Looks like I'm going racing again!

[xjtorc]

It's been a couple years since I've participated in any racing, but I'll be making my grand return this May! Lured back to it in the most unexpected way possible...by my daughter!

For months now, she's been having a lot of fun ripping our Slash around the yard. She watches me drive it and asks for a lot of driving tips and techniques so she can drive it faster, like me. The other day, at HobbyTown, she saw the flyer for their parking lot series kicking off in May and was immediately sold on the idea of entering the races.

She turns 11 next month and modified her birthday list after seeing the flyer and window shopping some trucks while we were at HT. "RC RACE TRUCK" is at the very top of her list now lol.

We're going to get her an Arrma Fury 223S BLX 2WD and a transponder. Her very own racer, in her favorite color.

I'll be racing my S-Box Slash alongside her in the 2WD SCT class and I'll also run my Cleetus Nascar in that "exhibition" class for fun. Life has been lifing pretty hard on our family lately. I'm very excited about marking 2 dates on the calendar to tune everything out and spend the day racing with my daughter.

 

[Ritz413]

Good luck to you both!!

 

[HPIguy]

Enjoy!! Man I miss racing, but nowhere anywhere close to here to do that anymore.

 

[Chubaka]

Looks like we got a couple racists on here.

Good luck on your endeavors.

 

[Xraycer]

That's awesome!

 

[xjtorc]

Enjoy!! Man I miss racing, but nowhere anywhere close to here to do that anymore.

I hear that. We'll be driving an hour down the road for the May 3rd race and 2 hours for May 17th.

 

[HPIguy]

I hear that. We'll be driving an hour down the road for the May 3rd race and 2 hours for May 17th.

I don't even think there's anything that close to us here in podunk. LOL

 

[CreepyQuarryCrawler]

Good luck to you guys!! Love the story!

I was considering going back to 1/10 dirt because I have gear, tires, batteries, etc.
The track would have been 40-45min away in a small town. I just found out at the swap meet that this past season was their last.
1/10 racing is dead here, unfortunately.

 

[9x19]

I hear that. We'll be driving an hour down the road for the May 3rd race and 2 hours for May 17th.

Are we there yet?
Are we there yet?
Are we there yet?
Are we there yet?
Are we there yet?
Are we there yet?
Are we there yet?
Are we there yet?

Good luck... with the races and the commute!

 

[xjtorc]

Good luck to you guys!! Love the story!

I was considering going back to 1/10 dirt because I have gear, tires, batteries, etc.
The track would have been 40-45min away in a small town. I just found out at the swap meet that this past season was their last.
1/10 racing is dead here, unfortunately.

That sucks!

 

[xjtorc]

We're racing this Sunday!

We had a change of plans on her birthday gift and I did not get her the Arrma Fury. (really didn't want to blow the whole birthday gift budget on a single gift) so I gave her my Slash with a new body instead! She's majorly into dragons, loves VW Beetles, and green is her favorite color...so the body was a no-brainer. I airbrushed the dragon scales using a stencil I 3D printed and it turned out pretty sick!

We went to a commuter lot last night, drew a track in chalk, and practiced for a couple hours. She got her first scratches, worked on throttle control, and pulled off some awesome launches over top of my Nascar when I started putting pressure on her lol. I'm printing some limiters for the Slash shocks to lower the suspension and help with the traction rolls. By the end of our practice session, she was wheeling that thing. If I improve its handling a bit and she can drive it even harder into the turns, she's 100% going to be competitive.

To-do list before Sunday:

• Print and install Slash shock limiters and heavier shock oil
• Get softer tires for the Nascar
  • Break in the tires
• Cross our fingers and hope Hobbytown still has two transponders in stock Sunday morning

 

[Ritz413]

Go get em!! Looks great!

 

[Lostinthewoods86]

using a stencil I 3D printed

Are you designing them or just grabbing the files of the web? (And where if the latter )

 

[xjtorc]

Are you designing them or just grabbing the files of the web? (And where if the latter )

I started with this:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2914432

Had to size it up a bit in the slicer to get what I wanted.

 

[xjtorc]

To-do list before Sunday:

• Print and install Slash shock limiters and heavier shock oil
• Get softer tires for the Nascar
• Break in the tires - doing later today
• Cross our fingers and hope Hobbytown still has two transponders in stock Sunday morning - called Hobbytown yesterday and the person I spoke to didn't know what I was talking about. AWESOME . Edit: Ordered them online for store pickup. Will grab them Sunday morning.

 

[xjtorc]

We took the rigs out to the commuter lot again last night. Broke in the new tires on the Nascar (sticky!) and my daughter tested out the suspension changes on her Slash. Now, when she makes a u-turn at full throttle, it just diffs out instead of violently hurtling itself toward the ankles of innocent bystanders. Perfect!

 

[xjtorc]

We out here!

You can follow along live if you have some time to burn!

Hobbytown VA LiveRC

Lucy Orlando in SCT and Jason Orlando in NASCAR

So far, my daughter ran her first qualifier and did GREAT!

 

[xjtorc]

Race Report:
(sorry for the book, it was a very eventful and exciting day)

WHAT A DAY! My poor daughter had an awesome, yet terrible day of racing. Let me tell you, she was WHEELING that Slash...when it wasn't broken.
There were 34 Nascar entries broken out into groups of 12(ish).
There were 24 SCT entries broken out into 3 groups of 8.
It was a long, awesome day.

Practice

• The SCT group was limited to a 10-minute practice window before the qualifiers started. She threw her truck out on the track and, immediately, the bell crank snapped. I didn't have eyes on the truck when it happened. She said she was just driving along....suuuuuure. Reason #1 there's no better place to hold a race than in the parking lot of a Hobbytown: I was able to run inside and buy a new bell crank and get it slapped on the truck before her qual heat #1.
• All of the on-road cars ran together for practice. I put mine out on the track and it was like driving a car on ice skates. The asphalt was too cold for the rabid chihuahua that is the Losi Nascar. I was diffing out in turns like crazy. It didn't want to go straight because the tires were losing so much traction on the cold asphalt. The sun was shining and it was supposed to warm up as the day progressed, so I did a few laps to learn the layout and called it before I broke something.

Qualifier #1

• SCT: I told her to use her qualifier as practice. Get used to the track and get faster as she felt comfortable. She warmed right up, real fast and finished the qual in 6th place and was absolutely ecstatic that she did not get last place. I liked where the day was heading!
• Nascar: The track had warmed up enough for the car to mostly stick. There was one particular section of the track shaded by trees where my car would spin a 180 for what seemed like no apparent reason. I think the tires were grabbing the asphalt and slipping on the paint that outlines the parking spots. That's literally the only thing I can figure because the car was totally fine everywhere else on the track with only the occasional spin out, here and there. I went back to the pits and took some preload out of my shocks, hoping to remove some of the stiffness.

Qualifier #2

• SCT: She got 1.5 laps in, had several impacts with other drivers and the wall, breaking a steering knuckle and getting a DNF. She was upset but knew we could fix it and get her back out for the main.
• Nascar: The suspension changed worked very nicely. I was haul assin this qualifier. Started 3rd and finished 3rd (out of 12) with the fastest lap of the race. The car was hooked up! I came off the driver stand amped up and excited for the mains.

SCT C-Main

• With a brand-new aluminum bell crank shining and 2 fresh steering knuckles...what else could go wrong!? She was starting in 7th. I explained to her the benefit of the first turn pile up...wait for everyone in front of you to crash, then thread the needle. The horn blows, the turn-one demolition derby transpires, and she does exactly what I told her to, right past the field. By the third lap, she was leading the race and had the fast lap. Then disaster struck...she accidentally spun out in a corner and got smashed into by another truck, breaking her rear axle carrier.

• She limped the truck off the track and was crushed. I felt so bad, she was so upset...it sucked. You can see her rise from last to first in just 3 laps in the race data (#7 on the Y axis).

Losi Nascar B-Main

• I went into the B-Main feeling myself...I was going to win and bump into the A-main and I was sure of it. Then disaster struck (theme of the day...had to happen, right?) I started 4th out of 13 and finished 11th. I almost pulled the car back in on the first lap because it felt broken. Something was causing one of my rear tires to lock up sporadically. I was pissed but powered through because I didn't want to waste the race. I get the car back to me at the end and and see that my battery's balance plug is hanging out of the body and is wedged between the tire and the chassis and it's ground down from dragging on the asphalt I almost burnt the track down!

All in all, we had a really fun day. Ended with a broken pile of parts that @majin would be proud of, and had a ton of fun. I have loved racing since I was around her age and I'm so happy I get to share it with her, the same way my dad did with me way back when. On the ride home, once the sting of her bad day at the track wore off, she admitted that she had way more fun than she expected to have and she can't wait to do it again.

I have some video footage of different runs that I'll be putting together and uploading to YouTube. I'll share once it's done.

 

[Doom!]

Despite all the mishaps, still cool that you guys had a great day!

 

[majin]

bro what a day!!!! stoked to watch those vids!