BRCA National 2012 Round 1 Ardent Raceway

Well the 2012 season started in style at the Ardent Raceway. Numbers weren't as great as I was hoping but there was a fair few that couldn't make it due to personal reasons. The track has been relaid so was nice and smooth at the start of the day. It was a really nice track too:





I very happy with the car right from the start and posted a great time in the first round of qualifying that put me third on the grid. I didn't improve in the following 3 rounds, a combination of me trying different things to the car and a couple of driving cocks up! I was hoping for 3rd on the grid but got pushed back to 4th in the last round of qualifying.





Got off to a decent start in the finals but then made a small mistake which left me stuck on the barrier. Ended up 6th overall. Decent start to the season, couldn't be happier with the car, handled like a dream and was plenty quick enough. Unfortunately I can't make the Maritime National but I am looking forward to the rest of the season.

There was bad news at the national though, Ardent Raceway is going to have to close its current venue due to some health and safety non sense! After all the work John Dawson, Ian Plimmer and the rest of the crew put in it is such shame. They are currently looking for a new venue so hopefully we can be racing there again soon. I love the summer and winter series events so hopefully they will be back.

Here are some pics from the day, phone pics again sorry!









C Final Grid


B Final Grid


F1 Retro Winners


F1 Modern Winners


GT10 Winners



This was a surprise at the start of the days as well. Wim Goss presented me with this trophy for winning the Chesterfield Summer Shootout last year. Thanks to Kev Creaser and Wim for this, was over the moon! Can't wait for the summer shootout this year.

Car Prep

Seen as I am not racing for a few weeks and the weather was horrible today I thought I would get the car prepped for the national. I took the car as it came off the track from the last race.

Removed the tires as put them away for club nights, only going to use CRC Spec tires at big events now.
I always start with a diff rebuild. I get it stripped down and put the balls in a pot ready for cleaning. 

I always give the spur gear a good clean with a cotton bud.

I try and reuse the steel balls a couple of times so I give them a good clean with brake cleaner.


I also give the diff ring a sand to get the groove out. One on the left is before sanding, one on the right is after sanding.


I also give the bearings a good blast. It is always key to check the outer bearing. I learnt when I was doing 1/12th that you can build the most perfect diff and if there was a small problem with that outer bearing it can make the diff feel horrible and notchy. I start with the axle and the first diff ring. I put a small amount of grease on that plate.


Then I put on the spur with balls in and the bearing. I then put a small dab of grease on each of the balls.  Then I assemble the rest of the diff as usual.


Seen as it is the start of the new national season I got a new Trinity D3. Got that soldered in ready.


Whilst the rear end was apart I checked the rear pivot. I took the rear bodymounts off including side springs and dampers. I put the car flat on a setup board then undid the pivot mounts. I then realigned the chassis and links then tightened up the nuts on the pivot mount. It is important to check that once you have done everything up tight that the rear pod moves freely with no resistance. This can only be done with the springs and dampers off the car.


Next was to clean out and refill the side dampers. One thing I notice people doing at races when refilling the dampers is they don't check for air bubbles in the grooves. I am using 12500wt diff oil in the dampers at the minute. Once I apply it I let it rest for a while to let the air bubbles come out.


Once both are done I reassemble to rear completely. Now its time to concentrate on the front end.
I love the new cross brace and plate. It allows the front to be completely seperated from the car to be worked on.

When I took off the front suspension from the plate I sat it on the setup board and happen to notice it was every so slightly tweaked. This is something I didn't notice when I built it but the servo being attached flat against the carbon plate was causing the tweak. To get round this I tried to leave a small gap between the servo and the plate when screwing it to the mounts. Hard to get a pic of but you can see a small amount of the setup board through the gap to the right of the servo.



Next I started striping, cleaning and rebuilding the front suspension. This is the perfect time to check for weak/broken parts. When stripping down the front left I noticed a crack in the pivot ball housing. This obviously happened in the last final at ardent. Swapped this out for a new part.


After that I rebuilt everything up and checked camber. A set of used but retrued CRC Spec tires on and we are all set to go!


So now I have just got to wait two weeks to use it!! Can't wait for the nationals this year, hopefully the numbers will be good. I have a feeling there is going to a fair amount of competition. Hopefully the 2s vs 1s debate won't put people off as the last Ardent A final was a 50/50 split of 1s and 2s cars.

Make sure you check out http://www.rc-pancar.co.uk a great resource for all stuff pan car related, F1 GT and mardave included.

Ardent Winter Series Round 7

Well the final round of the Ardent Winter series happened yesterday. The track had changed to a much tighter layout. It was a very challenging layout.




I decided to change the layout of my car to see how it affected it and if any benefits were to be gained. The cell is still inline but as far back as it will go. This made the car a bit more aggressive to drive but made me go quicker in the process!



This was my second round qualifying time which I was very happy with!



3rd on the grid in the A Final is the highest I have ever qualified at ardent. Unfortunately it all went to waste in the finals, a couple of small mistakes from myself cost me big and being taken out by a back marker who I was lapping added up to a poor end to the day. Finished 7th or 8th overall after two finals.

Big thanks to John Dawson and team for putting on the series. I finished 5th overall in the series so I am very happy with that. Congrats to Jason Butterfield who won the series.

Really pleased with how the car is going now though. Looking forward to the national season, picked a up fresh Trinity D3 10.5 for the new season from DMS models. Here are a couple of other random pics that I took. Also some videos courtesy of Stewart Craig.

I am also very interested in these new Viper speedos. Has anyone had any experience with the VTX-1 with a 10.5 in a boosted pan car it would be great to hear from you. I currently run a tekin so I want to know how it compares. My email is chris dot blakey at gmail dot com.

BRCA Nationals Entry Now Open

In case you missed it, you can now book in for the BRCA National series on the brca website

www.brca.org

Originally Posted by gbevens 

The entry system is open, it's via the BRCA website and requires PayPal at the time of entry.

To get to the entry screen you need to Log In, click on the race entry link (on the banner underneath the BRCA logo), Pick the F1 & GT10 Series and then select the meetings and classes you want to enter. I would post a link, but once you've logged in you'll need to be able to navigate there!

Hope for a good turn out, I have a feeling its going to be very close and competitive this year.
See you there.

Ardent Winter Series Round 6

After a few weeks from the last time I raced it was time for the Ardent Winter Series. Early start on Sunday morning as the clocks went forward losing me an hour of precious sleep!! Tim Ward and I set off to Ardent hoping for a good day! I am trying to use up my random compounds of RC4less tyres and use only CRC control tyres from now on so I put White rears on and Pink fronts for the first round of qualifying. Whites are super soft and normally used on outdoor tracks but they worked fine in here, won't last long though.

Went out for a few mins of practice to check the car was solid and had a bit of a mishap! The screws from the sensor plate on my Trinity D3 worked themselves loose. Only one remained when I looked at the car. With it being a weird size I couldn't get a replacement so I wedged some 4-40 counter sunk ones in there. Think it is time to invest in a new motor. Can anyone recommend me a very quick 10.5 motor that is good in boosted GT?

Car went reasonably well in the first round, set a solid 31 lap time. The track layout had remained the same as the last round and I only managed a 30 lap time there so a 1 lap improvement! Jason Butterfield was on another planet though. 2 laps quicker than the Mark, Chris Taylor and myself on 31 laps!

Second round of qualifying was a right off as I spun after overtaking a back marker who then hit my car bending a front axle. Got a new personal fastest lap of 11.19 though. 

Onto round three and I changed by to my trusty CRC Control Tyres as it was a bit too safe with the white rears on. Problem being is that the because of the change in temperature the carpet has expanded and lots of bumps were appearing. There also seemed to be a dramatic loss of steering that everyone suffered from so the car wasn't perfect but I improved my time and ended up 4th in the A Final. Good to see another good turn out, 22 GT drivers. 

First final went pretty well, a few bad crashes by other drivers meant I was second at one point but got caught by Mark Simpson so finished 3rd. Second final went to pot though, I made too many unforced mistakes and ended up 5ths. Overall result for the meeting was 4th which I am very happy with as the car showed it was competitive it was just my thumbs that threw it away! Congrats to Tim who won another C final on his second time out with the car, hes determined to get in the B Final next time! Roll of the next round in a couple of weeks. Here are a few pics of some other cars at the meetings and a video of the second final. 

Small Update to the car

Well time to update some the last remains original bits on the car. It started out as an original GENX10 but as I have show the majority is now LE parts. Decided to replace the rear bodypost/spring mounts up to the wider LE version. Also go the aluminium 1/2 standoffs to replace my tired plastic ones. Makes the rear much more solid.






You may notice that the motor is missing in those pics. At my last club night at chesterfield I went far too wide on a corner and smacked the barrier pretty hard, this killed the sensor board in my car. Unfortunately finding a sensor board for a 10.5 Trinity D3 in the UK is like finding rocking horse poop!! Fortunately I got one from the USA from Phils Hobby Shop. MASSIVE thanks to them and the USPS as it arrived here in 3 days!!!

Next race is on the 25th at Ardent Raceway Winter Series, can't wait!

Ardent Winter Series Round 5

Well after nearly a month since I last raced at Chesterfield Ardent Winter series came round. I really look forward to going racing as I can only go twice a month at most. When I ran at chesterfield last I used CRC Control tyres instead of the RC4less ones I have been using for the past 6 months. I forgot how planted and consistent they are. I have decided to use the CRC tyres exclusively now as I know they will work everywhere! Ordered a new set of those from Wim at Action Model Centre and got them trued up. Granted I cocked up and instead of truing them to 54.5 they ended up at 53mm. Bit smaller than I like but they ran great! Also had the new Tekin 222 software on my RS Pro. Great to see so many GT racers turning up. Started off using an old set just to get feel for the car, first round ended up with a non finish due a broken steering block after being hit whilst stationary. Car felt great before that though. Second round and everything was going great but after about 2 minutes I felt I had lost a fair chunk of steering. Still managed to put a decent time in. When I got back to the pits I found out why I had lost some steering:

Yeah that set of tyres is done!
Put the new set on the for the last qualifier. 

Had a really good run with a couple of mistakes but ended up with a good time and ended up 6th in the A Final. The competition is really good, times are very close. 

Unfortunately didn't have a good finals. First final had a almost decent start but then after a car got launched onto main straight I panicked slightly, missed the car but then hit first corner. This deformed my bodyshell so I had to get marshalled. Put my down to 7th. Second final had a really messy start and had to fight from the back. Finished 7th but ended up 8th overall after the two finals. Here is a video of the first final, thanks to Tim for filming:
 

Overall had a good day, had a real good laugh. My friend Tim Ward got a GT after much nagging from me! I think he had a good day judging by the massive smile he had on his face each time he came off the track. Lessons learnt from this meeting, need to do more racing!! Car is going great but I need to get more consistent. Heres a couple of other pics I took and  video of Tim in the C final.