Technical difficulties a thing of the past for GCRCR

The GCRCR has come a long way since its inaugural race on Oct 18 in what is now the old courageous stadium. The night was met with a great deal of excitement as new racers and fans got their first taste of the GCRCR. This excitement soon turned to frustration and anxiety as racers began their first tentative laps around the newly completed stadium. Several of the problems were budget related, the fledgling league still had not been ________Commissioner Rodrick Crousey functioning long enough to raise the funds for a state of the art facility. Furthermore, racers were required to run their cars unmodified in order to create a more competitive atmosphere for beginning teams who hadn't scored enough wins to finance the best crews and racecars. These problems combined to form a track that was challenging even for the most veteran drivers.

Track architect, Patrick Anderson was forced to do a complete redesign of the stadium at the last minute in order to make the track drivable for the beginners in the league. "We don't want the course to be too challenging for new drivers, the first race must be fair and competitive so as to garner all the excitement and support that we can for our new league" said Anderson before the race. However, the redesign posed several problems; first of all, racers were unable to spend enough time on the track prior to the race, resulting in longer lap times and a late discovery of the communication problems inherent to the new stadium and radio equipment. Secondly, even though the track was redesigned to be made far less challenging, some argued that it was still too slipperly to be raced on effectively. Rookie driver, Nate McEnaney and his crew cheif adapted their car to this surface quite well with an unconvential set of tires; soon, many of the other teams fallowed suit.

However, once the race started, many of the racers realized that it would take more than new tires to win. A near catastrophic breakdown in radio communication meant drivers couldn't hear from their crew cheifs and vice versa. Furthermore, the slick surface resulted in more accidents than were anticipated, forcing drivers to loose their cool on the track. New driver, Steve Douglas's was overheard saying "Dude, we need to find a new surface to race on cuz I'm not like, getting any traction" clearly the sitution needed to be resolved before the next race.

All of these technical difficulties took their toll on the GCRCR and many racers lost faith in the league and its equipment sponsers. However, commissioner Rodrick Crousey stood by his sponsers and took action to see these problems addressed. Rodrick's plan was to place the transmitters as close as possible to eachother in order to keep the proximity to the cars as constant as possible. However, when asked about the situation, the sponsers suggested the very opposite to this plan, in hopes that keeping radios away from eachother would result in less interference. After hearing this, race car driver, Patchy Anderson said "I don't know what to think, even the experts don't agree, we'll have to wait and see what happens".

Over the Holidays, Judicial Chairman, Nathenial McEnaney donated a completely new track and stadium to the GCRCR. The new top of the line track performed better than any of the racers could have hoped. "This is definitely the biggest upgrade we could have found for the race cars" said track architect, Patrick Anderson. Furthermore, it is believed that the track material aids in the absorbtion of radio waves, resulting in a more flawless communication between drivers and crew cheifs. Anderson was able to design the new track far longer and narrower than the old courageous stadium. The old track had an average width of 39" and a length of 62' with 1 hair pin turn and 2 half hair pin turns, while the new track has an average width of 30" and a length of 85' with 3 hairpin turns. Despite being more technical, the best lap times for both tracks are nearly identical, it is obvious that drivers can push the limits of their cars.

Furthermore, due to the implementation of Commissioner Crousey's radio placement ideas, not one radio interference issue was reported. Although driver Nate McEnaney experienced several radio issues, none of them were attributed to interference. Conversely, the sponser's resolution method only enhanced the problem. While it is mystifying that they were unable offer any solid advice on how to get the radios to function properly, it is encouraging to know that the equipment can be used to great effect in a race.

The race did not end without incident though, Team Crousey tried a new car body style that proved difficult to keep on the track. Track designers have already made plans to improve the stadium to allow Crousey and other teams to continue to try new body styles in the GCRCR. Furthermore, in a bold move, team McEnaney decided to become the early adopters of several new parts not yet seen in the GCRCR, new wheels, chassis and suspension were all used to give the team a competitive edge in the reliability of their vehicles. However, last minute alterations were needed to get the car in racing condition, the race was delayed in order to allow for the crew to finish the upgrades. Team Crousey used an upgraded motor in addition to the new body and Team Maag used a new motor and an all AWD drivetrain after wisely abandoning a bizarre modification to use rear wheel steering.

However, despite all of these modifications, Team Anderson won the race with a completely stock car. "I wasn't able to get my upgraded parts installed and tuned before the race, so I just raced as best I could with a stock racecar" said Patchy. "I think this is part of the reason for my success in this race, others were busy trying to get the best car, and I just wanted something that would be dependable. I really do admire their efforts though, and I will need to perform similar upgrades for myself in the near future if I wish to continue to compete on their level."

Clearly, the GCRCR has a brighter future than ever as it finishes up its first cup at Courageous stadium. However, racers are only going to continue to up the ante as they seek out new methods to gain their team an edge on the competetion and these adoptions will force the league to evolve more and more as it seeks to satisfy its racers and their widely diverse methods. We are looking forward to the next race to see what transpires.

-PDA

New Track - New Leader

Courageous Stadium went through major renovations this winter after complaints of poor track conditions in the Naney Invitational. In addition to a track with better traction, the GCRCR was able to totally eliminate radio signal issues. “We spoke with some engineers and implemented their recommendations and everything worked perfectly,” Commissioner Rodrick Crousey said in a press conference Saturday. Leading up to the race some of the racing teams did not have faith the GCRCR had was capable of fixing the problem. Some had even indicated faulty equipment and accused the Commissioner of trying to shelter sponsors. But Friday night all accusations were laid to rest. All radio signals were limited to regulated areas and not a single radio interference issue was reported. The signal regulation along with a state of the art track makes the new Courageous Stadium the best facility in racing.

No one adapted to the new track better than Patchy Anderson (#3). Number three exceeded all expectations Friday night with a brilliant performance that brought him victory in a hard fought race. Early in the race, both McEnaney (#6) and Maag (#1) pulled ahead of Anderson, but on lap four, Patchy secured the lead and never turned back. Patchy modestly accepted his victory citing the unfortunate difficulties some of the other drivers experienced. Anderson’s sympathy is perhaps in part due to his own experiences in the Naney Invitational. But considering the stellar performance by Anderson on Friday, it is difficult to imagine that the outcome could have been any different. Anderson said in a press conference Friday that, “My car and I were just in tune with each other tonight-” and it showed. Thanks to that performance Patchy has a lead in the Naney Cup.

Maag had a similar night to Anderson but barely fell short of first place. Second place is still a big leap forward from Maag’s disappointing 4th place finish in the first race of the Naney Cup. The better performance seemed to improve his opinion of his pit crew and eliminated his suspicion of cheaters in the cup. One more average performance by Maag could place him in a good position for winning the Naney Cup- if some other drivers don’t perform.

For Crousey, the night left mixed feelings. Third place was an obvious disappointment for a racer that was favored by some to win. The night was plagued by car mishaps and foolish risks. The veteran driver is usually risk adverse but, on the first lap of the race Crousey made a dangerous move that severely damaged his car- crippling him for the rest of the race. Considering the seriousness of the mishap Crousey should be ecstatic with a 3rd place finish. This brings us to the major disappointment of the night- Nate McEananey.

If you ignore just three horrendous laps from the race, McEnaney’s performance was good enough to make him a true contender. In fact, the #6 car pulled off the fastest lap of the night… 18 laps after first place finished the race. That statistic goes down as one of GCRCR’s most bizarre. It was a tough night for McEnaney, but luckily for him, no one has pulled ahead as the dominant leader in the cup. Crousey and Patchy flipping 1st and 3rd place performances has helped keep the Cup race tight. In fact, anybody could guarantee a cup win with back to back wins in the last two races.