"Halifax, the place of dreams..." - 'A. Non'

Yesterday saw Andy and I visit Halifax for our first outdoor testing session of the summer season. We were both up until 3:30 in the morning the night before our test day in an attempt to get our cars ready. It didn't really work. We ended up having to finish making final changes to setup, gearing, etc. when we arrived at the track the following morning anyway (later that morning?)

I spent most of my night wiring up and dremeling my new SpeedPassion motor heatsink/Much-More fans combo. The end result was satisfying though; a perfect fit and a stone-cold motor. Well, at least that's what I'm aiming for with this cooling 'beast'!

The final thing I did before going to sleep was updating my SpeedPassion ESC firmware with the new beta stock specific firmware update. (Although I believe the firmware is now out of the beta stages and has now been released on the HobbyWing website and will be released on the SpeedPassion site very soon). After some Windows 7 'run as Administrator' issues I finally got the software working properly on my laptop and updated the speedo. I then loaded up settings from Stefan (who had kindly explained all the installation and setup intricacies to me beforehand). A quick blip of the throttle whilst it was still on the bench sounded VERY promising indeed.

After oversleeping ever so slightly, we made it to Halifax to be greeted by warm dry weather with glimpses of sunshine to boot. So, after the setup of our testing pit areas we ventured out on the asphalt for the first time since the Mendip national last year.

Andy's car looked good, both round the corners and down the straight. I was concerned that even with my new SpeedPassion firmware, I wasn't going to be a match for the infamous new GM speed control's power. We took it in turns driving and pitting, with the pitman's main role being motor temping. As Halifax is the biggest track on the calendar, keeping motor temps down (especially with all the power the new speed controls are squeezing out of 10.5 motors) is usually the biggest issue.

I went out next and WOW! just, WOW! I was not to be disappointed by the new turn of speed the SpeedPassion had developed overnight. My car was like a missile going down the straight. It's always hard to judge speed with no one else on the track (and unfortunately Andy and I never got out together) but even Andy commented on how fast mine looked going down the straight. I was amazed. I remember the straight at Halifax seeming to take a while in 10.5 last year, this time I kept overshooting the apex at the end of the straight as I was arriving there before I was expecting to! Happy days.

My setup needed some work to get round the corners a bit quicker though, and while I was off the track making my second set of adjustments the heavens decided they had been too kind to us already and opened wide. Neither of us had fully prepared wet cars, so that signalled the end of our fun. Although, Andy had installed his new '2010' wet tub, so that got a bit of a trial in the inclement weather before we packed up and headed home.

On the whole, the test was useful. We both now feel confident that our cars have the straight line speed to compete this season (I even had to gear down as it didn't sound like it had finished accelerating!) But, some work remains to be done on our setups still; the cars weren't terrible but I wouldn't call them good either - it was just a shame we ran out of weather before we could work on them any further. Never fear though, there is still time for all that and more testing will be happening in the next few weeks before the first Mendip National.

Nearly there...

At the usual Monday night club meet last night I went fairly well on the whole I think. I was trying the car on Sorex 32s last night because my Sorex 28s have worn out and I'm currently feeling something of a financial strain so I've resorted to using up some of the seemingly hundreds of tires I have lying around from last year's National series.

The switch to a harder compound caught me out in Round 1 as I struggled to get it round the corners. As I was helping my friend Colin pit, I didn't have much time for any serious setup changes, but I did manage to take my Smoke'em carbon fibre steering rack brace off in time for Round 2 which helped traction on the front a lot. The car felt like it was capable of quick times in Round 2, but a lack of consistency on my part meant that although my best lap time was impressive, my average lap time left something to be desired.

Round 3 and I managed to finally put in a consistently quick time which placed me 3rd on the grid in the A final. Ironically enough my qualifying start position, so at least I'm placing where my average ability in the computer puts me at the start of the meeting... nearly back to where I was before this break then!

Unfortunately I lost all self-control in the final and after making a mistake a few laps in, kept pushing far too hard to make up for it. Inevitably resulting in me simply making more mistakes and dropping further and further back from where I should have been. This has been noted though, and it stops here. Friday night will be a flawless performance - combining skill, elegance and sheer speed. Hopefully.

Hey honey, I'm home...

Well after a bit of a break from my usually intensive racing schedule I'm now back in the game.

The much-loved month long Easter break I get from my university studies saw me travelling to the US for two weeks to visit friends from when I lived and studied at Oregon State University for the second year of my batchelors degree. This was followed by about a week and a half at home visiting friends from school who are still living it large in Berkshire. I figured I might as well do the whole long-break thing properly as this Easter was my last school holidays ever! From now on I just have my masters dissertation and then I'm forced out into the real world to do something called work? Or maybe it's called a job... I dunno, either way academia is getting ready to leave my life.

Unfortunately I didn't get an opportunity to do any racing during the break, so MMCC on Monday and RVRCCC on the Friday of last week was the first time I'd raced since the Chesterfield 12th National. Hence the blog turning into a bit of a blogging ghost town for the past month.

I seem to be one of these racers who needs to 'keep my eye in' with racing so I wasn't expecting too much on either the Monday or Friday night. Which is just as well really as neither performance was what I would call my best. I tend to struggle with being smooth again after a break from racing - I revert back to my lesser racing driver self and my thumbs become somewhat digital in nature. Throttle and steering receive 'on/off' inputs which of course doesn't lead to the quickest times.

Monday night at MMCC saw me qualify pole in the B final and only just winning it due to the confusion of myself and Adam. We were both very close at the end of the run and were swapping positions every other corner, so when we heard the beep (signalling last lap) we both pulled up laughing with relief... only to be greeted by shouts from our fellow racers in the pits that we hadn't finished yet. Blind panic ensued as we both tried to get back out there and finish our last laps, during the mayhem Adam got stuck on the track marking for a few seconds and it cost him a possible pole finish. I was lucky.

Friday night, and I was starting to modulate my transmitter inputs slightly better so my times weren't too bad. I qualified second behind Andy (admittedly a whole lap, or maybe 2... behind him) but then I proceeded to crash on the second sweeping corner off the line. My car launched itself skyward and landed neatly on all four wheels on the rostrum. Don't ask. The marshal then seemed unsure if he was allowed on the rostrum during racing, so by the time my eyes had finished silently screaming "HELP!" at him and I was back on the track, I was nearly two laps down. A set back I was unable to make up for during the 5 minutes.

However, I feel like I finally starting to get back into the swing of all things RC and with the first TC national rapidly approaching it's probably just as well. Looking forward to Monday night again now, and planning some testing sessions at our nearest outdoor track Halifax with mates in the coming weeks as well.

As always, I'll keep you posted.