Past Due Updating

Sorry, I know much hasn't been happening here on the blog but I have had two trees hit the house since April (I guess I was a logger in a past life and now the trees are exacting their revenge) and have been mainly consumed with trying to fix that, deal with the evil that is insurance, and otherwise get everything back to normal. Not to mention I feel like I am throwing money down a hole at this problem as fast as I can make it.

While this is most likely going to prevent me from going to the straight line event this year the project is still going forward. I just got my speed control back from Castle as they were trying to figure out what issue I have been having (actually they just sent a new unit back, thanks Castle). I am also working out some details on the stretched chassis, I figured if I can't go this year that I would really try to be ready to throw down next year.

On an good note I just did my first offroad race since the mid-nineties and came in second. I haven't had a lot of luck finding an oval track that consistently has EDM cars showing up so since I was given a Associated RC10B4 for my birthday I figured I would slap it together real fast and run it at one of the local tracks this past weekend at Cullman RC in Cullman Alabama.

Cullman RC

They run a 1/10th scale Open ( or "Outlaw" as some may call it) class that is pretty much run what you brung. So I slapped in a Traxxas Velinion motor and esc and had at it. The first heat was ruff as I was trying too hard and crashing a lot but the second heat and the main I dropped my lap times a lot with the "slow = fast" method and just taking it easy and trying to be consistent. I think after I get the suspension sorted and some practice I should be able to actually race for the win.

I had a blast though and remembered how fun offroad can be, so I will definitely be doing some more of it.

Gettin' Dirty

Well I have been working on making an EDM car out of an old RC10T2 to get doing some dirt oval racing in the name of sharpening my skills and I just finished trimming up and painting a body. BSR foams and lowering it just a bit are also done I just need to get a 10.5 motor to run and go get sideways. I am a pretty big mx fan so I decided to do a Rockstar Makita theme to the paint. It came out alright, I am still having an issue with the paint wanting to stick to McAllister bodies (the paint tries to peel up with the paintmask as you remove it) and I am cleaning the body first and have tried removing the mask when the paint is dry and wet. The masking is high quality stuff (3M) that I cut on a plotter and apply, I don't know what is up as I never have this problem with HPI bodies or some of the others. If anyone has any tips drop me a line.

Chris

VIDEOS!!!

Here is a video of my practice run , thanks RCMits for the videos!

At least it is a decent crash

And here is a link to more of his videos from the race.

RCMITS VIDEOS

Nic Case's Record Run

Here is a video of Nic's smoking fast run, just listen to the sound the car makes especially as it claws it way through the turns.

83.66 mph!!!

ISC Video

Here is a video with a bit of race action and some Southwest Tour action that I ran across on youtube.

'09 Speed Run

Encino Event Results

ENCINO '09 PRESS RELEASE

ENCINO '09 RESULTS

I told you I did bad, I have been practicing (not on a velodrome though I don't have one of those available) but I think it might be time to get back into some form of course racing to try and get better faster as competition seems to accelerate it. I feel like towards the end of Saturday that even though the car was still not completely cooperating that I should have been able to drive through the problems better and at least be a little more competitive.

I am thinking about dirt oval, it teaches good reflexes.

Crashing On The Other Coast

This weekend was my first ISC event and it was at the Encino velodrome....and it was hard. Despite tons of help from Nic Case and others (thanks Tim Smith, Shawn Palmer (of Schumacher USA), Gary O'Conner, and others I am forgetting at the moment) I could not get the car to handle very well and just wasn't good enough to drive through the problems so I spent most of the weekend crashing into the retainer walls. It was all good though and I think the experience gained will be highly beneficial for the next closed course event as this was my first time to ever even see a velo track much less drive on one (and I am not exactly the best setup guy, I need LOTS of practice normally with something new to find what works).

So I performed awful but it really didn't sour the event for me, it was so much fun attempting to run, meeting cool people, and I felt the race just turned out so well in general that I am very happy I went. I think the word got out some more about speed racing too and hopefully the next event will have even more people.

It was a very cool experience for me as there was magazine coverage, industry members in attendance, and happy people enjoying seeing things like Nic ripping off some super fast laps, not to mention it was great watching the Southwest Tour guys run too (some of those guys were super impressive). Hey I even got to meet Dan from Dan's RC Stuff and he gave me some of of his Speed Clean Plastic Cleaner (great product by the way) which was cool as I have been buying his products for years and you just don't meet rc industry people in Alabama.

In all now I am just more excited about competing and hopefully next time I can bring the speed! If will excuse me I need to go fix my car and practice some more as I am not real crazy about losing.

Chris