New layout at OCRC!

jaejw1 posted a nice vid of a car running on the new layout at OCRC! The triple has been made longer and a rhythm section has been added. The step-up, bowl, and wooden roller remain the same. This layout looks to have a really nice flow to it and I can't wait to race on it! Check out jaejw1's vid below.

SC10 details released!

AE has finally released details on its new SC10! Based on the T4, it should handle any RC track very well! I know I've already added it to my wishlist! Read more about it at Red RC.net. I wonder if it will be allowed to race in the Slash class, creating a "CORR' class instead? Or will it be put into it's own class?

Electric RC8!

Associated recently announced that they will be releasing a limited edition Factory Team Electric RC8! It will include the Big Bore shocks and the new 1/8 electric conversion kit. You will still need to pick up tires, servo, batteries, ESC, and a brushless motor though. Soon to be available from my favorite online stores, A Main Hobbies and Tower Hobbies

Maybe I'll build one of these things! I really like racing 1/10 4wd, and I bet this thing would be planted! What stopped me from considering it was the fact that I didn't want to convert a nitro kit, ending up with nitro specific parts I'd probably never use. I guess this kit solves that problem! But I still have no idea what ESC/motor combo to pick up :( or how to come up with with the nearly $1000 it would take to set it up properly :(

Back in the comfort zone

I decided to run Stock Truck and Mod 4wd this weekend, as my B4 hasn't been working well in Super Stock Buggy, and I'm in the process of changing the setup over to the new LiPo setup with no added weight that I posted about earlier.

Stock Truck
While getting my T4 ready to race Saturday night, I decided to make a change to the rear roll center to get it to rotate faster for all the hairpins of the current layout at OCRC. I moved the hub carrier ball end to the B hole from the C hole. This shortens the camber link, freeing up the rear end. When I took my practice run Sunday though, it was a little too "free". It was controllable, but too edgy. I'm sure my worn Holeshots didn't help either! Instead of going to newer tires, I switched to black springs, as I was going to try these anyway, on my T4 LiPo setup I plan to work on. I didn't get a chance to try the new springs out though, as the track was closed for maintenance. I guess I'll see how it works in round 1.

In round 1, I was running in 3rd place right behind 2nd place for most of the race. I guess I was following 2nd a bit too close, as I bumped him a few times. But, each time I let him take his position back. I wasn't able to stay close though, as I made a few mistakes myself, and ended up finishing 3rd with an 11:08, 7 seconds behind 2nd. I also went 5 seconds faster with my 17.5 powered T4 than my 13.5 powered B4! I guess my B4 setup really sucks!

In round 2, I lead the entire race! The 2nd place truck was right behind me the entire time too! I was able to take the lead over the triple jump, as the lead truck took it as a double-single, while I tripled it, thus I passed him while landing the triple, as he was in the air coming off the downside jump. But, that landing moved my motor slightly, and my T4 was making a loud noise as I lapped the track now. Oddly enough, the motor didn't move enough to kill my punch for the jumps or my top end on the straight, as I was still able to keep 2nd place behind me. It sounded horrible though! The only mistake I made was on the last lap, taking the turn onto the straight too tight and going over the wood roller so far to the inside that my truck fell off the top! I got stuck on the wrong side of the pipe, giving the lead up :( I still managed to finish 2nd with a 12:29! At least I went 12 laps :)

I qualified 2nd for the main, and I would stay in 2nd place for most of the race. Although I did cross the line in 1st place for 1 lap, by clearing the triple! I landed to the outside though, and the lead truck remained in 1st place. I made a small bobble, allowing the lead truck to pull away, and the 3rd place truck to catch me. The 3rd place truck was able to pass me when in the hairpin before the triple he bumped me. I got sideways and ended up stuck on a pipe :( Thanks :( I wasn't able to make the pass back into 2nd place and finished 3rd with a 12:26, 3 seconds behind 2nd.

Mod 4wd
Tonight was not my night :( My B44 was not working very well. During practice my Holeshots had no rear grip at all, so I changed over to my Double Dee's. While better, the rear traction was still not enough, so I changed over to black rear springs. The track was then closed, so I would have to test the new rear springs in round 1. I didn't get the chance though, as I broke a front shock shaft when I rear-ended another car during the warm up laps. Opps! Oh well.

I had better luck in round 2 however! I ran in 3rd the entire race finishing with a 12:05, 4 seconds behind 2nd place. The rear end also felt more locked in than during practice. I guess the black rear springs helped out after all :)

My run in round 2 seated me in the 3rd starting position for the main. We had a clean start and I held my 3rd place position. However, the leaders pulled away from me a bit, so I just tried to get into a nice rhythm and try and catch back up. About halfway through the race though, I had a bad tumble over the step-up and popped a drive shaft from the diff, losing all my punch for the jumps :( So I pulled my car off the track. Oh well. Next time!

I plan to freshen up both my T4 and B44 and change the setups some to work better with the weight of my LiPo batteries. Rebuild the shocks and diffs on both and check them over for "looseness" in the suspension. I'm sure that my B44 will require more work though, as I've been racing it with barely any maintenance since I built it back in September!

Airtronics M11X!

Red RC posted that Airtronics will finally be coming out with an M11 with an integrated 2.4 GHz module! It's about time! I might have gotten this radio if the 4PK hadn't been released first. I wonder which radio will become the favorite of the masses? Only time will tell... I am happy with my 4PK though. I've been using it for 2 months now and I love it! It's worked great! The built in timer is killer for practice! It's lightweight! And the battery lasts forever!

4PK Metal Carrying Case!

I've been looking for a couple of months now for a nice hard case for my 4PK radio to protect it when transporting it back and forth to the track. Right now I'm using a radio bag from Trinity, but all that does is keep the it from getting scratched up. I even bought a Hobbico custom radio case, but it's not deep enough for the radio when using the wheel positioning adapter. I'll probably end up using it for my DX7 heli radio instead.

Some other options are the Pelican 1450 and 1500 cases, but these cases are really long and barely deep enough when using the wheel adapter.

I figured Futaba would eventually come out with a case sooner or later and it ended up being sooner! Expected to be in stock at Tower Hobbies mid February! Read more about it at Red RC.

Lipo/Brushless setups from Associated! *UPDATED*

I've been reading the coverage of the CRCRC Midwest Championships, and it seems that the AE camp has been developing setups specifically for Lipo/Brushless! This is great news, as the current published setups are for cars using NiMH batteries which are heavier than LiPo's. Since LiPo's weigh less the current practice was to add weight to the rear to compensate for the missing weight. AE was working on new setup's which don't require this extra weight. I hope they publish them soon, as I'm struggling to find a good setup for my B4 :)

I also added some new cool RC Blogs to my blog list. Check'em out!
Almost Live Race Coverage
CRCRC RC Racing
Scott's Race Review

*UPDATE* 1/22/09
Just found a starting setup gor the B4 running LiPo on rctech.net and rcracing.com!

Front
Shock mounting: 1-I
Camber link mounting: 1-A, 3 washers under ball end
Camber: -1°
Ride Height: Arms level
Toe: 0°
Bump steer spacer: 2
Axle height: Middle
Caster block: 30°
Steering block: Trailing
Shock package: 25wt oil, #2 piston, 1 limiter, Brown spring

Rear
Shock mounting: 4-I (drill a 4th hole on the tower inside of hole #1)
Camber link mounting: 1-B, 1 washers under ball end
Camber: -1°
Ride Height: Bones level
Anti-squat: 2°
Wheelbase: Short
Anti-roll bar: None
Shock package: 25wt oil, #2 piston, 1 limiter, Black spring

Other
7" JConcepts high downforce wing, mounted at a 6° angle
Black ball stud in rear hole of steering rack

Racers Edge 0.5° aluminum rear hubs, silver ball end with 1 washer underneath, not sure what hole to mount the ball end in, but it looks like one of the holes on the inside part of the hub (the A or B hole)

AE Setup sheet for "LiPo" or "Liteweight" setup

Brent Thielke's B4 at the CRRCRC race sporting the latest version of the "LiPo" setup

Chasing the perfect setup

After a 2 week break, it was time to get back to work setting up the B4 to my liking. The setup was completely different from the last time I raced at OCRC. That time it had no rear traction and no on-power steering. I was running 30° caster blocks and the following shock package: front-2 limiters, #1 piston, 35wt oil, brown springs; rear-1 limiter, #2 piston, 30wt oil, green springs. I was now running 25° caster block and switched my shock package to: front-1 limiter, #2 piston, 30wt oil, green springs; rear-1 limiter, #1 piston, 25wt oil, green springs. Hopefully these changes would net me more bite front and rear.

There was also a new layout to deal with! It has a ton of hairpins (7 of them!) The jumps include a corner table top, step-up table top, large whoops, huge triple, small table top, hairpin rollers, and wood roller onto the straight. The most difficult section for me is the large whoops section. Line up wrong and you eat up a lot of time. You need to stay to the inside of the turn before it, missing a bump to the outside, take the 1st 2 whoops as a double jump, then use the 3rd whoop to jump out of the section.

I ended up chasing the setup the entire night. I made the following changes in an effort to get more steering as the car was pushing more than I liked. I changed the springs over to browns, lowered the height of the inner ball stub, increased the droop by unscrewing the shock rod end 1 turn, and mounted the top of the shock to inside hole on the shock tower. I think I'm on the right track, as the steering felt better after each change, but it still wasn't enough. For my next race I plan to change my front shock package to the following: 0 limiters, 30wt oil, #1 piston, brown springs. The rear end felt good, but I still loosened the slipper a little bit a few times. I think I'll keep loosening it until I don't have enough punch, then tighten it back up 1/8th of a turn. I also want to try adding some weight to the rear, as I seem to be the only one running without it.

There's not much to tell about the racing itself tonight. Other than the Super Stock Buggy class was deep in talent as some really fast guys were racing. Jeremy Felles (X-Factory), Cody Turner (Associated), Alex Alvarez (Banzi), and Zach Rogers (JConcepts). These guys finished in that order in the A main, consisting of 6 cars. As for myself (Mastercard, lol!), I finished 5th in round 1 (11:15) and 5th again in round 2 (11:13). This seated me 4th in the B Main. I finished 3rd in the main with an 11:10, 4.5 seconds behind 2nd. I didn't really care where I finished, as all I wanted to do was turn 12 laps. For comparisons sake, the top 2 in the A both turned 13 laps. I think next time I'll race in the regular stock class!

'09 Series Races

The '09 JBRL and OCRC Saturday Series schedules have been posted! It's going to be a great year for intense electric off-road racing in SoCal this year! I plan on running in the Stock Buggy and Truck classes for both series, then move up to Super Stock, and eventually Mod, as my skills improve :) Here's the schedule for this year:

OCRC Sat Series
2/28 @ OCRC
3/28 @ Hot Rod Hobbies
4/25 @ OCRC
5/30 @ OCRC
6/27 @ OCRC
7/25 Finals @ OCRC

JBRL Series
3/22 @ Hot Rod Hobbies
4/19 @ Revelation
5/2 @ OCRC
6/7 @ Pegasus
8/2 @ Freedom Park
8/23 @ Racers Haven
9/6 @ West Coast RC
10/17-18 Finals @ Hot Rod Hobbies

Some other big electric off-road races this year are the,
Off-Road Shootout 7/10-12 @ Hot Rod Hobbies
Reedy Truck Race 9/25-27 @ Hot Rod Hobbies
Bob James Memorial 11/22 @ OCRC
JConcepts Wave Race TBD @ OCRC
Surf City Classic TBD @ OCRC

I also plan to keep an eye on the tracks in NorCal for any big races up there :) So far, I haven't heard of any though.

It's about freaking time!

AE has finally released a lipo brace for the B44! I have the lipo brace from Diggity Designs and it works great, but it took about 3-4 weeks to get :( With AE making a set now, they should be easier to find.

Norcal Hobbies Visit

I wasn't able to race at Norcal Hobbies on Saturday 1/4/09 like I was planning to as I later found out that they require you to be a ROAR member. I did stop by the track and took a few pics and video using my cell phone on Sunday though.

Outdoor on-road asphalt track

Indoor carpet track

Off-road track

The driver's stand is really tall and provides a great view of the track. The layout looks fun too with some nice rhythm sections, unique jumps, and a huge table top in front of the stand. I wish I was able to run my cars there :(

I took some bad video of cars running on the carpet track and off-road track with my cell phone too :) They're really blurry, but here they are anyway.

Indoor carpet track

Off-road track

Holiday Race #2- Delta RC Antioch, CA *UPDATED 1/5/09*

*UPDATED 1/5/09*
I really enjoyed racing at Delta RC. The track was huge! And it was a unique experience racing in a former goat show arena :) The layout was very challenging and the all the jumps required good timing to land correctly. The most difficult section was the rhythm section consisting of 3 sets of double jumps. The 1st set if doubles was easy to clear, the 2nd was set was difficult, and the 3rd was almost impossible. If you got the timing wrong on the 1st set, there was no way to clear the other 2. We ran 8 minute triple A mains too! Which was kinda funny, since we only ran 2 rounds of qualifying. I would racing more mains than qualifying races :) However, there were 2 things I didn't like. The lighting inside the arena wasn't very good, making it somewhat dark. Then the bright light outside the arena made it difficult to see when driving on the outer edges of the track. The track would benefit from something to cut down on the light from the outside or brighter lighting inside the arena. The other thing I didn't like was the short driver's stand. This and the layout caused a few blind spots on the track, where you'd lose sight of your car completely. That really makes it hard to drive!

Super Stock Buggy
I qualified 4th for the main out of 9 cars. The mains were uneventful really. All I needed to do was not crash and I'd finish in the top 3. A wreck will cost you a lot of time as there were not many marshals and it took forever for one to get you going again. I did go through periods of crash after crash and dropped down the order, but I was able to calm down and work my way back to the front. I finished 2nd in A1 with a 14:10, 3rd in A2 with a 14:24, and 4th in A3 with a 14:14. I ended up finishing 3rd overall. Check out the triple A mains below :)

A1 Main

A2 Main

A3 Main

Mod 4wd
I did better in 4wd than buggy (like always) and qualified 2nd out of 7 cars. It was also more of the same. Just keep my nose clean and I'd be in the front :), but I also had periods of a few crashes in a row. I did lead the race on several occasions, but a wreck would cause me to give up the lead and I was never able to win a race :( I finished 3rd in A1 with a 15:03, 3rd in A2 with a 15:12, and 2nd in A3 15:06. I finished 3rd overall. Check out my 4wd mains below.

A1 Main


A2 Main


A3 Main



*LIVE FROM THE TRACK* (Newest news at the top)
My mains are back-to-back-to-back! As we're running triple A-mains! I guess this will be my last post live from the track, since I will be busy racing. ~1pm 12.27.08

Finished 2nd with a 10:10 in round 1 then 2nd again with a 10:25 in round 2 in Mod 4wd. Starting to get the hang of the track now. Also finished 3rd in SS Buggy with a 9:16 in round 2. Track is nice and dry too. We're taking a break for lunch before the triple A-mains! I hope my batteries last as I plan to run only 1 pack for all the runs. ~12om 12.27.08

Just finished my run in SS Buggy. It's hard to see on the backside of the track as it's so dark, compared to the bright light, right outside the arena. Also having trouble with the rhythm jump section. Finished 4th with a 9:27. ~11am 12.27.08

Took some pics of my pit and the pit area. Looks like we'll be racing after all! I signed up for SS Stock Buggy and Mod 4wd. I wonder how I"ll do as I only took 1 practice run with each car and the track was really wet. ~9am 12.27.08

Took a few pics of the track. It's really wet and muddy right now, so nobody wants to run. There aren't very many people here so far and racing is supposed to start in an hour. ~8am 12.27.08

On the way to the track at 7am. It's really cold! 12.27.08