Merry CHRISTmas everyone!
Mike509- Along with Silver fronts have you tried using a thinner lube on the damper disks? What did it do for you?
Trackdesign71- Didn't see it as i left before the snow was due to hit but i AM glad that Dosey won! It sounds like it was a great show.
RollingFGT- You've hit upon one of the most important points in running modified. It's much harder to not only turn faster laps but actually make run time to. First off you need to cycle your packs to see what they are for run time and voltage. Often racers forget that with NiMH cells they start to deteriorate after 10-30 charges. Since many racers don't keep up with how many cycles (charge/discharge) they have on a pack they often exceed these figures rather quickly. Also, modified racing of any form is harder on batteries typically than running stock so that the deterioration process starts sooner and is more severe. My bet is that your 3k packs if they were cycled at 20-30amps (whaterver the numbers are that they were matched at) would be lower than the lables. Normally when you put a pack together a rule of thumb is to subtract 10sec from the numbers on the cell for a 4cell pack and 15sec for a 6cell pack due to the extra resistance of them being a pack. Anything after this give or take 10sec is normally the pack deteriorating on the run time front. Voltage should be close so any significant loss here is also pack deterioration. If you find that the numbers of your pack are less than 490 at 20amps or 330 at 30amps discharge then i would say you need new packs first off to run 14-12turns and higher for lower turns than this. This is assuming 4cell racing where 14-12turns are considered rather mild. If you are running 6cell than these would be rather hot and you would probably need 540's at 20amps or 360's at 30amps. Now here comes the most important parts: Driver Efficiency, Car Efficiency.
Let me explain: Driver Efficiency- IF you stab the throttle instead of easing into it and out of it you will use considerably more battery juice thus needing better batteries. If you turn the wheel abruptly instead of smoothly then you will "load" the car up more and use more battery. If turn late into corners or run too deep into corners then you will "load" the car up more and use more battery to get out of the corner and thus dump. Also hitting stuff takes runtime out of your battery because it spikes the pack causing more amp draw and results in lower voltage to. I've been told that a crash can cost around 10sec or run time, i don't now for sure but i don't doubt it. If you have 4 bad crashes you could be losing major runtime and not finish.
Car Efficiency- In general a pushing car will be easier on batteries than one that steers well but you will be slower per lap. You save battery as much from not running as many laps (which is going a longer distance on the same fuel) as you do from having to slow down which keeps the car from loading up as much. In this case a better setup is needed. If your car's bearings are bad then you can lose runtime. A KEY setup point is the differential. If this is not smooth and free with the gear being locked so that it doesn't spin your car won't be fast or efficient because it won't turn and accelerate well. It will waist a lot of your power and spike the battery as the gear finally "catches" and accelerates. Tweak also plays a big roll in car efficiency as a "tweaked" car will load up one side more and be "loose" on the other side causing more amp draw per lap than normal.
Finally, check and make sure that your gearing is good. Try to make sure that you are peaking out about 3/4 down the straight. Anything less and you are probably undergeared and this can cause you to dump and if you seem to still be accelerating after 3/4 of the straight than you are probably overgeared and this will cause you to dump also. Check the condidtion of the motor and brushes and if the motor has been run a lot maybe get the magnets re-zapped if you can. Hope this helps.