Gas Wasn’t A Gas!

By Scott Canfield, Long Ag

It was the very first official “gas” car race at the Yamhill County R/C Car Club track.  The turn out was light that 12th of June, as the summer attendance is usually low.  There were thirty-six cards on the board, and we decided to run as many as eight in a heat, that would make trackmarshalls more available

There were only A-Mains that day, the popular classes had full heats, Novice had four cars, and Gas had two trucks; one two wheel drive, and one four wheel drive.

On the indoor track, top laps were sixteen or seventeen.  On the bigger outdoor track, the same four minutes would only bring eight laps to the very fastest drivers.  The gas trucks were getting two or three laps, with their motors dying several times in each heat.  The driver would then run to the truck with a starter battery for the glo-plug, and ZZZZ, ZZZZZ, ZZZZZ, ZZZZ, BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!  Then, when they were running, they didn’t look very controllable.

In at least two of their three heats, neither gas truck was running at the end of the four minutes.  We’d ring the bell anyway, not to mock, but to keep it official.  After the third heat, both gas drivers said they probably wouldn’t run in the main.  We pointed out that they qualified so close (2.55 and 2.7 laps) that it might make a good race, and then they’d get their first and second place plaques.  They agreed to run.

The main was another pathetic display of motors not running, and cars clumsily sliding off the track out of control.  Shortly into the race, we realized that we should have said that if both gas motors are dead at the same time, the one closest to the finish line would be declared the winner.  One of the drivers ended up following his car around the track, instead of driving from the drivers stand, trackmarshalling and on the spot pitting his gas truck.