The Dirty Blog...

Well, I've decided to write a blog this year for two reasons. Mainly because I’m hoping analysing race meetings in a more structured setting will help improve my setup & track assessment skills. However, hopefully someone somewhere will find it interesting...

A bit of background first. I started racing in 2001 because my brother bought a Tamiya to race at the club a good friend of his went to in Stevenage, so one Thursday night I went down with Jack to wrench on his car. It looked quite good fun. We then found a club that raced on Sundays in Milton Keynes, and again I went along to watch and work on the car. Jack then decided his Tamiya wasn’t quick enough, so moved on to a TC3 and I decided to have a go with his TB-01. I have to admit, I was hooked, and started racing every Sunday.

I did that for a year, moving on from the TB-01 to one of the first batch of Xrays into the country. After a while, reading though the magazines I was taken by the rallycross cars. My first car had been a nitro, and I really fancied one. As soon as I heard a club had started up racing them in Milton Keynes I bought a second hand Kyosho MP6 and went along. I enjoyed it so much that I sold all my touring car stuff and stuck to rallycross for 6 months. Decided when the summer season came round that I’d enter the Nationals with some of the other guys from the club, and didn’t get on too badly. Made a couple of D finals, but given that you are not guaranteed to even make a final at the rallycross Nationals I was happy just to get a final in at all...

Unfortunately, the club closed down, and I went back to touring cars indoors at MK. Interestingly, when I’d left I was C/D final at MK, but now, even using borrowed equipment, I was top of the B, bottom of the A. Soon enough MK had an outdoor track, and the STCC came onto the scene at the same time. I decided to do the first year, 2003, in stock, and by the end of the year was starting to creep into the back end of the A final. For 2004 I moved up to 19t and had a very good start to the season, taking TQ and the win at Tolworth and TQ at the MK round. The latter half of the season wasn’t quite so good, but a couple of podium finishes meant I ended the season 3rd overall, and MK took the overall Club Championship.

At the end of 2004 I’d entered the last rallycross National of the year at Pendle with the new Xray XB8. And for 2005 I entered the Nationals again. I was planning on combining this with the STCC, again with the new Xray T1 FK05, but this didn’t arrive for the first round. The second at Southend went quite well, despite being penalised in a low qualifying heat due to missing the first round, and I took the 3rd leg of the A and finished 4th in 19t. However, I moved engines in rallycross to RB, and decided to enter a round of the RRCi series at Mold to give the engine a shakedown before the next National. The meeting went really well, and I won the Clubmans class. This got me thinking of glory, and looking at the dates it became apparent that I wouldn’t be able to do both the RRCi and STCC. Given how much I was enjoying the rallycross, it was unfortunately the STCC that went and I decided to go for the RRCi. The year went very well, I qualified straight into the A Final at the Mold rallycross National and ended the year taking both the BRCA rallycross National Clubmans championship as well as the RRCi Clubmans championship.

2006 was a bit more of a mixed bag. I’d picked up my first sponsor in the form of Nitro Models and Crono in the close season, but despite the car being very quick, it wasn’t the most reliable. I did a couple of Nationals with a borrowed XB8, but things only started to pick up when I decided to buy a Hong Nor. The last 4 Nationals I qualified straight into the A at each, with a best finishing position of 5th at Preston. This performance was enough for Jamie Booth (Hong Nor importer and all around top bloke) to offer me a works drive for 2007. So for 07 I was running Hong Nor with Go engines, and the package was working quite well. Another 3 A final appearances, and only lower than the B once, meant a steady season and one which has kept me the drive for 08...

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Hong Nor, GO, Spire Model Distribution

Last edited by tom_reynolds on Wed Apr 02, 2008 8:54 pm; edited 1 time in total

So, the start of the 2008 season was last weekend, 30/03/08, at Fast Tracks in Sutton Coldfield for the first round of the 8th-08 series. With the weather cancelling the scheduled National warm-up meeting at Ware it meant that the UK Hobao team were in attendance, along with one of the best Losi drivers and a good Xray driver. With the winter not having been the best, I was hoping for a day when my driving would ‘click’ rather than outright performance.

The track was surprisingly dry given the amount of rain, but Cone Spikes were the tyre of choice (the series is restricted to GRP tyres only as a control). The track was a combination of dirt and grass, and had some decent sized pot-holes from the start. I kept with the setup I had come up with during the week before, mainly based upon looking at a picture of the track. The car felt good, although the back was a bit too hard and was skipping over the bumps and kicking up badly over the worst. The track also flowed really well, and the bumps and ruts really rewarded clean and consistent driving.

For round 1 I changed the rear shocks from 35wt to 25wt oil for the first round, and also went down from silver to white springs. This made the car much better over the bumps, and 3rd in the round was the result. For the second round, to try and get a bit more poke from the engine I went down to a 13t clutch bell from a 14t, and changed the pipe from the HN2062 to HN2047. The engine seemed to like this a bit better, although it still seemed to be held back a bit at the bottom end. The problem on this track was that there were a couple of very slow hairpins at the bottom of a slope, so I was losing lots of time trying to get the drag up the hills. Again, 3rd in the round was the result. For the final round I didn’t change anything, most of the time between races I was trying to get an idea of the right tyres. Cone Spikes, Grip 2 and Atomics were all being used, and different people had different opinions! In the end I decided to stick with the Cone Spikes based on a couple of people’s opinions that the other tyres were more consistent, but were offering less traction. The car again was good, but was now starting to suffer a bit over the bumps, and this time 4th in the round was the result.

This gave me 3rd overall on the grid for the 20 minute final. This would be interesting, as I’d not raced for more than 5 since last October... As there had been a lot more racing on the track before our final I decided to soften up the suspension a bit to compensate for the ruts that were growing ever deeper. I went down 5wt front and rear, to 30wt front and 20wt rear and kept with the same springs, silver front and white rear. For the first few laps the car felt a lot better over the bumps, the front wasn’t skipping so much and allowing a more consistent turn in over the ruts, and the back wasn’t kicking out so much allowing the power to be got down earlier. I was right up with second place at the start, we had a good scrap though the first few corners trading places, before I was unceremoniously spun out in the fourth corner... Still, carnage over the rest of the lap meant I ended the first lap in 4th, and picked up 3rd over the next few laps. 2nd then made a mistake and I closed right up, and then had a good couple of laps before he made another and I slipped through into 2nd. Unfortunately, the change of rear oil then came back to haunt me. The track was so bumpy that after 5 minutes the oil overheated and went super thin, so thin in fact I thought I’d blown a rear shock! This meant a couple of mistakes meant I went back to 3rd, and then was passed after the first pit stop to go back to 4th. Fortunately, first place then had some problems and retired, and despite coming under some pressure after the second pit stop from John Howells who had one-stopped, managed to hold on to 3rd. Was a very good result, my driving throughout the day had been very good, and the car had also been handling well. Interestingly, on a track that definitely wasn’t as quick overall, my second lap was the quickest I put in all day. So the setup was right for a 5 min race but not 20, so this is something I will have to bear in mind for the rest of the season.

Next up is the re-scheduled National warm-up at Ware this weekend, so there will be plenty of things to try before the first National there on the 13th as I’ve not really been there for a proper meeting since last August...

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Hong Nor, GO, Spire Model Distribution

After promising an update after the Ware warm up meeting, I’ve not posted anything because the meeting was cancelled due to snow. Twice, on consecutive weekends...

However, thankfully the weather cleared up a bit for this weekend and the first round of the National series was on. Suprisingly, despite the showers leading up to the weekend the track was bone dry, rather good given Ware is a dirt track... Despite all the bad weather, the track was in good condition, the lack of warm-up meetings meant the track was freshly rolled and had not been cut up too much, although it was very dusty!

The big choice for practice was tyres, what to go for on a very hard but dusty surface. I decided on GRP Atomics in the A compound, and the car seemed pretty good. Working on damper settings pretty much the same as used at Fast Tracks for the 8th-08 meeting, 30 front, 25 rear with silver and white springs respectively. The car felt good, but with not a huge amount of grip, although watching some of the later heats it didn’t look much different to most of the others.

For the first round I changed the rear chassis brace to the plastic version from the aluminium to try and get some more rear end traction. I also went to the Super Soft compound of the Atomics. Car felt better with some more grip overall, and a bit better balance on the throttle allowing me to get on the power a bit earlier. I was concentrating mostly on getting a clean run, with the last section of the lap being some big jumps which needed to be taken with a lot of throttle or the car would nose down rather severely. The run was clean, third in the heat was a good result and 11th overall was the result. For the second round the dust had been cleared from most of the racing line revealing a combination of hard packed sandy dirt and some sections with quite a high proportion of stones. I changed to the Hong Nor Rippers for tyres, having subjected them to a period of heat cycling on the dashboard to soften the compound a bit. Car was a lot better, improved my time by 8 seconds and was 4th in the heat. Unfortunately, it promptly rained after my heat, and the grip appeared to come up as the dust was suppressed as the fastest times of the round came out of the last two heats in the round. This pushed me down to 14th in the round, but moved me up to 10th overall (the wonders of round by round qualifying with the best two to count...). Final round, and the rain was now coming down properly and the track was getting properly claggy. The decision was now whether to stick with the block tyres, or whether to change to something with spikes. Most people seemed to be sticking with the blocks, but a couple of cars running spikes looked to me like they had some more grip and I decided to plump for Losi Step Pins in silver. The next task was to put a wet weather air filter on the car and re-tune the engine. Unfortunately, with this on its last legs (should have a new one run in for the next National) it wasn’t too happy, and this made the car a pig to drive and the less said about this run the better... However, after qualifying I was 14th overall, 4th on the grid for the B.

With a complete strip down and rebuild required to get rid of all the mud required before the final it was a bit of a rush to get it all finished. With a brand new set of shocks, still with the same oils and springs, I kept with the same setup as the final round but spent a bit more time tuning the engine. By now the track was extremely wet, although the rain stopped just before we were called to the line. The first corner was survived but after a lap it was impossible to tell who was in front and who behind, everyone was driving the brown car... After a while things started to settle down, the engine was better than before, but every time it ran through a puddle it took a couple of corners to get going again. By now it was a case of relying on the race commentator to work out where you were, and the shouts from my pit crew telling me where I was. After the second and final fuel stop I was up to third, and with 4th and the final bump-up place a good 10 seconds back it was a case of trying to keep the car going and conserve the engine for the A final. Time ran out with me still in 3rd, so the race was then on to get onto the grid for the A in 13th. By now there was a drying line on the track, but still not particularly dry, and with the car very heavy from all the mud collected during the B it was not particularly easy to drive over the jumps. Still, keep it going and there were always going to be people dropping out with water in the electrics. By half way the car was still going, and somehow I was up to 4th. Unfortunately, the engine then started to go off, and within 5 minutes I no longer had the grunt to do two of the sets of doubles in one, and started dropping back from 3rd. Soon that became dropping back from 4th as the engine continued to get worse. Then, having been called in for a final splash and dash with about 5 minutes to go the car ground to a halt two corners before the pit lane. Still, given the number of drop outs it was still a 7th place finish, and with Jamie Booth not managing to fight it out of the B, the top Hong Nor.

Next up Frankley, not one of my favourite tracks, but lets hope for a dry track for a change, I can’t remember what it’s like to race in the dry...

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Hong Nor, GO, Spire Model Distribution

Well this latest instalment has taken me a while, mainly because I’m still not sure about how the last National went.

The Venue was Frankley, the surface astroturf, and I’ve never really enjoyed the track before. Perhaps not the best approach to a meeting ever...

However, the track had changed a bit since last time I’d been there, and was actually not too bad. Even practice didn’t go too badly and with a change to Hong Nor Grass Snake tyres (from Angle Spikes) and a thickening of front and rear roll bars the only changes for the first round. This also went quite well, 11th overall with the difference between fastest and slowest laps only 0.75 seconds. Unfortunately, the heat before I was due out in the second round it decided to rain. All I had time to do was change the tyres, and unfortunately the car was terrible, drifting around all over the place with not very much grip. The round was really slow for those caught out by the rain, but at least I knew that if it rained again then some major chassis changes would be needed. For the final round it had dried out again, so back on with the Grass Snakes and the dry setup. Unfortunately a mistake and some intimidation by a back-marker put paid to my run and the overall result after qualifying was 27th.

For the final it was properly throwing it down, so a change of diff oil to 10, 10, 3 was intended to calm down the car by dulling down the steering. Changing the shock positions and dropping back to kit roll bars to generate more mechanical grip along with Angle Spikes for the tyres should have given me some grip. Unfortunately not, the car was still drifting around and it was all I could do to keep cars behind me and finish in the same position as I started – 27th.

Since Sunday I’ve been thinking about the handling and I think there are a couple of things I might have to experiment with. The first is the clutch. For a long time I’ve been running quite an aggressive clutch with blue aluminium shoes and 1.1mm springs. I’ve ordered some composite shoes and will have to try a combination of these and aluminium with various springs. Also, perhaps going to some softer springs or softening up the rear anti-roll bar might also have helped.

Anyway, no racing this weekend as I’m off to watch the Mighty Quins in their attempt to reach the playoffs. Next time out is the next round of the 8th-08 series at the new track in Northampton on the 11th. I had a couple of laps of this on Thursday night and it is really quite nice. Some lovely features, including two tabletops on corners and a quite tricky off camber section. Should be a good meeting.

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Hong Nor, GO, Spire Model Distribution

Another bit of a long break this time, but I'm going back to Sunday the 11th May and the second round of the 8th-08 series.

This was at a new track near Northampton, one a friend of mine has set up for the clients of his shop. I’d managed to miss the warm up meeting the previous weekend, so was a bit left behind compared to those who’d raced. It’s an interesting track, not hugely long but with some really nice features and a couple of good corners. The surface was quite bumpy, and a mixture of grass and hard-baked clay-like soil. I quite like racing on short tracks, it seems to make the racing closer as there are less opportunities to be faster than anyone else.

Practice was the usual attempt at seeing how fast you can go on each corner without crashing, the limit being marked out by going round as fast as possible until you crash... I was in a quandary about tyres, not being sure whether blocks or spikes would be best, but in the end went for Losi step pins as they are as close to a compromise tyre as is possible. The car was working well, the brakes were a bit past it (it needs new discs and pads, I’ve got the pads but it’s hard to get hold of Mike Craddock’s finest discs at the moment), but the balance was good and it was handling the bumps quite well.

For the first round I left the car as it was, 35wt front oil, 30wt rear silver/white springs and 10/10/3 diff oils, but changed the tyres to slightly worn GRP Atomics. Unfortunately, during the warm up the engine started to play up, and seemed to go very rich. Consequently the car wasn’t very fast, but was very easy to place in the corners, and 2nd in the round was the result.

For the second round it was a case of removing the engine and replacing it with a new one. However, having put the new engine in I think the problem was actually the front clutch bearing having seized. Anyway, that was swiftly tuned and the tyres replaced with another set of part-worn Atomics as the track was starting to get a bit vicious on the tyres and had chewed up the set from the first round entirely... Still, they were working quite well, and despite the engine still not running perfectly the run was even quicker and 1st in the round was the result.

Onto the last round, and it was now time to lean the b*****ks off the engine, and stick a set of slightly worn Hong Nor Rippers onto the car in place of the Atomics. These are harder wearing and given that I’d had two good rounds it was worth trying these out before the 20 minute final as the Atomics were being absolutely shredded and wouldn’t last 10 minutes. These tyres seemed to give more grip than the Atomics, so much so that a couple of instances of grip roll led to 2nd in the final round.

This gave me pole on the grid for the final, so having glued up a new set of Rippers it was on to see whether they would last for the whole 20 mins. I got the holeshot into the first corner, unfortunately, as I came off the tabletop the pit crew hadn’t cleared the straight so as my car disappeared behind them it hit the small jump and promptly cartwheeled down the track... Fortunately it landed on the wheels and I only dropped to 4th. Thankfully, at the next corner 3rd ran wide onto another tabletop on a hairpin, so I nipped though, and on the next corner the first two had a slight coming together and I was able to get back up to first. The car was good, although after about 6 minutes the shock oil started to overheat and the car got a bit soft. The car was rolling more though the fast corners and diving heavily under braking. This meant I was having to back off a bit more though the faster corners and couldn’t carry as much speed through one particularly off camber corner. Thankfully, I’d built up enough lead that it didn’t matter and just keeping out of trouble led to taking the win by a lap. Interestingly the tyres were completely shot at the end, some of the other drivers who’d gone out on Panther tyres had completely bald fronts and virtually bald fronts. It says something about the nature of the track, with lots of heavy braking into corners, that it was the fronts that wore more than the rears.

Next up is the two day National this weekend at Clows Top. This is a temporary track, so will be virgin grass which should be a good leveller after the Astroturf of Frankley.

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Hong Nor, GO, Spire Model Distribution