SLCC Round 3 – Yateley
rcLazy.com Team Including Tiny Mascot!
The whole rcLazy team was out in force at Yateley Model Car Club. at the weekend for round 3 of the Southern League Challenge Cup. We had fun, laughed at blue bits, fed chips to small children and went reasonably quickly.
The track is very similar in size to Bashley, a longer straight, and a KILLER downhill chicane. They’ve lowered the kerbs in this chicane for ‘09 thankfully, and it’s a lot safer, you get it wrong and you just end up out of shape, on the wrong line, slow, or on the grass. But you don’t end up in the air, or with a broken car.
New Shell Showing Battle Scars Already
Saturday was setup day, my 416 worlds was almost perfect on kit setup, I just changed springs. The rest of the Tamiya guys spent hundreds of laps trying to find the perfect setup, and ended up near mine! I added a bit of anti-dive on Sunday morning following their advice, thanks for all the hard work guys!
We did okay in the end, scattered around the A and B finals in all classes. I qualified 3rd in Stock, and had a nice second final, getting up into the lead, before throwing it away, falling into the grass and letting Scott Hauser through for the win!
Rob 'Sandbagger' Howett Posing Like A Pro
Some of us even got some trophies, Rob Howett resorted to sandbagging the pro-stock B final to show us all how to smile at a camera, hold a trophy, hold a car, ensure team logos are clear, all at the same time. Ol’ dog Howett gets it right every time! His B final winning performance would have been good in the A-final, too late in the day mate!
Ed Clark and Mark Townsend made the A final, and Mark had a nice battle in the second leg for position two. Sam ended the race in front of Mark though. We doubt Mark would have been up there if he hadn’t rebuilt his diff minutes before the final. Ed suggested he did it about 28 hours before, but of course that would have been far too sensible!
A great weekend, not perfect by any means, but being rcLazy isn’t about being perfect, it’s about not trying too hard!
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- rcLazy.com Team Including Tiny Mascot!
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- New Shell Showing Battle Scars Already
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- Mark Townsend Trying To Pass Sam Martin
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- Ed Clark Hand Painted rcLazy Sticker
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- Ashley Finch Sits It Out…
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- Jason Findlay Shows Bottom of Car
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- Reuben Manning Loses Feeling in Right Hand
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- Matt Sedgley Gets Newtonated In Sponsor Shirts
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- Rob ‘Sandbagger’ Howett Posing Like A Pro
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- SHMCC Team – Naughty Ed!
Group photos courtesy of Jason Moggridge.
All other photos thanks to Dan Pitter of Blink Studio.
More event photos at: YMCC
How was your SLCC Yateley? Comment below and tell us all about it!
Written by simon.
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3 Responses to “SLCC Round 3 – Yateley”
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My Weekend started early on Saturday morning, the first challenge was getting to the service station at the right time.. in a naturally lazy way, normally I’m late!
We arrived early; camp and supplies all sorted and cars on the track by 10AM!
Some 300+ laps, and a not very lazy day later it was time for the obligatory barbecue!!
Sunday started very early! Apparently there are two 5.15’s in the day.. I learnt this the hard way! cars were out by 6, warmers on by half past! The hours flew by and Q1 was over, I ended up 10th over all. including a 22 second lap with some marshalling confusion based on who had finished and who hadn’t! Q2 ended after just 4 laps, thanks to a rogue car getting back off the grass and infront of a lazy, but fast Cyclone TC. Surprisingly I managed to keep 10th overall, my first run was still quick enough to make the cut for the A!
Q3 started well and finished respectably, however not quite as fast as I would have liked. feedback from the experts said that I was allowing fast cars through to early and loosing far to much time, It’s the first time I’ve been in the top heat of qualifying so it was a bit of a learning curve! At the end of Q3 I slipped to 2nd in the B, not to shabby, all things considered..
The first final was very good, I went from the front to the back in a first lap incident, then managed to work back through the field, to second. Final number two was better, however I made a foolish mistake chasing down Nick Snelgrove from Yeovil, I got to close to a lapped car whilst chasing the last two feet to the back of Nick, which left me high and dry on top of the lapped car, apologies to Mason Sadler, I’m not quite as quick on the reactions as I’d like to be!
A fantastic weekend! Roll on Yeovil!!!
Matt Sedgley
I arrived late saturday, A bizzare weekend as a few minor setup tweaks and a slight change to gearing got the cyclone running nicely arround the track! I guess running 17.5 is easier to set the car up as you aren’t travelling as fast to notice setup mistakes?
A little tip from the other lazy drivers helped me stablize the car at the bottom of the chicane.
Only putting in roughly 40 laps on the Saturday made my consistency suffer on the Sunday. I put the fastest lap in Q1, but that doesnt count for squat if you cant keep it on the track!
Q2 I took it a little more steady (some noticed that I wasnt quite attacking the chicane) I put in a decent time (which was to be my fastest for the day putting me 4th on the grid)
Q3 was not great, I sat behind another car for a few laps and was not quite prepared to go past when they mentioned, with it being the furthest point on the track before I knew it accelerating out of the corner caused me to take out myself and the other driver (ruined that run for both of us, sorry!)
Onto the finals!
it was all or nothing, beating car 3 into the first corne, out braking and forcing them to back off (may have even used the verge a little :S ) Then had to hold every apex for a further 4 minutes to the car in 4th as they were cornering much faster than me and had better lines, but my punch and top end kept me ahead.
2nd final was a bit messy, got tagged in the first corner and had to fight my way up from 8th, surprisingly I managed to wangle my way to first after passing a number of cars and 2 that had tangled coming onto the straight. After that I had 3 laps in the lead but ran wide at the corner at the end of the straight – One driver cut in on the inside and tagged my backend – causing my to go on the grass….. back on the track again in 6th. after chasing down the other cars I was out raced by the car in 3rd who blocked my every attempt at a pass, however coming onto the straight in the last lap I squeezed everything out of the little motor (from being 1 foot behind I passed gained 3rd by 0.06 seconds, something to do with transponder position maybe?)
anyway that secured me 2nd in 17.5 and a result I am very happy with!
Reuben Manning
For some reason this year i’m enjoying racing.
It may not be the ‘norm’ when contesting big race meetings like the SLCC but I am genuinely enjoying it.
Saturday started brightly enough with a couple of good runs, up to the point of crystal confusion and a 10.5 rotor that literally shattered into hundreds of tiny magnets. Scratch one LRP, rear belt, centre pulley and spur gear. Liberally apply spares and mix in a whole dollop of cash on a new motor. Cue the Tekin Redline.
Not a particularly RCLazy couple of hours.
Spent the rest of Saturday with a set up that made the car nice to drive (if a little drifty!) But importantly consistent.
Thanks to Ian’s genius idea of booking in on Saturday afternoon I can roll out of bed in Totton at 7.30 pick up Rob at 8 and get to the track for 8.30/ 9 with no danger of missing booking in or the vital drivers briefing.
Bacon sandwiches start the day off in typical RCLazy fashion and the day followed a similar pattern.
My car was sketchy on new boots in Q1 but with heat coming up and times coming down, new boots again for Q2 and the car was dialled. 14.3 best lap 14.6 average. 5th in the A final all sorted with only 2 qualys done, RCLazy!
Q3 was a wipeout thanks to a revenge sideswipe. Still must say thanks to the driver involved I got to stay in the A and keep a 1 run set of tyres for the A final.
F1- 6th to 2nd, back down to 9th and up to 7th a proper yo yo final but the car was fast and had potential. Seemed slow on take off so I decided to rebuild the diff, not the RCLazy way but you gotta try.
1 hour countdown. Bit of a chat, snacks rebuild the diff. No dramas. Until I tried to turnover the transmission. Locked solid. I found a cross joint had come apart in the front hub with the drive pin anchoring the whole thing together. 10 mins before my race the whole of the hub assembly is apart, rebuilt, regreased and ready to go with 2 minutes to spare. Still not an RCLazy way of approaching the race. Very stressful but successful.
F2 was superb. Mark Sadler launched off in the lead and after some first corner (and second) carnage I found myself in the heady position of 2nd with Sam Martin chasing me down hard. Eventually after my backmarker pal from Q3 punted me onto the grass again, Sam took 2nd and try as I might I couldn’t wrestle it back from him.
We had a superb race and I still have the grin on my face even now.
And that’s the point. Enjoyment. Granted it was a slightly stressful Sunday afternoon but the good humour in the pits from Si, Ed and the gang and the super race with Sam made the weekend for me.
I’m enjoying racing again, and I strongly advise anyone to try enjoying it, it’s actually quite good fun.
Mark