| Race report by Andrew Webber |
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The second weekend of January 2013 saw the final meeting ever of the Racing Lines International. The 2013 meeting would bring this renowned event to an end and close a chapter of R/C Racing in the upper north island of New Zealand.
Hosted by the North Harbour Radio Control Car Club (NHRCCC) the meeting has seen some of the best racing in New Zealand and this yearâ™s event would be no different with 2 international drivers; Anthony Atack and Dan Maher both from Australia attending.
The event is run over 3 days with Friday as an official practice day, Saturday with 5 rounds of qualifying (2 run under lights) and then onto Sunday where three finals (two counting) would run to determine the winner of each class. Entries levels were very good with B Mains for the majority of the classes.
Biggest surprise in terms of entries is the continued resurgence of the Pro12 pan chassis class in NZ. The class was absent from last yearâ™s event but this year saw an impressive 14 drivers entered, including Dan Maher from Australia and two racers up from Christchurch (Craig Lamb and Daniel Webber) just to race their 12th scale cars. |
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I first saw the Pro12 cars running in anger at the 2012 Southern Clash and was so impressed that I decided to give them a go. I purchased an X12 a few months ago and have been racing it on a regular basis ever since, including a trip to the Australian Nationals and most of my local club meetings. Itâ™s been a real challenge compared to the touring cars I usually run. Iâ™ll cover my Pro12 experience later in my report. In the meantime Ill cover the Open Touring or Modified racing with my Xray T4.
OPEN TOURING - QUALIFYING:
Open touring or modified as itâ™s referred to in NZ, is an open brushless motor and controlled chassis class. Restrictions are similar to those at the IFMAR worlds with the biggest exception being our weight limit of 1425grams. This rule can make it difficult to get a car, like the Xray T4, up to weight as the cars are now super light out of the box. It also affects the handling of the cars greatly and can result in our setups being a bit unique.
The control tyre for the event, a Much More 32, would again be tortured in some of the hottest conditions Iâ™ve ever experienced at an R/C event. Air temps hitting well over 30 and track temps hitting 55 degrees Celsius were making car setup difficult and draining energy levels very quickly.
Friday started off fairly well. It was an open track for most of the day where lap times were called during your run. I touched 19 second laps on a regular basis which is a very competitive time around the tight and twisty circuit. I was also running on last yearâ™s tyres as I wanted to get a good idea of how the car was going to handle on worn tyres due to a limited number of the control tyres allowed.
To add a bit of spice to the meeting, there were issues with consistency with the control tyres. There were a number of tyres which felt softer than others and upon closer inspection; there was a colour difference between the belts. The race organisers found a solution for the meeting by eliminating the softer feeling tyres from the meeting. I had concerns about how my car was going to react on these tyres, especially when I wasnâ™t sure if my practice tyres were the â softâ™ or the â hardâ™ ones.
With the tyre issues still playing on my mind, I concentrated on what I had at the time and after some small changes to my setup including ackerman, wheelbase, rear diff fluids I was fairly happy with my car. I also switched between progressive and linear spring to try and get a feel for how they worked and by 10pm, practice had finished and I had settled on 2.5-2.8 progressive front and rear with the intention of monitoring the track for grip level changes during qualifying.
Saturday morning and we were greeted with more hot and sticky weather. Qualifying would be based on a points system and out of the 5 rounds scheduled to run, 3 would count. Five runs on 1 set of MuchMore 32â™s were going to be tough going, so managing tyres through the day would be vital.
I bolted on a new set of tyres for the first qualifier and was immediately concerned about the cars behaviour. The front end was vague with very little feeling of traction and the rear was very loose on power⦠a real struggle to drive. I knew Iâ™d be playing catch up most of the day and would need to be changing the car between one qualifier and the next. Anthony Atack took out the first qualifier win with me in second, a disappointing 7 seconds behind his 15 laps 5 min 3.667 second run. Jonathan Thompson and his Xray T3â™12, came through with the 3rd fastest time.
Second qualifier and things were on the improve, I changed springs again, moving to the 2.7 front and the 2.3-2.6 rear progressive spring in search of a slightly softer car and a bit more traction. I also thinned the rear diff down from 3000cst to 2000cst to stop the on power over steer I was experiencing. The second run was much better with Anthony again setting the fastest time with his Xray T4 and me just under 5 seconds behind. Simon Noton took out the third fastest time with his first 15 lap run of the weekend.
The 3rd and 4th qualifiers went in my favour with Anthony making an uncharacteristic mistake in qualifier three - rolling his car on lap 13, and loosing 6 seconds in the run. I finished 1st with my fastest run of the day (15 laps in 5m 7.589 seconds), Anthony second, just under 2 seconds behind and Luke Duthie, his first time running modified touring, setting a time of 15 laps in 5m 12.463 seconds, biting at our heals. For the 4th qualifier, which was run under lights, I had changed to 2.7 springs front and rear, laid the shocks in one hole on the front and rear shock tower and lowered the front of the car ever so slightly. The difference was incredible; the car was now stable and super easy to drive. Almost too easy but I was happy to finally have a car I was comfortable with. It was super close in terms of times with my TQ run for the round only 0.237 of a second ahead of Anthony (15 laps in 5m 3.640 seconds). Luke Duthie set the 3rd fastest time while Simon Noton taking out 4th.
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With two wins and two seconds between Anthony and myself, it came down to the last qualifier to decide who would be off the pole spot for Sundays finals. Starting at 11pm the 5th qualifier was guaranteed to be the fastest of the day. Anthony put in a storming run to pull off the only 16 lapper and grabbed the top spot for the finals. I missed a 16 lap run by 0.7 of a second, a slight bobble on lap 11 resulting in lost time.
QUALIFYING LIST:
1. Anthony Attack - XRAY T4
2. Andrew Webber â“ XRAY T4
3. Luke Duthie
4. Simon Noton
5. Jonathan Thompson â“ XRAY T3
6. Cain Coulton â“ XRAY T3
7. Matthew Van Der Haas
8. Rob Stephens
9. Tom Parvu
10. Stephen Li
OPEN TOURING - FINALS:
A quick turnaround between the end of qualifying (up till 1am) and finals day wasnâ™t easy but I think the majority of the racers were prepared for it. Iâ™d left the car unchanged over night and simply bolted on a new set of the control tyres.
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First final was expected to be a close battle between Anthony and myself but a broken insert on Anthonyâ™s T4 meant he was out of the race early on. I took the win with Luke Duthie taking second and Rob Stephens coming through the field from 8th on the grid to 3rd.
The second final and with grid positions the same order as the first race, Anthony bogged off the start causing everyone to bunch up into the first corner; a high speed sweeper. Anthony ran wide and we both went side by side into the next corner. This slowed us both down and give Luke Duthie from 3rd on the grid no room. He accidently tagged us both, sending me spinning and Anthony onto his roof sliding off the track. I ended up in 7th and Anthony in 9th after the first lap. By lap 4 I had managed to get passed the cars ahead of me and took the lead. Anthony had ripped through the field also coming up from 9th to 2nd on the same lap. We stayed in these positions till lap 6 where Anthony made a small error dropping him down to 3rd. By lap 8 he was back into 2nd but was unable to catch me. I took the win and secured my 3rd Racing Lines International Modified title.
Final Results:
1. Andrew Webber - XRAY T4
2. Anthony Atack â“ XRAY T4
3. Luke Duthie
4. Simon Noton
5. Rob Stephens
6. Jonathan Thompson â“ XRAY T3
7. Tom Parvu
8. Stephen Li
9. Cain Coulton â“ XRAY T3
10. Matthew Van Der Haas
A big thanks to XRAY, Zoom Resources, KPGraphix and Hobbywing for their support.
PRO12 QUALIFYING:
Pro12 took me through many highs and lows of R/C during the weekend but I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it. Practice the car felt good and was putting down some high 20 second lap times. A fairly competitive number based on what the competition was doing. The car was a bit twitchy coming into a corner but I could drive around it. I left the car alone completely in terms of setup and waited for the traction to rise before attempting to make changes.
Saturday was the day the â funâ™ started. The car had started to suffer from a low battery fault in warm-up resulting in the servo shutting off at full throttle. It would be OK to drive for the first 6-7 mins, and then it was a complete nightmare for the last 1 or 2. To try and get around any of the corners I had to make sure I didnâ™t squeeze the trigger too hard otherwise the servo failed to respond sending the car straight ahead. To try and fix this problem I added a receiver pack to the car in an attempt to bypass the ESC circuitry and bump up the voltage. All appeared to be working ok till the first qualifier came around and the car wouldnâ™t turn on. A DNS in the first race was extremely disappointing.
Back at the pits the fellow Pro12 racers gathered around to lend a hand in trying to fix the problem. A solution was found where the receiver pack and the ESC could work together and it seemed to be working in the pits so I felt confident all was OK . That was until lap 6 and the ESC thermalled. This was something Iâ™d never experienced with the HW ESC before and put it down to some issue with the receiver pack and ESC not liking each other. To be honest, the HW V3 is not designed for 1s racing so I shouldâ™ve been prepared for issues to begin with. So, at this stage I was desperate for a solution and decided to pull the HW V3 esc out of the car and go back to the V2 version with the build in booster. It took me about an hour to get the wiring all sorted but it was worth it.
Iâ™d already blown 2 qualifiers (one DNS and one 6 lapper) and with the last 3 counting towards my finals grid position I went out just wanting to complete the run. The car ran flawlessly and I was amazed to see I had TQâ™d the round with a 24 lap run 8 minutes 8 seconds, a 2.5 seconds advantage over Craig Lamb in second place.
The car ran perfectly for the next two qualifiers but I just couldnâ™t quite match the pace of the guys up front. In the 4th qualifier, run under lights, Luke Duthie came through for the win with almost a 26 lap run, Craig Lamb came in second and I managed to grab a 3rd. In the 5th qualifier I grabbed a second. Luke again grabbing another round win, myself 8 seconds behind and Daniel Webber in 3rd. With qualifying complete, TQ honours went to Craig Lamb based on a tie-break situation with Luke Duthie. Both those guys sharing equal points.
So after qualifying was complete, the running order was:
1. Craig Lamb
2. Luke Duthie
3. Andrew Webber - XRAY X12
4. Jayden Duthie
5. Matthew Van Der Haas
6. Daniel Webber
7. Rob Stephens
8. Nigel Bish
9. Shane Gollop - XRAY X12
10. Si Jorgensen - XRAY X12
FINALS DAY FOR PRO12
Fresh tyres fitted and my X12 was ready for finals day. First race up and out of the blue came Matt Van Der Haas on an absolute flyer! Heâ™d changed to a different chassis and he was calving through the field. There were a few first corner collisions so the running order changed a bit and Matt took his opportunities; coming through from 5th to 2nd place after lap 1. From there it was nose to tail stuff with no one able to make a break away. 8 minutes later, the finishing order was Luke in 1st, Matt in 2nd and myself in 3rd. First to third separated by just 2.1 seconds! Great racing.
The second final was just as exciting. Craig kept his nerves and managed to use his TQ position to retain the lead on lap 1. Unfortunately a mistake on lap 2 cost him 1st with Luke taking over that position. The running order now Luke, Craig, Luke, Matt and myself. By lap 5, Matt had gotten past Craig and to take over 2nd place. Lap 8 and I snuck through to 3rd with Craig dropping down to 4th. From there it was again, nose to tail stuff with Luke eventually taking the win, and the 2013 RacingLines International Pro12 title, Matt finished second and myself in 3rd. Craig dropped down to 5th but eventually recovered some ground to collect 4th position.
So with 1st position sown up, it was a battle in the 3rd race to see who was going to finish second overall. It was a chaotic start with Luke bogging off the line, me getting up beside him, only for both of us to touch and spin into the first corner. Craig got away cleanly, Matt again, killing the start and grabbing second spot. I was now 7th after the first lap, Luke 6th, Rob Stephens 5th, Daniel Webber 4th, Jayden 3rd, Matt 2nd and Craig 1st. By lap 8 I had moved into 3rd and Matt Van Der Haas had taken over the lead from Craig. Matt now out to a decent gap was cruising for the win till a back-marker accidently clipped his car, costing him 2.1 seconds. Both Luke and I managed to take full advantage of his misfortune moving past Matt for 1st and 2nd place respectively. From there it was just a matter of holding off Luke and by the 8 minute mark, I went across the line for my first Pro12 final win; just 2 seconds ahead of Luke.
With my win and a third and Matts two seconds we were tied on points. After the tie-break and 16 minutes of hard core racing, Matt collected second place by under 2 seconds. Still a fantastic result for the X12 and myself in 3rd.
Finals Results:
1. Luke Duthie
2. Matt Van Der Haas
3. Andrew Webber - XRAY X12
4. Craig Lamb
5. Jayden Duthie
6. Daniel Webber
7. Rob Stephens
8. Shane Gollop â“ XRAY X12
9. Nigel Bish
10. Si Jorgensen - XRAY X12
Big thanks to all of the Pro12 guys from some awesome racing and help in the pits. Big thanks to Hobbywing and Zoom Resources. |
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