Monday, July 27, 2015

Stock Buggy, SDRC, Saturday 7/25/15

No series race this past Saturday, but still a good turnout with 9 heats. The competition in stock buggy continues to get tougher every week, causing me to change my setup slightly all the time, looking for more speed. 

For this week I lowered my front roll center and raised the rear roll center, in hopes of more corner speed. I also increased my motor timing and changed the gearing, but I think I went too far as the motor made an awful screaming noise!  So I returned to my previous timing and gearing.  I also used my dirt webs instead of electrons, as I didn't want to put any wear on my "race" tires. I had a horrible push with new tires up front, so I switched to some older fronts with open cell foam.  These tires were better, but I still haven't gone faster than 18.7, while the fastest guys are in the low 18's to high 17's. 



I managed to qualify 5th, matching my best run of 16:13. 


I finished 5th after going to last in the 2nd  corner on the start, stuffing my car in the pipe and causing a pile up.  I got up to 4th at one point, but crashed trying to go faster and dropped back to where I started, 5th. 

Next Saturday is race #5 of 6 for the series. I'm thinking of adding a little drag brake or changing my trailing axle position or akerman to get a little more steering. 

Sunday, July 19, 2015

SDRC Summer Series Race #4, 7/18/15

Stock Buggy

This was my 1st series race with my new stock buggy.  Everything was basically new expect for the ESC!  I also had new power, a Fantom IONv5 Works Ed 17.5 motor (D4 short stack) and MurfDogg 4400mah shorty battery.  For round 1 I used some old dirt webs, which were fast, but my car was a touch loose.


For round 2 I used my Electrons.  I had more grip, but was a tad slower.

I ended up qualifying in the 6th spot in the A.  At least I was in the A, but I need to qualify in the top 5 to make sure I don't get bumped out.  I went with the Electrons again, figuring that the track would have less grip, by the time the Stock Buggy A is run, as it's always the last race of the night, and I wanted a car which was easy to drive.  My gamble paid off as I quickly moved up the grid as others made mistakes.  I eventually took the lead, but was taken out by the step up, when my car had a bad takeoff.  I didn't need a marshal, but the tumble allowed the 2nd place car by.  On the last lap I tangled with the leader when he shot out in front of me after crashing.  Luckily I only dropped to 3rd, but I really needed a win to move up in the points.

13.5 Truck

I've been working on the setup of my truck for a few weeks now and it's been getting better every time.  My last change was to stiffen up the shock oil, to keep the chassis from bucking.  It drove much better, but had a slight push on my Electrons.

I made a rear roll center change, taking out 1mm.  My fast lap dropped to a 19.0, but my race time was the same.


In the main, I followed Chim around for most of the race.  But, a roll over for him in the final minute allowed me to take 2nd.

Series Points after 4 races

Stock Buggy- I'm 3rd in the points.  I could really use a win, but everyone is so fast!

13.5 Truck- I'm also 3rd in truck.  I could also use a win in this class.

Monday, July 13, 2015

Return to OCRC

Since the TNS race was at SDRC Saturday, we decided to race Sunday 7/12, at OCRC.

I drove well, only making one mistake in each race, but that was enough to keep me out of the A.  I would end up BQ and win the B main, but didn't race the A, so we could leave a little earlier. 




Next weekend we head back to SDRC for race #4 of the Summer Series. 

Since my new car was pushing slightly, I want to try the following changes for the next race:

-front bulkhead weight
-0.5 deg rear motor rear hub insert for 2.0 deg rear toe in
-2mm front ball stud washer
-middle hole on rear shock tower
-0 rear ball stud washers


Wednesday, July 8, 2015

July 4th weekend racing

The summer series is off for a couple of weeks while the July 4th holiday and a TNS round replace series races on Saturday. So we had a normal club race the Friday night before the holiday instead. 

There was also a new layout to race on, which I'm not a big fan of, due to the inconsistent kicker and step up jumps, which have a very narrow speed window to hit them at without flipping over onto your roof. 

And everyone is getting faster in the stock buggy class, such that I ended up in the BQ position. A readjustment to my racing program is needed.