2014 Spektrum Offroad Shootout
Brookfield,Wisconsin @ Trackside Hobbies & Raceway

This year we returned back to Wisconsin as the Annual Spektrum Offroad Shootout was to take place at Trackside Hobbies. We arrived with no disappointment as the track was prepared with a painted infield, nicely shaped jumps, a variety of corners and obstacles. From the time you walked in the building and took a look around, they not only worked on the track, but did a remarkable job re-painting the building. It had that “Big Race” feel and many racers were extremely excited to get started racing. We arrived mid day Wednesday, as many others came in the evening before. This was not a big deal as the track did not really open till 11 am on the practice days on Wednesday and Thursday anyway. After doing this race already one time, we had a little bit of knowledge as to what tires would be working. Clay compound tires seem to be the best for the Trackside surface. This year had a strong field of talented drivers, that including, Ryan Cavalieri, Cody Numandahl, Jp Richards, Chad Due, Brent Thielke, Dustin Evans, Dakota Phend, and to be honest, many more very talented and up and coming drivers. Making the “A” final would not be an easy task.

As practice was under way when we arrived, we had to get set up, charge some packs and prepare some tires to be broken in. This track like many indoor tracks, tires are crucial, properly broken in is the only way to go. You simply can not put a new set of tires on your car and hit the track, if you do, plan on being loose and having an ill handling car. You basically have to mount your tires, and lightly sand them, massage them a little and then add your tire additive of choice. The tire additive used by locals and professionals alike was Liquid Wrench. It varied which particular type from racer to racer, that was deemed the best. As long as you had any can of Liquid wrench you probably were going to be fine.

As day 1 of practice progressed, my cars were very competitive in speed to all the other professional drivers. On day one, there were so many people breaking in tires, that nobody really stood out as to who was consistently fast. From run to run you would be fast or slow depending on how broken in your tires were. I felt that my car was handling quite well on day 1, and really had nothing to complain about. I focused primarily on learning the layout, instead of trying to tune my car. This was only the 2nd big race of the year for me, so, my driving needs more improvement than my car. Near the end of the day, I really felt like I was getting the hang of the track, I had a couple sets of tires broken in, and my lap times were in the mid 15 seconds. This at that time was pretty competitive. In the end, Day 1 was a success for my race program.

On the Second day of practice, the track started to take more shape, as the driving line was becoming more and more grooved and many people had multiple sets of tires broken in. The lap times were now in the low to mid 15’s. I was able to run some 15.2’s and I felt pretty good about that. At that time, the best lap time I had seen was a 15.1. We had a few guys there, which were really going well on our team. Will Cushing and Joe Sorwell were stand outs. Will was struggling a little more than Joe, as he was fighting his car. Paul Ciccarello stepped in and took his car to the mechanic shop. We put a variation of what Joe was running, as he was running really well at that time, and some of the things we found to be working well from our cars. After we doctored Will’s car back to health, he was running also in the 15’s. From an on lookers stand point, I felt Joe’s car looked the best on our team, but we had many other drivers there that were doing well. At this race, we had a 6 man team members, Joe Sorwell, Will Cushing, Paul Ciccarello, Billy Easton(myself), Aaron Alexander, Cory Pedolski. All drivers were seemingly very happy with the performance of their cars, this was always a positive thing as the moral was pretty good. The team continued to work together to evolve our setup and improve lap times. The main struggles on day 2, was the need for forward traction and stability at the end of the main straight away. So, most drivers were looking for a solution to improve those areas for our car. On this day, we noted, that the shocks in the #3 position on the front and rear towers showed an improvement in cornering and some drivers noted that removing the brass ballast weight also improved cornering. Aside from those changes, we were split on a shorty versus a saddle and most all like orange front springs and pink rear springs. I really did not change a whole lot on my car, as I was very hesitant from venturing off of my own reservation. I felt my car was competitive and until I could see how fast the other drivers were going, I was not ready to make any radical changes As the second day was concluded, we as a team felt that our setups were good enough to have a shot at getting a couple of cars into the “A “final.

Day 1 of qualifying was underway and now the real challenges would be exposed in our race program as a team.

Round 1 of qualifying. I was actually quite lucky to be sorted into the same qualifier as Ryan Cavalieri, which would help give me an idea as to what sort of pace I should be running. In the first round, it was obvious you needed to go 20 laps. My best run in the first round was 19: 5:01. Unfortunately I missed the 20 laps, but actually ran a clean qualifier. My lap speed was a little slower at 15.5 this round for some reason, as I could not run any low 15 second lap times. If I were going to go 20 laps you needed to find a little more speed. The best lap in round 1 was a 15.2 second lap time.

Round 2 of qualifying. In this round I did not change anything, other than switch to another set of tires, in hopes they would have a little bit more steering. I went to a softer front insert hoping that would help. It did help a little as I bettered my best lap to a 15.4. I didn’t manage to improve my time, though as I had a 19 second lap, that ultimately costed me the elusive 20 lap mark. The softer insert may or may not have improved my speed, as 0.1 is marginal anyway. I needed to step up my driving if I was going to make it into the 20 lap mark, or find some additional speed in the car. On day 1, I did not really change the car as I felt it was safe to drive, and just needed more speed. Preferable, more steering and more forward traction would have been nice. HAHA, what driver doesn’t want just more traction.

After day 1 was over, Ryan Cavalieri was the class of the field as he tqéd both rounds 1 and 2 and managed 2 à 20 lap runs. Great job Ryan.

After a late night thrash session on the cars and less than ideal sleep, we arrived back at the track for Day 2 of qualifying. Today, I had made a few changes, to see if I could improve the car, so, lets see what happened.

Round 3 of qualifying. This round would see me re-sorted into the “B” group of guys. This wasn’t actually a bad, thing as I was the lead car of this group. As my qualifier went off, I had a good feeling about my car. I started off a bit slow with a high 16 second lap time, which would basically haunt me. My car felt good, but still lacked some steering in the rear tight turns and I felt like the rear end (changed the night before) was not any more stable than the previous setting. I would again find myself, with another 15.5 best lap, a clean run and only a 19 5:00.300. C’mon seriously no 20 lap run again. The best lap of this round would be held by Cavalieri… again, at 15.148. Most other pros were around 15.3.. I needed to find a couple tenths to make some serious strides.

Round 4 of qualifying. This round with a couple small changes, battery more forward and a shock oil adjustment would actually be a step in the right direction. It didn’t help that the track also was a little bit drier. These two changes helped get me more steering and improved my lap times to 15.3. While I made a 0.2 stride forward, other pros made smaller gains, as the bulk of them went 15.1..I still did not manage a better time.. With an 18 second lap one, due to bad driving on my own behalf and 3 16’s I would ultimately not see 20 laps yet again. My time that round was a 19 5:01..

After qualifying was concluded, when I improved my car, my driving was not quite there. I needed in my opinion to drive better, and also continue to look for more speed in my car , if I planned on moving up in the mains. I did though managed a pair of 7th places to net me a starting position of 9th on the grid.

That night still hungry for more speed, we went back to work on the car. With a fresh diff for main day and a couple new things planned to try, I was still looking for more out of my spyder.

Main Event #1. In the first main, I left the car mostly the same, with the exception of the new diff. I was figuring with my setup being stable, I was going to see how the racing actually panned out when going head to head. After a quick couple moves in the early laps, I found myself running middle of the pack which was an improvement over my 9th place starting grid position. With a best lap of 15.3, same as where I left off the day before, I couldn’t really complain. I finished 6th this main and was overall happy with that. I felt, I could have used more forward grip, in that main, which would set up my change for Main #2.

Main Event #2. In this final, I moved the rear hubs forward as it helped improve the rear grip of the car. It simply gave you more traction off the turn, so I was able to pull back the throttle harder on corner exit. It would help improve my speed, as I went 15.2 and edge me closer to the lead pack. The unfortunate story is a bad starting position, which only led to another 6th place finish…The good part though, was the car was better, and more competitive. As the best lap turned in A2 was a 15.0.

Main Event #3.. In this final, I would make one change that in my opinion really improved the car. Granted, I should have done it sooner, as the rest of my team was already doing it. I moved the shocks from #2 to #3, which really enhanced the cars steering response. In this final, not only was I faster, as this time around I managed a 15.1, to the best 15.0. I actually think I could have done a 15.0 as well as the car handled, but do to always being behind other cars, I never had a clear track. In this main though, I easily could have had a 5th, instead of my 7th, had I not accidentally hit Chad’s car after the triple. I surrendered the position as I should have, but actually lost another in the process to Dakota. My car in this final was the best it had been all weekend, and really felt good about it moving forward.

In the end, the race was ran exceptionally well. The Trackside crew did a great job, Scotty on the mic was exciting as usual. The competition was high, and as a team we did our best to work together and improve our car. Racing as always is tough, and being the fastest guys is no joking matter. It takes more than a great driver to be great, it takes a great team and package of Car, tires, motor and battery to get it done. In 2wd, Ryan Drove a great race and deserved to win. On the flip side of that, we improved our car, a little late, but better late than never. You learn so much when you go to these events, the more you go to, the better off you are. I wished I would have started where I ended, as my qualifying results would have been greatly different, but we will take this info to the next one and build upon that. I want to say thanks to all my sponsors, Serpent, LRP, Reedy, Proline, Airtonics, Arrowmax, Protek R/c, A-main hobbies, PT Racing oils, and Hitec for the servos. Next race up CRCRC Midwest Championships, and a return to the Reedy Race of Champions, after a 10 year hiatus.