PetitRC Race 2011 Partners With rcLazy.com
We are proud to announce that rcLazy.com are an official Press Partner with PetitRC for the PetitRC Race 2011.
It’s on 15th & 16th January 2011, up at Ardent. Full details at http://race.petitrc.com
We’re booked in, we’ll race, and do some blogging as usual.
Here’s our reports from the 2010 event!
Petit Race 2010 Day Zero
Petit Race 2010 Day One
Petit Race 2010 Day Two
Silverstone: 2010 BRCA F345 EOS
At the end of the season, the BRCA runs a national for F345s, to mop up the dregs of off-road RC. This year Silverstone hosted it, and it was too good an opportunity to miss.
Friday
I left the seaside at about 12:15, for a quick drive up to Mark’s house in Southampton. The traffic was epic, so I didn’t reach Tamiya Towers until well after one, somewhat drained.
The Chuckle Bus decided it wanted a new experience, so enlisted the services of the Chief Scientist as pilot. Mark was a little tense, but sucked up the challenge and got us trucking.
The scenic route was chosen, Friday afternoons in Oxfordshire are so beautiful. 6pm arrival time at Silverstone, how on earth did it take that long?
Closely following Michael ‘SRCMCC’ Schumacher We put our towels on sunloungers to get a good pitting location, and trundled off behind the goal.
The grapevine was thick with rumous of a legend that didn’t have a home for the weekend, some swift interweb communications and within minues the 2008 UK Dirtmaster Himself was on the blower begging for some love. No-one says no to Rob ‘Hollywood’ Rasey, so we assured him that he has a spot in the Lazy village whenever he wants.
Haskell and Crazy Bob turned up in the dark, rolling on 20s and reeking of Magners. You’ve gotta respect a guy who buys massive alloy and skinny rubber and lowering springs to pimp an ex-builders van instead of getting himself a heater. I’m all about the mod-cons, he’s all about the image.
The usual hilarity of undercooked burgers and spirits of a lady ensured the evening was passed in a pleasant manner.
There was a dark harbinger of doom lurking in the shadows though: man flu. The eveil reaper had crept upon us, and by bed time, I was sneezing like a kitten.
The boys were getting lairy, so I sent everyone to bed at 23:02.
Saturday
The chuckle bus recorded 8 hours sleep. 6 for Mark, and an uncomfortable and inadequate 2 for me. I wasn’t feeling the love for RC to be honest.
Bob was feeling unusually peckish, and within minutes steaming bacon butties were passed around, gratefully received, got us settled nicely.
Rasey graced our gazebos with his presence, though he wasn’t happy with Mark’s tiny table, muttering something about Mark not taking things seriously. There was a spare table, but we shose to set up shop in a shoebox on a chair instead.
Usual National format meant practice in heats starting at 8am. Of course I was in a low heat, heat 2. Mark was beside himself with nerves, he’d been placed in heat 11. Rolling with the bug guns, and Rasey as personal marshall down in heat 10.
2wd with the Cougar, it was a damp practice, so I fiddled a few settings and got on Ballistic greens. The track was nice, flowing, a bit bumpy in a few places. And a sweet tabletop across a corner style, really nice to fly over.
Round 1 Mark beat Rasey, and Bob had slipper issues, he got angry so disappeared off to the shop to cool down (and buy fags, no doubt).
I can’t really remember what happened in Round 1, i drove around the track, thought it needed some setup changes.
So worked on it, and made about 14 changes to set up, and in round 2 I was well chuffed, it was perfect, just how I wanted it. I put in a nice smooth run, 35th in round, good for me.
The flu was really kicking in, I was sneezing and snorting, and eating like a pig. They say feed a cold. Pot noodles for lunch went down excellently though!
Mark passed over a shock saying ‘that doesn’t feel right’, somehow the noodles had affected his vision and 30wt ended up as 50wt.
rcLazy sales were going well, Goo and Balls were in high demand. Hoodies and T-Shirts were selling well too, DC modelled a T nicely, including a comedy drunken fall.
I can’t remember the rest of qualifying either, but with the finals along came the rain…
The Team had people in finals H, E, D, C, and two in the A. Domination.
Haskell was out in the H, and it just started raining, so we rushed to the grid, grabbed his car and whacked on some Ballistics. Charlie Fraser had words asking if we wanted a timeout, but no we got it done and the final started. Haskell went to the front in a lap or two, and held the lead until the end. Tyre change glory! Brilliant drive, his best of the day.
My E final was rubbish, the guys all ready to watch me win, but I went backwards, round and round, and drove like a tool in the slippery conditions. I had time to change to wet tyres, but the setup was still for the dry high grip track, the result was quite a disaster. The crowd stopped watching after two laps.
Some other finals happened, and up at the top it was close, the event could have been won by about 4 different people. Browner did something or other in the first two legs, but won the third! Awesome. Mikey Scott forgot to scrutineer him though…
Eugene Galley took the win overall.
The evening was damp, I was feeling a wreck, so BBQ was a more subdued affair. Later on I didn’t need to send the boys to bed, Bob fell asleep at about 9pm, and Matt fell out of the chuckle bus, amputating his leg.
We fashioned a toilet roll holder with a seatbelt and a fork, perfect for my snotty nose requirements.
Sunday
I reckon I got about 5 hours sleep, not bad, a warmer overcast morning.
Booking in opened and as Leader I got Bob and Matt at the top of the reserve list, and it worked, by time practise was in full flow the boys had a 4wd entry too. A full set of heats.
It was damp, and some people were out on Ballistics, and some out on yellows, I was in an early heat, of course, and it caught me out in round 1, I ran Ballistics, wrong choice.
The grip throughout the day was immense, combatting grip roll was the key, and EVERYONE was grip rolling. There were rumours of one guy running just one row of spikes on the front!
Mark had a dreadful day, electrical gremlins troubled him, but somehow he qualified just in front of me in the H final.
But my qualifying was effected by a Team Durango design issue that means a differential can be put in the car upside down. That means the wheels don’t all go in the right direction. Ahem.
And I have to admit, I wasn’t really in the zone, the ‘rango was good, I wasn’t.
The H final went great, for Mark, he lapped almost everyone, and got himself a pot.
Rasey was a superstar in 4wd, sneaking into the A in 10th. Furious tyre gluing, wrenching by Tony Evdoka (ello Maaaa). Good finals, Charley Ware taking the win, Browner in 4th, Sam Martin last after snapping his Browner-borrowed Cat in every leg.
The finals were a hoot, great spectator involvement, and I was amazed at a Super Dogfighter high up in the finals, running retro two row studs! Awesome! (Who was that, anyone know? Get in touch.)
All in all it was a brilliant weekend, like a normal National, but more relaxed. The Silverstone crew did a sterling job, and everyone made it really special.
Roll on 2011!
Pics Here When Mark Uploads Them!
Shop!
rcLazy.com now has an online shop! It’s fully featured with a shopping cart and payments accepted by PayPal.
Initially stocking our own products such as Lazy Balls, Lazy Goo and Lazy Nuts, we’ll be adding more products to the shop in the future.
We’re also offering the excellent Carpet Racers DVD, a proper film about RC, it’s well worth a watch.
Team Durango DEX-410R Short Term Review
A few months ago I sold my Tamiya 511. Many people thought I was crazy to sell the car that’s on top in the UK and Europe, but I had my reasons.
One of the big reasons was I wanted to try a Durango. And the 410R, the ‘cheap’ version had finally come out, and made it affordable to do so. And, many said it was actually better than the full fat version – for the less good driver at least.
I picked up a new but built but 2nd hand one, and went to a National 2 days later. It was a bit strange hitting the track with a car I’d never run before, or built, or anything. But it couldn’t have gone better, my best result all year.
That was on dampish astro, low grip, and I guess it just worked, a bit of a fluke.
I’ve now run it in 3 more meetings, and I’ve found I needed to ‘calm it down’, it was all a bit edgy and punchy, especially in high-grip conditions.
I took some advice and did a bunch of setup changes.
Diff oils were made heavier, both front and rear, to 20k and 10k.
Rear springs were stuffened up, and the damping made heavier both front and rear, ending up on the same oil at both ends, 500cst. With Ghea 2×1.3 and 3×1.4 pistons.
The other thing I was advised was to take the brass weight kit off, to make it easier to drive, less pendulum. And, if needing more weight to help it settle put some in front of the lipo, near the spur gear. a 30g chunk of lead has gone in there.
Oh, and run skinny tyres up front…
So after all of that, what’s it like? Brilliant, very quick, easy to drive, and the corner speed is just immense.
A nice car, I’m pleased I’m giving one a go.
Here’s my setup from TORCH.
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