Sometimes a win doesn’t mean you crossed the line in first place. Looking at today from that angle, means I can claim a couple of wins today.
B74.2d
I set the ride height this morning and didn’t have to touch it again all day. I left the Gear Center Diff in to see what that was like. And it was great. You can still push it aggressively, but you don’t have to be quite as on top of the car. And with the option to start playing around with stiffer diff oils, the consistent and predictable handling of the car makes it feel like there’s much more to come.
I posted 3 15 lap heats and 14 in the 3rd round was all down to my mistakes. This was enough to put me 9th in the A Final, and in amongst some quick peddlars.
Managed to squeeze another place out of the final, and went home having had a much better result that I thought I was going to get. Fuzz Bites seemed to work nicely on the rear, Well worn Cactus Fusions on the Front. Nice!
Fast Lap:
18.976
Avg. Lap:
20.704
Avg. Top 5:
19.177
Avg. Top 10:
19.650
Avg. Top 15:
20.357
Top 2 Consec.:
59.444
Top 3 Consec.:
59.444
Std. Deviation:
1.443
Consistency:
93.033%
Lap Times
| # | Time | Pace | Pos |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 20.095 | 18/6:01.705 | 8th |
| 2 | 19.274 | 19/6:14.003 | 5th |
| 3 | 19.887 | 19/6:15.286 | 3rd |
| 4 | 20.581 | 19/6:19.224 | 6th |
| 5 | 18.976 | 19/6:15.488 | 6th |
| 6 | 23.698 | 18/6:07.532 | 7th |
| 7 | 19.763 | 18/6:05.847 | 6th |
| 8 | 22.771 | 18/6:11.351 | 8th |
| 9 | 21.439 | 18/6:12.967 | 8th |
| 10 | 22.09 | 18/6:15.433 | 8th |
| 11 | 21.425 | 18/6:16.362 | 9th |
| 12 | 19.88 | 18/6:14.818 | 8th |
| 13 | 20.501 | 18/6:14.372 | 8th |
| 14 | 21.137 | 18/6:14.807 | 8th |
| 15 | 19.449 | 18/6:13.159 | 8th |
| 16 | 22.914 | 18/6:15.615 | 8th |
| 17 | 19.151 | 18/6:13.797 | 8th |
| 18 | 19.037 | 18/6:12.068 | 8th |
B6.4d
2WD was altogether tougher today. I threw everthing at it, but just couldn’t find a consistent feel at the back. Added some neg Camber at the back, Slidy and oversteery. Changed the Diff oil from 10k to 7k, a little better, but still a handfull. Changed the ESC settings for more aggressive Brake, still couldn’t get it slowed down when I needed. Put Some Hexons on the back, just as bad as the Fuzz Bites, maybe worse. By Q4, I got a bit tired and stuffed it big time about 4 minutes into the heat.
At first glance, I thought I’d just done a wishbone. When I got it back to the pit, I found I’d done the stud mount as well. 20 minutes to do a front end rebuild or miss the final. Tick Tock!
It got worse as I started to reassemble it. As I was remounting the Shock Tower, I found I’d snapped one side of that as well.
Now not so long ago, I would have given up at this point. But the new meds for my Bi-polar seem to have the positive effect that I seem to have a bit more focus and resiliance. So despite a bit of a tall order repair in very limited time, I wasn’t ready to throw in the towel.
Rather Heroically, Matt Hodges gove me a spare shock tower, and Lee Marson Glued me up a set of Cactus rears. As I dismantled the broken Carbon Fibre, I tore a couple of holes in my Thumb, and covered my bench, car and floor in blood.
Somehow (mainly missing a couple of screws 🙂 ),I managed to get it to the line without a second to spare.
Much to my chagrin, I have to admit that for Cardiff, the Schumacher Cactus is the best tyre, (see Things that Boil my Piss in RC Racing for details). I dropped a couple of places in the final, getting to grips with a completely different handling car is kinda tricky when you’re up against 9 lunatics set on death or glory. But that and the result was academic today. I didn’t give up when it got tough, started and finished the final, and went home with more points than If I had quit. That was the win today.