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| The Indoor Holland event really is one of the best RC events in the world over the winter months; it is a vast gathering of talent from all over Europe, included current European and National champions. For Jon Hazlewood and myself, this was to be our first race with the XRAY XB8-TQ and we were as well prepared as we possibly could be. The temperature was a pleasant 6-8°C for most of the time during the day, so it was reasonably comfortable to watch the races. It was really great to see that the organizing crew had tried to improve the track for this yearâ™s race. They had prepped the track surface 2 weeks before the event, and underfoot the dirt felt nicely compact, but would it work? |
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| Practice started on Friday afternoon with 3 attempts available. The practice was untimed and allowed all drivers to get ready for Saturday qualifying. As always the track was fast at first without the bumps and the new carpet had a nice level of slide on it. Jon settled into his first practice run, finding the new buggy to be almost perfect. Coming off the rostrum with a big grin on his face, all he could comment on was that the new engine just needed to be leaned out a bit more. As the track started get bumpy for the remaining practices we kept the car the same so Jon could work on lines and his confidence. We finished practice knowing Jon was laying down the fastest laps and were chasing nothing on anyone. |
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Round 1 didnâ™t work out for Jon with too many mistakes and one to forget. Hernandes, Tortorici, and Jackson set the top times with quick 10 lappers. For round 2 we changed the suspension by softening the springs to soft white and dropping down to 350wt in the front and 300wt in the rear. This worked brilliantly and allowed Jon to be more consistent and set the fastest time of the round with a quick 10 lapper. Team mate Ryan Donovan sorted out his transponder problem and posted a time good enough for 6th which put him on his way to the semiâ™s. Round 3 was going well until backmarkers held up Jon during the run. With ungraded heats most of the drivers had to contend with navigation problems. Crompton TQâ™ed round 3, which opened up the fight for overall TQ.
It was not until the very last race when Hernandes beat all to take TQ. Jon had a chance until his car fell off the table top on the penultimate lap. For the last round we changed the anti-squat to 5°. This change seemed to help the car over bumps. |
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| Come the semi finals the track had developed burms on most of the corners, several new race lines had appeared and track time was king for the bump ups. Richi Gomez won the first semi. Ryan was running in 5th place when an argument with the pit lane caused him to drop out of the race. In the second Semi, Jon got a clean start and past Crompton on the first lap. TQ man Henandes had his engine cut out on the line, meaning he already was down on the field. After a few laps Jon was picking his way through the bumps and pulled a comfortable lead. He was able to turn in early with the XB8 and stay on the smoother lines. Near the end, a mistake when a marshal was not looking cost him 10 seconds and let Reckward close right up. Jon now had a problem with rear end grip and Reckward managed to pass Jon on the last lap. Over the big jump, Jon went high and passed the German in mid air and ran to the line to win the Semi. Jonâ™s time was faster than Gomez and had the honor of lining up on pole position for the Main final. |
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On the first lap everyone was instantly going for it, Gomez got past Jonâ™s XB8, only to see Jon aggressively get back his position before the table top. The inside lines had now gotten real bumpy and were not working as they did in the semi; Jon made a few errors during the first 5 minutes. This left Gomez in the lead from Tortorici, and then Jon. In trying the lines that were working for the others, Jon dropped back to 5th and struggled to adapt to the burms. The last 10 minutes of the 45 minute final saw a great fight for 3rd place. Gomez had checked out and was a lap up on 2nd place Tortorici, Crompton up to 3rd and Reckward in 4th. On the last lap Jon passed Reckward and in going for the inside line before the table top he tapped Cromptonâ™s car. Instead of blasting past, Jon sportingly allowed Crompton to take 3rd over the table top and tried again off the table top only to crash and drop down to 5th. A great effort to get something out of a frustrating race.
All in all we were really happy with the XB8. To think we have so much to learn about set ups and the balance of the car, the future is looking very bright for the Hazlewood & XRAY.
Photos source www.stoppelhopser-oberhausen.de |
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