Carpet Munching

[Doom!]

Are you sure you didn't enter the demolition derby by mistake?

 

[Iowa crawler]

My legend is a green number six to look like a pool ball for a reason. Next paint job will look dice. Because it’s a roll of the dice every lap.

 

[WickedFog]

Brutality that’s is all I can say about todays racing.

We started late because of snow. Turned on the heat and I guess that makes the track fast. I started off the Legend first heat and the servo saver would not stay centered so I battled to a forth place finish in that heat. I replaced the servo saver and was cruising along in the second heat when I got bumped , hit the wall and lost the right front wheel. Don’t want to mess up the carpet so I pulled out.
I keep hubs ready to go so I replaced the right front wheel and was ready for the main event. It’s a 75 lap main and I was not going to push my luck so I was in second or third place for like sixty laps. The main has six cars and qualifiers are four cars. Cars are bouncing all over the place and with like twenty laps to go I take a hit and actually break my left king pin. That has never happened before and the car did not really slow down ..it just pulled left really bad. So I held right in the straight and let up for the turns and finished fourth.

Then the USAC midget was the same thing . First qualifying run I hit the wall and lost a wheel. Second qualifying round I was second. And the 75 lap Main has my eyes still stinging. I got second place but it was a wild fight six starts, five finished and everyone crash and was leading at some point. I chunked a tire on the inside somehow?

The modified had a broken wheel in the first qualifying round. Second place in the second qualifier and then second place in the main event.

I need some tires and I already ordered the king pins they will be in Wednesday.
Next race is Friday night.

View attachment 158923

Don't they have snacks there? If not, you gotta take some with you so you stop eating your tires

 

[Iowa crawler]

I spent all day in the shop yesterday working on everything. My motto is the harder you work in the shop the better your luck at the track. So far in practice everything is spot on. Let’s see how it is at the end of the day.

 

[Iowa crawler]

Today and Friday had to be the most fun ever.
The highlight was the legend car. It was running really good before Friday and I changed the tires around. I need new tires but put in what I had left over. It was all over the place. Still managed a decent showing but it needed work. Saturday was snowing so I spent all day working on the car. I hard wired the motor and shortened all the servo and ESC leads. I moved the electronics to the left rear of the chassis.
I also cleaned and polished everything to get ready for Sundays big race.
I went out in the first heat and the car was flying. I won the heat handily . But I had two other cars running and forgot to charge my batteries for the second heat and finished fourth. That bumped me to the B-Main pole position. I won the B-Main in a very clean race. And that got me to last place in the A- Main.
We started out the 75 lap main event and there was a couple crashes and I managed to work my way up to third then second and the leaded who is also the points leader was ahead of me. We hit lapped traffic and I squeezed around him into first place when a car cut the ice and took out the front three cars on the last lap. The pole sitter was in fourth place. He got first . I was in first and got third and second held on to second after the carpet fuff cleared. What a race.

The break out racing is getting under my skin. I finished in the top three and was leading the race when I broke out. Top two drivers had 60 laps and I had 59 after loosing the lap on the last lap I must have been half a lap ahead. Bang! one mistake and your done.

 

[Iowa crawler]

First day racing oval at the new track. It’s bigger and different. 5.5 seconds is a fast lap. I’m running consistently 6 seconds plus or minus 2.

 

[Iowa crawler]

New track needs some breaking in but it was so much fun to race on a different track with a different view. Longer straightaway made the timing different. But that’s racing . I got a 123 finishes but everyone was struggling and it was a tough day.

Got a couple action shots.

 

[Doom!]

Nice, it's good to change it up, keeps you on your toe's.

 

[Iowa crawler]

They ran a 4 tec class. I wish I would have known. With the bumpy track they had no problems at all. Cranking low five second laps. I will be able to use my 4 tec every Saturday except when they have off road. Then I run three classes of buggies. That’s an exhausting w.
Friday 3 oval classes 9 heat 3 mains
Saturday off-road carpet 9 classes 3 A-mains maybe 1 B-main
Sunday oval 3 classes 9 heats 3 mains
That’s 30-36 races over three days.
When I run on road it’s just one class and I marshal all day.

 

[Doom!]

Just don't burn yourself out.

 

[Iowa crawler]

Good advice,I know that’s is a thing. I’m having fun and now I don’t really need to buy new cars so my focus has shifted from building cars to using the cars. I can race all this year with out really much more expense. And I don’t have a lot of others commitments.

 

[Iowa crawler]

I don’t want to damage the blue / heavy / high center of gravity body that is also expensive. So I pulled the body from my VTA car . Lighter lower and already trashed. Come on Friday night and Saturday on road carpet racing. Sunday is pan car breakout and legends. So a pretty full weekend coming up.

 

[Iowa crawler]

Back to the Sunday morning pan car racing. Theses guys are serious nations champions so I gotta bring my A game.
I also rented a pit spot for the year so I can have a pit spot for the 200 lap race next week.
Today is a final shake down and first test all in one.

 

[Iowa crawler]

Totally awesome day for my new breakout car and with my Busch lite car I got third place.
My Legend car was having a terrible problem with pushing. I had like 90% steering rate and the wheels would turn so far it was slowing me down. Normally it is like 60-70%
So I finished forth.
I looked at the front suspension plate and it is very loose in the frame. I am going to rebuild it with a different front end from the modified and the sprint car. That gives me some tuning options.

 

[Doom!]

Sounds like you've been kickin' some butt out there!

 

[Iowa crawler]

Going to be a big fun night. Tested my breakout car with another 200 lap test. Broke out twice. But knew when I was doing it.
This is a four class night since I’m adding 4 tec to the normal 3 RJ speed cars.

 

[Iowa crawler]

Home at midnight after that race. I got first place with the sprint car and that’s important because I’m leading in the points.
The 4 tec in its second race got second place. The legend got second place out of a CRaZY seven car field.
And my little modified was absolutely flying . It crushed the first heat. Then a national champion showed up late. So we went at it for fifty laps and he got hit by a slower car right at the end. I felt bad for him. He really was winning. But that was just the last qualifying heat. The seventy five lap main was super fast. We took off and just kept at it. He got bumped and I got away. Leading about 50 laps. Then right at the end I blasted across the ice and flipped. The marshal was a little slow getting me back up and I finished a very happy second place. So it evened out. And Sunday we shall meet again.

 

[Doom!]

It's always fun when you've got a good rival that makes you work for it.

 

[Iowa crawler]

Actually I’m making him work for it. He is really good. I’m just nipping at his heals and getting in the way.

 

[Iowa crawler]

Sunday morning RJ Speed day and breakout. I’m running four cars now with the breakout car running two days a week. It’s dialed in and really trying not to rip the wheels off in the last lap.

But everything is running well at this point. I’m going to need make an investment in tires. I’m running on some pretty ruff tires. On a positive side I don’t hit the walls as much as I was.
Currently I am running first in the sprint car points. Third with the RJ modified and fifth with the Legend. I fixed my steering issues and it should do better in that class. It’s a wild class because the skill of the field varies widely and there are like fifteen cars so it has B and C mains sometimes.
I did upgrade my pit with a tower to charge the batteries.