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.
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.
