I don't normally participate in this type of discussion, because someone always seems to get bent by what is said no matter how you say it, so.....because my team seems to be at the forefront of some of this.....I figured it best to say a few comments in HO World. It just makes more sense.

The Fray is the Fray. It is a race EVENT (not a set of rules) that has grown in size and stature.

Not because it is the right way or the wrong way to race Tjets.
Not because it is the right or wrong way to write up a set of rules.
Not because a Fray car is or is not expensive...
..nor because it costs a lot of money to attend.

But only because of what it is, an amazingly fun and competitive atmosphere to race a UNIQUE type of Tjet slot car with a UNIQUE set of rules. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Sure, some may feel that the rules may only allow "deep pockets", as one list member wrote. Any racing of any form will have the same net result. Constant changes to rules will give you the SAME net result (anyone heard of the USRA?)

If you feel that it's too expensive - don't build a car for this race and you won't need to worry about the cost any more. I don't consider it expensive. I for one feel that it is possible to find a competitive car with only 5 or 6 chassis' and a bunch of old parts. Most of my fast cars came together like that. Plus, I did NOT go through hundreds of chassis' and gear plates to find last years cars - I only went through 20. My absolute fastest car was a total accident of build incapability on the way up to last years Fray. It came together during the drive up there, bounding around in that awful motor home with parts that had been in other, non-performing cars. When we arrived at the Portuguese Hall, that car astounded me. You never know. Some also may feel that the rules allow "walking the line" (to paraphrase a line from one email). Well, I've got news for you, any set of rules will allow for that!

Some, even those that have never been to the Fray or have never met me or members of the So-Cal team, feel that we have crossed a line??? What line? The rules are there. We interpreted them legally and correctly and came up with what I would say is a pretty good mousetrap. We turned our cars in for tech - and passed....we freely gave our cars to the Ferndale team right after our race with them to be teched again - and passed.....and our two team members that made the individual main had their cars teched, and passed.... Certainly, we couldn't be cheating - gawd - we'd have to be really good to cheat that well and get past some of these guys. No......no cheating, we just have found the right combination, one that takes more than just a good car. We have good drivers, excellent team relations, pretty good luck and a desire to do well.

Any other kind of a win would be worth absolutely nothing, and I guarantee you that the last four years meant a heckuva lot to us. To win by cheating or bending the rules is not in any one of our game plans, because it would be so hollow and useless. What good would it do to drive 11 hours home saying "boy, we sure cheated them" - thanks for the cows? It's much better to drive those miles bragging about our car building ability and driving ability :).

What it comes down to is that every one of the members on our team is ANAL. We dissect every part, then we all meet once a month and "play". And we play for hours and hours. Who ever has the faster car, tells the rest what changes he did. Hopefully, we all get a little faster from that little change. Each of us except for the very talented Rick's (Burneson & Jocham) have our own track. This enables us to spend lots of quality set up time by ourselves. If someone comes up with something that really makes a difference, and just can't wait till the next big Friday night, he calls one of the other team members and gives out the info. How simple is that? It enables ALL of us to be faster.

The first Fray we attended, we started preparing around August. After we were soundly beaten the first two years, we started preparing on the way back from the race. Again, how simple is that? Not once did we confuse our inability to perform with the possibility that someone else had "bent the rules".

A Tjet is only a very rough early form of a slot car. It is a toy. The tolerance level on these things is fairly pathetic. The only way you will ever find a truly fast car is to mix and match parts. That's it. Once again, how simple is that?

An armature plate on car "A" may be a total pile, but you put it in car "B", and all of a sudden, it's faster. It makes no sense at all, but it is absolutely true. The same goes for the idler gear, probably the least looked at item on the car. I have never "semi-chromed" or "lapped" anything on my cars. I may clean it up a bit with a wire brush, but basically, I just swap out idler gears till I find the one that makes the least amount of noise. As it is with the axle pinion. And the tires. There are a lot of claims of having "the best Tjet tires". I guarantee that if you pull the rims and tires off your best car and swap them with your worst car, it won't make that much of a difference. Find the tire that is the least out of round and the one that fits your driving style the best.

You must understand, these cars are a package deal. Each and every stock part, all of them, are different - no two are exactly alike - and finding the correct combination is mostly all there is to it. Sure it takes time, and it may take some cash out of your pocket to get enough parts together to create a fast car, but somebody had to do it, or you would all be making the same comments about the Petaluma and Ferndale teams!! They were the reason we were driven so much to become better. The whole idea behind our winning cars is that they must be smooooooth. Every single thing.

The armature cannot be rough when it revs, I could care less if it's 15 ohms or 30, smooth is all that I am after. My best car has an OHM rating of 17.5 on all three poles. And I guarantee you, it is fast. Many of you there last year can attest to that. Any roughness in the arm will transfer to the chassis, and that slows the car more than you would ever realize.

The idler gear has to mesh with the rest of the gears, and no amount of "semi" anything (other than cheating) will give you the result you want unless you fit every gear you have to every top plate you have on every chassis.

The wheels and tires also must be true. Every rotation of the tire increases any out of balance effect dramatically. It's called centrifugal weight or something like that. (I'm sure someone will correct me here). I am not an engineer, just a realist. It makes sense to me, inside my puny brain, that if something is out of balance and it is spinning, that the out of balance effect will increase by the amount of rotation. Basically, you are transferring weight here. Bad weight. Rough weight that will slow the car down and ruin it's handling.

Think about this, if you TRULY believe that your car is better off with those aluminum hubs, you are welcome to use them, but don't come at me or my team saying we've crossed the line when we pass you like you are sitting still. If that hub is in the least bit out of round, it will push it's weight like a cheap politician. Every small vibration will be a huge one where the contact patch is. And every one of those vibrations means that you are slowing the car down. A lighter hub, even if also slightly out of round, will transfer less of that vibration to the track. Of course, what you want is no vibration, but the hubs and tires are probably the biggest culprit and the hardest to tame.

The body is a crucial part of the mix also. Think about each and every body you want to use as a race body. If it's tall, your weight transfer is "top heavy". If it has a long tail, your weight transfer is "tail happy". If it has a huge frontal area, your weight transfer is forward, and that's is probably the best of the three, but what you really want to find is the "neutral" body.

So... go ahead and run a Willys, put "magnetic hubs" on your car...they would add weight and the extra down force would not only slow you down, you would never know where your limit was. You would just keep wondering why the car suddenly "comes unglued" without warning. You'd probably end up crashing more than if you had a nice, smooth car. Yeah, and while you're at it, throw in some "stronger than groove pin" magnets, so when you let off the throttle in a corner to miss a wreck, your car does a 180 from having way too much brake.

Which brings me to my last few points. If you cannot drive consistently fast on your own home track for 30 or 40 laps without coming off, you might as well not bother thinking competitive. Just come for the fun. You have to be able to drive with a knowledge of just exactly where the brake point is for every turn, and be able to exceed it occasionally. Sometimes you will need to just to get past someone, but it won't do you any good to pass them, if you come off right after.

And if you cannot play with your team mates on the track, without telling them why you are faster, just come for the fun.

One more thing regarding a few emails lately.

Please, please...

Do not start second guessing the Fray rules as they are. The rules work for THIS EVENT. The original Tjet works for this event. Wide tires and 15 OHM arms work for this event. Stock parts with a few exceptions....work...for this event. We don't need to change that.

I have a few suggestions for anyone who feels the Fray needs to be changed to fit their needs.....

Race somewhere else.
Create your own rules.
Create your own event.

Just don't call it the Fray. That name belongs in the history books of HO as an event all it's own. Thanks Rick Phillis.

This is the Fray - it is a once a year thing and any attempt to make drastic changes or additions to it.... well.....we'll end up just like 1/24th. (here I go again...but, in case you don't know, the USRA needed a lawyer to help write the rules the last few years, and their rule book is probably thicker than your mouse pad!!!!)