OCRC Gyro Hobbies Platinum Battle! Better late than never :)

I haven't run a "big" race since 2002 when I ran at the Reedy Touring Car Race at Tamiya USA in Aliso Viejo, thus I was somewhat nervous during the 1st qualifying round. This made it difficult to drive smooth :( I'm not sure why I was nervous, as this race was really just a glorified club race and the turnout wasn't much bigger than a large turnout for a Sunday club race. It probably didn't help that I was racing sick too :( I was also a little disappointed, as I was hoping for a alot of entries in the Super Stock classes, to see how fast/slow I was. There were only 2 heats of Super Stock Truck and 3 heats of Super Stock 4wd. But this time there was a prize on the line! The winners of the Super Stock classes were going to get a Platinum membership to OCRC and discounts for a year in the Gyro Hobby shop!

Super Stock Truck
I would run my new Holeshots for round 1 of qualifying. They felt a little loose during the race, but I wasn't sure if it was really the tires or my nerves. I just wasn't able to get into a good rhythm during the race :( I finished in 5th with a 14:01, which seated me in 9th for the A main. I would need to go faster in round 2, as I was currently sitting on the "bubble", since only the top 9 were going directly into the A, with the 10th truck bumping in by winning the B main. Below is the video of my run, but my Dad ended up following the wrong truck for part of it, thus only caught the end.



In round 2, I switched over to a new set of Panther Stingers. The track had more bite than the previous weekends and was beginning to develop a "black" groove on the racing line. The Stingers felt alot better and my nerves had calmed down, so I was able to go faster this time :) I finished 4th with a 15:15! I was also able to improve my qualifying spot to 8th in the A! Unfortunately, I don't have any video of this run, because the camera quit for some reason right after the warm up :(

I was in the show! I made the A! Woohoo! Although, I didn't really have a chance at the big prize, I would still give it my best, as you never know. The leaders could drop out, or not be eligible for the prize, thus I wanted to finish as high up the order as I could! The track had grooved up good by the time the mains came around! I bet a set of Taper Pins would hook up now, as the track was dry and swept and didn't have much dust. Too bad I left those tires at home, since they've never worked in the past :( Oh well, next time.

I got a horrible start! I tangled with Smalley after the hairpin then got hung up on the pipe. I was running in the back of the pack :( After a few more laps I thought I got a break, as there was an accident at the end of the straight, and I was able to go around! But, I got loose squaring up for the step-up table-top and went off the far side of the jump :( Thankfully I didn't loose any positions. The leaders came up on me next, so I let them by when they got close enough. Now Matt was right on my tail for position! But, I went too wide at the end of the straight and pushed on the staggered doubles, allowing him to squeeze by for 7th :( Toward the end of the race a few cars dropped out and I moved up to 6th, where I remained. I finished the race with a 20:03 in 7 minutes. I didn't like how my Truck was handling at all. It seemed too "edgy" and not really hooked up. I think I'll rebuild all the shocks and diff and try out some different settings on the front end and start over. My truck always felt pretty good in stock, but I guess the more powerful 13.5 motor is too much for that setup. I would have liked to finish better, but at least I made the A main :) Check out the race below.




Super Stock 4wd
4wd was the biggest Super Stock class with 24 entries. It would be a challenge to make the A in this class. I headed out to the track for some practice. I wasn't feeling too good, as I was still fighting off a bad cold, but I wanted to try some new tires. I had picked up a set of JConcepts Double Dee's just in case my Holeshot didn't work. They felt pretty good, but my practice run was cut short :( I hit a car on its lid after landing the triple and broke a shock shaft! :( Fantastic! I pulled off and went back to the pits to rebuild my shock. I would need to make the repair as fast as possible, since I wanted to get back on the track for a few laps, to test the car. I was able to finish with about 10 minutes left before the track closed! I ran out to the track for a handful of test laps. Everything seemed to work ok, so I went back to the pits to get ready for qualifying.

I still had a bit of nerves during the 1st round and was still having trouble finding a good rhythm. I was swapping 3rd place back and forth with Brandon though :) I made few bobbles on the triple and got loose at the end of straight, stuffed it into pipe, ending up on my lid on the last lap :( This mistake probably cost me a 16 lap run, as I finished 4th, with a 15:01. This put me in 10th, or the BQ :( I would need a faster time in the second round to get into the A. My Dad had a bit of trouble following me in the beginning, but sorted that out. Check it out below.



In round 2 I switched over to my Holeshots as the track was grooving up and there was barley any dust on the it. I thought that the slightly softer compound and shorter pin height compared to the Double Dees would be faster. But, the timing computer crashed about a minute into the run, and Jeremy stopped the race. We would try it again after the end of the round. After marshaling, I went back to the pits and cleaned my tires off a bit, then re-coated them with Buggy Grip. They were mostly dry by the time our race was up again. I also didn't bother charging my battery as it would have no problem running for 10-15 minutes anyway. I was having a good run this time and the car felt fast! It did feel a bit loose, but it wasn't too bad. I was on a 16 lap pace and running in 4th, when I noticed that the car was losing some punch. As if the slipper or diff was loosening up! Great! This was my last chance for a shot at the A and something broke on the car :( A few laps later, all the punch was gone, and I couldn't clear the jumps anymore, so I pulled off with about a minute left in the race. At least this let go now, instead of in the main. My time from the 1st round seated me in 4th for the B main. Nuts! I really wanted to make the A, and now my only way in was to win the B. See the race below.



When inspecting the car, I saw that a CVD pin had gotten past the retaining ring and ejected from the joint. Thus, I lost drive to one of the rear wheels and the pin had cut a groove in the arm. I bet this was why my car felt a little loose during the race. Repairing the CVD wasn't a big deal, but changing the rear arm was going to be a pain, because the rear of the car would need to be taken apart to get to the hinge pin out of the car to change the arm. I was busy getting the car ready for the main, so my Dad kept an eye on my raffle tickets for me :) but, I didn't win anything good. I did score a metric 4-way wrench though :) After finishing up the repair, I decided to switch back to my Double Dees, as theHoleshots were pretty worn and I wanted to run fresh tires for the main.

Starting in 4th, I had a real chance of winning as the guys in front weren't that much faster. I was able to make a pass for 3rd off the start, but it didn't last long as I bobbled and dropped back down going into the center table-top. I got 3rd place back after the whoops and held it going over the triple and onto the straightaway :) But I got bumped when squaring up the step-up table-top and went off the far side of the table-top :( Next I tangled with another car in mid-air going over the triple, and got the worst of it :( The 1st few laps were very chaotic! I finally got some breathing room and tried to catch up to the cars in front and improve my position. But, I clipped the inside pipe on my approach to the triple and crashed between the 1st and 2nd jump :( Next I try to pass a car going over the center table-top and actually land on top of the other car and crash again! Then I go though the whoops and my car does this weird flip and crash yet again! So far this race was not turning out very well for me :( I thought I finally got in the clear and settled down, but a few laps later a car tangled with me at the end of the straight, and I got stuck on the pipe right before the step-up table-top, and ended up landing on the far side of the table-top again. Nuts! Then I do another weird flip in the whoops, but at least this time I was able to keep going. This race was a joke with one crash after another! Then to cap it off I stuff it into the pipe at in the hairpin at the end of the straight, and it takes forever for the marshal to get me :( I drop another position and finish the race in 7th with a 16:21. See my laughable performance below.



I was over driving the car the entire race. I kept pushing passes when I should've been more patient. Normally I drive in a more controlled manner, but with the competition being so tough, I had to step it up a notch and I probably went too far. It's a fine line between going safe and too slow and going fast and pushing too hard.

Next time I think I'll need to do a more complete rebuild of the cars prior to a "big" race. I had been running my B44 for more than 2 months straight with virtually no maintenance, and I had parts break on me during the race. For a club race I wouldn't care, but with prizes on the line, I should've looked over the cars more carefully. I plan to rebuild the shocks and diffs on my B44 and T4 and try different settings on both. I think I'll also secure my CVD pins with some heat shrink tubing! LOL!

The next race I plan to run will probably be the Bob James Memorial next Saturday, then the Sunday club race the following weekend, as my brother will be coming up from San Diego to try his hand at racing. In the meantime I plan to get my B4 built and ready to race :)