My Racing History & 2008 Blogg by CuttingEdge

Hi all I felt I should write a Blogg as I created this section , First I will apologise for my BAD spelling and Grammer that I have no doubt will creep into this Blogg sorry i am only a Carpenter after all anyway here we go ........ :D

My Racing History well where shall I start it all started on a building site in Braintree Essex eight years ago when me and my mate bought a couple of Shummacher SST Rally Cars to have some fun with at lunchtimes , well thats what we thought we had bought it turned out my mate had a Rally version longer shocks and different shock towers I seem to recall where as mine was a Shummacher SST Touring car :cry: It was not much good on the Building site thats for sure ( Thanks A1 Models ) & I realy mean Thanks to Dave who sold me the Touring car as if he had not I would not have tried to find a Touring Car club to race what i had bought ......

First I Went to Colchester to see them racing there which did not look like to much fun racing round the carpark outside the plumbers merchants on a Sunday morning missing the pot holes and stones :shock: & they seemed to be more interested in the Nitro cars over the Electric , Which still seems the same today even though the Electric has more of a following at Colchester Now mainly due to there Great smooth outdoor track which is a Joy to drive at I love going to Colchester now i know a few of the Lads and the People who run the track do a great job Mr B and Timbo and all the others & there are a few great caracters who they have there Vince springs to mind as one who must dream about gear ratios every night .........

Sorry I am rambling ...........

The next Sunday I took the Family upto the Indoor Cricket pitch in Ipswich where i had been told they raced touring cars on carpet ... Carpet I thought someone was winding me up I thought but hey when I got there they was racing Touring Cars on Carpet WOW I thought as a Friendly Mad came over to talk to me as I stood there watching the cars going round ,,,, This man turned out to be BARRY who was probably the most friendly strainger I had ever met , Within minutes i knew all i needed to know and armed with a list i was off to see if the stuff I had bought was what I needed to race . When I got home I found looking though the stuff i had bought it seemed the only thing missing was another set of crystals and some carpet tyres .............

To Be Contiued

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Numb Nuts Tri Club 2007 /2008 Pro Stock Champion

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Last edited by admin on Wed Mar 26, 2008 4:38 pm; edited 1 time in total

I returned two weeks later armed with my Car ( no spares ) No body told me i could break it :lol: a set of pre mounted T27 tyres which i had been told were good on carpet & at £10 a set i felt this was ok and worth a try, There was no way I was going to buy an expensive set of carpet dragons until I was sure I was going to continue with this hobby , I also has 2 stick packs of I think they were 1500 cells a charger which had the most anoying beep in the world and an old car battery , Yep i think that was about it along with a small selection of tools that came with the car , I was ready for the off ..................

I spoke to Barry who told me how it all worked helped put up the rostrum and got my car ready to go , I forgot i needed a table but I was lucky a little guy with a bald head by the name of Merlo said I could pit with them on a pool table which had a sheet of ply on top of it , Great i thought an Expert who was running a slightly newer version of my car , I can remember clearly the conversation I had with Barry on my first racing day I had said I was sure I would come last & Barry assured me I would not :shock: & he was right maybe he could see I had a little bit of talent from my practice session when he was telling me how to drive YES thats right in a round about way I was tought by Barry............

Not only did I not come last but I was not even in the lowest final If my memory serves me correctly ..................

To this day I can still remember who came last thats probably due to the vivid memory of him pinning his crying son to the side netting and shouting at him like a mad man :shock: I was shocked but nobody else seemed to be I later found out it was normal I don't need to name names you all now who I am refuring to :D

Oh yes & the tyres would last 3 meetings my cheap T27 tryes and my first motor which was a sealed Shummacher motor 27turn lasted about 5 meetings untill if ound the power of what most people were using the Trinity Green Machine 3 WOW :lol: what a difference it made in speed it was like a rocket ship , In those days i had a comm stick and that was it although it didn't matter much as I had no luck with the Green Machine 3 motors mine kept getting staples in and Blowing up :shock:

From there i moved onto the Orion Chrome not due to being more powerful as they were not but due to the fact they only had small vent holes in them i never had one blow up on me But i never had good results when i run my Orion motor .......................

My Best memory or racing indoors at the Cricket Ground was once just once I beat Barry It was due to the fact i was consistant I was not as FAST as Barry but i drove well and I can remember Barry saying how well I had done and this ment a lot to me and still does .. To this day If I beat Barry I go home happy even if a lot of other people beat me , he tought me a lot in a short time the most important lesson he tought me was to HAVE FUN and to this day I still try to have fun I gets harder as you get better but I still have FUN..............

Oh and yes I can't forget to mention my racing buddy ill call him I am sure he would not mind being called that ( well he won't know he is in Scotland now Playimg Golf ) The old Yokomo driver who I was in competion with In the old days like I am now with Ian the Grey Fox

GILES P bless him he also tought me a lot in his memory I still use his Pit space in our Hut ....

To Be Contiued

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Numb Nuts Tri Club 2007 /2008 Pro Stock Champion

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For the last few months of racing at the old Cricket Stadium I can remember racing on the Bumpy car park trying to miss the pot holes this is when i Upgraded my car from the Shummacher SST to the Team Losi xxx-s I was so happy when i got my Losi it was so much faster than the old Shummacher I had to start with & Thank God for Ebay as I try to always Buy my cars second hand I was lucky with my xxx-s it had not been out long but I found one going cheap on Ebay it was mine all I had to do to it was buy a new shell I got the same shell as the car would have come with origanaly as I liked the look of it I think it was called a show stopper or somthing it was not a real car but a Trinity shell could have been called a reference maybe ............ I painted it Red with 2 white stripes down the middle it was fantastic 1 belt ans as fast as hell BUT it kept beaking it was not strong enough for me i felt and I soon Ebayed it I think and upgraded again to another car , again this was second hand but hardly used .............

By this time we were racing at our current track on Bourn Hill Ipswich just with hoses layed out until the track plan had been decided Oh yes my new car was an X-RAy T1 I think it was called a lovely looking car which is why i bought it , When it was going well it was great but as soon as it took a knock the setup when out the window and to me it became undrivable ........

So you Guest it it had to go this time it did not go on Ebay but Jimbo bought it off me ( & then beat me with it on a regular basis )

I am Skipping though this now to try and get it all in befor the weekend when the STCC 2008 starts which was the main reason for this Blogg .......................

I Had made the move to Yokomo now as shaft drive was ment to be better and Andy East had just won the British Touring Car Championship with Yokomo ..... A Big lesson was to be learnt here you can have the car BUT you need the Skill to drive it ................

So I had the Car would it work for me ????????????

To Be Continued

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Numb Nuts Tri Club 2007 /2008 Pro Stock Champion

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The answer was NO it was nice to drive BUT you had to be Andy East to get it to go round Quick well as quick as Andy went :D I stuck with the Yokomo in 3 different forms for a couple of seasons then made the move to Tamiya .

I moved over to Tamiya just for the shere fact I liked the look of the car and Graham Amey had got one which he let me drive it was sweet easy to drive fast but you were always in control whatever you did to the setup you could not make it undrivable like some cars I had run in the past ....... I drove my Tamiya for 3 years I think it must have been and loved every race I drove it ....

When i did the STCC running my Tamiya I did for a while have a part sponcership with Maxamps who sold me there batterys cheap gave me a t-shirt and put photos of my car on there website , they was only a small company then , Now they are one of the biggest US battery sellers and Sponcer top names in the states below is a picture of my Maxamps car I did the car in White , Yellow & Silver ......

And Below is one of my Silver Maxamps car coming over the jump at Southend :D

I have moved on this season to the New TEAM MAGIC E4 touring car WHY you might ask when I loved the Tamiya so so much & the short answer is simple you could not fit a lipo in the Tamiya and the new Tamiya the 416 was just not different enough a car to upgrade to & there was just something about the E4 that just shouted at me to get one ..........

Since running the E4 for what feels like a long time but is only a few months I have beaten my personal best on 2 different track layouts at Coastal , I have Won the A final twice , & I am currently leading the Numb Nuts Pro Stock class after the first 4 rounds with 2 rounds to go .
And thats at the wrong time of year to be breaking records etc as when the grip levels come up in the summer I feel I will only go faster , Well I hope I will :D

Also It has to be mentioned aswell that there is normaly about 2 seconds between the GreyFox and myself either way over 5 minutes ..... In the last outing in the dry when I won the A final I beat the GreyFox by closer to a lap which is a lot more that the usual 2 seconds :lol:
We can't count the last meeting held in the WET as I was not running the E4 when the GreyFox won and me coming in in second place (having fryed 2 motors)

So anyway to sum up below is a list of the Touring cars I have run this does not include Various minis and F1 cars along the way

Shummacher SST (new bought in a starter kit with charger trani etc)
Losi xxx-s bought off Ebay
Xray T1 I think second hand
Yokomo SD (silver) Bought new
Yokomo Andy East SD ( conversion kit from the above car )
Yokomo CGM (was the Wet car ) Bought off Ebay
Tamiya 415ms Second hand
Tamiya 415msx (conversion Kit applyed to above car )
Tamiya MRE (Bought by the Wife for my Birthday last year) which is why i can't sell this one
Team Magic E4 (Bought New from Demon Power Products ) Now the Spare Car
Team Magic E4 this is my current Race Car Bought Second Hand from Sweden I think it was

There was another Shummacher mission in there when my R/C stuff was stolen about 4 years ago but I did not include it in the list as I only ran it once then my Stuff was returned by the Police and I sold the Shummacher on .......

When you list the cars like this it looks like a lot and it is but you do need to remember that I always sell my cars on to regain some money to help fund the next one and most were bought second hand , In this Sport you have to realize these cars are only valuable until you have built them once you have built them they are as good as worthless unless you can find the right person that wants It ..................

Then onward to the STCC 2008

To Be Contiued

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Numb Nuts Tri Club 2007 /2008 Pro Stock Champion

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Well the first round has come and gone Thank God , It was a race meeting I was not looking forward to thats for sure ............

Southend my most hated track i have ever driven at I have only ever managed a B final place here well this time it was goinbg to be an A final place I secured after Qualifying now you might think I would or should be happy with this BUT all the way home I was thinking the day over in my head and I was filled with mixed emotions I could not Explain to myself or to you all on here FUNNY I know but true

I had gone to Southend hoping for a B Final place so getting A final 6th I should be over the moon & at that point I was BUT .......

I only finished 3 out of my 6 runs of the day due to bad driving by others I know we all blame others but it was I was taken out so hard in one round my servo case was broken so both lugs sheered off in one go NOW that takes some doing ...... Come the Finals Due to the wet Qualifying people behind me felt they should of been infront and yes maybe they should but this did not give them the GOD GIVEN wright to drive straight though me as they did ,,, If they was as good as they thought they were they should have been quite capable of driving round me but because I am quite good at Blocking ( tought to me by the greyfox ) they got frustrated again because they should have been in front of me they basicaly SMASHED me out the way ,,, Now this would not have hapened when Barry had a say in Running the STCC ..............

And while I am Ranting the cheating was not seen by race control I was 6th in A the Boy behind me in 7th in each final was not in his starting Box but in front of in every final so giving him an advantage ..............

The Swaring on the rostrum again would not have been tolorated in previous years ..........

I was not allowd to stand in the same place on the rostrum each time and when i asked people to let me in ( room for a little one i joked ) I was ignored and had to stand in a totaly different place and there for could not get it right at all every corner was different like a different track...

In the last final I thought ill get the to the front of the cue at the back of the rostrum ready to take my place BUT as I stood there one hand on the hand rail the boy who had been jumping the start bent under my arm and stood on the steps in front of me ,,,, Then stood on the rostum wright where I wanted to be ..... as I stood to his left the Bloke who stood to my right came up and asken me to move I was in his place ( again he was PISSED because he should have been higher up the grid ) when I did not move just looked at him with a mad look on my face he procided to basicaly lean on me so I could not use my arms correctly ( and he was supposed to be a seasoned good driver he lost all my respect there and then )

In that last final My car was boken again by others so I pulled out

So to sum up I was happy with 6th in A quali & 10th in A Final place But I hated the track and the other drivers who looked down on me

Come On Eastbourne I want a good meeting there & on this meet I will be happy running round in the B final as I want to have fun not get wound up by people who think they are gods gift ............

Its all about racing anf having FUN never forget this its the most important thing about this hobbie :D

To Be Contiued

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Numb Nuts Tri Club 2007 /2008 Pro Stock Champion

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And then on to what I thought was a Stock Club Meet at Coastal , it went well with the weather changing every 10 minutes wind , rain , snow , sun it was to be a frantic Qualifying session due to low numbers and the weather Paul decided to run the Quali as 2 Fifteen minute sessions with your best 3 concecutive laps to count at the end of Quali 1 i was Knocked on top until the last 2 minutes when i was knocked off .... :( so I ended up Second ,,, Never mind 1 more 15 minute Quali to come later .....

Second Quali came and everyone went Quicker knocking me into the B Final :shock: How could I fall so quick so low ,,, track conditions was to blame It was getting quicker and quicker I put a time in which got me back in the A final 5th & after this I ran into the Pits to change to the DRY car and pray with 4 minutes left I went Back out anf YES posted the fasted time in Quali with 30 seconds to go I was on POLE ( Where i was last time we had wet weather )

So Starting from POLE i had a good advantage and I made the most of it leading the first A Final from Start to 1 meter from the finish line :shock: coming up to win the first A final with 1 meter to go I hit a Back marker who had spun I was 1 Meter from the line , the man in second place came past and then I was marshalled and finished second I was Gutted as I am sure you can understand ......

In the 2dd A final i finished 4th due to 2 driving errors on my part

In the 3rd which I had to win to Win overall i hit a car in the third corner trying to defend my positon which put me back to 7th with a handeling problem which is where I stayed so to sum up I finished 4th overall which has now put me 2points behind the leader of the winter open class championship

Never mind It was a good day and the first test of the Mardave went well , well 3 corners befor the wheel came off it was hadeling well

My son Jacks Mardave shell is coming along well ( will poat Pics as soon as its sorted ....

Bring on the Tri Club round 5 as I am winning the Open class at this time with 2 rounds to go :D

And then the 2nd round of the STCC at Eastbourne on the 27th its going to be a busey month , as tomorow i am taking Jack down to Felixstow to buy his Mardave Banger Car as well as the BT Vision being delivered and Mario Cart being released on WII it is going to be a Fun Packed weekend ....... :lol: :lol: :lol:

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Numb Nuts Tri Club 2007 /2008 Pro Stock Champion

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Well the Tri Club meet Numb Nuts has come and gone with what turned out to be a Bad result . Still had some good practice time with the 10.5 Brushless installed , This the 5th round was held at Snetterton today and like I said to start with it did not go acording to plan , The track was Wet / Damp all day upuntill the Final in the afternoon so running the wet car for the first 3 rounds of Quali I was all over the back of the other drivers but just could not get past every time I cought up and tryed to overtake I put the power down and Spun out :cry: , I could not get it right then in the 4th round of Quali I switched over to the Dry car & WOW it was fast to fast and with all that extra grip I had to much grip with the intermediate tyres on and I ripped them off the rims and shredded the inside edge of 2 of them with all the grip I had I did a fair amount of crashing :cry:

To be continued after dinner

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Numb Nuts Tri Club 2007 /2008 Pro Stock Champion

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So onto the final with SSB's bolted on I started in 5th on the Grid By 3/4 of the way round the first lap i was in First place until the back end came round and I spun I was down to second :cry: by the end of lap 3 I was in last place with a poor handling car but i carried on keeping up with everyone bar Matt who was well ahead and pulling out a big lead :cry: I was hoping to get second place today but it was not to be ending up in 5th ...........

On inspection of my car when I got home and started the clean down check over routine to see if I needed to order any spare parts I Noticed that due to all my Crashing earlier in the day I had some how got posative camber on the rear end which would explain why it was so twitchy on power out of the slower power power power out of the corners :cry: well at least I found the problem I have also changed a few things ready for Eastbourne next weekend .... Due to the speed the meeting was run today and the changing track conditions I had no real time to find or know I had a problem with my car ,,,, Anyway all sorted now and no real damage from my major crashes today :D

So on to Eastbourne

Check list

Tent yes
Sleeping Bag yes
Cooker yes
Wine yes
Beer yes
Sat Nav yes

Just need Cool Bag , Cool Box , More Beer , More Wine

Oh and Jim to get the BBQ sorted

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Numb Nuts Tri Club 2007 /2008 Pro Stock Champion

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Well Eastbourn has been and Gone and well its my worst racing result EVER , I have never been so low down befor

I Finished 9th in E in the pro stock class thats just 1 place off of being LAST :cry:

The weekend was great Saturday Practice went well felt pleased with my car and its handeling and it was even better on the Sunday morning for the Qualifying I just could not get it right one lap I would get the first 3 corners spot on then mess up the next 4 , then just the opposite on the next lap getting the first 3 or 4 corners wrong and getting the remainder right and so on ,,, If I had taken my best Lap time and had been able to match it or round abouts for the full 5 minutes i would have been in the C final and with the competion so close in Pro Stock this would have been a Good Result BUT I could not :cry:

Any way the BBQ was good fun and watching the Minis of Jimbo and George racing round and 10.30 at night was agood laugh :D

Aparently I was holding up the fence by 11 pm ( Slightly Merry sall we say )

The highlight of my weenend was watching Ben WIN the Stock A Final in style well done Ben

Onto next weekend half way though the stock class winter season at Coastal and I am one point behind the Grey Fox & I hope to put this right next weekend although on Bens current form he may be in with a shot of the win also

Then the following weekend its the last round of the Numb Nuts Winter series where again I am Lying second :D

Then onto the BIG ONE BROOKLANDS :D Cant wait it looks good a bit large for my stock class entry but still one I am looking forward to racing at

Results to follow

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Numb Nuts Tri Club 2007 /2008 Pro Stock Champion

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Just a Quick Blog Entry this week .......

Well Sunday was a total disaster for no fault of my own I was Totaly sober and had total concentration on But my Car was Pants ..... there is no other word for it there was no concistancy with it from one heat to the next nor one final to the next either , I was fighting the car on every bend still getting good lap times but I could see I could have been so much better, Faster , and consistant though out the day If i had been driving my old Tamiya :shock: ,

The E4 is a dream to drive the Turn in is Fantastic BUT as I have shimmed it up to fit the LARGE Liop in I think it is affecting the handeling some what , others have shimmed theres the same and have NO problems but for some reason I do :cry:

So when I got home I totaly stripped the car removed all the shimms and rebuilt it :lol: Now its fine again sitting level and looking like a race winner with the old cells installed and resetup its handeling great again SO MY QUESTION TO MY SELF IS do i buy new old style cells and run the E4 or do i give up on the Team Magic and find a different car which will take the Trackpower 4900 Pack without modification

The Problem here lies with the Cells I know the Trackpower 4900 has an advantage over old stlye cells ( tested by an expert )

But

I own 2 Team Magic cars and all the spares I could Need for the upcomming summer season if I change to a different car I will need to get a few Spares , so I need to weigh up the cost and ( my FUN ) for this season Do I want to come home happy each Sunday having had a good FUN & Wining day out or will I be happy coming home every Sunday having had a frustrating day ( possably ) with the KIt I have which If I buy new cells for I know deep down I will not have that POWER advantage ?????????????????

The Answer is simple and the secret is out the Bag so to speak

The E4 is up for sale well one of them the other will be for sale soon after the first one has gone and the new car is down the post office ready for me to collect , The next question is what is it well I can say this I will be NO suprise what I have gone for to replace the E4 , I am sad the E4 has not worked out as my last car the Tamiya saw me though the last 4 years in one form or another & the E4 has only been on my pit table for 6 months which in that time it has broken my personal best track record on every layout we have run at Coastal & given my 3 FTQ's & the Win in 2 A finals and placed me 6th in the A final of the opening round of the STCC 2008 so it has done well so to speak :D

To be continued .............

_________________
Sponsored By Demon Products , SMG Shell Art & My Pocket

Numb Nuts Tri Club 2007 /2008 Pro Stock Champion

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