Scratch builts
Several different types of scratch built cars have appeared in the Series. Certainly this is a very exciting category of cars. Principal builders of these cars have been Tim Miller, Brian Fleischmann, Scott Terry, and myself. All of these cars have featured a mini-motor, but otherwise were distinctly different from each other. Tim, Brian, and Scott designs were all of the inline variety. My design was of the sidewinder style. Of this group of cars only the sidewinder has won races, that being one in the series and one at the Midwest Championship this year.
Design and development of this category of car requires time and patience to be competitive. The sidewinder design is in its third season. The origin of the base platform came from close collaboration with Pat Dennis. The chassis design mimics successful 24th scale class cars. The motor is a modified M can design based on some very original thinking on Pat’s part. I have tried various winds in them over the last several seasons and found that between 4 and 6 ohms armatures give the best performance. The motor in the Midwest Championship car was a 6 ohm 40 gauge wind. I have varied the gearing in the cars between 8/23 to 7/24. Currently under average conditions I prefer 7/23 gearing, as it seems to have the best balance. If there is interest I would be glad to show more pictures.

Tires and traction are big deal with the sidewinder, as they are for all gravity cars. The straight line speed of the sidewinder is exceptional; getting that to the track is challenging. A clean track makes a huge difference, but this is not always something the racer can control. The heaver cars do better under “dirty” track conditions - advantage AFX and Riggins at 22 grams plus. The sidewinder and Landsharks seems to perform best at around 18 to 19 grams. Rick DeRosa and I are both working on variations of tire compounds and coatings to deal with “dirty” track conditions. Our tire challenges here are much the same as they are for T-Jet racing.
Joel