Last Sunday was the 5th annual Ohio Tool Racing Championship held in Columbus. The event continues to grow in popularity thanks in to the tie in with the Columbus Maker Faire which brought a wide range of new attendees of all ages. This year’s race also expanded to some new geographic locations thanks to collaboration with maker spaces in Louisville & Cincinnati. New competition as always, this year one of which strapped a GoPro Hero 3 to his racer for some new POV videos. Finally a brand new geeked-out track complete with photoelectric sensors, arduino controls and a fully functional race light tree really elevated the entire level of legitimacy, so no more blaming loses on the track!
POV Racing Action
This is the first time we’ve ever seen video from this point of view on a tool racer. Unfortunately we didn’t do any head crash testing or jumps while this camera was attached but it makes us smile every time we watched it anyway. For some additional event photos check out this Facebook Album.
Louisville, Columbus & Cincinnati – Tool Racing Triple Crown
After completion of the Louisville and Columbus tool races there is only 1 race left in Cincinnati, this Saturday, October 19, 2013 at Washington Park. The winner of the Columbus race, now a 2 time champion (Columbus, 2012 & 2013) was not in Louisville for their race so we will not see a true Triple Crown champion at least not this year. We are looking forward to some exciting competition for the final leg of the race which should be a nice meeting ground from competitors from the 2 previous races.
Bosch and Ohio Power Tool sponsored all 3 races which include 3 great prize packages at each race including items such as Bosch 18V Multi-X MXH180BL ($246, Ohio Power Tool), Bosch 18V Brute Hammer Drill HDH181BL ($189, Ohio Power Tool), Bosch 18V Power Box Radio PB360S ($199, Ohio Power Tool), Bosch SDS-Plus Bulldog Xtreme RH228VC ($259, Ohio Power Tool) in addition to 4.0Ah 18V batteries, chargers, bits, blades, tee shirts and more!
New Tool Racing Track Technology
If you have ever attended a Maker Faire or are even familiar with what we’re talking about it should be no surprise to you that the track went total high tech for the 2013 season. Thank you to Jim D from the HIVE13 in Cincinnati for all his hard work in bringing this concept to fruition. From the beginning it’s always been the hope to get to this level of sophistication but it just never came together until now!
The photo-eyes at the start line will start the race once both racers have been placed on the track covering the first sensor. Once the sequence is started the racers have to wait about 10 seconds until the light tree will begin the actual light sequence with 4 additional lights to signaling 3-2-1-Go. A 2nd sensor only a few inches ahead of the start detects any false starts before the green light.
All the way down the track 10 feet before the finish a 3rd sensor called the “speed trap” starts a timer which once the racer crosses the 4 sensor or finish can register the actual top speed for each racer. The 4th sensor also of course declares the victor at which point the lights on the racing tree will light up on the side of winner. This gives a true photo-finish so there is no more guessing at any point during the race.
We are headed down to Cincinnati next week for the final 2013 Tool Races and first ever Cincinnati Maker Faire we’d encourage everyone to come check it out if you are in the area!
