Alex and I had the last minute idea to join the Hudy Arena XRS Grand Finale two weeks ago.
After Apeldoorn, it was a very different experience.
For pretty much the first time ever since I joined XRAY I encountered understeer, especially on used tires in the heat.
So I was like ... ok this is old school rubber.
It was amazing. Also 13,5 Efra is just a good speed.
I did run the Nosram N22 13.5T for Thursday and half way through Friday. Better topspeed, but slightly less grunt in the mid range, which is why I ended up using a HW G4R 13.5T at 47° timing. I opted to stick with the 7400 battery for balance reasons and that seems to have been a good choice.
Having last been here in 2019 I was definitely lacking track time, but I found the groove soon enough. Even managed to lead one Qualifier, until I did the turn onto the straight too tight and spun....
Anyway. The task here was to make new tires driveable, and make used tires work.
Load balance was key, as it was quite hot and this rubber could overheat and then just slide off the racing line.
So the car had to be soft and smooth really.
Softer Oil and new orings helped a lot for initial traction.
Softer rear springs to make the car lean in more really did help.
Less rear camber was one of the best tricks to make it turn, but must be used cautiously in the heat as just enough steering can get slipper if overdone.
Less Toe-gain and overall less toe-in was very good here generally. I did one run on Matrix tires just to compare and the onpower snap oversteer was simply non existent there. So the track really lends itself to gain steering by feeing the rearend.
Leaning down the shocks really helped too.
But fundamentally it was great racing, a fabulous time and a wonderful event in general.
So happy to be part of this XRAY Tribe.