Dirt racing newbie

[Iowa crawler]

I have been trying to get racing for a couple years. In 2022 it finally happened and I finally got everything set up and I’m three races into the season. We race twice a month.

The track is ten minutes from my house and has a great bunch of people to race with. I started with a Techno SCT410.3 and it love it. But as soon as I spotted the buggy’s I had to have one. So I got used EB410 and an Associated B6.3D and have been tuning them. And learning to drive.

 

[STONER RC]

I have been trying to get racing for a couple years. In 2022 it finally happened and I finally got everything set up and I’m three races into the season. We race twice a month.

The track is ten minutes from my house and has a great bunch of people to race with. I started with a Techno SCT410.3 and it love it. But as soon as I spotted the buggy’s I had to have one. So I got used EB410 and an Associated B6.3D and have been tuning them. And learning to drive.

Thats awesome bud. Wish I had a track around my house or near it. Hope you have a great time learning and driving good luck what type of fuel you running??

 

[Iowa crawler]

Thats awesome bud. Wish I had a track around my house or near it. Hope you have a great time learning and driving good luck what type of fuel you running??

I had to look it up. And I’m surprised Iowa is 57% wind and 23 % coal for electricity generation.

 

[Tunedfrog]

Our closest track is in Boise which is an hour 1/2 from me.

 

[Iowa crawler]

When I raced motorcycles, one track was 800 miles away the other was 2100 miles. I put 670,000 miles on my Astro van. I definitely like this better.

 

[Iowa crawler]

Awesome day so far. I have two goals and that is to get in the top three in the qualifying round and then make it to a main event. Second goal is a 20 second lap. I finally got a 20.7 in my 4WD buggy. Now I need to go sub 20 second.

 

[Iowa crawler]

That was a great time. 8:00 am through till 6:00 pm. When I’m not racing I’m marshaling the corners. Sunburned windburn and smiling. That’s a good day. I finished really well in my qualifying rounds always in top three or four. But after all the qualifiers are done I’m close to last place. I’m good with that because my last place is because I’m slow not because I crash. I got taken out a couple times but I’m really working on consistent laps and bringing down the lap times over all is my main objective.
I am totally stoked to get a 20.7 lap. 19.9 next time.

 

[Iowa crawler]

I think I have settled on a color for my race team next year.

Story time….

When I was pretty young I had a Tamiya Frog and wanted to convert it to road. We had a parking lot to race on. So I painted a road body yellow and backed it with silver. I was very surprised to see the shimmering gold color. Fast forward I am looking at the colors for my race cars, and have been for months. I was looking at a 1972 corvette with all matching numbers bla, bla, bla. But it was the same color as the old road body I painted years ago. And the color is called War Bonnet yellow. So I went about trying to replicate the color on scrap Lexan. I tried a couple different ones and nothing was working so I went on line to see if Tamiya makes a metallic yellow ps paint. It has to be translucent . Or it looks splotchy when you back it. And I tried translucent yellow and it is not right. Then I found PS19 called Camel yellow. I did not know camels are yellow. I quickly found out Ayrton Senna drove a Yellow F1 car sponsored by Camel Cigarette company. And it was yellow. So I think I’m going to go with Camel yellow backed with silver. On two buggies and a short corse truck.

The end.

 

[Doom!]

Yellow is a good high vis color on a crowded track, solid choice.

 

[Iowa crawler]

ok that’s was the real reason. But with a name like war bonnet I was hooked.
This is it.

 

[Iowa crawler]

I decided to up grade my 4wD buggy chassis to the 410.2. I am going to use the 410 for carpet later. I just built the 410.2 kit using all my upgraded parts and making a new set up sheet.
The different between the two chassis is subtle. Most parts interchange but not a bunch of important parts. There are a ton of reviews on line about the 410vs 410.2. Building it up close, I like how the shock towers are not carbon fiber. They are injected nylon. Flexible. light enough but super durable. And they don’t bolt to the differential like a flat plat with screws. The parts interlock and the screws hold the parts together.
With my old electronics and wheels the weight came in at 1818 grams. 1613 is the minimum weight, so a little heavy but it’s solid.

Still dealing with color. Camel yellow PS19 is a great color but it’s not a translucent paint. Meaning the silver backing won’t change the color. I am still looking.

 

[Iowa crawler]

I found a can of candy yellow. It’s a transparent yellow. But like the Tamiya color when I back it with silver it turns like a nasty cross between puke green and piss yellow.

So far the Camel Yellow PS19 is the top choice. Ugh

 

[Iowa crawler]

BLUE and silver with black wheels. After all of that brain damage I realized I went through all of this when I built my SCT410.3. And I painted it blue because I just like the color.
So blue and silver will give decent visibility and I like the new Traxxas Brilliant blue.

I won’t use this body till next season. But as I destroy my other body’s I’ll upgrade the paint.

 

[Iowa crawler]

Out for a fun day at the track. The new rig feels kinda great but kinda different. The track is also pretty ruff because it has not been rolled yet. . But the weather is perfect. The track is pretty great should be a fun day

 

[ahr43]

Corn is looking good for the 4th.

 

[Iowa crawler]

As it grows it changes the way wind affects the big jumps.

 

[Iowa crawler]

Fun day today. Very large field. I did well in 4wd short corse with a second place in the B qualifier and finished the A main in fifth out of ten. Ten cars in the main event was crazy. I got fifth and sixth in the buggy race.

My new EB410.2 was a bit of a problem. The rear upper control arm is rubbing on the rims. It felt like it just would not go. It ground the pivot down and freed up for the first race and I felt pretty good. Good enough to shred the tires. Turns out I put the rear hubs on the wrong side. Swapped right to left.

I switch to J concepts double dees and they are to soft. Ballooning in the straight away really bad . I need a set of Blockades .
Track was really dusty and all the 2WD rigs suffered. I just tried to stay clean and finished mid pack. Which is great for me.
Time to clean. Next race is July 10. And it’s a real race. Today was a club race. Which also explains why I placed well. Not everyone was there.

 

[Iowa crawler]

I am really lucky I got to do the club day race. My SCT truck is a plain old workhorse of the bunch and did great.
My 2WD buggy was just super had to drive. I started looking at it and maybe adjusting the slipper some to help with the very dusty track. And I wanted ti change back to the 29 tooth gear. As soon as I gave it throttle the rear wheels started shaking so bad it fell off the tuning stand. I was shocked. I balanced the wheels and it will spin super easy and smooth. That should help next week.
Next was the 4wD buggy. Not only did I put the rear hubs on backwards but I reset my ESC. Didn’t mean to but I was resting one thing. I did not realize it reset everything. The buggy was really draggy feeling with the rear wheels rubbing on the control arms but to make matters worse throttle IP limiter and throttle rate got set to 1. The setting go from 1-20 and I reset it to ten. I had no idea what it was. Here is a link to the set up.

One makes the buggy a turd to drive. It just won’t go when you are giving it throttle. Now it punchy and should rock with new tires.

https://www.teamtrinity.com/MX-Series-ESC-Setting-Explanations-IP-Limiter-vs-Throttle-Rate_b_55.html

 

[Iowa crawler]

Snuck over to the track this morning at dawn before a monsoon rain came through. The track was in fantastic shape because people had been practicing the night before. All my problems with the 4wD buggy seem to be gone. Had to be cranking twenty second laps. It was flying.
The 2WD buggy was also going along and I was feeling confident with it. Still learning to drive that one. Next race is in four days. I hope to get new tires in time.

 

[Iowa crawler]

I decided to change the color so everything matches. I painted the outside of the 2wd and will replace that body as well as the SCT when they get destroyed. Or over winter six more races plus practice should be about it.