Bringing you up to date with the
progress of my racing sees me attend the two Nationals at Eden Park
Raceway and Oswestry. My first two Nationals had seen me take eighth and
19th so I was looking for strong results at my home track and the
all-grass venue in Shropshire.
With Eden Park Raceway being my home
track and one that I am deeply involved in, there is all sorts of
pressure on myself to do well and that a lot of expectation I put on
myself. In 2009, I made the A final with the new CAT SX so after another
season of racing, I was keen to repeat the success at EPR. In truth, the
CAT SX set-up hasn’t changed that much although I still play around
with camber link positions, rear shock oils and sometimes the weight.
Normally, I can tune the handling by trimming the tyres as the base
set-up for me works on most surfaces.
The day started well in 4WD as my first
qualifier saw me fourth in the round, really getting into a groove
towards the end of the run, pipping Danny McGee to the place by just
four tenths of a second over the last couple of laps and four seconds
off the round winner Simon Moss, also with a Schumacher car. My place
was almost cemented in round two when I qualifier seventh in the round
giving me 11 points in total but I don’t like to think that this is an
assured A final score as I have attended nationals when ten points has
been pole in the B final but personally, I have also made the A final in
the past with 21 points. Anyway, I wanted to improve my score but threw
this away in the third run by only being 15th fastest. Into the last run
and things were going to be close. Fortunately, I had my best run of the
day to take fifth in round some five seconds off the pole time but very
happy with a drive, especially when I had put myself under some pressure
to improve. The CAT SX had been great all day with the only changes
being to fit new tyres after two runs and recharge the LiPo. Whereas in
the 2WD I make two runs on a pack, I haven’t tried this in 4WD yet so
it gets replaced with a freshly charged pack each time I go out on to
the track. I was still using the CAT SX shocks, which are referred to as
the small bore ones even though the big bores were available and fitted
to the cars of Tom Cockerill and Simon Moss. Grant Williams and I worked
hard on the suspension settings to get them right and we have always
gone well with the older shock design. The only negative is that they
are higher maintenance and seem to require oil changes more than others.
Due to the grip and conditions, we decided to increase the rear oil to
32.5wt to support the rear end better as in previous meetings, we have
felt that 35wt can be too stiff on a bumpy track.
Into the A finals and the first two went
well with a sixth and an eighth but I broke in leg three meaning that I
would be unable to improve on my score. It was an accident as Tom
Yardy’s Yokomo had hopped sideways exiting the bomb-hole, gripped up
and stopped. I was committed to the line and with nowhere to go, hit
Tom’s rear wheel with my car and snapped the front shock shaft. It was
not Tom’s fault although he did apologise, but this meant I would drop
a couple of spots on qualifying and finish ninth.
It was off to Oswestry next and a place
where last year I lost all confidence in the car. I now look back to
that meeting and feel I know what went wrong as the car usually is
impeccable. After round four of the Nationals in 2009, I followed the
lead of Grant Williams by running some lead plate under the chassis.
This has the effect of reducing the speed at which the car changes
direction, as well as making it more planted on the track. No doubt that
this makes the car ultimately slower but it tends to suit my driving
style better, especially as I get older! Since then, very rarely have I
taken this off as the tracks have been high grip but back in May 2009,
the car was a handful and Team Manager Phil Booth was keen to increase
the stability of my car. But my confidence had been shattered and I
struggled, only making the C final with a car that the meeting before
had qualified in the top six of the Talywain National. So this year I
wasn’t going to make the same mistakes and I headed up the motorways
with optimism.
With plenty of commitments to work and
the family, I am afraid I don’t get to many of the regionals in my
area that have grass tracks so its usually the Oswestry round of the
series that I get my annual run out on the green stuff. I have to say
that I have no dislike to the surface, but just sometimes, I don’t gel
with it that well. Although 2010 was notably better then 2009, I never
had the raw pace and was consistently in the low teens come qualifying.
Ending up in 16th place after qualifying, I decided it was an
opportunity to try the big bore shocks and they were hastily put
together with help from Trish Neal and parts supplied by Trishbits, as
well as Schumacher drivers Tom and Simon. By the time we headed out for
the B final, the track had taken a real beating and was pretty much free
of grass in the corners. We had guessed on shock pistons and oils and
although the car felt OK, the rear diff had gotten a little notchy and
was starting to tighten up meaning oversteer on the way out of the
corners. I dropped to eighth in the final and didn’t set any amazing
laps so I knew very quickly that I would revert to a known set-up for
the fifth round of the series at Southport in July.
Thanks to Jimmy at oople.com for the
photos.
Thanks to everyone who assists me with my
racing including:
* CML Distribution
* Horizon Hobby UK
* JConcepts
* LRP
* Much More UK
* RudeBits
* Schumacher
* Speed Passion
* Trishbits
* Upgrade
