Saturday Club Racing, SDRC 2/22/2020

I return to racing after missing the last 3 weeks and the start of the 2020 Supercross Series due to a Gout attack in my left knee.  I wasn't able to stand, walk, or drive (full size) for 2 weeks!  This was also my first time on a layout at SDRC with 3 triples!

In heat 1 I finished in 6th!? with a 15:17, fast lap of 19.074, average lap of 21.134, and consistency of 87.40%.   I must've been rusty because I made a bunch of driving errors and crashed 3 times.

In heat 2 I finished in 7th with a DNF, fast lap of 20.997, average lap of 22.128, and consistency of 93.21%.   I DNF'd due to a stripped servo horn on my steering servo.  I guess I bounced off the pipes one time too many.

For the Main I qualified 6th and finished in 5th with a 14:07, fast lap of 19.660, average lap of 21.871, and consistency of 86.97%.  I would get up to 2nd for one lap, but promptly shorted the 3rd triple and went right back to last place.  If I was just able to drive without crashing I might have been able to hold that position.  I need to stop trying to go faster and get back to the basics of just not crashing!  I also forgot to start my GoPro, so I have no video of the race.  Doh!

From my 1 good race video of Heat 1, I could see my car bouncing upon flat landing which caused me to crash at least twice.  I also noticed my car bucking in some sections of the track.  I was too lazy to change shock oils at the track, since I wanted to learn the layout instead.  I was able to get 6 practice runs in!  Which is double what I would normally run.

At home when I dumped the shock oil out to change to thicker oil, I noticed that the front shocks had 1.8 mm hole pistons in them.  I thought I had installed 1.7 mm pistons in the front shocks when I built the car 2 years ago!  Sure enough I dumped the oil out of the rear shocks and it had the 1.7 mm hole pistons!  The front shocks are supposed to have the pistons with the smaller diameter holes in them! Doh!  So in addition to increasing the shock oil weight to 40/35, I also swapped the pistons rear to front, so that the 1.7 piston was in the front shock and the 1.8 piston was in the rear shock.  I must've checked it 4 times before reassembling the shocks and filling them with oil. LOL!

Hopefully now my car will be easier to drive and I'll be able to get a run in with no crashes or mistakes!

Tamiya Euro Racing Truck!

I picked up a Tamiya Buggyra Fat Fox Euro Racing Truck!  I found a deal on Tower Hobbies where I could pay only $42 per month for the kit, so I decided to get one and join the fun!

When I went parking lot racing last month this was the biggest class and it looked like a lot of fun!  So much so that I decided to get one that day, but I was waiting for the right deal, which came up on Tower earlier this month!

Next up is the build!  I think the body will be the toughest part.

Return to Parking Lot Racing! Discount Hobby Warehouse, San Marcos 1/26/2020

My friend Steve invited me to go parking lot racing with him at the Discount Hobby Warehouse in San Marcos.  The day started out very wet!  So we delayed the start an hour to let the pavement dry out!

Pit area setup on damp pavement.

My view for the day.

The track is open for practice!

Steve!

B5m lowered to about 15mm ride height.

Required numbers for hand counting!  I haven't been hand counted since the early 90s!

Miss you Rally! :(

No traditional race results were available and I really didn't care.  I had a good time racing for fun!  I TQd and won each race, with around 20-21 laps completed.  I still took video of all my races though!

Heat 1

Heat 2

Main Event

Taken out! Saturday Club Racing SDRC 1/25/2020

In heat 1 I finished in 3rd with a 15:01, fast lap of 18.814, average lap of 20.109, and consistency of 90.79%.  I was running fairly new Dirt Web fronts with worn in Ellipse rears and my car pushed going into turns and didn't rotate.

In heat 2 I finished in 3rd again with a faster 16:14, fast lap of 18.488, average lap of 19.670, and consistency of 93.95%.  This time I ran my new Raw Speed Stage 2/Radar tires.  My car rotated a bit too fast during warm up, so right before the start I turned my steering dual rate to 90%, which was probably too much.  It turned in and rotated good for the tight turns, but I wanted more steering in the bigger sweeping corners.

In the A Main I finished in 4th with a 15:09, fast lap of 18.189!, average lap of 20.162, and consistency of 83.71%.  Again I get a terrible start to the race, getting punted on my lid in the first corner.  Of course I get marshalled last and am now last.  I blow out on my first lap and crash or get out of shape a few more times because I am so pissed.  But on lap 3 I get everything right and turn my fastest lap ever on this layout, an 18.189!  I can't do it again though, but at least I turn a few more mid 18's when there's no traffic is nearby.  I pass 5th place on the last lap in the whoops, then crash, get stuck on the pipe, get off the pipe, then take out the leader, before making it back to line to claim 4th.  I finish 1 spot behind my 3rd place start position, but I had a horrible start and race.  If I had a clean start I might have been able to place in the top 3.

Trying out Raw Speed Tires!

I decided to try out some Raw Speed tires as I've heard from other non-sponsored driver that they are fast.  I went with Stage 2 4wd fronts and the new Radar rears, both in their White (Clay) compound.

Glue drying

Balancing the fronts

Done!

I run them in this direction (looking from the back).