2010 JBRL, Round 7 Pegasus and Round 8 Hot Rod Hobbies- Finals!

Round 7, Pegasus

No comment.

Round 8, Hot Rod Hobbies

I struggled with a pushing truck for 2 of the 4 qualifiers. Then a loose one in the other 2. I end up starting 5th in the B main. I was in a good battle for 3rd with Keith Whisler (Product Manager for Losi) driving the new XXX-SCT! But, we crash off the step-off jump and drop to 4th and 5th then continue our battle. Unfortunately for me, my SC10 was really loose, due to a tire change I made for the main, and I couldn't find a place to make a clean pass on Keith. I end up finishing where I started, 5th.



I qualify 3rd in the B Main for Stock Truck after dealing with an overheating motor during qualifying. I also think I had too much push in my truck as during the main I would plow through the sweeper leading onto the straight. I almost lost 2nd place in the last turn on the final lap, when a lapped truck spins out in front of me and I tangle with it!

News:
I talked with Matt Murphy earlier this year about running his motors for this year's JBRL season, but he had some issues with stocking the new motors and getting approval from ROAR, so I put the idea on the back burner, and ran LRP motors instead. Well, he's got that all sorted out now, and he came by and showed me his new motors and let me know that his sponsorship offer was still standing and he wanted to know if I was still interested. I told him I was, but I wanted to think it over. Well, after a week of thinking it over, I emailed him last Friday, and now it's official! I will be running Murfdogg motors in upcoming races! I will be joining current Super Stock drivers Josh Mitchell, Brent Bissbee, Kevin King, and Brent Calvert. As well as Stock drivers Brian Halverson and Chris Wesson. I look forward to working with Matt and all the guys in the upcoming season!

Notes:
-Subrub MX's are really loose on Hot Rod's dry track, as I found out during my main! They were also hard to drive during the Shootout. I had been running M3 Bowties, since I tried them during practice on Friday (since I was running low on tires) and they worked pretty well and lasted a long time.
-I tried running the RTR front tires on my SC10 in rounds 2 and 3 of Int SC qualifying, since at the Shootout my SC10's steering was way too twitchy. These tires worked decent in the infield, but pushed way too much coming onto the straight! I tried moving my battery all the way forward for round 3, but it still pushed. So, for round 4, I went back to my M3 Bowtie fronts, which worked really well. I wish I stayed on them for the main, but they were a little loose, so I changed over the the MX Suburb, which was a mistake.
-My stock truck motor was running hot all weekend! Around 190-200F every run! It also felt down on power. I should have put a heatsink on it right away, instead of changing my boost or gearing. I even went to another motor for the main, a V2 Speed Passion, which alway ran cool in the past (below 160F). But even this motor temped at 190F after my 5 minute main! I hope my new Murfdogg motors run much cooler!
-This was also the 1st time I was running my T4.1 at Hot Rod. It had a small push in it the entire weekend, which I think was slowing my lap times by half a second or so. I plan to re-mount the front shocks all the way in on the tower and arm and maybe change to a silver spring.
-I also switched over to a Tekin RS speedo for my new B4.1 buggy, since Matt suggested that I run that speedo with his motors. If I like it, I may change all my the speedos in my cars over.

2010 JBRL, Round 6, West Coast RC

After a not so good start from the back (that seems to happen to me often), I make my way up to 4th and finish 5th.



I just make it into the A main, and cruise around the track at the back of the pack. The track was loose, but it was only watered 2 races before mine. Traction should have been good, but the dirt dried really fast! My truck also gets nearly stepped on as I try to drive around a pile up on the 1st lap. Why can't marshals wait for traffic on the move (which has the right of way) to go by before getting the stuck car, which is what you're supposed to do anyway! Basic Guide to RC Car Turnmarshaling


Stuff:
-I kept changing tires in both classes, trying to pick the right ones for the conditions. For SC, the track was wet, which was different from club racing, which was only damp to dry, so I used different tires. I should have stayed with the same set as club racing :( For truck, in qualifying it was dry then I thought it would be wet for the main, so I ran different tires from qualifying. Again, I should have stayed on my tires from qualifying :( Next year I guess...
-Don't set your V2 slipper really tight, as it is capable of stripping your idler gear, as I found out.
-I'm having a tough time setting my V2 slipper correctly as my motor is cogging under the high load of setting it via the "wheelie" test. I picked up some new senors for my X12's and some new wires. Hopefully one of these takes care of the problem, otherwise it's back to AE.
-Turned in my best runs in round 1 for both classes. For round 2 in SC I got the tires wrong, and was slipping and sliding my way through the race. I couldn't push at all! Then in Truck, I got the tire choice right and pushed way too hard and crashed too much :(
-I've been sucking at starts all year! I'm way too conservative! I try to freight train the 1st lap, while everyone else sends it in and makes as many passes as possible. I always end up in last place and on my lid. So, for the next JBRL round, I'm sending it in deep! And as Jimmy said at the Shooutout
"incidental contact on the start and opening laps is going to happen". I have been on the receiving end of this too long and will be dishing some out the next round.
-My motors have been running really hot lately. 160 in practice then 170-190 during racing. I think I may have to gear down, going back to an 87 spur again, leaving the boost and pinion the same.

Oh, and here are my brother's races. He did the exact opposite of me as he wasn't chasing tires every round. He just ran the same set every run. He qualified 2nd in Rookie and 4th in Spec SC. Then won Rookie and almost got 2nd in Spec SC, but finished in 4th. Way to go! I should have done what he did and stay on 1 set of tires once racing started :(

2010 Surf City Classic

Stock Truck- With only 1 heat, we all made the A! But, with awards only going to the top 3, the battle was on to qualify high. I ended up starting in 7th, then moved up to 5th after chasing him down and pressuring him into a mistake.


Pro 2- This class was much more difficult to make the A in as a bunch of factory guys were running this class. In fact, I was in the C main after round 1, but stepped it up in round 2 to qualify 6th in the B. I would finish in 5th after being run over on the start and chasing down the 5th place truck and getting by on his mistake.

Here some vids of my brother's mains.

Amateur Stock Buggy- He was able to get the TQ, but a run in with a marshal's leg, allowed 2nd place to sneak by into the lead. He was right behind him though after a mistake, but then bobbled and crashed multiple times on the next lap, dropping him way behind. He would finish in 2nd.


Amateur Stock Truck- He started the A main in 4th and after a few wild opening laps, started to battle for the lead! He closed on the leader every lap, eventually ending up right behind him in the closing minutes of the 10 minute main. The leader made a mistake here and there, but he was not close to take advantage of it. I was coaching him through the race whenever I saw that he was making mistakes and got really into it! He was right behind the leader on the last lap, but no mistakes from the leader or an opportunity to make a pass, left him in 2nd place.

Here are some vids of the Mod mains.

This was an awesome race! Dustin Evans had TQ'd, but Cav was right on his tail the entire race! Finally, in the last minute, Cav put the pressure on and Evans made a small mistake coming onto the straight, allowing Cav to get by and pull away, taking the win!

Again, and awesome race! This time Cav and Tebo battled, with Tebo making a pass in the sweeper on Cav, when he went a little wide during the 1st half of the race.

Random thoughts:
-I had a good time at this race. Unlike the JBRL races, which have turned into hackfests lately.
-I was playing around with my diff and slipper settings and ended up with a really loose diff and slipper, which worked pretty well.
-I was running 5 boost for qualifying, then turned it down to 4 for the 10 minute main.
-The track started out really loose on Friday, but by Sunday, it had blue grooved and traction was insane! Saucing only the rear tires worked really good in round 2, when the groove was forming.
-Saw 2 Novak Kinetics die during the weekend.
-The winner of stock truck was running a 13.5, as they had no other class to put him in.
-I ran a weird tire combo in Pro2. Soft AKA Wishbones up front and MC Suburbs out back. Seemed to work good.

Shootout! Videos!

Here are the videos of some of my races from the Shootout :)



















These are some of the other races that I was able to record.

2010 JBRL, Round 3, Hot Rod Hobbies and Round 4 Pegasus Hobbies

Wow! I haven't done a JBRL update in a while! So, I will just do a quick recap of what I remember from each class at each round. Luckily I have videos though :)

Round 3, Hot Rod Hobbies

I turned 2 fast runs in qualifying for stock truck and 2 slow runs in short course! The key to going fast was clearing the big triple in the middle of the track. It was really impressive to clear it every lap, which I was able to do, thanks to my new SXX-SS and LRP X12 17.5, which I was racing with for the 1st time that weekend :)

I qualified 4th in the A for Stock Truck and almost last in the C for SC! This was the highest up the A I have qualified this year and the lowest in a class! LOL! I ended up in the C, due to the fact that my truck kept blowing over on the bigger jumps on the track and killed my time :( I destroyed the competition in the SC C main and bumped into the B main, where I finished someplace in the middle. In the Stock Truck A, I get caught up in the 1st lap mess and instantly drop to last?!

-Need to get better at race starts from the middle. I always get screwed! Or qualify higher up!

-Ran different tires every round for stock truck. Used orange bar codes, new orange bar codes, then blue bar codes for the main, as it was already night time and the track temperature had dropped a ton.

Round 4, Pegasus

I got a horrible run in round 1 in SC, then a decent one in round 2, but was only able to qualify in the "BQ" position, otherwise known as "You would've made the A if we weren't running bump-ups" position. I ran away with the lead on the start of the B main, and easily bumped into the A, where I made up a few positions on the start. I was running around in 8th I think, then get "passed" in the next to last corner on the last lap.

In Stock Truck I put in a fast run in round 1, where I almost took the TQ, if it wasn't for a tangle on the last lap that cost me some time. In round 2, the track was dry and got much faster, but I wasn't able to throw down a fast time and dropped down to 6th in the A main. Of course in the A main, I drop to last on the 1st lap, then end up finishing in 8th again :(

-The track was much better than I remember last year. Much smoother and got faster when it dried some.

-Need new rear tires for each run to go fast! :( When's the next indoor race again?