Robo Challenge Tag Team Champs & Power Tool Drag racing!

[james...venom]

Hello all!

We are pleased to announce that we will be hosting the 2009 Robo Challenge Featherweight Tag Team Championships & The 2009 Power tool Drag racing championships with Silverline tools on September 12th and 13th!

Dates -September 12th & 13th 2009
Venue - Haynes Motor Museum, Somerset
Entry Fee - £10 plus at least one entry into a power tool drag racing catagory.
Prize Fund total - £4000 split between the different catagories of the power tool drag racing. Exact amounts in each catagory are on our website in the rules section.

This should be a really exciting event as not only will we see the return of our popular Tag Team Championships but this will be the first time we have opened up the Power tool drag racing championships to all competitors. This full combat joint event will certainly be one to remember!

There will be an of entry fee £10 into this event. Also ALL competitors that wish to enter the Tag Team Championships MUST enter at least one catagory of the Power Tool Drag racing event. We are trying to really boost the popularity of this event and would really like to see roboteers getting stuck in. These dragsters are really easy to build and are great fun. This event will also see the largest pot of prize money given away scince the TV series of Robot Wars... £4000! This will be split between the different catagories of the power tool drag racing. Trophies will be given to the top 3 tag teams in the combat championships aswell!

Sign up is open on our website. Please sign up individually but also add your tag team partners name. There is also a box to say which catagory you wish to enter in the power tool drag racing.

Drag racing rules and event info is on our website www.robochallenge.co.uk

More info to come & look forward to what will be a unique event to remember!

Robo Challenge Crew

[typhoon_driver]

Thats hornet 2 signed up!

I'll be coming back from 3 months in the US on the 11th of September at 8am followed by a drive 2/3 the length of the country for the comp on the 12th......someone watch me when I'm hooking up my batteries

[john_frizell]

Looks like great fun and I hope to be there. But when you say 'Drag racing rules and event info is on our website www.robochallenge.co.uk', exactly where are the rules to be found?

[ady]

yeah i cant see it either, want to know just the basics as i know nothing about it, but i dont find it that appealing personally, but then again i dont know nothing about it.

[typhoon_driver]

Rules

http://home.btconnect.com/priorycastor/ ... grules.htm

inspiration

[razerdave]

So what happenes to the roboteers that are new to the sport, and want to compete, but have to shell out more money on another machine that, in honesty, they are only likely to use once ?

I know a few roboteers that will feel the same. And in fact this rule has severly disapointed a new roboteer that had the timing perfect to make this his first event.

Sorry if this offends anyone, but this is my opinion.

[robotwars]

What happens if you dont want to build a drag tool.... ( i dont really ).. cant you attend the event?
There's a £4000 prize fund, biggest since robot wars, I thought initially I heard this was for the drag tools... is any now being put towards the robots, unless i misread, it only says trophies for robots.
Whats the £10 entry fee for ? wheres that going?

Cheers

John

[dragonmaster_1]

Well said Dave

[typhoon_driver]

they are only likely to use once ?

Don't know about you lot but generally every machine I enter in a competition is effectively a brand new machine with the amount of cash I spend on it. I should technically be on hornet 8 about now with the number of upgrades, time and cash I've gone through. Throw in travel money, staying over and everything else......I'm talking an average of 500 quid a comp.....a few quid for a power tool with wheels? Not a huge amount in the grand scheme of things considering you can pick up a drill for a tenner in b and q.

Don't know about anyone else but I'm planning on a serious entry for the power tool comp along with a serious entry in the robot comp. Don't wanna enter? Fair enough, more chance for me to win

[RogueTwoRobots]

While I can understand the benefit gained to the population of power tool drag racers by making entry mandatory alongside entering the tag champs, I'm not sure if that's the best way to go about boosting numbers.

I wouldn't have any qualms about building a drag racer if I had a strong interest in it, but at the moment that does not exist for me. Yes it may be able to be built relatively cheaply if you get basic brand or second hand tools, but its not going to appeal to everyone.

I'm going to be building one, maybe two, robots from scratch for this event, along with upgrading another one. That won't leave me much time (factoring in work and possible exam resits over summer) or money to work on a drag racer too. Adding on top of that three nights accomodation and petrol costs for 800 miles and extra burdens such as a drag racer appear as no more than a hinderance.

Strongly encouraging roboteers to build dragsters, especially considering the prizes on offer, would probably result in higher dragster numbers than making it an entry requirement. PTDG is of a similar 'genre', if you like, to robot combat as a hobby/sport so you're bound to have increased numbers by hosting the races alongside an event that will draw in around 100 engineering-minded people but is it right to force people to participate in a hobby that may not interest them when the main reason they've shown up is to particiapte in the hobby they enjoy?