Mendip TC National 2010
Are TC Nationals more fun than Buggy Nationals?
Saturday started bright and early at 5:30 for the trip to Mendip on the west coast nr Weston-supermare and although a grey start the forcast was for a good day but rain on Sunday.
On arrival it appeared that nearly everyone had got there several hours before us so the only pit/camping spot was right near the main entry a good walk away from the track, but I like a walk and it was less hecktic.
Practice was great fun my car was nice to drive and fast with no issues that I considered worrying about. So after a few redbull’s to start the morning I figured it was time for a beer and drivers briefing, lots of drivers 80 prostock and 45 ish mod which is good to see in these times.
Round One – Nice and steady after afew sketchy first laps. 16 laps done.
Round Two – After a chat in the pits I decided I needed more speed so switched to a Tekin 10.5 car felt faster after a few sketchy laps but stopped on the last lap. Oh no I’ve killed the motor I thought but on in inspection the pinion had come loose, easy fix.
Round Three – Why are the cars so sketchy on the first laps? Not cleaning off the additive after cooking. Doh, clean tyres worked so much better. Flying run then the car stops about two laps from the end… hmmm too hot maybe… no time to check now beer/ pear cider and burgers to consume now. I was 50th at his point with stu 56th
Sunday started really far too early for me with the first spots of rain at 6 so I stumbled around in cold daze for a few hours drinking tea and eating bacon. The first pain of the day started as Stu attempted to start the rented Genni and broke the pull start, great no power.
First practice and Round Four was missed, far too wet for my dry only car.
The job of ‘fixing that’ was handed to me by Stu who waved the I’m an accountant banner so I started disassembly of the genni, 20 odd screws later the thing was apart and cord re-attached, great get it together and were off. It actually started first or second pull, happy days but then Stu moved it round the back of the car and it cut out, never to start again…. Bloody pile of rented #@?! Plan B swung into action and stu’s car became the charge station.
Round Five – So with about 2 mins of car prep I slung my slick tyred car out and slithered around the final round, I was actually really enjoying drifting round the sweepers but I was getting lapped by the wet tyre shod cars.12 laps oh dear.
So final positions Me pole in the G and Stu 9th in the D, it clearly paid to risk the wet runs.
Final 1 – So the sun was out and the track nice and dry i slowly drove out towards the start line another keen racer decided I was far too slow and smashed me out the way thanks! My car now crabbed round to the start with a badly tweaked chassis and sure enough as the sounder went off my car slewed sideways round the first bend I was last last by turn three on the last lap the car cut out again but I still managed 5th.
In the pits the Tekin motor was being very touchy and would sort of work then stop so back to the Novak and a quick read of the instructions revealed a very handy feature of the new SXX speedo a temp check! And sure enough the motor was showing the full 10 max temp reached Oops, speedo only on 4 tho. A quick rebuild of the rear shocks but no time for the fronts..
Final 2 – Proper cooked and cleaned tyres the speedo boost and feel turned down abit and the car was going well bit down on top end but good enough for 2nd this time. Ricky Copsy (Xray) was leading the way and very nearly lapped me, what was he doing the G final!?
Final 3 – Right then last run, rebuilt shocks, boost back up, have it. I lead away from the start and held on for a few laps but ran out of talent and Ricky drove past but then rolled afew laps later so I nipped through but he was having none of that and passed again. 2nd with an overall of 2nd in the G. woop woop..
Stu geared up afew teeth for the last run and suddenly looked right on the pace, and put in a fine run to finish 6th with an overall of 6th in the D, good work. Ed Clark had clearly gone crazy with the boost for the last run and his Losi jrxs-r (what not blue!) car looked like a missile for three laps until it popped! Chris Granger won Mod in dominant style with his car clocked at 72mph down the straight.
So is TC more fun than buggies…. well no, it’s abit too much like hard work for this RClazy racer, or maybe less redbull next time.
Written by rob.
BRCA Round2 – Halifax
Well, in a typical Lazy styley, I’ve left it a bit before putting this up….I’ll also keep it a bit shorter this time!
Anyway, second weekend of July was time for round two of the TC nationas up at Halifax.
For those who don’t know, Halifax is, well…. LARGE! It’s predominantly a gas track, and was recently resurfaced, so the grip is pretty mega, thanks to a combination of the new tarmac, and the foam/oil residue on the surface (although if it’s damp… well, I’ll come back to this). To say it makes pro-stocks seem a little slow is an understatement 
To go well, you need two things… Power (preferably lots), and corner speed..
So onto the action…
In pro-stock qualifying, a bit of rain played havoc in the first round, with the track going from dry-damp and greasy-dry in the space of five minutes in heat 7! Unfortuantly for thoose racers, neither slicks or wets worked… the previously mentioned surface combo litterally had no grip… they could have been on drift tyres for all the good it did.
Thankfully, the track stayed dry for the rest of the weekend, and in the end Jonny Bowden was TQ, taking two rounds, and finishing second in another. Lee Price was second on the grid from Byron Humprhries, the Schumacher drivers now all running the Mi4’s, and looking quick to boot.
Modified was all about the usual suspects, with Chris Grainger taking three rounds to end up TQ with a round to spare. Elliot Harper and Andy Moore were showing the potential of the 6.5t/LiPo combintations to line up 2nd and 3rd. Interestingly, the A final was split 50:50 in runners using LiPo vs 5cell… seemingly nothing in it, despite the weight difference (1500g vs 1425g).
In the Finals, Jonny Bowden showed a clean pair of heals to everyone, taking all three legs. Lee Price held station behind, taking three 2nds. Luke Thompson had an excellent first two legs, taking third in each from sixth on the grid, and ending up third as a result.
The top three in modified made a clean break in each final, managing to pull out a large gap on the chasing pack each time. Chris took the first and third legs to take the Mi4’s first modified national win, with Andy ending up second, and Elliot third.
As for Gossip?
Well, there were a few Photon’s in the pits, Stew Noble managing to get his into the modified B… although Luke Hobson had huge interference issues on the sat, traced to the aerial mount causing the
Motors and speedo’s were a hot topic in Pro-Stock. The final was pretty evenly split, with 5 Novaks, 4 Nosram/LRP’s, and just one GM. Speedo’s was more interesting, with a few old TC specs thrown into the mix against the now de-rigure SPX style. One GM was evident, along with two SXX’s… so maybe the speedo wars are nto as clear cut as we’d like to think
As previously mentioned, 50% of the modified boys took the opportunity to run LiPo, the main reason being that whilst slightly slower, they could be as fast all the way through the run, without a risk of dumping… motor temp now being the killer, plenty of big fans in evidence.
As for your authour… to say I’ve had better weekends was a bit of a understatement. Never really clicked with the track (put that down to a lack of practise), and ended up resorting to my old folly of making too many changes. Made the D (AGAIN, will I ever crack the top 30 at a national?), and eneded up 36th in the o/a, so could have been worse (given I finished 31st at WL, and that was a better weekend). Still the car/speedo/motor/cells combo was working fine… just the muppet behind the sticks at the end of the day.
Roll on Cotswolds (and most deffiently after a good practise this past weekend at the BTCC 
)
Written by ed.
Nationals Update – Numero Uno
So the dust has settled on the first national at West London, and my report for RACER has been submitted… so now time to sort out my Lazy post (kinda fitting it’s taken so long for me to post, given the name, hehe).
Ok, so new season, whats new?
To be honest, not that much, all the usual suspects were up there, even with the large number of team changes going on.
In Mod, you still had Moore, Grainger and co up front. Interestingly, it seemed to take Andy a while to get into his stride, he came from being a bit middling on early sat, to TQ the final round on saturday, and then taking all three finals… maybe a case of removing some rust from the system The HB proto looked good on new and old tyres, as did Glenn Domans 416, if anything it seeming more comfortable on older tyres, and spot on in the wet!
Chris G was very quick in the first two rounds with the Mi4, some 6seconds clear of the filed! However, he didn’t have very good finals, managing to have an incident in the first turn in every one! The car also seemed to struggle a little on old rubber, a bit of similarity with RedBull F1 car.. a bit too hard on the tyres!
ProStock was pretty much a Schumacher affair, with 5 out of the top ten being the british make, albeit all bar one being Mi3.5’s. Rob West and Jay Westwood were the two to watch in this one, Jay having a bit of a mare on saturday (and almost going home!), but coming on strong in the finals to take the win.
So onto my own experience… well, it was a weekend of frustration really. In the first Q round, it was going ok until the rain arrived in the final minute, making the track really greesy. Was quite happy to see that despite that, I was 28th in round… however, it the weather did effectively loose me one “new tyre” run, as you have to start on new boots
Second round, new boots again, and put in a good time to go 25th, although made a few silly errors. Third round, final set of new boots (sunday was forecast to be wet wet wet, so thought it best to use them while I could!), and went 23rd in round, although again with some silly mistakes. Still, couldn’t be dissapointed as I was lying in 16th overall overnight!
A KFC, 3 Buds, and a kip in the car later… it was sunday morning, and suprise suprise, it was damp!
However, by the time everything got going there was potential for it jut to be damp, rather than fully wet. Being in heat 6, I was paying close attention to the weather… lo and behold, it changed it’s mind 5mins before the run. Cue a rapid change from dry electrics to wet ones… and thats when I had the biggest issues of the weekend! Managed to pop the negative wire off the battery plug by reverse connecting it in a rush (something I’ve now solved with a bit of red heat shrink rather than black). Thankfully the speedo still worked, but with no soldering iron on, it was a case of tape it in place and hope.
Amazingly, it lasted 3mins, until I barrell rolled it out of the first turn, and with the tape being damp, end of run. I was hoping though that I would have got a score in, but on returning the pits, discovered that I’d also plugged in the PT the wrong way round, so it wasn’t counting…. chalk that up to the rush before the start 
Anyway, the final qualy the rain decided that it wanted to make a proper job of it for a short time at least, with puddles everywhere. With all the wet electrics in the car, a bit of an increase in ride-height, and wet tyres on, away we went. quite simply, the car was great in the wet, ending up 3rd in the heat, and 15th in round! If only I’d done the same in round4.. who knows.
With the scores on the doors, turns out that some people had had even more inconsitent meetings (I always seem to fall foul of this in Rnd by Rnd), and despite counting a 25, 23, and 15.. I was pole in the D, dropping 15 places from the overnight, grrrr!!!!
The finals were fun though. I struggled a little in the first one, mainly as other guys around me had saved a set of new tyres for the finals. Despite how good the car was on the older boots, there was a deffinate advantage to running new ones. Posted the fastest lap time, but just pushed too hard, and ended up 3rd.
Second final was unbelivable really, impressed even myself. Got the most fantastic start ever, and the car just was working exceptionally well from the off. First lap was 2s faster than anyone else, and by the end of the race I was 4 up the road, even after having backed off a bit in the final minute. And if I thought that was good the next final would be some of the most fun racing I’d had in ages…
Basically, the rain came back right before the run, not heavily but enough to make the track very damp. If I’d have known how bad it was, I’d have gone with wet tyres (and maybe even starting at the back), but at the time it didn’t look too bad. BIG mistake :p It was very obvious from the first turn, when the car just decided turning wasn’t going to happen. Sorex32’s and wet tarmac are not comfortable bed fellows.
However, it turned out to be very fun, as for lap after lap, myself and Steve Lander were battling for 1st. I was quite a bit faster, but couldn’t find a way past, Steve making it really difficult. I did manage to get by cleanly once, but had taken a bit too much kerb, and was requested to give the spot back. Ended up finishing 2nd, but it was someone else’s turn to have a PT issue, as Steve’s only recorded nine laps, and I bumped up to 1st, winning the D, wOOp!
So a nice new plastic trophy on the shelf (hmm), and on to Halifax. Knowning roughly where I am now, I reckon a B final place at one of the rounds is the target… I just hope it’s dry!
