LiveRC Weekend Round-Up

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Mike Garrison

0 Oct. 25, 2011, 7:10 a.m.

 

 
Barry Petit wins at the Southern Nationals! - JConcepts Race Report
 
 
 

The A-finals were scheduled as the last races of the day and track conditions were changing sending drivers scrambling for traction and consistency. The JConcepts Hybrids were the hot tire heading into the finals with 8 of the 15 trucks on the Hybrids and Elevated wheel combination in the Pro 1/8th truck A-main.

At the start of the Pro 1/8th truck A-main Josh Wheeler took the early lead with Barry Pettit in 2nd and Ryan Lopez in 3rd. The top 3 drivers were somewhat even all running on JConcepts Hybrids and began to stretch the gap to 4th place. Pit strategy was a factor between Josh and Barry while Josh was running a 7:30 strategy Barry was on a 9:00 pace.

During the mid-point of the race it was clear Barry was gaining some momentum and had pulled within only a few seconds of Josh. A few mistakes by Josh allowed Barry to take the lead and another pit stop by Josh allowed Barry to have a clean track out front and with a pit stop advantage. Barry continued to push the pace with his Mugen MBX6-T truggy and opened up a large gap. Disaster struck Wheeler’s truck when a universal axle popped out due to a collision with lap traffic and pit lane. With Wheeler out of the race Pettit cruised the last 2 minutes and took the largest win of his short R/C racing career. Ryan Lopez finished 2nd and Josh Glancy 3rd.

Barry’s winning Mugen MBX6-T was decked out with JConcepts all weekend. Punisher body, Hybrids tires in green compound mounted on Elevated wheels provided the accessory lift on the winning ride.

A huge thank you must go to the management crew behind the Southern Nationals. Jason Correro and Jeff Gray put on an event to remember at an amazing facility. Thanks for the racers and event sponsors for making everything possible.

JConcepts double win in South Africa - JConcepts Race Report
 
 
 

Leigh ran two classes, 2wd Buggy and Truck and was able to secure wins in both. Running JConcepts Bar Codes in Orange Compound gave Leigh the perfect combination for the fast, smooth and very hot surface of the Bushveld track.

Leigh also shared some great photos of the local wildlife he encountered during his stay in South Africa.

Leigh sent us this note about his trip;

“I had an awesome time and met some great people. This trip was not all about racing and I also got the opportunity to see some of the wildlife that makes South Africa a wonderful place. Finally I would like to thank Jaco and Melanie Van Eeden from JRC Models, Polokwane for their assistance during my trip and making my stay possible.”

      

 

 

 

As the A-Main finals began, Raffy Abello slowly crept up the field, having started from the back of the grid. Within 5 minutes, the RC8.2 was already leading the A Main. Throughout the 45-minute finals, the RC8.2 kept the lead for more than a combined 30 minutes over the seconnd placer Jordan Go, who was the National Champion (of the Philippines). In the end, Raffy Abello with his RC8.2 scored the first inaugural win for the team in the Philippines with Jordan secondnd and Nani Tagle at third with a convincing 1-lap lead.

A great win for the A-Team in the new outing for the RC8.2!

The 9th annual Southwest Indoor Grand Prix, hosted by Tucson, AZ's Competition Hobbies, should be re-named as the BK Invitational. Team Associated's Brian Kinwald owns this track and went on a tear, TQ'ing 14 of the 16 rounds of qualifying among 2WD Modified, Modified Truck, Pro2 and Pro4. 

Starting from pole position in everything but Pro4, Kinwald showed the fluid, effortless driving style that helped him win two World Championships in the 90's. Now, almost twenty years later, he's still winning.

With his JConcepts-equipped Team Associated B4.1, Kinwald won the highly contested A1 and A2 to secure the win in the most competitive class ahead of Team Manager Brent Thielke. Never really challenged in Modified Truck or Pro2, Kinwald brought home two more wins, setting the stage for a 4-for-4 weekend.

Starting from second on the grid, Kinwald quickly got by TQ Billy Fischer in Pro4 and laid down the fastest laps of the weekend with his SC10 4x4.  A steady and smart drive from The Dirtinator lead him to the victory in the Pro4 class and to completing the event sweep.

Also taking victories for Team Associated, Reedy, LRP, and JConcepts were Richard Lake in the 2WD 13.5 Boosted class and Matt Trimmings in the 2WD 17.5 Non-Boosted class.

The Buggy Radio Angouleme hosted the last round of French National on September 24-25th. Approximately 100 drivers made the trip to this race which would determine the champions in both classes: 4WD and 2WD. The track was pretty bumpy when we got there because of the many events the club organized this season. However, the set-up I was using the previous weekend was already a very good basis for practices.

After some mistakes during qualifications, I managed to qualify 3rd. For the bumpy conditions, I went with more caster to make the car easier to drive, and thicker shock oil for less bouncing in the bumps.

Top 10 after qualifications:

1.       Jerôme Aigoin

2.       Yannick Aigoin

3.       Reno Savoya XRAY XB808'11

4.       Jérôme Sartel

5.       Nicolas Reynaud

6.       Julien Lattanzio

7.       Edouard Hugon

8.       Jonathan Bacro

9.       Renaud Monin

10.   Maxime Noble

11.   Alexis Clément

12.   Quentin Le Gall XRAY XB808

After an epic start with many crashes, I managed to go through and take the lead after 5 minutes. I kept the lead until the end, getting the best time over the 2 semis, and offering my 808 2011 the top spot on the grid for the main final!! Quentin Le Gall managed to secure his bump spot to the main, finishing 4th ahead of Mister B Euro champion Jonathan Bacro. 

Unfortunately for me, my plug broke in the warm-up laps, making me start with 2 laps behind. I pushed very hard to come back and managed to get back into 4th in the same lap of the podium!! Unfortunately, I suffered from a flame-out as we pushed the refueling in order to gain some time.

It was a very good weekend for the French XRAY team!

Final result:

1.       Jerôme Aigoin

2.       Yannick Aigoin

3.       Jérôme Sartel

4.       Michel Farina

5.       Tony Robin

6.       Reno Savoya XRAY XB808'11

7.       Jonathan Bacro

8.       Nicolas Reynaud

9.       Quentin Le Gall XRAY XB808

10.   Stéphane Deroch

11.   Edouard Hugon

 

 

A long weekend of some excellent racing has come to a close at the Southern Nationals in Louisiana. Allow me to recap my Durango Trifecta!

Nitro Buggy – As always this is the class I really care about with my Durango DNX408. This class had the most competition as all of the South and South Easts best racers were here! I had found a shock package that i liked at Rev last week and I was hoping it would work here as well. As it turns out it was fairly good but it did need some tweeking. There weren’t the same big jumps with flat landings here and it was much rougher thus a softer oil was needed. Also I felt that the rear was packing a little to fast and so instead of running A pistons with 3 holes I went to B pistons with 3 holes and it delayed the pack just enough to go over the rough stuff a little better. In Q1 I would put in a solid run and take the TQ. In round number 2 I had some traffic holding me back and I settled for 2nd behind Branham. Thus in Rd 3 I really wanted a win and 4 laps in I held a 1/2 second lead over Wheeler when I made a mistake and crashed over the big double and the marshall tapped my flywheel. Luckily though Branham wasn’t able to capitalize this time and I took the overall TQ.

Before the main I went down a little further with my PT RC Racing oils in the shocks. Thanks to the small increments I was able to go from 325cst to 300cst and not feel like I was having to make a huge change. The main was a 45 minute concentration fest as finding smooth lines was the name of the game. I started from the pole and my car felt great with the changes I made. It was easy for me to pull away from the pack but then I kept making mistakes and allowing them to keep up with me. I was searching left and searching right trying the jumps in multiple spots until I finally found some smooth lines a couple of inches off of the pipe in most cases. I started to extend my lead still making some mistakes every once in a while but overall putting in some fast solid laps. My Alpha Plus A852 was flying again and my Byrons Fuel 30% kept my tune locked in where I wanted it! I came away in the end with a 20+ second victory over Jason Branham in 2nd on my AKA Soft Gridirons which were dialed for me all weekend!

Double Podium for S120LT on UK Nationals Debut - Serpent Race Report (Mark Stiles)
 
 

 
2011 has been an exciting year for CML drivers Steve Haynes and Darren Johnson.

Between them they have taken an impressive 11 podium places, six of those being 1st place out of the 8 rounds of the Large Scale Off Road National Series! R7 was a punishing podium lockout with Steve, Darren and Gery Doyle taking an FTX 1,2,3 at the Nook Raceway.

Both Steve and Darren have been driving the FTX Punisher, which has proved reliable, agile and competitive, enabling them to achieve 1st and 2nd place overall in the 4wd British Championship facing some stiff competition along the way.

The upgraded 27cc engine has been at the heart of both cars and has provided good reliable performance, having completed the entire seasons racing without missing a beat. It's fair to conclude from the results, that these engines have had anything but an easy life!



In wet conditions, the FTX 'V' Spike tyres have proven to be effective and the FTX 3 degree rear toe block has also been useful keeping the rear of the cars planted under the slippier conditions often found on wet Astro Turf tracks and should be an essential tuning aid in any racers pit box.

500k weight oil has been used at most tracks in the centre differential. This has provided excellent forward drive, whilst helping to minimise the effects of harsh racing conditions on the drive train. More details of Team FTX’s car set-up’s can be found below.

Steve Haynes’s winning set-up sheet for Astro tracks and a good all round base set-up for the FTX Punisher.

Details of the LSOR National series can be found here.

The Team would like to thank all the clubs for their time and effort involved in this year’s National series for a great season. Roll on 2012.