Well, the indoor season is over and it's now time to bust out the rubber tires and prepare for the outdoor season. The first rubber tire race for me was the 2004 Pre-Worlds. For me this would not only be the first time on rubber tires for the year but also with Xray.
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I arrived at the track Wednesday morning and started to work on my car. I still had my set-up on it from the Carpet Nationals as I had wanted to show Juraj my set-up from that race. After working on the car changing the set-up I also changed the front differential to a solid axle(spool).
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Most of the drivers were using a front one-way but I took a different philosophy - The Reedy Race has a rule banning one-ways and for me I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to practice on rubber tires before the Reedy Race. I have the rest of the summer to figure out the one-way set-up so I put the spool in and that's what I raced with!!
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Practice Wednesday and Thursday went reasonably well. The car started with and extreme understeer. I tested many camber positions and raised the rear roll center (upper hole on the bulkhead) and I was able to get the car better but the understeer was still too much. Next, I took off the front roll bar - this was better but I still needed more so I added a rear roll bar. The car was getting closer but I still needed a bit more to be competitive with the fastest drivers (Hara, Masami and Teemu). This is where I finished practice and we began qualifying.
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Qualifying went reasonably well for me as I had a few decient runs and wound up 8th qualifier. Through qualifying I continued to make changes and try things. The main thing I adjusted in qualifying was my shock oil. I still had Associated 30wt in the rear and 50wt in the front (both with 4 holes open) from the Nats so I switched to Xray 30wt in the front and rear. This made the rear dampening a bit thicker and the front softer. This really helped me get the car into the corner better - actually too much as I crashed and broke the first run with the car like this!! I settled the car down by leaning the rear shocks in one hole and that's where I ran it.
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The mains went well but also were disappointing. The first final I moved up from 8th into 3rd behind Masami on the opening laps but made a huge mistake through the chicane and dropped to the back. The second final I also moved up to the front right off the start but this time a crash with another driver on the back straight damaged the car and I pulled off a few laps later. The third final was again a great start up to 3rd right on Gilles and Ralph's tail.
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Hara and Masami were battling for the overall win and were right on my tail!! I didn't want to be the one to decide the race by crashing with them so I let them go - Unfortunately, they crashed with Gilles (Hara slid side ways in front of Gilles) creating a huge pile up that I was involved in. I still came out in the top 5 but my car was damaged - the tire had been torn from the rim so it was impossible to drive.
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All in all, I think it was a great weekend for several reasons. Both Ralph and myself were the only people running solid front axles in the main. I do think this was a little disadvantage on this track but it helped us learn more about the car and prepare for the Reedy Race.
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This was also my first race with Xray, outdoors and using rubber tires so I am very pleased!!
