West Coast RC Supercross, Round 1

Last Sunday was Round 1 of the West Coast RC Supercross! This is the first series to be run in 2010 and I guess a bunch of racers were looking forward to it, because when I arrived at the track at around 11am, the parking lot was packed! I had to park in the next lot over! The track was just as packed! I set my pit up on some new tables that were installed, since the main pit area was pretty crowded.

I got ready for my 1st practice run and was about to head over to the track when it was announced that controlled practice would be starting in a few minutes! Oh well :( I would need to wait until my class was up now... I took the time to look at the track, since the jumps were changed from last week. The large double-doubles were changed to single-tables, the center kicker was now an angled quad, and the small table and double-doubles were super sized!

The jumps were not that difficult, except for the quad in the center. Since it was angled compared to the drivers stand, if you centered up in the lane, you end up jumping into the inside pipe in the landing area. The fast line is to clear the quad, taking off pointed away from the stand (compared to the lane, but parallel to the straight) and landing lined up for the left turn to the table top. There were also 2 blind spots, due to the height of the jumps. The first was behind the 1st jump after the sweeper, then again after the large table top lander before the quad. If you downside the table, you land in the blind spot, or you can jump long, clearing the "hole", but the landing is hard on the car :(

I was also still trying to figure out the right gearing for my Murfdogg motor running P8 on the SPX. I had been overheating every run last Sunday, so I kept dropping my gear ratio. When I temp'ed my motor after my 6 minute practice run, it was about 196°F!!! Still too hot :( Then while gearing the truck down again, I noticed a "notchy" feeling from the motor. I figured something must be wrong now, maybe a bad bearing? I pulled the motor out and disassembled it. To my surprise I found a chunk of the rotor magnet missing and black dust all over the inside! I must have damaged the rotor when I took it apart for cleaning a few weeks ago :( I checked the shop for a replacement rotor, but they didn't have any. I opted to install my Orion motor, using the gearing I was about to install. I was at a huge disadvantage now, since changing the motor caused me to miss a practice round and there was only 1 more left. It would be impossible to set the correct gear now with only 1 run :(

I headed out for another practice run, trying to drive at full speed, in order to get the correct motor temp after 6 minutes. When I pulled off, my motor temp was only 130°F. I was wayyyy under geared! So, for round 1, I went up 2 teeth on the pinion. Time to clean the tires and look over the truck and get ready for racing....

Round 1 sucked! I got a horrible start, ending up on my lid in the first jump section, which allowed the entire field to go by, and finally got going again in last place. I drove fast, trying to make up time, and made my way back up to 3rd, when a bad landing on the quad, ended with a broken rear arm :( Hmmmm.... maybe I should have stayed home.... When I checked out the damage, I had lost the hub carrier hinge pin, which is titanium :( I went over to the landing area to try and find the pin, when I noticed a shiny piece of metal. Found my titanium hinge pin :) While changing out my rear arm, friend and fellow RC blogger, Kevin Deselms, came over for some help. He said he was having trouble with the slipper or diff, since his SC10 seemed to have no power. We went over to his pit to look over his truck. I checked the diff and slipper, and both were set correctly. No broken drive pins or stripped wheels... I asked him to power up the motor and saw that it was stuttering/cogging really bad when he punched the throttle. Ah! There's the problem! I checked out the sensor wire, and it looked ok, so I advised him to try a different wire, motor timing sensor, another motor, then if all else fails, another esc. I needed to get my truck repaired for the next round, otherwise I would've stayed and helped more. Sorry Kevin.

I got the truck back together and got ready for round 2. Since I didn't get a full run, I had no motor temp data, and left my gearing the same. Unfortunately, I was still under geared, as I was having a tough time clearing the center quad consistently. I also made a bunch of mistakes, which, put me in a battle for 2nd with Kevin Williams, as I couldn't pull away. It was fun, but slowed my qualifying time :( I went for an "air" pass on the last lap, to try for 2nd, but clipped the pipe on the takeoff and did a cool barrel roll and flip! LOL! At least I didn't break anything :) My motor still came off at 130°F, way too cold, so I went up 3 more teeth for the main, to an 81:23 ratio.

I qualified 5th for the A Main, which meant I would need to be really careful on the start, and not get tangled up, to have any chance of finishing well. I had an killer start! The 2 cars in front of me had issues in the 1st jump section, and I passed them to move up to 3rd in second jump section. The leader Bill Koch, went double-double through the quads, Brian Halverson in 2nd did the quad, but got sideways on the landing, allowing me to slip by into 2nd, through the table top and double-double, going onto the straight. Woohoo! Up to 2nd after starting 5th on the 1st lap. I tucked in behind Bill, hoping to keep close enough for a pass. He was going double-double in the quads, while I was clearing them, allowing me to make a little time on him, but a few other mistakes on my part allowed him to pull away some. But, lapped traffic and mistakes from Bill allowed me to catch back up. Then at the 2 minute mark, Bill got tangled up with traffic in the quads. I cleared them and drove by Bill as he was trying to recover. Into the lead! I turned on the after burners to pull away! A few laps later when I saw I had a 5 second lead, I took it easy through the quads, going double-double, when I wasn't sure I could clear them. I drove clean for the next 3 minutes, taking the win, and 100 points in the Supercross Series! :) I am now tied with Bill for the points lead for the series, since he still finished 2nd and got the 1 point TQ bonus.

Check out he YouTube vid of the race!



Others~
-Got a sneak peak at the new Murfdogg motor. It looks to be based on the new Orion tear down. How did Halverson get one? Is he still sponsored by Murfdogg? Or is he a "special" customer? I'd like to be a "special" customer :) I guess i'll have to hit up Matt for a new motor the next time I see him at the track.
-Used MC Proline Suburbs with JConcepts foam for the 1st time. They worked good! Needed to replace my JC Barcodes that I've been using since May of last year! Those tires were starting to feel a little loose, but still show no signs of wear, other than the fact that the bar height on the rears are lower than the fronts.
-I really hate the blind spots on the track. Thankfully the layout will be changed for the last 2 races of the series.
-Got a new rotor for my Murfdogg this week. Back to square one on trying to figure out the gearing for this thing when using P8 on the SPX.
-Ran my SMC 50C 5200's for the 1st time last Sunday. They have good power, and I should be ballistic, once I figure out the right gearing...
-LRP is releasing an SXX Stock-Spec controller with independent adjustment of timing boost and throttle curves. Hmmm... I wonder if I can sell my SPX's and Spheres? Dan/Justin are you guys reading this? :)
-I did a small "whip" on the finish line jump at the end of my victory lap :) Did anyone see it in the vid?

Time to get ready for Round 2 of the Supercross! Need to install my Murfdogg back in the truck and reset the gearing. I think I'll start with 81:26 or 75:24, a 3 teeth higher ratio than what I was running in the main last Sunday. Not sure which one of those combos will mount up right, as I prefer to run smaller spur gears to keep the motor forward and so I don't need to use large pinion gears. I also want to get to the track when it opens at 10am this time, to get more practice runs in before the track fills up and controlled practice starts.

See you there!