STCC 2008

After a year away from any regional or national racing, apart from our regular club events, a decision was made in the dark days after Christmas that I would have one more go at the STCC. At the time in had been announced that brushless motors were to be allowed for the first time and that Lipo's would also be eligible this year. Decided fairly early on that I would compete in the 13.5 TC3 class mainly due to the fact that I don't think my failing hand/eye co-ordination could cope with anything else right now! Swayed also by the fact that the STCC, in association with Trakpower, had come up with an excellent sponsorship package for the series meant that Lipo was the way to go. Having established early on that the 4900 battery wouldn't fit my Tamiya MRE, due to being too large to go under the rear bulkhead, I decided to have a look at the 3200's, and promptly ordered 2 sets of cells. These arrived just over a week before the first round and I immediatley opened the pack to try one in my car.
Shock, horror it doesn't fit!
I got the digital calipers out to measure the thickness and was surprised to discover it was 22.75mm thick, rather than the 20.8mm stated on the manufacturers specifications. So I had to decide quickly that good old NiMH 4200's were the way I would have to go, and ordered some of the new Orion SHO cells. These arrived in time to be made into packs, meaning at least one problem had been solved.
So the only thing now was to prepare the cars for the rapidly approaching round one. With the weather forecast leading up to the race weekend looking decidedly 'iffy' it was a case of preparing both the dry and wet cars. The wet car had a trusty CO27 brushed motor installed, which along with the MRT MX Pro speedo and a bit of blue tack around the receiver meant that the electrics should be OK. Old (2 seasons old) STCC tyres were put on the car, whilst the diffs were re-greased and everything else checked to make sure it was in the right place and secure, and a quick spray of good old WD40 on all the bearings should do the trick. As for the dry car all the ball joints were replaced to take as much of the slop out of the steering and suspension as was possible, diffs completely re-built (they were very smooth afterwards) and bearings oiled with the very trusted Finish Line's Cross Country synthetic oil (the best oil ever), new STCC tyres fitted and the ride height set at 7mm to deal with all the renowned bumps at Southend. So all that remained now was to ensure that all the clocks went forward by one hour on Saturday night so that I could be up bright and early to pick up Jimbo at 5.55am for the easy drive down to Southend, and to say a quick prayer before going to bed that the weather was not going to give us all a wet start to the season.

To be continued......

Having remembered to move the clock forward one hour, I picked up Jimbo at the allotted time and drove on down to the Colchester lay-by where we were due to meet everyone else. First shock on arriving was all the yellow flashing lights, police car etc in the lay-by and wondering what on earth was going on! Turned out that a drain-cleaning lorry had a puncture and it was simply being repired on the inside lane of the main carriageway.
Arrived at Southend which had clearly had quite a downpour the night before as plenty of people were busily trying to remove all the surface water to make the track at least driveable. After the obligatory breakfast of coffee and bacon roll from the catering van it was down to the business of qualifying. It was going to be a bit of a lottery early on as the track was still very damp and slippery (got the right word in H !). The wet car was used throughout qualifying and provided ageat deal of caution was excercised and very gentle use of the throttle employed, managed to get the car around without too much incident, other than my own stupid mistakes! First qualifying time was a lowly 11-309 which still put me in 8th in the A final. As the track slowly dried throughout the morning I improved by a lap in each of the two remaining runs to end up with a 13-304, which still kept me 8th in the A final. Considering I had never made an A final before in the STCC this was a really good start to my 2008 campaign.
Finals were clearly going to be run in the dry, as the sun started to shine and warm the track up just enough, so it was a question of simply moving the PT and crystal from the wet over to the dry car, together with a new set of tyres for the finals. Guessed at a ratio of 4.64 for the Novak brushless motor, and it turned out to be just about spot on. First final was OK, as I got off the line well, avoided all the carnage at the first chicane and was circulating in 3rd spot. After two laps I got taken out by someone at the chicane and all of a sudden I was in last place! Eventually managed to get back up to 8th place witha 14.305. Second final was much the same sort of story with a good start, tangled with another car mid race and eventually got back to 6th with a 15.310. In the third final had a good clean race with someone driving what looked like a camouflaged colour schemed car (no idea what his name was!) and again ended up 6th with a 15.313.
So after picking up the car for the last time from scrutineering found that my result sticker attached to my car showed I had ended up 8th overall. For me a really good result and a great start to the year. Even better was that nothing had been broken on the car all day, so other than the usual amount of mickey-taking in the pits from the rest of the Coastal crew, it was a fairly relaxed day all round.
Car has since been checked over and cleaned up, and is sitting on the shelf all ready for the next round. I'll be looking at the wet car tonight once it comes out from the airing cupboard having been drying out in there for two days, and this can also be ready for the next round. This was going to be Brooklands, but have since put in an entry for TC3 at Eastbourne, although I'm currently on a reserve list of at least three other driver, so hopefully it will turn into a full entry if either the allocation of places is changed or someone doesn't turn up on the day.

Episode three after the 27th April....

The wet car has finally come out from the airing cupboard to have an overhaul after its' outing at Southend. One or two bits arrived from Hong Kong on Friday, so it has been stripped down, checked and had the bearings replaced and diffs re-greased again once the new diff plates had been installed.
The dry car has been checked over but nothing needed to be done to it.
So I'm a week ahead of myself and both cars are ready for Eastbourne. A new 110amp leisure battery has been purchased which should easily see me through the weekend. I can now say that with confidence as I spoke to No 46 this morning and he has 'borrowed' a 240v generator for the weekend so the whole team should be OK for power.
The final preparations will be done during the early part of this week due to work commitments which mean I am away until late Friday night, and we are travelling at 8.30am on the Saturday morning! Someone wants to get there in plenty of time for a good practice session. That actually is not a bad idea because I'm still not sure if I will be racing in TC3 (Number one reserve on the entry list for that), TC1 if TC3 is full, and there is an entry free. If that is the class I eventually end up in I really have to practice as I have never run the car with a 6.5 brushless in it and they certainly looked very rapid at Southend. So it could be a case of 'Welcome to the big boys world of R/C racing. Just have to wait and see. Those final preparations that I mentioned earlier simply involve sorting out something to sleep in, what to bring along for the Saturday night BBQ and most importantly how much red wine to take! So it should be a very relaxed week prior to what should be a great weekends racing/drinking/eating etc.
Sounds good to me so I'll report back after the event....

It took an eternity to pack everything into the car ready for the weekend away at Eastbourne, I eventually left home at 9.35am on Saturday and headed on down to meet everyone else at the lay-by at Colchester. Five cars equally laiden with everything from race cars to booze set off just after 10.00am. By the time we reached the A12/M25 junction we had lost Trev and Jimbo who had shot off into the lead, in Tunbridge Wells we lost George, and finally Wrighty and I were lost somewhere down a country lane in East Sussex after sat. nav. took us to the wrong location!
By the time we got to the track there must have been at least 50 other drivers either setting up camp for the weekend or busy practicing.
Once all the tents were pitched it wa on to the business of practice. The track consisted of a shortish straight and a tight in-field, laid with tarmac that offered a very slippery surface. After speaking to some local drivers it was suggested that grip levels were always slippery so car set-up was going to be important. Having played around both with different set-ups and alternating between 13.5 and 6.5 motors (remember I was only a reserve at this stage so wanted to practice with both) we all eventually succumbed to Jinbo's insistance that he BBQ be lit and got on with the serious bit of the day - eating and drinking! All this went on whilst others were still practiciing under the floodlights at midnight - sad individuals.
Sunday dawned bright and sunny, so despite the forecast of rain during the day we were all full of optimism. After eventually obtaining a place in TC£ at 8.45am when booking-in closed it was a case of getting the car ready for that class. Qualifying was held in dry and warm conditions. Had a chat with one of the Tamiya tam drivers, after watching his car go around and looking planted, to find out his set-up. I had to change roll-bars, springs, anti-kick shims, steering arms and other suspension shims between rounds one and two to get this set-up onto the car. Round two arrived with this set-up and - it worked a treat! Improved by over a lap and improved again in round three to end up 9th in the B final of TC3. Not where I wanted to be but at least in with a chance of getting reasonable championship points.
Just as the first of the finals went to the line, it rained. This transformed the track into a very wet and even more slippery surface that clearly wasn't going to get any better through the rest of the day. So out came the wet car, chamged the PT and RX crystal over to it and set off for the first final. Only about seven cars made it to the grid and only three to the end of the race, but ended up second behind Mark who took the first leg win. Final two saw only five cars making the grid as b this time people who were only running brushless had finally given up. Ended up fourth in that one. The last final only had three cars in it and I ended up third. So overall I finished this round third in the B final and collected a useful 88 points towards the tC3 championship.
Racing in the B final meant I would marshall the A final and the highlight of the day was seeing young Ben in the first final win the first leg (and eventually the meeting) and getting the biggest cheer of the day from the crowd around the track for being the only car running at the end of leg one!
So having got home with everything wet, damp or smelly it was a question of unloading the car, putting the transmitter and car into the airing cupboard to dry off AGAIN and re-telling the tales of woe about 'what if or only'.
Overall it was a great weekends racing, despite the weather on the Sunday afternoon, and one that I was glad to have involved with. So I'm now hopeing that the super-duper new set-up on the dry car will prove just as good around the vast expanses of Brooklands in three weeks time.
I'll report back.......

So having read all the speculation about the gear ratios we will be running at Brooklands, which seems to suggest the low 4's/high 3's will be required for TC3, the first bit of preparation I've had to do is re-print by gear ratio chart to cope with these very low numbers! Next is was off to the LHS to see what pinions they had available. With a new 65 spur and a 35 pinion I've got it down to 4.19 so at least that should be a good starting point, anything lower and I'll have to start scrouging 36/37 pinions.
The car has been stripped down again this afternoon, new bearing everywhere which has certainly helped to take a lot of the slopiness out of both the steering and suspension, which I feel is good. The brushless motor has had its first ever clean, but to be honest it didn't need it once it was opened so at least I now know that the low maintenace regime for these motors is well justified. All the screws have been checked for tightness and the top deck has been put back on to ensure no tweak is in the chassis.
Finally it was a quick clean of the body to get rid of all the scrapes and battle scars for the Tri-club meeting yesterday, even polished it with Simoniz GT wax polish to see if it goes any quicker!!
So everything is now ready for the next round of the STCC at Brooklands, it's just a question of charging everything up on Saturday and making the arrangements to meet everyone for the reasonably quick trip down to the track on Sunday morning.
I'll report back.....

_________________
Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder!

What's that horrendous din in my right ear? God it's the alarm, so there really is two 4.30's in each day then!! And it's getting light so it must be time to very slowly pull myself out of bed without disturbing Mrs A and try to put my clothes on without stumbling over and making too much noise. Having arranged to meet Trev at my house for a 5.30am lift-off I casually looked through the curtains at 5.10 and amazingly there was both Trev and Jimbo - they're more keen than I am to get down to Brooklands for some early practice.
Drive down the A12/M25/M20 was very gentle, especially for the M25 as that is normally a car park. Even managed to overtake the convoy of the Colchester crew in the roadworks on the M25 so we knew we should be able to get to the track in time to bag a few of the undercover pit areas.
First impressions of the track was that the straight was looooooooonnnnnnggggg. First question from Vince of Colchester was 'What gear ratio do I use?' Forget that; what gear ratio do I use!! I started on 4.19 and went out for some practice laps to get used to the track layout and see how the car handled with the low down-force wing I had put on it. Answer was it was great except for the 90 degree right-hander off the end of the straight, which if not taken cautiously would result in the car simply doing a 360 degree spin. Note to memory - make sure you slow down a little for that particular corner.
Everywhere else was virtually flat out including the sweeper onto the straight if my nerves would let me.
So went into qualifying with a lot of expectation and confidence. First round saw me do OK, ending up around 5th in the B, but looking at the times I wa around one second a lap off the top times. Right go mad and change the gear ratio still further - dropped it down to 3.75 just. I say 'just' because with this size pinion I could only just get the screwdriver onto the motor screw with the 39 tooth pinion on. Second round of qualifying saw me improve by 10 seconds but still not breaking into the 17 lap times I needed for the A final - was still over a second a lap off the top guys - gee whizz they were quick down that straight. Couldn't go down on the ratio any more as Trev wouldn't take the 40 tooth pinion off his car - something was muttered about not getting beat by me today?
Third qualifier and I improved again but not enough to record a 17 lapper, so ended up 9th in the B.
The first final was great as I could here scapeing body shells ahead of me on the first lap and quickly managed to get past three cars which had tangled in the chicane section. Kept it on the tarmac for the full five minutes and ended up fouth, so a good start to the finals. The second leg didn't go as well as the first as early on I got a tap from another car going into the chicane which put me on the grass. By the time I had got marshalled the field was about to lap me, so it was more a question of keeping cool, keeping out of their way and keeping it going - eventually finished up 8th in the second leg.
Final leg saw another crash of cas ahead of me in the first few laps, which I took advantage of and eventually ended up 5th in that one.
This meant I ended up 5th overall in the B final - the result has moved me up one place to 7th overall in the TC3 championship, so a good result.
It was also a great days racing, as it was the firt time I had been down to the Brooklands track, and hopefully it won't be the last. The one thing I learned from the day is that Lipo is definitely the way to go, as I am convinced the one second per lap I was down on the quick guys was due to battery power (or more correctly the lack of it on my part) as you could see their cars get almost a visible turbo boost halfway down the straight .
So I have spent the last two evenings trying to work out how to get a 4900 Lipo into the trusty 415, and have now made up two brackets from some GRP I had lying around so that these can be used to hold the Lipo pack in either a lying down or standing up position, without the need to dremel loads of blue aluminium from the rear mounts.
I'll try these out at club this Sunday and see how, if at all, they affect the handling of the car. If everything is OK then I'll make sure I've got a couple of packs before the next round at West London as that is another big track so power will again be the order of the day.
I'll report back....

_________________
Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder!

Well firstly I didn't get the chance to try out the new bracket for mounting the Lipo at the last club meeting as the weather was very wet, so travelling down to West London for round 4 of the STCC would be the first time the car had run with this .
So having arranged to pick up Trevor at 5.45am, it was a queston of loading up the car, meeting Jim at our usual lay-by pick-up just outside Colchester and driving down to Hillingdon. After the previous days rain it was great to see sunshine, which turned out to be very warm indeed as the day went on. Eventually got down to the track for about 7.20am so plenty of time to get some practice in. First run of the morning showed that the car was quick with Lipo's in it and although the rar was a little loose, I didn't think this was down to the new mounting, simply that the track was quite dusty. Made a quick change to the set-up by removing the rear roll bar and out for second practice. This helped stabilise the rear so was very happy with the way everything ws going.
First qualifier gave me a 16.305 which put me arounf 3rd in the B final, but I knew that the car could go better and that i could also improve on my driving. This proved to be the case in round 2 as I was on for a good 17 lapper until one lap from the end when the motor thermalled and stopped dead in the middle section of the track. First time I have ever had this happen with the Novak motor, so clearly it was not comfortable on a ratio of 4.12. Dropped the ratio to 4.48 and it had a good effect on the punch out of corners and didn't compromise the top end unduly. Went slightly quicker than my first round time but couldn't quite break th 17 lap barrier. Interestingly with the track temperature rising all the time most drivers first round times were not improving significantly. So eventually ended up 7th in the B final.
Finals turned out to be a bit of a nightmare! In the first I was competing well for 4th spot when I got t-boned coming onto the straight which caused a drive shafty to pop out so that was it for that fina. In the second final I was having a great race with two other cars for 3rd until I just slightly misjudged where the kerb was at the end of the straight - went straight over the top of it and into the unforgiving perimeter barrier and destroyed a link on the rear suspension! In final three I had another great race chasing down cars in front of me and managed to finish this one, ending up 3rd. The three results gave me 7th overall in the B, which I was happy with as the car had gone better than I anticipated and I'd had a great days racing overall, and didn't even break anything other than the suspension link.
It's now a question of stripping down the car and checking it over, maybe re-build the diffs, check the shocks are all OK and doing a slight modification to the Lipo mount before the next round at Snetterton on the 27th July as I'm not attending the Bashley round.
I'll report back....

_________________
Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder!

The Snetterton round of the STCC is looming large on the horizon so what has been changed on the car since Wst London? Well the Lipo mount is now version 2 with a tray being made from 3mm fibreglas sheet to hold the pack in lying down rather than standing on edge. This tray is simply bolted to the chassis and two old body posts are then attached to it to hold a battery bar which spans the length of the Lipo to hold it scurely in place. Overall it protrudes the current chassis by only 20mm and although I say so myself it almost looks like a factory modification. All the additional weight required to get it up to 1500g's has gone into the middle of the car. It has been run like this for three meetings now and it has not affected th handling one little bit - no tweak, no pulling to one side or turning quicker one way or the other - it works just great!
The second modification is a direct crib from Cutting Edge! As we need to add all this additional weight when running Lipo's it might as well be useful weight. So a 5v 40mm fan has been fitted above the motor to help keep it cool. A simple bracket has been made from titanium and this is then mounted using two spacers (cut down blue body posts) and screwed into existing holes that mount the rear motor pod. It again works a treat and definitely keeps the motor much cooler. Good idea Trev.
So the car has now been checked over from the open meeting at club last weekend, new tyres fitted, new Mazda 6 body fitted and the new Orion 2008 13.5 brushless installed. This motor went very well in the weekend testing at Coastal, having been run at 4.5 FGR and coming off at around 46 degrees. Unfortunately I still haven't got a 37 or 38 tooth pinion to get the ratio down to around 4.1 or 4.2 for Snetterton so will have to put a spur size of 66 tooth on to get to these figures. Don't like doing that really as would prefer to gear it correctly using a larger spur gear, but have no choice.
I'm quietly confident that everything will go well at the weekend, and am just hoping that the rumoured track layout of running anti-clockwise doesn't materialise as it can be a b***ard to get right - but at least it is the same for everyone.
I'll report back on the outcome early next week.

_________________
Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder!

Sunday dawned bright, sunny and very warm - just the perfect start to the round 6 od the STCC at Snetterton. From the previous two days testing that El Capitano and Cutting Edge had carried out at the track the one thing I knew (and wass very happy about) was that the track layout was the same as the BTCC event and went the right way round.
Picked Trev up at 6.00am and made our way to Snetterton where most of the Coastal crew were already pitched.
The gear ratio was already set on the car at 4.2, and having also reduced the rear toe-in to 2 degrees, went out for an early practice before the track got too crowded. Car was fine and quick, but was a little too loose at the rear end going into the bus stop at the end of the straight. Put 3 degrees toe-in bak on to it, and this time the car was perfect so could afford to sit back and wait for qualifying.
I was placed in heat 3, the one after Trev, so could have a good look at what he was doing before going out myself. Drove well with no mistakes and therefore put in a good early banker of 20.313 which put me 8th in the A after the first round. In round 2 I changed the ratio to 4.1 FGR and went out knowing I could push it a bit - turned out a bit too much as I put it on its roof right next to where Trev was marshalling. He was quick off the mark to get it back onto its wheels and although I recorded a better time of 20.310.88 this was 1/100th of a second slower than Trev - so we were still 9th and 10th respectively in the A final after two rounds. Round three came and I went back to the 4.2 ratio as the motor had come off a little too hot in the previous round. Although he improved by 2 seconds I couldn't and so end up 3rd in the B final. Good thing was that El Capitano also ended up 8th in the B final so could be having some interesting battles with him in the final.
In the first final I got a great start and ended up level with the pole sitter before the end of thwe straight, followed him through into the bus stop section and then got hit, which put me back into a mid-field position. Eventually managed to get up to fourth, with the third placed driver only about 2-3 car lengths away. He made a mistake on the last lap allowing me to take 3rd after the first leg.
Second final was again a good start, this time holding 2nd spot all the way through the final with no-one really pressurising me at all.
In the third final I got another good start (the Orion motor was definitely doing me proud!) and after around 2 minutes I was in the lead with the second placed driver hard on my heels. I made a mistake at the roundabout, just taking too much kerb, which allowed him through. Despite a hard charge to get back in front he was driving very well and good clean lines meaning I again finished 2nd, just around 1 second behind.
So 2nd overall in the B final was a good result, especially as I had had three great races in the finals and the car had gone flawlessly all day. A great day overall with some really good banter amongst the Coastal crew especially involving the book that was being run on how far into each race Jimb's car would go before expiring - sorry Jim but it definitely provided some simple entertainment for us!
A long lay-off now until the Colchester round on the 21st September. My mind might be on other things by then as our daughter gets married the following week so I'll have to make sure I've done all I need to do for that, like write a speech, worry, deal with any last-minute calamities etc. so it'll be interesting to see how I go on the day. Car doesn't need anything doing to it at all so that's sitting on the shelf having been cleaned up, just waiting now for its next outing.
I'll report back in late-September......

_________________
Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder!

Having said in my last entry that the car was simply sitting on the shelf waiting for the next round of the STCC, I couldn't help but check it over before round 7 at Colchester just to make absolutely certain it was ready for a hard days racing.
I was unable to go on the Saturday to practice, so arriving around 7.15am at the track on the Sunday morning I was greeted by El Capitano who already had the gazebo up and parking space reserved - he's good to me. After setting up the pit table it was a quick walk over to the track to see what layout had been set for the day. It was a completely new layout that hadn't been run before so I decided to get out early before many cars were on the track to learn the lines, and also check that the car on new tyres was handling OK. After a couple of laps to cautiously work out where to go, it was full throttle for the next few laps to work out where to brake, turn in and where the kerbs could be driven over without mishap.
Everything was fine so after a warming cup of coffee and listening to the drivers briefing everything was ready for my first run in heat 3 of TC3. Managed to have a clean run for the whole 5 minutes, unlike others judging by the sound of scrapping lexan that was heard all around the track and posted a decent 19 lap time which meant an early 8th spot in the A final.
Round two came and I was third off the grid. Coming out of the second corner on the first lap I quickly came across the pole-sitter who had spun 180 degrees and we hit each other head-on hard. After carrying on for another two corners it was clear that something was broken on the car, so pulled off. Back in the pits it was obvious that the right-hand outdrive on the spool was shattered so that was fairly quickly replaced, everything else checked to make sure nothing was bent or loose and ready for round 3 of qualifying. Again managed to get a good clean run and improved my time marginally for a quicker 19 lapper, but not quite quick enough as I eventually ended up 8th in the B final. Times all the way down the list were very tight with only seconds seperating everyone.
Trevor was 6th in the B as well so he was just ahead of nme on the grid, so we were in for a good battle in each of our finals. From the off of final one I got a great start off the grid, managed to get round the carnage on corner one, then got tap on the back of the car which put me straight to the back of the pack. Slowly made my way therough the field as others made mistakes and ended uo 4th in the first leg so was reasonably pleased with this.
Second leg was almost a repeat of the first with again having a coming together with another car and ending up at the back of the pack again. This time managed to get back up to 6th soOK but not where I wanted to be.
The third and last leg gave me the best start as I again avoided the usual first corner collision that happened ahead of me and drove a steady consistant race to keep in fourth spot only 3 seconds behind the winner.
After all the scores were added up I ended up 7th overall which I was pleased about, but more pleased that the car had gone well all day with only the one breakage and that each of the finals had provided some very enjoyable racing.
So the car is now to be checked over ready for the last round at Coastal on the 5th October, and the new shells that El Capitano has sprayed for me cut out and fitted for their first outing.
I've now dropped one score in the championship, so am currently 8th overall and with Ipswich providing home advantage am quietly confident of putting in a good enough performance to maybe move up one or two place, but more importantly keep Trevor behind me in the overall championship - we shall see.
I'll report back after the last round.

_________________
Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder!