Jack Rimer

I'm hoping we can release them in a week or two on a limited basis. They are extremely difficult to produce, but we do have at least 200 sets ready.

WARDO

This was a great race untill the A main. Our ROAR vice president got involved with trying to straighting out a mess that could not be fixed and only made things worse.I think everyone agreed that Josh won, Chris was probably 2nd but from there back, the order is just wrong. They originaly gave 2nd to Paulo,but after a protest moved him back to 3rd. Neat trick. considering he flamed out coming out of the pits 3times, but because of the placement of the timming loop (at the exit of pit lane) he was not docked those three laps. After that he had to come in and change a battery pack, and still got 3rd. Man that guy is fast. The race was stopped due to rain,when they red flagged the you could not restart the race from that point. The Jlap system will not let you do that. So they restarted the race by flagging the racers off from the pits in the order they were in prior to the rain,Brandon McNally was in 4th, when the 1st part ended, 3rd when the 2nd part ended and their results say he finished 6th. I just hope they post both sets of results and let evrybody see how they came up with what they came up with. Has anybody else out there been to a race that got screwed up When Mike Queller(our ROAR vice president) was involved?

mikemyers

Addendum to what I posted up above....

What I wrote up above reflects only the "happenings" of Sunday afternoon. Maybe the problems and confusion makes things sound too negative, which isn't/wasn't the intent. I was just trying to write what was happening at the track, and because this was only a 6-hour segment of the whole event, it's nothing more than that... the full race report is going off to RC Car Action, not here, so I'm not going to write all the other things here that I'd like to say about the event.

I will add though that RCRCNT did a great job of running this race. The track might have "issues", but it's far superior to the type of track most of us get to run on. It's a permanant track, quite large, and with a layout that everyone liked. Tech inspection (Terry Prather) was done very well, and when there were disputes, Bob Ingersoll, the Race Director, got involved to make sure the decisions were good. The track is nicely laid out - I didn't see that many broken cars - and it was plenty wide so that the novice drivers could still get around well, but the better drivers could take the best line - the extra track width didn't hurt the good guys at all, but made it easier for the average and less-than-average racer. There was plenty of pit space, and even though it was really hot (at least by US standards), you could always find a place to cool off. There was plenty of parking space, and the food service - wow! All I can say here is that the food was absolutely delicious, and the prices were about half of what I would have expected.

The racing program ran smoothly - maybe this was helped by the relatively low number of entries, but whatever the reason, getting in three rounds of qualifying each day was no problem. Everyone seemed to cooperate, and the program ran smoothly. Timing and scoring (at least from outside the booth) ran smoothly, and results were posted promptly. Inside the booth I understand that there were some issues, but they were taken care of promptly, and didn't effect anything... Good people running the computers can make up for any deficiencies in the scoring system, and make sure the results that get posted and used are correct.

It's a fun track, run by good people, all of whom are r/c enthusiasts, most for several decades. Hindsight is always 20:20, and I'm sure that the "issues" that came up at this race will be taken care of so that future events will be even better.

As to the track itself, I know what a lot of people told me about the track; many people had trouble finding the right setup. That a good setup was possible was proven by how well some of the cars worked. As was the case in Brazil, a really tough track (or a track that takes a lot more work trying to conquer) isn't a bad thing... it certainly does bring out the best in racers. Those who can adapt, do well, and those who can't adapt struggle. For a club race, this isn't a good thing, but for a National or World Championship event, it certainly helps to prove who the "best" racer is, as opposed to who has the most horsepower. Mike Swauger dominated the event from the get-go, and he might well be the "best" on-road racer in the USA right now. Josh Cyrul and a few others were right up there too, and Josh (who qualified 7th) smoothed out his driving style, and was right up there with Mikey. Josh had some new tires which he obviously liked quite a bit, and had a larger battery pack to insure he wouldn't run out... an hour long event using some of the newer high-tech servos takes a lot out of a battery.

It was a good race. Congratulations to RCRCNT for putting on the event, to the winners (and TQ's) for showing how well cars could perform on this challenging track, and to all the racers who attended.

(I'm leaving now for home, and have about a thousand photos to process. The best ones will be published in the next issue of Nitro. Some of them, but not all, will be posted in a day or two on SGrid Online.)

mikemyers

Just one other quick comment - Jeffery Lin needs to be complimented for his performance at this event. He qualified into the A-Main in his OFNA, thanks in part to his extremely smooth driving style. A smooth driving style made up for some of the difficulty in finding a good setup for this track. In the rain-break between A-Main segments, while each group of drivers was discussing who "hacked" who, and so on, I heard several of the fastest drivers saying how well Jeffery was doing, that he drove a clean line, never interfered with anyone else, and so on. Watching him out on the track, it seemed like he studied the types of lines that Art Carbonell used when Art was at the top of the game. Nice going!!

gonzoY5

That really is ridiculous if they ran that a 1hour main with a regular AAA battery pack thinking it would last. If it happens once, you learn from it. 2 times is pretty weak planning. If they did run something bigger then it was just bad luck. But that sucks to be taken out 2 years in a row with a chance to win for something that silly.

fastrcracer

Jack:

What are the benefits of the 2 different layers vs. the standard tire ?

Jack Rimer

The inner layer is a very firm, lightweight foam that, when bonded to racing rubber, gives more side and front bite in addition to being lighter. They also seem to wear better than conventional foams too. On a higher bite track (than the nats track) we see a dramatic decrease in lap times. In fact, Josh tested the tires in Toledo and was about a second faster per lap compared to standard foams. We ran similar tires during the 1/12 indoor season and had tremendous success. We have applied for a US patent on these tires, so we feel they will be a significant advance in technology.

haywyre

I use round li-ion 2000 mha batteries with a chip that makes it impossible to over charge or over discharge. I use Novak notro switch to lower voltage. I have ran the pack for 2 hours and it only took 1000 mha to recharge it. There is no reason to be running out of volts. I run a Mugen mt3. Ko dig, servos Try something new,don't be afraid to experament. HAYWYRE

Jack Rimer

In all fairness to Mike, I heard he got water on the pack and that's why it failed. This is just what I have heard.

gonzoY5

What size are these cells?

fastrcracer

Jack:

Thanks for the information.

BigDogRacing

iTrader: (12)

I would like to take a second to congratulate everyone in the A main. I got to watch a good bit of qualifying and those guys were there because they deserved to be there- great driving and tuning!!

To answer your question, I was running the NTC3. There were three NTC3's there- Kyle Skidmore, Jacob Delano and myself. Skidmore manged to sneak into the B main where unfortunately he broke. But I must take a second to give props to Kyle. All three of us were chasing the setup all week and sharing our findings with each other. It was actually a great team effort and I think we honestly got about as much out of the car as we could. More on that later. Getting back to Kyle, his car really looked about as crappy as mine did, but that boy got on the pissed off line for two of the six qualifiers and literally sprint-car(ed) that loose-azz POS like a freakin wild man!!! My pitman (Dave) and I stood there watching with jaws dropped. Kyle ran a string of 19 second laps with a 21 second car! Imagine a gas truck on a super hard packed dry, sandy off road track- that's exactly what Kyle looked like out there. Given the conditions I don't think there's more than a hand full of r/c racers in the world that could have done what he did. Good job Kyle.

Moving on to the actual car. Unless I'm mistaken, AE sent NOBODY to the ROAR Sedan Nats. The only sponsored racers there were Kyle and Jacob, and I'm 99% sure they were there on their own dime. I believe Kyle is AE travel team and Jacob is 100% so other than parts they were both there unsupported. When we got there we started with our normal home setup which is copper/red, 50/40oil and no sway bars. We immediately went to the hardest tires we had in front and softest in rear (45/40). It didn't haelp much. Then we started going up on front spring- it got worse. Softened up the rear- still worse. Basically, at RCRCNT you can take everything you know about tuning the chassis of your nitro car and throw it in the trash, get out a fresh sheet of paper and start over. Normally I complain about a surface that eats tires because of abrasiveness, but in this case I would have been tickled to death to have to put tires on every other run in trade for just a little more traction. I'll put it like this- if AE sent ZERO team racers to the US ROAR SEdan Gas Nats, then there's a serious problem there.

Jack- sorry for venting on you, I didn't mean to take a cheap shot, and even though I intended to just go to the Nats to have fun I must admit it turned to frustration given the traction (or lack thereof) and the tuning problems we had all week. I didn't know you had tires ready to send. Anyway, thanks for clearing that up and good job- I was quite impressed with the traction they were getting on the wraps. Oh, here's a little advice for you and JACO on the new tires- put every single one you make in a box and write RCRCNT on it because until they do something with the surface of that track those guys down there need them WAAAAAY more than anybody else does!!!

wad

iTrader: (1)

Congratulations to Jeffrey Lin, he is the smoother driver than I've seen, and he is a really nice person also. He deserved to be in the top 10.

tpczx6

iTrader: (3)

bigdogracing
I went to the texas bigie and run a ntc3 and the car working fine just having a hard time to keep it together for 20min main i talked to Kyle a few times to give some tips on setup before he came down for the nats as for the ntc3 I came out on sunday and car was fast but would not stay together the car does not like to run on that big track with a locked front diff whitch you need to have for rcrcnt. as for no bite on track. the track had to mutch as the front end would bite to hard its casuse the rear end to step out if I could of found some 50shore fronts I would have used them. yes the track does have some paving isuses to work out and they are in the works just remember its a club that put this together not a hobby store or race co just 10 to 15 guys that love RC car racing.I went out and got a mtx on tuesday and TQ the master class with and ended 3rd in the main
As for Kyle that boy could drive a brick if had for round things and a motor on if not he would just get out his drimel and make him one. good job Kyle and THANKS to Kyle's dad for Piting me in the main it was a blast for me but we will get them next time




is that Jack from Jaco on the board about tires ?

Jack Rimer

Yes, it's Jack from JACO...unless you want to yell at me- then, no it's not me. lol.
Big Dog- I feel your pain! Our guys busted their butts all weekend chasing a setup. Like I said, I think everyone ran something different for front tires. We ran the 2-stage on the rear, but they had too much bite on the front. Some guys even ran rear rubber on the front which is almost unheard of with gas cars.