WHAT WITH MODEL CAR RACING IN A POST-JPVR ERA?

Can we combine FIA GT Racing with LMS Racing in a double 2009 EEC?

THIS ARTICLE SHOULD BE A TOPIC OF DEMOCRATIC REFLEXION. SEND YOUR VIEW UPON IT TO jppro@pandora.be !

May 7, 2008 - My major concern is what'll happen with IMCA next year, when I am no longer there. For the Worlds there will be no problem. My successor Mark Campbell has anything under control for the 2009 Toronto Worlds. But what with the EEC 2009? The EEC must be continued, but not in such a way that only one person is responsible for anything. I try to compile some basic principles.

MAXIMUM NUMBER OF CARS
A total of 24 cars is too much. We should limit the entrance to 16 cars (both in FIA GT as in LMS) with never less than 2 drivers per car, never more than 3 drivers per car. In FIA GT I propose 8 GT1 cars and 8 GT2 cars (with separate standings), in LMS  8 LMP1 cars (now: P1) and 8 LMP2 cars (now P2), but without separate standings. GT1, res. LMP1 cars should in principle go to teams with at last one racer with more than 50 IOC-points; GT2 cars, res. LMP2 cars, should go to teams with two racers having both collected less than 50 IOC-points.

NUMBER OF ROUNDS
In FIA GT racing number of rounds can be restricted to 3 per year, in LMS racing to 5 per year. Racers can enter only the FIA GT races or only the LMS races, but are allowed to enter both series. The LMS races should be scheduled on Saturday, the FIA GT races on Sunday. There should thus be 3 "double" meetings (Saturday and Sunday) and 2 "single meetings" (only on Saturday).

DURATION OF EACH ROUND
Each round should be limited to 2 heats of 8 x 30 minutes (4 hours of non-interrupted racing per car). To avoid that racers should already be in place on Friday (LMS) or Saturday (FIA GT) time schedule should be restricted. Doors open at noon on raceday, 2 hours of free practice, 1 hour for scrutineering and 9 hours for 2 heats. So each round can be closed at mid-night allowing racers to be home in time.

WHICH TRACKS?
If one wishes to limit the complete duration of a round to 12 hours one has to race with 16 cars on 8-laner tracks. Number of wooden 8-laners in Europe is restricted as can be seen in the right column. Based upon the 132 entries at the 3 FIA GT rounds of the EEC 2008 Germany was good for 23 % of the entries, Norway for 20 %, Belgium for 14 % [Holland for 14 %, Denmark for 10 %, etc]. The logic of the situation is thus that the 3 FIA GT rounds are contested in Germany, Norway and Belgium. Those should be "double rounds" with a FIA GT race on Sunday, a LMS race on Saturday. The two remaining LMS rounds - now "single rounds" should go to Holland and Denmark.

ABOUT THE CONCRETE LOCATIONS
(1) GERMANY - Here we have the following wooden 8-laners:
      l Aachen (Aachener Carrera Rennbahn Center) - They have a 27m wooden 8-laner
      l Brühl (Blue King Club ) - They have a 48m Steve Ogilvie banked wooden Blue King
      l Darmstadt (Renncenter Rhein-Main und FNS Darmstadt) - They have a 27m wooden 8-laner
      l Minden (Blue King Minden) - They have a 51m wooden 8-laner, a flat King
(2) NORWAY - They have only two wooden 8-laners
      l Asker-Oslo (Asker Blue King) - They have a 48m Egil Aksnes banked wooden Blue King
      l Trondheim (Trondheim MTT) - They are building a 42m wooden MTT track. Not ready by now.
(3) BELGIUM - There are 5 wooden 8-laners
      l Herentals (IMCA MTT Club) - They have a 42m brand new wooden MTT 8-laner
      l Diepenbeek (Speedlines) - They have a 27m wooden PDS 8-laner in a horrible location
      l Wezembeek-Oppem (Merlijn) - They have a 40m wooden Heerwegh 8-laner (not permanent)
      l Nieuwpoort (Op Zolder) - They have a 33m very old 8-laner in an impossible location
      l Dison (Colson's) - They have a 32m wooden ex-Demoget 8-laner in a strange location
(4) HOLLAND - They have one or two wooden 8-laners
      l Uden (M.R.T.U.) - They have a 48m banked wooden Blue King of own construction
      l Sint-Anna-Kapelle (?) - They have (perhaps) a wooden 8-laner (more info T.B.A.)
(5) DENMARK - They have at least two wooden 8-laners
      l Roedovre-Copenhagen (Racefun.dk) - They have an ex-Schietekat wooden 8-laner
      l Copenhagen (Martin Borch) - He has a private King-style wooden !-laner.

For the moment Asker-Oslo (N), Roedovre-Copenhagen (DK), Minden (D), Uden (NL) and Herentals (B) seem the best locations. However, then we have two rounds on a banked King. By replacing Asker by Trondheim (if their MTT track will be ready around Easter 2009) there should only be one banked King. Minden can be replaced by Darmstadt (if Kurt Petri agrees). Keld Høfler of Racefun.dk was not enthusiast for commercial reasons. Perhaps we should better explain the whole proposal. Alsdorf or Aachen could be alternatives for Minden or Frankfurt, but then the combination of FIA GT with LMS on one week-end seems impossible, since Alsdorf has only 6 lanes.

ABOUT THE RACERS
Once the five locations and five concrete week-ends are fixed we could allow the racers to subscribe. Racers with the most IOC-points should then have the first choice of their car, racers with the lowest IOC-points the last choice. Racers should be asked if they wish to combine FIA GT with LMS or if they prefer to enter only one of both series. There should thus be 2 European Championships, one for FIA GT cars with res. 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 points for the top-8 in both classes (GT1 and GT2) and 20-15-12-10-8-6-4-3-2-1 points for the top-10 scratch for LMS cars.

ABOUT THE RACE DIRECTION
Their should be an independent IMCA race direction under the lead of Jean-Marie Tillén at all rounds of both FIA GT 1/24 and LMS 1/24. Tillen should make a choice of his assistant(s) among persons not involved in one of the rounds. He's also responsible for the publication of the results and the standings.

ABOUT THE RESPONSIBLE PERSONS PER ROUND
The EEC 2008 - all 3 the rounds - went under the responsibility of one single person (having made himself the technical rules). Despite his unlimited enthusiasm and excellent work - especially for the round at Alsdorf on his beloved track - it was a wrong decision. Rule making, technical control, race direction and organising may absolutely not be centralised in one hand. A better system is to place the two series (FIA GT and LMS) under co-ordination & supervision of the IMCA race director. Responsible persons per round should be the owners of the five selected race tracks [e.g. Egil Aksnes for Asker, Keld Høfler and Gorm Nørmgaard for Roedovre, Gerald Barg for Minden, JPVR for Herentals and the MRTU for Uden - should that be the 5 selected tracks].

ABOUT THE SELECTION OF 16 CARS
Both for the FIA GT as for the LMS I propose to drive 1/24th model car versions. The selection process is the same I use since 1984. I consider the results obtained by each car at the qualifications and at the finish, giving the top-10 in both rankings 20, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 3, 2 and 1 points. The 8 best in each class (GT1 & GT2 in FIA GT, LMP1 & LMP2 in LMS) are the selected cars. I explain it with a concrete example for LMS cars. It's not the definitive choice since only 2 of the 5 rounds are already contested up to know. The 8 (provisionally) selected LMP1 cars and 8 (provisionally) selected LMP2 cars are in bold face. At our knowledge there exists no model of the Lola B05/60. The two last LMP2 cars could be replaced by the #32 and #41 Zytek 07S Zytek. [JPVR]

car	Monza		Barcelona		Spa		Ring		Silverstone		pts
#7 Peugeot 908 Hdi-FAP	20	8	15	20	-	-	-	-	-	-	63 pts
#8 Peugeot 908 Hdi-FAP	3	20	20	15	-	-	-	-	-	-	58 pts
#2 Audi R10 TDI	15	15	8	10	-	-	-	-	-	-	48 pts
#1 Audi R10 TDI	8	6	15	15	-	-	-	-	-	-	44 pts
#10 Lola B08/60 Aston-Martin	12	3	10	8	-	-	-	-	-	-	33 pts
#17 Pescarolo-Judd P1	6	12	2	0	-	-	-	-	-	-	20 pts
#16 Pescarolo-Judd P1	10	0	4	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	16 pts
#6 Oreca Courage LC70 Judd	0	0	6	6	-	-	-	-	-	-	12 pts
#15 Creation CA07 Aim	0	10	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	10 pts
#18 Pescarolo-Judd P1	3	3	1	0	-	-	-	-	-	-	7 pts
#14 Creation CA07 Aim	0	0	3	4	-	-	-	-	-	-	7 pts
#5 Oreca Courage LC70 Judd	0	1	0	3	-	-	-	-	-	-	4 pts
#19 Chamberlain Lola B05/60	2	0	0	0	-	-	-	-	-	-	2 pts
#20 Epsilon Euskadi Judd	1	0	0	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	2 pts
#34 Porsche RS Spyder	20	15	20	20	-	-	-	-	-	-	75 pts
#31 Porsche RS Spyder	12	20	10	12	-	-	-	-	-	-	54 pts
#27 Porsche RS Spyder	6	12	12	15	-	-	-	-	-	-	45 pts
#33 Lola B08/60 Judd Coupe	15	2	15	10	-	-	-	-	-	-	42 pts
#25 Lola MG EX265	10	10	2	6	-	-	-	-	-	-	28 pts
#35 Saulnier Pescarolo Judd	8	8	0	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	18 pts
#40 Quifel Lola B05/60 AER	2	4	8	3	-	-	-	-	-	-	17 pts
#44 Kruse Lola B05/60 Mazda	0	6	3	0	-	-	-	-	-	-	9 pts
#41 Zytek 07S Zytek	3	0	0	4	-	-	-	-	-	-	7 pts
#26 Radical R9 AER	4	0	0	0	-	-	-	-	-	-	4 pts
#45 WF01 Zytek	3	0	4	0	-	-	-	-	-	-	4 pts
#46 WF01 Zytek	1	0	1	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	3 ps
#37 WR Zytek	1	0	0	0	-	-	-	-	-	-	1 pt

EEC #2 WAS A FINE RACE BUT OTHER TRACK WANTED

On track calls, on the PS motor, on Dutch criticism and on loosing € 6,500

April 2, 2008 - One week before the start of the Brussels 24 hours, Tamar Nelwan asked Nick de Wachter, to publish an article warning all entrants that a track in extremely poor condition - hardly driveable - was waiting them at Merlijn. Tamar even went a step further when he told me that, if he had the power of Bernie Ecclestone, he should have simply cancelled the race. What hurts me in this is that typical Dutch feeling of superiority, based upon an extreme sense for perfectionism. Sure, the track was not perfect, but despite that we all witnessed a fine race and a pretty good organisation. Raymond van Campenhout and his guys were extremely helpful, catering was good, and there was an independent race direction being present during 48 non interrupted hours. After the race I heard nothing than positive reactions, even by such racers as Fola Osu, Günther Riehl, Chris Bunenberg, Michael von Bernhem or Oscar Hernandez, who all had bad luck at the EEC #2. The lonely ones complaining as old wives were the Dutch: their cars were ruined, the race direction was not good (true: we took no time to do the control with the weight calculator - it will NOT happen again, promised), the braids of the track were a disaster and Merlijn was an experience which should no more be renewed. At one point the Dutch were absolutely right: the track was a disaster for more than half of the entered cars. It's a body killer in model car racing. On the other side the Merlijn track is a technical one, awarding superior racers, especially in the S-part following the straight. I only saw four racers going faster than all others through that part of the track: Michael Niemas, Kai Kivekäs, Willem Kloppenburg and Fola Osu (when his car was still alive). The problems with the outer lane - the body destryer - were perhaps not at the dimension as predicted in the article by Nick de Wachter, but if the Brussels 24 hours are to be maintained on the 2009 calendar, Merlijn should use for the 2009 edition the MTT track instead of Willy Heerweg's.

ON TRACK CALLS - At the EEC #2 there were countless track calls, just as it was at the 2002 Ostend Worlds on the track of Salvatore Noviello. Most of those track calls were absolutely illegal. The rule book states that track calls are only allowed for unmarshable cars (e.g. on deslotting in the pit lane, in front of the racers), when a debris is in the slot and when two or more cars are in the same slot. For a race director it's not possible to watch at any second all what's going on, on the complete track. The worst case is when two cars are together in the same slot. Here racers have to call "Double!" Then the race director knows that he has to cut the power immediately. Model car racers, however, use the word "Track!" also in cases of a double. As a race director you want to see first what happens, before you cut the power. [Of course you can act immediately on all "Tracks!", just as if it were "Doubles" and sanction after all illegal ones. But then one ends in endless discussions if the call was legal or not.] Looking if a track call was legal or not takes a second or so. I thus COMPLETELY disagree with what Remco van Waaij wrote on track calls. By refusing to use the word "Double!" power is not cut immediately in cases of a double. When three or four cars deslot at the same moment, that's not a legal track call. The cars are still marshable. So the two track calls by Remco van Waaij at the end of the race, in cases of multiple deslotting, were NO legal calls. Moreover I witnessed the most crazy track calls. Summit was a guy going too fast in one of the curbs,, seeing that probably his car will make a roll-over, shouting already "Track!", and then seeing that his car made it ... without deslotting. And that without any other car hanging around!!!  At the Woirlds all illegal track calls will, simply be ignored. That's the lonely way to learn racers how to behave on imaginary track call situations.

ON PROSLOT'S PS4000-IMCA MOTORS - Most racers were unhappy with the received handout motors. Their indignation was only partly justified. What absolutely was true that the shaft was cut on the pinion side and that this was poorly done by one of the ProSlot employees. That caused abnormal spinning with the pinion. Especially the cars of Afolabi Fola, Chris Bunenberg, Dirk Baele and Oscar Hernandez suffered from that poorly cutting of the shaft. As great sportsmen they never openly complained about this but did their race as real pros.
On the other side, that seven or eight motors came back, with a blocked armature was certainly not ProSlot's fault, but that of the racers themselves. Everybody, being long enough in slot-racing, knows that model car racers are absolutely no motorists. How could they be, after having raced during their whole life with lady shave motors (like the Fox) or with heavy tank motors (like the Bison). The mistake they make times by times is that they use the gear press incorrectly on posing the pinion. That provokes a lot of end to end play, or, in the worst case, a completely blocked armature. I even saw one racer using a hammer to put his pinion, and then complaining that his received motor worked improperly! For those abuse of motors, ProSlot is certainly not to be blamed. Much trouble could be avoided if the PS motors were delivered with the pinion already on the shaft. So no motors will be any longer destroyed by former lady shave motor racers. 
At Merlijn some motors didn't work properly due to the fact of recessed braids. Some racers forgot to adjust their guide and braids. Under such circumstances motors cannot get the potential power. 
Of course the PS4000-IMCA is no shit motor - I apologise having written such stupidity after 72 hours without sleep - but it can be improved in several ways.
(1) The can is not thick enough. I understand that this was done to reach the extremely low weight as on the Fox motors. A heavier can is wanted, even if this increases the weight of the motor.
(2) As long as there is no sealed version of the PS4000-IMCA it's not the ideal handout motor. Now an unbelievable lot of time is wasted by letting the handout motors being fixed to the chassis under eyes of the race direction. At the Barcelona Worlds it took more than four full hours for 42 motors. At Merlijn it took two hours for only 19 motors. I cannot organise a decent world championship in July if I need four hours or more to let 64 motors being fixed to the chassis. Without perfectly sealed motors, which can be handout when racers come to register, too much valuable time is lost. That is not the case if we work with the closed Bison Mk3 motor. So I decided to use the Bison for the sprint races with the Ferraris F430 and to maintain the PS4000-IMCA for the Endurance Worlds. I don't know if Dan Debella can deliver in time 120 PERFECTLY SEALED PS-4000 motors. Only if we receive such sealed motors early July we can drop the Bison Mk3 for the sprint races.
(3) PS4000-IMCA motors should arrive with a properly cut shaft and with a 9T steel pinion already soldered to that shaft.

HOW IT FEELS TO LOOSE € 6,500 SPONSORING MONEY - The last years I try to be as open as possible on my sponsoring deals. All racers who subscribed for the EEC 2008 perfectly new what was the deal: finding the 24 cars having dominated the 2007 Spa 24 hours, at scale 1/24th at the start of the three EEC rounds. At Badet Raceway - round #1 - the goal was reached. But at Merlijn some of the most important cars - among them the 2007 Spa winner - were absent. Francesc Reyes didn't show, Hugo Dekker mailed 14 days before the race that he couldn't show, Blondiau & Kühn could enter their PSI Corvette but refused to do so, André Colson was not present with the Motorola Ferrari F430 GT2, there was no SRT Corvette #18, etc. Racers who didn't show knew perfectly that this could cost IMCA the € 6,500 sponsoring money. They behaved as pure little egoists, not thinking on the financial consequences of their late withdrawal. They are not like Pål Hanson: he was unable to show but found two substitute drivers (Mark Sander & Henrik Hasager) to drive his #36 Aston Martin DBR9. That was what Reyes, Dekker, Colson & Cie had to do. All we can do now is hoping that the EEC #3 at Alsdorf will be such a success that we perhaps will not loose all the sponsoring money. There the 24 cars will be at the start: the #6 Corvette C6R will be driven by Willem Kloppenberg/Ronald Zaal, the #4 Belgian Corvette C5R will be present with Onno Griepink (THE revelation at Merlijn!) and it's still looking who will replace the Dekkers on the #98 Porsche 997 and wqho Colson on the #51 Motorola Ferrari.

NEW FORMAT 2008 ENDURO WORLDS - I hate loosing money by the fault of others. Since it's far from certain that I can recuperate after Alsdorf the lost € 6,500, I immediately started an attempt to find new sponsoring money among the sponsors of the 2008 FIA GT cars. That new search after other sponsoring will cost me at least one or two months. A direct consequence was that I had to change the format of the 2008 ENDURO WORLDS since we have to race now FIA GT cars in 2008 specs. In order to avoid that racers should have troubles with the new cars, I decided that the GT2 racers will all receive a professional RTR body (made by Al Paterson and Nick de Wachter). For the GT1 racers Fola Osu can maintain his Jetalliance Aston DBR9, Borge Haug bought already the Maserati MC12 of Nick de Wachter, Ralph Seif will receive a RTR #3 Corvette and the Slovaks will receive a RTR #4 Saleen (both made by Al Paterson). So only four new Corvettes have to be built by those guys who already subscribed with that specific cars for the 2009 Toronto Worlds.

WHAT IS MAINTAINED FOR THE 2008 ENDURO WORLDS?
(1) Article 7 of the Rule Book, as used at the EEC will be maintained, also the application of the weight calculator. This time control will effectively be done by Bob Demeyer, but WITHOUT racers "helping" at the race director's stand. We are big enough to need no helpers. Never more situations as in Barcelona 2006.
(2) Of course we'll maintain the PS4000-IMCA handout motor, even if not available in sealed form.
(3) We maintain the obliged tyre change at mid-race.

WHAT WILL BE CHANGED FOR THE 2008 ENDURO WORLDS?
(1) Only 16 cars (8 GT1 and 8 GT2) instead of 24.
(2) Three drivers per car instead of two.
(3) FIA GT bodies 2008 instead of 2007.
(4) Twice 12 hours non interrupted racing with night section as third 8 x 30' section.
[JPVR]

NEED FOR EXPERIMENTAL MODEL CAR CHASSIS IS HIGH

EEC Model Car Chassis Rules are actually beyond efficient control

March 8, 2008 - Model car racing is actually completely dominated by the PlaFit SLP chassis. Domination is so complete that reaching a podium in serious international racing seems impossible without using an SLP chassis. Other chassis manufacturers such as MoMo, Schoeler, Metris, M-Racing C1 and Slotvision don't succeed in launching a chassis having serious chances to beat the SLP chassis. It's not good that one specific chassis dominates all others, because it hurts technological development. There exist enough model car racers being clever enough to develop a personal experimental chassis. Here I think on Afolabi Osu, Nick de Wachter, Jozef Miskolci, Michael Niemas and so many others. As long as they are not allowed to enter a personal chassis the SLP domination will continue.
My viewpoint is that if we allow personal controllers we should allow personal chassis too. I think there is a possible way out, nl. to allow the use of experimental chassis at the six warm-up rounds of the 20th IMCA World Championship Sprint. It could be a first evaluation of the experiment. At the 20th IMCA Model Car World Championship itself we'll continue with the old rule that only mass manufactured homologated chassis can be allowed. It are all the chassis which one finds at our items page. If the use of experimental chassis at the warm-up races is a success we can definitively change the chassis rule for sprint races by putting that chassis is free. Then it will be up to Tamar Nelwan & Cie to decide if the rule of a free chassis can yes or no be introduced for the EEC 2009 and for the 2009 Endurance World Championship.
Introducing free chassis will make scrutineering much more easily. Now it's impossible to find someone who can control efficiently if the EEC 2008 chassis rules are expected or not. There exists so many parts that the EEC chassis rule is effectively beyond control. Unlike in G7 and G27 wing car racing (where the chassis is hardly more than one piece) and in ES24 (where number of pieces of a chassis is low), actual mass manufactured chassis count so many pieces that nobody can control if the rule that all chassis parts (except for a limited list of parts) are all of the same make. That "same make" principle holds only for EEC rounds and for the 2008 Endurance World Championship, not for the races with the Ferraris F430 Challenge, where technical control is much easier. Especially the fact that most manufacturers launch more and more replacement pieces for their own standard chassis makes the "same make" principle beyond control. Let's be honest: contrarily to USRA/ESROC wing car racing and ISRA scale racing, model car racing is still not mature. Only by allowing a free chassis (and clear rules concerning body, weight, dimensions and gearing) the way to adulthood can be found. Let's work all together on it. [JPVR]

CAN WE ALLOW TRACTION CONTROL IN SLOT-RACING?

Quid if we use at the Worlds the Revolutionary ACD controller?  No obligation!

SORRY GERT, BUT IT'S SOMETIMES TOO MUCH

On the Amish organising their own Wiesel Trophy and on a missed sponsoring

ENTHUSIASM IS GOOD BUT NEEDS TO HAVE LIMITS

We still negotiate to have a model car demonstration race at Spa, but please don't negotiate yourselves in my name!!! You're killing all my efforts on doing so.

IMCA'S EEC 2008 ON OFFICIAL FIA GT WEB SITE

Barnburner USA: Is G7 Racing dying? Only 6 entrants at 18th edition

OPEN LETTER BY MARK CAMPBELL

IMCA membership card necessary if one wishes to continue the Worlds

THINGS ARE NOT GOING LIKE THEY SHOULD GO

Ultimate ES24 still no success - Wiesel Trophy without Wiesel friends

January 26, 2008 - I took a 14 days break in order to write a new novel. The novel is finished and I am now negotiating with some editors in Holland and Belgian to see where I can get the best conditions. Those 14 days without slot-racing were for me a period to reload myself, because being honest, this last year is the year too much. I wish to do other things. There are moments that I have absolutely enough of slot-racing. I give one example. Two weeks ago I wired € 1000 to Beate Wiesel, the widow of Stephan. On doing so you expect that she at least will thank you. But perhaps that was too much asked. I have the feeling that I am just good to pump always money in slot-racing and that I am alone to do so. Take e.g. the 2008 IMCA Worlds. I budgeted total cost price on € 36,000, but sponsoring goes not as expected. Last year I got € 27,000 from Ferrari Challenge 1/1 racers, money which I used for the 2007 IMCA Worlds. I hoped to find at least € 30,000 from other racers. But that was a miscalculation. This year I got only € 9,000 from other racers. Attempts to get sponsoring from the American and Canadian Ferrari Challenge 1/1 racers completely failed. With them I never had the personal contacts I had always with the European racers. So I am € 27,000 short for the 2008 IMCA Worlds. And once more I am completely alone to find that money. Slot-racers never ask me if they can help. They find it totally normal that I do that job for them. As it was something due. 
Meanwhile things are not going as they should go. Take the Ultimate ES24 Race. Here European racers have a unique opportunity to compete with Paul Gawronski and Gustav Heymann in a splendid combat. But of Josef Korec, Vladimir Horky, Petr Krcil, Lasse Aberg, etc., nobody subscribes. So why to do more efforts that racers from Holland, Belgium and Germany should find their way back to scale racing in ISRA style? Or take the Stephan Wiesel X-Mas Trophy. Stephan's sudden death touched me deeply. I wished to do really something for his widow. The entry fees of that race have to go to her. But nobody of the Wiesel friends - no Dieter Jens, no Matthias Parke, no Gerd van de Wiel, no Pit Schwaar - let see the smallest interest to show. It's even too much for them to pick up the money of the entry fees. No, it's a due for Van Rossem to bring the money to Neumünster. This is completely crazy. And then one asks me: Why should you stop?
Fortunately not all things go wrong. Tamar Nelwan did a great job to launch the 2008 EEC next week at Oslo. Insurance was paid and the 24 FIA GT cars will be at the start. Meanwhile racers are already preparing their F430 for the 2008 Worlds. Fujimi bodies are available at Slotracing Werk at a reasonable price. Al Paterson and Fola Osu can help you with correct decals for those cars, should you have a decal problem. [JPVR]     

  Tony Ring's F430 Challenge as under construction in South-Africa. Al Paterson can make any decal for those cars at a fair price. Also Fola Osu knows how to make missing decals. Contact them if you have decal problems.

WHY THE MTT TRACK IS SO IMPORTANT?

THE MTT TRACK WAS USED IN 1987, 1989 & 2007 FOR FIVE OFFICIAL WORLDS

January 9, 2008 - Up to now the MTT track has been used three times for official world championships. The first time was Toulouse 1987 where both the ES32 Worlds and the ES GP12 Model Car Worlds were contested on the famous track designed by Michel Thoumieu (F). Twice superstar Sergio Maresca (I) was the winner, but twice he was disqualified for a too low ground clearance. Maresca's trick was his much higher speed in the Esses, just as Michel Thoumieu had predicted; Indeed, he was convinced that only great champions could win on his track, and that all the difference should be made in the Esses.
In 1989 an American MTT track (Dan Debella's) was made in view of the Chicago Worlds of that year, again for the ES32 Scale Worlds and for the ES GP12 Model Car Worlds. Just as two years earlier Maresca made twice the difference in the Esses, but now he was disqualified once at the Semis (in ES GP12) and once at the finish in ES32. In the first named race three top racers made the difference in the Esses: Jan Limpach, Dave Gick and Sergio Maresca. There was one obstinate Briton, not used to race without goop, but having a superior motor set-up, who lost each time 10 to 20 cm in the Esses but compensated it by a higher speed in the straight. His name? Georgie Kimber. He succeeded to keep up with the three super stars of that moment until the last segment. Then he had to let them go. Eventually Maresca won ahead over Limpach and Gick (but was disqualified later).
Much later, in 2007, it appeared that Thoumieu's prophecy turned again in being the full truth. Now only the young Philipp Kremer was able to pass the Esses at much higher speed than his direct opponents: Michael Niemas, Ralph Seif and Nick de Wachter. At the finish he had an advance of two laps over Niemas, seven over Seif and ten over De Wachter. [Notheworth is that ayt the Semis and at the Quarters only Jozef Miskolci and Ladislav Szalai succeeded to pass the Esses at high speed, but due to the fact that they raced an old PlaFit Excel, not an SLP, they didn't enjoy the SLP's camber effect, so that they had not enough acceleration in the lead on, where they had to brake a fraction of a second.]
Michel Thoumieu's track remains the fairest track in the world: it compensates the most talented racer. Curious to see who of Paul Gawronski, Vladimir Horky or Gustav Heymann will be the fastest in the Esses at the Ultimate ES24 race? Curious too who of Philipp Kremer or "Piki" will be the fastest in the same Esses at the 20th Model Car Worlds? Because one thing is granted: the man who can pass the Esses at the highest speed will also be the winner - something Michel Thoumieu predicted already ... twenty years ago! [JPVR]

BELOW: Original drawing for the 1989 American MTT Track, as a reproduction of the MTT track having been used at the 1987 scale & model car worlds in Toulouse. ES24 cars didn't exist already, but one raced ES32 and ES GP12. As well in Toulouse as in Chicago the supertalented Sergio Maresca won in both classes, but was ... four times disqualified for a (total unnecessary) too low clearance.

SPLENDID AUTO PORTRAIT BY A SPLENDID RACER

Georgie Kimber's farewell to international slotracing...

January 9, 2008 - There was one racer in the world who I liked as much as my sons, more than the super stars as Vladimir Horky, Josef Korec, Paul Pfeiffer, P-A Watson, Dave Gick, Paolo Trigiolio, Sergio Maresca, Salvatore Noviello; Jan Limpach or other Nick de Wachters. His name: Georgie Kimber. One of the most difficult moments in my slot-racing life was October 12, 2007. That day Georgie Kimber contested his real last race: ES24 at the ISRA Revuca Worlds. I felt my heart bleeding when I saw that such a superb racer, at the end of his long career, could only qualify as 108th on 112. I am sure that that provoked a deep pain in his pure soul. 
Sure, Georgie Kimber was not the best British racer. He was no Charlie Gooding, no Brian Saunders, no Steve Walker, no Dave Harvey, but when he had to defend his country on the international scene he grew up beyond his own talent. I remember very well Chicago 1989 where he was fighting until the last segment to become the ES32 Scale Racing World Champion. Of the British contingent he and Mark Harrison were the only Britons reaching the mean. There he had to fight with such super talents as Jan Limpach and Dave Gick. Until the real last segments he was the lonely of the other finalists to keep up with those two supermen. Only during the last minute he was passed by Clithio van Buggen-hout, missing the podium for a couple of inches. But he was the first Briton!
Georgie Kimber was a simple barber, modesty himself. But of all Britons he's the very lonely one having won two official world championships, in 2003 and in 2004, as best modeller of the world. I am convinced that nobody in England - where model car racing stayed unknown until today - has ever known that Georgie did so. After four decades of racing he stopped active racing. Racing without Georgie will never more be as it was. But I have a dream. As organiser of my real last race in 2008 (December 27-28), I dream that I'll see Georgie a real last time at the start. No organiser can receive a greater honour than saying: "I organised my last race and I had Georgie Kimber for the last time of his life at the start." I know that as a barber, the X-Mas days are for Georgie financially spoken highdays. But I wish to award all potential financial damages if I can see him a last time at the start. He deserves a warm ovation by all of us. Which honour can be greater for a racer than allowing him to tell his kids later: "I raced together with Georgie at his real last race..." [JPVR]

It is always hard to talk on the demise of a slotracer. This time no legend ,certainly no Maresca ,no Trigilio,no Walker,not even a Limpach or Gick . But Georgie Formula One Kimber can be finally laid to his rest, for in Revuca it was for sure his final walk. Since his start at Torino in 1980 he has always been streetfighting ,time & again he could rise to the highest Alps to victory lane. It was for certain that he could never count on the meagrest talents of a Horky or Saunders but he always carried his countries honour, Nine times out of ten he could not beat these slotracing Gods but as in Chicago he could prove his Lionheart, a true Englishman ,a man who could fight to the end ,even conjure up a miracle.

It could have been else for our Georgie, born on scrap heaps of Tyneside Shipbuilding in the neglected Industrial Wastelands of not so Great Britain. His only education was the streets but the chance sighting of racing cars in his local toy shop was to carve out his destiny. Time after time he could leave his sceptred Isle and embrace a culture far removed from the British Goop laden traditions of no lane changes and lonely Saloons. But how to change a nation so entrenched in their sticky traditions.
But Georgie could finally convince at the UES Euro Cup in Middlesborough that his country could make the move.
It was always his proudest moment to stage the 1993 ISRA championships in his native Northeast with Limpach,Gick and a young Horky showing for the future.

It was no disgrace in Revuca,perhaps self inflicted technical problems but after eight days of Pork scratchings andSheepsballs it was the end. No more venturing from these misty shores.
Time to hand over to the man who could save his country from the mediocrity . In Revuca Graeme Stephenson could show Britain has a future beyond a Saunders and a Cleave ,no one more fitting to carry on Georgies Legacy.

Time to say Goodbye, Time to take me to my slot racing Heaven and my Area Three Lexan Coffin. No more slotracing Darkside for my dear beloved wife. Thank you all,Thank you Jean Pierre. 
See you all in 2008 for my final dance .
Georgie Kimber. 21-10-07

MY THREE MAJOR DECEPTIONS OF 2007

1. No LM Race in Paris, 2. No Belgian Gr5 Support, 3. Wiesel 's Death & the Amish

January 1, 2008 - If you should ask me which event touched me the most in the past year, I should have a choice among many topics; there was the unexpected victory of Joe "Chubby" Salzman at the USRA G7 Nats; there was Vladimir Horky winning his sixth ES24 World Championship; and there was young Philipp Kremer dominating completely the 19th IMCA Worlds. But two events touched us all much more than that, nl. the fact that towards the end of the year the famous chassis builder Craig Landry passed away and - perhaps even more dramatic - that the founding father of model car racing Stephan Wiesel died from a heart attack just before XMas at a race in Hamburg. The fact that I had since 2005 a stupid controversy with Stephan, that I had the clear intention to talk it out, but that I waited too long to do it , was for me - UNDOUBTEDLY - the major deception of 2007. 
In chronological order it was my third major deception of the year. Much earlier I met my first big deception. Indeed, together with Tamar Nelwan and Yves Welter sr, I had the ambition to organise on the Paris' Champs Elysées, in front of the Peugeot showroom, a model car version of the 2007 Le Mans 24 hours and its fantastic struggle between Audi and Peugeot. Total cost of the event was budgeted at more than € 125,000 but contacts with several racing teams gave me the firm conviction that we should have found that sponsoring budget if Peugeot should have accepted to co-operate. After our first visit at the Peugeot show room there was good hope that we could succeed. But at my second visit at Paris it became obvious that the project was deemed to fail after Peugeot let us know that not earlier than March 2008 they could take a decision.
The Peugeot project was an ultimate attempt to free slot-racing from its completely marginalised position. We have to go back to the mid 1960s to have seen reports on slot-racing in prime time news editions on television. A model car version of the Peugeot-Audi combat at the Champs Elysées, shortly before the 2008 1/1 edition should have been prime time news. The failure of the project was also important for French slot-racing. Indeed, it's a bare fact that slot-racing is as well as death in France. Since 2000 no more French racers were seen in international competition outside France. What was left of the great era of the Thibaults, Didier Moret, Dominique Bellenger, Jean-Claude Ehinger, Philippe Point, Alain Clastres, Michel Thoumieu, Marc Joyeux, Gérard Caupène and so many others has been reduced to racing with plastic toy cars at 1/32nd. As long as Yves Welter sr organised the European Endurance 1/32nd Championship, there was still something. Now there is nothing left. Welter succeeded to find more than 24 French racers accepting to come to the Champs Elysées, but once it became sure that the project could not be materialised, they all withdrew. So the 20th IMCA Nats and the 23rd Scale Racing Worlds (the 17th organised by ISRA) will go once more without the smallest French racer. And yes, we'll bring the 20th IMCA Worlds of 2008 on the national television, but what's such emission is worth compared to prime time news on A2, FR3 or TSRF? It's just like you had good hope to drive the newest Ferrari, but that on the last day they come tell you that you'll receive to drive a 2CV. We worked really hard on the LM2007 project at the Champs Elysées, hundreds of hours, but unfortunately the result was nada, nothing.         

The second big deception followed on December 21, 2007. Since months I was working in silence on a model car racing project with the famous Group 5 cars of 1976-1981. In Belgium Raymond van Campenhout organises since 2006 a model car series for such cars at scale 1/24th. In 2007 no less than 68 racers entered that competition over 10 rounds. Mid 2007 Hubert Jacob and Nick de Wachter decided to organise a confrontation Belgium-Holland with Group 5 cars at Alsdorf in Germany. On December 1, no less than 36 racers showed, half from Belgium, half from Holland. For me that seemed a clear proof that it was possible to go internationally with such cars. More than one month before Stephan Wiesel passed away I had a clear project to organise such international competition around XMas 2008 as my definitive farewell from slot-racing. 
Then we received the sad news that Stephan Wiesel died in Hamburg during a DSC race. As soon as Afolabi Osu (NIG) informed me about the drama, I decided to call my very last organisation the Stephan Wiesel XMAS Trophy. I decided to organise two events, one just before XMas with 1978 DRM Group 5 cars, and one just after XMas with 1981 DRM Group 5 cars. I contacted Raymond van Campenhout and he too was convinced that the 1978 DRM session should be sold out from the real first day. Racers had to wait December 21 to subscribe. But number of Belgian entries for the 1978 edition was extremely low. Even after I send all Belgian entrants a personal e-mail, I came no further than ... 8 Belgian subscriptions. Such top specialists as Willy Heerwegh, George Baikry, Chantal Aerts, René "Lange", Alex Vandenbempt, Gilles and Patrice Dohohne, Grégoire Hans, Daniel Rasseneur, Patrick Frère, Robert Massart, André Colson, Fabrice van Dam, etc. showed not the smallest interest to go internationally. Very similar attitude of the Dutch Group 5 racers having been present at Alsdorf: Willem Kloppenburg, Remco van Waaij, Sergiu Houwer, Onno Griepink, Jurgen Rossenaar, Ronald Zaal, Erwin Post, André van der Zee, Tom Jacobs showed not the smallest interest. Belgium-Holland, O.K., but a confrontation with the rest of the world? No, thank you very well.

The death of Stefan Wiesel was a real shock for me. Model car racers hardly know how many parts they use in their model cars, were not manufactured by Stephan. All the lexan interiors used at the 19th IMCA Worlds were made by Stephan. Where Michael Gräber is specialised in manufacturing 1/24th scale models actual race cars, Stephan Wiesel was specialised in models of cars of the 1960s and the 1970s. In 2005, before our controversy, I asked him if he could bring out a decent version of the Lancia Beta Montecarlo, the BMW 320i Gr5, the BMW M1 Gr 5 and the Zakspeed Escort II DBA.
I found it my duty to set up a Stephan Wiesel Trophy, just as I did with the Franco Gianotti Trophy when Franco passed away. My plan was to bring the 32 best international racers together for a meeting over six races shortly after XMas 2008. Racers from 13 different countries - even from the USA and Canada - subscribed for this meeting, proving how popular Stephan was in the whole world. Other racers from South-Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Brazil wrote me that the date was difficult for them to show, but proved their fullest respect for Stephan. In one week time 28 of the 32 cars were chosen, but ... not one by the direct friends of Stephan himself.
Those friends belong to what commonly was called "Amishland" in slot-racing, I mean the racers from North-Germany. They themselves form a very closed community, hoping always that the rest of the world comes to Amishland to race with