On-Road RC Racing at HobbyTown Gilbert

Saturday, June 1st, 2013

I met my friends Dean and Dragi from WolfPak Racing over at  HobbyTown Gilbert to get in some On-road RC racing.  Although the day was on the hotter side, I think it was around 103 or hotter, not sure the exact temperature, but I was excited about getting in another round of racing.  Today will be the debut of my new Associated TC6.1.  I bought it from someone in California, and since Dean was travelling this past week, he was nice enough to pick the car up for me.  So we met at the track at around 2, and with racing starting 4, I did not have a lot of time to get the car ready, it was a roller, so I had to add all the electronics, etc.

I ended up missing round 1 of qualifying but had the car ready to go for round 2.

Since I missed round 1 of qualifying I was not sure what the car would do, so I decided to not make any major changes to the cars setup, and just see how it does.

Round 2 Qualifying:
Sportsman Sedan (Road Course):
  - Ended up finishing is 5th in this heat with 19 laps.
  - Car handled okay, but was loose, I accounted that for not saucing the tires.

A-Main:
Sportsman Sedan (Road Course):
  - I was starting 5th on the grid for the A-Main
  - The race started off good, with the tires sauced up, it was handling a lot better.
      - After the first couple of laps I was as high as 3rd place, but a couple of mistakes knocked me back
  - I ended up finishing in 4th place in the main, and did a personal best 20 laps.

Overall the car handled great, and it was a blast to drive.  I will be going over the car this week, and will post setup and pictures.  I did not bring my camera with me, so I only had the one picture I took with my phone.

I will be racing it again this Thursday at HobbyTown Gilbert, and will post those results as well.

RC On-Road Racing down at Hobbytown Gilbert

Saturday, May 11th, 2013

Got in another round of on-road racing down at Hobbytown Gilbert.  My friend Dean from WolfPak Racing was racing again, and invited me down to try some more on-road action by letting me borrow his son Dragi's two cars.  So once again, I signed up for Vintage Oval and Sportsman Sedan.  This time we were also met by another racing friend, everyone calls him Rhino.

After getting all setup in the pits is was time for racing:

Round 1 Qualifying:
VTA Oval (32 Lap breakout):
  - There were 3 heats of VTA Oval Class
  - I ended up doing 32 laps (4:02) - and was holding on to TQ after the end of round 1

Sportsman Sedan (Road Course):
  - There was 2 full heats of Sportsman Sedan Class
  - I slightly improved last weeks racing and ended up with 18 laps.

Round 2 Qualifying:

VTA Oval (32 Lap breakout):
  - I improved over round 1, this time ending up doing 32 laps (4:01)
  - but someone else got a 32 - 4:00 flat, and a second person got a 4:01, slightly faster then mine.
  - sound after round 2, I was sitting in 3rd place overall.

Sportsman Sedan (Road Course):
  - I slightly improved over round 1 and ended up with 19 laps
  - This put me starting in 4th for the B-Main.

On to the Main:

Sportsman Sedan - B-Main:

 - I got a rocky start, but in the end, I finished where I started in 4th place.

 - Overall a good outing for only my second time every racing on-road road course.

VTA Oval - A-Main:

  - Since the TQ had to leave early for the night, this bumped me up to starting 2nd in the A-Main.

  - The race started out great, the car was fast, and it was handling great.

  - About the 2:30 mark, I got hit hard in one of the corners, and the car started acting strange

      - Ended up being that the positive terminal came out of the battery and the car was done.

  - Overall this class was very fun to race, and Dean ended up finishing 2nd in the A-Main.

      - It was great to see one of our group on the podium for the night.

Dean working on his cars in the pits

It was great to race with Rhino again, glad he came out.

RC Racing over at Hobby Town Gilbert

Saturday, May 4th, 2013

I met my friend Dean from WolfPak Racing down at HobbyTown USA in Gilbert for some on-road RC racing.  I have been racing all off-road vehicles up to now, but my friend Dean has racing on-road RC vehicles on and on for awhile now.  Since he was racing down at HobbyTown Gilbert on Saturday, he invited me down to try some on-road racing by letting me race his son's two cars.  I would end up racing in the VTA Oval and the Sportsman Sedan classes.

All setup in the pits ready for some racing.

I have to say, these were some fun cars to drive.  The VTA car was a blast, this is a Associated TC4, and although we were fighting a electrical issue all night, this was a fun car to drive.  Although I did not do as good on the road course in the Sportsman Sedan class as I would have liked to, this was also a fun class to race in.  By the time I got to the main with the car I was finally getting the hang of the road course, and I ended up finishing in 4th in my lower main.

Looking forward to some more on-road racing in the near future, now which car to buy first?  Any suggestions?

RC Racing at Warehouse 3

Saturday, April 27th, 2013

It been awhile since I dusted off the RC's and got some racing in, so since everyone else was off doing different things this weekend, I decide what the hell, time to break out on my own.  Since I haven't had a chance to visit Warehouse 3 since they moved to their new location, I took this as the perfect opportunity to go and see the new facility.  I got there about an hour after they opened because I wanted to get in some practice time before racing started.  I have to say, this is a very nice facility, although I wish is was closer to the central part of the valley since I live on the east side in Mesa.

After practicing for a few hours I was ready for racing.  Although I originally wanted to race my TLR 22 SCT in Pro-Lite, they did not have enough to create a class, so my only option was racing with the Pro 2 guys.    For my TLR 22 Buggy, I entered into the 17.5 Buggy class.  There ended up being 2 heats of Pro2 and 2 heats of 17.5 Buggy.

The pit spots were well laid out, plenty of room and power.

Round 1:

     Pro-2
        - Did alright for round 1, finished in 4th and was sitting 7th overall.

     17.5 Buggy
        - Buggy was a little loose for round one finished 6th, and was sitting 10th overall.

Round 2:

     Pro-2
        - Made a tire change,hurt the handling, finish 5th in this heat, dropped to 8th overall.

     17.5 Buggy
        - Tire change for the buggy, much better, finished 5th, still 10th overall.

Mains:

17.5 Buggy:

• The top 7 would start in the A-Main, and since I was in 10th overall, I would be started 3rd in the B-Main.
• B-Main:
• Started in 3rd, and ended up finishing 2nd and on my way to the A-Main.
• A-Main:
• Did not do as well as I wanted, had a few crashes, but still had a blast.

Pro2

• Since I was sitting is 8th overall, the top 7 started the A-Main, so that put my starting 1st in the B-Main.
• B-Main
• I started out pretty good, I was able to hold on to 2nd and then 3rd for almost 1/2 the race, but only being a 17.5, I eventually fell out of the bump spots and was not able to make it into the A-Main.  But it was a blast to race this truck on that track, my truck absolutely loved that layout, I just wish I could have been a little faster.
• I see a 10.5 or an 8.5 in the near future for my 22 SCT.

Upgrades to the new Super Cub plane

Saturday, April 13th, 2013

I was thinking today about my first flight with the plane, it seems that against the white clouds, it becomes somewhat hard to see the plane sometimes in the air.  So after a trip to Michaels, I purchased some foam safe spray paint, and decided to give the plane a new look.  Since I had to do some minor repairs from my first flight anyway, I decide this would be a perfect time to give the plane a new paint job.

Below are some pictures I took after painting everything up, and doing a test fit.  I had to replace the front cowl, the prop shaft, and I went ahead and replaced the motor since one of the wires on the original motor was broken.  I will try to solder on new wires to the old motor and use it as a back up.  Back to the paint job, I wanted the colors to be something that will be very noticeable while the plane is in the air, so I decided to go with yellow and black.  I still need to get a new sticker set for this one, but being this is my first plane I am learning on, I'm not going to worry about making it too fancy.  Going to be taking it out tomorrow morning for another outing with the wife.  Maybe I can get her to try to take it up for the first time tomorrow.

I wish the yellow was a little darker,
but overall I'm very happy with how it turned out.

I think this will be very easy to spot in the sky now.

I will try to post a video of tomorrows outing, as I want to try to start videoing every outing from now on.  Eventually I would like to get a camera to have on the plane while flying.