Oople Series Round 2 - RHR

Morning/afternoon or evening depending on when your reading this.  We decided on getting to the track early on the Saturday morning as there was 2 hours of open practice which was required due to last weeks poor performance.  We were promised glorous sunshine all weekend but we were met with cloudy skys which to be fair wouldnt clear all day.

The cars weren't too bad straight out without any changes, but throughout practice after trying different combinations of tyres we were all set.

The format of the weekend was to be 4 rounds of qualifying on the Saturday followed by 1 round on Sunday and 3 legged finals for everyone.

Rounds 1 - 3

All three of us (mark, abi and James) were fairly consistent James had a few problems with his car kept cutting. Abi decided to try mini pins (not as bad as we thought) and me and James stuck to yellow mini spikes front and back. 

Round 4

Due to us driving consistently the decision was taken to try different things, I went with 2wd front spikes and new rear yellow spikes, new jc wing and jc body shell, abi and James went with new tyres as well.  This transformed the cars we all managed to improve our times to the delight of all of us. 

So at the end of Saturday we were all lined up together abi 29th, James 30th and me 31st.

After the BBQ and car cleaning, diff changing on the Saturday night it was decided an early night was needed, all this fresh air kills you. 

Our pitting corner of the field 

Sunday morning again like Saturday was open practice for an hour and half. I decided to bed my car in after a diff oil change on practice 1 (10k front 5k rear) but then decided to change in my spare diffs which contained 3k front and 2k rear, the car was alot more direct on the track and would probably be quicker in the reminding qualifier but it fealt too edgy for me so i decided to go back to the original diffs.

Final round

On to the final round of qualifying we all improved our final times after the changes before round 4.  The cars were very settled through the fast parts of the track.

On to the finals we go, I would line up 8th on the c final grid very happy with this, abi 7th and James 2nd.  I thought at best before the finals I would be able to gain a couple of positions.  

1st final, again there would be the first corner drama in front, James getting rammed from behind would be an unstatement, abi got caught up as well, I managed to slip through without any trouble where I would contest 3rd position for most of the race to which I would duly finish (my best times of the day as well), abi would finish 5th but James would fail to recover and only managed 8th. 

On to the second final, again James got caught up on the first corner and had to wait for passing cars before marshalling, I managed to drive alright for a couple of laps but a few silly mistakes soon put pay to any decent finish in this round of finals.   Abi drove like a diamond pushing for a win but just lost out by 1.4 seconds. Me and James had a drag race to the line see photo enactment below of what happened

 

3rd and final round of the c final, James finally managed to turn his 2nd on the grid to a good finish of 3rd. I managed to get up to 4th with 2 laps to go, but a silly mistake with no pressure dropped me down the field and ended up 7th. Abi had a decent race and finished 6th. Overall Abi finished 4th on the same points as 3rd with a 0.13 slower average, I finished 7th and James finished 8th.

Overall I am presently pleased with my performance especially after the previous weekend at this venue, qualifying in the c final and managing to finish 3rd in the first of the finals.  I was a little disappointed with the other 2 finals but mistakes will happen, but with less frequencys hopefully.

Our cars

Track photo of a final 4wd

 

This was the second round of the Oople Series which is in its first year of being run and we have throughly enjoyed ourselvers at it, its just unfortante we are unable to complete the whole of the series.  We are defintely looking foward to next years series.

 

My set up from RHR http://forum.teamxray.com/xform/index.php?act=view&ID=98&setup=xb4

 

Link to series results so far http://www.oopleracing.com/2013/index.htm

 

 

Mid East BRCA Regional Round 2 RHR

I have been looking forward to visiting RHR for a long time, I have heard very good things about the venue but a little disappointed I haven't visited sooner and the fact that my right hand man and left hand woman are missing in action today.

Photo of track

 

What a glorious way to the start I the day, sunshine, something which you don't associate with UK in the summertime. 

Practice

With my car being all set for practice with little changes needed at the start of the day, I have decided to test the jconcepts bodyshell back to back.

 Photo of body shells 

First practice decided to go with standard bodyshell and white ballistic tyres, car felt kind of alright, it was a little loose on the rear.  

Second practice went with jc shell and Schumacher mini spikes, car wasundriveable, rear end spinning at every corner

On to round 1, not a good way to get the regional underway, popped a ball joint on steering cost me a over a minute.  Very disappointed overall, didnt have the time to tell if my setup on the car was anygood or not.

Round 2 saw a big improvement, car still doesn't feel 100%, maybe I'm expecting too much from electric racing who knows. For this round I went to cut mini spikes on the front with ballastic whites on the rear with the standard shell. 

Round 3 didn't start too good when I forgot to tighten a wheel nut to which i lost a wheel on practice. A quick trip back to the pits gave me just enough time to make the start.  On this round i went to 2wd mini spikes on the front and the jc shell. The xb4 was not at its best to put it nicely, it felt very loose at the rear, dont know whether this was the tyre change or bodyshell who knows, 4th round I will have to go back to what I know best.

Round 4, I made a few changes to the car, back came the standard shell, some aka red insert mini spikes to the front and rear and a change of the rear chamber arm length.  The car and I drove much better in the final round, but still not quite there yet a basis to start at next weekend at the Oople Off Road Series.

Final qualifying postions saw me line up 7th in the c final. Lee bunker lined up 8th in b and Colin Jackson 4th in the b final.

On to the finals then, this time I decided to take a punt on the rear tyres by going for green ballastic spikes which are normally used for wet conditions, it seemed to make my car safer to drive although it wasn't any faster.  I had an half decent final,just wish I could have pushed the car that little bit hard, after the first couple of mayhem laps I settled down into a decent pace finishing 2 places higher than starting and only 3 seconds off 2nd and a further 10 seconds to 1st place.

Colin and lee both had eventful finals in the b, Colin getting taken out whilst chasing down 1st place and lee running out of time whilst chasing down the pack.

Hopefully next week at the Oople series at RHR will provide a better result after today's experience.

I couldn't finish this instalment without posting a picture of The Dirt track at RHR, the only true 1/10th off road dirt track in the UK

Blog 1 - 2013 - Oople Round 1, Mid East Regionals Round 1 and TMSC Round 2

Good Afternoon / morning / evening depending on when you’re reading this blog.  I said to myself after last years TMSC blog that I would give this season a miss, but after looking at the viewing numbers I have deceived to give it another go.  I have decided to make a few changes to the blog this year, mainly due to me also racing 1/10 4WD electric off road.  This blog will throughout the year incorporate both 1/8^th nitro (Xray xb9’13) and 1/10^th electric (Xray Xb4) events.

 

This first blog of the series is going to incorporate 3 events, these being Oople Series Round 1 at Stotfold (1/10^th), 1^st round of East Mids Regional 1/10^th and the 2^nd Round of TMSC at Frankly

 

Oople Series Round 1 – Racing electric 1/10^th is a fairly new thing to me especially outdoors (although we race indoors through the winter); we decided as our little team that we would race this all year round in a bid to improve our driving ability to achieve better results.  The first outing with the Xray Xb4 would be at the Brand New Series the Oople Team had started.  This took place over the weekend of the 20^th and 21^st April, and what a weekend we had, sunshine (which we all got burnt), relaxed atmosphere and some cracking racing especially watching 1 of the A Final 4wd legs to which I will explain later. 

 

The itinerary for the weekend was open practice in the morning until 12pm, 5 rounds of qualifying on the Saturday; open practice Sunday morning for an hour followed by the final qualifying round and then onto 3 legged finals for everyone.  Saturday morning was a little problem for us travelling some 110miles down to Stotfold track; we couldn’t leave Derby until 9am due to me dropping my boy off at my sisters meaning we would only get 10mins of open practice track time if we were lucky.  On arriving at the track with 20 minutes to spare we quickly kit the track for some much needed practice and track learning, the cars were very good straight out, although throughout the day we made various changes to these.

 

 

Photo of track

 

 

This weekend was also a first for me; I decided to bring Oscar (beagle) our dog with us to enjoy a weekend in the countryside, to which he dually enjoyed.

 

Photo of Oscar on way home

 

Throughout the day we all improved our cars and times, but it wasn’t until the end of the day after a track walk by our team driver Nathan Ralls that we had a better understanding to what lines we should be taking, by the way Nathan went on to TQ 4wd event, and 2^nd in 2wd.

 

Once we had cleaned the cars down and charged all our batteries we decided to take a trip into the picturesque town of Letchworth Garden City for some tea, if you are ever in the area it is a must visit.

 

With the event being a 2 dayer it was decided rather boldly to camp instead of staying in one of the close by hotels, it turned out to be a little mistake, for the first time ever experienced after a hot day we had frost on our tents in the morning. It was bloody cold, good job I had 2 sleeping bags.

 

Sunday morning came and we all managed to get on the track for some good practice, testing tyres and small setup changes which had been suggested on the track walk Saturday night.  I decided to go with ballistic white mini spike tyres as there were safer to drive consistently on a track which was made up of half new astro and half old astro, my lap times certainly improved.

 

Photo of final qualifying positions

 

Nathan Ralls Xb4 – tq’d the event

 

I came 23^rd, James 26^th and Abi (after a few problems with ESC) 32^nd

 

Finals certainly opened my eyes up to the world of 1/10^th racing with legs 1 and 2 suffering 3^rd corner take outs leaving me dead last after the first laps.  After this the problems kept coming, leg 1 I managed to get my self back into contention with the top 3 only to make a silly boy school error on the last corner causing me to finish well down the pack.  Leg 2, I never stood a chance of regaining any position in the race and ended up fighting at the back of the pile.  Leg 3 I managed to keep out of the way of all the trouble finishing 4^th, but for some reason lacked a little power.  Any way overall I was pleased with the outcome of the day, finishing 7^th overall in the C final.  James after a similar start to his C finals managed to finish 4^th Overall.  Just to note we Simon Moss (an A national finalist driver) in our finals who missed Saturdays qualifying.  In the D final Abi showed everyone a clean set of wheels winning her final overall after a 2^nd position and 2 1^st positions.

 

We managed to watch the A finals on Sunday and never before have I seen a final where both the 1^st and 2^nd placed drivers fail to complete there last laps.  There was some amazing driving in the top finals, “if only……….”

 

 

On to the BRCA Mid East Regional 4wd Round 1 at West Bridgeford

 

This event was on the same weekend as the first round of the TMSC series and because there are fewer regional’s to undertake the decision was taken to drop this round and head to West Bridgeford for the 1^st round of the BRCA Mid-East Regional’s for 1/10 4wd.

 

This was another eye opener for us racing on a rugby grass training pitch, something we had not done before.  The order of the day was open practice in heat order followed by 4 rounds of qualifying and finals.  The key to running on grass was to find the right tyres on the ever evolving track and to be fair something I struggled with all day, but as they say a good racing experience for future races.  The cars all seemed to work well but with tyres being the key it was hard to find a rhythm.  I ended up qualifying in 30^th place with Abi 28^th and James 24^th, placing us all in the same final.  Colin managed a very impressive 4^th place but I think this has something to do with his super thumbs (Lol).

 

In the final me and James struggled with the car, we seemed to have chosen the wrong tyres which caused some woeful driving.  I finished 8^th, James 6^th and Abi 5^th miles down the road completing an extra lap.  Colin didn’t fare much better in the A final, constantly being taken out by slower cars.

 

 Photo of qualifying and a picture of our cars

 

 

TMSC Round 2 - Frankly

 

For the first time since I can remember, I have not been able to go to the track on the Saturday for practice before racing on the Sunday due to family commitments.  This hasn’t helped at all to be fair, I have not raced or practiced with the Xb9 for a good few weeks and after the last outing with it I could have done with some track time. 

 

 

 

 

Sunday morning bright and early, out of bed at 5am, need to be on the road for 5.45 at the latest so that we reach the track by 7am.  Really looking forward to tomorrows racing!

 

 

Photo of track

 

Once camp was all setup, we all decided to make a few changes to the cars, stiffening up the shocks as the cars were setup for wet to damp conditions and not the dry sunny conditions which we had.  Summer has well and truly turned up.

 

Round 1 –Frankley track had under gone a transformation since we was last here, new astro laid, new features put in and some taken out, overall a certain improvement undertaken by its members “Well done”.  I wasn’t expecting alot from the first round, get some laps under the belt whilst learning the track, but I didn’t expect to do so badly, the car was not suited to my driving style but what made things worst was the engine cutting out after only managing 5 laps with a best lap of 45.05 some 3 seconds off the pace with an average of 51.03 compared to the leader 45.42.

 

Round 2 – I had made a few more changes to the car to help, which still didn’t help but again an engine glow plug failure cut short any chance of learning the track or getting a decent qualifying position.  I completed 6 laps again with an average of 50.27 compared to the leader in my heat of 44.38 and a fast lap of 45.15 compared to 40.70.  Major improvements required!!

 

Round 3 – I was all set for this round, a new glow plug in, and changes to take some of the grip away but guess what; I never even got round the first corner before the changes I had made caused the rear drive shafts to pop out.  I could have easily packed up and gone home if my car wasn’t blocked in.  What an unbelievably poor start to the day/season, one certainly to forget.  I ended up qualifying in my worst ever position of 80^th out of 95 and 9^th on the grid in the G Final.   

 

On to the finals (G Final), I decided to make some major changes to my car with the help of James, having not really benefitted from any track time.  These changes helped me alot, the car seemed a lot more easier to drive although the first couple of corners where you can carry some speed the car seemed to squat down a litte (maybe stiffer suspension would have sorted this out) grip rolling.  I settled down into the final fairly quickly, picking my way through the traffic on the first couple of laps to assume 1^st place after just 4 laps, a position I would keep for the rest of the race.  I ended up with an average of 49.59 and a fast lap of 42.73 some 2.5 seconds faster than everyone else, a big improvement on the day.

 

F Final, I would start 12 on the grid after bumping up, again I managed to get a fairly clean get away, but unable to catch 1^st position due to some driving hiccups within the race.  The car seemed to be grip rolling more causing me to take it easy on some parts of the track.  I finished 2^nd this time with an average of 49.18 which was an improvement on my first final and a fast lap of 42.73. 

 

E Final, again I would bump up and would start in the 13^th position on the grid.  This race was certainly more of a struggle to catch the leads, it wasn’t until half way through the race that I managed to get into the top half of the field and then on the final lap land the 3^rd and final bump up position of the race.  I finished with a slower average due to the scrappiness of the final of 50.09 and a slightly slower fastest lap of 43.21.

 

D Final, it had to end somewhere, although I did manage to get up into the number 3 spot after 3 laps a position which I managed to hold until my steering servo horn screw came lose ending my day.  I managed only 7 minutes of this final but with an average of 45.17 which would have been good enough for 2^nd position, some 4 seconds faster than my best without taking into account a pit stop.

 

Overall at the end of the day I’m disappointed with my qualifying, struggling with engine issues (maybe I need to think about a change here, it is 1 season old) and then making silly setup changes which caused a car malfunction.  I suppose some of the setup problems throughout the day could have been sorted had I attended the practice day yesterday and my engine did manage over 60minutes of racing without a problem.  My finals pace was consistent and pretty please with it, I just wonder where I would have finished had I qualified better.

 

At the next round at the end of June I will start with the setup I finished with on the practice day and hopefully get to a point where I am happy with the car.

 

Photos of car in the finals

 

 

 

Finishing setup sheet