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July 19, 2013, 8:46 a.m.
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7/22/2013
By Mike Garrison
LiveRC.com
As the weekend has come and gone, I have continued my journey down this "Road to Onroad" by finally making my way to the local track. Any normal new comer to the sport of onroad R/C car racing might spend some time practicing and getting the hang of things before actually entering a race. I, however, felt that there is no better way to learn the ropes than to jump right in joining the local fast guys on the track for a Sunday afternoon racing.
Our maiden voyage took place at none other than Fastlane Raceway in Blue Springs, Missouri. The Fastlane facility features indoor and outdoor offroad, outdoor dirt oval, indoor carpet, and thankfully a well-stocked hobby shop. The Fastlane crew are carpet racing guru's, and were able to steer us in the right direction to get the correct tires, and even shared magical traction additive. Although an "outsider" of onroad racing world, I was welcomed with open arms by the local racers.
The day started out with the typical open practice sessions in which I waited for the minis to be on the track (I felt that I would at least be able to run with them). This was a huge mistake, as the stock Tamiya Mini racers left me in the dust. I finished up my practice session and headed back to my pits. My pit neighbor, and local Fastlane Raceway driver, Chris Henson was waiting there with a variety of contraptions and tools that I had never seen before. He asked me if I had set my ride height, camber, and toe. I responded by saying, "Yeah of course! Arms level for ride height, full droop, used a motor spray can to eyeball camber and toe." There was a long silence when he then reminded me this is NOT offroad racing. He strapped my car into this device, turning it into what appeared to be a Transformer, and began tweaking left, right, up and down.
(This photo was taken before the hitting the track. At the request of the mangled body, we did not take it's picture at the end of the day.)
I headed back out to the track for some practice, and being the only one on the track, I felt pretty good. The car handled much better, and I began getting a little cocky. I decided to take the super fast line at the end of the straight diving in and out of the chicane section. My reflexes turned out to be a minutes slower than the fast guys, and I found my car flying through the air and crashing down onto the back straightaway. After much abuse, I had finally broken the car.
With the help of Fastlane Raceway owner, Chuck Kleinhagen, and race director, Sam Reed, I was able to repair the broken car and get set for Round 1 of qualifying to begin. Just as we got set to go racing, I was invited by Howard Cano to join the fun using one of his vehicles in what is known as the "Break-Out Class". The rules are you get as close to an 11.0 second lap as possible, however, if you go faster than that, your lap is not counted. This was easy for me as Kleinhagen and Cand consistantly turned 11.1, 11.2, and 11.3 second laps, while I pushed as hard as possible and managed to reach only one 11.9 second lap. I greatly enjoyed the 1:10 pan car class, and also felt that I was easily the best road block on the track.
It was time for qualifying in 17.5 Touring Car. I was ready to rumble, and as the tone sounded I followed the other three drivers down the back straight ready to battle. Two corners later I once again found myself bringing offroad style to the onroad track, as I was airborne into the back wall. I got myself back going and started really clicking off the laps. I went from losing 4 seconds per lap to the leader to 3.99 seconds per lap to the leader. Not quite to the mid-point of the race, I was once again catching big air, and this time landed hard popping off a ballcup. I headed back to the pits and prepared for Round 2.
Before Round 2 got started, Serpent driver, Billy Sydor, pulled up a chair with his car and began passing along some setup tips and changes. He used words in which I still don't know what they mean, but we apparently fixed those problems by moving a few thousand washers, shock locations, springs, and several other things I have not a clue about. We headed back out on the track for Round 2. The race got underway and on Lap 1 I was called in the 3rd place position! I was ahead of someone! This was going to be THE run. I was going to dominate. Believe it or not, I did just that...except instead of dominating the racing field, I dominated the the double layer wood pipe in the center section. We battled it out several times, and to my surprise, the wooden board won by eventually peeling my brand new body almost off the car and stripping out a servo arm.
Once again before Round 3, Chris Henson and Billy Sydor worked with me to fix and tune the car further. I may have SLIGHTLY missed the mark cutting out my wheel wells, and they helped me recover the near ruined body and wheel wells by showing me a trick or two to mounting onroad bodies. As the race got under way they advised me to drive calm, and not push so hard. Driving as calm as possible I was looking to finish my first race of the day! First, second, and third place position we're quickly checking out and leaving me in the dust...or fuzz...or whatever you say when carpet racing. There was a glimmer of hope for me as I spun around backwards at the end of the straightaway, taking out Henson in the second place spot. This was my chance to move ahead of him, but then I was reminded by the race director that my pace was 6 laps off of his pace.
(Cut me a break here, my wheel wells are ONLY 3/4" off the mark...)
The race was nearing the end when all of the sudden the "Road to Onroad" machine began careening from one side of the track to the other. Turns out, when changing a stripped servo arm, it is recommended to tighten the servo back into the car when you are finished. Needless to say, I came CLOSE to finishing a race, but couldn't make it happen. Running for almost six minutes with the servo bouncing in and out of the car, surprisingly did a little damage to the car. We decided that instead of destroying the main event for the other drivers, we would call it a day, and head down to the local Red Robin Gourmet Burger place for a triple cheeseburger to finish off the afternoon.
Would I say that day one at the track for the "Road to Onroad" was a success? Absolutely! Onroad racing is completely different than offroad racing, and while a few basic concepts transfer between the two, it is a whole new world. The local racers and track crew were more than helpful, and without them we would still be doing donuts with 6 degrees of camber. While we hold the record for worst driver on the track, the new friendships, challenge, and good time makes today a huge success in our book!
(My dad Homer doing a little after race repair on the "Road to Onroad" ride.)
Is this the end of the "Road to Onroad" journey? Absolutely not. We have so many goals to reach, and so many adventures to go on! Who knows, maybe next time we will even finish a race!
Special thanks to everyone at Fastlane Raceway, all of the local racers, and all of the "Road to Onroad" sponsors! Stay tuned for the "Road to Onroad - Part 4!"
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