Practice Day

I decided to take my B44 to the Saturday practice at OCRC. I wanted to get used to driving it and work on the setup and tire selection. I reset the suspension back to the kit settings, installed a rear sway bar, and turned the drag brake down in the ESC. For my 1st run I would use my M3 Holeshots front and rear. The steering felt much better than last weekend. Not so twitchy, but it still didn't feel comfortable, so I increased my steering expo to +30% to soften the steering response around center. Something new I noticed was that the timing system was on during practice and the computer was calling out my lap times over a speaker on the driver's stand! Very cool! Good thing I have an AMBrc personal transponder in all my cars! I've never heard that before during practice before racing on Sunday's.

For my second run I raised the height on the inner ball stud on the front end and switched over to Pink Taper Pins front and rear. There were a ton of cars on the track now. So many, that it was difficult to get a clean lap in to see if the changes and tires were helping. I did notice that I could barely get to full throttle on the straightaway though. I had way too much motor in my B44 :) Lol! Anyway, after a Slash truck landed on top of my car, I pulled it off the track before my car ended up broken.

The track was then closed for watering, and controlled practice was started. Each class would run for 10 minutes; Truck, Buggy, then Slash. Since I had some time to kill before the Buggy's were up, I switched my motor over to an LRP 8.5t, to make my car easier to drive. I finished switching motors just in time for the Buggy class to hit the track. I didn't have time to change my tires, so I ran my Pink Taper pins again. Ah! The 8.5t motor made the car much easier to drive! My lap times were still in the mid 18's to 19's, with slow laps in the 20's. LOL! I think I'm just as fast with my Stock Truck! Anyway, the Tapers in the rear were a little loose, while not that bad, I just couldn't lay the rubber down.

For run #4, I switched my tires over to M3 Square Fuzzie's in the rear and Medium-Soft Panther Bobcats for the front. The Square's had more side bite than the Taper's and I could drive out of the corners a little harder, but I wasn't turning in like I wanted with the Bobcats. The Bobcats steering was controllable, but the car didn't turn in fast enough for my taste. My lap times decreased to mid to low 18's. Nice!

For run #5, I cleaned all my tires then sprayed them with a mix of 10% Simple Green and 90% water. The Simple Green makes the surface of the tire very tacky/sticky after the rubber dries. I mounted up the Square's again, but for the fronts I went with my Pink Tapers. These tires were softer than the Bobcats and had softer foam. Hopefully these tires would provide the turn-in I wanted, and they did! I was able to drive hard! My lap times dropped to low 18's with a smattering of 17's, with the fastest being a 17.5! Finally! I was much more comfortable driving my B44 now :) Back in the pits, I tightened up my slipper a little, since I could hear it slipping through the chicane in front of the driver's stand. I also moved the front shocks upper mounting location to the outside hole on the shock tower. This would stiffen the front just a little, and take away a little steering. While I was getting the turn in I wanted, it was still a little "on edge", and this change should get the steering feel just where I want it for racing on Sunday.

Now that my B44 was dialed in, I spent the rest of the practice running my B3 for fun :) I also met Joe of Reflex Racing (http://reflexracing.blogspot.com/) He had pitted across from me and we chatted for a bit. He was working on his XX-4 and running some cars on the mini track. Nice to meet you Joe!

Can't wait to race my B44 tomorrow!