OCRC Blowout #2

Blew out at OCRC once again. A crash in the opening laps and I drop to last. I only mange to recover to 9th.

My car will get a shock and transmission rebuild, a few fresh parts, and some lube. Then it's back to racing at my home track SDRC!

The B4 returns!

Since my B5m was setup for OCRC, I decided to race my B4 at SDRC for Saturday club racing. 

I bought a hex conversion kit for it so I could run my dirt webs, but it didn't arrive in time for racing, so I searched through my pin/bearing wheels/tires for a decent set and ended up using some V2 gold Barcodes.  They were drivable, but twitchy when pushed hard.  I would start 3rd, got up to 2nd, but in the end I would drop to 6th. My car was just a touch loose and I couldn't push hard when chased.  Maybe I'm over driving?

OCRC Trip, Sunday, 9/21/14

We headed up north to race at OCRC since there was a "big" race going on at out home track on Saturday, which we did not want to run. 

The track changed a little since the last time I was here 3 weeks ago. Gone was the wagon wheel on the right side, replaced by a small double double, that really upset the car if you went in too fast or too slow.  This time I was able to consistently make the big triple in front of the drivers stand.  I think the difference was a new motor, better line up, and carrying my speed better over the double after the end of the straight.  I'm losing a lot of time though since my car feels tippy at the end of the straight and I feel like I have to slow down a lot to make sure I don't traction roll and end up on my lid. 

I managed to put in one decent run. A 13:05 in round 1.  This was much better than my last trip here where I could only manage 12 laps :(. In round 2 I tried to go  a little faster and ended up crashing more, turning a time 10 seconds slower than my round 1 time.  I managed to stay in the A main at least, qualifying in 7th. 

In the main I got an awesome start going from 7th to 4th!  But on lap 2 I got caught in a pileup in the new double double section dropping to 8th. Then on lap 3 I jump between the pipes on the double triple in the middle of the track and get stuck needing a marshal, and I drop to 9th. After that I blew out, crashing every few laps. Game over. Thanks for playing!

My only decent run

My blow out main

I'm going to try adding more limiters in my shocks and lowering the roll center front and rear. Hopefully the car won't traction roll so easily at the end of the straight and I can go a little faster there next Sunday. 

That's right!  We are going up north again  next weekend!

Slooow Mo!

Cool slow motion clips of my car negotiating the current layout at SDRC Raceway :)  Thanks Lance!

Stock Buggy, SDRC, Saturday 9/13/14

So my brother sets the TQ in round 1, then leaves. He keeps the TQ in round 2, since nobody can turn 15 laps.  I inherit the TQ spot, since I was qualified in 2nd.  I get a clean start and check out on lap 3 when the 2nd place buggy causes a small pile up. By the middle of the 7 minute main, I can see the new 2nd place car about a straightaway behind me.  I don't crash for the entire race, set the cruise control, and roll in for the win and $10 in race bucks :)

Stock Buggy, SDRC, Saturday 9/6/14

Whoa!  I only raced Saturday this past weekend!  Lol!

I changed my arm setup for this weekend. I had been using the gull wing front arms and tower paired with the twin ball rear arms for the past few weeks.  Decided to try the flat front arms and tower again, since that's what all the AE team drivers run. I paired these up with the single ball rear arms, thinking this is what the team drivers run. Apparently I was wrong, because I checked the setup sheets from the Nationals and they use the twin ball rear arms!  Doh!  Maybe I'll put them back on the car for next weekend. I've also been wanting to try 3x1.4 pistons in the front shocks with heavier oil, as this seems to be the setup the AE team guys are using.  On to the racing. 

I used my second set of rear gold dirt webs as my 1st was going bald. I paired these with some gold Barcodes, since the last time I raced on these rear tires the steering was too twitchy.  I won my heat putting in a 15 lap run, qualifying 2nd overall. 

For round 2 I decided to try my gripper front tires in an effort to go faster, sine my fast lap was still above 20.5.  Last time I tried these fronts the steering was twitchy so I decided to go up 1 spring rate also. It didn't pan out as the steering was still too twitchy and I ended up going slower for round 2.  I was able to keep my 2nd qualifying spot though!  For the main I decided to return to the front end setup I ran for round 1. 

In the main I completely blew out!  I got squirrelly in the 2nd turn, allowing the cars behind to catch me. Then contact after landing the center double sent me to the back of the pack and I started over driving :(  A bad landing on the next lap put me out of reach with the front of the field. I only managed to make my way back up to 7th after qualifying really well. I guess there's always next weekend !

At least I still hold the fast lap record for stock truck!

OCRC road trip! Sunday 8/31/14

I took some friends with me up to OCRC for some Sunday club racing, since neither of them have raced there before. The layout was the same as the Surf City Classic, which was held about a month ago.

This layout was difficult to get right every lap and very technical. It was also very bumpy in some spots, throwing the car around if you pushed too hard. It also had a big triple and a double triple, which a stock buggy could make, if you had no fear!  I found myself going double-single on the big triple and doing the double triple if I downsided the double well.

With only 3 practice runs and a difficult and technical layout to master, qualifying would be tough. Round 1 was a hackfest. I had a good run going in Round 2 until slower traffic screwed up my rhythm in the big triple and I jumped in between the pipes. Then a few laps later, again in slower traffic, I bounced onto the straight in the double triple, and ended up stuck where nobody saw me and had a nice 40 second lap :-/  I ended up qualifying 5th in the C main!

In getting ready for my C main, I was trying to replace my bent front bumper and failed to realize that I'd be in the 1st race. Thus I didn't charge my battery for the main!  I started charging it at almost 40A when I heard the call for the C main with about 5 minutes to go!  I was able to charge my battery for about 4 minutes, then rushed up onto the drivers stand, while my buddies buttoned up my car for me. No warm up laps for me!

I got an awesome start from 5th on the grid, taking the lead by the end of the 1st lap. I held it for a little while, but entered the wagon wheel a bit too fast, ending up on my lid and dropping to 2nd. I maintained 2nd (the final bump up position ) until about 90 seconds to go, when I crashed on the double after the straightaway. Oh well :(  Next time I guess. 

Oh ya!  OCRC doesn't use paper race results anymore. There are 2 touchscreens mounted to the wall where you can view your results. I don't remember if you can see your top 5 and 10 averages, but you can see the complete qualifying order for your class. I ended up getting my race results from Live RC instead. I guess they'll save a bunch if money on paper now.  I saw a picture of these screens during the coverage for the Surf City Classic, but thought it was just for that race, and not normal club racing. 

Our pit table at OCRC. 

My car all shiny after applying some SC1 Clear Coat to my body, wing, and plastic parts. It leaves a dry film to polish and protect the plastic parts. It's used on the plastic parts of full size motocross bikes to keep them nice looking. Seems to work great on RC cars also :)

Saturday Club Racing, 8/30/14

UI decided to race Stock Buggy and Stock Truck as a $50 gift card to PF Changs restaurant for the winner of Stock Truck was up for grabs!

I would end up qualifying 3rd in the Mod Truck class with my Stock Truck, but was the 1st stock truck. In Stock Buggy I qualified 2nd out of 2 heats total.

In the mod truck main I cruised in for a 2nd place finish, but finished 1st for stock truck, winning the $50 PF Changs gift card!  In the stock buggy main I got a clean start and maintained my 2nd place starting spot, but on the 2nd lap I got sideways coming onto the straight and dropped to 3rd. On the next lap, my car's rear wheel dug into the dirt upon landing the drop down after the straightaway, causing me to tumble, and I dropped down to 4th. I made no further mistakes for the rest of the race, but wasn't able to catch up to the 3rd place car, so I finished in 4th.

At least I won the $50 gift card in stock truck!

Nick and I with our winnings

Stock Buggy, SDRC, Friday 8/29/14

I decided to race Friday night again for the 2nd week in a row. I was mainly trying about another method to bring my gear to work, then head over to the track afterwards. 

I managed to qualify 4th in a class mixed with a few mod cars. There was also 3 heats of buggy again!  On Saturdays it's normally only 2 heats. I guess Fridays are more popular?

In the main I was running in second for the 1st half of the race, but got passed on the straight by one of the mod cars during the last 2 minutes, so I ended up finishing 3rd.