OK here is the 'race report':
There were 50 cars in the Joe class and only 25 in Pro so those guys were probably disappointed with the pro-rated price money.
5 groups in Joe and 3 in Pro. I was in group 4 of the Joe class. There was 4 qualifiers of 15 min each so lots of time to get it right.
The day stared early leaving home at 6AM and showing up at the track at 7.15 or so to set up the Gazebo and tables. I had been there on Friday tuning the engine so it ran ~230 - 240F. And yes I ran the RG again. I was considering putting in the MAC but the explosive power would have been to much for me to handle.
Racing started at 9.00AM and continued ALL day. A tight schedule and great organisation made everything smooth.
Q1.
Started out good during warmup, got refilled and off we went. My nerves were on the outside so it was a bit shaky and just when I started to get a feel for the track the front dogbone came out. [>:] End of Q1 after 4 laps, bummer. It turned out that I had put the car together the wrong way. The coupling on the rear diff is slightly different front to rear so I mixed them up. The 'cup' was just a bit to short so the axle came out. I put a rear axle in the front and the problem was solved.
Q2.
Got a pretty good start running my race trying to be smooth and consistent. Somehow the pressure line on the pipe had came loose so after 22 laps it died and I we couldn't get it started again. It felt better than Q1 and I was still learning the track.
Q3.
This time I ran 15 mins and felt much smoother than before. I was 'in the zone' for a while doing pretty decent laptimes. The best was 25.7s. Ofcourse when I was called in to pit I lost concentration and made lots of mistakes. I got 31 laps.
Q4.
Pretty similar to Q3 but I was trying to go a little faster and ofcourse it didn't pay off. Didn't get a good rhythm and eneded up with 30 laps.
The TQ had 37 or 38 laps in the Joe class. TQ in Pro had 39. The top guys were really good and it was fun to watch. They did consistent 23 and 24s laps with no or very few mistakes.
31 laps took me to E-main. The car handled well but had a slight oversteer while breaking heavily so I set the brakes so they engaged just a hair with the radio in neutral. Turned out to be very good. I just had to let go of the throttle going in to the fast turns and the car would slow down just enough to make the turn nicely and then on the throttle again going out.
I ran the 'stock' setup with 40wt front and 35wt rear. A used a new set of Crime Fighter M2 which I used the whole weekend. Having a weaker engine and not being super aggressive really saved the tires. The super fast guys ripped up a set in 15 mins and had a new set for each heat. [X(]
Day 2 started just as early as Saturday.
A-mains were 1 hour and the lower mains were 30 mins each. 2 drivers could bump in each main. 1'st bump got paid $80 and second $20 so there were some money to earn if you could bump all the way to A-main but also A LOT of driving.
They started with Joe F-main and then E-main so I was up at around 10.00AM.
E-main.
Got a good start and was up in 3'rd or 4'th spot for a while. Trying to start out slow (not super slow) and get in the zone. Managed to get a nice flow and got the jumps timed perfectly and ran pretty good. The 2 guys who bumped from F were obviously very fast and I think they were one of the regular 'fast' guys who have had bad luck in qualifying. I had no chance of keeping up with them.
My driving was so so and as usual right before the pit stop my laps were horrible. The car stalled in stop one and we lost one lap while getting it started again. The rest of the stops were almost perfect. I guess 5-6s at most.
The first 5 to 10 mins are the worst. I had the same feeling as I had while racing boats. It takes some time to get calmed down and be fast.
The rest of the heat was fairly smooth but to many small mistakes made my lap times go down towards 29s with a few good laps in the low to mid 26s range.
I finished 4'th in the heat with 60 laps. The winner had 69 and the second 66 if I remember correctly.
I am pretty happy with the weekend since I ran better and better through out the weekend. I can say that engine power was not the limiting factor, it was my driving. The RG is capable of doing high 25s laps around the track no problem. If I can get down to doing consistent 26s laps I could have done 68 or 69 laps and possible bumped up.
The track is not difficult to drive on but it REQUIRES that you take the correct line and time the jumps. One mistake in the dual dubble jump or other parts of the technical section just ruins the the lap completely.
My rookie pit crew did an excellent job [sm=thumbup.gif] and w ran a conservative 5min schedule just as Kevin suggested. 6mins or even 6 1/2 min would have been possible. The Pro drivers had it down perfect making only 1 stop in the qualifiers and doing around 8mins on one tank in the mains.
There are going to be more races up there this year with a more normal $10 - $15 entry fee. I for sure are going again and I really think You should go at leat once as it is a great track and a very well organized race. The track is awesome.
Check out the results at [link=http://www.tiltyard.com/]Tiltyard.com[/link].
See you soon.