Morecambe on a Monday

at Blackpool to mix things up of course!

A good night all told, left it till the last round of qualifying to put in a good clean run but it was my fastest ever at Blackpool when I did. Put me in the A final, which then only lasted a few laps before my motor shifted after a heavy knock and the gear mesh came undone... or so I thought - turned out three of the bulkhead screws had come lose/left the building and once they were back in everything was back to being sweet and rosy. Cost me any chance of a better result than the 4th place I qualified in though. Ho hum.

Blackpool on a Friday

Racing on Friday was an example of how I remember racing used to be back in my XRAY glory days. Turn up, race a car that just works, have a laugh with mates and go home with a car that doesn't need 3 hours of TLC to make it usable again.

I filed down the rear driveshaft blades at the start of the evening so all the little tweaks needed to get the XRAY  in tip-top shape. That said, just as I thought I had finished faffing, I realised that the ball joint screws that go into the top of the bulkheads for the roll-centre settings have a shoulder on. This means that they're fine when used with a washer, but without a washer (as I want to set the car up) you cannot screw them in all the way because of the shoulder. Sloppy XRAY, very sloppy...

Anyway I think I finished 4th on Friday night which was a reasonable result although I felt I could do better. The car felt great, the only issues were little mistakes I made, so once I've got a bit more practice over the coming weeks I'm hoping I can do a little better than that!

A return to form?

Racing at Morecambe on Monday signalled something of a return to form for me. I feel like I've been struggling with the Tamiya for a few months now and I've been eager to get back to the sort of level I feel I used to race at.



After some solid qualifying runs I found myself in 3rd place on the A final grid behind Andy and Mark with Colin sat just behind me. A minute or two into the race Mark made a mistake in front of me and I squeezed past. Despite a far from perfect run I managed to keep him behind me for the rest of the run and finished in 2nd place. A result I was very pleased with... the hunt for Andy begins next week!

Teething issues

My subsequent few meetings with the car were troubled by front driveshafts falling apart. Once I put a flat spot on all the pins though this sorted itself out.

Someone also pointed out that I'd been a bit hasty with my assembly of the steering, meaning I had the black plastic arms upside down. Once I flipped them over I was able to get my steering turnbuckle the right length. That said, I know someone else who built it right but still had to fit a smaller turnbuckle in the car to get it all fitting together as it should.

I've also made some changes to the standard carpet setup which I initially put on the car - this has made it much easier to drive consistently fast and I'm feeling very happy with how the car feels now. I must confess I have also succumbed to the 28 JBs again, the car just feels so much better on them.

I still need to take a bit of material off the end of the rear driveshaft protector things - to stop them binding up the diff at full suspension travel. But I plan to get that done before the next meeting on Friday.