Night Racing

[Brett Buckmaster]

Hi Guys,

Just wondering if any of your clubs have tried night racing under lights. Would like to hear the good and bad points with this type of race event. Looking at doing something different

 

[slsova]

It was done in Jacksonville a few years back. They set-up about a 1/2 dozen road construction lights and we had open water till 2 or 3 Sat. morning. I don't think these would work for heat racing, but they where enough for open water.

 

[Ron Olson]

Jim Irwin was going to try this a few years ago but it never happened. He had a site that was lit all the way around.

It would be cool to do a "Saturday night under the lights" type of race.

 

[topfuel443]

I was at the Jacksonville pond with Stan, It was a blast! Running hydros, till 3AM....You could see suprsingly well. I would not want to race like this, but it was cool for open water.

~James

 

[Gator 340]

Yeah we used to do that down here in J vill till the club broke up. we had a small pond and put one light at each end and one on each side of the pits. Like Stan said we ran open water all night long well David showers did :blink: . With some adjustment you could probably run some of the smaller engine sizes and like cracker box and scale but I would not recomend 60 riggers and up. But thats not saying you could'nt you would have to set every thing up and see how the drivers felt running. :unsure:

 

[Marty Davis]

Yeah we used to do that down here in J vill till the club broke up. we had a small pond and put one light at each end and one on each side of the pits. Like Stan said we ran open water all night long well David showers did :blink: . With some adjustment you could probably run some of the smaller engine sizes and like cracker box and scale but I would not recomend 60 riggers and up. But thats not saying you could'nt you would have to set every thing up and see how the drivers felt running. :unsure:

I wonder if you would have a noise issue running at 3AM? :blink:

Marty Davis

 

[Brett Buckmaster]

Thanks for all the comments Guys,

We were thinking of putting two lights at each end of the course. These would mobile lighting towers with each light having a mast of 9 metre's and each light burning 6000 watts. At our pond noise isn't a issue as we don't have any neigbours for miles. Was there any issue's with shadow's off roostertails etc??

 

[John Knight]

Yeah we used to do that down here in J vill till the club broke up. we had a small pond and put one light at each end and one on each side of the pits. Like Stan said we ran open water all night long well David showers did :blink: . With some adjustment you could probably run some of the smaller engine sizes and like cracker box and scale but I would not recomend 60 riggers and up. But thats not saying you could'nt you would have to set every thing up and see how the drivers felt running. :unsure:

I wonder if you would have a noise issue running at 3AM? :blink:

Marty Davis

The lake is in a total industrial park with nary a soul to bother, except those deciding to sleep there in RV's or tents.

You can put a light stick or two on the boat and run quite a while. Remember one racer doing just that and it was neat to watch. Others put some reflective strips on the sides of the boats. Put some light sticks on the buoys and you can even see them fairly well and it can get rather eerie too.

 

[Mick J]

Bucky, whilst I have never done it with boats, a heli club here in Perth I used to be a member of did it frequently during the summer months over here in WA when the weather was good. (we don't get day light savings over here..............fades the curtains and confuses the cows )

In addition to "some" lighting of sorts, cylume sticks of differing colours (chemical lights..........break n shake) and led filled rotor blades were used................worked a treat and heaps of fun and importantly something different.

I don't see why you couldn't achieve similar results........................would be well worth trying I think

Johno

 

[Grub]

Didn't the District 9 guys from Northern California have an annual evening race?

 

[Roger Hooks Jr.]

Didn't the District 9 guys from Northern California have an annual evening race?

Yah district nine does that but it's pitch black... just glowees on the buoys and on your boat. It helps to run a boat you really don't like much but surprisnly enough there aren't many wrecks. No more than in the day time.

 

[Shark]

On the science end of things, the air does not move well at night and each boater gets a HIGHER concentration of nitromethane exposure as the burnt gases fill the air at higher levels than in the daytime.

We here in 19 have tried night racing many times and the fumes stay lower to the ground at night as they are heavier than air.

Depending on the size of the track and the availability of wind, this high concentration of fumes can cause many a headache.

While it has been fun, the shortness of breath the next day is hardly worth the effort.

Its amazing to see the smoke filled air at night and realize how much exhaust lingers around the start tables!!

On a cold windless night, you will see the "blue" air lingering around everywhere.

Just some scientific thoughts...

 

[topfuel443]

Was there any issue's with shadow's off roostertails etc??

Running only one or two boats this actually HELPS, the roostertail is what is lit up so bright with the light reflection. Its like a giant white light right behind the boat, but get to close to another roostertail and its hard to tell where the actual boat is. But its because of the brightness of the tail, not the shadow caused by it. We have been know to test a couple tunnel boats at night after open water using truck headlights shinning on each end of the pond, it doesnt take as much light as you might think. The Neon colors we use to paint the bouys with, really light up well.

~James

 

[aaron alberico]

Brett,

how you going!

years ago Steve Winks and a couple of other Queensland guys

held a night race with glow sticks on the boats, speak to him.

regards Aaron

 

[SayMikey]

Brett,

how you going!

years ago Steve Winks and a couple of other Queensland guys

held a night race with glow sticks on the boats, speak to him.

regards Aaron

Cant do it in the midwest the SKEETERS would ATTACK