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!