Hot Rod Hobbies Offroad Shootout, Day 2

Day 2 was another day of open practice, but the 1st on the dry, grooved track! I got there at about 10am and proceeded to set up my pit and get to work mounting the 3 sets of JConcepts Orange Bar Codes that I bought (and they still need to be glued and balanced!) I didn't finish that until about 2pm! I had better get some track time as the track would be closed at 6pm for maintenance. I was able to get 2 runs on each of my cars (buggy, truck, and 4wd), so 6 runs total. They were handling good, but I had a slight on-power push with the buggy. I also still need to nail down the gearing, as my motors were running hot! (probably because my practice runs were about 7-8 minutes) I also need to figure out what profile to use on my new LRP SPX esc in my truck!

The layout is fun and challenging! Still working on getting the line up and timing right for the small and big triples The toughest part of the track is the hairpin at the top of the hill because your car disappears behind the pipe into a blind spot! Kinda makes it hard to judge the spacing to the pipe and when to turn in! I saw them fixing that before I went home though, so hopefully I can see my car there tomorrow :)

I had planned to get some video of the factory guys practicing, but I didn't have much free time :( Once I finished mounting my tires, I got in line to practice. Then I was either, working on a car, waiting in line on the driver's stand, or driving, until the track closed. I did manage to snap a couple of pics of some of the factory pits, as they were all right across from me!

Yokomo

Front-Murfdog Motoworks

Left-Kyosho

Then behind Kyosho was JConcepts and Associated

X-Factory

Hot Rod Hobbies Offroad Shootout, Day 1

This is a pic from the left side of the track during open practce for tonight's club racing. The track will be run wet, so I don't plan to race.

The next 2 pics I took in the morning over the fence before the track opened.

This is the right side.

This is the left side.

I plan to leave after watching some of the races and after the traffic dies down some. I'll be back in the morning to hopefully get some practice in on the dry, grooved track :) Oh ya, I also need to glue up a bunch of tires!

Here is a short vid of the layout that I shot using my cell phone.

OCRC Saturday Series, Mid-Series Recap

I've been running the OCRC Saturday Series, put on by OCRC Raceway. It's halfway done with round #5 coming up tomorrow and the final race on the last Saturday of July.

I did alright in round 1, making the A main in both Stock Truck and Buggy, qualifying 4th in both classes. I remember being really tired the entire day, since I didn't get much sleep the night before, and I had no coffee to wake me up in the morning. The only time I felt "awake" was when I was driving! LOL! I did really well in Stock Truck moving up from my 4th place qualifying position, and finishing 3rd :) I blew out in Stock Buggy though :( I got a bad start and made too many mistakes, finally dropping down to 6th.

Round 2 would be held at Hot Rod Hobbies, the only round of the series to be run at another track. I was able to make both A mains for Stock Truck and Buggy, but I was in the back of the pack (7th in Buggy and 6th in Truck). I finished each race where I started :( But, at least I made the A main.

Round 3 was back at OCRC, and was the last race of Block A. In the next 3 races (Block B), the points are doubled, so I wonder how the series positions will play out. Competition at this round was much tougher and I was only able to make the A main in Stock Truck, qualifying in the 7th position. I was in the B Main for Stock Buggy, qualifying near the bottom of the main :( I moved up 1 position in the Truck main, finishing 6th, while I was able to finish 3rd in Buggy (still the B Main though).

Round 4 would be the first race in Block B. I qualified really well in Stock Truck, getting the 3rd position on the A Main grid. My showing in Stock Buggy was not a good though, as I was near the bottom of the A main in the 6th position. In the Stock Truck A main, I held my starting position in 3rd, and was gaining on Brian Halverson in 2nd. I kept reeling him in, then he made a mistake in the big double-double jump in the center of the track, and I was able to jump over him into 2nd place! I held on till the end, finishing in 2nd :) I didn't have such a good result in the Stock Buggy main though, qualifying in the back, then finishing in the back :( Owell :(

So, after 4 rounds I'm sitting in 7th place in the points for Stock Buggy, with the Block A throwout. I'm doing much better in Stock Truck though! I'm currently 3rd in the points, only 2 points behind 2nd! Thus, I will be concentrating more on my Truck than my Buggy for the last 2 races of the series.

I will be heading out to OCRC to race the Club race tonight, to get some practice in for Saturday!

More action pics!

These are from Round 4 of the JBRL Series held at Pegasus Hobbies in Montclair :)

New charger!

I decided to replace my trusty CE Turbo35 charger with a more compact one to use at the track. While the Turbo35 works great, it's overkill. It's big because it has a huge heat sink and fan in the back to dissipate the heat created when discharging batteries and needs a 12v power supply, thus taking up a lot of room in my pit space. I will still use it at home to rate my LiPo batteries as it can measure average discharge voltage and internal resistance.

When looking for a new charger I wanted it to have a built in power supply and be capable of charging up to a 6S LiPo. The 3 chargers I considered were the Electrify EQ2. Hyperion EOS 0606i, and Muchmore Platinum Silent Charger. I picked the Muchmore charger as I already had an Electrify charger and wanted something different, and didn't like how the Hyperion didn't have a detachable DC input cord.

So far I've used it at the last OCRC Sat Series and JBRL race, and it's been working great! Easy to program and use. The only thing I don't like is that it takes forever to get up to the maximum charge rate, as it increases the amp rate at 0.1 amps every 20 seconds. So it takes nearly 18 minutes to reach a 5.0 amp rate. My CE charger reaches the max amp rate in less than a minute. I tested some batteries to see if this impacts its performance, but it doesn't seem to. The battery charged on the Muchmore charger had about the same IR and Avg discharge voltage, but about 144 mah less capacity or 26 seconds less run time, which doesn't make much of a difference anyway.