Fred Hood goes 1.8 at Buena Park

My good friend and Slotcar Racing Legend Fred Hood had never been under 2 seconds with a wing car, so after the 1 Motor Open race on May 17th at the 2007 Wing Car World Championships at Buena Park I decided to see if we could get him under the 2 second mark.

I took the car I had raced earlier in the day and put another motor in it, a 85 1/2 Koford arm in a Koford setup, which I was pretty sure would go under 2 seconds as it had done in practice early in the morning before the race. I ran a few laps with plenty of choke to make sure the car would get around the track, and to make sure everything was ok. Several of those laps were in the 2.0 range on 14 feet of choke so I knew Fred was about to smash the 2 second barrier.

I handed the controller to Fred, and told him to go for it. He pulled that trigger like the seasoned pro he is, and within a few laps he smashed through that elusive 2 second barrier, and into 1.9 territory. A short break to let the  motor cool down, and to re-glue the track and he was ready for another run. This time I turned the choke down to 4 feet and on his second lap, there it was, a 1.825.

We tried to go faster again, and thought a 1.7 might be on running straight up without any choke, but the motor was already past it’s best and Fred had to settle for the 1.825 and leave the 1.7 for another day.
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Some Stats about Fred’s 1.825 lap

Track: 155ft Gerding Blue King
Feet per second covered: 84
Lap average speed: 58mph
Chassis: Slick 7
Bulit By: Tim Tyler
Armature: Koford 85 1/2
Setup: Koford
Magnets: RL 8 pack
Gear Ratio: 8/39 (GT1 pinion Slick 7 gear)
Tires: Koford big hub WX

6 thoughts on “Fred Hood goes 1.8 at Buena Park”

  1. Hi Martin,

    I’ve updated the original post to answer most of the questions you raised. Unfortunately I do not have any closeup’s of the car, and that particular car has gone back to Australia with it’s builder and owner Tim Tyler.

    Chris.

  2. Hi Chris,
    THANK YOU SO MUCH MY FRIEND….I’M REALLY GLAD TO HAVE YOU AS A FRIEND…WE’VE HAD MANY EXCITING ADVENTURES IN SLOT CAR WORLD IN THE FEW SHORT YEARS SINCE I MET YOU IN THE BASEMENT AT UNKAL KALS…..
    I REALLY APPRECIATE YOUR HELP AT GETTING ME PAST THAT 2.0 BARRIER…
    THANKS MY FRIEND…
    CRASH

  3. Hey Fred,

    It was my pleasure to get you past that 2 second barrier. I know how much you wanted to run under 2 seconds, and our timing was perfect to do it that night.

    I am glad I wondered about the noise coming from the back room at Uncle Kals that night, we may have never met if I didn’t.

    Take care my friend.

    Chris.

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