Robin Hood Raceway Club Meeting
I had some business Oop North, so I planned it around a Robin Hood Raceway club meeting, run by YORCC.
The Track
The RHR track is really quite cool. Built on top of the site of the old Worksop club track it’s basically a lot of astroturf (of varying types) on top of a big pile of (sandy) soil crafted into a load of bumps and humps.
They designed it with permanent features, such as doubles, tabletops, bomb hole, sweeped banks, and concrete ‘apex islands’.
Hoses then create numerous tracks very easily, and means any layout is really challenging, and different every time.
Cleverly, the apexes often have a feature, such as a lump or hole close to the apex, so if you fall off line you end up falling off something, or going up something, thus slowing you down.
It’s a work of genius, if you get chance to race there do it. If you get chance to build your own track, build it like this!
Saturday
The kindly land owner let me camp the night before, so I got down there on the Saturday do find a handful of racers doing some testing.
And they weren’t holding back I can tell you, proper car breakages were the order of the day! Hurrah! Snap!
I pootled around the track with the RB5, and it wasn’t too good, I think the weighting was all wrong – I realised I was running different lipos. It needs sorting out.
So the 511 went on track instead, a good idea seeing as I was entered for 4wd for the Sunday meeting. It was nice, until I flipped it and then it refused to go again. Seems the land owner killed it with a Fandango or something…
Actually, I think the (LRP) motor sensor board or connector or something went awry, that’ll teach me for buying second hand motors…
[Whilst testing the motor I managed to fry the spare car speedo, but don't tell anyone, I reversed-polaritised it... Duh... So the spare car is as usual incomplete...]
The 511 had a bit of understeer, pushing mid and exit, I tried newer front tyres but that made it snatchy and grip-rolly. I remembered I’d not put on the shiny blue new 12 degree castor blocks, so I’ve chucked those on now, reset the end-points and I’m sure it’ll be improved.
All we need now is nice weather on the Sunday. And a jolly good sleep, I’m a bit knackered after the 8 hour drive up here…
Evening: I’ve just spent ages looking at Hupo’s Astro Euros setup, and it’s all familiar, apart from inner top links are a lot lower than mine… I’ll be doing that then… I think it will reduce roll, which is good on high-grip? Oh, and his front top links are longer, I don’t know what that means. I might ask someone who looks clever.
Sunday
Clocks went forward… An hour less sleep…
I was woken by the sound of the burger van sneaking around the back of the van, I’d clearly slept like a log. I peered out of the window and there was half a field full of cars already. Tents were flapping in the wind in attempts to be erected.
I got up and set up. And somehow managed to miss the queues for both booking in and practice… The car was ‘fine’.
After round 1 Moss and Yardy are topping 2 and 4wd. Whereas I’m DQ after the first round, but hey, there’s about 7 guys below me! Not last, hurrah!
The car went okay, I didn’t like the inner top link change I made, so I’ve put that back, and it seemed overgeared, down a couple of pinions.
I rolled a good few times and needed marshalling, I think to do okay on this track, as always, slower may be faster… Great fun track though, hard but enjoyable, I’m loving it!
Round 2 I improved, the motor came off cooler, thankfully. But still ended up 3 from bottom. Fastest lap was quicker, the car was okay, needed a bit more stability, so changed the wing for Round 3. Went down a couple more pinions.
Round 3 I had a nice run, improved by a whole lap, was only marshalled a couple of times, which is good for me, a few other mistakes, but better. The motor came off hotter again, I think this motor is about to die… Went back up a pinion to see what happens. The wing improved it a lot, especially at high speed.
Round 4 was great, the car was good, the motor didn’t go soft (but still coming off at 93 degrees, seems a bit hot to me?) and I drove harder and smoother. Improved the time again.
So I’m pleased with qualifying, it’s round by round, so I think that means best 2 rounds. I had a 31, 31, 24, 24 so that made me, err, 32nd… I’m not sure how all that works to be honest! No matter, that means I’m not last, and I feel I’ve done my best.
Lots of generators here today, and the award for the quietest has to go to the Honda EX650, old but really really really quiet. A lot quieter than the Kipor ig1000, which I thought were quiet until I heard the Honda, I nearly tripped over it before I heard it. I’ll be ebaying of those then. [Update: found one, £71 spares or repair, runs fine, no output... umm...]
I always forget to say how the winners are doing, but they’re up there, winning, and I can’t work out how they are going quicker… Well, I can, they’re just getting it done…
Finals time, 2 leg finals which was nice. The car was fine (apart from a cracked front shock tower), the motor certainly wasn’t, it was dying rapidly, and to be honest I’m very surprised it kept going. It had no power, jumping was a nightmare, and down the straight I had a nice nap. I came in 2nd in the end, and got a super trophy too!
The drive home (5 hours) was fine, and my general thoughts on the way were:
- The 511 handles like a dream
- Electronics are the devil
- Robin Hood Raceway is just brilliant
- The chuckle bus seems to prefer Shell fuel
Some random photos…
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Buy Lazy Things !
We’re On eBay
Getting it done Crabby!
Looks good, shame about the motors. Maybe buy a new one next time?
Can I nick your 511 set up ready for the regionals?