The following article was submitted for the May 1999 Slot Racing . However the reference to my system was removed by Scalextric. It was written by Roger of the Bournemouth Model Railway Centre. This is the original text that was submitted.

The Bournemouth Superslot Raceway

In the sixties, a young, sylph-like Derek Purkis who had always had a great love of all things automotive, embraced the booming world of slot car racing. Almost three decades later, as the genial, knowledgeable and rather more rotund proprietor of the Bournemouth Model Railway Centre, he decided that the time was right to embark on his long held dream of building his own raceway. With the help of Chris Frost, Secretary of the British Slot Car Racing Association, who drew up the track plan and later installed the electrics, suitable premises having been found work was commenced in 1992. The track was to be constructed of MDF board with routed slots and pick up to be provided by copper braid rather than copper tape as had become the norm in the States. It remained to find a builder. The complex curves of the track seemed to require the expertise of someone like a boat builder and who should appear at just that time but a one-time boat builder and expert joiner, Terry White. This character (and character he certainly was) made a superb job of construction and the Raceway opened in 1993. Initially, race control was only semi-automatic but after looking carefully at most of the available options both in this country and abroad, the "Slot Master" system, programmed and designed by Dave Lelievre, a local computer wizard, was chosen as being best able to fulfil our requirements. To date the software and hardware have performed extremely well and we would recommend this system to others most strongly. Now home to the Bournemouth Slot Car Club, the track is used every Tuesday evening from 7pm onwards for Scalextric type cars which are unmodified with the exception of added weight inside the chassis and some deepening of the guide blade. There are three championships - one for GT cars, one for F1 cars and one for saloons. On the second and fourth Thursday each month Parma Home Set cars and 1/24th cars are raced alternately again on a championship basis. With the Junior section meeting on Saturdays from 11am to 1pm, the club has quite a full programme. Prizes are presented each year at the Christmas party. The club also hosts BSC rounds and is available for corporate events and birthday parties - for further details contact Derek on 01202 309872. Also on the premises is a fully stocked slot racing shop maintained by Slot Racing Supplies. The products of all the major manufacturers both in this country and abroad are readily available and again Derek's expertise in the field is much in demand. If you are visiting this area at any time why not bring some cars with you and try out the track? Alternatively, cars are also available for hire.
 

SLOT MASTER FUEL MANAGEMENT

At Viking Slot Car Club we have been using the SlotMaster computerised race control system for three years now and have seen many enhancements to the system. The latest is worth reporting on because it opens up a new way of staging races and replicates full size race strategies. The new feature is fuel management. This means that you can now run a Grand Prix, and endurance or NASCAR race and simulate the strategies of fuel consumption. drive smoothly and get most out of a tank of fuel but prehaps sacrificing wild acceleration and knife-edge lap times. prehaps you may decide to go for it at full throttle and hope that a quick spash and dash near the end of the race will get you across the line first!

The Slot Master fuel management package has been introduced for the internal PC version of the system. It has been incorporated into a user friendly windows environment that is packed with enhanced features. The  system measures the hand throttle voltage for each car, since there is a relationship between the power used by the car's motor and the voltage applied. It also has the advantage of allowing existing customers to easily upgrade to the new system simply by swapping the internal ISA module, without changing any system wiring. The new module uses the false start detect wires to measure the hand throttle voltage. At the beginning of a race a simulated amount of fuel is given to each car. When the race starts, the system samples the hand throttle voltage at a regular sample rate and deducts a small amount of fuel in proportion to the voltage applied. The more power sent to the car, the more fuel is used. The amount of fuel left is displayed on the screen and is updated on each lap. When the car runs out of fuel the car's power is turned off and that driver's race is terminated. Each driver is also able to make pit stops and take on fuel. If the driver stops the car directly after the track lap sensor, then a pit stop will be implemented and the car will be refuelled. The driver can watch the tank level rise as the fuel is pumped in. The pit stop can be aborted any time simply by re applying the power to the car. Two warning levels have been introduced, a blue level (yellow was not very visible) and a red level. These levels are a programmable option within the software and are indicated by appropriate colour changes of the fuel level numbers. The external leader board LED's can also be programmed to flash on and off when these warning levels have been reached, if the driver cannot see the computer screen. At then end of a race it is also possible for each driver to see the amount of fuel he has used besides the amount of fuel left in the tank. Many options exist for setting up the fuel management parameters. These consist of the following :-

 
The size of the fuel tank in litres together with the initial fuel load.

  Leader light flash rate

 
 One bonus feature that has been implemented is the ability to record and store all the captured throttle voltage readings for one lap. This data is stored in a format suitable for direct transfer into Microsoft Excel or equivalent. The data will consist of the time stamp in seconds plus the voltage read for each driver. In this way driver's can compare their throttle settings using graphs to understand how and where the best driver's achieve the most speed. The data can be very useful for comparing your throttle usage against an opponent or if you are comparing different set ups you may be making to your car. When you use the graph you'll recognise the moment when the car is at 13 volts full throttle and the driver suddenly released the throttle and the voltage dropped to zero volts. This would usually represent the braking zone before a corner. You can then determine whether the driver is braking too early or late. Additionally you can determine whether your tyres are not gripping when the voltage is higher than other lanes at a given point, but your graph line is losing time against other lanes. Therefore you can experiment with changing tyres, slowing down or just accepting that you are beaten. So, whether you need to discover why, when and how you are being left behind or how you can stay ahead on the track, this performance graph is a real help  

 
The following article was submitted to the Australian Scalextric Racing and Collectors Club (ASRCC) magazine (ClubLines) by Glenn Ingham 

Gleneagles Raceway

I have a four lane 27 metre Scalextric track which is mostly fast with two long straights but also includes a nasty little hill that will test the skill of even the most seasoned racers. The track includes a cross-over bridge that ensures all four lanes are almost identical in length. A good Fly car can lap in approx 8 - 9 seconds. Scalextric pit lanes are controlled using Picco Point Motors which are ideal for switching the pit lane entry using a momentary switch type button. Each lane is powered by a separate MRRC 2.2 amp transformer which ensures that no lane is affected by power drain from other lanes. Handcontrollers can be plugged into the track at four different points around the circuit. The lap timing device is Slot Master software which is developed in England. The software requires a separate PCB I/O card. As the software has many functions, it also requires a minimum Pentium 166 to make the best use of it's capability. Among it's many features, the software is able to record all races and practice sessions and stores them in a file that can be queried for results, lap times etc. The main read out on the screen displays Class, Car, Position, Last, Best and Average Lap Times and Lap Speeds, Number of Pit Stops, Remaining Fuel, Lag Time and Elapsed Time. It has a number of different race formats and will automatically schedule all races. Rally style race finish similar to the popular AFX timers is also included.

 One of it's best features is the ability to provide fuel management for endurance racing. The system includes two infra red sensors for each lane. One sensor sits in the pit lane and the other sits in the main track opposite the pit lane. When fuel management is turned on, the system records the voltage in each lane every 10^th of a second. These measurements are used to calculate fuel usage each lap. The more the throttle is pressed, the higher the fuel usage. Refuelling occurs in the pit lane after the car runs over the sensor and comes to a stop. There are many parameters to control the size of the fuel tank, the rate of consumption, the rate at which the car is refuelled and when warning lights will be given for low fuel. The system also includes parameters so that more fuel can be used when the tank is full and for erratic driving. The voltage records can also be downloaded into Excel and graphed to compare different driving styles. As the system maintains a full history of all races and practice sessions, it can also calculate handicaps.

We recently ran our first endurance race using the fuel management system and it was a great success. We had four teams with two drivers each. Each team drove each lane four 30 minutes and parameters were set so that each team found refuelling was required every 6 - 8 minutes.

Anyone visiting Canberra is welcome to drop in and can call me on (02) 62316192. As I mentioned I race with the Southside contingent of the ACT Scalextric Club. We run races every four weeks on a Friday night.

Cheers

Glenn Ingham