
After a season and a half with the Schumacher LD2, I got to feeling that I wasn’t suited to it. I wasn’t the only one to feel that the LD2 has a very narrow performance window, and that unless you’re very experienced, and have masses of talent that can discern a very nuanced car, you can chase your tail finding pace. The best alternative available to me is the Associated RC10 B6.4d. After a rather annoying episode of repeated Top Link Turnbuckles failing (3 over the course of 11 laps at Tiverton), I’ve made the the jump to Associated. This is very exciting for me. I’ve only owned an Associated 10th Pan Car before, and never an AE Buggy, so I’m very revved up to get out there and see how this compares.
Kindly supplied by John at RC Octane for a great price, it has a reputation for being more forgiving to drive, easier to set up and crucially, more robust than …. (OK I won’t bang on about it).

- Guilty as Charged M’Lud
- SW Reigional Rd 4, Tiverton – 23/7/2023
I can’t claim today’s spiffing result was due to genius wheel-smithing or Adrian Newey like setup. I hit the weather jackpot in round 1 which flattered my overall performance quite a bit. But having stood out in the pissing rain for 20 odd summers marshalling full scale motorsport, I figure the racing gods kinda owed me this one.
That said, the car was on point all day, I used the practice to good effect putting on a touch more rear toe in and ride height, which made it quite a sight more easy to keep the car on line so that I could take advantage of my luck. I was there with Ken Fung, who’s a tidy little peddlar, which was very pleasing.
Qualifying – Round 1
Race 3 – 2 WD
Pos Car Driver Result Best10 Best 1 5 Alistair Munro 12 / 328.32 27.08 25.98 2 1 Ken Fung 11 / 302.60 27.35 26.39 3 2 Terry Leach 11 / 320.86 28.77 27.68 4 4 Mat Mead 11 / 324.70 29.10 27.33 5 7 Chris Law 11 / 324.75 29.30 27.69 6 6 Ben Reed 10 / 304.58 30.45 27.79 7 3 Alfie Ball 10 / 330.85 33.08 30.89 Quali Rd1 Then it pissed it down!
Anyway, Round 2 was a bit more even, but I posted a quicker time, and but kept my nerve and didn’t fiddle with the car before Round three. And just pipped Ken again. And a pretty clean run.
Qualifying – Round 2
Race 3 – 2 WD
Pos Car Driver Result Best10 Best 1 5 Alistair Munro 12 / 320.59 26.30 25.68 2 1 Ken Fung 12 / 322.49 26.57 25.83 3 4 Mat Mead 11 / 310.35 27.95 27.06 4 6 Ben Reed 11 / 317.53 28.49 26.33 5 7 Chris Law 11 / 323.64 29.12 27.57 6 3 Alfie Ball 10 / 319.29 31.92 30.68 7 2 Terry Leach 7 / 209.81 0.00 26.58 Round 2 Round 3 I was the most pleasing, because despite an early mistake, I managed to make the Ballistic Greens work on a drying track. I definitely think I’ve made a step in car prep (esp. the shocks) and finding the right roll center settings. I will allow myself some credit for 13th in round.
Qualifying – Round 3
Race 3 – 2 WD
Pos Car Driver Result Best10 Best 1 1 Ken Fung 12 / 308.57 25.58 24.82 2 5 Alistair Munro 12 / 318.85 25.91 25.40 3 4 Mat Mead 11 / 302.87 27.29 26.36 4 2 Terry Leach 11 / 306.72 27.51 25.91 5 6 Ben Reed 11 / 318.55 28.37 26.96 6 7 Chris Law 11 / 321.53 28.86 26.94 7 3 Alfie Ball 10 / 306.86 30.68 27.74 Round 3 Qualifying – Round 3
Race 3 – 2 WD
Driver Alistair Munro Position 2 Result 12 / 318.85 Average 26.57 Best10 25.91 Best 25.40 Consec3 77.27 Lap Time 1 25.71 2 31.49 3 26.52 4 25.91 5 25.87 6 25.89 7 25.99 8 28.24 9 25.40 10 26.33 11 25.54 12 25.96 Round 3 Lap Times Round 4 Wasn’t too bad either, Good enough to stop me slipping out of the B into the C final.
Qualifying – Round 4
Race 3 – 2 WD
Pos Car Driver Result Best10 Best 1 1 Ken Fung 12 / 319.46 25.95 25.12 2 5 Alistair Munro 12 / 323.79 26.39 25.09 3 7 Chris Law 12 / 331.74 27.09 26.19 4 6 Ben Reed 11 / 302.50 27.25 25.98 5 2 Terry Leach 11 / 302.86 27.29 26.00 6 4 Mat Mead 11 / 304.15 27.26 26.16 7 3 Alfie Ball 11 / 333.03 29.92 27.18 Round 4 I’m quite pleased with the final as well. I dropped a couple of places, but had a cracking battle with Andy Nelson, who’s been on very good form recently. The numbers in the result don’t really tell the whole tale, I didn’t impeed anyone despite the battle with Andy, had a lot of fun, had the right tyres on, and got some very nice compliments about my performance.
Chuffed to bits đŸ™‚
Next week at Mendip might be a bit of a hard landing. But that doesn’t matter. I’m improving.
- Mendip Summer Championship RD5 – 16/7/2023
After the last, rather disasterous outing at Tivvy, A bit of a confidence builder was what I wanted out of my club championship visit to the old home track.
I was up for being the race director as well as driving, so I left the Optima Mid at home and concentrated on 2wd.
Qualifiying
Qualifying – Round 1
Nice First round. Quite impressed with Steve Pollinger and Andy Nelson’s form considering how well my car was handling. A couple of seconds here and there, and obviously a bogie on lap 9
Race 3 – 2wd Buggy
Pos Car Driver Result Best10 Best 1 2 Andrew Nelson 13 / 311.88 23.68 23.40 2 1 Steve Pollinger 13 / 319.01 23.87 23.42 3 3 Alistair Munro 13 / 324.96 24.36 23.56 4 4 Chris Law 13 / 329.74 24.46 22.82 5 6 John Farringdon 12 / 320.00 25.62 24.36 6 5 Miles Harris 11 / 317.69 27.86 25.17 7 7 Harrison Polinger 8 / 293.63 0.00 34.14 RD1 Quali Driver Alistair Munro Position 3 Result 13 / 324.96 Average 24.99 Best10 24.36 Best 23.56 Consec3 71.60 Lap Time 1 24.90 2 25.21 3 23.98 4 23.56 5 25.41 6 25.06 7 26.36 8 24.22 9 29.53 10 24.26 11 23.73 12 23.61 13 25.13 RD 1 Lap times Round 2 I managed to poach a decent result out of the changing conditions. I kept the car on wet settings longer than most and that was a decent showing.
Qualifying – Round 2
Race 3 – 2wd Buggy
Pos Car Driver Result Best10 Best 1 2 Andrew Nelson 13 / 308.00 23.10 22.15 2 3 Alistair Munro 12 / 307.98 25.13 23.38 3 6 John Farringdon 12 / 310.55 25.14 23.65 4 1 Steve Pollinger 12 / 314.07 25.06 22.99 5 4 Chris Law 12 / 322.14 25.88 22.97 6 5 Miles Harris 11 / 321.24 28.19 24.00 7 7 Harrison Polinger 7 / 269.95 0.00 35.33 RD2 Results Round Three was a carbuncle, just coundn’t find a groove. Round 4 was a little better, but not enough to score better than rounds 1 or 2.
Finals
I was happy with Heat one of the Finals, gaining a place by the end. But the other two finals were a bit spoiled by 1st lap clashes, clumsy mistakes and so on. But, the car handling was there. And with the extra time I’ll have at Tivvy to concentrate on setup to take account of what I suspect will be changing conditions, It wasn’t a bad a day as the results might suggest.
- Tiverton Summer Championship – 09/07/2023
Kept putting the wrong tyres on all day. Really shit performance. I’d rather do it today than at the reigional.
Balls.
Picture is Taki Inoue, because I was as bad as he was today.
- Swindon Club Round – 2/7/2023
Just 2wd fun today. Practice was greasy, back end fine on line, despite dry setup. Steering non existent in the shaded twisty bits. A bit more roll, silvers and an under servo weight was my first round bet.
Heat 1 was good. More grip than anticipated. So took rear toe in down a degree to 2 and took a mil out of the front ride height. Yellows on the front so hopefully not as grabby.
Heat 2 AAAARRRGH! Grip rolling all over the shop! Emergency roll center reduction 2mm rear 3mm front. 15mm Ride Height all round. 7mm hexes on the rear. And hope to goodness it doesn’t rain.
Heat 3 All those changes were working. Then about 3 minutes in, a wheel fell off. Arse.
Heat 4 I think somehow I lost a Wheel Hex Drive Pin, Which caused the wheel nut to unscrew itself. Heat 4 ended up being a just a cautious banker to get me out of the C Final. Job Done.
Ended up scraping into the B Final, so not dreadful đŸ™‚
Race 2 – 2wd B Final
Car Name Transponder 1 Gareth Capper 8220435 2 Paul Campbell 7793465 3 Neale Carbis 5397076 4 Steve Pollinger 6957162 5 Mike Klinkenberg 2 2896670 6 Elliott Capper Jnr 7322045 7 Alistair Munro 4151788 Leg 1 I managed to drag a few places back, despite some questionable moves from my opponents.
Finals – Round 1
Race 2 – 2wd – B Final
Pos Car Driver Result Best10 Best 1 1 Gareth Capper 13 / 307.93 22.60 20.72 2 5 Mike Klinkenberg 2 12 / 302.28 24.50 23.78 3 3 Neale Carbis 12 / 304.29 24.07 22.81 4 7 Alistair Munro 12 / 313.79 25.36 23.45 5 6 Elliott Capper Jnr 12 / 315.05 25.38 23.02 6 4 Steve Pollinger 12 / 325.62 26.22 23.96 7 2 Paul Campbell 3 / 83.94 0.00 24.31 Getting within striking distance of Neale was quite pleasing.
Leg 2 was even better, and the track time meant I could grab back a better result.
Finals – Round 2
Race 2 – 2wd – B Final
Pos Car Driver Result Best10 Best 1 2 Paul Campbell 13 / 315.90 23.68 23.16 2 3 Neale Carbis 12 / 300.16 24.26 22.94 3 7 Alistair Munro 12 / 327.32 26.12 23.55 4 5 Mike Klinkenberg 2 12 / 327.50 26.26 23.24 5 4 Steve Pollinger 11 / 301.46 26.69 23.42 6 1 Gareth Capper 11 / 312.48 24.78 21.30 7 6 Elliott Capper Jnr 11 / 318.76 26.93 23.79 So, got myself back to par really, that’ll do.
2wd – B Final
Pos Car Name Tie Break Points R1 R2 1 3 Neale Carbis 5 3 2 2 5 Mike Klinkenberg 2 6 2 4 3 1 Gareth Capper 13 / 307.93 7 1 6 4 7 Alistair Munro 12 / 327.32 7 4 3 5 2 Paul Campbell 8 7 1 6 4 Steve Pollinger 11 6 5 7 6 Elliott Capper Jnr 12 5 7
- Avid Trident Slipper Clutch
- Avid -1 C Clamp