore you with all that here. The point is: We thought we were ready. The Rude Surprise At Tech! As the winning team for the last two years, Team Southern CA always took pride in the fact that our cars are always legal, always within the rules. This time, for the first time, we had trouble with one (out of 18) of our cars. The whole thing finally came down to the fact that Mike hadn't "zeroed" his ohm meter before checking the ohms on the armature of his fastest race car. Much to his dismay (and embarrassment), he was a couple tenths of an ohm under the limit on one pole of the arm. Of course, when checked on his gauge, there was no problem. At tech, there was a problem. Not a huge problem, of course, it was simply a matter of installing a different arm in the car. But it was an example of what could go wrong, even though he thought he'd checked everything correctly. Not that he was the only one with such a problem. Several racers were caught with dramatically under ohm'd arms, and various other problems, but Mike still felt bad about it. In the end it was just another reminder that everything should be checked; and zeroing the ohm meter is now on the list! Race Morning Saturday morning was the morning of The Race, or rather The Races, since each team would race about 150 micro-events in the next few hours. While they wouldn't be long races, each result would be sent to the main computer (and Megan Phillis) for scoring in both the Team and the individual competitions. The driver's meeting was first, then the picking of the race order (who races whom when, and on which track). Shortly thereafter, the first series of races was in progress. Working from memory here, I think our first race was "Oakland on Red," but in any case it wasn't very challenging and therefore a good warm-up and break-in for The Nerves of Race Day. Through the first half of the day things went well for Southern CA, more teams, more tracks, more victories. Of course there was the regular glance at the scoring board, just to see if K.C. had lost a race series yet (they hadn't). Otherwise, it was Southern CA business as usual, actually, with an individual heat loss here and there, but mostly victories and relatively easy ones the majority of the time. Race Afternoon After the traditional Fray deli sandwich lunch, it was time to meet "K.C. on Blue" for the proverbial Moment to Truth. Okay, it was almost an hour. But it was the pivotal moment! Since K.C. is used to racing on lock and joiner track, the venue was somewhat to their advantage, but going in, we still felt we had a good chance. We'd had dinner with the K.C. team (plus Mr. Phillis) the night before, so it was a friendly meeting, very much in the spirit of Fray. And it was a well-fought battle. To the best of my memory, Southern CA held a minimal lead (three or four points) right up until the final heat race (of ten). Going in, Southern CA held a three-point lead. After it was all over, we were two points behind. And that was pretty much it! K.C. took the lead and never looked back. They went the whole day undefeated, the same as Southern CA had for the previous two years. But not this year! After the Defeat The next race it was back to Southern CA performance as usual, taking victories in all the remaining races; right up to "Eureka on Red." Unfortunately (for us!) K.C. continued to win just as they had all day! I'm sure Our Esteemed Editor will have the complete results posted so you can see who beat whom on what track, and by how many points (if the statistics have been completed!). Since I don't have that information, I couldn't bore you with those details even if I wanted to. Which I don't, of course. The point, after all, is that Kansas City had the best combination of cars and drivers, and put them to the best use. The talk in the Southern CA motor home on the way back was largely concerned with how we could prevent this from happening in 2003! The Real Fray On top of all the competition between The Champions (of 2001) Southern CA, and The Challengers, Kansas City, the real fun of the Fray was all the other races that were going on. Even if you're on a mediocre team, even if K.C. and Southern CA both blew your doors off . . . you can still have exciting races against another mediocre team! Team L.A. told us that they were happy to have won a singe race series (against Oregon), even though they lost all the rest! The good news is that The Fray is a ton of fun regardless of the results you get. The racing is great, the tracks are wonderful, and the racers are all a bunch of true T-Jet racing fanatics. If you haven't made it to a Fray yet, I can only advise you to do whatever's necessary to make it next year. While The Fray is certainly a competitive event, its mostly great fun and an excellent way to spend a racing weekend. . | |||||||||||||||||
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