To start, the track layout was unlike anything I've had the pleasure/displeasure of running on. The "straight" was actually directly below the drivers stand, and had enough obstacles to make a Ninja Warrior flinch. However, if you were brave, you could go full blast through there - John said it best "clenching [your a$$ cheeks] was worth 3 tenths".
I've drawn up how I remember the track layout - it's not exact, but the pattern and corners are all there :
The first qualifier for me has often been my quickest, and tonight it didn't disappoint as I managed a 24/5:12 right behind Kevin's 24/5:10 and both of us 2 laps down to James (why does he torture us so?). I knew avoiding marshaling was going to be key especially with how far from the marshals most of the action was, and managed to make it through this qualifier marshal-free. I used last weeks gearing of 4.5 FDR, and came off a little hotter than I prefer while lacking pull out of the corners. This run was with the Tamiya spool, and I could visibly see the car struggling in the front end on the track, but managed a fast lap of 11.9. Kevin had a fast lap of 11.5 and James was probably in the high 10's (surprise!)
Before the second qualifier, I swapped out the spool for a differential to see if the car would be any better behaved. I love running the one way, but didn't see how it would do well on this track. I also changed the gearing a bit and ran a 4.75 and drove a bit conservatively. Sometime on the 20th lap or so, the car went straight when I wanted it to go left, and I was on that stand thinking about how much threadlock I used when fixing the lost screw problem from last week as it hopped a board. I got it off the board and it drove fine back around the track to the exact same spot where again it wouldn't turn left. I left it against the board and would check it out after the race to find that I had stripped a gear inside the servo. I don't recall hitting anything of any significance, and people laughed when I told them it was the servo and showed them the Futaba S3003 from 1996 I was running. Hey, if it's not broke, don't fix it!
I spent the $14 to buy a Futaba S3004 as I didn't have any spare servo's with me. The car felt just like it did before, but I moved the end points in a bit as the Ackerman provided by the TC5 steering is a bit more than the Kawada stock unit.
I managed to qualify in third overall with my first qualifier, right behind Kevin (by about 10 seconds) and James added to the beating by turning a 27 lap run. Matt qualified fourth overall for the night and made the A-main for the second week in a row, and was the first time we met in a main!
I geared up a bit more as my fast lap time dipped down to a 12.2 (maybe I forgot to clench?), and was ready for the main. The tone went off, and somehow James had trouble with the first corner, and I was a turn or so behind Kevin when he stuffed the car in the infield as I easily went around for the lead! I had smooth sailing for a couple laps until James finally caught up and ran on my bumper for an entire lap as I was very meticulous about not opening the inside door on any turn. He finally thought he would try something going into turn 7, but I left no room, and he wound up spinning me out to which I said very loudly "Fu$#@!ng hacker - oh sorry!" to the crowds amusement as he was pulling over to let me by once I got pointed the right direction. We battled for another half a lap and then I started having steering issues again which put me all over the track before I realized what it was. I somehow managed to jump a board and land smack dab in the middle of the front straight facing exactly 180 degrees from the racing direction. I pulled the trigger, but heard nothing but the sound of a shredded spur gear as I then proceeded to watch James come through there and through my car at full speed. I was already planning on moving everything to a new chassis so I haven't had the heart to actually look to see what all was broken, but I'm sure I'll find a few things. What I did find immediately after the race that the gears inside this brand new servo were completely stripped along 90 degrees of the mating surface (right where it had been mated). One servo lasts 13 years, its replacement lasted about 4 minutes! Luckily I have a couple of metal geared Airtronics servos that I'm not currently using!
Wednesday points series starts next week, so I've got some work ahead of me to have a reliable car again. July has not been my month and I already know I'm going to have one drop when I go to Indy for GenCon, which only leaves me with one!
No comments:
Post a Comment