“Its not the fastest car that wins the race; its the quickest one.” – Lee Petty
The Sound of the Tone
- Track surface was drier than the past few weeks, but didn’t seem to affect tire choice or lap time
- Another 80 entry night. Enough entries for C main in Stock Buggy and B main in Stadium Truck
- Remind the wife to stock up on Monster for Thursdays…work starts at 7am
- New Race Director! Nick did a superb job keeping everything moving
- Thrashing! Running 2 classes and taking pics is alot of work! Thanks two my friend for the food run!
- TQ charge leads are a “consumable”
Q & A
Q. What shock oil is in your buggy?
A. its always written on the shock cap in sharpie….32.5 Front 27.5 Rear
Q. Do you run JCONCEPTS foam in your JCONCEPTS tires?
A. YES. You can tell what foams people are running if they have holes in the tires and are close enough to look. Prolines are blue, AKA red or black, JCONCEPTS are gray.
Q. What gearing do you run?
A. 27/75
In case you missed it on facebook I put together a quick gear chart for those out there who run the poly pro pinions. Links below. They are business card size after you trim them out and fold in half. Or just save to your smart phone.
Practice
2wd Stock Buggy (22 4.0 SR) – The track had an odd look to it. It was black in areas and dark brown to gray looking in others. It just looked dry to me. I decided to use practice to experiment with tires. I tried a taller pin Gold Dirt Web and Space Bar both felt similar; a little more understeer than I wanted. I went back to my baseline tire a ghost pin positron and immediately gained my steering back and 2 tenths. *Note whenever doing testing like this always recheck ride height. Its really best practice to always check it before you get back on track. With alot of cars on track it was getting slicker as practice went on. I tried some other sets of Dirt Webs and Spacebars that were slick in the rear and low tread on the front and the car got better. I just focused on turning laps and waited for the first qualifier to make changes.
2wd Mod Stadium Truck (22T 3.0) – NONE. Felt the truck was decent enough from last week to qualify into the main and didn’t run it at all.
Qualifying R1
2wd Mod Stadium Truck (22T 3.0) – Truck was very slick on hairpin after the step down. Uncontrollable, mistakes got the best of me this round. Really need tires but its just not in the funds right now.
Tire – JCONCEPTS Gold Dirtwebs (Fronts: Low Pin / Rears: Ghost Pin)
Prep – FDJ Pineapple
Post Run Changes – Flip camber link insert to 1 mm down
2wd Stock Buggy (22 4.0 SR) – Right before the heat I decided I wanted to try a different pinion I went to a 26 vs the 27 I ran last week. I think the gear change cost me a tenth, coupled with my mind still stuck on the eggshell of a throttle I had to have in truck I just didn’t have a good run. In stock you really have to drive the car hard to squeeze every little bit of time out of it. I also went out on the taller pin Dirt Web thinking it would be my worst of the two rounds and the tire would be at the right height for round 2.
Tire – JCONCEPTS Dirt Webs (Fronts: Med-High Pin / Rears: Med-High Pin)
Prep – FDJ Pineapple
Post Run Changes – Positrons back to 27T pinion
Qualifying R2
2wd Mod Stadium Truck (22T 3.0) – Surprisingly the lower inner camber link change put the stability back into the truck I felt like it was back to about a 7 out of 10. The snappy loose on throttle was gone. The truck still has too much initial steering and then bad push through corner. Its like the rear is just locked into the track all the time. I struggled with traffic I wasn’t being patient and tried to force my way through too many times and it cost me. This seemed to be the theme of the night. I would start 6th in the main.
Tire – JCONCEPTS Gold Dirtwebs (Fronts: Low Pin / Rears: Ghost Pin)
Prep – FDJ Pineapple
Post Run Changes – Raise inner camber link back up (what!?!?) and move bottom front shocks out
2wd Stock Buggy (22 4.0 SR) – Car was much better with the pinion change and ghost pin positrons. I felt like I had the fastest car but it was hard to get through traffic starting 9th. I would end up 6th overall and was confident if I could get through the start in the main, I could win. I knew I had the fastest car in the field.
Tire – Pro-Line MC Positron (Fronts: Ghost Pin / Rears: Ghost Pin)
Prep – FDJ Pineapple
Post Run Changes – NONE
Mains
2wd Mod Stadium Truck (22T 3.0) – Was able to dodge carnage at the start and the truck actually felt OK. Was sitting second and started to get sloppy. Its almost like rear tires went away. It was back to not being able to touch the throttle. I had some excellent close racing with Cameron Saxon and was able to salvage 4th. Now in hindsight I laugh in my choice of adjustment. I went reversed the same adjustment that fixed the loose on throttle condition in the previous round. I was thinking the track changed and going back up might be a good idea to get the rear loose. POOR JUDGEMENT!!! I also need to look further into my ESC throttle curve it seems way to aggressive.
Tire – JCONCEPTS Gold Dirtwebs (Fronts: Low Pin / Rears: Ghost Pin)
Prep – FDJ Pineapple
Setup – PDF IMAGE
Video presented by RCVITALS
2wd Stock Buggy (22 4.0 SR) – Somehow I flipped the car 1 foot in front of my starting position. But again I was able to steer clear of mayhem on the step down and gain alot of spots back. By halfway I was 3rd. I was really pushing trying to catch the leaders. Being impatient trying to get by a laper I forced my way into a hole that closed quickly and ended up back in 4th. David Carmendy took 3rd and put on a clinic for blocking. We had some extremely close racing with each of us showing it is possible to race close if you have the skills. Although I was faster I couldn’t make the pass. This is a skill I need to work on. Starting up front the past 4 weeks I really haven’t had to battle close for position on this layout and it showed. I ended up 4th and broke my 4 race win streak. Was definitely bummed out about that but some good lessons here.
- You must qualify top 3
- Clean starts make it so much easier
- You cant waste time riding behind slower cars. Identify passing areas and execute
Tire – Pro-Line MC Positron (Fronts: Low pin / Rears: Low pin, slicked center)
Prep – FDJ Pineapple
Setup – PDF IMAGE (No changes from last week)
Video presented by RCVITALS
