Can you help me do solid and productive practice?

I've about 20 minutes actual track time with my SCT and I'm absolutely lousy at it. You, the experienced racer, have fundamental techniques that I'd like to learn!

I intend to go through 4 or 5 batteries during a practice session, mostly after I put the kids to sleep so I can escape to the indoor clay track, and I'll practice a single technique the entire night. The problem is, where do I start? I bet there are fundamentals that should be followed in order of progression. If you were to go back to square-one, what would you start with?

If I were single and young again, I'd be at the track from morning til night, but I'm old and grumpy and need to make each minute count. Any help?

I would start with a basic setup. Something very neutral and easy to drive. From there work on not "over driving" the car and work in driving clean lines. Don't take unnecessary risks. Good driving comes through good consistent practice.

Slow down and concentrating with getting around the track without crashing. Then go a little faster. Concentrating on race line is a big priority. It is something that is hard to learn by yourself. I would suggest trying to get to the track when there are some fast guys practicing and watch what they do. Where do they turn? Brake? Full throttle? Listen closely to their cars, usually you can hear when they are braking and going wide open throttle. If you have a transponder and are tracking your lap times, use it sparingly during practice. A lot of times I will remove my transponder and concentrate on getting around the track rather than being fast. Don't be afraid to ask for help. If you see a guy that is super fast and has 2 or 3 cars dont be afraid to ask him for some driving or set up tips. Your lousiness could be that there is something wrong with your cars set up. Again, look for some tips from others.

In regards to the transponder, yes, I have one and I disconnected it. I did feel a little bit embarrassed hearing everyone's lap times:

"24.2"
"25.8"
"25.9"

And then here I come

"36.9"
"38.1"
"32.4"

Do you think I should set my TH EPA low enough so I can 100% throttle it while retaining control? I don't intend to use 100% the entire way, I'd like to be able to gun it on certain sections. I was thinking of doing that and slowly raising it as I get better. I won't be able to clear any jumps but it's a start?

Also, these fast guys, do you think it reasonable that I ask them to drive my car for a few laps and get some feedback?

Most "fast guys" are flattered to be asked to try out a Novice's car - it will help you get a baseline lap time of what it can do and most can spot anything that might be obviously wrong very quickly. I've driven many a newbies' car and often found that many of their issues with control come from radio settings that are incorrect and that's something easily fixed.

As for the throttle setting, exactly what is your trucks' setup? If you're running 17.5, I wouldn't do it, if you're running anything faster, it's a very good idea to do it as it will let you work on getting in/out of the corners first and work on the jumps later.

Finally, take a look at VRC for at-home practice time. It's not a substitute for going to the track but just the free version and the radio adapter can be very helpful.

Depending your radio, you could turn down EPA for the throttle thus preventing you going to fast. Do not break and turn at the same time, try to line up the car before you jump and you don't have to clear a double jump. I think the most difficult thing is to use your throttle finger effective, try to be smooth but active. Try for example to break a little earlier than you usely do before a turn and then either coast trough the corner or hold a little positive throttle. Instead of going in/out of a turn crazy, practice on getting smooth turns at a optimal speed. After a while you can start to break later and accelerate sooner.

Here's where it gets interesting. I've prior RC experience but that was 25+ years ago. I wanted to get back into it so I searched Craigslist and found a guy selling his entire race setup. I've got all the tools, batteries, charging gear, etc... The car is a Losi SCTE 2.0 with an HW SCT PRO coupled to a 47kv with MT4 radio.

GROSSLY OVERPOWERED for my skill.

It's optimized to his race spec on indoor clay and he said it would feel right at home at my local indoor clay track.

I will check out VRC but I'm in a Mac household. I suppose I could run a Windows partition for the game.

Great tips so far, all.

I personally do not believe in using EPA or expo for beginners. You have all the expo and EPA you need right in the tip of your finger. Are you gonna be able to change you EPA or expo in the middle of a race if you decide it needs changing? If you learn throttle control without the use of bandaids now, I feel it will benefit you more in the long run, especially when track conditions change during the course of a race night. Later if you feel the need you can then use expo to adjust the car as needed. I myself still consider myself a rookie. I have only started racing in august, but in that short time I have been anle to get a LOT of practice, almost every day for a month before the first race and that first race I got TQ, have made the A-main every race day and have even gotten a few podiums.

Let us help you out as much as we can by telling us your car, electronics and even set up. Also what do you feel the car is doing or what it needs and maybe we can even help steer you in the right direction for a set up.

FWIW, I raced an SCTE for a couple years, mostly indoors, and even at the front of the pack, I ran my throttle epa between 80-95% depending on the layout. It's the nature of that class and your motor is even more powerful than the old 2-pole one I had. I would never use expo for anything but with the way those trucks transfer weight, sometimes buzz the front tires by "diffing out" and generally just accelerate in an akward, non-linear manner until they're suddenly doing 45mph and you're only 10 feet from the wall at the end of the straight, just "turning it down" via epa is something I would recommend.

I got back into the hobby after 20 year layoff myself. Just keep running laps. Even if you need to take less aggressive lines, keep running laps. Great advice on having someone look it over but forget about setup otherwise. If your track runs it, get yourself a stock motor. I still can't handle mod My lap times from stock are faster than mod.

I run parallels on an iMac.

Our track just put in a new layout. My fast was 13.1 in a stock SC. Had a local fast guy try it and he pulled a 12.0. While it does suck to see how much slower I was, I picked up a few tips and lines from it. It's going to make me faster. That's what it's all about.

Good advice but there won't be a "stock" 4wd SC class anywhere - those motors just won't move that much truck.

Oh right. I read SCTE2.0 as 22SCT2.0 We call 4x4SC Mod Rookie up here.

I see what you are saying but I disagree with this. Yes, these can be seen as a crutch. Look at pro's setup sheets. They use steering expo. Walk before you run. Great that you learned without it but it's a steep curve that way.

I see what you are saying as well but, pros set ups are just that. PROs set ups, something that we are not. I tried using pros set ups for my cars in the beginning. They didnt work for me, granted some may feel otherwise. I have been playing with RC cars for over 20 years, my old Futaba Magnum radio didnt have any of that stuff. I found so much more speed in just trying different things and experimenting. Asking questions like "what can I do to increase rear traction?" instead of "What should my set up be?"

Those things can definitely be helpful, but I have seen so many new races get caught up in "pros set-up" and radio adjustments that they are not making any real improvements till I tell them to adjust their driving instead of their radios. I would rather learn core driving control than to cover up bad driving with electronic devices.

At least the OP here gets to read both sides of the fence and make a decision for himself.