VTA points week #6

I got a chance to run my "new" setup for the first time, so I got there as early as I could to get a few laps of practice in and make any tuning changes. The car pushed quite a bit and I upped the Dual Rate up to 94 so it would make it around turns. Sadly, I don't actually know what my D/R was at last week as I inadvertantly left my radio on, killing 8 NiMH's and in the process it adjusted my steering trim 75R and my DR down to 0. It was odd, turn the car on and the wheels go to the right and don't turn - I thought the servo had been toasted or something.

I chose not to change the setup for the first qualifier as I thought I could just sauce the whole front tire, instead of just half, and slow down a bit before the turns. Qualifier #1 was horrible. The car pushed in one turn and was loose in the next - it just wasn't handling in a manner I was comfortable with. After that qualifier I swapped the B's in the Rear for D's and the C's in the front for E's and re-adjusted my ride height and droop. After a bit of testing, I was very happy with this change, and I've geared down just a touch from a 4.28 to a 4.35 FDR.

Qualifier two started out great! I caught a few guys, and was on a 27 lap pace until I made three stupid driving errors trying to put the car on a tight line and going too tight. I finished with a 25/5.01 but the A-main cutoff was 25 laps luckily, and I was started last - my favorite place to start! I had turned a 10.7 in this qualifier and was running individual lap times well - the fastest lap was turned by James at a 10.1. Bob, who I have been having good times with racing and on the stand and I was tied with in the points series, crashed out of his second qualifier and really only had his 24 lap qualifier to count, did not make the A.

I geared back up for the main, there were seven of us, starting in the sideways grid pattern, odds on the outside wall, evens on the inside wall. The tone goes off, and the TQ (James) is just sitting there, as am I. I take off, blow by him still sitting there and through the first and second turns, going around Al who was tangled in something. James took off just behind me and spun my car going into turn three - thanks bud! After dropping back to dead last, I was left to run my own race, only getting back past Al due to him flipping. He came back and was able to get back around me - cleanly, thank you! I was getting lapped by James, who went from dead last to leading in fairly short order, and he came up behind me going into turn one. I decided I was going to hold my lines and, in turn, him for a while to see if he would choose to drive through me. My faith in humanity was restored when I finally let him by six turns later without him getting impatient or trying a move that was doomed to failure. The whole rest of the race was rather un-interesting - in a good way. Other than Al flipping, I don't think anyone, myself included, needed any marshalling. I didn't board the car, I didn't hit anything, and the traction rolling of last week was a distant memory! I placed poorly, finishing sixth out of seven (only because Mark broke something in the Tamiya), but I finished with a 27/5.08 or so, almost two laps faster than my qualifying time! I felt awesome after that race though! I did find out after the race that my lap times were down from the second qualifier, and talking to Greg, who finished second running the same ESC and similar batteries (just on a newer car), he was geared at a 4.45. I went up and now I think I should have gone down a bit more.

I might be racing Friday this week too - could be fun as I know the track layout well and where to gear! I have to be careful though, the last time I felt this good about a result, the next time I raced I crashed and nearly literlly burned - In the main, the battery shifted, one cell shorted out against the motor and got really hot and expanded and was no longer usable, making the whole pack useless until I found a use for a 4-cell pack.