Practice
On Friday morning the sky wasnâ™t looking good, with rain forecast for later on (which I didnâ™t want to hear when I was about to debut the new car). Te car was built with the asphalt set-up out of the box, running stock brushless 13.5⦠I was ready to go. When the track was finished being sprayed with sugar water I went out and the car felt great from the get go. I tried a few bodies and took some screws out, changed shock angles, springs and was setting some quick times after only 6 packs. In Modified, team drivers Michael and Tim were also happy with their cars, then the skies opened up and practice was over for the day.
Saturday
After the rain Friday, the track was resprayed and on Saturday morning we had 1 hour of practice. The car had a touch of understeer, but the tyres had done a few runs so I said with new tyres for the 1st heat we will see how it goes. Being race 6 the track had changed, and the car was a bit loose in the rear but I still managed a TQ run.
Heat 2: I laid the rear shocks over 1 hole for bit more rear bite, it worked great and I managed to go a couple seconds faster.
Heat 3: The car was handing awesome and I did another TQ run.
Heat 4: This was going to be the fasted run of the day. I put a new set of tyres on and TQâ™d again by another 4 seconds, with the car getting faster every run. Team drivers in mod qualified - Michael 3 and Tim 5.
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Sunday
The track was really sticky and the temperature was a lot hotter so after yesterday with the car flying I left it for heat 5. The car was still good but didnâ™t go faster than Saturday so I made a spring change to harder to free up the car for heat 6.
Heat 6 (final run): I put on a new set of Sorex on to keep TQ. The car was flying and the spring change worked great and I did a better time again by 5seconds but lost TQ. The guy who took TQ⦠the speed of his 13.5 brushless motor was surprising fast (?).
Modified drivers: Michael qualified 8tenths off TQ and Tim was 5th.
Final 1
With the car geared up 1 tooth on the pinion, I put on new tyres and was ready to go.
Starting on grid position 2 was not good because grid position 3 would jump me at the start of every final due to the way the grid was set up. Within the first couple of laps I was in the lead but after making a small mistake I dropped back to 2nd and with 1 minute to go the leader hit a dome giving me the lead back and winning heat 1. Modified drivers: Michael 2nd and Tim 4th.
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Final 2
Off the start I went back down to 3rd but by turn 2 I had passed car 2 and was going after car 1. My car was so quick in the infield I would be all over car 1 but when he got to the straight he would pull 5m on me. I made a pass on him in the infield coming onto the straight and with his power he ran into the back of my car causing the body to get stuck. By the time the marshal fixed it I was in 7th. I was very disappointed that no penalty was given to the car that hit me, but with the new car handing so good I got back into 2nd place. For that final I moved from 4-to-5 on the steering Ackermann and car was flowing through the infield like a hot knife through butter.
Modified drivers: Michael and Tim had some incidents and finished at the back of the pack.
Final 3
Leaving the car how it was for the last final I knew I had a good chance for the win. It was down to two cars: P1 and me in P2. As with the other starts, car P3 jumped me but then ran wide in turn 1 allowing me to slip up the inside right behind car 1. On lap 2 I made my move on car 1 in the infield, going up the outside which would put me on the inside of the next corner and making it stick⦠with car 3 trying to follow but hitting car 1 giving me a big gap back to 2nd spot. I drove away for the easiest win.
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Modified drivers: Michael finished 2nd and Tim 5th.
For the carâ™s first outing it was brilliant, the best car I have ever driven!!
All-in-all it was a great weekend for the new car finishing 1st in stock with the T2â™008.
Final results for Modified: Michael finished 3rd and Tim 5th with the T2â™007.
