Josh Cyrul's race report from the Novak Race in Wisconsin:
Tuesday afternoon I packed up the car and headed out to Wisconsin for the Novak Race at S & N Trackside Hobbies. After 6 hours of driving through snow it was such a relief to get out of the car and relax and get some sleep.
Wednesday morning the track was open at 10am. Immediatly drivers were out on the track getting used to the layout. The layout was a good mix of high and low speed corners with one tight chicane and a carosel that would bite ya if you went a bit too close. I began running my car and found that my set-up was pretty good to start and my lap times were competitive with the other drivers. I was able to try a few different adjustments before the track closed and I thought I had a good feel for the track and my car.
Thursday we were back at it at 9am and again my car was consitant and nice to drive. I reached a speed though where I couldn't go any faster. I was stuck and several other drivers began to turn faster times than I could. >From here I started testing more things with my shocks. My initial thought was that my shock set-up was too soft and this was loosing me a lot of corner speed especially in the sweeper at the end of the main straight. The stiffer shock springs did help my corner speed but they hurt my consitancy in the infield as my car started to pick up the inside tires on the tighter turns - especially when trying to change directions fast. This is how I finished Thursday and I had to make a few adjustments to be competitive when qualifying started.
Friday's qualifying went quite well. My car still continued to lift the inside tires but I was making changes and it was improving run to run. I tried several other changes with the droop, tire size and washers under the ball stud on both the front castor block and the rear hub carrier. These helped but still something was missing.
Saturday was difficult. I decided that I needed to try a few big adjustments with my set-up in order to pick up the speed to give myself a better shot at winning. I started with a completely new shock set-up, different spacing under the ball studs, and I moved the batteries forward on the left side of the chassis one slot!! I thought this would get more of the weight balance up on the front tires to help my high-speed push and allow me to use a different shock set-up to balance the car better through the infield. The car was extremely hard to drive but I could tell that the balance and speed would be better once I had time to dial in the set-up. The last round of modified qualification I had the set-up much better and if it wasn't for a last lap mistake I might possibly have TQ'd the event!!
Sunday was frustrating but fun at the same time. I had a very good car that I thought I could compete for the win with. Unfortunetly I qualified poorly in 19t (8th) which made it very difficult to make my way up to the leaders to race for the win. I did manage to get an amazing start in the 2nd A-final and I finished only inches behind Paul Lemieux for the win!! Modified was dissapointing as TQ Chris Tossolini had trouble off the start of the 1st final. He spun and I hit Chris breaking his car and leaving me in the board waiting for a turn marshall while the whole field sped away. I managed to catch back up and finish 5th. The 2nd final was great right until the end. Chris Tossolini, Paul Lemieux, Mike Blackstock and myself were all within 20ft for most of the race. With only a few laps left Mike made a mistake that I got caught up in. We both dropped back and battled for 3rd. Unfortunetly, both Mike and I crossed the line and thought we were done - we weren't!! This allowed a few other drivers to make the time line and pass us dropping us back down the order - this really hurt in the 3 A-Main point system. In the 3rd final I had a rough start and dropped back but I was able to pass cars and work my way back up to 2nd and finish there.
Even though I think the end result could have been better I am quite happy. I learned a lot about the set-up of the Evo2 and now I'm looking forward to the Snowbird's. It should be a great race!!!
Josh
Here are the race results:
Modified Foam Touring Car results
1. Mike Blackstock
2. Chris Tosolini
3. Brian Kinwald
4. Eric Desrosiers
5. Paul Lemieux 6. Josh Cyrul Xray
7. Walter Henderson
8. Andrew Cartwright
9. Chris Doseck
10.Barry Baker
19T Foam Touring Car results
1. Paul Lemieux
2. Mike Blackstock 3. Josh Cyrul Xray
4. Chris Tosolini
5. Walter Henderson
6. Eric Desrosiers
7. Barry Baker
8. Bobby Flack
9. Brian Kinwald
10.Timmy Heiser
Stock Foam Touring Car results
1. Bobby Flack
2. Kevin Mitchell
3. Brad Johnson
4. Ron Atomic
5. Paul Ciccarello 6. Eli Ezrow Xray
7. Kyle Gannon
8. Chuck Lonergan
9. Justin Zorc
10.Stephen Sobottka
Brushless Touring Car results
1. Charlie Suangka
2. Erik Wippler
3. Ron Matteuci
4. Mike Lack
5. Kelly Bean 6. Jeff Gundlach Xray
7. Randy Cook
8. Ryan Van Horn
9. Lee Passehl
10.Gary Katzer
