Paul's Wyoming R/C Racing Blog

SWRC Opening Weekend

2010-05-11T11:41:00.000-07:00

My Traxxas Slash finally made its debut on dirt this past weekend. Local Riverton Racer Nic Watts and I headed down to Rock Springs to participate in the opening weekend of the Sweetwater RC Club racing and their points race. For a club race, it was outstanding with door prizes given away to all entries into the Short Course Point Series classes. Nic's name came up 3rd and he got a set of Pro-Line Bow Tie tires. My name came up 5th and I picked up red aluminum shock caps for my Slash. They plan to continue to have door prizes during every club race this season. So really, if the drive is close, you should consider visiting!

This year, SWRC added a new dirt track geared specifically for 1/10th style racing. They now have two tracks, a 1/8th track that is roughly 150x100 feet in size. (IT'S BIG!!) and a 1/10th track that looks to be around 80x50 or so. Give or take.

The normal crew of guys I like to run with down there were all entered in the stock class, but Nic was only setup to run in the open class. I decided to follow Nic and run in the open class as well. For the first two qualifiers, I ran my RTR gear in my slash, while slowly working on getting my brushless system setup. Even with my RTR gear I was able to qualify in 3rd. I should have had 2nd place wrapped up, but coming down the straight on the final lap, I got to throttle happy and spun out losing the ground needed to move up to 2nd place.

For the main, I had managed to get a brushless system up and running. I used a GTB ESC and an LRP x12 13.5 motor. I started off poorly on the land rush start, ending up near the back as I banged my way through. On the first lap I found myself in 4th place. Within a couple of laps I managed to work myself up to 2nd, but due to some driver brain issues fell back to 4th again. Once again, I worked my way to 3rd where I held onto it the rest of the race. Unfortunately a bobble on the last lap prevented me from getting through the timing loop by one second, otherwise I would have finished in 2nd place, as the 2nd place car had Thermaled about 20 seconds before the end of the race.

The new track is very friendly on the cars, a little dusty and dry, but hopefully they can get some sugar on it to help bring the traction levels up in the near future. Until next time! Keep the wheels down!

Paul

Colorado Carpet Challenge

2010-05-07T08:59:00.000-07:00

In Mid-April I attended my second carpet trophy race in as many months. The CCC is hosted in Denver by the Colorado On-Road Racing Club. (CORRC). They have a permanent facility which makes for quite a different environment than racing in Billings. There track is smaller, but the traction is much higher. Additionally, while Billings is primarily a 1/12th Scale race with some TC thrown into the mix, Denver is primarily a TC track with a little of 1/12th thrown in.

This was my first race with a Tekin RS Pro ESC in my Touring car. Wow does that thing have rip! Unfortunately for me, I only had one, so I had to make a choice and chose TC over my 1/12th car. I also ran in VTA with my Losi XXX-S.

In 1/12th, we ran Super Stock (13.5) Motors. As it turned out, my car was at its best in the first round and went down hill from there. My 1st heat was my fastest and each heat after that I progressively got worse. I continued to work on my car, and finally manned up and asked Brian Wynn who was sitting across from me for advice. Upon his suggestion, I took out camber in the front. This helped, but caused my car to push in the main. Thus I continued my downward spiral in the class.

In Touring Car, I had car issues all weekend long. During the second qualifier I blew out my servo. I limped through it the third qualifier and changed it out that evening. I thought my car was in excellent shape and ready to go. In the LCQ on Sunday, I hit the track running, only to still have handling issues.As a result I was in the C Main, but not in last at least! I did learn a lot about tuning a car during this event though. Unfortunately in the main, I did even worse. My front spool came loose so my car went very inconsistent in the race. But I still managed to finish where I started and didn't finish in last! Woohoo.

In VTA, we had a stacked group of cars. My car had constant rollover issues all weekend long. I finally managed to get it solved before the LCQ when the unthinkable happened. I crashed into the boards and sent my battery flying down the track. My much improved run was thrashed there thus I was relagated to the 11th out of 13th spot in VTA. (All 13 cars ran in the main). In the main, I dove to the inside, but was flipped up and over the railing on my lid. So by the time I got righted, I was already 3/4 of a lap down. I managed to make my way back up and finished in 9th place by the end of the day. Overall, my car still had traction rolling issues that I'll need to work on solving the next time I visit a high traction carpet track.

Overall the CORRC group put on a nice event. It was well organized and ran quickly. I was surrounded by quite a few drivers that had won their fair share of nationals or competed in world events as well. That was quite interesting.

Next up I will be heading down to Rock Springs to race in their Season Opening Club Race. For this one, I'll only be racing Short Course, as my other battery will be borrowed by Nic to run his new Kyosho Ultima SC truck as well.

Cya,
Paul

Mains from the 20th Magic City Classic

2010-04-07T13:53:00.000-07:00

Well it's time for the mains... Since they were running bump ups, they ran all the B Mains first.

B Main Stock Touring Car
I had qualified 4th in the B Main out of 7 cars. The car was quite a bit better, and I ran quite well by my own standards. I started off in 4th place, and by the 2nd lap dropped down to 5th. From there I never really had any major issues, a couple of bobbles that would cost me 2 or 3 seconds on a couple of laps, but i held onto 5th place quite well, finishing 7 seconds behind 4th, and several laps head of 6th and 7th place. Overall, I learned quite a bit on working on my Touring car through the weekend and came away quite satisfied with the car. Additionally, I had finally found the appropriate gear ratio for the track's speed. a 56 tooth pinion gear! Wooo

B Main 1/12th Super Stock
My motor was still cool after the 4th qualifier, so i geared it up even more. I had qualified 2nd in the B main out of six cars. To have a chance to bump up I needed to finish in the top two. The race started off and I started off in 2nd place and held it for the first few laps. Then I was caught and passed by the eventual winner. I maintained 3rd place for quite a bit longer, but eventually fell to the 4th place spot. The 5th and 6th place cars were out of the race, so I was effectively running in last place. However as the rain came along, both the 2nd and 3rd place cars started losing their grip. My car was keeping the same level of grip and runing the same lap times. I hunkered down and after spending 5 laps in 4th place, I managed to make the pass and move into 3rd place. That car's laptimes went from 11 seconds to 15+ seconds per lap as his traction completely went away. Spending 4 more laps in 3rd, I caught back up to second place while he was on his lid and made the clean pass to move into 2nd place. The 3rd place car eventually crashed out, and I was able to catch up to the rear of the 4th place car. At this point, I relaxed my driving, and waited for him to make a mistake. When he did, I made the easy pass, and cruised for a nice solid second place finish. I managed to qualify into the A Main.

On a note, I believe I was the only one running the GTB ESC. My car had the slowest lap time by almost a full second. Yet because my car's handling was so dialed, I was able to run a consistent 8 minutes bumping myself into the A Main.

A Main US Vintage Trans Am
This race I was a bit nervous for. My car was still traction rolling, and I was having issues all weekend with it. The competition was much greater, and a few guys were flaunting the rules and running boosted Speedos. They inverted the starting order, and since I had qualified in 8th place, that meant I was starting 3rd on the grid. When the tone sounded, I punched the throttle out of the Lemans starting style and managed to get inside position on both the 1st and 2nd place cars. As we continued through the lap, I was able to avoid any contact and made it through unscathed. By some surprise I even managed to lead the first lap, even though i knew it wouldn't last. The TQ running his boosted Tekin was already in second place. I let him by and was in 3rd place on the second lap. That next lap I crashed and dropped to 7th place. I was running strong in that position, and eventually caught the 6th place car sticking a pass on him. I was holding it for quite a few laps with him on my tail. However, I couldn't hold it and with about a minute and a half left in the race, I wrecked letting him by. I managed to hold onto the 7th place spot, improving over my qualifying spot by one position.

A Main 1/12th Super Stock
I was a bit worried about this main. I only have a single pack for my 1/12th and had to throw it on the charger immediately after my b-main. Then while packing up my gear, my wife accidentally unplugged my charger. It was only off the charger for about 5 minutes, but that made me worry even more. Luckily due to a couple of track delays, my battery was charged in time, and I made it out on time to start in the 10th and final position. Knowing that I was in last place, I knew there would be a pileup in the first turn. So I didn't bother to hit the guns when the tone sounded. Instead I stayed as close to the inside pipe as possible and avoided most of the carnage. However, I did get tagged by a car pulling in on me and hitting me in the side. I was able to keep moving and had moved up to the 5th position on the first lap. On my second lap though, I bobbled, going back to 8th position. I eventually worked my way up to 7th place, then 6th for a lap, then I got myself into 5th place for a lap. I then got into it with one of the leaders a bit (Sorry Mario!) and dropped back to 7th, and then 8th. I worked by may back to 7th, then 6th place. Unfortunately it all went downhill here. I wrecked in the corkscrew with my closest marshall 3 lanes of traffic away from my car. By the time he got to me, I was in 10th place and basically out of the running. I drove the car hardand with about 30 seconds to go in the race, the 8th place car had a bad crash that left him out for quite a while. I was able to get back into 9th place where I would finish the race.

Overall the car ran well. Again my car was the slowest of the group, but outside of the lead pack, my car had the least amount of fall out thus I felt that I had I been able to avoid the long marshalling issue, I probably could have made a decent run at a Top 5 finish. As it stood out, I was part of a mix of 6 cars on the same lap at the end.

As always the Billings crew put on an excellent event. I had a lot of fun, and learned quite a bit. This was the first time in a long time that I had to spend so much time working on the setup for a car. I learned a lot by doing that, and I hope to take the success to my next race.

My next race will be the Carpet City Classic in Denver Colorado. I hope to see some of you there.

20th Magic City Classic

2010-03-15T14:29:00.001-07:00

In what is starting to become an annual tradition, Katy and I went up to Billings for the Magic City Classic On-Road Carpet race. This year's event was just as good as last years. More competition, but fewer drivers. The bright note for me, was that they didn't do the short track oval racing this year, which made the day go by much quicker.

Katy and I arrived Thursday to do some shopping. After helping the Billings economy we went out to MacKenzie River Pizza for dinner. Great place to eat! Friday morning, we did a bit more shopping until it was time to head to the track.

We arrived at the track around 3pm found a pit location and setup shop. I started getting out my gear when I realized that I didn't have enough 3.5mm bullet connectors. I ordered some from Stormer earlier in the week, but due to a brain camp, ordered 3 pairs, when I needed 4. Luckily just in case my Stormer order didn't arrive at the hotel... I had another set on hold with a local hobby shop, Central Hobbys. I ran over there and grabbed my spares. When I returned, my Trans Am was ready for the track since its battery was charged. This car had the same setup as last year and upon putting it on the track... it proceeded to handle like crap. I only sauced the rear tires for the practice, so I just assumed that was it. Nope the main issue turned out to be that I need to sauce my tires well before the event to get them softened up for the show. Lesson learned.

Next, my 1/12th car was ready for the track. It handled quite well, and I was worried that I was under geared. Online, I heard most people were gearing between 70 and 80 mm of rollout. I decided to start in the middle at 75.

I went to put my battery in my TC and I realized I had taken off the velcro strip. Without my battery wouldn't stay attached. So what we figured would be an easy fix turned into a 45 minute search as none of the drug stores and grocery stores in Billings carry Velcro. We managed to get to an office store that was still open (only for about 15 more minutes). Once we got back I put my TC on the track. My Touring Car likewise had all sorts of issues. It had to much steering. I slowly made changes to it all weekend bringing the handling under control. It was also under geared.

After the velcro escapade I was tired, so was Katy so we called it a night.

We arrived on Saturday morning as they were turning on the lights. I got my batteries on the chargers, and started to work on my cars. I managed to get a practice in with my TC and VTA. Both had the same issue. My VTA just wouldn't turn and my TC still had to much turning (off power).

After pictures, it was time for qualifying. Touring Car was on deck first. The car still had a really rough time on the track. I just couldn't get my handle on it. I managed to stay out of everyone's way and somehow finished in the Top 10 overall.

Next up was 1/12th Super Stock. I put together a decent run, although the car was undergeared. My car wasn't the fastest, but it was very consistent all weekend long. I didn't have the fading issues some of the other racers had. I ended up qualifying in 8th place to start with.

Lastly was Trans-Am. The car was a pile of junk and I was in last place after the 1st qualifier. I didn't have any steering, and it became apparent I was going to have to modify the setup to get it working.

After a short break it was time for Round two of qualifying. They resorted the heats and I was on my way. I made some adjustments to my TC and they helped, but my steering issue was still there. My time only improved by a second. I ended up dropping to 12th in qualifying.

In 1/12th, I put together another solid solid run, improving by almost 2 laps. However, I still dropped from 8th to 10th.

For VTA, I had an even worse run. It was time to break out the major setup changes for round 3.

The third round of qualifying, the final round for Saturday, went well enough. In Touring Car, my tuning changes were coming around and I managed to get the car to improve by a full lap. However, I was still 12th place.

In 1/12th SS, my car improved slightly, due to a couple of bad wrecks (on my lid). I managed to improve, but only by a half second. As a result I dipped down to #11 in qualifying.

In Trans-Am, my setup changes started paying off. The car gained 3 laps and I managed to bump up to 8th.

After qualifying, I entertained the wife and we went out to dinner at Apple Bee's. It probably helped, as the time change was occurring that night, and without the break, I would have been burned out.

Sunday morning, we went to Cracker Barrel for a good meal. We then headed to the track to prepare for the Last Chance Qualifiers.

I charged up a battery the night before, so that I could get in some practice. During practice, as it did last year, the track conditions had significantly changed. Luckily my new 12r5 did not have the issues that my 12L4 did last year though. It was on rails. I geared it to the moon (86mm rollout) and let er rip for the LCQ. In TC, I also geared it up to my largest pinion gear.

First up was TC, and the car handled differently then the night before. I had a bit of a push. However, I'm not as comfortable with the car, and decided not to make any setup changes after the LCQ and the main. Figuring it was nearly impossible for me to get into the A Main.

My second class of the morning was 1/12th SS. After an early mishap, where I was racing behind somebody who slowed up for a crashed car, I sent us both flying into the pipe. My car made it out, but his didn't. After that I kept the car very clean and managed to bump my self up by 2 laps, finishing 2nd in my qualifier and 10th over all. They decided to run bump ups, meaning the Top 8 cars qualified and 9th and 10th had to race the B Main and bump to the A. Look for my Mains post later to see if I could get myself into the big show.

In Trans Am, my car now had to much steering and the car would roll over on any sweeper turn. I wasn't able to improve my lap time and ended up qualifying in 8th place for the VTA A Main.

Check back soon for videos and commentary about the Mains of the 20th Magic City Classic.

2010 Ice Melter Race

2010-02-01T14:41:00.000-08:00

This Mini-z Race has quietly grown over the past couple of years. Now in its fourth year, the race has grown to include several drivers from out of state. This year we had a record 52 entries across five classes. Our largest class, The Mini-z racer class featured 20 drivers. I raced in the Mini-z Racer and Pan Car classes.

Mini-z Racer features any non-upgraded fets Kyosho Mini-z car. It can be an MR-01, MR-02, the newer 02 with a 2.4 Ghz radio, and the new MR-03 chassis. A total of 20 cars were entered in this class.

F1 includes any Kyosho Mini-z with non-upgraded Fets and can be run with standard or 2.4Ghz radios. A total of 9 cars were entered in this class.

Kyosho Stock class is meant for straight out of the box, and newer drivers. No upgrades, outside of tires are allowed. The stock Kyosho motor must be used. However 2.4Ghz cars are allowed. A total of 6 cars were entered in this class.

Pan Car is any Mini-z chassis with a Pan car body. Fet upgrades are allowed. A total of 12 cars were entered in this class.

NASCAR - Any MR-01 or 01.5 chassis is allowed with the NASCAR style bodies. A total of 5 cars were entered in this class.

This year the race was expanded to a two day event. Like last year the event was held at the Wind River Casino just outside of Riverton, Wyoming. The casino is a great place to host the event, as they have reasonable food prices, a sit down restaurant and free drinks. Plus if you bring along your spouse, she can gamble away your savings while you are racing away your savings.

Day 1

In the first round of qualifying we were seeded based on when our entries were received. I was put into the second group. In the Racer class, I managed to finish very well and was grouped with the A Main. In the first round, I was the highest finisher of the Riverton group as my main competition, Shannon and Nic both had mechanical troubles. In the Pan Car group, it was a much broader group. We had a lot more traffic to deal with. I was grouped with Brian, but same as last year, I did not have enough to keep up with him in this class. He finished in 1st, and I managed to take 2nd place. My finish held up, and I was 2nd qualifier.

We were reseeded after each round of qualifying. I liked this as it grouped similar speed cars together. In both of my classes, I was grouped in with the best. In racer, I was 2nd after the first round of qualifying. Same in Pan Car. In the second round of qualifying I fell to 3rd in my group of cars. Likewise, Nic had fixed his issues and out qualified me bumping me down to 4th place overall. (Top 6 make the main). In pan car I easily held onto 2nd place.

For round 3, in Mini-z Racer I did worse. I ended up having a car back into me on three occasions. I got so frustrated that I stopped pushing it, as I knew I didn't have a chance to improve my qualifying time. In Pan car, knowing I was safely in the 2nd spot, I ran a set of batteries that I had been questioning for a while. Sure enough, the batteries have lost their umph. They are very consistent the entire run, but they just lack the punch needed to get around a car at times. Regardless, I still managed to finish in second place.

Day 2

Wow! Well Day 2 came about, and we started off with our last chance qualifier. In Mini-z Racer I improved my qualifying time, and managed to qualify in the 4th spot. Throughout the race Nic and I battled it out very closely. I managed to beat him by 3 seconds. Shannon bumped into the A group making the A Main. In Pan car, my car was still performing the same, and I went out and landed another solid 2nd place qualifier.

Mains

Well the mains are here. In the A Main of Mini-z Racer, I started in 4th position. At the start of the race, I quickly made my way through traffic, avoided contact, and found myself in second place. Nic, Shannon, and Russ were all right behind me. As the race wore on, Nic and I battled it out for position over several laps of very tense racing. Eventually he prevailed and I fell back. Shannon and I battled it out as well. My batteries just not able to hold up to a 10 minute main. Eventually Russ through some very solid racing caught up to my rear bumper with Nic right behind him. I told Nic that I couldn't let him by as Russ and I were racing for position. He did the classy thing and waited behind us both until he got a solid clean pass on us both. Russ crashed a couple of times, and I was able to get a lap on him. For the rest of the race, knowing that I could not catch Shannon or Nic, I just made sure that I kept my lap on Russ. Sure enough I managed to finish in 4th place. Andy, who had qualified in 3rd had mechanical troubles and dropped out about 4 minutes into the race.

In Pan car, I qualified in 2nd place. At the gun, we had a clean start and Brian jumped out to a solid lead. I just didn't have the power to stay with him, so I concentrated on holding 2nd place. Shannon who had moved his way into this A Main as well, managed to catch me a few times, but as the race wore on, I kept ahead of him, eventually earning myself a 2 lap cushion. As the end neared my batteries (brand new ones) lost their edge, but stayed powerful enough that I didn't have to worry. I had two solid crashes in the race where my car ended up on its lid. Solid corner marshalling didn't cost me much time at all though. In the end I managed to take home the 2nd place trophy over Shannon.

Congrats to Brian for staking claim to 1st place in every class he raced. Additionally a big old thanks to All the drivers who made the trip including those from Colorado Springs, Colorado and Salt Lake City, Utah. Also a big thanks for Brian bringing parts from the Salt Lake Mini-z Hobby Hobby shop.

Riverton to get Hobby Shop!!

2009-05-06T09:23:00.000-07:00

This summer Riverton will finally have a hobby shop. According to the owner, they hope to be open by the end of May. He's not going to start off carrying a lot of stock, but will have enough to get things going and will order in parts for those who need em.

The shop will be located at the corner of Federal and Sunset Blvd, just blocks from our track. I am working hard to work on an arrangement so that he can provide parts support for our larger races.

Stay tuned!

Not much else to report at the moment. My outdoor racing season starts this weekend in Rock Springs as I will be attending their club race. I'll be sure to post results here upon my return!

WyMoPA Board approves new Track Material

2009-04-06T10:02:00.001-07:00

Well the board approved my request to purchase new barriers for the on-road track.

The materials have been ordered. We'll be using a system similar to what the Billings Carpet guys use, as well as a couple of asphalt tracks in Washington and NorCal areas. For the track barrier, we'll be using 2.5x2.5" Raingo downspout. It's square in shape, which prevents 1/12ths from getting stuck below them in most cases. We're going to attach them to the track using Velcro. Initially we're going to try attaching the velcro to the track with it's own material. If that doesn't hold, we'll use liquid nails instead to hold down the velcro strips. The pipes will be joined internally by wood i-beams.

For the corners, we're using 2" conveyor belt. This is a durable material that will keep the cars soft on the corners.It should work out fairly well I hope!!

The new material should arrive Tuesday. Provided that occurs, I'll pick up the material, take the downspout out to the track and start building the i-beams. Overall, I plan on having a very busy week ahead of our first on-road race which is scheduled for Saturday, April 25th.

Cya,
Paul

USVTA A-Main from Magic City Classic

2009-03-29T11:30:00.000-07:00

Below is the A-Main from the USVTA A-Main at the Billings, 19th Annual Magic City Classic held the weekend of February 28th.

The Spring Downtime for Racing

2009-03-23T17:38:00.000-07:00

Well after attending the Rocky Mountain Championships, my racing schedule slows down considerably for the next month or so. I'll still attend our weekly Mini-z sessions, but we rarely hold races to a timer there. Rock Springs has a couple more ind0or events, but I'm guessing those get canceled based on recent turnout, plus the fact that my wife is off work the next few weekends.

I will probably start working on getting my cars ready here in the next few weeks. I need to rebuild the shocks in my TC5. I believe my 1/12th is ready to go. I'll probably just change out the motor in that car. I believe for the club racing season, I'm going to setup my TC5 for Stock Racing. My XXX-S will continue to be setup for Modified Racing. Part of the reason is that it is much sturdier and is less likely to break if I hit something.

This week, I will probably rebuild the diff on my mini-z. It is behaving very erratically right now. I think this change will help it out immensely.

I watched the ROAR Nationals on Liverc this past weekend. What a race. Based on the performances of the some of the people that I raced against in Billings, I have a long way to go to be competitive in On-Road at a National event.

I'm working on finalizing my summer race schedule now. The main race that is questionable is the Sweetwater RC Championships held in Rock Springs. We'll see how it goes.

Thanks for reading. I will be busy over the next couple of weeks hopefully building the new barriers for the on-road track.

Paul

Mains at 3rd Annual RMC Off-Road Championships

2009-03-16T08:12:00.000-07:00

Well, I arrived at the track Sunday morning about 8am. I walked around and chatted with a few people while downing a cup of coffee and some McDonald's. Around 9am, I decided to suit up my Unlimited Truck for a few practice Laps. I also wanted to try a couple different areas on the drivers' stand to see if they worked any better. Lastly, I wanted to see how the car behaved without sauce on the tires. Overall the car seemed to handle fairly well with the sauce. It was a little twitchy though. But I decided I would run without sauce in the Last Chance Qualifier to see how it did.

Last Chance Qualifier
I went into the race knowing that I had locked a spot in the A-Main. I was 5th on the grid for this qualifier. As the race started, I got off to a decent start. But I just didn't feel comfortable with the car. I was 2 laps off my pace from yesterday when I pushed a jump to far, and landed just in front of a pipe, snapping the lower Right Front A-Arm on my truck. So the LCQ was done, but at least I was in the main.

Overall, I never felt like I put together a decent run in any of my qualifiers. 2 of my qualifiers I broke. The other 2, I had ok runs, but both had long stretches where I got rattled, or distracted, or something and I just couldn't run a wreck free lap. I was hoping things would change for the Main.

A-Main Unlimited Truck
For the A-Main we had an 8 car field. My starting spot was 6th on the grid. At the tone, I hit it, and managed to hole shot the 5th place car and take 5th over the first set of doubles. Next up came the Single where I was able to pass the 4th place car. I made the next 180 degree turn leading to the table top, where I was able to pass the 3rd place car. At this point, both Deej and Skyler were able to check out without having any traffic and gain a decent size lead on me. As the race continued on, I started to build up my lead on both Mike and Monte. At one point, Mike had a problem with his car and fell back 2 laps behind me.

After I had put my first lap on Monte (4th place at the time), I had a short scare on my car. Either my LIPO cut-off engaged, or I thermalled. I don't think it was the latter though. After a few seconds, the ESC re-engaged and I was able to start racing. Fearing another shutoff, I started to take it easy and just ensure I finished the race knowing I had a comfortable lead over 4th and 5th place. Skyler had just finished lapping me two times when he went off the single along the front stretch and cart wheeled it, sending his tire, hex and nut across the track. At the time he enjoyed a 2 lap lead on both 2nd and 3rd place. However, in an amazingly quick recovery, he was able to get his car repaired, and put on the track, just after Deej made up both laps and took the lead. His car, handling so much better though, quickly took back the lead on the next lap. As the race wound down, Deej and I finished on the same lap, while Skyler had a victory lap. (He wasn't able to lap either of us again). So there is goes. Skyler wins the race, Deej finishes second, and I took 3rd. 2 laps behind me was Monte in 4th and Mike in 5th. I'm not sure about the rest of the field.

Slash Demo Class
Due to computer issues we were able to only run this class for one race all weekend long. We decided to run all 8 of us (with 5 foot lanes none the less) in the same heat. The race had to be hand scored. For unknown reasons, my car number on the print out was 8, but during the race it changed to 6. As a result, while I finished in 3rd, Monte got credit since his car was the new #8. Overall the class was a blast to race in, and I didn't really care about the results as nothing was really on the line.

To decide starting positions, we drew straws. I was unlucky enough to draw #7 out of 8 cars. Ouch! As some of you may know, the locals in Riverton have nicknamed me Bulldozer. I decided it was time to put that nickname to good use. The good thing about #7 was that I drew an inside lane. I decided that I was just going to gun it into the corner, and see where I could get. At the tone, I pulled the trigger to full throttle and caught up to the 4th place car as we entered the turn. Using him as a guardrail, I managed to get in front and was scored in 3rd place as we crossed the loop for the 1st lap. Deej who started 3rd checked out at the beginning, but quickly found himself in the same traffic we were all dealing with. Eventually Skyler caught him and took the lead. There was lots of rubbing, but it was fun and overall, only one of the trucks went out, due to having a loose wheel nut.

Day One Qualifying - Rocky Mountain Carpet Off-Road Championships

2009-03-14T19:25:00.000-07:00

Well it was an interesting day. I got up at 6am, and hit the road about 6:45 or so. It took a bit of effort, but I arrived at the Fairgrounds for day one about 9am or so.

The track has a good layout, and after looking over the pits at some other cars, I decided to suit up with Foam tires instead of rubber ones. I'm having some issues handling wise, but it seems to only be the first minute or so of a race. In the first qualifier, I managed to pop loose a ball cup a quarter lap into my run. Off to a good start!

Round two went much smoother. I managed to finish in 5th place overall, 3rd in my heat with a 16/14.

Round 3, I was doing great, on pace to finish in the top 2 overall. But I fell apart. I just forgot how to handle the jumps and kept wrecking, taking myself back into 4th. The run ended up being a bit slower than my first round.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get my 1/10th vehicles ready to go, except for Slash. But to do a computer issue, the Slash class isn't being run today at all. Quite a disappointment!

Stay tuned, I'll update Sunday's race action tomorrow or Monday.

Paul

Getting Ready for Rocky Mountain Carpet Off-Road Championships

2009-03-08T14:59:00.000-07:00

Well next weekend is 3rd Annual Rocky Mountain Carpet Off-Road Championships hosted by SweetwaterRC. This will be my first time attending the event. I'll be racing in three classes. First class will be 1/18th unlimited Truck, for which I'll be racing with my 1/18th Duratrax Vendetta ST. Secondly I'll be racing my 1/10th Associated T4 in their 10.5 2wd Truck class. Lastly, I'll run my brand new Traxxas Slash. Yep that's right, I have a slash on the way. Should arrive mid-week. Thanks to my biggest sponsors, Mom & Dad for the birthday gift. Heh

Before the race, I'll also be putting in an upgrade on my Detta. I have 2 ball bearing diffs to install into it. Should make the handling improve considerably. I also got a servo hold down which should improve the servo mounting a lot!

Well stay tuned, Will be sure to have updates for this race as the weekend goes along.

Paul

Mains of the 19th Magic City Classic

2009-03-03T07:05:00.000-08:00

After some raffle drawings, we finally got the mains underway. I didn't win anything in the raffle, so my entries ended up being a donation to the club. Oh well! I never win!

First up were the C and B Mains of 1/12th Stock. It was quite interesting to watch these races. The racers definitely did better, but you could see the skill level breaks in the drivers quite easily. The C Main featured a young kid, about 8 years old taking the early lead. Near the end though, he had a mishap, lost the lead, and ended up losing to the winner by a slim margin, I think under a half second. The B Main featured Bob Stormer's new 1/12th ride. He quickly and easily ran into the lead with his hunter's orange machine and won the race without much competition.

After those were out of the way, they began to run the A mains for all of the classes. 1/10th Touring Stock was next, of which I should have been a part of, but fell out of due to my speed control mishap. Unfortunately, as the race wore on, only 4 of the 9 drivers (including me) finished the race. Darn! Had I been able to run, I would have taken at worst 5th place! heh.

The 1/12th Stock A Main was next. This race featured quite a battle between two National level racers, in Brian Bodine of SlapMaster, and Randy Gross, from North Dakota, a former ROAR National Champ. It was a great race and in the end, Randy took the win.

Vintage Trans Am
This was my Main. Thanks to snagging top qualifier in the last chance qualifier, I was able to shoot out of the gate and take the lead. Justin was right on my tail the entire time. Evan was in 3rd, but had an early bobble, with Scottrik in 4th. As we battled it out, I quickly figured out that Justin had the better handling car. In the chicanes he was able to out turn me, and closed the gap until finally, he was able to make the pass, and stick it on the straight away (it appears he geared way up for this main with his Brushed Stock motor). I followed behind him for a couple more laps, but then wrecked on the sweeper turn after the straight. My traction rolling problem was coming back. It was enough to give Justin a 3 second lead, but at the time I still had a comfortable margin on Evan in 3rd, and a very large margin over Scottrik. Without about a minute to go in the race, I stuck my car on top of a pipe in the center of the track. By the time a marshal was able to free me, Evan had gotten by me, and had 2 seconds of breathing room. The last minute came down to Justin, who was fading fast from his batteries dumping or his motor over heating was losing his gains to Evan every lap. In the end though, Evan just couldn't catch him. He probably would have caught him if the race had gone another lap. In the end, Justin won, followed by Evan about 1 second behind, and myself 3.5 seconds back. Scottrik was a lap down on the field.

The next race after mine was the WorldGT class. I had the luck of marshalling this class. It featured some close racing as the other mains did, with lots of contact, and the leaders being taken out multiple times. Since I was marshalling, I didn't catch the name of the winner, but the finish was close and less than a half car length.

1/12th Super Stock
Up next was my 1/12th Super Stock Class. After marshaling, I ran back to my table, wiped down my tires, put the body on, and hit the track. To fix my issues from the last qualifier, I went back to my other set of tires. Lesson learned! Buy a tire truer! Additionally, to keep them from folding over, I put CA on the outer edges of my tires. It definitely made a difference. My car was actually pushing a bit early on in the race. I qualified in the 4th spot, which was nice, because it put me just in front of the tape seem joining two of the carpet rolls. When the tone sounded, everyone got off to a clean start. On the first lap, I had managed to make it into 3rd, but had no breathing room, we were all bunched together. Eventually, I settled into 5th place with Scottrik right behind me. As the race wore on, Scottrik ran a tighter line through the corkscrew and took 5th place from me. The race continued on, with me following closely behind Scottrik. However, he never made a mistake allowing me to take back my spot. Evan was right behind me the entire main, but luckily I was able to keep my distance. In the end, Randy won by a fairly large margin, and the main battle was between Scottrik, myself, and Evan. Overall, I was quite pleased. For my first major race on carpet, I didn't come in last, I raced closely against one of the local Billings fast guys (Scottrik), and beat Evan who travels quite a bit to carpet races.

The last race of the day, was the Club Spec Vintage Trans Am Class. The difference between this class and the one I ran in, is that in this one, you can only run brushed, 4 cell. In the class I run in, you can run using multiple motor and battery configurations that are fairly equal. This main featured 14 cars, and to top things off the starting order was inverted, so TQ had to start at the rear of the pack. It made for some serious mayhem throughout the entire race. Even Katy (my wife) who was taking photos, ended up marshaling a car while I was already helping another. In the end, The 3rd place qualifier through TQ ended up finishing 1-2-3. They just weren't able to get through traffic enough to close the gap and race each other. It was a good finish and fun to watch. If they hold this class next year, I'll think about racing in it, if I have a brushed motor lieing around.

Closing Comments
To close off things, I would like to say that the Billings crew puts on a great event. It was a little long at times, but for the most part they moved things along quickly. The hardest part was waiting for the Oval Nats to finish up so that we could do trophy presentations. By watching the others, I got lots of great tips on how to improve my racing, and Katy even managed to help me fix a part of the track where I was taking a bad line. I definitely plan on coming back for next year's event!

Next up for me, will be the Rocky Mountain Championships indoor/Carpet Off-road Championships held by the Sweetwater RC group in Rock Springs, Wyoming. This race will be March 13th-15th. I plan on running 1/18th unlimited and 1/10th 2wd Super Stock Truck.

Day 2 of the Magic City Classic - Last Chance Qualifiers!

2009-03-02T08:22:00.000-08:00

They made a small adjustment to the qualifying order, but the changes didn't really affect me.

First up was 1/12th Super Stock.
I decided to put on new tires for day 2. This mistake taught me an important lesson. Truing tires is important! The tires had to large of a sidewall, and with the track sitting out overnight, traction increased significantly. As a result, my 1/12th scale car was Traction rolling the high speed corners. I ended up ending my run early, as I buried the car into a pipe, mangling the body. I just pulled it off the track, hoping that my 4th qualifying spot would hold up. Fortunately for me it did!! :) Additionally to traction rolling, The sweeper turn, my car would push. Bad combination!

Vintage Trans-Am.
Due to my mishap in Touring Stock, I reconfigured this car to work with my SMC Lipo battery. Holy smokes! What a difference. 1.5-2 seconds per lap was gained, by switching the battery. Weight on the car was identical between the two batteries after adjusting the lead. Unfortunately, the car during this practice picked up a new bad habit as well. Traction rolling!

For the qualifier, I decided to switch it up slightly, and only sauced the inside 1/3rd of my Trans-Am car. It worked out great. Due to the mishap with the lap counting the night before, my car was in the 3rd qualifier spot. The race got underway, and Evan, from Stormer Hobbies and I battled it out, while Justin got out to a lead. Evan and I traded fenders a bit, but eventually, he snagged a pipe, letting me get some distance. Then I started to reel in Justin. Eventually, I caught Justin. I followed him around a bit looking for the best passing opportunity. My car having Lipo 21.5 combo versus his Stock/4 Cell had significantly more horsepower, but his car handled the infield better, making it hard to be close enough on the straight to make the power pass. It appeared the best part to make my pass was the cork screw. My car handled well in that section, and it lead onto a short straight away, where I should be able to make it stick. We went into the corkscrew side by side where we made it out to the short straight away. Having position, I went wide open. Justin tried to block, but I was already up on his rear fender, which caused him to spin out and I broke into the lead. I was now on a TQ pace, but it was close. I managed to get about 2 seconds into TQ pace, but hit a pipe at the 180 turn, flipping my car. When I got back to the loop I was a half second off TQ pace. The lap after that I was back on TQ pace, but it was close. During the run, Evan leaned over and said, wreck like that again and you lose TQ. I made sure to drive steady lines and kept it off the pipe. It came down to the last lap, and I managed to take top qualifier by less than a half second. Snagging a TQ trophy from Justin's hands!

Check back soon for the mains!

Magic City Classic Day 1 -Qualifying

2009-02-28T20:18:00.000-08:00

Round 1

1/12th Scale Super Stock
This was my first heat of the day. For some reason my nerves were a mess for this. Something about being in such a large event. There are 9 drivers in this class. In this heat, I started off third and for a short while managed to hold onto the 3rd slot. However, eventually, I'd fall to 4th place, and have this position locked up by 2 laps over Scottrik.

1/10th Touring Sedan Stock Rubber
In the first round, the way the heats were organized, it made it so I ran back to back classes. So right after I was done racing the 1/12th, I immediately had to switch up to my Touring Sedan. In this race, I was slated to start in first. Unfortunately my car had some handling issues, and I managed a paltry 18 laps. Good for 3rd in my heat, 6th overall in the class out of 9 entries.

U.S. Vintage Trans Am
This would be my 3rd class of the round. This race has heads up starts. I jumped out to an early lead and the 2nd and 3rd place cars managed to wreck each other, opening up a quarter lap lead. Unfortunately, my batteries weren't up to snuff and my handling was off, letting Justin, from Billings catch me. In the end, I was able to hold onto 2nd place and would finish in 2nd for the round.

Round 2
In Round 2 the classes were reorganized.

1/10th Touring Sedan, Rubber Stock
In Round 2, I lessened the amount of juice on my tires. This definitely made the car more stable. However, I wasn't able to make any ground and actually ended up falling to 7th out of the 9 cars.

1/12th Super Stock
In this round, I geared up quite a bit as my motor was cool after its first run. While I didn't improve in position, I did improve upon my best time over the first round. I ended up in 4th again.

U.S. Vintage Trans Am
In this round, I would start in 2nd. I battled quite a bit with Evan, from Stormer Hobbies, but was able to drive cleaner lines and eventually built up a lead on him, finishing the race in 2nd.

Round 3
1/10th Touring Sedan
Oh boy... I hate it when this happens. I tested my car on the bench, after making a gearing change, and it worked great. I went over to the staging area, and when it was my turn, I turned on my car. Nothing happened. No steering or throttle inputs were occurring. I looked at the lights and my receiver wasn't even turning on. I took my body off, and quickly examined the wires, and found the power wire to the receiver came unsoldered. I ran back to my pit table to fix it. Unfortunately in the hurry to get it fixed, I accidentally joined the solder across the positive and negative, shorting out my ESC. It was done. I'm not sure if I'll be able to run this class tomorrow. The current plan, is to skip the last chance qualifier. Then in the main, run this car, using the ESC from Trans Car. This will partly depend on the class order for tomorrow. Also with the shortened amount between heats, since some of the groups will be combined into larger heats, it's hard to say if this will work.

1/12th Super Stock
This race got off to a similar start, but my clean lines enabled me to jump up to 2nd place thanks to the two leaders both crashing out. However my drive wasn't the smoothest run, even though I improved by a full lap over my previous qualifier. Towards the end of the run, my car started hooking, and in a few cases, would go up on 3 wheels, like it was traction rolling. I believe this was mainly due to some chunked tires. I'll make sure tomorrow that I change out my tires so that this doesn't occur.

U.S. Vintage Trans Am
My final heat of the night, and boy was I tired. I got my car prepped, making a change and saucing all 4 tires. Justin, as before easily broke out to a lead. Evan and I battled it up, and eventually my cleaner lines let me break out into 2nd place. Unfortunately the computer missed counting a lap, otherwise this would have been my best run by a full lap. I have one more qualifier tomorrow.

Stay tuned for my report on Sunday's Action either Monday or Tuesday!

My Racing History

2009-02-26T07:30:00.000-08:00

I started racing in 2005. From Mini-z's to 1/10th scale, these are the races that I have gotten onto the podium, or accomplished other feats (such as qualifying for a World Championship... relax that only happened in Mini-z's!)

2010

20th Annual Magic City Class

7th Place - US Vintage Trans Am
9th Place - 1/12th Pan Car Super Stock

3rd Annual Ice Melter Mini-z Race

2nd Place - Modified Pan Car

2009

3rd Annual Rocky Mountain Carpet Off-Road Championships

3rd Place - 1/18th Unlimited 4wd Truck

19th Annual Magic City Classic

Top Qualifier - Vintage Trans-Am U.S. VTA Spec
3rd Place - Vintage Trans-Am U.S. VTA Spec
6th Place - Super Stock 1/12th GTP

2nd Annual Ice Melter Mini-z Race

2nd Place - Modified Pan Car

2008

2008 Summer Sizzler

3rd Place - Super Stock 1/12th Scale

2008 Sweetwater RC Championships

2nd Place - Super Stock 1/10th 2wd Truck
2nd Place - Super Stock 1/10th 2wd Buggy

1st Annual Ice Melter Mini-z Championships

3rd Place - Modified Pan Car

2007

2007 Sweetwater RC Championships

1st Place - Super Stock 1/10th 2wd Truck
1st Place - Super Stock 1/10th 2wd Buggy

2007 WWWC Ice Melter Race

3rd Place - Modified Pan Car Mini-z

2006

Fall Mini-z Championships @ Riverton, WY

1st Place Mini-z Racer Class

PN Regional Qualifier @ Salt Lake City, UT

4th Place - Mini-z Racer Class (Qualified for Worlds)
8th Place - F1 Racer Class (Qualfied for Worlds)

ROAR Region 10 Electric Off-Road Championships @ Riverton, WY

3rd Place - Modified 2wd Truck

ROAR Wyoming State Electric Off-Road Championships @ Riverton, WY

2nd Place - Modified 2wd Buggy
3rd Place - Modified 2wd Truck

2005

Wyoming Mini-z Championships @ Riverton, WY

1st Place - Kyosho Stock Class

Packing up for the Magic City Classic

2009-02-24T10:31:00.000-08:00

Well my cars are just about ready. Painting my bodies tonight, and then I will be packing my racing gear. We'll head up Friday morning. Probably do some fun stuff in Billings, and then head to the track by 4pm at the latest.

Friday I plan on giving my TC5 its maiden voyage. Make sure everything is kosher with my XXX-S in the vintage class, and lastly, give a test run with my 1/12th to find out which tire compound will work best for me. The bulk of my time will probably be spent on my TC-5 as I haven't raced with that before, and I'm not sure how it will handle. Hopefully I can get it up and running nicely though.

Overall, I'm looking forward to this event, as it will easily be the largest event I've attended. 50 people, and over 100 entries. That'll keep my day quite full I think. I plan on bringing my video camera, and my wife's camera gear. Although, it'll depend on the lighting as to how the still photos turn out. Normally it's quite an issue at indoor tracks.

I doubt the track has wireless Internet, but I do plan on updating the blog each evening after I get done racing. Of course it all depends on how the days go.

Shout out if you're planning on attending the event or stop by and say hi.

Paul

Getting Ready for Magic City Classic

2009-02-17T14:03:00.000-08:00

Less than two weeks to go before I race in the Magic City Classic. Back in December I ordered spare parts for my 1/12th scale. Additionally, I got some hop-ups on my Sedan as well.

Today, I placed an order to setup my spare parts box for my Associated TC5. Included in my initial stocking of parts includes, Spare Arms, Hubs, Steering parts, and a spare Shock Tower. For the drive train, I ordered some additional 64P Spur gears, and expanded my Pinion gears by adding even sets from 36-48. That should cover me in most situations I hope, especially for spec racing.

This weekend is interesting though. Do I go race down in Rock Springs during the day, or do I race here in Riverton in the evening?

Oh well. Either choice has its pros and cons. I'll figure it out as the week goes on. Current plan is to get my TC5 put together and ready to race by the end of the week. Hope it goes over smoothly!

Paul

2009 Ice Melter Race - The Other Classes

2009-02-11T15:39:00.000-08:00

Mini-z F1
First off, I want to talk about the F1 race. We're lucky enough to have two racers who have finished in the Top 3 when Kyosho was holding their annual Mini-z Cup Race. (Now sorta taken over by PN Racing). Both Nic and Shannon offer up quite the final in this race most year. This year was no different. In qualifying Nic came away big, by 2 laps to take the pole position. However, 2nd through 4th position were close, with 2nd and 3rd being separated by .52 seconds.

In the A Main we had a train between the top 3 racers, and all 5 drivers were only separated by a mere 3 laps. Nic sat on the pole, but wrecked in the first lap going to the back. Shannon took advantage for the early lead. Brian jumped up to 2nd, Chad to 3rd, and Sam was in 4th. As the time wound out, Nic slowly worked his way up to 2nd, Shannon battled the lead early with Brian, and Chad and Sam battled out until Sam got some space. Eventually Shannon, Nic, and Sam started up the 3 car freight train. With about a minute to go, Nic tried to make a pass on his brother, causing them both to get hung up in the wall. Sam was able to take advantage and cleanly passed them both to take the lead. Shannon held onto 2nd, and Nic was still in 3rd. Shannon and Nic were still right on each other and Sam had broken out to a 2 or 3 second lead. 3 laps later, Nic was able to pass his brother and take 2nd place. On the next lap, Sam crashed giving the lead to Nic, and 2nd to Shannon. Nic and Shannon barely beat the tone to get an extra lap, while Sam's crash led to him getting caught by the tone. Nic won, Shannon 2nd, and Sam 3rd. Shannon was 2 seconds behind Nic, and Sam ended up 8.4 seconds off the pace.

However, not mentioned is the fact that Brian and Chad were racing closely in the 4th and 5th spots. They ended up less than 3 seconds apart at the end of the race. Brian afterwards said he fell back due to driving issues.

Kyosho Stock Mini-z
This class is mainly designed for beginners to get into racing. We limit the cars to stock equipment, they can only change out the tires. In qualifying is became apparent that Sean Watts, Shannon's son, had the car to beat. His new 2.4Ghz version offered more horsepower and you could tell he was the most experienced of the group. Sean easily took TQ by 2 laps. In 2nd place, was the biggest surprise, Brian's son, Cygen, all of 6 years old went out and took 2nd place in qualifying with 20 laps. 3rd place was followed up by Caleb and 4th place went to Larry.

As these are all new drivers one of the best things to see here was that every driver improved in the 2nd round over the 1st round of qualifying. The biggest improvement was Caleb as he went from 13 laps to 17 laps.

The Main for this race was exciting. Sean had his hands full as Cygen came up strong. For much of the race Cygen was roughly 1/4th to half the track behind Sean. Near the end, Sean had a large bobble, allowing Cygen to get past him. However, before they could get to the finish line Cygen wrecked as well, giving Sean back the lead. In the end Sean ended up beating the timer and getting an extra lap over Cygen taking the win.

NASCAR Mini-z
In this class, it featured a mix of newer and experienced racers. Sam, from Pueblo Colorado took TQ over local racer, Brad Morton by 2 laps. With 5 cars in this class, the results were spread out quite a bit, and no racer was within 2 laps of the qualifier ahead or behind them.

The Main was all Sam as he quickly built up a lead on the competition. Sean was able to battle his way up and finished in 2nd place, followed by Brad, Caleb, and Larry.

Stock Mini-z
This class was one in which I participated in, however, it led off in the mains. The C-Main would prove to everyone how close the racing would be though. Bob Felton, from Riverton, would battle it out with Cygen the entire event. On Lap 15 Bob had a bad lap, resulting in Cygen taking the lead. Bob managed to settle down quickly and strung off several 13 seconds laps in a row to slowly reel in Cygen. On the final lap, Cygen crashed, and Bob took advantage passing him cleanly and taking the win. Everyone in the room was cheering on these drivers after they came off the stand. It was great to see such a close race in the C Main.

The B-Main was just as exciting. Shannon, who made the decision on the cutoff point for the mains, surprisingly found himself in the B-Main. A little upset with himself that he drove to cautiously he turned up the EPA on his throttle to open up the power of his newer 2.4Ghz model car to work better. Shannon crashed on the first lap, putting him at the rear of the pack. He managed to work his way back into the lead by lap 6. In the end he took the win over Brad Morton by a lap. The close race in this one involved Brad, Russ, and Luke. All three drivers managed to swap positions throughout the entire race. In the end Brad took 2nd, Russ took 3rd, and Luke took 4th. In last was Shawn Renfro, another local driver.

Pan Car Mini-z
The B-Main of this event was probably the only race that didn't feature much action. Brad took the lead on the first lap, but Luke took it on the 2nd and would never let up. Additionally Brad would never relinquish 2nd place. Mike Parazoo, one of our local drivers, racing his first ever pan car race took 4th place. Shawn, who was having lap counting issues and driving issues took fourth place in this event.

Conclusion
This race was probably the best Mini-z event that we've put on to date. With 40 entries and racers from Colorado and Utah we got to see how we all stack up with each other. In some ways it was good to get put down, as it keeps egos in check. A lot of the racers brought home hardware; the club got good exposure as we were featured on the local ABC newscast with several interviews by the racers. Additionally, I think Brian's HFAY series will be able to take off here. I don't think we'll get involved this season, however, I think we'll look at starting it up come July or January of next year.

I would like to thank the Watts for putting on a great event, Brian for bringing his hobby shop and helping with the computer issues, and all of the racers who helped setup and tear down afterwards. The event went off great, and hopefully next year's event will be even more successful.

I plan on attending the Feb. 21st race in Rock Springs for some carpet on-road action. Then the following weekend I will be traveling to the 19th annual Magic City Carpet Classic to race as well. Stay tuned for more. No racing this weekend since it is Valentine's Day on Saturday.

Go Fast, Turn Fast!
Paul

2009 Ice Melter Race Pan Car Class

2009-02-09T10:07:00.000-08:00

Look at my previous post, for the Racer Class. I'll be posting shortly about the classes I didn't race in.

1st Round of Qualifying
In this race I was matched up with all local racers, except for Sam from Colorado. Shawn blew his Pan car board up after practice by leaving it turned on with batteries in it. So we also had the advantage of only running 4 of us. In this race I got out to a quick start and held the lead off and on. Shannon and I raced often and flipped the lead back and forth the entire run. It all came down to who was in clean track versus the lapped traffic. In the end, I snuck by the start finish line with around 2 seconds to spare at the 5 minute mark, getting myself into the 28 lap range. After both heats of Pancar, I was in 2nd place, 4 seconds off the TQ pace set by Brian.

2nd Round of Qualifying
After the resort I found myself running with a number of other cars. Due to the resort, Brian was now in my group. As this one took off, I found myself racing closely with Brian. His car, with the advantage of the newer chipset had quite a bit more straight away speed than mine. But I seemed to handle the infield better. Overall, he edged me out by 1.69 seconds to take TQ.

B-Main
I didn't watch much of this race, as I was preparing for my A-Main. However, it did involve some close racing. Shawn had some lap counting issues due to his modified board and mod motor causing interference with the transponder loop. However, Mike Parazoo, in his debut with the pan car did fairly well.

A-Main
This race, you could tell it was between good drivers. The race had a clean start, and in the first couple of laps, Brian and I would swap back and forth in the chicane section. He eventually worked his way out in front, and I couldn't put together enough to catch him. By the end of the 8 minute run, he had lapped me twice. The end of the race was quite exciting though, as Brian with his more powerful car was right behind me of the straight away. Well, he ran me over... All in good nature though. My car tumbled the remaining few feet of the straight away, landing on its lid. The delay was long enough that both cars behind me passed me. Luckily! I had lapped them both multiple times, keeping my 2nd place finish.

Overall the race was quite fun. Just a bit disappointed that I didn't have more to keep it close with Brian. However, I'm very happy that I managed to bring home a trophy in the class. Recently this has been the class for me as the past couple of trophy events, I've done quite well with the car in this class.

Keep your eyes peeled as I go into the other classes and races that I wasn't a part of.

Paul

2009 Ice Melter Race Mini-z Racer Class

2009-02-08T10:44:00.000-08:00

The 2009 Ice Melter Race was an awesome event. Outside of some early computer troubles the race went very smoothly. We had 40 entries across 5 classes. Stock class featured the most racers with 14. I'll go into my two classes first, then go into the other classes, especially the A main of the F1. Look for more entries in the near future with my other class and the close racing in the other classes I didn't race.

Stock Mini-z Racer

In Round one of qualifying, I found myself in the faster group of racers, featuring mainly the group of racers from Salt Lake City and Nic, one of our local fast guys. For most of the race, I thought I was in 4th place. However, Nic's transponder got entered incorrectly, so his race wasn't being counted. He should have been in the lead. Meanwhile, Brian and Chad who were both ahead of me both ran into car troubles. Brian who was leading went from first two last by having his body completely knocked off his chassis. Chad had tire issues, losing a tire multiple times in the race. In the end, I ended up running a fairly clean race and finishing first in my heat. However, Shannon beat me in the 2nd heat of the class by .93 seconds taking TQ for the first round of qualifying.

In Round two of qualifying, we had a resort. Gone from my heat were Brian, Sam, and Nic. In came Shannon, Brad, and Russ. This round found Shannon and I racing in a virtual battle for most of the race. As the race wore on, I found myself taking the lead. With this group of racers, I found myself only coming up on the two last place racers on a regular basis for lapping purposes. I was able to get around them fairly cleanly each time around though. So that was good. Normally I could just run my line and they would go a bit wide into the chicanes. Normally, I wouldn't be to worried, but in this case, I knew I had 3 very good racers in the 2nd heat that could possibly take my TQ. At the same time, I knew they would have to deal with slower traffic than I did, possibly allowing me to keep TQ. After the results were tabulated though, both Brian and Nic were able to out qualify me, by 5 seconds for Brian, and 3 seconds for Nic. So I would take 3rd place. Shannon was bumped out of the A Main group and would be TQ for the B Main.

Due to the aforementioned computer issues, we only ran 2 qualifiers. I found myself in 3rd place for the A Main. Sam had managed to run well enough to sneak back into the A Main. During my warmup laps, my car started having traction rolling issues in the sweeper turn at the end of the straight away. That's not good... For the most part I was able to roll into the turn without rolling, but there were at least 3 times when I didn't slow enough and rolled over though.

At the tone, I quickly found myself in last place as I hit the wall (all on my own too). I patiently fought my way back into 3rd and then found myself in 2nd place as Nic had a tire issue. However, I still had the extra 3 minutes of the race to go and this proved to be my downfall. I suddenly went on a crashing spree, and my car had issues going into reverse, causing me to lose even more ground. Eventually, Chad managed to catch back up to me and passed me without a minute and half to go. I was still holding off Nic and sitting in the last podium spot ahead of Nic. Nic's car, one of the newer 2.4Ghz ones had significantly more power on the straights though. With 30 seconds to go, I got stuck on the wall, reverse not working, and the marshal sitting right next to my car was watching the race, so I sat there about 10 seconds before reverse worked. It closed up the gap enough, that Nic was able to catch me on the straight away. I was close to him, but needed him to bobble in the last 3 laps. Unfortunately he never crashed thus, I was knocked off the podium.

Overall the race was quite fun, and no complaints were had. The only downside was that I ran up the rear of Sam twice in the chicanes since my car would roll into the corners much faster than his, but we ran the same line.

Look for another post in the next little bit to describe my Pan Car races and the other classes at the event, especially the freight train race between 1-2-3 in F1.

Ice Melter Race this Saturday

2009-02-06T09:56:00.000-08:00

Well tomorrow is our big mini-z race being held at the Wind River Casino, just outside of Riverton.

A few guys are on their way from Salt Lake City. It should be good competition.

Unfortunately, I have a cold. At the moment, classes that I will be running include Stock Mini-z and Pan Car. Tonight I'll be rebuild the differential, clean the king pins, remove excess dust, and put in a brand new motor. The motor is an older one... a PN Racing Speedy05. But I don't think that'll be an issue, except for the SLC group.

So if you are up for some gambling, come visit the Wind River Casino, drop in and see the competition. I'm not sure about wireless access, but if they provide it, I may do race updates. Depends on how I'm feeling.

Cya,
Paul

Mini-z Practice

2009-01-27T09:19:00.000-08:00

Well this past weekend, 3 of our racers had new 2.4Ghz Mini-z cars. The newer bodies are quite nice on them. However, one downside quickly noticed is that the rear wing is poorly position as it hits right on the railing of RCP track. This caused one of the guys wings to go at an angle. Not exactly good for aerodynamics and rear downforce! On the other side, they now have a lot more speed than I do. I'm not going to worry about it for our trophy race though. As it stands now, I'm still driving better and have a better handling car then they do.

Btw, for any Mini-z drivers out there, be sure to push your Throttle Sub Trim forward. That is the only way to get reverse to work on the cars. If you use their stock radio, you'll probably need to adjust the forward trim all the way forward as well.

My car and my driving is coming around. I once again concentrated on clean passing of the drivers, especially slower ones. It can be difficult at times, especially when they don't have a good handling car and let off on a corner that I can keep full throttle through. Here's hoping that these skills will be up to the task at our trophy race in less than 2 weeks.

Towards the end of the night, my tires were starting to go out and i definitely had some handling issues. I'll be placing an order today for some tires and a couple other accessories.

Paul

Finally Mini-z Racing!!

2009-01-20T09:46:00.000-08:00

Well this past Saturday I had a tough decision. Finances wise, it didn't make much sense for me to head down to Denver for their club race. It's a bummer, but one of those, well it's for the greater good things.

So that left me to either head down to Rock Springs and race on-road carpet with a depleted crew (most of my competition was running in a rock crawling event.) or staying in Riverton to race mini-z's. I decided on the latter. With a trophy race in 3 weeks I need to spend some time getting my car dialed.

The track is laid out in a fairly small area, so I threw on my tiny track body, a red Ferrari 350 body. It's mid motor mount, and narrow wheel base give me great handling in on these tracks, especially in S- Corners.

We held quite a few practice runs, before holding a few timed races. During the practice runs, I felt that my car was still dialed from last year. No real changes to my car. Tires are 15* front slicks, and 10* tread Rears. Using soft, red springs up front, Fiber Disk Damper, and medium width carbon fiber t-plate. Motor wasn't the most powerful, but not a problem on this small track.

During the first race, I managed to make it cleanly through the first corner and broke out to an early lead. I found myself in lapped traffic within the 3rd lap though. For the most part, I was able to drive around them cleanly. What was most difficult is when they would let off the throttle in a place that I wasn't expecting, allowing me to close the gap very quickly, thus I would run into the rear of them. My car handled very well in the S turns, and the sweeper to S at the end of the straight. Many times I could close the gap 2 to 3 feet in this small area. I managed to catch the 2nd place car, waited patiently and when he was collected by lapped traffic shot through the hole to keep going on my way. From then on, I raced a fairly clean race and managed to lap the field again. In the end, I slowed down some, because I helped a car that flipped upside down. (no marshals in club mini-z races normally). It didn't affect my lead and I went on to win by 2 laps I think.

In the 2nd race, We decided to give the field an almost full lap. Unfortunately this proved to difficult to overcome. I managed to get myself back into 2nd place by the 2nd lap, but I was unable to catch up to 1st place. I caught up to him a few times, but then I would hit a wall for some reason, trying to cut a corner. At the end of 5 minutes, I thought I had gotten across the line in time, and during the bonus lap, caught the leader, and passed him on the final turn. Unfortunately the timer nailed me and my bonus lap didn't count as I had crossed the start finish line at 5.0.001. Darn! He had the win.

Overall, I'm fairly happy with my mini-z. I think I'll lose to the out of towners, and probably the local guys on the large track when they have their 2.4Ghz version mini-z's. Not a huge deal for me though. I think I'll do just fine if I can keep running a clean line. It's just hard to do when you are lapping some cars 12 to 15 laps per race in a club event.

Cya,
Paul

2nd Annual Wild West Winter Carnival Mini-z Ice Melter Race

2009-01-06T08:28:00.000-08:00

Wyoming Modelers' Park Association in conjuction with the Wild West Winter Carnival will be hosting the 2nd annual Mini-z Ice Melter race on Saturday, February 7th.

Classes:

Stock Mini-z
F1 Mini-z
Stock Kyosho Mini-z (Requires Kyosho motor)
Pan Car Mini-z
Nascar Mini-z
1/18th Scale

The Race will be held at the Wind River Casino, on Wyoming State Route 789, just south of Riverton.

A block of hotel rooms are being held at the Rodeway Inn, 307.856.2900 for $99 per night. Due to the Gas & Oil boom in our area, hotel rooms are difficult to come by. Contact Shannon Watts, or myself if you need help finding a room.

You can download the entry form here.

Weather Stinks!

2009-01-05T18:36:00.000-08:00

Well I was supposed to travel to Rock Springs for their on-road club race this past Saturday. Unexpected, Friday evening we started getting rain in Riverton. This wasn't a good sign for the mountains. Woke up the next morning at 6am to 3 inches of snow on the ground. Race day canceled for me. *sigh* Unfortunately this is one of the difficulties with Wyoming in the winter time.

As it stands, my next potential race is now January 17th.

Tonight I will be going up to Wyoming.com to try and see if we can run 1/18th scale cars on the RCP track potentially for the 2nd Annual Wild West Winter Carnival, to be held on February 7th. I'll post with an update on the results of the test.

For Christmas, I only received one semi-related RC Gift. That was a Ryobi 3.6V drill with multi-torque chuck. Very nice for quickly screwing and unscrewing gear on my cars, especially tires!! However, I did make an order of some gear for my cars. I got some Jack the Gripper for my planned trip to the Billings race. Additionally, I ordered orange/dbl pink Jaco Prisms for my Vendetta. I think these tires will rock on the track. I also ordered a few spare parts for my 1/12th scale to keep on hand. Lastly, some improvements for my TC5, mainly Sway Bar, Rear Shock Tower, and aluminum outdrives.

So nothing to report at the moment unfortunately race wise as I had hoped.

Cya,
Paul

Happy New Year

2008-12-30T21:41:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to end 2008 with a post that says Happy New Year and may your batteries be charged for 2009. Weather pending, it looks more and more like I'll be running down to Denver for their club race the weekend of MLK Day.

Looks like I'll be racing this weekend in Rock Springs. Current plans are for me to run 1/12th and to bring a friend along to run my vendetta in 1/18th unlimited. i have some Plaids on the way to use with that car too. Have a couple of new tire compounds to try out as well. Although, I wasn't able to get my hands on any black fronts. *sigh*

Wyoming Modelers' Park in coordination with the Wild West Winter Carnival will be holding a Mini-z race at the Wind River Casino, just outside of Riverton Wyoming on February 7th in one of their conference rooms. I'll be sure to post details for this race once we get more information.

Additionally we have a new home for our mini-z racing. Racing will return to Wyoming.com's office, in the large (and unused) basement conference room. From the sounds of things, races will be held on Saturday evenings.

On some sad news, a fellow club member, Bill Davis recently passed away. While he wasn't an active racer, but more of a guy who liked to play with his rc gear, he will be missed by the club.

Stay tuned, we'll be scheduling our 2009 races in the near future! On-Road will be hosted in August most likely. Off-Road, probably June, but the jury is still out.

Good luck!

Paul

Weekend Tuning

2008-12-16T07:00:00.000-08:00

I spent much of this past weekend doing some maintenance on my cars, and also started converting my TC5 into a Rubber Edition, from the original FT edition.

1/12th Scale
I decided to work on this car first to ensure I didn't break anything. I also wanted to install the new bearing I ordered last week. I screwed back in the servo, installed a battery and it appears that it is now working without any issues. That is great news, as I really didn't want to replace that quite yet. I got the bearings replaced in the front end of the car, the tires are so much smoother now. I also added a few shims to widen out the track. Lastly, I took out my calipers to ensure that my car was even left to right on rear axle. I had to adjust it slightly, but it's now lined up. The car looks to need its tweak setup. Here's hoping that I get a Tweak Station for Christmas! If not, I'll do it the old fashioned way if necessary.

1/18th Vendetta ST
I also decided to move forward and make a couple of setup changes to this car. I moved the bottom of the shocks outward, and adjusted the camber links to be longer. Since I'm racing this truck on carpet, I have a feeling that the adjustments will really bring it around so that it will be more competitive and locked in on the track.

Associated TC5
I knew about it when I first got the car, but the rear shock tower is definitely cracked. I decided that I'll go ahead and replace it. Right now, it looks like I may take this car out for its maiden voyage on January 18th down in Denver. Hopefully this will work out for me. Would like to get it on the track before I race it in Billings. I think for now, when it comes to carpet racing, I'm going to stick with either Super Stock or a Stock Class. I just don't trust myself in mod yet.

After Christmas, I think I'm going to go snag a budget price ESC for my Trans Am/GT entry. The more I think about it, the more I think I'm going to start this class for us as a general non-TaxiCab class, like the GT class.

Associated B4 Factory Team Edition

2008-12-15T12:57:00.000-08:00

My 1/10th 2wd Buggy car of choice is the Associated B4, Factory Team Edition.

The only change I've made is to use the Standard plastic chassis. Everything else is carbon composite FT parts. Also, my screw kit was replaced with screws from Hexscrews.com.

Electronics
Speed Control: Novak GTB
Motor: Novak 13.5
Receiver: Spektrum SPM1200
Servo: Hitec 5625MG.

I have never raced on a blue groove clay style track. So my setup is geared more towards forgiving setups with a bump towards the higher jumps and the rough stuff, since most times I'm racing on the same track as 1/8th scales.

You can download my setup here.

Follow me on Twitter

2008-12-11T14:44:00.001-08:00

Follow me on Twitter @ http://www.twitter.com/branhap

Not much else. Sorta my downtime of the year as I don't do much racing in December with the holiday requirements.

For some rambling information, I can contemplating ROAR Off-Road Nationals. It looks like funding won't be an issue, and the race is during a time period that its relatively easy for me to take time off work. Hmmm... Will have to keep thinking about this. Biggest question here if I do attend, is what class. Super Stock or Mod? When it comes to large events, I love to race mod and see how I compare against the big boys. Plus I'm just not a fan of Spec motors. I've run motors from EA before, and they were awesome, but not sure who I can trust to have good brushless motors yet. Nobody has a rep yet, and those that are claiming success are hiding what (if any) tuning they are doing to their brushless motors.

Outside of that, I just miss on-road racing right now. Really want to get my new TC5 on some carpet for a test run.

Cya,
Paul

1/12th Maintenance

2008-12-05T12:56:00.000-08:00

Well, assuming you read my last race report, my 1/12th scale had some issues in that race. It appears that my servo is ok. The screw just came loose in the horn. I'll have to screw it back in to confirm that I didn't strip it out still though.

I also ordered some new bearing from AvidRC for my 1/12th scale. I didn't have any front flanged bearings for my car in my spare box! Oops! That should be all fixed now though.

Right now, it's kinda tough to get to my RC gear as Christmas decorating is in full swing limiting access to my work table in the downstairs living room. This probably won't be an issue for much longer though.

No word on Mini-z racing here in Riverton yet. I'm hoping it comes around soon though.

Paul

Ramblings from my Turkey Vacation observations

2008-12-02T08:27:00.000-08:00

Well this past weekend I decided to upgrade my rclive account to a full access account. It's a nice service, and this past weekend was very reliable in letting me view the Cleveland Indoor Champs held this past weekend.

While watching the race, Scotty announced the dates for next year's IIC. Unfortunately for me, I realized I will probably never be able to attend this race due to the fact that it is always held during the first two weeks of classes at my job. During this time period, we are unable to take time off work. In some ways disappointing.

Also while reading some forum material, I also realized just how much of a lack of large Paved On-Road events there are. We have a wonderful paved facility here in Wyoming, but... this is Wyoming. It's not exactly easy to get here by plane as the airport in Riverton is puddle jumpers and only gets flights in from Denver. 2 hours away is a regional airport that would work, but again, they use tiny jets that make carry on baggage for RC gear difficult at best.

This led me to think. What classes should I offer next year? Luckily it's paved, so I don't have to worry about foam tires in Touring car... Many of us have grown used to mod here and will want to keep it that way. So here's my current thought of on-road classes we should offer...

Super Stock 2wd Gear box
This class was created to generate interest in on-road racing, by allowing our off-road racers the ability to race their car on-road and see the other on-road classes as well. Any 2wd Off-Road vehicle is allowed.

Vintage Trans-AM
I want to offer this class instead of Stock or Super Stock Touring Car. This would be a great class for our beginning touring car racers to get into. The only downside here is the 4 cell battery rule. Most of our beginning racers, only have 6 cell packs and many are still brushed. What to do in this situation?

Mod Touring Car
This is our most popular class this past summer. The downside to this class, is that probably only 3 or 4 of us can handle mod speeds in touring car. It's a great class though, and generates a lot of interest because of the speed.

Super Stock 1/12th
This is the hardest decision. Some of our racers would prefer to run mod in this class. However, I think only a couple of us could handle it. One suggestion was to use 10.5 motors. That's a good idea, but that's yet another motor wind to keep in your pit box. 10.5 motors are a perfect size for our track. I am afraid that 13.5 will seem to slow after 2 year of 10.5's. The other suggestion is Mod... Gah! Have you seen Mod 1/12th? Rocket on wheels with broken parts!! heh In the end though, I think we may end up going 10.5 for club events. For our trophy race, we'll probably offer Super Stock though, and perhaps Mod depending on interest. However, none of the tracks in our region offer mod 1/12th.

Outlaw Sprint Car Oval
This class will be geared towards 1/10th scale Losi Sliders. We'll allow any Outlaw Sprint car to run though. We chose this class because it's honestly the only oval car run within 2 hours drive of here. In other cases, the race the class on dirt oval tracks. There is some discussion that we may go Point Series with this class and join in with the Casper and Rock Springs tracks as well. (A 6 Race Point Series may work out). I won't make a closer decision on this class until the spring time though, as it may be a passing fad and I'm trying hard to avoid that.

Anything Goes Oval
Since our track is an oval track by trade, this class is designed for those who want to run oval. Racers can run any chassis of their choosing. I will probably offer up the class as a mod class, but it'll be interesting to see how it works out. The club has several 10L3's that we could use for rentals in this class as well. Ahhh the discussions to take place.

Well those are my thoughts from the Turkey Day weekend. Hope everyone had a good Turkey Day. Mark your calendar for mid-August for our Paved Trophy Race.

Cya,
Paul

My Pitgear

2008-11-25T12:23:00.001-08:00

Above is a picture of my pit at the last race in Rock Springs. Many times, I get asked about gear, what to get, etc.

So here's my pit setup...

Power Supply: Rivergate 15 Amp Power Supply. It works quite well. I have a 15 amp as I have 2 chargers going normally when I'm racing cars outdoors.

Charger: Team Checkpoint TC-1030. So far this has been a great charger. My only worry is when I'm switching between the same charger, that if I forget to switch from nimh 4-cell mode to lipo mode when I goto charge my lipo battery.

Soldering Iron: Hakko 936 with a 2mm Chisel tip. I also have a 3mm tip for when I'm soldering batteries. I do keep a pin tip one in the box in case I ever need to resolder a wire to a board on a servo or something crazy like that.

I haul my gear in a Trinity Hauler bag, and the majority of my tools and liquids in a double decker tool box. From there, I have small parts boxes for each kit in my arsenal. These boxes fit into the hauler bag. I also have a larger sweater box that I store any larger parts in, such as A-Arms.

So there you have it, that's my pit on most race days.

Race Report - Rock Springs/Allied Hobby

2008-11-23T07:54:00.000-08:00

Racing was held in Rock Springs yesterday. I woke up about 6am, and got on the road about 6:45am. I arrived in Rock Springs about 8:45. Got myself setup, and chatted with the gang for a bit. Billy offered to let me drive his exotek 1/18th 18r conversion car in the 1/18th scale on-road class. I didn't refuse the offer.

My practice packs were charged the night before and ready to go, so I decided to take out my Vendetta for practice first. The car had even more steering then the last race it seemed. But I gave it a decent run to get used to the track layout. The layout was nice as it did not include an oval track in the design this week. After practice I ventured into the hobby shop and purchased a pair of extra firm springs for my vendetta. Later I installed them on the front of my truck.

Next up, I practiced with my 1/12th scale 12L4. Friday night, I installed the Slapmaster Thrust bearing, along with their lowered center pivot for the t-bar. The car had a little more steering after these upgrades. I also installed new front tires, as my fronts were to low for ride height. This took out some of the steering. Overall though, I was ok with how the car handled.

Lastly, I took to the track with the loaner Exotek. The hard part about a loaner car is deciding how much to push it. The car was on rails handling wise so that was never an issue. In fact, as I can attest to later, it was on rails to much!

First Round Qualifying

Up first in the racing order was my Vendetta. The car was prepped with rubber tires and ready to hit the track. For qualifying, this class was split into two classes. DJ happened to be in the first heat along with me. For my heat, I had nothing for DJ in the first run, but managed to finish 2nd, 3rd overall in qualifying for this round. The race was fairly smooth.

Next up for me, was the Exotek. The car was clearly the fastest car on the track as I walked out to a 3 lap lead in the first 3 minutes. Then the car started to thermal. After a few warning shutdowns in shutdown for good with about a minute, 30 left in qualifying. In that time, I ended up third in the qualfying. 4th place, belong to Ken who broke something in his steering.

The last class for this round was 1/12th scale. My 12L4 took to the track strongly, and I managed to build up into 2nd place, but DJ was about 2 tenths a lap faster than me, so I couldn't do anything about him for this heat. However, I was comfortably in 2nd place out of the 4 cars.

2nd Round Qualifying
The running order stayed the same this time around. No resorts were done or anything. Up first my vendetta. For this round I got a loaner set of foam tires (35 rear, 45 fronts) from DJ to run. I forgot to sauce the tires, so it was a mixed bag between running better and slower. The race went fairly smoothly. I was in 2nd place comfortably, and I believe on pace for the 2nd qualifying spot. I flipped the car, and a marshal while turning my car over, kinda stumbled putting more pressure on the one side, pulling the screw and the tire out of the hub. He was kind enough to run over and fix it, but at that point, I was running for laps instead of a qualifying spot.

The exotek, freshly geared down this round, hit the track running hard again. I was in second place for several of the early laps. I was kinda out for a sunday drive when the annoucer announced that Billy was in the lead. I put down the clamps and worked on hitting fast lines, taking the lead a short time later, and eventually putting 3 laps on the field to take TQ.

In the 1/12th scale, I raced it up quite well. Still didn't have much on DJ, but this time around Billy's car hooked up better. For quite a while he was in 2nd place, before I was able to finally catch up to him and take the 2nd qualfying spot, behind DJ.

Mains
The mains were setup so that many of us would be running 3 classes back to back to back. With 8 minute mains, this is very tiring! The order of the classes stayed the same. However, they decided to put all 7 Unlimited trucks into one A-Main. Overall, I can't complain about my qualifying. I qualified third in Unlimited Truck, 1st in 1/18th On-Road, and 2nd in 1/12th On-Road.

We all got lined up in Unlimited 1/18th scale. With the large field and not much room to navigate, I knew it would be important to get off to a clean and quick start to get away from the field. In many respects the third qualifying spot was helpful. It was on the inside, and eliminated the chance of anyone getting inside of me on the start. I just had to worry about somebody hitting me in the rear or driving through me in the first turn. Also, thanks to DJ for giving me tire sauce for the main! Top qualifier was DJ, 2nd went to Monte, and 3rd was me. After the starting grid picture, the race got started. My Novak Mongoose powered brushless system was great. I shot into 2nd place and made it through the turns cleanly. DJ did as well, and I didn't have anything at all for him! For the majority of the race, DJ and I were on the same lap. Monte wasn't as lucky and got tangled up in the traffic of cars, but still managed to get himself back into 3rd place quickly, just a half lap behind Dj and I. 2 laps into the race we came up on our first gaggle of cars in the tightest section of the track. For the most part, we made it through cleanly. For the remainder of the race DJ and I would stretch out space or bring it closer depending on traffic. It was nearly impossible to get around some of the cars cleanly with their unpredictable lines. In one case, I had a car swerve into my lane as I was making an inside pass sending me flying off the track on the straight away once. In the end, I was comfortably in 2nd place by 7 laps, with DJ winning by 2 laps. The handling on my truck just fell apart after the sauce wore off in the final couple of minutes.

After that grueling main, it was the three of us in 1/18th On-Road. (Ken had dropped out due to a break). I was a bit worried about thermalling the car, so I decided I would run it hard and then pace myself behind the 2nd place car to keep things cooler. As it turns out this was a great stradegy as Billy and DJ battled it out for 2nd place, taking turns at the position several times through out the race. I decided I didn't want to mess up their close racing, so I hung behind them and never had to hit full throttle. Eventually Billy made a crucial mistake, and I went around him. He put to much pressure on himself to get caught up and wrecked a couple more times. When the announcer said one minute to go, I poured it on and raced full blast again. I got another lap on the field this time and won the race easily. A big thanks to Billy for loaning me a car and even being the mechanic on it all day for me. Great to have such a great group of racers down there!!

In 1/12th scale I was the 2nd place qualifier. On the tone, I managed to take the hole shot quickly jumping into the lead. The track had warmed up, so my car was handling better, but still sliding. 3 laps into the race, I slapped the pipe hard busting something in my steering. It ended up either being my servo screw came loose or I stripped it out. We'll find out when I take the car apart for maintenance. In the end, I got to watch some close racing between Monte and Billy. Eventually Billy took 2nd place and held onto it. Overall though, it was a great close battle between the two cars.

The Rock Springs crew put on a great show and after cleanup, several of us hit a local restaraunt for some food before I headed back to Riverton. Now, unfortunately they don't race on-road again until January. *sigh*

Until next time! Cya in the pits,
Paul

Duratrax Vendetta ST 1/18th Truck

2008-11-20T10:21:00.001-08:00

This post basically describes what I have added, changed, or removed from my Duratrax Vendetta ST truck. Please note. This truck is primarily raced on a carpet surface in an on-road environment. It will occasionally see a carpet track configured in an off-road layout with jumps, etc. However, I doubt this truck will see much outside or true off-road dirt action. Anytime a new component is added to the car, I'll post it here.

Duratrax Aluminum Wheel Hex - Link
I upgraded my truck to use the Duratrax Aluminum Hub adapters. Primarily because they are a bit more solid and and look nice.

Duratrax CV Driveshaft Steel - Link
I am a big fan of CVDs on my 1/10th scale cars. Having this item is a must have for me. Especially since I run a modified brushless setup on my car.

Novak Mongoose 13.5 Brushless System - Link
Brushless is the only way to go for me. I prefer sensored systems due to the fact that I really dislike cogging in sensorless motors. Novak has a great history for me, and is what I run in nearly all of my cars at the moment. Additionally, I run the Novak Mod 0.6 Pinion gears with this setup that Novak sells.

Duratrax Servo Holder - Link
After having my servo come out of its spot 2 times now, I decided to drop the money and get this. No idea why it wasn't included from the get go.

Duratrax Ball Bearing Differentials (Front & Rear) - Link
This is the last major upgrade I think I need to make for the car. From here on out, I'll probably start upgrading certain parts to Carbon Fiber, and such, but this item definitely will improve my handling. Looking forward to getting it on the track to try this out.

Changes coming down from ROAR

2008-11-18T19:17:00.001-08:00

ROAR released the minutes of their recent Ex-Comm meeting which included some hints at the changes coming next year. Here are the items that I found most interesting:

US Vintage Trans-Am class added - This class has been hot recently gaining a lot of steam since it began a year ago. The class features on-road racing with multiple motor/battery combinations with the restriction of 1960s-70s era bodies. The class brings back the slower racing styles, along with the ability to use older style chassis that make it extremely competitive and entry level friendly.
1/8th Off-Road Electric 4wd Buggy - With the large increase in nitro fuel this past year, many buggy owners started converting their buggies into electric beasts. ROAR is introducing this class with the inclusion of 4S Lipo batteries. This could become a big class with the improved battery life that Lipo gives us, brushless motors, and the durability of an 1/8th buggy.
World GT Class Added - This class, made popular at the IIC this past fall is quickly gaining ground at clubs across the nation. Replacing the existing 1/10th pan car class that has been dead for years, this new class brings lot of possiblities.
Electric Race classes to be 6 minutes - Face it, newer battery technology has lead to some unbelievable rollouts and Drive ratios. What better way to force people to bring the speeds back down by increasing race lengths to six minutes. More track time, plus slowing down cars a little bit. This should be good.
Rules adjustments to allow for 21.5 brushless motors used in the above mentioned USVTA class and Oval racing.

ROAR discussed and announced a few other changes as well. One item, a big controversy this past summer, included radio impound and leaving it up to the track. Also, they will be changing the wording of the rules to allow for the Designated Roar Official position to be the Race Director.

It's good to see ROAR acting proactive over the past couple of years and acting quickly to add these exciting new classes, and updating the rules.

Cya,
Paul

New 1/12th Parts on the way!!

2008-11-17T14:49:00.000-08:00

Decided to go ahead and order the Thrust Caged bearing, and low Roll Center Socket, both made by Slapmaster Tools. They should get here before the weekend allowing me to finally rebuild my Diff properly. Lastly have a few shims coming my way.

The Diff Thrust bearing takes the side load off of my flanged bearing, allowing for it to last longer, and not at so much risk when I impact the pipes with the rear wheels. With this item, my diff rebuilds should last much longer... probably in the every 4 to 5 month range for rebuilds.

The low Roll Center socket lower the T-Bar, increasing rear grip on my car. With the track in Rock Springs being such a low grip track I think this upgrade will further help me along on getting less hooked up late in a run, or when the track is colder.

Let's hope that Ashford Hobby's gets their order out quickly!

Paul

Tune Up for On-Road Next Weekend

2008-11-15T21:26:00.000-08:00

Well, looks like I am planning on making the trip down to Rock Springs next weekend for some 1/10th Unlimited Truck and 1/12th Super Stock Racing.

After performing the maintenance on my 1/12th scale car, looks like I'll need to replace the front tires soon. I think my ride height is down to 4mm. My Unlimited truck is doing good though. Now that I'm comfortable with the truck, I'll probably do some "tuning" at the next race. Hopefully this run, I'll be able to get it a bit more dialed and stay in the same timezone as Monte.

Paul

Upgrades & Maintenance.

2008-11-14T08:16:00.000-08:00

My TC5 will be going through some upgrades over the next week as I just recently purchased a ITF top deck and chassis to help me out with rubber racing setups. I haven't really decided what brushless system to put into this car yet. I think I'm going to start off with just putting my novak from my Off-Road buggy in it for now.

Eventually, I plan on upgrading the speed control to a Speed Passion, and the Motors to Trinity.

I had a brain fart and used the wrong screws on my Vendetta. So Wednesday night, I put in the proper screws to hold the wheels on. Next up will be some setup changes to take out some of the steering. For now, until I get some tuning options, I'll ahve to make the setup changes with shock oil, shock angles, and camber link lengths. Hopefully this will improve the handling. Also, I plan on changing the ride height.

My 1/12th scale handled wonderfully, but I did have a problem with the white diff cover on the spur gear rubbing the rear chassis plate. Unfortunately, I'm fresh out of shims. So I'll be purchasing some additional ones before the next race to get me going in that department.

As soon, as my new chassis and top plate arrive, the TC5 will be undergoing a full tear down and bebuild. Should be fun next week!

Lastly, it looks like we're starting to get some rumblings for mini-z racing so expect that to start back up sometime in the next couple of weeks. My current guess is that we start up the first weekend in December. That car will be next up for a rebuild, as that will be the next time I race I think.

Cya,
Paul

Welcome & 1st Race Report!

2008-11-10T07:09:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my new blog. As some of you know, I have a blog at blog.paulnkaty.com. I decided to create this blog as to not mix the two completely different topics of Programming and RC Racing together. I will update this blog on a regular basis with race information, including races I plan on attending. Plus in some ways, I'm hoping it helps me improve as a racer! Ok... now let's get to my first race report.

This past weekend, I visited SWRC's Indoor Carpet track which is setup on weekend's in a large shop garage @ Allied Hobby in Rock Springs. The track isn't overly big at, 40x24 feet. However, the size is great for 1/18th scale racing and even 1/12th on-road racing.

Practice
I arrived about 2 hours early to get my pit area setup for the race day. One mistake I made was to not have a battery charged for my 1/12th scale ahead of time. Due to this, I only put down about 4 minutes of practice on my 1/12th scale. During practice I couldn't break the 10 second mark. I figured I would be in for a lot of trouble, as D.J., the local fast guy was putting down 8 second laps. I wasn't saucing my tires, and without more practice time, was reluctant to do that during qualifiers. My car was handling ok, just a little to much steering. For the record, my 1/12th scale car is an Associated 12L4 with the IRS rear motor pod, customized to fit brushless motors.

My second class is 4wd Unlimited Truck, for which I run the Duratrax Vendetta ST with a Novak Mongoose Brushless System & hooked up to a Common Sense Lipo Battery. I didn't practice much with this guy as I only have the one battery at the moment. The car had a ton of steering, but clearly was at the top of the heap when it came to motor power against my rivals.

1st Round Qualifying
In this round of qualifying, my Vendetta was up first. I drew the 4th qualifying spot out of 6 cars. I hit the ground running hard when my turn on the clock came up. I was running comfortably in 2nd place, when I hit a bump going into the left hand sweeper and slid out retaining wall. The impact didn't break anything, but was hard enough to knock my servo loose. As a result, my heat was finished. I didn't have anything for the first place guy, but knew I had what it took to stay in 2nd place. I wasn't really comfortable with the car yet to make any setup changes for today though.

My 12L4 also drew the 4th spot out of 5 cars for qualifying. The track had warmed up some, so my car started to handle much better. The track is somewhat narrow for this class, so I spent much of the race figuring out where I could make clean passes on the other racers. In the end, I was comfortably in 2nd place. D.J. managed to beat me by 2 laps.

2nd Round Qualifying
In this round, I got my Vendetta's Servo strrapped back down and hit the track running. I was running comfortably in second place when the leader broke. I continued to push it as much as possible and ended up taking first place by 11 seconds over Jerry.

For my 1/12th car, I decided to put Yellow Rears on it to see how it handled. The other racers were running that compound, but were also saucing their tires. I threw it down on the track for pre-race warm-ups and quickly found out I lost all rear traction. These tires were uncut so I'm thinking that was part of it, and also thing that it was partly due to the high ride height. I got my car back on the bench and switched out the tires and got my car down for the last 2 minutes of the race. My car was handling even better at this point, but alas I did not have enough time to make up any spots and finished in last. This would prove costly as I'll explain later.

Mains
After a short break it was time for the mains. Due to a computer malfunction, only the laps from the 2nd qualifier were counted. So for my 1/18th 4wd Truck Unlimited class, this meant I snagged the poll. In 1/12th, I started in last, due to my not getting in the full run. The qualifiers were all 5 minutes, even the 1/12th scale which proved to be an advantage to me, but the mains are all 8 minute runs.

My Vendetta was up first. I started on the poll, got a good start and tried to build up as much of a lead as possible knowing that Monte, had a better car and due to his break was starting in the last qualifying position. I held onto the lead for the first 5 laps or so, and started to run into traffic. Unfortunately the back markers wouldn't move over for the leaders, so it made for some difficult passes. I passed the back marker only to get slammed in the rear as he over shot a corner. The spin out allowed Monte to pull into the lead. In the end, his car just handled to well and I lost by 2 laps still, but managed to keep 2nd place. This race ended up being sort of an attrition race as by the end only 2 of us were on the track.

As I mentioned earlier, in 1/12th, due to the computer issue, I started at the back in 5th place. The tone sounded and I shot past the 4th place car by the time we got to the start/finish line. Into the 180 degree turn, I managed to get inside position and through rubbing fenders got myself into 2nd place. D.J. had a clean start and broke out to an early lead. Through the infield, I managed to keep myself in it and got into 2nd place. The track was definitely faster, but my tires were cold to start the race. (Time to invest in tire warmers!!) I steadily held onto 2nd place, but D.J. was building a lead on me. At one point, I believe he lapped me. Later he got tangled up in some traffic and I got my lap back. Around the 5 minute mark, my car just came to life. The sun hit the sweeper corner after the straight giving me the ability to carry that corner faster than anyone else. The other cars tire sauce had gone away around this point giving me even more of an advantage. I started reeling in D.J. nicely. With about 3 laps to go in the race, D.J. pulled over thinking that he had a lap on me. As I came across the start finish line, the Race Announcer announced that I was the new leader. D.J. battened down the hatches. As lap and a half later, I missed a corner going wide, D.J. took the inside position and got head of me. In the infield I had more punch and pulled aside him we battled through back onto the straight away and I pulled back into the lead with my advantage on the sweeper turn. The race ended a lap later, me leading by .815 seconds over D.J. and taking first place.