Where It all Began

Jimbo · Where It all Began

I supose that I can say that I started to play about with RC cars when I was about 5 and I got a Tamiya quick drive monster truck for Christmas. It wasnt much but it got me hooked!

I didnt start racing untill I was about 11 or 12 if I remember rightly but it was something that I had seen at the Cricket stadium and something that I wanted to do! So armed with some birthday money and savings from my paper-round I walked into Galaxy models and bought my first car a Tamiya TL-01 and all the kit I needed to go racing!

So the next sunday I turned up at the cricket ground and they where setting up in the car park and I remember pitting next to a big bloke in a mini! We got talking and he helped me get set up and pointed me in Barrys direction where I got booked in and all ready to go! The big bloke in the mini turned out to be called darrel and was a huge help and i dont think I would still be racing today if it wasnt for his help at the start of my racing career.

I didnt stick with the TL-01 for long and soon started to upgrade and get a more reliable car. It wasnt long untill I had a HPI Sport 2 And I was amazed at how different the car was to what I was used to and by how much purple stuff you could buy :D This was also the car that took me to my first ever A final indoors at the cricket stadium.

The club then moved to the new facility at Bourne hill and the first races where held on the tarmac with hoses laied out. I had also changed cars again and gone for the full HPI Pro 2 car. With this ment a change in cell layout so some new cells where required. The car was great and taught me a lot about setups and handeling and with this my driving started to improve as well. I even ran the car at the first ever STCC series and will always remember one of the finals at Tolworth where I managed to drive a full 5 min race without hitting anything! But it wasnt long before I wanted more and with the Pro 2 looking dated I was on the hunt for a new car.

More to follow.

Jimbo · The start of an obsession

So I was on the hunt for a new car and confused on what I should buy. There were several cars running well at the club and a few more in the pipeline but none that really grabed me. As many people will know I dont like to buy a car that is proven or a car that is popular at the club. I like to buy a car that looks like its been thought about and that is a little bit different! It was then that I test drove Trevs X-ray thingy. Cant quite remember the model of it. (Theres been so many) And WOW. This car was great. So good infact that I bought 2. They had a simlar layout to the Pro 2 but what a machine. After gettin the car from Trev and buying a second from Andy Friend??? I went about combining both cars to make one totally hopped up race car. To start with the car wasnt quite right. The handeling was ok but not quite there untill I used the piviot ball suspension for the rear and the C-Hub suspension on the front and it was like driving a different car. It wasnt long before I was beating Trev with his old car. (somehting that was to happen more than once :D ) and making more regular A final appearances.

I took the X-Ray to several STCC meetings and even had my first taste of Modified racing with the car in the same series. The only draw back to the car was its poor handeling in the wet and low grip situations but the speed of the car in the dry more than made up for this and I even won a few club meets with the car. But as always things where moving on and getting faster and the new generation of ultra low C of G cars where being released so with my works summer bonus I loged into ebay and started shopping!!!!

I started to look at the latest X-ray and was really impressed. But then something caught my eye. Something that I remember seeing on the first day I started racing. Except this was new. It looked like the X-ray but some how seemed sleeker and faster. To this day I still dont know why I chose that buy it now button over the one on the X-Ray but it was done. I Had just bought a new car without test driving one. I hadnt even seen one in the flesh let alone on the track. This car was of course the Corally RDX!!!

Some people thought I was mad. (This is still up for debate) and others looked on at the car and waited to see what it could do. Then something happend. I put it down on the track after getting some setup advice the night before from Matt Rows dad and the car felt slow. It was stable and easy to drive but it felt slow. I didnt know what it was so after some advice I kept the setup and ran the first heat with the car. The car wasnt slow at all, in fact it was ballastic! I ended up qualifing 2nd on the grid that day. My best ever result but it didnt end there. The buzzer went for the first final and I somehow sliped one by Mark woods and I was leading! I then kept this up for the entire 5 minutes and took the win. Then something stranger happened. I did it in the next final. I couldnt repeat the performance in the 3rd leg but it didnt matter. Id just won my first club meet and with my first outing with the car. I was somewhat estatic and couldnt quite believe it. :D

I went on that year to win the summer senior club championship with Mark Woods coming in second with a tie on points.

With this under my belt I also ran my first complete season of modified in the STCC with the RDX and managed to get several A final finishes. This was for me a great achievement and something that im still very proud of today.

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

Jimbo · Things get rough

Well after a fairly good STCC season I went into the final round at my home track in Ipswich feeling very confident of a good overall finish and hopefully a podium place in the last round. The weather was good and the track looked great and I had the home advantage so was feeling good. But it wasnt to be and although I qualified really well I didnt finish a single final. I was not pleased but we had at least won the club championship so it wasnt all bad :)

I didnt really race much for a few weeks and took a bit of a break untill I discovered off road :D I dont really know why I bought one but it looked like a lot of fun and I wanted to try something a little different. I was bored and slightly dispondant with touring cars so this seemed like a good alternative. I started with a basic 4wd. An academy SB V2. It wasnt anything special but it got me hooked and got me started. I then bought an X-Factory X-6 from ebay that came all the way from Austraila!!! This was great as it was a proper race spec 2wd buggy and was nice to drive. I then proceded to buy another buggy. This was also an X-Factory creation but was there 4wd buggy the X-5. (The names are not that creative but the cars work :D) This car came second hand from you guessed it. Mr Bailey! Who I then proceeded to beet with it almost every time I put it down :shock:

I ran both the X-Factory cars in the local regional championship and really enjoyed the different form of racing. I even ran the X-5 and the F3,4,5 finals in coventry. By the end of the season I had gained an F3 driver grading, a few driver of the day awards and even a few A final finishes. I was really pleased with my first ever season off road and will be doing it again sometime soon.

There was though something missing. I missed racing on tarmac and the speed of touring cars. So I dusted off my RDX and had another bash at the final round of the STCC again at my home track in Ipswich. I made the A final in Mod after only running the car a handful of times over they year. This was great I was still competative and with a now dated car! So once again I was on the hunt for something new.

To be continued.......

Jimbo · Things get serious

So the summer racing season was over and a lot of people where talking about a change of car. I was one of these people and It was a good time to be talking about it as there was a wide and varied choice of new carbon fibre and state of the are exotica on the market. Tamiya had given a date for there 416 and there was also the Teamagic E4 car which had been giving some promising results. There was also the new Corally RDX Phi and X-Ray also had a new model on the market. My first thought was with the Corally but ruled it out quite quickly due to the amount it cost. The X-Ray looked good but didnt really grab me like the original one did and the E4 looked too radical and different even for my liking!

Then I saw a post on another forum about a new chassis that was being released and that they where looking for team drivers to support the car. So I emailed of my racing CV and waited to see what happened. Whilst I was waiting I looked on the web and found some pics of the car that turned out to be made by Serpent! Now this was serpents first atepmt at a 1/10th electric touring car and from the pics it looked like they had done a superb job and it even had some strong results to boot. The car looked great in the pics and I wanted one :D

Then I got the email. I couldnt believe it at first I was to be a Serpent UK team driver! I was thrilled and replied on the spot and placed an order for my car. I was at work when the car was delivered but took an early day so that I could go home and start building it. My first reactions where that the box was tiny. I couldnt believe that there was a car in there. My team shirt had even been put ontop of the box and still the package was tiny. But I pulled the wrapping open and removed the lid of the box like a kid at christmas. WOW there it was all neatly packaged and ready to be built up. I started to look closley at the parts and the quality was amazing and the instruction manual was a work of art.

The car went together easily and without issue and was ready to race in a few evenings. So I painted up a shell and headed for Risby village hall to give the car its first ever run! The track at risby is small and tight but would prove to be a good testing ground. I took the car out in practice and was stunned. It was fast straight out of the box. After only a few minor adjustments the racing started and I was on the pace from the off. But not just on the pace I was away. I took pole posistion and the win that day and couldnt stop smiling.

Over the winter I ran the car at a few Rug Racers events and learnt how the car ran on carpet and really enjoyed running in the Mod class despite my lack of power. The car was a joy to drive and so easy. I also met fellow team driver John Painter and we where able to share some advice and help each other at these race meets.

This brings me to the present and where my self and the car are today. The new STCC season is fast aproaching and I will be running in the TC1 class (Mod) with a 6.5T brushless motor. This is my first experience with brushless technology and my first real test of the car on tarmac. Im looking forwards to the series greatly and hope that the serpent cars will be a force to be reckoned with :D

Id like to also thank John Russel at Serpent UK for giving me the chance to drive this amazing car and for giving the support and advice to make it what I hope will be a winner.

I will be writing about my STCC season and reporting back at the end of each meet. Watch this space as the new STCC season gets underway.

Racing to follow........ :D

Jimbo · STCC Round 1, Southend

Well the weekend was finally here. The car was ready and all that remained was put the finishing touches to the new shell, cycle the cells and put the clocks forwards before tuning in for an early night.

My alarm sounded at 5:30 in the morning :shock: and the first thing that I could hear was the rain beating down on the roof. Still I was prepared for that so grabbing my stuff I headed down staris for a cup of coffee and some breakfast before Ian picked me up. Ian Picked me up at 5:55 as promised (Im told that being puntual is a Halifax thing?) and we headed off to the meeting point to pick up the others before heading to the track in convoy. Leigh had decided not to race today and chose to pull off at the next exit and head home so after the obligitory micky taking we all headed off.

When we got to the track the rain had stoped and there where half a dozen people removing the standing water from the track as well as a pump :o But it was still 7 in the morning and with the weather set to improve we hoped that the track would at least start to dry before qualifing got under way. I stood and watched cars come off from practice and was paying a lot of attention to the amount of water coming off the cars. Ther was really very little and providing there was no more rain I was feeling hopeful that I could get away with some blu-tac on the ipportant bits and not have an issue.

So after the drivers briefing the racing got underway and I started to relax and watch some of the racing before my heat. The sun was even trying to come out and things where looking good if slightly slippy on track. My heat came and I took to the drivers stand and disaster!!! My soldering had again let me down and my battery connection came off! After Trev went charging into the pits to find a hot iron the race started with me standing waiting. Trev returned a few minutes into the race and I was able to get my first feel for the car and the track. I only managed 6 laps but the car felt good in the difficult conditions and the car seemed to be on the pace.

I made a few changes to the car after the first run and removed the front anti roll bar and layed the front shocks down slightly to improve turn in. Then it was back out for the second run and the car felt great. The track was still very slippery and made putting the power down extremely difficult but I pushed on and won the heat and set a time that put me 4th overall after the second round.

The third round of qualifing was to be the driest run so far and needed to be good to asure a place in the A final. I resorted back to a setup for dry conditions and changed the gearing and off I went. I was first off the line and I stayed infront for the majority of the run. The car was flying and I was driving well. I was able to push hard and even had the confidence in the car on the still damp patches that where catching some people out. As the buzzer sounded to end the heat I managed to cross the line to get another lap in but I binned it in the fast chichane and lost about 5 seconds. This was enough to drop me from 1st to 3rd in the run and put me 6th on the grid for the A final. Oh well these things happen and still it was an A final place at least.

The finals where run almost completly in the dry with only a few small damp patches left on the track. I had also changed to my sintered rotor in an attempt to increase my straight line speed. I however didnt change the gearing but the car was still faster. I changed the gearing every run in the finals but didnt quite manage to find the sweet spot and the car was still down on speed but this time only slightly. The finals ran without incident and with some very close racing. I managed a 5th, 6th and a 7th and came 7th overall after all 3 rounds.

All in all I had a great day and was pleased with my self and the car. Southend has never been one of my favourite tracks and Ive never scored well there but I went there with a determind mind and ready for anything that the track could throw at me. I really enjoyed the first round and it was great to get back to racing on tarmac again.

Roll on the next round at Eastbourne. A track that Ive never visited and one that I have heard great things about.

Jimbo

Well Saturday morning arrived and I was up bright and early. I had loaded most of my things into the car the night before. All that was needed was to load the racing gear and double check that I had everything before heading to meet the rest of the guys at Marks Tey. The drive down was quite straight forwards although we lost Geroge, Ian and Wrighty quite early on.

We arrived at the track a little after half 12 and there where already plenty of people set up and testing. So we set up camp in the corner of the field and made ourselves at home before getting down to the testing side of things.

The track was much smaller than I had imagined and from watching the other cars going round was clear that despite the heat it was still very slippery and was about as good as it got. It was clear that a good car setup and a little bit of drifting was going to be needed to be fast. I spent the next few hours making changes to the car and learning my way round the track untill I was happy how the car was handeling. Then all the racing gear was packed away ready for the social side of the evening and the first of the beer started to flow.

Sunday morning came after a fairly good nights sleep in my tent. Only being woken by Trev having to pump his air bed up every few hours. The weather looked clear and people where begining to stir. So I unpacked my racing gear and folded my tent. (Nearly as quickly as Trev took to get his instant tent back into the bag :D)

After the drivers briefing it was onto qualifing and it was clear from the start that the track was still slippery but although grip was low it was constant throughout the lap. My first round of qualifing went without drama and I put in a good 20 lap time that put me nicely in the A final after round one. I wasnt 100% happy with the car so after marsheling I went back to the pits and made a few alterations and changed my gear ratio.

Round 2 again came and went without drama and the car felt fast. I was able to put it exactly where I wanted it and even though the track was still quite slippery the car was very stable. The car was definatly much faster but a few mistakes ment that I didnt improve that much but my time kept me in the A final and onlt tents of a second outside reaching 21 laps so I was still very pleased.

Round 3 of qualifing and Id left the car as it was and from the start it was again very quick. I was still down a little on power but the car through the infield was on rails! I was on for improving quite well and definatly on for a 21 lap time untill about 4 mins in when the car started to go soft!. It didnt die completly it just went soft and lost most of its punch and was just plain slow. On returning to the pits I discovered that one cell had droped right down so I was only running on 5 cells. Well these things happen and I was still in the A final and even though it was 9th it was still the A final.

Well the Finals where drawn up and as I was in the top final I had to marshel the first TC3 final. It was then that the heavens opend and the rain started to fall. And fall it did making the track completly soaked in a matter of minutes. This was unfortunatly how all the finals where to be run so several people decided to call it a day and head home. I decided to stay on and run in the finals. The track was extremely slippery and after all 3 finals I was in 5th place overall whic i was very happy with despite blowing my motor in the last leg.

Well next time its on to Brookland raceway in kent. The track from what I have seen and heard is huge and is again somewhere ive never raced. but am looking forwards to hugely.

To be continued.......

Where It all Began

The start of an obsession

Things get rough

Things get serious

STCC Round 1, Southend