Ardent Pan Car Winter Series Round 1

Last Sunday saw the first round of the Ardent Pan Car Winter Series.Very good turn out for both F1s and GTs. Unfortunately the day got off to a bad start when I dismissed my alarm rather than snoozed it!! Woke up 1hour late!! Got to the track quite late which mean we had to pit along the side of the track which turned out to be great, sat and watched the racing while I was working on the car

Managed to get out for a few sighting laps just to check the car was ok and that the new bodyshell I was using didn't catch on anything. I got put in the second heat for qualifying, this meant a bit of traffic dodging but not too bad. 1st round of qualifying got under way and I got a fairly good time in but the car felt unstable and I wasn't able to get a rhythm going round the track. I did a slow 24 lap but the top guys were doing fast 25 laps. I was running magentas all round so swapped to magenta rear purple fronts for the next round. Car felt much better, quite a bit calmed but allowed me to do faster laps. Unfortunately didn't get a clean run but still managed to improve my time slightly. Top guys were hitting 26 lappers now but they were using 2s lipo 17.5t motors which has a major advantage round this track especially. 3rd Round of qualifying and I wanted to get a 25 lapper in to guarantee a spot in the A final. This run was fairly clean and I stayed out of trouble. This allowed me to get a solid 25 lapper in and left me 5th in the A final. 

Finals Time!

I really need to work on my starts as I almost got mobbed on the start by the quick reactions of Vince Formosa (not bad for an old bloke!) I almost managed to gain a place but the door was rather firmly shut and I ended up last. People ahead of me had a bit of a scrappy race but managed to fight my way back for a 5th place finish. 

Second final and I got a much better start, the first lap was amazing! Everyone drove a clean first race and the couldn't have been  more than a couple of millimetres between the cars going round corner. A couple of time it was 3 abreast! I managed to grab third place by the end of the first lap and the car felt great. Unfortunately about 6 laps later I hit one of the yellow kirbs at speed and it left me facing the other way in 7th place. I manged to fight back to 5th and was having a fantastic battle with Mark Simpson. Managed to get past him going onto the straight. I thought I was going to have some trouble keeping him behind me until he was took out by a back marker which ended his race (shame as it was a fantastic battle). I managed to cruise round to take 4th place. This allowed me to take 4th place overall or 1st of the 1s lipo cars :) 

Many thanks to John and team for a fantastic event and I can't wait for the next one. 

Here are few pics from the event, thanks to Vince Formosa for the taking them. There are fair few more over on www.rccircuitcars.com so head over and have a look. 

A Final Grid

Fantastic Shell by Tony Cooke:

Repairing Foam RC Tyres

Thought I best put up a small piece on how I repair my tyres. Had a couple of deep chunks in the middle of tyres and I am such a tight git I didn't want to throw them away. So out I found a old spare magenta front 1/12th tyre and broke out the truer!


Step one
Take one chunked tyre






Step Two
Cut out the chunk, I find it easier to cut out a square around the chunk. Makes it easier to chuck out a replacement bit of phone.



Step Three
Find a replacement tyre. Preferable the make and compound as the tyre you are repairing. I didn't have any RC4less donors so but I found this GRP Magenta, so close enough!



Step Four
Trim the donor part and glue into place. I use Evostick as it is flexible when it dries. Leave to dry for a couple of hours






Step Five
One it is has dried put it on the truer and take VERY small cuts until you get a smooth finish

Ardent Winter Series Round 7 (End of Series)

Back at the wonderful Ardent Raceway this weekend for the final round of the Summer Series. Now I have not had much luck at Ardent, general good qualifying then all going to pot in the finals. A lowish turn out saw the GTs split into two heats. Now judging by my previous results in this series I was not looking at a good final result for the series but was hoping for a good result on the day.

The track had been changed slightly since the last time I was here which has made it a bit slower. I placed my fastest time in the first round with a 26laps in 367 and this was good enough to take TQ. The car felt good running RC4Less tyres magenta all round. For the last round of qually I changed to purple fronts which settled the car a bit less. I also tried a front brace plate at the same time. Hard to tell what change the brace made but the tyres definately made the me drive the car more consistantly.

Finals time and I cocked up royally off the line, car speared left for some reason, hadn't took enough of the additive off I think. Ended up third in the first final. Second final got away to a good start but cocked up a few laps in and was down to second behind Vince, I was a VERY VERY close battle and was nipping at his heels lap after lap. There was a couple of debatable incidents which ended up with me winning and vince finishing Third. This meant I took the overall win. The knock on effect from this meant that I ended up third in the series overall which was a hell of a suprise! UPDATE - Apparantly the points were wrong and I ended up third instead of 3rd, bugger! Never mind!

Well that wraps up the summer series, A big thank you to John Dawson, Ian Plimmer, Simon Hagues and Geoff for running the series. Can't wait to get stuck in at the summer series. Also a congrats to Vince Formosa for coming second in both the GT and 1/12th series and good luck with the next couple of months! Heres a few pics from the day.

Summer Shootout Round 4

Well the Chesterfield Summer Shootout is now finished and another excellent event was held. Many thanks to Kev Creaser and Trev COult for running it. A different track was setup to the last few events, much more flowing. The car was handling great at Teeside so I decided not to make any changes. I was however trying a new type of tyre. RC4less do a great looking wheel with a various number of compounds. I set my second quickest run of the day on RC4less Magenta all round problem was I chunked the front set quite badly, once on my second quickest which I am not sure how it happened. The second I had a scrappy run which resulted in the other front chunking. Shame as they were going great. I had started them at 56mm instead of 55mm like normal. The rears were great though. I have also got a couple of sets of purple fronts so will be trying them out sometime. I ended up going back to CRC WGT control tyres for the last qualifier and the final, these have been consistant all year so couple rely on them for a safe couple of racers. Qualified on pole and got a good start to be able to lead from the front. Had a great day overall and look forward to ardent at the end of the month! No pictures unfortunately but if you want to go look at the result they are here: http://www.carsrcracing.co.uk/results/shootoutv/index.htm

Hi all, its been a while since the last update but work and life get in the way!

The car has changed a bit since my last post. I have aquired a LE chassis and my god what a difference it has made. I have only ran it at the Teeside BRCA national but I love it to bits. I have kept the old shock and also not used the front carbon plate that goes all the way across the front as it doesn't allow you to run the same max width.

Pics of chassis






I have also changed my bumper. It now made of 2mm Nylon66 and I have cut it back over the previous design to allow the foam to absorb more of the impact rather than hit the bumper plate.



I have entered a few events over the past couple of months with varying success, mainly being let down in finals. Car is going good and I am getting more confident with it. Its the last round of the Chesterfield Summer Shootout next weekend so I am looking forward to that.

Now Sunday was the last round of the inaugral BRCA GT10/F1 championship at Teeside Club. There was a reasonable turn out for both classes with GT having the most numbers. The track was a weird L shape but it was bloody good fun. Curved straight onto a sweeper meant having some balls to keep it pinned throughout. Setupwise I went soft on the side springs to white and also to 15k diff oil in the side dampers. I had a couple of bad rounds including stripping a spur but my best time was 25 laps in 361.86. It could have been quicker but I had a few slow laps. This left me 7th in the A final. I made a great start and was up to 4th after about 5 laps. Half through the race I was in 5th having a great battle for 4th. Unfortunately a mistake on the last lap cost me big, hit the outside barrier on the sweeper causing my body to get caught in the wheels. This left me down in 8th. A poor end to a great final. Many thanks to Teeside Club for putting on an excellent event.

I will be taking part in the Winter Series at Ardent over the next few month, should be a good turn out of GT10 drivers!

Here are a load of pics from the Teeside National curtosey of Mr Vince Formosa!

Maritime BRCA national

Well the second round of the BRCA GT10/F1 Nationals took place last Sunday.
A fantastic meeting ran by the Maritime Raceway team. Bit of a trek for me but spending a couple of days at Auntie Sues in suffolk broke up the journey.

For a long time I have used a blue and white colour scheme as you can see in the pics below. A lot of people are doing more realistic bodyshells for this series so thought I would join in. This is my attempt at a racing scheme similar to the one in GT5 on the corvette, really pleased how it turned out.



The track was fantastic nice and flowing. Car setup remained the same except I have moved to a GM 2010 10.5 that I picked up second hand. It weighs about 15grams lighter than my Tekin Redline. Many thanks to Mark Burgess for the setup on the Tekin speed and after playing around with the gearing I got a stable temperature and the car was plenty quick enough.

Had great fun in qualifying, Chris O'Donoguhe was my target and we were trading the lead lap after lap in the qualifiers. Had a slight issue where I lost the camber shims due to not tightening up the holder enough but that was the only mishap of the day.

I qualified 6th on the grid in the A final. A clean start by everyone meant there was some good racing ahead. I got past Gavin Clinche when he hit a barrier, I then set out after Chris in 4th place. Got a slight shock when Mark Burgess dropped down behind me after being caught on a barrier. Tried to keep him behind me but that man knows how to put pressure on a guy!! Finished 5th which I am really pleased with.

Another good meeting, numbers were slightly down due to the distance which is a shame. Next event I will be racing at is the Summer Shoot out chesterfield.

Here are a few pics from the event (forgot my camera again!) and a video of the A final.