Wow! Everyone running in 4wd Mod is fast! Didn't notice that last weekend, since I was too busy trying to get used to driving my new B44. Everyone in the A-main qualified with 17 laps! I felt way more comfortable racing 4wd Mod, since I spent Saturday getting used to driving the car and testing tires. For practice, I wanted to try out the change I made to the front shocks upper mounting location (outside on tower) and my Bobcats fronts again, to make sure they felt slower than my Pink Tapers. I ran the Tapers for my 1st practice run and the Bobcats on the 2nd. The front shock mounting location felt ok, but the Bobcats didn't have the turn-in the Tapers did. I would run the Tapers in round 1 of qualifying.
In round 1, I got a clean start, and crossed the line in 5th. By lap 3, I made it up to 3rd place :) I held 3rd place for most of the race, turning mid 18 second laps, but on one lap, coming off the single-table top after the straightaway, I bounced off the table top, and tumbled right off the track :( I landed on my wheels, but had to turn around and drive back to the opening in the pipe, because the turn marshall was moving slower than frozen molasses :( After that tumble, I couldn't take that jump smoothly for the rest of the race. I kept landing long or short and taking the hairpin too wide. My lap times showed this as I started turning high 18's to low 19's. Half a second a lap slower than the 1st half of the race :( I finished the race in 4th with a 16:05.
In the second round, I got a horrible start :( We were all bunched together approaching the big infield double so I checked up to keep from running into the guys in front of me. It would be no problem clearing the double with a 4wd mod anyway, so I slowed up. The driver behind me didn't agree though and ran into the back of me, flipping me over, and I ended up on my lid at the top of the 1st jump of the double. Great! :( Once I got going again, I settled down and started cranking out laps! I managed to make it up to 3rd place, then 2nd, but I don't remember how! LOL! I guess the guys in 2nd and 3rd wrecked, because I don't remember passing anybody. It's times like this I wish I had a friend video taping my races. I stuffed it into the pipe in the corner at the end of the straightaway and dropped down to 4th, finishing with a 16:01. If I didn't make that mistake, I would've probably turned 17 laps :( Hey, at least I went faster this round :)
I qualified 3rd in the B-main. Not too bad, as everyone is really fast. I noticed in round 2 that my car was slow to rotate around the hairpins, so I decided to change my upper shock mounting location back to the inner hole on the shock tower, as I was used to the steering now :) This was the setup I was running yesterday during practice when I was turning 17 second laps. The start of the main was fairly clean, but I made a mistake early in the race :( Going through the chicane in front of the driver's stand, I clipped the pipe coming up the hill and tumbled into the next lane :( My mistake was to go around the long way and go through the chicane again, instead I should've jumped the pipe and returned to the correct lane. I spent the rest of the race trying to work my way back up to 3rd place. I was turning some really fast laps! All in the low 18's with 2 in row in the mid 17's! My fastest lap was a 17.3! WooHoo! I was gaining on 3rd and could see him a few turns away, but there was less than 30 seconds left in the race, and I ran out of time to catch him. I finished the race in 4th with a 16:01.
For my next race in 4wd Mod, my goals are: (1) go 17 laps, and (2) make the A-main! I'm still not happy with my tire setup though. I want to try some Proline M3 Inside Jobs and softer Panther Bobcats and Switches. I'll probably try them out during a practice day, since doing that really accelerated dialing in my B44. It took me a month of races to dial in my Truck, since I was only attending race days, where there is only 2 hours of practice time.
Go at the tone!
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