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| Race report by Andrew Webber |
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The Canterbury Radio Control Car Club hosted the 2013 EP Onroad Nationals on the 3rd weekend of February at the Ruapuna Raceway. The track is a purpose built 8th Scale Onroad track with some cut through areas dedicated for the electric racing.
The recent earthquakes in Christchurch have altered the surface of the track considerably with many bumps and cracks causing a few of the faster cars to wheel stand on both the main straight and the dog-leg section of the track. Other than that, the track is extremely wide and fast with modified touring cars reaching close to 120kp/hr.
I arrived in Christchurch around midday on Thursday and started to unpack my gear. The weather forecast was looking good for the first few days with the chance of some scattered showers for Saturday and Sunday. Talking to the locals it appeared the predicted rain fall over the weekend was unlikely to occur and weâ™d be looking at four fine days of racing which was good news.
I had entered 3 classes for the first time in my 20 years of racing so I was expecting a very busy weekend with Modified , Super-Stock (13.5 boosted) and Pro12 all needing my attention throughout the weekend.
Both Super Stock and Modified would be running on control tyres (pre-glued) for this event with a limit of 3 sets for qualifying and finals in modified and 2 sets for Super Stock. Practice tyres were not available for purchasing on either of the practice days so I was extremely lucky to have pre-ordered 1 extra set each for both cars.
There were three rounds of qualifying scheduled for Saturday with your single fastest time from these three qualifiers counting towards your starting grid position for the finals on Sunday. Sunday would use a points system with your two best results counting and your worst dropped (or used for a tie-break situation).
With the Super Stock car still in bits (ESC, motor, servo, etc still needing to be installed) I decided to set it aside for most of the day on Thursday and concentrate on getting a feel for the modified and Pro12 cars around the track.
In modified I intended on testing front diff fluids, rear diff fluids, shock oils, springs and shock positions on Thursday but it wasnâ™t long before control tyres reared their ugly head, again! Into my third run on the same set of tyres, the tyre exploded down the main straight, ejecting the insert and sending my car into the fence. It was a big crash with the car almost at top speed. It did several cartwheels in the air before landing back on its wheels and sliding off the track. On closer inspection of the car and tyre afterwards, I found the gluing was almost non-existent around the area of the rim where the tyre had let go. I was gutted because now my only set of tyres I had were completely useless and I had no choice but to pack up the mod car and call it day early. The good news was the car, prior to the tyre exploding, was going really well. A 20.8 being my fastest lap time which was quite respectable. Iâ™d managed to test rear springs and shock oils in the 3 runs. Going to a 2.7 front and 2.7 rear and from 300cst to 400cst and the back to 350cst which felt the best. There was still plenty to do so it was disappointing to have very limited track time with the car so early.
So now with some spare time on my hands, I completed a few laps in the X12 which proved the car needed a lot of work on setup to deal with the low traction, high speed layout. Iâ™d also found the time to assemble the Super Stock car and take it for a few laps before packing up our gear and heading home for the day.
Friday and the hot dry weather continued. Dust from the surrounding area was always present and really stopped the track from producing super high grip the whole weekend. Off line was extremely dusty so you needed to very accurate with your driving.
Iâ™d managed to secure a replacement set of tyres from race control and set about continuing testing all 3 cars. I started off with the Super Stock and apart from changing shock pistons (1.1 x 3 hole), shock oils and shock positions, the car felt fantastic. With chassis setup out of the way, I started working on ESC setup. I made improvements throughout the day with a 21.5 second lap my best time during practice.
Pro12 was also starting to come together to. Iâ™d refreshed the oil in the tubes, changed side springs and tested both medium and soft rear tyres. The car was working well but I was struggling for turn in at the end of the high speed straight. After closer inspection, we found that the extra high speed of the track was causing the rear of the body to fold down and rub against the rear tyres! You could actually see the paint was being removed in that area. Unfortunately there was nothing I could do about it as I had no replacement/alternative bodies and simply had to drive around the problem.
After waiting the morning for the track to clean up I continued to work on the mod car. I bolted on my replacement tyres but it wasnâ™t long before I struck problems again. On just the first run with these new tyres and again the tyre let go down the straight. Thankfully the car survived a massive crash again. I checked the tyres and this time the material belt inside the tyre had let go. By now I was seriously concerned about the ability of the control tyres and voiced my concerns with race control.
Saturday morning and during the drivers briefing it was decided that if tyres were to fail, that race would be re-run. This immediately caused concern with replacement tyres being handed out giving people an advantage in the replacement races. The ruling then changed, putting the responsibility back on the racer and if tyres failed the results of that race would stand. It was starting to get messy.
First round of qualifying and Pro12 was up first. I got away to a fairly decent start and settled into a good rhythm. Luke Duthie would be my closest competitor in this qualifying group so when he made a mistake on lap 2 of the 8 min run loosing him over 7 seconds, I would come across the line with the fastest time, just 2 seconds ahead of Craig Lamb (XRAY X12) from qualifying group 2.
Super Stock was next which ended up being a TQ round win by 2.5 seconds from local driver Ian Rickerby. The car suffering a small understeer issue as the start of the race but as the run went on it would get better and better. I opted to leave it unchanged for the next qualifier.
Round 1 of Modified and nerves were wreaking havoc thanks to tyres playing on my mind. Iâ™d scrubbed in a new set in the morning with a couple of laps and had rechecked the gluing and all appeared to be OK. Thankfully both the tyres and the car were excellent right through the entire run. The T4 suffering from a tiny hint of understeer which would disappear after a few laps. I crossed the line with a TQ run, over 5 seconds ahead of local driver Luke Duthie who was 2 seconds ahead of another local driver, Andrew Kirk.
Round 2 would be almost a mirror image of round 1. TQ run in Pro12, 3 seconds ahead of Luke Duthie, followed by Craig Lamb another 2 seconds back. TQ run in Super Stock, 10 seconds ahead of Mike Granger, followed by Ian Rickerby 1 second further back and a TQ run in Modified with Luke Duthie just 3 seconds behind and Ian Rickerby 9 seconds further back. Round 2 of Modified would not go down without controversy however. Both Andrew Kirk and Kevin Davey having tyre failures in their races would bring out the protest committee. All of the modified and Super Stock drivers were called over for a meeting and after a vote, it was decided that all modified drivers had the option of purchasing another 3 sets of tyres for all finals rounds tomorrow. This threw tyre strategy out the window and the second set of tyres Iâ™d put aside for finals tomorrow were immediately bolted onto my car for the final qualifier. What a bad decision this would end up being.
The 3rd round of qualifying was where it all started to go wrong. In Pro12, Luke Duthie put in a blistering run by completing his 8 minutes with 23 laps in 8.07seconds, a massive 5 seconds faster than I could manage. TQ went to Luke with me in second and Craig Lamb in 3rd
Pro12 qualifying list:
1. Luke Duthie
2. Andrew Webber â“ XRAY X12
3. Craig Lamb â“ XRAY X12
4. Kevin Dench
5. Adam Brown
6. Grant Forsyth â“ XRAY X12
7. Don Collins
8. Patrick Dench
9. Daniel Webber
10. Robin Allan
Thankfully Super Stock was my saving grace with a time fast enough to secure overall TQ and grid position number one for the finals on Sunday.
Super Stock qualifying list:
1. Andrew Webber â“ XRAY T4
2. Ian Rickerby
3. Mark Bidlake
4. Grant Forsyth â“ XRAY T4
5. Michael Grainger
6. Simon Wilks
7. David Norden â“ XRAY T4
8. Nick Pow
9. Jamie Scott
10. Murray McDonald â“ XRAY T4
In modified, with my new tyres bolted on, I could see that the cooler track conditions had improved in grip levels almost and everyone in the modified class was going faster. It looked like round 3 was going to be the rocket round everyone had been waiting for. Unfortunately I never got test this theory because even during the warmup I could hear the car making a funny noise and I knew straight away that one of my tyres was broken. I kept running, hoping to survive but on lap 7 it completely destroyed itself and I was out of the race. TQ and the fastest time of the day went to Luke Duthie with myself in second. I was extremely disappointed but I knew there was nothing I could do. I knew my car was fast and just hoped my fortunes would change for Sunday.
Modified qualifying list:
1. Luke Duthie
2. Andrew Webber â“ XRAY T4
3. Andrew Kirk
4. Ian Rickerby
5. Mark Bidlake
6. Craig Lamb â“ XRAY T4
7. Kevin Davey â“ XRAY T4
8. Simon Wilks
9. Michael Burt
10. Daniel Johnson
Sunday saw the first real change in the weather with a much cooler day, a welcomed change to the previous 3 days. Iâ™d checked the car over the night before and found a malfunctioning servo which I can only assume happened during one of my big crashed from a tyre failure. I replaced it Saturday night and left the car unchanged.
First final up would be Pro12, and I was on the left side of the grid, a place which had seen no cars or action over the past 3 days so grip was going to be none existent. I eased the car off the line at the sound of the hooter and was lucky to come away unscathed from the carnage which unfolded behind me. Luke was in the lead and I was close behind. My car was faster and I was capable of c the gap to Luke to but too many simple mistakes like curb clipping kept the pressure off him. The final two laps of the race I felt the battery performance drop so I eased back the throttle and settled for second. Luke came through for a win by just under 6 seconds (I lost 4 seconds in the last two laps with the battery almost drained). It was a good race but I was disappointed to loose the race when the car was so competitive.
The second race in Pro12 was almost a repeat of the first, apart from the start where Craig Lamb managed to take second place on the first corner pushing me back to third. I managed to get past Craig a few corners later and set about trying to catch Luke but with the gap was too big and I knew if I pushed too hard Iâ™d fail to finish with potentially a flat battery. Luke came through for the win, setting the fastest time and a new lap record. I finished second and Craig Lamb came through for 3rd. I came away from Pro12 fairly happy with second overall but knew I had lots of work to do if I want to keep improving.
Final finishing positions for Pro12 (after 3 finals)
1. Luke Duthie - 2
2. Andrew Webber - XRAY X12
3. Craig Lamb - XRAY X12
4. Kevin Dench
5. Adam Brown
6. Grant Forsyth - XRAY X12
7. Don Collins - XRAY X12
8. Daniel Webber
9. Patrick Dench - XRAY X12
10. Robin Allan
The Super Stock car was simply awesome on finals day. In the first final there was pressure from Ian Rickerby who had outstanding straight line speed and managed to pull alongside me for the first couple of corners but coming into the hairpin after the sweepers his car went sideways and I managed to grab a small gap. With Ian now under pressure from Grant Forsyth (XRAY T4) he went defensive which allowed me to pull away to a 9 second win. Ian took second with Grant Forsyth a further 7 seconds back.
The second race felt pretty much the same. Another awesome start and again pressure from Ian saw him take the lead into the S section of the track. Coming out of the S section and past the pit lane, his car again spun and I retook first. This again dropped Ian back into the clutches of Grant. Those guys would battle it out for the entire race until Ian got the upper hand. I finished first, 10 seconds ahead of Ian with Grant just 4 seconds back. Both wins gave me the NZ title in Super Stock for the 3rd time in a row. I was extremely happy to finish off my final ever Super Stock race with another NZ title.
Final finishing positions for Super Stock (after 3 finals)
1. Andrew Webber â“ XRAY T4
2. Grant Forsyth - XRAY T4
3. Ian Rickerby
4. Michael Grainger - XRAY T4
5. Mark Bidlake
6. Simon Wilks - XRAY - 9
7. Nick Pow
8. David Norden - XRAY T4
9. Jamie Scott
10. Murray MacDonald - XRAY T4
In the first Modified race I managed to get away very cleanly and attempted to grab 1st place before the straight away where I knew I had an advantage with car speed. It wasnâ™t mean to be however as the car stepped sideways immediately after applying the power off the start â“ a problem with being on the dirty side of the track. For the next few laps the car exhibited a major understeer problem. I could barely get around the sweepers without it wanting to drive straight off the track. The car improved dramatically as the race went on, event setting the fastest lap of the weekend but by then Luke was too far in front and I had to settle for second. I checked the car over after the race and couldnâ™t find anything wrong. I simply put the problem down to the new set of tyres.
For the second final, I bolted on another set of new Sweeps and now the car was doing the exact opposite; no rear traction. There was no time to change the tyres so I just hoped the tyres would settle through the run like it did in the first. Unfortunately the start was a little bit more chaotic with Andrew Kirk managing to get a flyer and jumped into the lead. Luke was second, I got pushed down to fifth with Ian Rickerby and Mark Bidlake taking over third and fourth respetively. Andrew Kirk held the lead for just one lap before his team mate, Luke, took over. Andrew was then passed by Ian, and I managed to pass Mark for 4th position. The car was still not responding well and continued to lack rear end traction. I got passed Andrew Kirk and moved into 3rd position but that didnâ™t last long when Andrew Kirk tried to take the position back with a suicide pass and we both went flying off the track. We both managed to get back onto the track but there was no chance of catching the leaders. I eventually finished 3rd behind Luke and Ian Rickerby. With the two wins Luke was the new 2013 Touring Modified NZ Champion.
Race 3 was simply all about keeping my 2nd position overall. I was adamant that I didnâ™t want to use either of my finals tyres again so I opted to fit a set Iâ™d used from qualifying on Saturday. In the warm-up the car was absolutely transformed! I couldnâ™t believe it. I came through for the win, giving me second position overall.
To this day Iâ™m still not sure what was going on with my tyres so I just put it down to some bad luck.
Iâ™d like to say a big thank you to Team XRAY, Zoom Resources, kpgraphix.com, Hobbywing NZ and Kevin & Kris Davey for their southern hospitality.
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