AZ vs CA, Round 2

Now it was Saturday 9/24/16. More guys showed up from AZ to club race at SDRC.

I spent the morning gluing up some fresh Electron rears and taking out the front aluminum bulkhead and brass weight I installed a week ago. Lol!  My laydown 22 3.0 was loose mid corner on power and I needed to make the car a little easier to drive. 

The track was still down on traction. I kept softening the rear spring rate every race, but the car wasn't getting significantly better. I also tried to break in the tires I mounted earlier, but even after a 15 minute run I was still sliding around!

I did manage to qualify 3rd this time with a 16:00 run. But I blew out in the main after crashing in the 2-2 section. 

I've swapped my front and rear pistons, trying to make the car easier to drive. So now I have 2x1.6 in the front and 3x1.4 in the back. All with 30wt TLR oil.  I also want to try the 25g brass battery plate which came with the conversion kit.  Oh, and I lowered the rear ball studs to the -1mm position.  Hopefully all these changes make the car easier to drive.  

AZ vs CA, Round 1

So.  A group from Arizona came out this weekend to race at SDRC this weekend. Round 1 would be Friday, 9/23/16. 

I decided to race Expert Stock Buggy with my B5m and Mod with my 22 3.0 with a 17.5 and dirt laydown conversion. I wanted to see which car could go faster!

Unfortunately the track was loose or dry or something else. Not consistent at all!  Making it difficult to compare performance between the cars. 

I finally turned a 17 in round 1 with the 3.0 at least!

I barely made the A in Expert Stock. I wasn't using the optimal tires though. I was just using up old sets I've had for awhile. 

I got into the back of another car on the start, so I waited for him to get going. But both of us dropped too far back at least I burned up some tires I wanted to toss?

Sunday practice?!?!

I went out to SDRC to hang out a few hours with my buddy and get some laps in. I also wanted to wrench on my 3.0 and covert the chassis over to a laydown gearbox. Yes. I finally caved and built a laydown gearbox car.  I'm even considering racing it in stock!

I ran some packs on my B5 and B4.1 to run with my friend. After he left I tore down my 3.0 and started to build my laydown buggy.

It was going smooth until I stripped a screw going into the delrin gearbox!  That thing was hard to get out since the threads were so tight in the delrin!  But now I needed a new oddball M2.5 X 10mm flathead screw :(. Luckily one of the guys in the shop has some spare 12mm long ones. A little bit of grinding and it was the right length. 

I need to get the motor and electronics I and I can race it Friday!

Heritage RC Park, Saturday 9/17/16

We headed back out to Heritage RC Park in Chula Vista for the next round of their club series. I would race my RC8 with my new 4S packs and and outdoor setup. I was running heavier oil and springs up front to make it easier to drive on a low traction surface. It was easy to drive, but I think it's now pushing some? Hahaha!  Maybe I should switch back to a softer front spring or stiffer rear sway bar?  I should probably increase my camber gain and reduce the droop some as I started flipping over due to catching bumps?

I finished 3rd in the 1st qualifier and 3rd in the 2nd qualifier.  I missed the A main by 2 spots :(. Oh well at least I may get to go home early?  Lol!

In the B main I was in the bump up spot when I got caught up in a lapped cars wreck.  I blew out after that. Lol!

Hmmm. I should also probably go back to a clip for the rear body mount. My Velcro let go due to my flipping.

Friday night racing?!? SDRC 9/16/16

I don't think I've raced on a Friday night since the winter. This is because I have to bring my gear with me to work and leave it out in my car during the day, and during the summer the temperature is just to hot for this. 

Luckily this past weekend wasn't too hot on Friday, so I decided to race. Also, I would be racing 1/8 buggy at Heritage on Saturday, but I still wanted to race stock buggy. So, Friday racing was on!

I qualified 2nd and finished in 2nd, but I still haven't been able to turn a 17 second lap :(. Time for a laydown stock buggy?

New layout!

SDRC built a new layout after Labor Day weekend and 9/10/16 was the 1st Saturday race on it.  The turnout was good with 8 heats for qualifying.  There were 3 heats of stock, 2 heats of expert, 2 heats of mod, and 1 of novice. 

This layout was fast!  Stock lap times were dipping into the high 17's!m

I decided to run my supersoft tires vs clay compound tires, as they were working well and I wanted to use them up. But, they seemed to start pushing about midway into the Main, which caused me to push wide and the 3rd place car to sneak by.  After making a few mistakes I ended up finishing in 5th.

Holiday weekend racing! Labor Day 2016

SDRC, Mod Buggy, Friday 9/2/16

Up first was mod buggy. I wanted to try out the new aluminum front bulkhead and brass kickup shim I installed. During practice I didn't notice too much of an increase in front grip. But during racing it did feel like there was an improvement.

I had a decent run in the main, finishing 2nd. But I really wanted the win, as most of the fast guys were at the Surf City race. 

SDRC, Expert Stock Buggy, Saturday 9/3/16

Next it was back to stock to prep for our trip to OCRC on Sunday. It's been a few weeks since I've raced stock and I needed to get the feel back before heading up north. 

Fred out qualified me!  He would start 2nd and I was right behind him in 3rd. I pressured him into a mistake during the opening laps and took over 2nd where I finished. 

Sportsman Stock Buggy, OC/RC Sunday   9/4/16

It was on now!  OCRC home of the fastest racers on SoCal!  I only had 3 runs to learn the SSC layout, but I was on pace with the locals, turning low 20 second laps.

I was the TQ after round 1!  But I dropped down to 3rd in round 2 after making an early mistake during my run.  I was still able to finish where I started, 3rd.  The SSC layout was fun to drive.  The left side had a nice flow to it.  Hopefully we can make another trip north soon.