Powerwheels" drive lacked the power
to do much once having
done so.
The real stars of the class were
the three flippers. Phoenix showed
that the CO2 powered flippers could
be "cool" too, as can be seen by its
frost covered storage cylinder after a
match (Figure 26). Upheaval won the
battle against Phoenix when the latter
ran out of gas to flip itself back onto
its wheels. The match between Jack
Reacher and Upheaval was a classic
example of good sportsmanship.
Upheaval righted Jack Reacher
when he could have left him alone
and got the win. Jack Reacher went
on to win a close judge’s decision to
win the class overall.
It seems that if the self-righting
issues can be resolved, the kinetic
flippers may have the advantage of
having a greater number of
operations than is possible for the
pneumatic powered bot due to the
limited gas storage allowed in the
class.
Upheaval got its revenge a little
later by swiftly piling up all the other
bots in a corner to win the Sportsman
class rumble (Figure 27).
The event finished in the early
evening with everyone having had a
good time and looking forward to the
next big N.E.R.C event — Motorama in
February.
I enjoyed judging and have a little
more appreciation as to just how hard
it is to decide who is the winner in
some of the fights. I'll hopefully be
coming to Motorama and if I do, it
will probably be to compete but I can
see myself returning again just to
judge. It's much less stressful than
competing and you get a front row
seat! SV
SERVO 01.2014 43
