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| Report by Corey Broadstock |
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This yearâ™s ACT Titles was once again held at the outdoor track of the A.C.T Model Car Racing Club, the same track that hosted the Australian national titles last year. Held on the 27th - 29th of March, this time of the year was much cooler than last time I was there. I was planning to run Modified and F1 but due to low numbers I had to drop down to Stock touring car (13.5 turn, blinky ESC). This event used the same tyre (Muchmore rush 36) as the nationals so I set my car back to the setup I used at that event and aimed to improve it from there.
Once practice started I spent most of my runs learning the new track layout that was chosen for this weekend, which was a lot more flowing compared to the normal layout. As I expected the T4 performed very well right from the start and I only improved it from there, making a few small changes. The main change that surprised me was removing the motor mount top deck post which I normally prefer at all my home tracks, which made the car much faster on this track.
Qualifying started early on the cold Saturday morning and went very well. 4 out of the 6 Qualifiers were ran today and I was able to TQ all of the rounds, which gave me overall TQ. With the car performing excellent already, I used the last 2 rounds on Sunday to try further improve my car. Some of the changes I had made did help, but with the finals being run in the mid - day heat, I reverted back to my previous setup that I knew was working fine in those conditions.
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With the finals being pushed through fast due to a delayed start, I had just 10 minutes between finishing the gluing of my finals tyres and the first main starting. I was unable to prepare my tyre in any way for the first main, the car was felt very inconsistent and I was tagged from behind on the first lap. My car was left with a spring pushed on top of the spring retainer and made the car feel even worst. I ended up pulling out half way through that left Mark Wallin to take the win with a sudden increase in performance with his T4. A2 started much better for me, with the car performing like normal I was able to gap the field and take the win. Mark Wallin able to make the pass into 2nd place for another strong finish. A3 felt much the same as A2 for me, having a big gap again to take the win, and 1st overall.
A great weekend for myself and all the XRAY drivers, with Mark Wallin finishing 2nd in both stock and F1, Patrick Saelzle and Ray Zarb also finishing 1 - 2 in the 21.5 class. Thanks to HEI International and Team XRAY for their support.
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| Report by Justin Reddiex |
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Coming off the back of making the A final (9th) in Stock at the Nationals in November 2014 (best result since starting racing two years earlier), I was hoping some continued improvement since would see a podium result at the 2015 AARCMCC PROTOform ACT EP State Titles.
I ran my XRAY T4 2014 in Stock, and my new XRAY X1 in Formula 1.
Qualifier 1 started positively, finishing in 3rd place in both of my A heats. I had only had 20 minutes of total driving time in my X1 before the event and found it was very drivable after applying virtually no setup changes beyond kit setup. My T4 was on pace quickly in Stock A, however fellow XRAY team mate Mark Wallin and I were each otherâ™s worst enemies as we were lapping at a similar speed, at the same place on the track, costing us both a little bit of time throughout Q1.
Qualifier 2 saw me try a harder set of F1 rears as the temperature had increased in the fear my softs would overheat, it did not pay off, they were certainly the wrong choice and I dropped back to 6th for that round. Again I finished 3rd in the Stock A qualifier behind Corey Broadstock and Jeffrey Mackie, I caught Jeffrey towards the end of the race but it was too little too late and sadly finished 0.3sec behind.
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In Q3 and Q4 I did not seem to find any more speed, but other drivers had, I was going backwards after my strong start in Q1 and 2 to 4th& 5th place. Q4 was the final run of the day, and I had plenty of ideas to apply on the cars overnight. I softened the F1 rear shock, lateral shock, lowered the back end and widened the front in the hope of getting the power down easier. For the T4, I discovered I had made a mistake with the rear arm hinge-pins, they were angled up at the front which may have been causing it to be difficult to get on the power, I was confident levelling them out would help the rear end be planted when I squeezed the throttle.
Sunday morning was very cold and this worked to my advantage in F1, my soft rear tyres and setup changes worked a treat and placed 2nd in Q5, then 3rd in Q6. This secured a 4th place for the A Finals behind Mark, Beth and Corey.
Q5 in Stock I set my best lap time as I had finally pulled out my 2nd set of control tyres, hoping they would be beneficial in the cold morning, while everyone else had already run them in Q3 or 4 yesterday afternoon. I finished 4th behind Corey, Jeffrey and Mark. Q6 in stock must have been perfect conditions for touring cars as Corey set the fastest time of the weekend, and I finished 2nd behind him with my fastest time of the weekend, well ahead of Mark in 3rd. This put me in 4th A-finals behind Corey, Jeffrey and Mark. I had the same Qualifying points as Mark however he secured a time 1 second quicker than me giving him the 3rd place.
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Onto the racing,
F1 A round 1 - Once again I moved to the hard tyres too soon which did not do me any favours after having some bad luck on lap 1, I dropped from 4th to 10th and was only able to climb back to 7th throughout the race.
Stock A round 1 - I placed 3rd behind Mark and Jeffrey. The first 75% of the race was great, I drove fast and clean, then I had a little motor and brain fade towards the end and Beth caught me big time in the last five laps, putting a lot of pressure on me not to put a wheel wrong, thankfully I held out and drove well to finish 3rd.
F1 A round 2 - I tangled with Rodney on lap 3 then ended up against a wall on the fight back, after marshalling I was again 10th in an F1 A main and the close field meant the best I could manage was an 8th, not by finest driving, good candidate for my dropped round.
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Stock A round 2 - I held my 4th position behind the battling Corey, Jeffrey and Mark, however Peter Hunt was on my tail for the first half of the race, he had a lot of speed on the straight and I out braked myself into turn one, letting him through, a position I tried to get back for the remainder of my race, pressuring him in the in-field until the end of the race, finishing 5th 2sec behind Peter.
F1 A round 3 â“ What a great race, Corey sat out having already securing the F1 title, leaving a nice gap on the grid in front of me, the car was finally dialed, I drove a clean race but couldnâ™t catch Mark and Beth, coming in a comfortable 3rd. The bad results in Race 1 and 2 dropped me to a final classification of 6th in F1. Not as high as I had hoped after qualifying 4th, but I am very happy with my XRAY X1, I now know some much about how to make it work after this event.
Stock A round 3 â“ A very clean start to the race saw everyone circulate the track in grid order, at grid spacing for two laps, Peter and Beth had closed the gap to me and crumpled under the pressure having a monumental roll on the â jellybeanâ™ section of the track. I dropped to 6th, then did not drive cleanly making another mistake a few laps later putting me in 8th. The car was great but I had run out of skill after the exhausting long weekend. Thankfully my first two races helped me into a final classification of 4th. Behind Corey, Mark and Jeffrey. I had initially set out to get a podium, but after modified class did not receive enough entries and Corey and Jeffrey were moved into Stock, that plan become a lot more difficult.
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A difficulty I faced for the weekend was my club involvement, being on the committee tied up a lot of my time planning/running the event, which could have been better spent on practice and car setup, this will thankfully not exist at other events I plans to travel to. I am happy with my Stock performance, but a little disappointed in not finishing better in F1 although Iâ™m very confident for future races driving the X1 after everything I learned.
Over the weekend I received great assistance from my Team mates Corey and Mark in setting up my cars to perform as well as they did, thanks guys!!
Final Results:
Stock TC
1. Corey Broadstock (TQ) - XRAY T4
2. Mark Wallin - XRAY T4
3. Jeffrey MacKie
4. Justin Reddiex - XRAY T4
5. Peter Hunt
6. Bethany Cullen
7. Phillip Merrick
8. Andrew Kuzmins - XRAY T4
9. Josh Freund
10. James Westhorp
Formula 1
1. Corey Broadstock - XRAY X1
2. Mark Wallin (TQ) - XRAY X1
3. Bethany Cullen
4. James Westhorp
5. Rodney De Haviland - XRAY X1
6. Justin Reddiex - XRAY X1
7. Ian Webber
8. Bob Death
9. Phillip Merrick
10. Anthony Pelli
21.5 TC
1. Patrick Saelzle - XRAY T4
2. Ray Zarb (TQ) - XRAY T4
3. Dean Paraskevas
Images by: Roy Meuronen
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