izzyracer

iTrader: (27)

Novak took the win!

utieh

iTrader: (3)

more details ?

Charlie

Hi Everybody,

Race was a blast, there were 13 entries total I think. 10 in the 4 hour, 3 in the .5 hour "b". There were 3 different Brushless motors in the 4 hour. Orion, Hacker, and Novak had a few teams running the new "Super Sport" Brushless Motor system that is soon to be released. (Probably within the next couple weeks)

The rule was 4 driver minimum with a "driving order" that needed to be followed. No driver could run more than 3 packs in a row and the teams had to run the same driver order the whole race. Most teams would let their "Hot Shoe" drive 3 packs while the slower drivers ran one pack.

There were 2 qualifying rounds, of wich they used each teams "fastest lap" to seat the cars in the main. I don't remember the exact order but I think, it was the Hacker Team on pole, then the Peak (or Orion) team, then the Novak Team "1", Orion (or Peak), and I don't remember the rest.

Race started with some problems for a few teams, the Peak team was stricken by sudden radio interference problems that they eventually got worked out. But the early race problems put them pretty far back in the begininng. Dave Jun's Team and the Hacker Team checked out from the pack early on and at one point, both put the field a lap down. Problems for both allowed the field to close up, Novak and Orion were within or on the same lap for several pitstop sequences early in the race. DJ's car lost a screw in the steering linkage ultimately putting them about 10 laps down, another problem a few packs later put them around 15 laps off the leaders. The Hacker team also suffered some mechanical problems, what they were I do not know, but they dropped off the leader board not too long after. Slowly the field had more and more problems allowing the Novak team to stretch their lead. The race wound down with DJ's team making a strong comeback to second making 5 laps on the leader to finish second 10 laps off. DJ's team was also running a Novak "Super Sport" Brushless Motor System. DJ's car was a little better all day, they ran a 414MII with some of Dave's hottest tricks and secrets, we ran a pretty stock TAO4R(Battery holder mods).

All in all it was a good time. The racing was "fairly" clean all day, the Tamiya Staff did a great job putting on a great event. Fred mentioned possibly running another in 6 months, but I'm hoping it will be a lot sooner.

I don't have any good runtime info for the other teams but, our team would run about 9-10 minutes per pack and would run competitive laptimes the whole run. We only ran one set of tires (w/ on right front replacment), but most other teams changed at least on set.


Exuse the spelling, I don't have anything with a spell checker on this computer and it's late......

futureal

Thanks for the info. Sounds awesome!

You guys are making me wish I was back in California already.

SpeedTech

iTrader: (5)

Hi Guys,

This was my first enduro race, and I have to say it was the most intense four hours of my life Every team member was always working on something (turnmarshalling, battery changes, battery charging, driving...etc.)

We (Speed Tech R/C Team) were also running a Novak Brushless system (Thank you Team Novak!) and it was flawless for the entire 4 hour race, not a single problem! We were getting on average of 8-9.5 minutes of run time depending on the batteries we were using. Our team got up to as high as third spot around 1.5 hours into the race, and then we were struck with our first mechnical failure (a broken front univeral) which we were able to change in less than 5 minutes, but that puts us back down to 7-8th spot. We were working our way back up until our tires let go on us (belts and inserts were showing through) and had to pull in for a tire change. We did manage to bring the car home in 6th spot at the end.

David Jun of Tamiya and Tyree (Team Novak 1) probably had the most consistent cars in my opinion from beginning to the end. I think they were still doing low 15s/high 14s lap times at the end, while most were conserving the car and trying to just trying to finish the race.

I think the highlight of the day was when a car (can't remember which team it was, but it was a red Modena) for some reason got stuck at full throttle, hit the center section of the track and launch over more than half width of the track (serious air time) and hit the driverstand head on. The shock of the impact was felt by everyone on the driverstand (you know that was a hard hit!)

I would like to thank the Tamiya staff (especially Fred) for putting on a great show, Team Novak for loaning us the amazing Brushless System, and my teammates: Carl Feltro (for putting up with me yelling at him when it wasn't his fault...hahaha, sorry Carl ), John Christensen (for the hook up on the brushless and loaning us his car to abuse for 4 hours), Paul Dabao and Joey Orlanes (the fast guys on our team that qualified us into the A-main) Great team work guys!

We'll be ready for the next Enduro!

Steve Wang
Speed Tech R/C
www.speedtechrc.com

BendingCorners

Steve sounds like you guys had a lot of fun and a great team, any pictures?

SpeedTech

iTrader: (5)

bendingcorners,

We took a lot of pictures, I'll have them posted on Speed Tech R/C website soon.

Steve Wang
Speed Tech R/C
www.speedtechrc.com

izzyracer

iTrader: (27)

Hi everyone, our team TAOB one of the team who are non sponsored ended up in B main and took second place, Tamiya team won! Congrats. Although our results were a little disappointing the overall feel was great. It was an awesome, fun experience for everyone. This Enduro race has really grown from where it started before. It use to be just the locals having fun, now it has become a sponsored driven event. Tamiya's races has always been for the regular joes but now it seemed like we have been set aside. I have no problem having sponsored teams in the Enduro, I think it is healthy for the business, but maybe we can make it a little bit fair. My wish for next enduro is to maybe separate the sponsored drivers from the rest. Maybe a two day event. Or if Novak is to provide motors to other well known teams, maybe you should to everyone else to amke it a little fair. Don't forget the Joe's who makes this industry successful. Congrats on all the winners.
To my teammates excellent show and effort.
I bow my head to you guys.

--Rod, will get them next time!

Izzy

izzyracer

iTrader: (27)

From TTLocals website by Cliff
The unofficial Tamiya Site

Let me first start off by saying thank you. Thank You to Fred for putting on a great race, Thank to Team Orion/Peaks Rick Hohwart for lending a team of Amateurs batteries and supplying us with motors. And last but definitely not least Thank You to my team “Stone Houses” for sticking together as a true team through an ill handling car, minor judgment errors on set-ups, minor mechanical hitches and a sketchy qualifying run. Because of everyone’s willingness to work together and superb drives by everyone on the team we succeeded where others failed. We finished 5th out of an impressive group of teams many of which had Pro drivers with National titles under there belts and full factory backing. The Top five finished as such:

Team Novak 1-several weeks of testing tuning and retesting under there belts did there homework and came though victorious though there are others who feel that had they not had bad luck would have been able to finish ahead of them they didn’t and Novak was rewarded the top of the podium.

Team Luck of the Irish 2nd-.This team was one of favorites as it was basically Tamiya’s Factory entry with 2 TRF Drivers Dave Jun and Taka (who by the way helps design the cars) and Dave Berger and John Houda who are both very capable drivers. Jun was as always very impressive at his home track knocking off the lap times showing the speed like very few people can with a support cast of excellent drivers I was susprised they did not come away with the victory.

Team Orion 3rd- How well would there brushless work? The answer is awesome, many people where very curious as to the abilities of Orion brushless system as it hasn’t been as widely publicized as some of the other systems. Orion’s system looks very simple compared to other systems having minimum wires and compact size, many people where very impressed with it’s speed and durability and in the hands of the Orion Team was a front runner through out the day, even over coming a reported axle failure (ouch)

Peak Performance 4th- Starting the event as a definite favorite for the all out victory posting some of the fastest times early on in the event luck bit them harder than most and with a couple of set backs one of which was an electronic failure which was ironic since they where the highest placing traditional brushed motor team. With Rick Hohwart and Derek Furtani as the hot shoes they remain a force to be reckoned with at any event they attend.

Team Stone Houses- 5th, which consisted of Dave Beale, Brian Matteson, Tom Hibbler and yours truly. Many teams thought that they would leave us in the dust and push us aside by there wake as we where one of and possibly the only team in the A-main without a pro driver we proved you cannot discredit the TTL and we clawed back and held tight to finished in the top five a spot which we earned and will now try and improve on the next time

Yes there will be a next time as Fred announced he will try and host another enduro in about 6 months as every event is held the numbers keep growing in fact there talk of making it a 2 day event with amateurs running on Sat. and Pros running on Sunday. If you enjoyed the event let Fred know he would definitely like to hear your take on it as the Tamiya Enduros are constantly evolving to find the best and most competitive format for all to enjoy.
I will post some pictures of the event later this week and hope to see you all at the next race coming later the year.



-Cliff

Charlie

Jun's team was the team to beat until the problems they had. The Orion Team was very strong until they lost a rear universal. Had it not been for the problems with their cars the race would have been much closer for sure.

rtypec

iTrader: (2)

I've got one thing to say about our experience at the Tamiya Enduro:

-from Animal House

"Thank you sir, may I have another..."

Team The Last and the Furious...hehehe

eeyan

iTrader: (3)

Is it just me or did anybody else thought that the ENDURO looked more like a practice session for a bunch of Factory Drivers + Pro Drivers (probably for the Reedy Race?)... hehehe... I miss those days when local teams actually got something out of it aside from the fun experience... I remember in 2000; my team got 7th overall, and we still got complementary Tamiya towels... how about in 2001, when a private team got 3rd place and everyone in the team received Tamiya kits... hmmm... probably a two-day event separating pros and intermediate is a good idea... c'mon Fred, give us a chance... =)

OSherman

iTrader: (3)

I wasn't there for the qualifiers, didn't make it there till 1 hour into the A-main. Was at SoCal beforehand and someone mentioned that HACKER was TQ..They din't look so good in the main...Did they have problems in the beginning?..Were they really TQ?..

izzyracer

iTrader: (27)

Osherman,

I think they did put up the fastest one lap than anyone else 14.2 I think. I say it was more of luck, since the fast once were putiing up 14's and 15''s per lap. Novak did well overall.

underdog

OSherman,
Hacker was TQ, no luck about it. They put up several very fast laps in the 14s. That is pretty amazing since this was their first day ever at the Tamiya track. I believe the motor they used for qualifying was the fastest brushless at the race. They did have a few problems in the race. I believe they had a servo arm break. Later they had a servo fail, and when they went to replace it, the screws holding the servo in stripped. They had to cut a slot with a dremel to get the screws out. Too bad they had problems, in the first minutes of the race, Ben (from Hacker) and Dave Jun had pulled out about a third of a lap lead on the rest of the field