My RC Hobby. A blog about my hobby, which includes On-Road, Off-Road, Slot Cars, Planes, Robotics and modeling. Also anything else Electronic that's fun to play with.
Its been awhile (Sept) since I have been down to Warehouse 3, and the track is now different from when I was here last. The layout looked great, and I looked forward to a great night of racing. There was a good sized crowd down there, including my friends from Wolfpak Racing (Dean and Dragi).
I entered into the Pro-Lite class with my HPI Blitz, after getting in a few practice sessions, I was getting used to the track.
Round 1:
18 Laps
Round 2:
18 Laps
B-Main:
17 Laps - 7th place
Here is the video my friend took of me racing in the B-Main, I am the Orange and Black Blitz starting in seventh spot. I had a complete meltdown on the first lap, and crashed three times. The remainder of the main did see some improvements, but I could not catch up after that, and the crashing continued, lol.
Round 4 of the KBRL series has come and gone, and this round like the three previous was a blast. Once again I was able to trek down to Tucson by hitching a ride with my friends from Wolfpak Racing, Dean and Dragi. It was a nice drive down, and we arrived just before 8am. Since this is an indoor facility, there was plenty of pit tables when we arrived, and we were setup in no time.
The pit table were nice.
Dragi on the the left and Dean from Wolfpak Racing setting up
Round 1: Qualifier (5 min. heat):
During the warm up laps, I miss calculated a jump and landed hard on some of the bricks that are on the sides of the tracks, and I ended up breaking the outdrive off my MIP Ball diff. This was kind up upsetting, this was a brand new diff and I only had run one race prior to this, so this part breaking this early was very disappointing.
Broken outdrive, sigh
Pro Lite - Round# 1
Driver Car# #Laps RaceTime Fast Lap
Frank Lilly #5 0 0.000 0.000
Round 2: Qualifier (5 min. heat):
Before round 2 I was able to replace the broken Ball Diff with my old Gear Diff, this was not in the best condition, but it seemed like it was holding. So after rebuilding my transmission I was set for round two. I did not do as great as I wanted to for this round, I ended up with 9 laps, which put me in the D-Main.
Pro Lite - Round# 2
Driver Car# #Laps RaceTime Fast Lap
Frank Lilly #5 9 5:11.614 31.600
Mains
D-Main (5 min. Race):
For the D-Main, I was expecting to do a little better then I did in round 2 of the heats. But I could not get the truck to hook-up, and after a major wreck in the first lap, I was starting from last place and playing catch up the entire race. I was able to go from 9th to 8th place, and was in 8th until the last lap, where I had one of the worst laps of the day, I think I crashed about 5 times, and unfortunately, the 9th place driver had one of the best laps of his day, and ended up passing me half-way through the last lap.
Overall I had a great time racing, and was able to hangout with some fun people.
Well, I missed the 3rd round of the KBRL Series, and from the looks of it I missed one record breaking day. There was 205 entries into this round, making it one of the biggest events of the year. For a holiday weekend, this was very surprising.
Our friends over at Wolfpak Racing made the trek for the series, and for a complete breakdown the days racing head on over to their blog. I will definitely be at round 4 of the series, which will be held at Competition Hobbies down in Tuscon.
For this event I shared a pit space with my friends Dean and Dragi from Wolfpak Racing and our friend Ernest. For this event, I decided to enter into the Novice SC class, I felt that I would have more fun with this class because of still being on the learning curve for rc racing. Dean with some inspiration from Ernest decide to run his buggy in two classes with Ernest by swapping motors between the 2wd Buggy Stock 17,5 and the 2wd Buggy Super Stock 13.5 classes. Both did a great job in running both classes with the motor swaps. Dragi entered his buggy into the Novice Open Wheel class. You can see a full write up and details on their racing over at the Wolfpak Racing blog.
Track layout was fantastic.
Saturday Nov 19th 2011
Day one started out with some interesting news when we were at the Drivers meeting. They announced that Scottsdale Speedway had been sold to the owners of Hobbytown USA in Tuscon. This should bring some interesting changes to the racetrack as well as the hobby shop. The first change to the hobby shop that they made, was that they moved the existing location of the shop to the building that now has the shop front faced to Scottsdale road. This space is much larger, and in my opinion a great layout with much needed room. Here is a link to the Hobbytown USA website for the Scottsdale store : http://www.hobbytown.com/Scottsdale-AZ/. I'm not sure if they are going to change the current SRS website.
Pit table, Day 1.
Saturdays schedule was three rounds of qualifiers.
Round 1 - 5 minute qualifier
This round started our great, and the track felt perfect, but on the third lap, after hitting very hard on the big jump on the front left part of the track, my dog bone decided to go find a dog to chew on it and flew farther then my truck did.
Novice Short Course
Frank - 3 Laps - 2:04 (37.23 fast lap) - broke just over 2 mins in.
Round 2 - 5 minute qualifier
This round was a lot smoother then the first round, although I was still trying to get a handle on the big jump on the front part of the track, I feel overall things went well (honestly, I meant to launch off the big jump and try to land behind the retaining wall; twice).
Novice Short Course
Frank - 9 Laps - 5:31 (32.4 fast lap)
Round 3 - 5 minute qualifier
After making some slight mods to the truck and coming up with a good tire selection, this was my best round of the day. Although I still only pulled 9 laps, the truck felt great, and my lap times improved by over a second.
Novice Short Course
Frank - 9 Laps - 5:27 (31.25 fast lap)
With the day coming to a close, I was in good spirits, I was getting a handle on the truck, and I felt my driving skills were improving. I was really looking forward to day 2. Below is a video I took of some of the racing from day 1 using my phone.
Sunday Nov 20th, 2011
Sundays schedule was the final round of qualifiers, and then the mains. For the 4th round of qualifiers, they changed up everyone, to place them with other drivers that were closer to their own times. They placed everyone into the qualifiers based on their current points placement.
Beginning of day 2, Dragi from Wolfpak Racing on the left and myself.
Round 4 - 5 minute qualifier
For round four, I was having some traction issues, and seemed to keep sliding out in the corners. Overall I felt I did good, but again I pulled 9 laps, and my laps times stayed about the same as round 3.
Novice Short Course
Frank - 9 Laps - 5:12 (31.37 fast lap) - Finished in 3rd place
Mains
I ended up qualifying for the B-Main for Novice Short Course. They decided that they would not do bump ups for the novice class, and although I was highly disappointed at this decision, it was what it was, so I made the best of it and decided to just go out and have fun for the B-Main.
Novice Short Course B-Main
Frank - 9 Laps - 5:03 (??:?? fast lap) - Finished in 2nd place.
On the drivers stand during the B-Main.
The rest of the A-Mains was some great racing, below in one of the A-Mains that I recorded with my phone, and it was some of the best racing of the day. You can also check out my UTube channel to see some of the other videos that I have posted :
This was a great weekend and a great event, and I am looking forward to next year. I am also looking forward to next weekend, which will be round 3 of the KBRL Series which will also be at this same track.
For this weekends racing, the initial plan was to get in club racing over at Scottsdale RC Speedway, but because of the amount of rain we recieved Friday night and Saturday early morning hours, SRS decided to not hold their normal Saturday night racing schedule. Since SRS was closed my friend Dean from Wolfpak Racing and myself decided to head down to Tuscon to check out Competition Hobbies and their indoor track. We left around 10am in the morning and arrived down in Tuscon just before noon, thanks for driving Dean.
My pit area.
I really liked the layout, they have both a dirt track and a carpet track, and for today's racing they were running on both tracks. I also like the fact that the had a large amount of pit areas, both single pit areas along the outside wall as well as pit tables on both sides of the tracks, great layout.
My first look of the layout, very nice.
Both Dean and myself entered the Pro-Lite 13.5 Short Course class, at first we were both going to run 13.5 buggy and Short Course but decided to only run the trucks instead. Below is the race results:
Round 1 (6 min heat):
Frank 10 Laps - 6:22
Dean 11 Laps - 6:07
Round 2 (6 min heat):
Results were not posted for some reason for round 2, but for myself I know I did bad, the truck kept shutting off when hitting the jumps, and I doubt I got in more then 5 laps. I changed the position of the power switch, and no more issues for the rest of the day.
A-Main (6 min main - 11 Drivers):
Frank 10 Laps - 6:23 Finished in 9th place.
Dean 12 Laps - 6:29 Finished in 7th place.
It was a great day of racing, and I feel that for our first time at this track we did okay. I look forward to coming back down to this track for the KBRL series on December 17th. Next week, if mother nature doesn't rain on my parade again, I will be at SRS for Friday night and possibly club racing on Saturday night as well.
Its been awhile since I got any slot car racing in, but Friday night I dusted off the cars and got in some great racing over at my friends garage (WolfPak Racing).
I have been thinking about getting a 2WD Buggy for a long time now, and I have been narrowing down what I think I want and have come to to opinion that this might be my best choice. So for the moment I'm 90% sure that I will be getting a Losi 22 for my next RC.
Here is a review that Horizon Hobby's did about the LOSI 22.
Here is a breakdown of some of the specification for the Losi 22.
Mid and Rear Motor Mounting Options: Depending on your driving preference or track conditions, the 22 will deliver the configuration you need. For the first time, TLR is providing both rear- and mid-mount motor configurations in a single kit.
Complete Kit: Build the 22 from the ground up so you know and control the entire assembly process to your exact specifications.
2.5mm Hard-Anodized Aluminum Chassis: The precision-machined 7075-T6 2.5mm aluminum chassis is hard-anodized for increased durability and a great look.
12mm Big Bore Shocks: Smooth the ride, tame large jumps and tune suspension performance with these over sized shocks with bladder compensators.
Adjustable Front Kick (20-25°): The 22's front end has best-in-class clearance that allows for improved handling. It gives you more clearance when you enter and exit steep jumps. Plus it's tunable via a shim from 20 to 25 degrees.
Adjustable Caster (0, 3, 5, 10°): The 22's caster can be adjusted in 0-, 3-, 5- and 10-degree* increments via the spindle carriers. (*NOTE: 0-, 3-, and 5-degree spindles are optional.)
Specifications:
Wheelbase: 284-288mm
Width: 9.9 in. (250mm)
Weight (Approx): 3.4 lb. (1,550g)*
Chassis: 7075 aluminum plate w/radiused sides and built in front kick-up
It was another great day of racing, this time it was round 2 of the KBRL series at Fear Farm RC in Phoenix, AZ. Myself, Dean and Dragi from Wolfpak Racing, and our friend Ernest all met and shared a pit tent together down at Fear Farm. This was my first visit to Fear Farm and was impressed by the setup and crew that ran the event.
Setting up in the pits getting ready for round 1 of qualifying.
I am racing in the Pro-Lite 13.5 category with my HPI Blitz in the KBRL Series, and it is a blast. There is a bunch of great competition out there in this class and in today's racing that was very evident. For round 2, there was 39 in the Pro-Lite class, my friend Dean from Wolfpak Racing decided to dust off his SC10 and join in on the melee that is the Pro-Lite racing.
Here is the results of the first two rounds of qualifying for myself and Dean:
Round 1 Qualifying: Pro-Lite 13.5
For round 1 my goal was to try to get 9-10 laps, and I ended up getting 9 laps, and finished 9th in the Heat. I did manage to record some round 1 Pro-Lite action on my phone, will be ordering a Hat Cam soon, so this will improve the quality and the number of videos I will be posting in the future.
Round 2 Qualifying: Pro-Lite 13.5
I made some adjustments to the truck for this round, with the help of Dean and Ernest, and it seemed to make a huge improvement to the truck. The Blitz felt great driving and I almost pulled off getting 10 laps, although I still seem to be over steering in the turns and spinning 180's, I feel that some slight changes in my setup and more practice will help with this. I ended up getting 9 laps and again finishing 9th in the heat.
With 39 entries in the Pro-Lite 13.5 category, there ended up being 5 mains for the category. It seemed that 11-12 laps was the goal for round 2 to qualify for the A-main, myself and Dean qualified for the E-Main, Dean started the E-Main in 2nd and for myself in the 5th position..
E-Main: Pro-Lite 13.5
For the E-Main I did not do as well as I had hoped, and ended up finishing in 4th place. I slight mishap in my driving got me tangled with Dean in the last minute of the main and we both lost 5-6 secs, or I think he would have easily gotten 10 laps (he missed it by 2 secs), and I feel I would have gotten 9 laps (I missed it it by 4 secs).
Dragi from Wolfpak Racing, and Ernest and Myself in the background.
Ending thoughts:
Even though I did not finish the way I had hoped, I had a blast racing with a great group of drivers. I want to give a shout out to those of you that I talked to while at Fear Farm, and want to thank those for giving me advise on ways on improving both my driving skills and my truck. I have not been racing for very long, and it always amazes me that the people in the RC hobby are so friendly and always seem to not mind helping out other people.
The next round of the KBRL series will be at Scottsdale RC Speedway (SRS) on November the 26th, the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I am really looking forward to the round, as SRS has changed is layout for the Arizona State Championships on Nov 18-20. Can't wait to see and race the new layout, I will probably go next weekend to get in practice and club racing.
I raced in the first round of the KBRL Racing Series on Saturday, the first round was at Canyon Vista RC down in Tuscon, Az. My friends over at Wolfpak Racing joined me down in Tuscon, they had two drivers entered into the racing league as well. Although the drive was long to come down to the racing, it was well worth the trip, as I had a blast down at Canyon Vista, the layout and facility was great and the group at Canyon Vista was the best.
Myself (sitting) and Dean from Wolfpak Racing. Sorry for the picture quality.
The day started off great, although the weather did play a huge factor in things as the day went on. So here are some of the results of my racing:
Heat 1 Racing:
Laps RaceTime Fast Lap
Frank Lilly 7 5:10.519 39.647
Round 2:
Laps RaceTime Fast Lap
Frank Lilly 8 5:20.403 33.743
There was a rain delay finishing round 2 of the heats. The rain let up a little and they were able to complete round 2. Another rain delay happened before the Mains started. The afternoon felt great after the rain, it brought the temps down and it felt great outside, I don;t know about anyone else, but I love the rain.
Dean's Buggy from Wolfpak Racing
C-Main:
For the C-Main I'm not sure what happened. I don't want this to be an excuse as to why I finished where I did, but I feel with the rain I made a wrong tire choice, and had huge traction issues. Below is the results for the C-Main.
I am looking forward for round 2 of the KBRL series, it will be held at Fear Farm in Phoenix, Az. Not sure if I am going to be making any changes for the truck for the next race. But will get in some more practice time before the next race.
Losi 5IVE-T 1/5-scale 4WD Off Road Truck
Just thought I would share this video, 1/5th scale, very cool.
This night of racing brought me to a new track, Warehouse 3. Once again I met my friends from Wolfpak Racing for another great night of RC racing. For my friend Dragi from Wolfpak and myself this was are first time racing up at Warehouse 3. Being indoors was great, it started raining outside about halfway through are racing, so being indoors was a plus.
Being my first time at this track, I joined my friend Dragi in the Novice class. Here is the results of the heat races:
Heat 1 Racing: I ran 15 laps, and was running a steady 2nd/3rd place for almost the entire heat, with about a minute to go in the heat, I lost control of my truck and had intermittent radio issues and ended up finishing in 4th place. Side note for other drivers that are new, if you are in the pits, please leave your radios off until the racing is over.
Heat 2 Racing: I ran 12 laps, I was in the lead for the entire heat, but on the 12th lap I got tangled up in lap traffic, and busted the bottom shock mount of the right rear of the truck, with less the a minute to go in the racing, I was unable to get back out I ended up finishing in 3rd in the heat, lucky for me, other drivers were having more trouble then me.
B Main: Had an improvement for this main, I ran 1st until the last lap, where I got tangled up in lap traffic and on the last lap was just edged out and I finished in 2nd place. Below is a video that my friend from Wolfpak Racing took of Dragi and mines B Main racing. My truck is the Orange and black HPI Blitz. Dragi's is the green buggy.
Video of my B-Main
Video of Dean from Wolfpak in one of his Heat Races.
Another great night of RC racing down at Glitch in Queen Creek, Az.
Frank Jr. decided to come watch Dad race.
Frank Jr. decided to come down and watch the racing fun. It was a blast, we were racing tonight with our friends over at Wolfpak Racing, and Dean from Wolfpak made the podium in 2wd Buggy racing.
I made some changes to the Blitz to try to help me with the handling. I switch the rear tires of the Blitz from the stock tires to JConcepts Double Dees. I would have switched the fronts as well, but I went to a couple of shops and only found one set. I will look this week at a couple of other shops in town to see if I can pick up a set for the fronts this week.
Below is the results of racing my 2wd Short Course Truck, this week I decided not to run the novice electric class and was racing with the standard 2wd Short Course drivers. It was a lot of fun racing in the regular class this week.
Dargi from WolfPak Racing and myself (pic courtesy of Wolfpak Racing)
Racing results:
Heat 1 Racing (6 min.):
The addition of the Double Dees on the rear was a big improvement as far as traction this weekend, but I am still having trouble with getting the truck to turn. At the end of Heat 1, I ran 9 laps.
Heat 2 Racing (6 min.):
Round two of the heats I had an improvement, I ran a personal best of 10 laps in this 6 minute heat.
Heat 3 Racing (6 min.):
For round three, I'm not sure how I did overall, there was a problem with getting the results out, but I feel I did at least 9 laps, lol, I wasn't really counting.
A-Main Racing (10 min.):
For the A-Main I did a huge improvement over my last A-Main in which I only ran 7 laps. This time I ran 15 laps, the truck felt better as far as traction, but was still having some trouble with some of the turns, I will get the new tires for the front this week and see if that helps then make adjustments from there. Below is the race results for the A-Main showing all the drivers.
Met my friends Dean and Dragi from Wolfpak Racing down at Glitch RC in Queen Creek to get in some off-road RC racing. My camera is on the fritz so I was not able to take any pictures, but I did manage to take a couple with my phone. Hopefully will have my camera back for the next time I go out, and I will start posting videos as well.
Being the first visit to Glitch RC, I did not know what to expect, but once I got onto the track with my Blitz it was a blast, this truck is fun, and after a few laps of practice I felt I was doing alright. I liked the track layout, and was getting used to taking the SCT over the jumps.
Being my first race at Glitch RC, as well as my first time on dirt and the jumps, I entered into the Novice class with my friend Dragi. Dean entered his buggy into the 2WD Buggy class.
Racing results:
Heat 1: DNF - battery died, and ran only 2 laps
Heat 2: Finished 2nd, and ran 9 laps
Heat 3: Finished 2nd, and ran 9 laps
- At least I was being consistent.
A-Main: Finished 3rd, and ran 7 laps
Overall it was a great time, and I guarantee a return visit to Glitch for some more off-road racing.
I got in some practice time with the new truck. It felt really good, so I decided to enter myself into the Novice Class down at Hobby Town. The Truck handled really well, and I learned a valuable lesson about battery life with my racing tonight. I kind of made the mistake of charging my battery yesterday, and left it stored charged so when I started racing tonight I was not at full charge. So next time I will fully charge the batteries just prior to racing, that way I don't run into any more problems.
Overall it was a fun evening, had a good time and also got to watch my friends do some racing from over at Wolfpak Racing blog.
Here are the results of tonight racing for me.
Heat 1: Finished 5th, and ran 27 laps.
Heat 2: Finished 6th, and ran 21 laps.
- For heat 2, my battery died half way
through the race,sigh, lesson learned.
B Main: Finished 4th, and ran 25 laps.
- Another lesson learned, did not realize that my
controller got switched, so when I started the
B Main, my steering was backwards. So I ran
the entire race steering in reverse, sigh, lesson
learned, so embarrassing.
So for my first time out I feel I did pretty good, making the B Main was very cool. They had a A, B and C main this evening. With what I learned tonight, my next session out should be much better. I will try to take more pictures next time, and maybe try to get a video as well.
I have decided to expand my racing hobby to now include RC's. My first venture will be with the HPI Blitz Short-Course Truck. This is a tough little truck, and I feel will be a great RC to get me started in the hobby.
I will be taking my new truck down to Hobby Town in Gilbert today for my first practice session, and if everything goes well might get in some racing as they race every Saturday night down there.
It was another fun night of racing over at the Wolfpak Garage. Unfortunately, I did not take hardly any pictures so this will be a brief post. For a complete breakdown of the nights racing, head on over the the Wolfpak Blog.
It was another fun evening of slot car racing over at the Wolfpak Garage. This week there was a slight change in the lineup of races, Dean added two 10v beginner classes to the schedule. Dean also let me use his backup controller since his main controller had come back from being repaired. This helped out a lot, and was a big reason for my improved performance in tonights races.
For a complete breakdown of the nights races, you can head over to the Wolfpak Racing blog, below is some images and race results of the evenings races; pictures courtesy of Wolfpak Racing blog, I forgot to take some for myself, sigh :( . Although I was able to get a video made of one of the heat races (thanks Jordan for being the camera man), so enjoy....
Race 1: LMP Challenge (10v)
2nd: Dragi / 1st: Frank / 3rd: Jordan
Race 2: NASCAR ARCA (10v)
2nd: Frank / 1st: Dragi / 3rd: Jordan
Race 3: LMP2
2nd: Dean / 1st: Ed / 3rd: Dragi
Race 4: LMP1
This was a great race, this was the first time that I had broken the 200 lap mark on this track. Dean had let me use his backup controller which helped out a lot, I can't wait until I can afford to purchase my own controller (Donations anyone????).
