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| Race report by Reno Savoya |
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Like every year on the last weekend of each month, the French Circus comes back to life with the famous French National! This championship is divided into five rounds in March, April, May, June and September. The MACL club from Loudun in Northern France near Poitiers was the host of the event. The race was attended by 120 drivers, with only nitro 1/8 4WD and the "French only" class 1/8 2WD.
For me it was the third time on the track with a layout very similar to what I was used to. Unfortunately, the last two times were not easy because we had rain and bumps⦠it was hell compared to the show we enjoyed in 2012: wonderful sun, blue sky, 20°C, T-shirts and sunglasses! |
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It was another stage of knowledge about the car for me, as conditions were very similar to what we had in Montpellier but with warmer weather.
I decided to start the first practice with the exact same set-up I had from Montpellier, but with thicker shock oil and a longer wheelbase. As soon as I hit the track I felt the car was very easy to drive and faster than the others. It was great to have such a good feeling early in the race. However, my shock oil felt too hard so I went down to 500 front and 600 rear but using the same 8 holes pistons 1.2 front and 1.3 rear. In P2, as the temperature rose, it was too soft. Finally, I went back to the set-up I started with but increased the diameter of the rear sway bar so the car would be more stable at high speed.
In the 3rd practice, I felt the car was very stable but it was also understeering⦠but the traction and feeling were perfect. So, everything was perfect for the qualification and I would go with 2the .2 front sway bar. |
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| Qualifications: |
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The qualification went like planned. I TQed round 1 by 3 seconds, and decided not to touch anything for round 2.
In round 2, I started on the same pace and I was on a temporary TQ before I had a bobble with another driver. I ended up 2nd by only 3 seconds.
Everything would be decided in round 3, but I didn't want to let it go. We laid down all 4 shocks to the inside hole on the tower to get more traction and cornering speed, and I changed my tires from Battle Star to Exagon. I had a clear round without crashing, and battled with Jerome Aigoin each lap to get the fastest lap of the day. By the end of the round, only 0.9sec separated us, but the XB9 was in front! |
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| Mains: |
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| Everyone in the French team is now using the XB9 with great results. Everybody loves it and gets faster with every round. However, some drivers such as Sebastien Mutel, Dimitri Perrin and Quentin Legall couldn't really practice this winter and so they had very little experience with the car. Every practice of the qualification round is a way to test something different and get the rust out of the finger joints! Everyone did a great job as most of the drivers were in the ? final, some of them running the car for only the first time! There were some ups and downs for the team during those lower mains, but an incredible potential for those drivers and their cars. I'm really confident for the coming months! |
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In semi-final, I made the most of my TQ spot to cruise from start to finish and win my semi. Only 5 laps before the end, I was on a virtual Number 1 spot for the final, but unfortunately I let off the pace and crashed several times in traffic, costing me the number one spot on the grid.
In final, everything started pretty badly. In the warm-up laps, I felt my trigger was weird, like it was broken. I had to delay the start because I had dust and small rocks in the trigger!! I blew some air and WD40 and then it was fine! Unfortunately, I couldn't start 2nd, but rather I was 13th on the grid. The first few laps of the 45 minutes main were amazing. I felt so confident that it wasn't even a problem to start last. I was cruising and passing the other drivers, and I finished the first lap in 5th position! After 3 laps I was in 3rd behind Jerome Sartel and Jerome Aigoin. We started to get a very good gap on the others when my air filter got full⦠I hadn't cleaned the foam enough before the start. Unfortunately, the engine became very rich and it was flaming out during pit stops. It happened twice and cost me the win. I was then battling for 2nd spot when I crashed and flamed out upside down just in front of the loop! Same reason⦠the engine was running rich, the idle was too low, and the engine stopped. |
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I made some crazy fast laps at the end of the race to recover from 5th to 3rd.
It was another great weekend with the car, I had a lot of fun! It's a real pleasure to drive this car, as it's so stable, reactive, and fast! Next big stop: Neo Buggy race in the UK.
Thank you very much to all my sponsors and RCmag and Pierre Emmanuel Roy for the pictures.
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