I headed out for Round 2 of the JBRL series, which ended up being the 1st race of the series, since Round 1 at Hot Rod Hobbies got rained out. It was going to be a scorcher too as the predicted high was 95°F :( I signed up for stock buggy and truck, which had a decent turnout, with 3 heats in each class.
First some random stuff:
-103.1°F maximum temperature in my pit! as indicated by my digital thermometer
-I don't like racing outdoors in the heat!
-My morning coffee was too strong, giving me the jitters, making it hard to drive, or I was nervous.
-I was miserable the entire day because my nose was running like a faucet due to allergies. The only time it wasn't running, was if I was sitting still doing nothing or driving.
-I only took 2 practice runs with 1 of my 2 cars. I should've take at least 2 runs with each car, but I was afraid of breaking my car on the huge jumps meant for 1/8 scale buggies. Thus, I didn't get comfortable with the layout until round 2 of qualifying, where I turned in my best runs.
-Standing on the opposite end of the stand made it much easier for me to line up the biggest jump on the track.
-Brought the wrong tires.
-Need to use new tires for the best traction.
-Need to rebuild my diffs.
Stock Buggy
For round 1 I ran my new IFMAR pins, as I thought that would be right tire for the track. But, my car was really loose! It was really difficult to drive :( I was also having trouble lining up the huge step-up jump in the center of the track. I kept landing off the track to the right! The straight leading to this jump is long and angled, making it hard to tell if you're squared up. I turned a 7:39 finishing in 4th. Did I mention that the track at Revelation is huge? Lap times were in the 40 second range!
While turn marshaling, I noticed that the dirt in the groove was fairly clean, but off-line it was super dusty and had little balls of clumped up dirt left over from watering (The track was being watered every 3 races to keep the dust down. The water didn't really help with traction, as the track dried out in a couple of minutes since it was so hot outside.) I decided to switch over to new Holeshots or DoubleDees, since it was actually fairly clean in the groove. However, when searching my pit box, I realized I had left my new tires at home, because I didn't think I would need them :( I did have some used Holeshots, but they were about 50% worn already, and with all the dust on the track, you really needed new tires for the best grip.
After marshaling, I went to take a look at the straight leading up to the step-up jump. It was actually not straight at all, curving to the left! So if you line up parallel to the pipe leading into this section, you will end up jumping off to the right, which is what I was doing. To stop this, I decided to stand on the end of the drivers stand closest to this section and square up for the jump by lining up next to the inside pipe about halfway down the section, during my next race.
In addition to the tire change, I decided to go to thicker oil in my shocks as I was running 20 wt oil, and I wanted to increase the pack in my shocks for all the big jumps on the track. I did a little better in round 2, as I was able to take the step-up jump much better now, but I ended up making other mistakes (I hit the same pipe leading into the double-double 3 laps in a row!), and since the laps are so long, each mistake really kills your overall time. I finished 4th again with a 7:27.
My second round time seated me 2nd in the C main for Stock Buggy (the mains went up to the D main). I had a horrible start, pushing wide, and got passed by 2 cars in the 2nd turn. I also got out of shape a few times, as my car was really loose, and I dropped down to 6th. A few accidents allowed me to move up to 4th, where I had a battle going on with Shane Becica for 4th. I ended up taking the spot with another 7:27 run. Not a very good showing for me, as I didn't make the A main or finish in the top 3 of my main. I did learn a lot about running on a loose outdoor track though, which I plan to apply to the JBRL round at Pegasus Hobbies in June.
Stock Truck
I was still not comfortable running the layout and my time showed it. I turned a 7:21 finishing in 5th, even with applying what I learned from my buggy race (switching over to Holeshots and squaring up the step-up jump).
For round 2, I wanted to change the oil in all 4 shocks over to 30 wt ( I was running 25 wt), but I ran out of time, so I just changed over to 30 wt in my front shocks. I had a really good run in round 2! I turned consistent laps and made no mistakes! My laps were about 42 seconds, with one lap at 39.6! I finished in 2nd with a 8:34, seating me in 5th for the A main! Woohoo! I made the show! The stock truck mains would end up going to the D main.
By the time the stock truck A main came around, it was about 9 pm! It would be run under the lights, and when combined with the huge track and my bad eyesight, it was tough to judge the turns and my speed :( I had a decent start, holding my position until about halfway through the 1st lap, but I landed short on the huge double on the left side of the track, and ended up on my lid, while the entire field went by :( Then on the next lap, I got stuck behind a cone at the end of the back straight and it took forever for the marshal to notice me :( I tried to turn clean laps and catch back up, but most of the field was way out in front by now. I did manage to catch one truck and pass him! At least I didn't finish last and I was able to make the show! I ended up in 8th with a 8:15.
I should have better luck at the next 2 rounds of the JBRL, as the next race is at OCRC in 2 weeks, then Hot Rods Memorial Day weekend, where I have much more experience running :) This was my first time running off-road at Revelation and I will take what I learned here to the other loose tracks in the series.
See ya at the next race, the 3rd round of the OCRC Saturday Series, this weekend!
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