STCC 2008

Arrived at Coastal on Saturday around 10.30am for some practice, even though I knew the track layout from the previous club meeting. Had brought both dry and wet cars along as the weather forecast for Sunday was not looking very good at all. The dry car had the brushless set-up on it, and it was going round on a very cold track in around 13.2 second laps so no real problems with it. Out with the wet car and it was a little more difficult to drive in the dry as the wet set-up had very soft springs all round and the shocks angled in to the innermost hole to get plenty of weight transfer in the corners. Nonetheless it was going round with a CO27 brushed motor in around 13.6 seconds so I was quite happy with it.
Come early Sunday morning and the worst fears were realised as it was raining from 7.15am onwards. I had already water-proofed the seams of the receiver with rubber solution and the plugs etc. had plenty of bluetac around them, the speed controller was MRT so no problems there.
Out for the first round of qualifying and it succumbed to water problems after 1 lap! Where the hell is the water getting in?
Back to the pits and stripped out all the electrics, dried them off with the wife's hairdryer, and this time put the receiver into a balloon, and bluetaced the end andalso applied a cable tie to it together with some gaffer tape. Also changed the motor to a new Team Scream and was ready again. Placed it rather gingerly on the grid for qualifier 2 and made a decent start and was showing up around 7th in the A final if I kept in going. Well I could have kept going but the car decided to pack in again after 5 laps. Where the hell IS the water getting in?
So it was back to the pits again, this time dried everything off, put a different receiver in this time, all back into a new balloon and agin tried my hardest to make sure it was water tight. Got off the start gris OK for qualifier 3 and this time managed 4 laps before it ground to a halt. This is getting silly, where the hell is the water getting in?
So I ended up in a lowly 4th spot in the C final, way down on what I needed to do to stand a chance of holding Trevor off in the overall championship (he was well up in the A final so I already knew he had beaten me).
Checked and dried evrything out again and placed it on the grid for the C final where only two other brave drivers decided to come out (it was hammering down by now) but I was determined to do a full five minutes raceing. Trevor placed it on the track - and nothing, it just didn't move! It had been fine on the bench but took it outside and no steering on speedo at all. So a DNS for the first final. This is now getting beyond a joke as I am at a loss as to what to do next (other than give up for the day). Back to the pits again and dry it off again, water-proof it and out for the next final. This time I cross the start line - hooray - and manage a whole lap before it dies. What have I done to deserve this? I just can't believe what is happening.
Suffice to say I went through the same routine again in the pits and out for the last final. This time it goes a whole 4 laps before giving up. This is the closest I have come to throwing it in the dustbin, I just can't believe how bad the car was and how easily water was getting into the receiver depite all the precautions I had taken. At least I started two finals so got my l;ast sticker for the trophy where a space had already been reserved for it!
Back at home all the electrics were dried out, tested and they worked just fine. So today I have taken a leaf out of Moggers book (he is the TC3 champion) and started to make a little water-proof box for the reciver, speedo and PT to go in, silicone all the holes where the wires enter and also put a little bag of silica gel in to mop up any condensation, then put the lid on and seal it all up. All I'm waiting for now is the sheet of carbon fibre vinyl I've ordered to pretty it all up, and it will be installed back into the wet car ready for the rest of the Coastal season.
Overall this years STCC has been absolutely great, with some really close racing, a good tussle all year with Trevor and I managed to achieve some satisfying results, especially at Southend having made the A final there. The low point has to be Coastal, as I have never had a days racing like it before (and don't want one like it again!) but as they say 'Tomorrow is another Day' so have just entered for the Rug Racers series down in Ware - at least it is indoors, warm and dry, so shouldn't have the same problems again.
I'll keep this blog going with a report on events there, so watch this space....

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Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder!

Having failed dismally to keep my promise in the last post to keep this blog going for Rug Racer meetings I have attended (3 so far) I'll start 2009 in a new vain and report on my latest adventure at the EWCC challenge.
Over Christmas and the New Year I have completey re-built the car, following so well meant mickey-taking from Trev about the amount of slop in every part of my car. It's had new bearings all round, all suspension arms, C hubs etc. have been replaced, new drive shafts and all the ball joint/cups replaced as well - it's virtually a new car, so all I needed now was a new driver for it!
Having enjoyed racing on carpet at Rug Racers, I decided to enter the EWCC challenge at a new venue in Basildon. In fact there was also a new carpet there as well, so the day was going to be interesting. Although entries were relatively slow to begin with eventually there were 93 drivers there for the 6 classes being run on the day (more of those later).
Got there at 8.45am as we were told doors didn't open until 9.00am - WRONG - all the downstairs pit space was taken by then so had to hump everything upstairs to the balcony where there was a bit of room by the drivers rostrum. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise and I only had to walk about three steps to get to it!
Open practise got underway at 9.15am, but without any frequency control it proved to be a bit dodgy. Very dodgy in fact as I had done about three minutes getting used to the track layout, which was superb, and as I went full tilt down the straight it decided to carry straight on into the wall!! A certain well-known racer decided to turn on without checking who was on his frequency and then proceeded to moan that someone was on HIS frequency! Damage fortunately was limited to the Lipo battery being forced out of the mount and bending one of the retaining posts, the receiver case being smashed and the speedo being dislodged (oh, and a dent in my nice new SMG-painted body).
This was all sorted for the first of five qualifying runs so no real problems.
In the first two runs car was OK, but I was doing 22 laps whilst the top guys were doing 24 lappers, so some improvment was needed. Timkered around with the set-up and also decided to use some additive for the next run. It was awesome, like driving a scalextric car! Put in a 24 lapper in 307 which put me up to 8th in the A final at this stage. Couldn't improve on the next qualifyer so it was all to do in the last one. From the beeps on the AMB system could tell I was improving so just a question of keeping it going. Not to be however as a back marker took me out and I got stuck ap against a track marker which cost me six seconds, which would have been enough for 9th in the A, so ended up pole in the B.
Come the one final, didn't change anything on the car and that proved to be the right decision. From the off I got a clean start and slowly built up about a 4 second leadover 2nd place. Eventually lapped everyone up to second place so it ended up as a comfortable win from start to flag.
So overall I had a great day. thoroughly enjoyed the racing and other than the early setback in practice didn't break anything on the car.
Some of the interesting highlights from the day were watching the new World GT cars going round (4 cell with 5.5 brushless), they were awesome - so quick and nimble and made a great sound going down the straight. Also in each of the modified qualifying rounds, it was interesting watching Elliot Harper swap cars in each round at the halfway point and carrying on as though nothing had happened - took around 3 seconds to do and didn't seem to hamper his times at all.
They are looking to hold a series of meeting at this venue during tthe autumn/winte of 2009, so I will definitely be looking to go back again.

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Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder!

Postscript to the previous post - a video of the B final is on:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46E2jNzrIZg

Just a shame he decided to follow his mate's blue car in second place! You'll eventually catch site of mine at around 4 minutes when a white and pink-coloured back marker takes me out.

_________________
Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder!