Stotfold: Mid-South 4wd Regional R1

April 12, 2010 · Posted in Off Road, Racing, Tamiya · by simon

We weren’t really up for getting up at 4am or something ridiculous on a Sunday morning to get to Stotfold 4wd Regional, so I asked nicely and arranged to camp over in the chuckle bus.

So Saturday tea time we trucked up there, and took ages to get there.

It took so long it was dark when we got to the track. No cheeky practice then (the club don’t allow it anyway, only on race days), instead we ran a lap of the track, and were amazed at how steep some of the jumps were. I lost.

We were woken by cars arriving, and Rude Tony was the earliest arrival. I got up and got set up.

The field soon got busy, and the track was a steady flow of practice. Initially it seemed to be local boys not crashing much.

I thought I’d give it a go, and got the 511 out. A couple of enjoyable laps and I snapped it. Front hub.

Fixed it, and another practice. Snapped it again, same part of the track, the opposite front hub. Annoyingly I lost three of the four king pins that vanished too…

The heat list showed 49 drivers, plus a ‘guest heat’ of 2wd.

How did it go?

First three rounds the car went well, handled great, and I got quicker with each round. I loved the track, challenging, but fast and flowing.

Round 4 all the solder melted on my motor tabs… I think the connectors I’m using on the motor were arcing a bit, and got a bit hot.

I wacked in a different motor, but it wouldn’t run, I’m not sure why, so I put the 511 under the van in frustration and got out the DB01 spare car.

Had a few practice laps and it went well (until the wheel fell off).

Finals came, and I was in the D, qualified 37, not bad for me really.

So there we were, having a couple of practice laps at the start of our final and I gave Nick Wilson a little tap from behind, just to make sure he was awake, and, err, snapped my front shock shaft! What’s all that about? I hardly touched him!

That was my final finished before it was even started…

Thanks to Stuart ‘Sherlock Holmes’ for finding all my lost parts on the track.

I got to marshall the A final leg 2, and it was cool sat in the middle of the track with them whizzing round me. I got shouted at at one point, I think I missed Kev Lee crashing, so he lost some places.

Sorry Kev, I seemed to have a 270 degree marshalling position! But no matter, he took the win over the three legs at the end of the day.

There were a handful of Tamiya’s about, and Alec Springer popped his 511 into the A. It was going well, but it’s one of those tracks were a tumble that needs marhsalling takes a long time. Marshalling often required jumping down, up or over something, which takes time.

The 511 is a terrific car, I couldn’t fault mine at all really, even with a crazy 5.5 in it I was loving it. I wasn’t fast, but I really do need a lot more off-road track time. I’m loving it though, it’s ACE.

Kathryn enjoyed it, cooked a gorgeous breakfast, and took a million and one (quite unique!) photos, cheers chuck, Xy!