MMCC night

I had a great evening racing at Morecambe this Monday night. I know this because I was so engrossed in my racing that I plain forgot to take any pictures whatsoever during the evening. So, I'll keep this brief because it's no fun to read a long ol' blog post without any pictures to distract you and some captions to offer some light entertainment throughout.

I was going well, my car was going well and despite a few misjudged corners during qualifying I was able to scrape into the A final. This went even better than qualifying, I was able to slip past Ben when he clipped the first corner (as he predicted he would do before we started). I then set about chasing down Mark and Andy in first and second.

I obviously missed whatever action resulted in Andy being overtaken by Mark towards the back end of the race - Andy had TQ'd and led for much of the race. All I know is, all of a sudden I was in second place and closing down on Mark in first place pretty quickly, with Andy in third place chasing me down with equal vigour. A couple of laps before the end, mere seconds as our hall is so cosy, I had Andy on my tail and I was trying to both defend and keep the pressure on Mark in front. Unfortunately I was the first to crack and Andy slipped past, leaving me to finish in 3rd place despite a good race in which all of us could have won really.

I took a small victory in the fact I once again got the fastest lap in the final, 7.90 seconds versus Mark's 7.97, Andy's 8.07 and Ben's 8.25. A small victory maybe, but I'll take it.

Racing at Morecambe

I was at Morecambe last night again for my Monday evening reprieve. T'was a good evening actually - car is continuing to go well, I seemed to have regained my consistency and we had the re-appearance of Dean back to racing!

Qualifying went well and I continued to get a little faster with every round. A couple of little mistakes in the final qualifier meant that I never quite realised my full potential in qualifying. The best I was able to muster was a very quick 35 lapper, Andy once again setting the pace with 36 laps. Nevertheless I qualified 3rd on the grid behind Andy Murray and Ian Joyner, with Mark Carter sat right on my boot lid.

The finals started with their usual tenacity and Ian, Mark and had a few fiercely fought laps with some great overtaking and unfortunate mistakes made by all. Unfortunately for us this allowed Mr Murray to break free of the pack and put a nice buffer between him and us. Once everyone had settled into some sort of rhythm I found myself in second place with an Andy in the distance.

I'm not sure if I mentioned before, but we have a championship format that gives a bonus point for the fastest lap in the finals - a nice little incentive to give 'em hell for a few laps if you find yourself in some clean air; either because you're in the lead or way behind. So, I set about trying to put some quick laps in to try and catch him and also get the 'points' for fastest lap. As it turned out Andy was doing the same and before Iknew it the buzzer sounded and I hadn't made or lost any significant ground.

I rushed over to the computer to see what and who the fastest lap went to... seeing that I had managed a 7.80 second lap and Andy 'only' a 7.92 time, I began to gloat! Only to be reminded by Andy the championship finished last week and this was a 'free practice' week with no points... I promptly claimed a moral victory and my imaginary point nonetheless. Good times.

MMCC

Track under construction - look at 'em go!

This Monday was the first Monday I've been to MMCC's normal venue in the heart of Morecambe, Lancashire since my rebuild work on my Tamiya TRF416X. Given my recent success and enjoyment with the car, I had high hopes for yet another fun-filled evening.

Qualifying started well - I seemed to be more on the pace than in previous weeks, only just a lap down on Andy Murray but very close (just 0.04 secs) in terms of best lap.

Two very tidy pit spaces!

This continued throughout qualifying, I managed to get quicker and quicker times but couldn't break into the elusive 38 laps Mr Murray was churning out consistently. In Q3 I was within touching distance, managing 37 laps in 300.35 secs! Our best times remained very close throughout also, by Q3 only 0.01 seconds separated our best laps.

The rest of the MMCC pits

I qualified 2nd on the grid in the A final, with Andy in front of me and Ian Joyner behind me in 3rd. Lights go out and I'm immediately racing Ian, who I had forgotten can be very aggressive in finals. Don't let his super smooth and calm qualifying style fool you! The battle which raged for a few laps allowed Andy some clean air and he was gone.

Ian going 'really fast' round the corner at the end of the straight

I managed to break free of Ian in lap 12 when he made a mistake. However I could do nothing to catch Andy who was flying round. When the buzzer sounded we saw Andy had managed 40 laps, now, considering he had only managed 38 all through qualifying and no on else had broken the 27 lap barrier throughout the evening he really was shifting! He said his car felt awesome and he was really happy with it for the first time in a while. He also mentioned he wished it had been that good at Ardent yesterday because he reckoned an A final position would have been easily do-able and, to be honest, I don't doubt him - no one could hold onto him this evening.

Final track layout, another corker from A. Murray

That was also the last round of the MMCC Winter Series, as it turns out I finished in 3rd place, behind Andy in 1st and Mark Carter in 2nd place. I think I could have managed to repeat my 2nd place finish from the Autumn Series if I had rebuilt my car as soon as I realised it needed it - rather than struggling for a few weeks and allowing Mark to build up a bit of a lead. Hindsight is a wonderful thing though...

Focus during the qualifiers

No racing tonight (Friday) as I have some mates from down South coming up for a flat warming celebration. I'm back at MMCC on Monday though. Have a great weekend!

Ardent Winter Series Rd 6

I was playing pool with Andy on Saturday night, when he mentioned that he wanted to go the last round of the Ardent Winter Series tomorrow but had no one to take him. As I'd just finished blogging about how much fun I'd had on Friday night and how I could do it all weekend I thought I'd be a massive hypocrite if didn't head over to Ardent with Andy on Sunday.

So we went and grabbed his stuff after pool and headed back to mine in Manchester to grab what little sleep we could before we had to get up and head towards the infamous cattle shed. We worked out at about 12:30am that we needed to leave at 5:15am to get there for opening time at 7:00am... Needless to say, when my alarm went off for the first time at around 4:30am after about three and half hours sleep I was seriously contemplating changing my tune about enjoying racing again! Quick shower and coffee later though and we were on the road.

The new Ardent layout, complete with green bits and duck pond

I've not been to Ardent since a dismal performance at the Winter National there, but I was pleasantly surprised with the new layout - especially the addition of green bits to the track markings. They made the expanse of grey more bearable and a little easier to drive as the track felt more defined.

The dandy, albeit cramped pit facilities

Turnout was reasonable although nothing like the rammed first round of the Winter Series back in October 2010. I hadn't got particularly fond memories of either that first round or the more recent Winter National, however with my recent rebuild I was feeling hopeful of a slightly better result.

I went out for a practice unsure what to expect and needing to learn the layout a bit. The car felt much better than in previous outings at Ardent but not quite as nice as it had on Monday or Friday of last week. When I came off though I noticed the tires had started to come of the rims - a sure fire way to get an 'excitable' car.

I managed to fit everything I needed and wanted into my little pit space

Superglue and a bacon roll later I was out for the first round of qualifying and the car felt awesome. I was really pleased and it showed in my driving as I managed to run for the whole five minutes without any real drama. It also showed in my result as I found myself sat somewhere around 15th after round 1 - a drastic improvement from my E final at the Winter National!

Round 2 of qualifying was much of the same; more of me driving well and the car going well also. I improved my time by a few seconds, just missing out on a 24 lapper. Final round of qualifying saw the grip come up and I fell victim to a combination of bump and grip roll after running a little wide under the rostrum. The combination sent me tumbling off the track and made sure I didn't improve in round 3.

Lunch and then the final positions were posted. I had made the B final, just behind Buzz - I was 9th place on the grid. I had changed the ackerman on my car for finals and despite trying it quickly over the lunch break, it didn't work for me or the car. The car felt like it was understeering, but not in a predictable fashion - more washy and imprecise feeling. This meant I was unable to improve on my qualifying position and finished 9th out of 10 in round one of the finals.

Finals round two; ackerman back to the normal 5mm of spacing and tyres re-glued meant the car was back to feeling great again. I was going well, in 6th place chasing down Buzz in 5th when I got caught of a corner track marker. The person following me hit the side of my car and when I tried to drive away it was dead slow and didn't feel good. I pulled up and watched the finish to the race hoping the damage wasn't too severe.

Afterwards I found out that the impact had broken the side of my speedo, pushing the sensor cable out and the bending the sensor cable plug under the case a little. A screwdriver and a smidge of brute force later the car was working again thankfully (otherwise it could have been an expensive crash). Unfortunately it did dash my hopes of doing well in the finals, but didn't ruin the day. I was very pleased the car worked even at Ardent (where I know friends have struggled in the past) and glad I went with our spontaneous decision to race.

I did have more pictures, but my Picasa 1GB storage limit has been reached. I've just bought 5GB more storage but apparently Google are still processing my order, so I'll sort the pictures out tomorrow. Racing tonight again at MMCC - I'll keep you posted...

I've just booked in for...

... the Cotswolds and Halifax 2011 BRCA 10th Nationals. I've been umming and erring about it for a while since I knew I couldn't afford to do the whole series this year and I didn't like the idea of doing a half-baked effort.

However, my mates have been pestering me relentlessly and when I found out Mark (Jordan) had just booked in for Halifax and Cotswolds - my closest and my favourite tracks in the calendar respectively - I thought well, I might as well join in the fun. So at least for those weekends we'll have the 2010 Nationals gang reunited in full for some trackside fun! See you there.

Normal service is resumed

Another busy Friday night at BRCCC

I was at Blackpool RC Car Club (BRCCC) yesterday evening, my usual Friday evening haunt. My car was going as well as it was on Monday thankfully. Although despite my best efforts I just missed out on beating my Monday 25 lapper during qualifying. My best lap improved I think, which shows there is still definite potential there though I guess.

Now the car is feeling more balanced and predictable I think I need to turn my steering rates back up to full, rather than the 90% odd that it's been at for a while. Although I'll confess to liking a car that pushes, I'm almost certain my times would improve considerably if I had all my steering lock and I just manned up and got 'used' to not always using full lock even if I have it available to me. I'll do that first thing when I unpack my transmitter on Monday I think.

My blue-tastic pit bench and accessories

Qualifying went well, I made few mistakes, however I didn't have a run where I didn't make any whatsoever - that has to be the goal really, doesn't it? Nevertheless, I was genuinely having a great time and thinking I could do this all night, maybe all weekend! Whilst I'm sure this feeling may be familiar and come regularly for a lot of you - I know a certain Andy Murray who managed to race 6 times in one week recently - I'd forgotten what it felt like. To be honest, my racing has felt like a chore for a while, but not any more!

Blurred without flash, eerie blue colouring with flash - I can't win

Anyway, I was having so much fun that I got a little too caught up and 'tried too hard' for the final and although I started well and had made progress from my qualifying grid position I threw it away with numerous unforced errors - something I need to remove from my driving skills repertoire as soon as possible. As a result I ended up pulling up a few laps before the end of the race as I was starting to worry I might break something, what with all the bits of track I was attacking. Perhaps not the most mature option I recognise, arguably I should have taken a deep breath, re-focused, forgotten about the 'race' and just driven it round cleanly... but hindsight is a wonderful thing to have once the red mist has cleared.

Not exactly the end to the evening I was shooting for. But it did leave me wanting more and eager to do better next time - at the end of the day I guess that's not a bad way to leave a club meeting.

Blogtastic

Ladies and mainly gentlemen, a drum roll please!

Ye olde blog hath returneth!

He's obviously pleased to hear the news...

What's that? I don't deserve a drum roll? Because I've been a lazy bugger? Oh ok... I'll just get on with it then I guess...

Well, haven't times changed?! I'm no longer sat in my student dorm room at Lancaster University writing to you all. I'm all growed up. I have a Masters in Environmental Management & Consultancy. I've gone and bought a 2 bed flat in the centre of Manchester. I work as an Environmental Consultant for a consultancy based in Chorley, called Apollo Enviro. I have 250 business cards which say so.

So now I find myself blogging to you on my new red leather sofa sipping a scotch whiskey and ginger ale. It's what cool grown ups drink trust me, or just ask your Grandad.

See, the red leather sofas look much better than you imagined huh?

So where to start? I am back racing again - since the start of the New Year actually. I had a bit of break whilst all the madness of starting a new job and buying/moving into a new flat settled down. The break was good I think, I was definitely excited to start racing again when I did eventually head back to Morecambe on a Monday night again. Less excited when I remembered that despite my constant bitching at the back end of last year I had still not sorted out my car.

Straight back to my tidy pit table ways

That's partly why I didn't start blogging again immediately, the passion hadn't quite fully ignited and I didn't want such negativity bringing down my blog posts, as they did increasingly throughout 2010. I wanted 2011 to be more upbeat and positive reflection of my racing experiences. As you rightly guessed at the start of the blog, the other reason was one of sheer laziness - guilty as charged.

Anyway, I set about ordering a load of new bits for my Tamiya - to fix broken parts, replace worm pieces and generally provide me with some much needed RC retail therapy. Last weekend I had some time off work and made it a much improved 5 day weekend. Quite why man didn't decide at the beginning of time we should have 5 day weekends and 2 day weeks instead I'll never know... but I digress.

During this time off I set aside a whole day and half to work on my car and get it sorted once and for all. Well until next month at least. I also painted and mounted a new bodyshell. Unfortunately my pro-painted design ones have 'run out' now and I won't be getting anymore for a little while, I've got a mortgage instead! In case you were wondering, the rest of my time off I spent re-fitting and re-wiring electric storage heaters in new locations, putting up a shelf and fixing a halogen light transformer. I also filed in my 2011 Census form. I could be the poster child for proud new homeowners everywhere.

Shots of the rest of the open plan kitchen-diner-lounge area

I then headed down to Morecambe Model Car Club hosted by Blackpool RC Car Club at their purpose built, permanent facility on the Monday night just gone. I had high hopes for the car, I'd pulled out all the stops and if I still wasn't having fun by the end of the evening the future was looking rocky. In spite of some issues with a poorly re-built gear diff, the car was good, very good. I might even stretch to epic, considering how broken it was feeling before I got my grubby mitts on it. My best was a little more than 2 laps quicker than I had gone around the same layout the previous Friday. I even help fastest lap in one round - the sign of a truly great car... obviously.

The aforementioned offending gear diff getting sorted out

The current track layout at Blackpool. I'd give it an 8/10 - I like it

All in all the evening was a great success in my eyes, despite my not finishing as high as I might have liked or been capable of in the final. Even then though I had a good race with a certain Mr Cottom and genuinely enjoyed myself. A novel feeling after racing recently I'm ashamed to admit.

My current easy-for-an-idiot-to-paint bodyshell design

So, there you have it. In a nutshell as they say. I'll play you out with some pictures of my flat and of with some general shots of racing on Monday night. As you can see from the refreshed countdown timers at the top of the page, I'm back at BRCCC for some more good times tomorrow night. Until then...

Going for a minimalist scheme throughout with a "white, black and a bold colour" colour scheme

If you drive an Associated you may be happy enough at the time, but you will end up looking like this. You've been warned.

The beginnings of my dedicated RC car pit room, it's the last room I need to decorate, tidy and furnish

Some familiar, friendly faces to be seen here and every Monday night at MMCC...