Another quiet night home on the range

Last night at MMCC was a very quiet affair indeed, there was only six of us racing so we enjoyed a relaxed evening with 5 minute breaks in between heats. As soon as I arrived I remembered that my motor hadn't been sounding too happy all last week and that I had meant to fix it during the week... whoops... As there was no time for it now I just oiled her up and carried on as usual!

Apart from the noise my car was making, described by one as "sounding like a bag o' spanners", it was going okay. The little breaks threw my tyre additive regime and I'm not sure, I got it exactly right at any point during the night - I either forgot completely until the last minute or had it on for far too long. That said I think we were all in the same boat there, apparently we don't cope with change well.

Qualifying went well and without any major hitches and I held my spot in third on the A final grid layout. Although after a very close start between the three of us I accidentally tagged Mark just after the hairpin at the end of the straight, this sent him flying over the track markings making the incident look far worse than it really was. Anyway, by the time we both rejoined the action Andy was long gone and our chances of tag-teaming him just as distant.

All in all a good night, with an unfortunate anti-climax of a final as it looked set to be a close race between Mark and myself at least. Next week Morecambe visits the Blackpool facility for its monthly 'away' leg, which is nice because it means we don't have to set up the track haha!

Blog posts are like buses...

... you have to wait for ages then three come along at once!

The observant among you may have noticed that I have a new updated banner for the blog, courtesy of Andy Murray.

The old one was only meant to be temporary until I had some decent pictures of my new shell design, but then life got in the way and this new one was a while coming. But it's here now so that's all that matters!

I like it rather a lot, so thank you to Andy... shame you felt the need to let the world know that 'gingers rule'... as you said though, I have been bashing your hair colour from time to time. I believe the expression goes something like "karma's a bitch!"???

Open for business as usual!

I was back at the home of RC tonight, Morecambe Model Car Club, and boy did it feel good to be back! Oh tiny community hall, how I've missed thee!

Morecambe and its members provided the high class, insanely close racing I have grown accustomed to and recently been pining for. There was very little between the three A final cars and us three B final guys, and truth be told the C final folks weren't far behind us either.

I started off in the 'B final qualifier' with Dean and Colin and we had some great racing throughout all the qualifying rounds, as always a mistake was simply not an option and if you weren't within a couple of feet of the guy in front or behind you at all times you were doing something wrong.

The three of us were joyfully reunited for the B final proper. Think running gaily through a blossoming summer meadow towards one another... and you be thinking of something completely unrelated to racing... why would you do that?! Once again though we had a great final which saw a fantastic come back from Colin after he clipped the corner coming onto the straight early in the race, and then saw Dean nearly losing it all in the dying moments when he lodged himself securely against a track marker right in front of the rostrum.

Ahh MMCC, how I've missed you!

Halifax National

Do not adjust your monitors, your eyes are not deceiving you, this really is a new blog post!

My apologies for leaving you without my cutting wit and sarcasm, without my wealth of RC knowledge, without something to read during your lunch break at work, etc. etc. I have plenty of excuses, but they're just that, excuses. So, I won't bore you with them now and instead I will crack on with resuming business as usual!

This weekend I jumped straight back into it at the deep-end and attended the Halifax National.

As my blog posts, or lack thereof, would suggest I had not raced since the last national round at Aldershot about a month ago so I wasn't sure how rusty I would be when I stepped out onto the track for the third practice round on Saturday morning. Yes, third one - I was busy rebuilding and fixing the car from Aldershot as it hadn't even left its box.

My personal highlight of the weekend, Phil's dad trying to errect a gazebo in a space where a gazebo simply doesn't fit. 9 out of 10 for effort though.

The work included the installation of a SpecR gear diff which I was sold on as soon as I had built it in 5 minutes flat, it only continued to impress me throughout the weekend. I also popped a new front belt and spur gear on, replacing items with missing teeth in both cases. Thought I might as well treat myself, why not heh?

Anyway, I managed to get around without causing much embarrassment to myself. A trend which only continued until the end of round 1 qualifying. After which point I decided I would visit the grassy bits of Halifax in each and every one of the remaining qualifying rounds. This didn't exactly do wonders for my qualifying as you might imagine, so I ended up 4th in the E final. Which seems to be my final of choice this year.

Andy Murray had considerably more luck, and skill, in qualifying - getting a new 10.5 track record and TQ'ing the meeting. We all had great fun cheering Andy on in the finals, I did wonder whether he heard us up on the rostrum...

I then proceeded to go round Halifax for three finals and pretty much keep it on the grey stuff the whole time. Resulting in a 1st and two 2nds which placed me second overall. The eventual winner had the same results to count, but had out-qualified me to 2nd on the grid.

I enjoyed the weekend a lot and the weather was nice to us on the whole so I thought it was a positive return to racing for me. It has certainly re-ignited my passion for RC again after a much needed break from it all - just to remind me what I missed! Hopefully the blog posts will be coming thick and fast now!