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| This yearâ™s race at the 2005 US Carpet Nationals was a race to be remembered. With a total of 24 heats, it was one of the largest, most competitive nationals so far. Most of the major manufacturers were there to represent and promote their products, trying to beat each other to the finish line. |
| 3/16/05 |
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| RC America shared a pit table conveniently located in close proximity to both the track and the concession stand. The days of practice were something to watch. Many cars, from all manufacturers, came off the track in pieces! On the first day of practice, everyone was trying to get used to the high speed layout without breaking their cars. |
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This track was very unforgiving, leaving no room for error. Typically, if you did make a mistake, your car wasnâ™t coming off the track in the same condition it went on! The boards were like iron, making drivers very cautious. The traction was low and the air was cool. With a groove starting to form, the track was changing with every practice session. We made small adjustments to our cars, like shock locations and spacers here and there, but nothing major. For the most part, the practice day went well with a mix of 1/12th scale and 1/10th scale cars on the track since everyone wasnâ™t there yet. By the end of the first day of practice, everyone was looking like they had a good starting point to work on set-ups for the next day of practice.
3/17/05
The second day of practice started off with cooler air temperatures and traction still being built up, calling for some changes to be made to the suspension of the cars. Both Ralphâ™s and my FK05â™s were good, but still required some fine tuning. After discussing some set-up ideas with â WGâ™ and the rest of Team RC America, I made small changes to my car. The first change I made was to add some stability to my overly aggressive car by moving the front shocks out on the tower to help smooth out the steering response. That change wasnâ™t enough, so I decided to increase the size of the front sway bar from the 1mm to the 1.5 mm. That was the capital move that made my car very close to the way I wanted it. The fastest laps recorded in modified sedan on the second day of practice were 8.4-8.8â™s. Everyone on the team seemed to be happy with how their cars were going. Ralph seemed to have a little bit of a problem completing full practice runs, but soon resolved that problem with a few more trips to the track. When nine oâ™clock came around, the lights to the facility were shut off, and the drivers packed up and prepared for the long day ahead - the start of the qualifying rounds.
3/18/05
Today the doors opened up at 8. People were frantically charging batteries at high amps and making last minute changes before the racing officially started. At the driverâ™s meeting, we were given the run down on rules and so on, leading us into the first heat of qualifying. Well, I should say we started after one more, quick announcement to remind us all who owned the facilities, and that grounds maintenance was to be performed by authorized personnel only! Now that everyone was on the same page, we got to business. After the first round was done, Ralphâ™s bad luck from practice had turned around, and he top qualified Modified Sedan with the only 36 lap run to ever be run on the track. In Stock Sedan, Mark Smyka had a good run with his XRAY, placing him on the top of the leader board. Our 19 Turn Sedan cars ran well also, except for a few minor problems of breakage due to some traffic and the non-forgiving boards. After the first round the team was looking good, except for me breaking in both 19 Turn and Modified! Round Two started off surprisingly smooth after a short, 30 minute break. During the Stock Sedan heats, someone had some electrical problems with his car. I believe it was the speed controller that decided after a year and a half of use it was time to go out in style. The driver of the car came running over with his car in hand, smoke just billowing out of it. He ripped the body off and flames were shooting out of the car! After attempts to blow out the fire, he finally cut the wires leaving the carâ™s speedo to smoke and smolder. Enough of the off-track entertainment for now, lets move on to Stock Sedan. With some bumping and racing, Smyka ended up second for the round and Peter Robinson with third while yet another RC America driver Brad Johnson took the top position for the second round. In Modified Sedan Ralph and I were both on 36 lap runs, but I fell out of the race early on due to a crash. Burch also had some bad luck, giving the top position to Mike Blackstock. The 19 Turn class was some kind of turning point for my luck with a good run making me the top qualifier of round two. Some technical issues forced racers to prep for Saturday with some confusion and uncertainty hanging over them.
3/19/05
The last day of Qualifying started with drivers stressed and frustrated from the previous daysâ™ events. In my modified heat, I was on a good pace when about half way through the heat two cars had a collision on the straight away. The accident launched one of the cars into the suspended lap counter, making it sway and crash to the carpet. After an impressive pile-up the heat was stopped, and was rerun at the end of the round. I must say I have never seen something like this happen before in all the years I have been racing. After Round Three was over, RC America drivers had done very well with yet another top qualifying position in Stock Sedan from Peter Robinson. In 19 Turn, Brad Johnson gathered his way to the top of the leader board. After finally finishing a heat, I was able to finish with the top position in Modified Sedan, one tenth of a second ahead of Ralph in second for the third round. The fourth and final round of qualifying began, and drivers were more aggressive than ever. This round was the last ditch effort to make the main and move up in the standings. In the Stock Sedan class, it was Smyka with his XRAY who took the top qualifying honors. With Peter Robinson second, and Brad Johnson third, XRAY was looking good. I was able to run the fastest time of the weekend in 19 Turn Sedan, and was able to take TQ. Modified Sedan was taken by Chris Tossolini in the last round over drivers Blackstock, Burch and me. Congratulations to all top qualifiers of the event and drivers who made it in the a-mains. It was a very hard race due to the fast and deadly track. The scoring system displayed its ugly side again, and race officials were forced to calculate and set up the mains manually Saturday night.
3/20/05
Sunday morning, the day of the mains, racing was delayed again because the scoring system wouldnâ™t organize the triple a mains and kept on crashing. At this point the track owner, George, was ready to have a break down again so I stepped in to help resolve the problems. There were triple a-mains with lower mains in between each set of Aâ™s. The first A-main was supposed to start at 9:30 am but ended up not starting until 11:30 am due to problems with the scoring system and a protest of someone not making the main that should have. The protest went well for the driver who ended up in the main but unfortunate for the driver that received the bad news of being bumped out of the main. The mains had delays in between each of them giving drivers no time frame of when to charge batteries, sauce there tires etc. When all the mains were finally done at 10 pm, the winners of the classes were rewarded with a bowling trophy. Congratulations to all the winners and see you at the next race.
Mike Dumas |
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