Guide Part 2
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The drivers will then turn on their radio and then their vehicle and head to the track. The drivers will place their vehicles on the track and climb the drivers stand. Feel free to stand any place on the drivers stand that you feel comfortable.  Try to give the other drivers room and watch your antenna.  Many drivers have been hit in the head by new drivers who have gotten carried away and thought that swinging their controller around would help them turn faster. 

The race computer will be in pre-race mode so when a transponder crosses the antenna it will say "Check", letting the driver know his vehicle is being recorded.  The drivers should then place there vehicles in a staggered start position, first driver will be in front of third, and second will be in front of the fourth, with each car farther back on the track.  See the example above.

Click on the images below to get a closer look
The drivers from the last race will walk on to the track and stand at designated points. They will be the track marshals. If a vehicle gets stuck near them it is their job to get the vehicle back in the race as soon as possible, but in a safe manner.  Just like driving, it takes practice to be a good marshal.  When you marshal, watch your area of responsibility, not the race.  For the first race the drivers from the last race on the schedule will marshal.  If you are unable to marshal, or need the time to get repairs made, you can ask another racer to take your place but make sure it is OKed with the people in the control booth.
When all the vehicles are lined up a warning is given telling the drivers the race will start in less than 5 seconds. At a tone the race is started. Races are called after 5 minutes.  At the five minute tone you are told to finish the lap you are on. The driver that completes the most laps, including his last one,  wins the race.  If two or more drivers complete the same number of laps it goes in the order the last lap was completed, first person to get 15 laps would beat the second person to get 15 laps, etc.

After the race the drivers collect their vehicles and turn them and their radio off. They remove the transponder and place it back in the charging rack. Those drivers must now marshal for the next race. This is repeated until every class has run once, that is the end of the first heat.  In most races three qualifiers are run.  In qualifiers starting order is shuffled so each driver will start in a different place each time. In the main drivers start according to their placing in the qualifiers, fastest first, next fastest second, etc.

After each heat the results are posted.  Go HERE to see the results of previous races.  Below are the results from a sample race.

Top Qualifier for Beginners:
Dan with 16/4:59.47

  -- Beginners - A MAIN --
pos  Car  Laps  time  name
1 3 17 5:13.99 Dan
2 2 15 5:00.73 Mercedes
3 1 15 5:12.01 Rodney

-- Beginners --A Main
nCar-> __1__ __2__ __3__
1 2/17.9 3/20.4 1/15.3
2 2/20.1 3/23.3 1/18.0
3 2/18.6 3/22.6 1/18.8
4 2/19.7 3/ 1/16.9
5 2/25.2 3/21.6 1/17.8
6 2/21.0 3/19.9 1/17.9
7 2/ 3/19.5 1/21.4
8 2/25.3 3/21.4 1/17.4
9 3/21.0 2/19.4 1/17.3
10 3/20.6 2/19.0 1/19.6
11 3/19.5 2/19.2 1/17.0
12 3/17.8 2/18.0 1/17.1
13 3/19.4 2/18.8 1/21.3
14 3/18.6 2/19.1 1/17.9
15 3/19.1 2/18.2 1/24.9
16 3/27.6 2/19.4 1/17.6
17 3/ 2/ 1/17.1
laps  15  15  17 
time  312.0 300.7 313.9

The form of the reconstructed race lap times is position/lap time
The blank lap time is when the car was lapped
To the left you will see the three drivers are Dan, Mercedes and Rodney.  We can also see it was a Beginners Class race.  

At the top it tells us the Top Qualifier for Beginners was Dan.  Each qualifying race is counted separately and only your best race is looked at.  This means if Dan did not race in the first qualifier because of radio trouble, crashed on the first lap and did not finish the second qualifier and then did a great job on the third qualifier he could become the Top Qualifier.

If there are to many people in a class to get them all in one race there will be multiple "Mains".  The fastest racers go in the A Main, and of there is only enough for one race it is called the A Main.  The next fastest batch go in the B Main, and the next group would be the C Main, etc as needed.

Every car in a class has a number.  In the race here Rodney was driving Car 1, Mercedes was driving Car 2 and Dan was driving Car 3.  This is usually just the order the drivers signed up in, but does not have to be.  It does not mean much for the race, but will help you understand the charts.

The table at the top shows us Dan came in first, "pos 1".  It also shows us he finished his last lap 5 minutes and 13.99 seconds after the start.  Remember the race is called at five minutes, but is not actually over until each person has completed their last lap.  Notice Mercedes and Rodney both completed 15 laps.  Mercedes completed her last lap about 11 seconds before Rodney did, so she gets second place.  Mercedes actually finished the race 13 seconds before Dan did, but Dan won because he had more laps.

The next table shows the times for each lap.  Notice the columns are labeled with Car Numbers.  Look at the top chart to see who was driving each car.  Again, Dan had Car 3, and notice he has a time in every row below his number.  Look at the column for Mercedes driving Car 2, on lap 4 she has no time.  That is because she was lapped.  This means that Dan completed a lap, then passed her and completed another before she got her lap done.  When Dan completed his next lap it started a new row for him and everyone moved down to it.

Look at the numbers in the cells.  For lap 1 Rodney in Car 1 has 2/17.9.  This means Rodney was in second place for lap 2 and completed the lap in 17.9 seconds.  You can see in the chart that Mercedes was in third place from Lap 1 to Lap 8, but then she finished lap 9 ahead of Rodney and took second place.  We can also see that she kept the lead and was able to finish second.

At the bottom of the chart we can see the totals.  Car 1 completed 15 laps and it took him 312 seconds to do so.  312 seconds is the same as 5 minutes, 12 seconds.  Looking at the top to the first chart we see it says Rodney completed 15 laps in 5:12.01.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask the staff of Hi Performance Hobbies or any of the other racers for help.

I hope this guide helped you understand what to do on race day.  Here are some links that may help you as well.

Associated Electronics has a number of free guides

Team Losi has a Learn More About R/C section

Getting Started in RC

Note:  Most of the pictures on this website can be enlarged by clicking on them.

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