JBRL Finals!

The final round of the 2009 Electric JBRL Series was held the 2nd weekend of October at the JBRL's home track, Hot Rod Hobbies. I was in the top 10 in the series points in the Stock Buggy and 4wd Super Stock classes, and a chance to break into the top 10 in Stock Truck, with a little help. The guys in front of me would need to have some really bad luck for me to advance though :(

The weekend before my brother and I headed up to Hot Rod for some practice during the Saturday night club race, as the finals were a 2 day event, meaning no chance for me to practice and learn the layout the day before. Plus, I prefer to learn the track ahead of time (if possible), rather than the morning of the race. The morning of the race, I like to take a warmup run to test setups or work on my line.

The Saturday night club race wasn't really a race to me. It was more of a "timed practice", as I wasn't trying to gain positions or race anyone. All I wanted to do was get comfortable with the layout and try and improve my line. I think I finished 2nd in round 1 and 3rd in round 2. I qualified 3rd for the main and finished 4th due to a horrible start.

The JBRL finals were the next weekend, taking place over 2 days, with 3 rounds of qualifying on Saturday and 1 round and the mains on Sunday. This would also be my first race where I would stay overnight in a hotel! In all my years racing, I've always lived close enough to the track, that I didn't need to stay at a hotel. But since I'm living in San Diego now, the 2+ hour drive early in the morning was a bit much, thus I booked a hotel room. I drove up from SD Friday nite after work, ariving at the hotel around 10pm. I checked in and got settled in my room, as I would need to be at the track around 5:30am, since I haven't saved a pit yet, and I wanted to get there early and secure a spot. I lucked out and got the spot in the corner right before the gate to the offroad section of the track. This was the same spot I pitted in during the last JBRL race at Hot Rod. I took a warmup run with each car, running about 10-12 minutes to maxamize my practice time. I wasn't worried about my motors overheating, since it was pretty cold in the morning anyway. After practice I headed up to the cafe for some breakfast, then got ready for racing.

Stock Buggy was up first, like always, and I was in the 1st heat! I hate being in the 1st heat :( I managed to put in a good run though, finishing 3rd (I think) and was still in the A after both heats of stock buggy had run. The next 2 rounds would be a struggle though, as the track got faster. I was bumped out to 1st or second in the B after the 3rd round :( I had one more chance to bump back into the A, in the 4th round of qualifying, the next day. The key to going fast was to make the big triple on the backside of the track, as going double-single, was about 0.5 second a lap slower. Thus, during the morning warmup, I attempted to triple every lap, for my entire run. I wanted to see if my battery could provide enough power to triple for 6 minutes, and I was able to do it for 10 minutes! This gave me the confidence to triple for the entire qualifying run, since I needed to do it to turn a fast time and bump back into the A.

I was a little nervous in round 4, but after a lap or 2, I settled in. I was running in 3rd, on a pace to place me in the A! I was driving clean and making the triple consistently! You needed to turn a fast 17 or an 18 lap run to bump in, and I finished in 3rd with a 17:01 run! Woohoo! That run put me in the A :) I knew I didn't have a chance of placing in the top 5 in the main, so I did my best to pass as many cars as I could, and after starting 8th, I finished in 7th. After the points were added up for the season, I finished 8th in Stock Buggy in my rookie year in the JBRL. I was happy to make the top 10 after 8 races with some of the fastest racers in Southern California :)

Stock Truck was my biggest class with 3 heats. I don't remember as much about this class, but I do remember being on the bubble in the A after 2 rounds of qualifying, then getting bumped out in round 3. During the Sunday morning warmup I tried to triple again with my truck, and again I was able to do it consistently! :) I would need to put in a killer run in round 4 to bump my way back into the A. It wouldn't happen though, as I kept casing the triple during my qualifying run :( I must have crashed there 2-3 times also, and the crashes killed my run :( I kept going for it as I had nothing to lose anyway! ha! I realized afterwards that the pack I ran in the 4th round must not have the punch that the pack I ran during warmup has, thus I saved that pack for the main! I ended up qualifying 3rd in the B main :( In the main, I got hit from behind after the triple, on the 1st lap, dropping back down to near last :( I drove like a crazy man to make my way back up the order, as again, I had nothing to lose, and it was the last race of the season! I was turing clean fast laps and making the triple :) moving up the order fast. I made it back up to 2nd! Hey! Maybe I have a chance to bump into the A! I pushed even harder, and ended up crashing on the triple at least once. But the leader made a few mistakes also, and I closed the gap some. I think I got to within 2 sections, maybe half a straightaway, of the leader, but ran out of time :( No bump up :( Placed 2nd, but it was the B, so no trophy :( Season done! lol! I wasn't able to make the top 10 in the season points :( I was close though, finishing in 12th.

At home I tested my buggy packs (Reedy 5000mah 35C) against my truck packs (SMC 4700mah 40C) to compare the internal resistance rating (ie punch). The Reedy packs were at about a 6 and the SMC's were around 14! No wonder I didn't have as much punch! The lower the IR rating the better the punch. Also, the SMC pack that I used in the 4th round had a little higher IR than my other SMC pack. I guess you can't really compare C ratings between manufacturers... I want to try the new SMC 5200 50C packs though, and see how the IR compares to my Reedy's.

In 4wd Super Stock, I was in the A every round of qualifying (I had better be as there were only 13 cars!), so no drama there. I was also using my new Thunder Power 5400mah 40C saddle pack batteries for the 1st time as my Track Power 4800 20C's had puffed cells :( I really like the new batteries! Lots of punch and run time! I always like driving my B44 as it has tons of traction, steering, and punch! It's easy and fun to drive fast! Too bad the 4wd club racing scene has died off :( I wanted to run 4wd some during the off season too :( I qualified 7th I think in the main, but had a great start and was running in 3rd for a 1st half of the race. I wasn't turning super fast lap times though, and eventually got passed :( I tried to keep them behind me, but they were too quick for me... I dropped back down to 6th by end of the race. I also finished in 8th for the season in 4wd :) I wish I had placed higher though, as there weren't as many drivers in this class.

For next year I want to run Stock Buggy and Truck again, as there will be no sponsored drivers allowed in Stock classes next year. Will I be able to make the top 5 this time? Also, I'm not sure if I will run 4wd again or even a 3rd class. It's a lot of money to run 3 classes if you add up all the tires and parts I would need, plus I'll also need to pay for a hotel room for almost every race, as I'll be coming up from San Diego now. I also just built an SC10, so maybe I'll run the Stock SCT class if there even is one... Who knows?

Looking forward to the 2010 season and the 2-day season opener at West Coast :) Hopefully my brother will run the JBRL next year with me, racing in the Rookie class :)