WRM's third 1/8 scale Buggy season.

[RustyUs]

The first 2026 Stl Dirtburners race is in the books. I only ran EB, and we had 4 classes/5 heats (2 X EB, NB, ET, Novice), it being a weeknight and all. I felt pretty good in the first qualifier round, couldn't get my head into the second qualifier (lots of brain farts/mistakes), then did OK in the main. Finished right there with my racing buddies Randy and Greg (we finished within 13 seconds of each other in the Main). I finished all three races and didn't break anything, which is always my first goal, with a fast lap of 34.219 sec.

https://stlouisdirtburners.liverc.com/results/

One of my G2Smart 4S packs finally gave up, it would start out OK but lose power after only 7 or 8 laps. It wouldn't go completely dead it just had reduced power to the point where it wouldn't even make the double jumps at full throttle. That was the second time I noticed that with that pack, so I'll put it on the smart charger tonight and check its' "health" but won't be racing with it again. That leaves me with three packs - one G2 and two Fantoms, so definitely going to get another pair of packs soon to get me through the season (they will not be G2 packs). If anyone has some suggestions, please let me know - a hard case non-shorty 4S 5000 mAh/100C or better with bullet sockets.

Supposed to rain tomorrow and Saturday, so next race should be April 18th (weather permitting?).

Cheers,

What internal resistance (IR) numbers are you getting on the cells?

 

[WRM]

What internal resistance (IR) numbers are you getting on the cells?

I really haven't measured it, so no idea.

When I put the non-smart batteries (regular balance cable) on the smartcharger, it shows me each cell's voltage when I turn it on. It will not do that with smart batteries? I also thought I could see the battery's history and parameters, such as cycles charged, max temp, health of each cell, etc., but there is no such feature - the "history" is of the charger itself! That says I've used it for 198 charge cycles, but no way to tell how many charges per pack.

The G2 pack that showed reduced power/performance was at 27% when I hooked it up last night (should still have had plenty of power). I discharged it so it's ready for disposal. Both of my Fantoms (one ran 5 min. qual, one ran 6 min. main) had over 50% left when I hooked them up, so they should get through two 5-minute Quals or a long main.

Still haven't decided on replacements, yet.

Since the weather forecast improved, they may try to run tomorrow's race afterall but not sure if I'll make that one.

 

[WRM]

Yeah, I went to Fantom's website to see what possible packs you currently have and saw the same thing... no 4S LiPo batteries listed. I don't do any club racing anymore. I was never the type to get top dollar high end gear nor could I afford it. I mainly just run my RCs on medium size backyard track. I do run try to run them hard at times when track is damp/conditions are right. I only got one 100' straightaway to open things up. I could see myself running some Zeee, or Ovonic 4S packs. I mean, I already have two Zeee 4S packs that I use in my EB48/ET48 rides and they serve me well.
View attachment 271069View attachment 271070
There's probably no way that I'd run the above packs at a race. Meh, it wouldn't make a difference with my old man driving skills... not until I get acclimated again. Definitely would be steppin' up my game and getting something in the 5500mAh range for buggy and 7000mAh for truggy for 10-minute mains. Even though "C" discharge numbers are bogus, I'd still try to get the highest C rated packs I could afford.

I've always wanted to try SMC Racing's packs. They usually get good reviews until someone comments about one in a "What's the best battery to get?" type post/thread. Like I said before, somebody has had a bad experience with every battery that gets posted in the comments. But, in your case, you're searching for 4S packs with inboard bullets, I don't think SMC has any... at least last time I looked.

Bullets or EC-5s (ESC)....

Here's my "stable" of LiPOs - charging them now for tomorrow (I can charge between heats). I think I'll try to do both NB & EB?...

 

[WRM]

Perfect racing conditions yesterday - 70F, mostly cloudy with spot rain. I got there at 0850 (CDT) to set up for noon Quals (we got started at 1240). Tune on the NB was about perfect and EB needed no work since the Wed. race. It wasn't my center diff that was causing the funky drive-train "snags" - Randy noticed that the front driveshaft-pinion setscrew was loose, so loctite and re-torqued (much better!). That was the first time I'd raced NB since June 2025, and it felt good. Only had one flameout (after the pitstop/refuel in the Main) - I got hit in midair on a jump and took a bad impact/needed the turn-marshall, and it stalled shortly after his putting it back on track. Nothing broke and I finished each of my runs, what a difference since I started out.

Candy posted some pit pics:
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1459873712605825&set=pcb.1459874699272393

Best lap times EB/NB (Pros run 26/27 sec. laps):

Qual 1: 34.195/33.604
Qual 2: 32.881/33.928
Qual 3: 33.808/33.103
Mains: 33.708/34.307

Instead of focusing on going faster, I need to try to keep my "bad laps" to a minimum - keep them under 40 seconds.

Extended forecast does not look good for next week's race.

Cheers,

 

[RustyUs]

Perfect racing conditions yesterday - 70F, mostly cloudy with spot rain. I got there at 0850 (CDT) to set up for noon Quals (we got started at 1240). Tune on the NB was about perfect and EB needed no work since the Wed. race. It wasn't my center diff that was causing the funky drive-train "snags" - Randy noticed that the front driveshaft-pinion setscrew was loose, so loctite and re-torqued (much better!). That was the first time I'd raced NB since June 2025, and it felt good. Only had one flameout (after the pitstop/refuel in the Main) - I got hit in midair on a jump and took a bad impact/needed the turn-marshall, and it stalled shortly after his putting it back on track. Nothing broke and I finished each of my runs, what a difference since I started out.

Candy posted some pit pics:
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1459873712605825&set=pcb.1459874699272393

Best lap times EB/NB (Pros run 26/27 sec. laps):

Qual 1: 34.195/33.604
Qual 2: 32.881/33.928
Qual 3: 33.808/33.103
Mains: 33.708/34.307

Instead of focusing on going faster, I need to try to keep my "bad laps" to a minimum - keep them under 40 seconds.

Extended forecast does not look good for next week's race.

Cheers,

Those setscrews get extra attention whenever I get to them in a build/rebuild. Clean/degrease both sets of threads before threadlocker applied. I'm here to say and admit that I use red threadlocker on those set screws since like 2016-ish. I thought I was the only one with issues when it came to diff couplers and their set screws. They cost me $$$ when one came loose and lead to the diff ring and pinion gear, gearbox, bearings chaos I felt better after finding out/knowing Tebo uses red threadlocker on his diff pinion gear couplers/uni driveshaft set screws. I'm not trying to say you should do it, it's just I'm OCD about it and my bad experience cost me money which I had not planned on. Also, opened my eyes to better post run inspections.

Yes, those lil' bobbles on the track can make a person push too hard trying to catch back up.

What turnbuckle is that?

My buddy went straight to Titanium - that part is from his TeknoRC EB48 2.2 kit. This is the first time I'd had a top-link failure, but I guess there were enough failures for them to upgrade w/larger diameter shafts (same square/wrench)?

It looks like rain again this weekend so stldirtburners is having a Wed. night race this week (Quals @ 6:30 p.m.) - one Qual round, then Mains. I plan to run only EB because it's easier/less gear and I wonder if they'll have enough bodies (people) for racers/pits/turn marshals for Nitro? My buddy says he probably isn't going, so I won't have my usual "Pit crew".

I'm guessing they'll have the timer turned on for practice around 5 but doubt they'll have the camera turned on - I've only seen that for big events.

https://stlouisdirtburners.liverc.com/

Now I know why your new turnbuckle seemed thicker than what's on my EB48 2.0... it's because they are thicker... a full one millimeter thicker Tekno must have done a running change of the turnbuckles after the NB/EB48 2.1 platforms

 

[WRM]

They posted some more pics on Facebook, here are a couple I snagged. I'm probably putting the body on the EB in the first one.

 

[WRM]

One more interesting note about yesterday - there was a "Significant Physics Event" (one EB crashed into another) that immediately triggered smoke/fire in one of said cars. From our pit, I saw the impact/initial smoke, but they dragged/moved it to the far corner, so I didn't see the "result" (scrap/trash?). Great big cloud of nasty smoke lingered for a few minutes, then we moved on.

 

[WRM]

Saturday's race was rained out, so we had a make-up race tonight, and tried the new "head-to-head" racing format. Instead of spacing everyone out like we do in the quals, we lined up on the straight and everybody took off at the buzzer, like the mains, but instead of stopping at the first lap after the timer/buzzer, we ran two more laps. It really didn't matter to me, I'm always in last place by the end of the first lap, anyway!...

I only ran EB. First race felt (was) best, needed too much turn-marshal help in second and third races. Times are improving - fastest lap/Average:

Race 1 - 31.715/34.649 Sec.
Race 2 - 31.466/37.539
Main - 32.289/39.212

In all three races I could notice a loss of power at the end of the run, so still wanting to find a couple new packs.

So far this season I've finished every one of my races, so now that I said it, I expect a break/DNF soon?

Forecast is looking better for this weekend, so we may race Saturday? Candace was taking pics, so I'll see if there are any good ones to share when she posts them.

 

[WRM]

The track got over an inch of rain on Friday morning, so they moved the Saturday start time back to 1500 to let it dry. There were mud puddles a few inches deep on the track when I arrived at 1245, so didn't even bother unloading. They spread some peat moss on the bad areas of the track and straw on the infield mud and opened up for practice at 1430. Track did seem OK, so I did some practice with EB and signed up to run both EB & NB. Racing finally started around 1630 - two Qual rounds then Mains.

They changed the order after posting and forgot to tell everyone, so thought I was in the second heat (EB 1/2) and ran that Qual pretty well, but it didn't count - I was supposed to be in the third heat (EB 2/2)! Didn't have time to change batteries, so just ran back-to-back with one of my Fantom packs, and though I noticed some power loss at the end (had to single some of the doubles), I was still able to complete that Qual (on "fumes"). I did have a flame-out on my second NB Qual at around 4:30 in, and my pit buddy had already put the stuff away, so did not re-start to finish that Qual. I knew I shouldn't have said anything about finishing all of my runs this season! I really like how the NB is tuned and got through another race day without breaking anything. Ran my new Redline 4S pack in the EB Main, no issues.

Fantom vs. Redline - the Redline balancing cable looks just like the Fantom cable (same connectors & five black wires). When I went to charge the Redline for the first time I simply used my Fantom cable, but charger showed an error that there was no balancing cable, so I swapped to the cable included with the Redline battery and it worked. Closer inspection showed that the two cables are wired differently - Fantom is wired Pin 1 of one end to pin 1 of the other end, while the Redline is wired pin 1 to pin 5! I wrapped some tape around the Redline cable to be able to tell the difference. One of the other racers mentioned that his Redline wouldn't balance charge, either, so I told him about the cable wiring (he was thankful for the info!). I only knew to check the pin conventions because of my work assembling model railroad DCC cables.

No new personal best laps and too many "slow" laps but still learning (fastest lap - laps/time):

EB Q1 - 33.850 Sec. - 8/5:01.532
NB Q1 - 34.243 - 9/5:25.589
EB Q2 - 32.740 - 9/5:34.131
NB Q2 - 33.722 - 7/4:07.365 (Flamed-out/DNF)
EB B-Main - 32.637 - 11/7:23.473
NB B-Main - 34.350 - 16/10:23.224

With the flame-out yesterday, I've finished 19 of 20 Quals/Races this season, and I'm OK with that (better than expected). You can't finish first if you don't first finish!...

Cheers,

 

[WRM]

Saturday's StLDB race got rained out - "make up" race is tomorrow night (7 p.m. CDT), and I need pit/refuel/chase for the NB if anyone isn't doing anything?...

I hadn't planned on going, but why not? Charging batteries and packing up.

 

[WRM]

Not tonight... I'd planned to pack the car before work this morning, go to work, then to the track. Discharging packs back to "storage".

My 90 yo father called this morning at 4:45 - he felt uncomfortable (abdominal), so called 911 and they took him to ER for tests. UTI and some enzymes elevated - Dr. said "I'll admit you, or you can go home" (of course "go home"). After telling one of my buddies about it, he told me how serious that UTIs can be, so glad we went.

Next Race Saturday (weather permitting?).

 

[WRM]

Quals were scheduled to start at 1300 yesterday. I was at the track at 1030 and we got some practice in around 1100 - I only ran EB, as I wanted to leave most of the gear in the car because the RADAR showed more storms and rain coming in, which it did. It rained from Noon until 1330 and they opened the track for practice at 1400, so I ran NB only this practice (several tanks of fuel). We started Quals at 1600 (2 rds vs. 3) and finished a little after 2000. The track had fantastic grip, and they didn't have to water it at all.

EB Q1 - fastest lap 32.405 seconds, 8 laps in 5:06.014. Lost my LF shock standoff screw half-way through!
NB Q1 - 31.405, 9/5:24.451
EB Q2 - 29.661 (my first sub 30 second lap!), 9/5:06.358
NB Q2 - 33.566, 8/5:14.321 (Too "Rich")
EB B-main - 31.583, 10/5:50.969
NB A-main - 32.153, 24/14:59.790. Ran out of fuel in the corner right before the finish line on my 25th lap?

They delayed the new track build, so next race is this Saturday at 1300 (weather permitting).

 

[WRM]

Practiced this morning with my buddy (and "Chris"), racing tomorrow @1300. The only batteries that haven't fully charged are the igniter Tenergy "D-Cell"s. I only took EB and three packs to practice. Had "glitchy" throttle, sometimes "slow with all she's got", but this dummy finally figured it out - my battery "bullets" need more "tension" (enter utility knife). We shall see?...

Ordered a case (12) of VP Racing 30% RL quarts and some spare parts from A-main today (ouch!)....

Cheers,

 

[WRM]

Turns out that bullet connector wasn't the problem, and it wasn't a sensor cable, either, so probably time for a new ESC....

Got to the track at 1020, had lunch, set up pits. Tried EB, didn't get a lap in, switched to NB and did a tank of fuel for practice*. Started Quals right at 1300, had 5 heats (2 X EB, 1 X NB, 1 X Novice, 1 X Truggy). Hot and humid (80F), overcast. Went smoothly, finished up at 1930.

NB Q1 - Fastest lap 30.903 seconds, 9 laps in 5:40.207 (had one flame-out)
NB Q2 - 32.270, 9/5:30.825
NB Q3 - 33.050, 9/516.936
NB A-main - 32.464, 25/15:00.285

I liked only running one class (when we only have 5 heats), and not sure when EB will be on the track again (DEFINITELY prefer running Nitro and liked my tune today).

Next race is "Friday Night Madness" next week before they rebuild the course.

(Edited to add) * Practice lap times - knew I could do the 15 minute main with one refuel/stop.

15 Laps 9:26

Fast: 32.709 Avg: 37.751

 

[WRM]

Candace already posted some pics to Facebook - "our" pit....

 

[WRM]

One more "fun" story?...

My NB buddy Mike and I were practically equal in the Quals:

Q1, me by ~1/2 lap.
Q2, me, by ~1/4 lap.
He asked me to help him tune his engine, we leaned idle mixture 3 hrs. When I heard it running in warm up for Q3, told him another hour lean on idle.
Q3, me by 1.431 seconds, and his tune was better.

He said he's had lots of folks help him tune, but I'm the first one that explained "what the needles do".

 

[RustyUs]

Practiced this morning with my buddy (and "Chris"), racing tomorrow @1300. The only batteries that haven't fully charged are the igniter Tenergy "D-Cell"s. I only took EB and three packs to practice. Had "glitchy" throttle, sometimes "slow with all she's got", but this dummy finally figured it out - my battery "bullets" need more "tension" (enter utility knife). We shall see?...

Ordered a case (12) of VP Racing 30% RL quarts and some spare parts from A-main today (ouch!)....

Cheers,

Turns out that bullet connector wasn't the problem, and it wasn't a sensor cable, either, so probably time for a new ESC....

Got to the track at 1020, had lunch, set up pits. Tried EB, didn't get a lap in, switched to NB and did a tank of fuel for practice*. Started Quals right at 1300, had 5 heats (2 X EB, 1 X NB, 1 X Novice, 1 X Truggy). Hot and humid (80F), overcast. Went smoothly, finished up at 1930.

NB Q1 - Fastest lap 30.903 seconds, 9 laps in 5:40.207 (had one flame-out)
NB Q2 - 32.270, 9/5:30.825
NB Q3 - 33.050, 9/516.936
NB A-main - 32.464, 25/15:00.285

I liked only running one class (when we only have 5 heats), and not sure when EB will be on the track again (DEFINITELY prefer running Nitro and liked my tune today).

Next race is "Friday Night Madness" next week before they rebuild the course.

(Edited to add) * Practice lap times - knew I could do the 15 minute main with one refuel/stop.

15 Laps 9:26

Fast: 32.709 Avg: 37.751

No doubt about it... it's great to have spares. I'm a big fan of having "backups"/known components that are good to go when I gotta try diagnosing an issue.

Have you noticed your glitching throttle issue is happening with just one or all of your batteries? If you think it could be just one battery... maybe open up the battery and look at the connections to the internal bullets.

 

[WRM]

No doubt about it... it's great to have spares. I'm a big fan of having "backups"/known components that are good to go when I gotta try diagnosing an issue.

Have you noticed your glitching throttle issue is happening with just one or all of your batteries? If you think it could be just one battery... maybe open up the battery and look at the connections to the internal bullets.

I'm a 2 is 1 and 1 is none type of person and do like to have spares. I could have pulled the ESC/Motor/Servo out of the SCT and swapped it over, but didn't have the motovation.

The "glitch" is that under throttle the power would intermittently cut-out (all or nothing). When it has power, the motor pulls strong, so I think it's fine. I checked all of the connections, and they seem to be fine. I switched the sensor cable and that didn't make a difference. It happened with all three of the battery packs that I took to practice on Friday. I don't think it's the Tx, because no issues when I ran the NB. That only leaves one thing it could be - the ESC? My buddy said when his went out it had the same symptoms mine has.

Appreciate the suggestion and wish that was it!

 

[WRM]

BlazeRC posted more photos to facebook - one of NB and pretty good Turn Marshal pics

.

 

[WRM]

They posted another round of pics from Saturday - "Say When" badly needs a bath! There was a big mud-puddle inside the sweep turn, and yes, I landed in that once or thrice. My front lower control arms were completely covered with mud, you could not see any plastic....

Neat pic of four in the air.