My Life In The World of RC Racing

Calling it Quits

2010-01-26T02:08:00.002-06:00

Well everyone I am sorry to say that I am thinking of calling it quits on the RC racing blog. I think it is time for a change. I have started Geocaching again with the wife. I dont know how much time I will have to dedicate to this blog who knows I might be back though or I might start another account under another name. Never really liked this one lol. Well I will keep everyone informed as to what is happing. Until then keep the rubber side down and have fun.

2009 Spektrum Off-Road Championships Friday Qualifier

2009-12-08T23:19:00.002-06:00

Well every year in the first week of December S & N Trackside has there annual off road race. This year it was sponsored by Spektrum radios and Horizon hobbies. The first race day was held on Friday December 4th with one round of qualifying on Friday and 2 on Saturday and another one on Sunday with the finals on Sunday. I got there on wed to help set up and clean up the track and get things ready for racing. The expected turn out was first going to be 100 people coming but by Thursday the final number of pre registered people came in and it was around about 150 people, with more to come on Friday that haven’t signed up yet. So we had to take some of the sedan track apart and lay down some protective carpeting and put up some pit paces.

Some of the people who showed up to the track were Ryan Cavalieri Associated driver. We also had some big names from Losi Dakota Phend, Matt Chambers, and Dustin Evens. I got to pit next to them out on our carpet track. They showed up on Thursday during the day. By then end of the day most of the pro drivers were there and setting up there pits and working on there cars. The biggest thing I noticed was I haven’t raced or practiced with me off road stuff in almost like 7 months. And the couple times I got out on the track man did I notice I need a lot of practice. For the last couple of months I have been practicing sedan racing so my off road skills are way down. I also had to do a lot of work on my stuff my shocks were leaking (as do most associated shocks). And I also forgot what shock oil I currently had in them lol. So I spent most of Thursday rebuilding shocks and changing oil and helping around the track.

When Friday came I was ready to do something what I don’t know. I checked everything from ride height to balanced tires. I have never balanced tires before but I thought I would give it a shot. I went out and did some more practice and was remembering some of the stuff but I was still lacking what I used to have. Friday night we had our first qualifier. My first class was stock buggy I went out and ran the best I could. But when I grabbed my buggy to get in line for my qualifier I grabbed it by the front shock tower and felt something weird on the shock tower itself. When I was in line I looked a little closer and there was a hair line crack it was so clean that I couldn’t see it unless I moved the shock tower and saw that it was broken. I didn’t have time to fix it before I ran. I had to run how it was so I had to take it slow try not to push it too bad or hard. I ran and did ok but not as good as I would have liked. I next ran my truck I was running in the stock truck class. I didn’t do too well in this run I had to get used to the track and the tires I had on my truck. I was not running what everyone else was running I had pink tapper pins front and rear but everyone was running barcodes. I did what I could I got around the track but I was sliding in all the corners so I had to get used to it. Last year the track was watered during rounds and practice and we were using pink tapper pins ground down to slicks. The hook up was great. This year they didn’t water the track they just blew the dust off the track and then you run. This is a new driving style I had to get used too.

Well more about the weekend in my next post but like I always say always have fun and keep the rubber side down.

Gremlin torch has been passed!!!!!!

2009-11-12T17:27:00.002-06:00

Well as you can see from my last post I am back to racing again. But Dave Jacko has now passed the gremlin torch over to me. In my last post I told you bout how Dave kept loosing the pin connecting his drive shaft together. Well the torch has been passed to me. He gave me gremlin problems I should up at the track set up my pit and got ready to race. That’s when I noticed the first gremlin. I went to sauce my tires and when I spun the right front tire none of the rest of the tires would spin. That’s when I noticed the same pin Dave kept breaking was now broken on my car too. I do blame Dave for this (just kidding Dave). So I fixed that problem and it seemed like everything was going great everything was perfect. I went out and practiced for awhile. I did good I was able to go around the track and make good lap times my average was 12.0 which is close to what the fast guys are running in 17.5 class.

Well it is now Tuesday and it is race day at Trackside the legendary Scotty is out of town announcing a race so Jamie Tennies was running the show, which makes it very entertaining. There were a lot of racers there I think there were about 43 racers there. It was a nice turn out. I did well in qualifying I did 23 laps my first qualifier and then did another 23 laps in my second qualifier. Which put me 4th in the C main, for me this is good I can’t complain. But then the GREMLINS snuck up on me I was doing well in the main when all of a sudden the gremlin bit me right in the butt. My car was going straight down the straight away when all of a sudden it just made a 90 degree right hand turn down the straightaway and put me right into the boards. The marshal came and got me off the boards and that’s when I noticed my car was not turning like I wanted it too. Actually I couldn’t turn at all when one of the marshals picked up my car and gave me the sign. You know the slash across the throat sign. I was done I was a little irritated that this makes 2 weeks in a row that I couldn’t finish a race. So I blame all these gremlins on to DAVE JACKO (kidding again). So my plan is to completely tear apart my car and check everything. I want to clean every part and put it back together and make sure everything is right. So my next blog post will be if I can put my car back together with out having extra screws or parts left over. Well like I leave all my posts keep the rubber side down and have fun. See ya next post.

I am back again for the millionth time

2009-11-09T16:10:00.001-06:00

Well it has been a long time since I posted something. So I decided to finally post something. Lets get started well my new job ran out and had budget cuts and I ended up laid off again. Which sucks but hey what are you going to do. So I decided to not just sit around the house and pout I grab all my RC stuff and cleaned everything up and fixed what was broken from the last time I raced. Cleaned up all diffs and rebuilt them. This took some time but hey I got nothing but time right now. Don’t get me wrong I am looking for a job but times are tough for everyone, people are lucky to have a job right now. Ok off my soap box and back to RC racing. After I dusted off all my stuff I went to the track and started to set my pit back up. I practiced a lot of on road for some reason I didn’t want to play in the dirt I just wanted to run on the carpet. Which is weird for me because off road racing is what I started doing in the beginning. Well after about a week of practicing and running pack after pack, I noticed it was a Tuesday and it was racing night so I said what the heck paid my entry fee and raced. It wasn’t long before I noticed how much rust I had on my bones people were flying past me like I was standing still. This was kind of disturbing but hey I haven’t raced in about 6 months. Well after first round of qualifying I was doing ok. Nothing real important happened made it around the track and was only about 2 laps behind the leader I did 22 laps in 5 mins while the leader was doing about 25 laps. I figure not bad again since I haven’t raced in 6 months. My buddy Dave Jacko was doing good except he was having gremlin issues he told me he kept breaking the outdrive pins on his sedan. I gave him an extra one that I happen to have in my pit box. His car worked really well once he got rid of that gremlin. I think he ended up in the B main. The second qualifier I was on a 24 lap pace when BAMMM brain fart I lost concentration and ended up finishing with a 22 lap run.

I ended up in 6th in the C main with the 2 bump ups from the D main right behind me. We all lined up and got into position. Tone went off and BOOOOOOOOM almost everyone crashed at the end of the straight Scotty restarted the race to make it fair to everyone. So after we lined up again Scotty toned us off again and I went from 6th to 8th in the first lap. I was getting hit and was hitting everything but the pace car if there was one out there. But I stuck with it and started working my way up to 3rd after a couple of laps. Then it happened 1st through 4th were coming out of the straight and 2nd place car had to let up to make the turn I was able to pass him. I was able to carry more speed into the corner than he was able to do. The 4th place car hit the guy I just passed which launched him into me and my car flew into Dave Jackos leg and I landed on my roof. He grabbed me put me back on the track I started to drive and car wouldn’t move. I was pulled off the track and found that I broke a rear turn buckle ball joint. I think what happened was when I hit Dave in the leg I fell on the corner and that’s when it broke. Which sucks but what the heck it was fun to be back on the track after so long being gone. Well there is more to come. So everyone remember keep the rubber side down and have fun.

Monday practice with Dave!!

2009-08-25T09:01:00.001-05:00

Well I went to the track yesterday being its Monday there was not a lot of people there but hey that means more track time for me. I didn’t get there until about 4 ish because I thought my sister-n-law (she and her husband live California) were coming over. But she ended up not coming so I went to the track. I called my buddy David Jacko to see if he is going to make it up there he said he was able to come up but not to practice just set up his pit. I volunteered my services to help him get his car set up he was having problems with it last week. After Dave got there I started working on his car he has an X-ray t2-007 (just like the one I have) and I noticed that his top links were on an angle they weren’t straight. So we looked into it a little better. We found out that he accidentally put his caster blocks on the wrong side. Meaning he put the right one on the left and vise versa. So after we changed that we put the car on the track and it drove (until the belt slipped off the pulley and twisted upside down. Very weird how that happened it just looked funny. Dave had to leave so I worked on his car a bit and I twisted it back to the way it is supposed to be. I then tightened the belt. I also put a 0.75 washer in the rear this will help with his traction issue and stuff I don’t know why it helps but it does. I went to drive it but it still didn’t drive right so I had the legendary Paul Lemieux drive it. He also said something was tweaked on his chassis or something. So we put the car down and we decided we will work on it today meaning Tuesday during the day. One of the things we are going to do is switch his one way to a spool. Paul thought that will really help his driving style and make him faster. I will let you know what else we do to make him faster and to un-tweak his car. Well that’s it for now so keep it rubber side down and grip it and rip it and remember to always have fun.

Getting back into racing!!!!!

2009-08-24T06:59:00.001-05:00

Well if people didn’t know I got a new job. I am working for the DNR (Department of Natural Resources) the job started around June and I have been working ever since. The work is not hard (yes it is) it is a lot of bush whacking trail's and cleaning stuff up for campers. It is a lot of fun but it is only a summer job. So I will have to start looking for a full time job or find something for winter then go back to work next summer for the DNR. During this time I finally completed the hobby room in the basement. I should get pictures up so everyone can see why I can sit there for hours on end and not come up for air (lol); I also just got my house set up with wireless internet. I used to have all my internet all plugged in which is kind of stupid because I would sit and have my laptop and desk top right next to each other and only use one of them. Well that’s enough of the personal information and back to what this blog is about Racing.

Well I stop up at the track and saw some old friends working on there cars and stuff and I started getting the bug. I got the itch started out slowly but now it is getting worse. So I went into the basement and started to dust off my stuff. I couldn’t believe how much dust my stuff collected while doing all that work in the basement. I pulled out my sedan since the off road track is still in its oval stage. Only a couple more weeks before it turns back into off road. So as I got all my stuff together and started to look and organize it into piles, I started going through everything seeing what broken or worn out and started throwing stuff away (don’t know why I keep all that junk). After that I started to put stuff away into compartments and just plan organize and simplify.

After that I started to get my sedan ready looking at tires and trying to figure out if I am going to switch my sedan to LI-PO or keep running sub-c batteries. I decided it was time so I went to the track one night after work and talked with Paul Lemieux and we got my sedan all set up with a LI-PO. I got a weight plate and a battery and we got it all set up and balanced. I had to wait a week to get it on the track but I eventually got it on there. I had to do some changes to the car I had to raise the rear shocks up 2 holes for better traction. I had to add some weight to make the car legal. I also needed a lot of practice since I haven’t raced in about 3 months or even picked up a remote or anything. Other than that the car felt perfect. I did loose a little in my reflexes but hey after 3 months of nothing to coming back and playing around I still have it a little. Well like I always say keep the rubber to the ground and have fun. More will be coming later.

Still Alive I Think???

2009-06-16T09:08:00.001-05:00

Well, it has been a long time since I have written anything in here but I now have the urge to write something. Here it goes, if you haven’t known I lost/was laid off from my job since December of last year. I have been looking for a new job, but as everyone knows someone is getting laid off or fired or something. Luckily my wife is still working but who knows for how long (she works for the same company I got laid off from). I am hoping it doesn’t come down to it but I might have to sell off some of my toys to keep making ends meet. I do have a new job starting June 22, 2009 so I am hoping I don’t have to do any of that selling BS that I just said. The new job is with the DNR (department of Natural Resources) here in Wisconsin. This sounds like a really good opportunity for me, bad part is it is only for the summer and not full time. But according to the guy who hired me it might be a full time job if everything goes right come this fall they might have a full time Maintenance person position opening up then. So keep your fingers crossed and lets all pray. A full time job with the DNR is a dream of mine, and one step closer to the dream job I would love to have (Park Ranger/ Game Warden). Other than that I have been doing the whole mister mom thing and cleaning the house cooking dinner (which means firing up the grill and throwing some meat on) and fixing up the hobby room I will be taking pictures of it when it is done I am basically taking old kitchen cabinets uppers and lowers and placing them all around the room. This room will be used by me and my wife. I do the plastic models and RC stuff and the wife does Stamping and card making stuff. I hope to have it finished this week so I can get everything in and straightened out before I go back to work. If you are wondering I got all the cabinets 18 in total form my previous employer he was going to throw them all away so I took them to put in the room. I think it worked out. Well got to go have a lot of work to do so have fun and I will keep everyone posted on what’s happing.

Testing with the Davester

2009-05-04T16:07:00.001-05:00

Well I met up with Dave Jacko on Sunday for some fun on the track. Dave and I have been playing around with our cars and he has been helping me with set ups and teaching me about on road racing. I took some time off from on road racing and was concentrating on some off road for a while but now I am getting back into the sedan world. Anyways Dave and I were playing around on the track testing things out. As you can see on older posts Dave really likes my car and the way it handles and the overall feel of it. When we were practicing on Sunday it was really weird Dave was more consistent in the in field than I was but I was able to blow past him on the straight away. We would run a couple of laps and then go back to the pits to try things and change stuff. I drove Dave’s car and noticed it was very hard to drive compared to mine and it lacked a lot of speed that I had that his didn’t have. So we sat there watching Spider Man 2 on TV and thinking why that is. I told him to re set his speed control because it just didn’t seem right. We then changed his speed control to the original one touch set up and his car was 10 times faster than what it was before. He was able to keep up with me in the straight away I was still able to pull away a little but it wasn’t like before when I drove past him like he was sitting still. All we need to do now is get my driving under control and I would be deadly on the carpet. As always remember to keep the rubber side down and have fun.

Another Day of Testing

2009-05-01T10:42:00.000-05:00

Well I got to the track today and started charging up some batteries. After I got some charged I put the car on the track and still had the same power as I did before. Scotty came into the track area and was watching my car he said that he still noticed I was not up to full speed on the straight away. He asked if I did what he told me to do and I told him what I did. I took the old 104 tooth spur off and put a 100 tooth spur on and I kept my original pinion on. He said that all I did was nothing. He said I need to change my gearing and when I looked at him like he was talking pig Latin he explained. He told me I need to keep the spur the same but go down in my pinion. I need to change the gear ratio not the gearing it self. So I put on a 42 tooth pinion and as I was sitting there I started to do the math I was back up to a 4.0 FDR. So I put it on the track and mind you my fastest lap with the old gearing was a 13.5 (that’s my personal best) but once I changed the gearing like Scotty told me to my fastest lap was a 12.5 I dropped a whole second. That to me seems weird, but hey I like it. Well it was Thursday and that means off road night so as the off road guys come pilling in because it is the last week of off road before they change the track to dirt oval. A couple of guys came up to me and said that my driving style has really improved because they watched me drive my sedan and can’t figure out how I drive that fast on the carpet. Which in my defense I don’t think I was driving really fast it just looks fast. But it did make me feel good to hear what they had to say. But today is the last night of off road and today I am going to the track to practice off road and then pack it all up and get ready for some sedan racing.

On a side note last night I started a little bit of a friendly rivalry between Jamie Tennis and Beavis. They were both at the track and both took my car out for a run and Beavis pulled a 12.3 with it. Along come Jamie and he pulls a 12.2 so then Beavis had to beat that and pull a 12.1 so it started they were going back and forth trying to beat each other with my car I found this to be very funny and fun to watch because they both are very good drivers. Well everyone just remember keep the rubber side down and have fun. Oh and if Dave reads this I am calling you out meet me at the track on Sunday for some practice.

Couple Days of Practice

2009-04-30T08:34:00.002-05:00

Well I have been going to the track for some practice latly. I really haven't gone to the track and just run battery after battery after battery. So I loaded up my truck and headed up the track and set up my pit area. I started charging batterys and yea I still use stick packs for my sedan. I dusted off the sedan and started looking it over for loose screws broken parts or anything. I didn't find anything, except the tires had a build up of junk on them. After cleaning the tires and taping in the battery I put it on the track started out slow (it has been awhile since I drove it) just keep it between the boards. Thats what I kept telling myself. Afetr a couple laps under my belt I started to go faster and faster. Car was not handaling like I wanted. I remembered I had a spool in the front instead of a diff. The problem I was having was when I cam into a turn the rear end of the car would loose all traction and swing around. I couldn’t drive the car like that I could not get any speed or keep steering. So I took out the spool and replaced it with a diff again. Put it back on the track and WOOOSH the car was flying around the track I was able to keep traction up and steering.

The legendary Scotty came walking past me and asked me how things were going I told him good and asked him if he wanted to try my car and see how I was doing adjusting everything. Since I am new to sedan racing and setups and stuff. So he takes the radio and starts driving it around pulling nice lines and speed. He starts asking me what I had in it like diff, spool, and FDR of the car. He said the set up was really good and everything seemed really nice except my car was not maxing out on the straight away. He said I should change my FDR from 4.0 to 3.8 meaning I should go up a tooth or two. I was currently running a 104 spur and a 44thooth pinion. So I go to the pit and start looking to see what spurs and pinions I have. And the smallest spur I have is a 100 and the largest pinion I have was a 44 and that was on the car. So I go up front and ask if the have any smaller spurs and nope. Then Dave Jacko comes strolling in all dressed up from work and we start talking. I tell him my dilemma and we start thinking in the mean time he has this look of a deer in headlight or a kid in a candy store wanting everything. what he had was an itch to drive my car so I put in a fresh battery and let him take it for a stroll around the track. The lap timer was on and he hears his time 13.7, 13.5, 13.1, 13.0, and 12.7 (I don’t think he can pull that off with his car a 12.7). I can see the steam rising from out his ears. He is getting irritated. I ask him what’s wrong he then proceeds to tell me he can’t get his car to handle half as good as mine. His car swings out in the corners and other stuff. But he does agree with Scotty about the gearing and tells me I should be at a 3.8. He is still irritated about his car verses mine. Well he had to go and then the world famous Paul Lemieux comes walking in with his little boy. I ask him how everything is going and then I ask him what I can do. He said take the 100 tooth and put a 44 tooth pinion on it should work. He looks at my 100 tooth and finds a problem it is too thick the screws wouldn’t work because it would hit the chassis or motor. So he tells me how to fix this problem and pulls out a sheet of sandpaper and tells me to start sanding.

That’s what I start doing for about 20 minuets sitting there sanding but I got it done and I put the car back together to see how that works and WWWWWOOOOOOOOOSHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! the car takes off and has a lot more power than it did before. So now I have to get used to that but I rather have to get used to that then some other problem. Well that’s all for now I will keep you updated on anymore news and remember always keep the rubber side down and let have fun out there.

I am Still Alive. (Barely)

2009-04-22T01:03:00.002-05:00

Well everyone I am still alive. I have been very busy lately tyring to get thing done around the house. I am also getting ready for the camping season. I am actually going this weekend I am so looking forward to it. I might start a blog about our trips and let people know the what, where, and how much fun we had. Ok back to RC car racing, as people might have seen I just picked up a new to me buggy a Kyosho ZX-5. All i have to say is AWESOME it is so easy to drive and it flows around the track really nice. Funny thing about it is I am running a 10.5 in it and it is fast. A couple friends came up and said oohh can I drive and they drive it and CRACK!!! broken out of 4 people who drove it only one has not broken it. I broke it once and then never again knock on wood. Now i am not saying the buggy is easily broken. All I am saying is don't let other kids play with your new toys because they will break them lol. Well that's all for now I will try to get some pics of it up as soon as I can. Other than that hope everyone has fun and keep the rubber side down.

New Toy

2009-03-27T22:51:00.002-05:00

Well I bought a new toy recently. I had a Losi XXX-4 but if I rolled it I would keep breaking the front shock tower and after you break 5 of them in one race because you traction roll or get run over, it starts to get frustrating. So I sold that one and waited until I found something I liked. A friend of mine at the track decided to get rid of his ride so I picked it up, for a good price. I put all the electronics into it and away we went. It drives really good for a shaft driven car. Drives really easily. I hope to get pictures up soon. Well that's it for now. See everyone later, and always keep rubber side down.

Delay in Posting

2009-03-12T00:46:00.002-05:00

Well sorry everyone for not posting as much lately. I have been busy trying to find a new job and working around the house on little projects. As for an update i did finish the Novak race. I placed 4th overall but in the main I choked I got nervous and kept falling out of the grove. I ended up finishing the race in 5th. After the dust settled I came in 5th. I personally do not think that is bad considering I normally race off-road and this was my first big race in on-road. I plan on keeping this blog up to date a little more often so you can look forward to seeing more stuff written. Right now though I have a wicked cold that is kicking my but, so there is no racing for me this week. I am lucky if I can even get out of bed to write this. I have basically been sleeping all day and all night and eating one meal a day, because that all I am awake for lol. Well off to bed before I fall down. Happy racing and remember to keep the rubber side down.

Random Pics from the Novak Race

2009-01-13T23:51:00.013-06:00

Some of the Basement dwellers.

What some of us were doing in between races. and yes he was doing homework.

Here are some Pictures from upstairs where all the action is.

First Day of Qualifying

2009-01-13T23:45:00.003-06:00

Well here is a little bit of information about the Novak race. There is 120 people here from all over the country. There is a total of 28 heats. The longest distance that someone came from is China. His name is Aaron he owns 5 businesses there and he is driving in sportsman with me. Really nice guy easy to talk to. It is nice to hear about the culture over there.

Well, its the first day of the Novak race. I am pitting in the basement, Dave Jacko is sitting next to me blogging about his racing. The basement is cool to pit in, its quiet and the the guys down here a really cool. There is a guy pitting behind me his name is Willie Thomas he came from Michigan to race here this weekend. We had some practice on Thursday all day it started out open practice then it switched to slot times. I was able to get a couple of good practice laps in. Car felt good but it still felt weird to me at least. My first qualifier came up and it was time to start going. The race before mine was up so I went to go and get my car tech. I passed inspection and got in line to go on the driver stand. It's my time to race I get on the driver stand and wait for my name to be called. My name was called and I was off I did good my lines were there but there are a couple of spots were I could cut the line a little better. I ended up finishing second with a 16/4:12. not my best but good enough for now. After marshaling the world gt cars I went back to my pit and started to think what was wrong. Talking to Willie Thomas he looked at my diffs and said I should rebuild them. So I took out my front one and he helped me rebuild it. Now it was as smooth as silk. I reinstalled the front Diff and then I started to worry about how it would effect my car. As a previous post I had Paul lemieux look at my car and he told me it was money and not to change it. I went up to Paul and asked him would changing/rebuild the diff effect my car. He said not really but I was still worried about it.

It was time for the second qualifier. Again I took my car to tech and it passed again no worries there. Time to race I got up on the driver stand and got focused. My name was called I started off and it felt really smooth. I was able to drive into the corners and out with no problems. I had to get used to my car again but it didn't take long before I was getting used to how the car feels. Dave Jako video taped my race and after the race. I watched the video I noticed my lines were good but there were a couple spots that I could get better at. But I did finish second. But all in all it was a great day of racing.

Happy New Year Everyone

2009-01-02T09:10:00.001-06:00

Well the new year is here. Here at Trackside we had a special race called the Red Eye Race. doors opened up at 7:00 A.M.. Talk about an earlier start to the new year. But all is well I got to the track about 7ish and started getting ready to race. I had the legendary Paul Lemeuix look at my car and he said it was money and not to change a thing. So I went back to my pit and did nothing until the race started. First of Three qualifiers went good made some mistakes but was able to drive and keep the wheels on the ground. The second and third qualifiers went just as good. I ended up 3rd overall which to me that is good since I am more of an off road racer than on road. the race went really good I was able to keep following first and second place racers.than second cut the corner short and hit the pipe I was able to go around him. I was gaining on first then I hear Race is over and that was it couldn't catch him. But I made a good run at it. So I ended up finishing second with a 20 in a 5:04. I was caught at the line and first was able to go one more lap otherwise I might have been able to get 21 laps. After the race is when I noticed that we ran for 5 mins instead of the usually 4 mins sportsman run. The 17.5 class was running an average of 21 to 22 laps in 5 mins. So I am happy because I am not to far off the pace. well there will be more reporting from the Novak race preparation. keep tuned I am hoping to keep my blog up to date.

Getting Ready

2008-12-21T22:32:00.002-06:00

Well it looks like my off road talk is going to come to an end as I am going to get ready for the Mighty Novak race. I have to get my sedan up and running and figure out why I keep breaking those dang front steering blocks. I think I might have figured it out I think I might have had a bent front drive shaft. I will have to look and see if that is the problem. I will keep everyone updated as to what is going on. Well keep the rubber side down and go fast.

Thursday Night Racing

2008-12-21T21:37:00.002-06:00

Well if people did not know we got a nice pile of snow dumped on us here is Wisconsin. I think the average was about 10-14 inches depending on where you live. But on Thursday I did make it out there to practice mainly but I ended up racing the Thursday night race. There were not that many people who showed up due to the fact that the storm was coming. I think there was about 25-30 people there. There was a total of 7 heats. I was running stock truck and stock buggy. I did ok in my stock buggy. I qualified 7th and at the sound of the tone I was off flying down the track. there were some crashes at the beginning and I was able to drive around them I was up to 4th. Then I started to push too hard and I hit the plexy glass wall and done. sitting like a dead duck . The marshall pulled it of the track and and one of my fellow races looked at it and gave me the slash across the throat. I was done I couldn't see what I broke but that is not a good sign when you get the slash sign. So I shut my my radio off and sat back and waited until after the race. On a side note I noticed that most people when they break the go clomping down the drivers stand to go look at there car. I never understood that I do know on a personal note that it does irritate me when I am driving and I hear and feel people walking behind me. So as I patiently waited for the race to end I got to see some great racing. The race was over and I walked over to my buggy and right away I noticed I broke the T-plate. I have noticed that is a common problem when you hit the plexy glass really hard. They have been selling a lot of them at the store.

Now time for my stock truck report. Like I said there was not to many people there so I placed in the A-main. But it was fun racing. I started out in the 4th position and as soon as the tone went off I was off again and the others that were racing were really good so it was basically a freight train all of us in a row. I got caught up on a pipe and I was in last place. But I kept my head in the game and kept trying to make it up front. All of a sudden I see Buck pointing to my truck and saying Scotty ,Scotty. And then I hear it the legendary Scotty going holy cow it the big KG battling it out for 2nd with Rick Nickels. Rick and I kept going back and forth and Dave ST Peter is coming up right behind us. Well on the last minute Rick tries to air it out over the Triples as I was doing double single and I was able to take over second. Then it hit me I started driving to aggressively and stuffed it into a pipe. and Dave ST Peter goes flying past me. I got marshalled and then I noticed Rick was coming up on me again I had to drive really clean to keep third he was right behind me entering the triples and he tried to air it out again and flipped it he turtled his truck. I did the double single again and made a clean pass and I was gone. I ended up finishing third. I will take that. Very fun night of racing lots of excitement. But as I walked out side I could feel the calmness before the storm. that night we got the snow.

I Learned Something Today

2008-12-18T03:12:00.002-06:00

Well I learned something today. I was sitting at the track and I was wondering why my buggy seemed slower than everyone else's. As I was thinking that low and behold Nick the Quick comes walking in. I asked him how its going and he showed me his brand new drivers license. He was so proud of it that he had to take his first drive to MC D's and then to the track. So after making fun of his goofy picture we started talking about RC cars and stuff. I started to tell him about my problems and he said lets take a look. Mind you Nick is 18 and is a lot faster than me so I listen to his suggestions. We went out to the track and he drove 1 lap and said my gear ratio is not right I was topping out at the complete end of the straight away instead of earlier. I said how can that be I am running the same gear ratio as everyone else. I told him I was running 78 tooth spur and a 33 tooth pinon. He proceeded to laugh and said that is for a Novak motor not an Orion. As I sat there looking like a monkey scratching my head with an open mouth. He proceeded to tell me that each motor is different you do not gear them the same. He told me that when we were running 27 turn brushed motors the gearing between different brands was like 1 tooth. But with brushless motors it could be a lot different. So we started playing with it and sure enough I had to drop 5 teeth and go with a 78/28 ratio. When we put the buggy out on the track it was like night and day I was really surprised. So now I have to work on the truck. I think I have that close I am running a 78/27 so I think I am close might have to go down a tooth or so. Well that is it for now time for me to get some sleep big snow storm coming and I will have to go snow blow my house out.

Opppps

2008-12-18T03:11:00.002-06:00

Sorry about that last post I thought I had published that but I just checked and I noticed it was still in my draft file. So Happy reading.

Well the Midwest Off Road Race is Finished

2008-12-10T09:31:00.004-06:00

It was a long weekend of racing. It all started out on Wednesday December 3rd. I got to the track early in the mourning and started to charge my Li-Po batteries. I wanted to get some practice in before the big race. First up was my truck I had it set up really good. It was just driving that had to be fine tuned. Next was my Buggy this thing was driving me crazy I couldn't get it figured out at all. When I went down the straight away at full speed as soon as I let off the throttle the car would come to a complete stop within 3 feet. I know I had a brushed motor and Novak GTX speed control but it should not stop like that at least I didn't think it should. So off to find the problem I started looking into profiles and short of ripping the thing apart and checking electrically whats going on everything seemed to work just like it was supposed to. It was really weird I couldn't figure it out. So I set it down and started looking into my truck making sure everything was good shocks, ride height, camber, and anything else I could think of. The whole time thinking about what could be wrong with my buggy. Well it was too late to dig any deeper I had to go run my first qualifier. Surprisingly I didn't do too bad finished 3rd in my qualifier. Still disgusted with it I walked back to the pits and set it down. Luckily Zack Rose a fellow racer from Green Bay was pitting right behind me. He asked me what was wrong and I told him what was happening. He told me he would lend me his LRP speed control and his Orion 17.5 Brushless motor for the weekend. I was so HAPPY so I ripped everything out and and installed the new speed control and motor. Now it is time for my truck qualifier so I went out there and again I was really surprised I did really well. Second qualifier in my buggy was really good I wasn't really fast but I was able to drive it this time. Truck went really good I was keeping up with everyone in my qualifier. Along comes the 3rd qualifier and the last one of the day. I was kinda happy about this too because you can only watch so many movies in a days time and my but was getting sore from the chair (note to self next big race bring a more comfortable chair). In buggy I was doing better than the 1st or 2nd qualifier. My truck was I was doing good in too was not the best but I finished no broken parts. I think I was getting a little tired from all the racing.

Sunday brought a whole new meaning to tired. I didn't get home from the track until 12:30 or so. I went right to bed and woke back up by 7:30 A.M. took a shower and headed off to the track. When I got there the parking lot was packed with cars I had to park across the street. I got to my pit and started getting everything ready for racing made sure my tools were ready and checked my truck and buggy over checking shocks and camber. I noticed that my buggy shocks were really soft felt like they had a lot of air in them. So off they came and I started to take them apart and I checked everything over. Refilled them with shock oil 35 front and 30 rear check for proper rebound then reinstall. Time for final qualifier in buggy and truck. Buggy was outstanding I did my first 18 laps I had been stuck with 17 laps for the longest time. I hoped that would bump me up to a good main. Time for the truck and I did great again I was hoping to be bumped up to a good main. Results are in and I made it to the C-main starting in 3rd position in stock buggy and I was surprised I made it to the B-main 7th position in stock truck. The reason I am so surprised about my truck is it seems every time that there is a lot of people in my class I am always in the bottom no matter how hard I try. Most of the time if there is only enough people to make an A-main so that's where I placed. So I was really happy and proud. Then the stink hit the fan I couldn't drive if my life depended on it. I finished 6th in my buggy and 6th in my truck. I would of finished 5th but I let the leader pass me and the guy right behind him was the kid that I was battling position with. He didn't know any better so he just took off and took the position. But I have no hard feelings I made it to the B-main.

In conclusion I had a great weekend and it was very fun and exciting. On a side note I ended up buying that speed control and motor from the guy for a really good price. well thanks for reading and remember to always keep the rubber side down.

Another from Cali.

2008-11-27T22:10:00.004-06:00

Well I published a link to Kevin from Cali, but along comes another from Cali his name is Rodney. He doesn't have a cool name like Kevin and I but his blogs are cool though. Give him a look and read about another fellow off roader. It looks like he drive an Associated T-4, Associated B-44, and a brand new Associated B-4. He also uses a new 4-PK radio. He has owned a lot of different vehicles so take a look at his retired list maybe you own one and have a question he could answer. It looks like we have a lot in common. Again give it a look. Just follow the Link http://ra99gt-rcracing.blogspot.com/

Well it is Time.

2008-11-27T21:44:00.002-06:00

Well it is time I have officially been beaten. Here is the story. Last Saturday Jamie Tennies son Greg wanted to drive my Sedan. So I said sure why not he couldn't do any worse than I can. Well he takes it out for a couple of practice laps and he fell in love with my X-Ray. I was able to qualify myself into second spot for the main. Greg goes up there and lays it down for the whole time he was only 1-2 feet behind the leader through out the whole race. As I sat there feeling stupid because I can't drive my car like that. He ended up second because of one little wreck but other than that it was flawless. He comes up to me and tells me that my sedan is dialed and he loves it. Did I mention he is only 12 Years old. I was like AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!! I felt so stupid. Well this story gets even better a fellow sedan driver wanted to try and drive off road he thinks anyone can do it. So I lent him my B-4 to drive he ended up in the A main and he fell in love with my buggy and wanted to trade my buggy for his slash. had to think about it and finally came up with ok lets do it. So now I have a Slash did I mention I love it. I also ended up buying another B-4 so now I have to set the new one up for racing. Again Greg asks me if he can drive my slash since I was unable to race because I had to pick up my brother in law from the airport. I said sure why not and again he lays the smack down he ended up finishing second with it. Well now I am mad and which means I have to get more practice in and start driving better. So that my story and I am sticking to it. I know this blog is written Kinda weird but I am sitting here in a turkey comatose. I hope to write a better post on Friday after racing I will hopefully get some pictures in so people can see the new layout of the track. Well hope everyone had a good turkey day and remember to gobble gobble gobble.

New Blog to Follow.

2008-11-19T23:54:00.003-06:00

Well I didn't know that people were reading my blog until I got a comment from a guy from California named Kevin (like the name by the way). So I had to go read his site and wow really cool lots of information and I even think there is a link to my page there very cool. so that mean some one from across the country is reading what I write so that means I have to blog more to keep my fans updated. Well here is a link to Kevin's site take a look and let him know what you think. http://kdoffroad.blogspot.com/ Well Kevin if you read this keep in touch and I look forward to reading more about you.

Sorry for Not Posting for a Bit

2008-11-19T23:17:00.002-06:00

Well as some of you might know life for me is getting kinda hard. But sometimes there can be a blessing in disguise. Well to give a quick up date work has cut my hours to 2 days a week. Which is ok because we can survive off my wife's salary. I decided to go back to school so I can get a better job in the near future. So that is a quick update on personal stuff. Now on to RC car stuff. Well I have been at the track a lot lately and I have been helping out a lot of people showing some of the new people. Showing some tips and tricks to get there car going. Racing has been fun up to date. I have been racing some stock truck and some stock buggy. I also have been trying to run some Sportsman Sedan. My truck and buggy have been running really well but my sedan is really AAAHHH. I keep breaking steering knuckles I broke 3 on one Saturday then at the last Saturday Night Fever race I raced Sedan in the mourning and truck and buggy in the evening. I broke 3 more steering knuckles then too. So I have to figure out what is going on. My buddy Aaron R. found some online so he is going to order some and share with me :). I am so happy about that. So now it is figure out what is going on an pull some hair out. Well that is all for now will have to keep everyone updated. And always remember keep the rubber down and you will go faster

Friday Night Racing

2008-11-02T09:13:00.002-06:00

Well, Friday has come and gone and all I can say is it was a blast. I took my Novak 17.5 out of my X-Ray and put it into my T-4. I had to change the spur and pinion so I can get the proper gear ratio that I wanted. So I installed a 78 tooth spur and a 27 tooth pinion. Took it out for some practice laps and car didn't have the punch that I thought it should have. So I asked Skip who was Pitting down the way from me and he said to put in a 28 tooth pinion and that should give me the power I was looking for. I installed the 28 tooth pinion and I got the power I was looking for. WOW one tooth big difference. But I still need a lot more practice. So After 2 rounds of qualifing I finished 5Th in the B main not so good. At the start of the race I was trying too hard and got caught up in the pipe. Then I hear a voice Kevin plenty of time you can catch up. It was Scotty telling me to take it easy slow is fast stay in between the pipes. So I did just that stayed between the pipes and before I new it I was catching up. I caught up to the 4Th place and drove behind him for a bit and waiting then he made a mistake he hit the pipe. So I drove around him. Then off to find 3rd place kept the truck between the pipes and and low and behold there he was 3rd so I followed him for a lap or two. Then he did it he went wide I cut to the inside and I was off to find 2Nd. Lucky for me 2Nd was just up ahead. So I kept fighting and then I hear 1 minute left I have to make my move soon. Then I hear it first place broke. I keep driving and keeping the truck between the lines. I am in 2Nd now. I try to go and catch up to the now first place guy but alas it was to late time was up I have to take 2Nd. But I like how my car is handling. Skip was marshaling my race and he came up to me and said that I have enough power but I need to watch my driving and throttle control. He told me that on some of the jumps I am hitting the throttle too hard and I need to roll over certain ones in order to make other jumps. So Saturday here I come to do some practice.

Sunday a Day of Wonder and Practice

2008-10-19T21:50:00.004-05:00

Well I officially have the RC bug again. I sat at home this morning and was thinking about my car and how it is handling. Then I started talking to my wife and she said "well why don't we have a lazy weekend" I can go practice she's going to bum around the house and relax. She didn't even finish and I was kissing her goodbye and I was off. I got to the track to find there was quite a few people there. I pulled out my car and started to work on it. It appears that yesterday I broke the right front C-hub. Lucky for me Trackside had them in stock. Went up front and bought one and started wrenching. As I was wrenching I kept thinking about why my car looks faster than other that are geared lower than mine. After I finished I went out on the track and started driving. I was picking up were I left off. My drive lines were almost perfect cutting the boards really close then I started hearing my lap times 14.6, 14.9, 15.0,14.4, and 15.9. I hit the board too close on the last lap because I was listening to the lap time instead of driving. I was really surprised that my lap times were good. I was able to keep those lap time through out the day. Rodger showed up later in the day and I started talking to him about my car. He even said my car looks really fast for a 17.5 with a FDR of 4.65. Towards the end of the day he looked at my car and we might have come up with why my car looks fast with gear ratio. He noticed that my motor was advanced to full. This was done by Charlie from Novak at last years Novak race. That's where I bought the handout motor. On my ride home I called Dave and told him about it and we both agree we really need to do a field test, just to see if my car is faster or if it just looks fast. The only problem we are going to have is I am going camping Next weekend and this week will be rough from work because it will be a short week. As soon as I get back we are going to have to plan a test day and see. At this time I plan on taking lots of photos of my pit and car to show everyone what it looks like. Until then hope everyone has a good week and has lots of fun. See everyone real soon.

Saturday Practice

2008-10-19T14:07:00.004-05:00

Well after all battling fires and waking up early to get my wife to the craft fair and helping set it up. I went home and took a quick nap and went to the track. Look who was there but the one and only Dave Jacko that was really cool. He was sitting there with all this blue bling parts for his Mini Cooper and that was really cool to see them all. After talking smack to each other we started talking about my car and set ups. I decided to move my pit to right across from him so we can talk even more smack which was really cool. And look who graced us with her royal presence but it was the Trackside princess Sarah Ernst (JK). She showed us this really cool picture and really cool interview she had in a magazine. It was really cool to see a local person in a magazine. I couldn't believe how cool it was to see all the picture's and read the interview of Daddy's little girl. Ok enough with the jokes (inside joke about everything being really cool).

Well after setting up my really cool pit spot I started working on my car. Checking all my cambers toe ins everything. Car still handled ok but not as good as I wanted. So I stared talking to Dave and coming up with ideas. We checked my ride height and noticed it was way off one side was 4.5 one side was 5 and the back was 5.5. then came a debate who was right when you stick the ride height gauge on the car what number do you go with on the ride height gauge. Do you go by the number that you see or the number that is covered. So we started asking around and came up with a group decision of the number that is covered. Took the car out on the track and the car handled a little better. But the steering problem came back. So we looked at everything and I decided to set everything to zero and start over. so Dave and I played with my radio and tried to change the EPA (End Point Adjustment) of the radio and we could not get it to set up right so we played and played still it was not going the way we wanted. So we asked Josh Honestein about it and he said that we have to set the dual rate to 100% than set the EPA. so we did that and boom we got it than we played with the dual rate so I make bigger circles about 5 foot ones and got it almost perfect. Put the car on the track and it was dialed. Now I just have to learn to drive it again. One of the the weirdest thing that is going on is I am running a 4.65 FDR (Final Drive Ratio) while Dave is running close to a 4.0 FDR but my car appears to be faster than his. We are going to have to test this theory the next time I can get out here with Dave to practice. I will be MIA again for about a week or so because we are going camping for the last time this year. I would like to thank Dave, Josh , and Sarah for a good practice day. Again a big thanks to Dave Jacko for all the help he gave me.

Friday Night Drive Home.

2008-10-19T13:59:00.002-05:00

Well it was another fun day at Trackside. On my way home that night I was about 3 blocks from my house when I could see this bright light coming off the house on the corner of 53rd and Cleveland. Well as I got closer I saw it was there front lawn on fire flames were about 5-8 feet high. There was a pile of leaves that someone started on fire. The wind was blowing the flames and smoke right at the guys house. So I got on my phone and called 911 then I went to the front door and started pounding on the door. The guy came to the door saying what the ^&$$ do you want then noticed all the flames and smoke and was like holy &*^%$ what the %$##. I told him the fire department was on there way he said thanks and we waited to make sure everyone was ok. The fire department finally got there and put out the flames the said thanks and off they went to another leaf pile fire.

First Night of Friday Night Off-Road

2008-10-18T23:11:00.002-05:00

Well it was the first night of Friday night off road racing and what a great night of racing. I got off of work and headed right to the track. I got to the track around 4:30 and was surprised to see a lot of people already there. I wanted to set up my pit by Dave Jacko but there was too many people already set up there and there was not enough room. So I had to set up at the other end of the track. As I set my pit I noticed either I have too much stuff or you need a lot of stuff for racing. As I started charging my Li-po's for my qualifiers I remember reading in a magazine about using your sub trim for adjusting the straightness of the car while driving. I was having problems with this the last time I was running. First off lets start with the buggy.

On my buggy I had to have the main steering setting on my radio at 70 in order for my buggy to go straight. So as soon as my first Li-po was done charging I installed it into my buggy and set the main steering control to zero. When I looked at my sub trim for I had it to the right at 65. No wonder why it was never going straight. Well I put it on the track and drove down the straight away and WOW it was dead on I didn't need any adjustments. I ran some laps and man was the car dialed. But I noticed there was a lot of noise coming from the diff. And do I mean a lot of noise. Well no time now to rebuild the diff before the race so I will have to deal with it until it blows up.

Now on to the truck, again I was having problems with my steering. So I went back changed all steering setting on my radio to zero. Took the truck to the track and and drove it down the straight away. It almost did complete 90 degree turns while going down the straight. I adjusted, drove, and adjusted, and drove, and adjusted, some more. Finally got it straight took me about 10 times down the straight to get it to go the way I wanted. Then it hit me Scotty saying Race one your up everyone was on the track and ready to go. No practice for me with my truck Bummer.

Qualifying:

I was up in race 4 and 6. Race 4 was stock truck but I was the only one running stock buggy so I was placed in that class. First qualifier was good 15 laps, man do I need to get to the track more often and get practice. Then it was marshall for about 2 min's into the next race then I asked Trevor Boakes to cover for me so I can get my truck ready. Ran back to my pit (walked as fast as I can due to my legs hurting me again and that's another story). Put my battery in and body on and back to the track. This time I remembered to set my radio from buggy to truck. Went out for 10.5 brushless truck, and man did I stink up the place. I think I did 15 laps. Man I really need to get here and do some practicing. The biggest problem I was having was when I let off the throttle my truck would go about 15-20 feet before it would slow down. In the second qualifier I broke the wing off so now my truck handles even worse. I talked with Paul Harding and he said throw some drag brake into the truck. This will slow my truck down when I am off the throttle. It is kinda like pumping the brakes on your truck when you are driving it slows you down just enough for you to keep control of your truck. My second qualifier was ok in stock buggy and stunk in brushless truck.

Mains:

I was able to qualify in the A-main in stock truck/buggy. As the race started I was in 6th place. Starting horn goes off and I hit the gas pile up in the first corner drove around it and I moved up to 3rd I was excited I was doing great. Then it hit me the dreaded pipe. I got stuck into the pipe and the marshall had to wait to get to my truck until it was safe for him to get to my buggy with out getting in the way of the other cars. Now I am in 8th place so nowhere to go but up from there. So I pushed and pushed and the more I pushed the more I hit the pipes. But I ended up 7th overall with a 15/5:12. not bad in my eyes a little more wheel time and I might be up the front. Mind you I am running a brushed stock motor in a brushless world. Now for the truck I was in the next race. I qualified 6th out of 6. While waiting for the race to start Scotty announces the brushless truck main is 10 mins long so I was like cool I might have a chance. Wrong, as the horn goes off it felt like I was being lapped before I made it to the first corner. After about 6 mins I said ok now I am just getting in the way of everyone, so I parked my truck and sat back and watched the race. The best part of the race was watching Sarah and Josh Stoug (I think that's how you spell his name sorry if it is wrong).
They were driving as a tag team Sarah was throttle and Josh was steering. All I have to say is WOW they were battling for the lead for a bit. Then Sarah hit the throttle while going down the straight and Josh turned the wheel and into the wall and then people started to pass. They did really good though they did a 32 in a 10:03. I have to say what a team and maybe if there is a season ending fun race that can be an event. All in all what a night lot of learning and a lot of fun.

On a side note:

There was one other good thing that was going on. There was a guy by the name of Bob Burlingame who was a 65 year old kid, he was pitting across from me. He had a RTR Associated T-4. This was his first time racing and his 3rd time playing with his truck. He was having problems in the beginning. He broke the front bulk head and shock tower twice in one hour. The first time I looked over at him and he had a puzzled look on his face, as he was looking at all the parts in bags and then his broken truck. I asked him and asked if he could use some help and he said yes he doesn't even know where to begin. I told him to bring his truck over and all his parts and I got to work. After about 20 minutes we had him up and running. He told me he really appreciated the help and he owes me one, he then told me it would have taken him 4 hours to do what I did in 20 minutes. That made me feel like I actually learned something in all the years I have been racing. He waited for a battery to charge and then he went out and then I heard Bang. I see him come walking back to the pits and he did it again broken bulk head and shock tower. So Sarah gave him a hand this time as I was tyring to get my Truck ready for the race. Then in the first qualifier I heard it again Bang he hit the wall again. Came back to the pits front bulk head broken for a third time. Scotty had Sarah run to the Ernst lair to retrieve some secret parts. Bob then told me that the problem he was having was he would turn the wheel but the car would just go straight. That's when someone noticed the 2 little spacers that are on the servo were missing and the servo would not move the wheels when you turn the truck. After that was fixed he then went out and managed to finish 2 in the B-main of sportsman with a 10/4:05. Not bad for his first time racing. All I have to say is way to go Bob. Keep up the good work and have fun.

Long story short what a night of racing.

Well Kids I am back.

2008-10-15T18:29:00.002-05:00

Well I took the summer off for a bit to spend time with the wife. We did a lot of camping and just hanging around. I have stopped by the track recently and caught the bug for racing. I was at the stock rubber nationals at Trackside and ended up helping Scotty out by running the tech table for half the day Saturday and all of Sunday. It was a blast running the table and watching some racing. Say my friend David Jacko there and he did really well he even won a new servo in the driver raffle. Well Friday night will be my first big night of racing off road. Saturday I will be at the track to lay the hammer down on Dave Jacko for talking so much smack. we will just see how he does on the off road track then we will see who can hold there own LOL. Just kidding Dave is a good guy you can read more of his RC world on his blog take a look and see. well see you at the track and remember always keep the rubber side down.

Been Gone For Awhile

2008-09-10T12:47:00.003-05:00

Well kids I have been gone for a bit. The wife and I bought a camper so we have been doing a lot of camping. I have been spending a lot of time working on the camper and going camping. I should change this blog about our camping trips. We have meet some weird people on our trips but we are getting ready to go camping this weekend and i will blog about what happens.

Sunday Practice

2008-07-01T09:00:00.002-05:00

Sorry for posting late but here is what happened this weekend. I think I have a great setup on my car it seems it is running really good, Nice and clean. I have the gear ratio down to where I think it should be. Dave Jacko graced us with his presence it was great to have everyone there others that were there were: Buck, Sara Ernst, Chad Due, Turd, Coppy, and can't forget Rodger. well the whole gang was there laughing and just having fun. it was a blast to listen to stories while wrenching on cars. But now I need to take a break because of work so this might be the last post for a bit until work slows down. But I will see what happens.

Another Wonderful Saturday Practice

2008-06-28T21:23:00.002-05:00

Well kids it was a great day of practicing. When I got there at 10:00 A.M. Buck was there loading the soda machine and snack machine. After a quick hows it going, I got some batteries charging. And started to clean up my pit area and get everything ready for making some changes to the car. First thing I did was change my spur gear and pinion. I had a 48 pitch spur and pinion. I switched it to a 64 pitch spur and pinion. I put a 104 tooth spur and a 32 tooth. This gave me a final drive ratio of 5.5 which made my car seem slower than when I had the old spur and pinion on. So after pulling out my bible (3 ring binder full of copies of all my manuals for all my cars). I had to try to figure out a new final drive ratio. After doing the math it seems that I needed to change my pinion to a 38 tooth. This gave me a final drive ratio of 4.6 which mad my car heck fast. Chris Conrad showed up at the track and he told me he was selling all his RC stuff so he can go back to school. I ended up buying his GTB speed controller, 13.5 brush less motor, tweak station, and his personal transponder. All I have to say is if anyone is looking for a good deal on a TC5 look him up he is getting rid of all his stuff real cheap. Ok onto other things the wonderful Chad Due showed up to the track and was practicing with his TC5. If you don't know who Chad is he is a local racer that is sponsored by Associated, LRP, and more I don't know all of them. He took a look at my car and was surprised at how my car handled he said it was very easy to drive and all I need to do now is practice. He did make some changes to my radio. After the changes I had to get used to the car all over again. At the end of the day I had my car doing a consistent lap time of 16.2 to 16.8 with a couple of 15.8 laps in there too. Well I should be up there tomorrow for another round of practice. Then I need to take some time off because me and they wife are buying a pop camper and then I can get back to what i love to do and that is camping. But that's all for now I will try to keep everyone up to date on whats going on in my life. Bye for now

Saturday Practice

2008-06-23T16:37:00.003-05:00

Well I went to the track on Saturday and did a little practicing. I did little changes to my car and I think it is handling really good. Dave Jacko was there to do some practicing and wrench on his car. He is trying to get ready for the IIC which is help in Las Vegas. The legendary Scotty Ernst will be the host for this wonderful race. I unfortunately will not be going because I am not that good and i can not afford to race. Plus the caliper of racers there would be too much for me and i would most likely get spanked in the first round. Well that's all for now hope everyone likes my blog and just remember if your rubbing your racing.

Wednesday Practice

2008-06-19T16:53:00.004-05:00

I was sitting there at my pit wondering what to do to my car to handle better. and boom look who come walking in it was the man himself Dave Jacko. after some brief words (making fun of each other) Dave looked at my car and started to explain some theory's to me. He also explained to me about what it means to have a car push in a turn. So after a little pep talking we took my car out on the track and then started making changes. well we moved my shocks in the rear from straight up to one hole in and wow I have a ton of steering now and less push so we kept working and making small changes and my car handles great. I plan on practicing on Saturday hopefully Dave can make it and i am going to keep making small changes to see how the car handles. Well that's all for now I will keep informing everyone about whats going on in my world.

Saturday Practice

2008-06-14T23:27:00.002-05:00

Well I made it through another day of practice. I was able to run about 4-5 packs today. It was very fun it seems like I have not lost all my driving skills since my break. Paul Lemieux gave me some helpful tips today, he also gave me a set of front and rear springs to try. My car was handling great for the first time since a couple months of not racing. I also learned from a friend of mine the good way to clean my tires. Dave Jacko told me he uses Simple Green to clean off his tires. I know cleaning off road tires in a mixture of Simple Green and water really cleans them, keeps them healthy and renews tire traction, but i dint think of using it for on-road tires. So I decided to try it, and Boom my tires came to life. They had a lot more traction and when I applied tire traction it didn't bead off the tire it actually soaked into the tire and gave me great traction. so if any one is looking for a new way to clean tires try using Simple Green it works great. Well that it for now hope everyone had a good weekend and always remember it never won in the first corner unless everyone else has wreaked.

Saturday

2008-06-10T22:12:00.000-05:00

ok boys and girls I will be out on Saturday to see how much damage I can do on my X-ray. Looking forward to see if my friend Dave can come out and play on Saturday with me and help me get the car rolling in a better shape than when I tried to play with it and make changes that totally changed the car. I will keep my fans (not that there is many out there lol) updated on what happens. Well talk to you kids later bye for now.

Gone for awhile

2008-06-09T16:15:00.000-05:00

ok boys and girls i have been gone for a bit. Fell off the face of the earth there. But I am back and ready to go. I plan on taking my 4 wheeler apart and rebuilding it I had fun with it last time I ran it need to fix the shocks and the diferentials. I also plan on running my x-ray soon I think i might go up there this next weekend and play around a bit just to see what damage I can do. Well just wanted to stop by and say hi and let people know I am still alive for now :). talk to you kids later.

3rd Race of the Off road Series Race

2008-02-18T14:16:00.000-06:00

Well it is time for the final race of the what was originally the Rematch Offroad Seiers Race. I have been busy getting my buggy and truck ready for the race. this race is held at RC Performance in Madison Wisconsin. I should be brining my camera so I should have pictures of the the race and racers. I have also been taking some time off of racing to relax and spend time with the wife. I should be Carpet racing and doing some more off road racing soon. well I will post more later so for now see Ya!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Day 2 of The TCS Race

2008-02-10T21:33:00.000-06:00

Well today was the 2nd day of the TCS race and what a day. According to some of the racers Saturday racing was long. Some of the people didn't leave the track till 10:30-11:00 at night. Then they were back at the track by 7:00 A.M. Today was the day of mains triple A-mains to be exact. Which ment that there were a lot of racing going on. There were a total of 34 heats today. There were a lot of people there watching and racing. My friend Aaron had a great showing, today he took first place in 1st in 2 rounds of the A-mains. Which means he won first place in the 4wd buggy division. He won a gold medal and a 1/16th scale buggy RTR along with many other items. During the driver raffle he also won a 4wd buggy kit. He also won best paint job in the buggy division. surfice to say he had a blast. I forgot my camera today so I do not have any pictures to show but if you check out Daves site he might have some pictures and a description of what his day was like on the carpet. http://www.countdowntovegas.blogspot.com/

TCS Race Day 1

2008-02-10T02:14:00.000-06:00

Well today was the first day of the TCS race held at Trackside (http://www.trackside.com/). After shoveling for the onehundreth time this year I made it to the track and to my surprise there were a lot of people there. Almost all the pit spots inthe track were filled. There were 21 heats on the carpet and 7 heats on the dirt track. On the carpet side of racing the classes were tight. Dave (AKA Ridge Racer) had a tough showing in the first round he had a DNF. His Second heat he had a better showing finishing the heat. He was looking good flying around the track with very little mistakes (we all have little mistakes going around the trackHere is a picture of Dave at his pit area.

Aaron R. had a good showing starting 4th in his heat and coming up 2nd in qualifying. Here is a picture of Aarons car and pit area.

After the 4wd class there was the rally cars (little tanks on wheels). Rally was a class that I was offered a rent a ride (loaner car) from Pete Dorn. but was unable to race due to all this snow and work. After the first lap of Scotty had Mikey Dibb soak one of the corners. the Rally cars then came into it and drifted that corner. it made for some fun and exciting racing. Some of the drivers picked it up fast others it took them a lap or two to get the hang of it. Here is a link to more pictures that i took at the race enjoy more to come after tomorrow's racing. http://s275.photobucket.com/albums/jj316/Kgrant_2008/

First Race of The Tamiya Series

2008-02-08T22:55:00.000-06:00

S & N Trackside (http://Trackside.com) is hosting the first leg of the Tamiya Series Race (http://www.tamiyausa.com/tcs_races/schedule.php) this weekend. I will going to the track to try to take some pictures of the race. This will be the first time I will be loading pictures on to the site wish me luck. Some of the people that i know who will be there are Dave J. (http://www.countdowntovegas.blogspot.com/) you can check out his blog report with a driver perpective. Aaron R. my offroad racing pal will also be attending with his Tamiya TRF 501x Buggy this is a 4wd off road buggy. Hopefully enough people show so he can race rules state there must be 5 people for a race I know of 2 so far. Lets hope he can race. Well off to bed for now so I can be well rested for the race.

New Body and Carpet Racing

2008-02-05T12:10:00.000-06:00

I recieved my body that I bought from a guy at RC Tech (http://www.rctech.net/). It looks just like Paul Lemiuex he is a world champion racer that is a local racer at Trackside. He is a nice guy to talk to lends out a helping hand to anyone who need's it wether you drive a car like his or not. He is sponserd by X-ray, Hudy, RC America, and Trinity. he has helped me out a lot since I started out racing carpet. The Joke around the track is That I am Paul Jr. I am not as good as Paul but he has told me he sees a lot of potential in my driving if i can only learn throttle control. Carpet racing is alot different then off road racing. some people do not agree with me but hey that is just my opinion. When I recieved my new body i reinforced the front end with some drywall tape and shoegoo. This saves the body from breaking when I hit the Boards. I know I am not supossed to hit the boards but sometimes I just can't help myself. Well off to do some work on the cars and trucks.

Trip to Dirt Heaven

2008-02-01T11:29:00.000-06:00

Ok here is my post on the event at Dirt Heaven Raceway ( http://www.dirtheaven.com/) in Green Bay Wisconsin held on January 26, 2008. Well it started out real early in the morning I had to pick up my friend Aaron R. in Jackson at 5:30 A.M.. We then proceeded to go to Random Lake to pick up another freind and racer his name is David St.Peter. We started to drive to Dirt Heaven and of course it started to snow, so traveling was slow going. We got to the track at 8:30 A.M. and set up our pits for some hardcore racing. There were a lot of Trackside people there to represent the track. Some of the people that were there were Sarah Ernst (making a rare apperance), Carbon Man Chenzney, Treveor Bokes and many more. This race is a point series race between three tracks Trackside (http://www.trackside.com/) Dirt Heaven ( See link above) and RC performance in Madison (http://www.rcperformance.com/). This was the second race of the series and Trackside was in the lead. Pit spacing was tight as lot of people showed up for this race. Qualifing for me was fun but I had some bad lap times. I was running 2 classes stock buggy and stock truck. I qualified 1st in the stock buggy C-main. and I finished in 1st place it was fun wished I could of done better but better luck next time. In stock truck I qualified 8th in the B-main. I had a better run in the main I finished 5th. My friend Dave St. Peter had a great showing he and Holly Rose were battling it out through out the whole race. It came down to the final lap and he took first place. It was fun tryng to listen and race with Dave and Holly battling it out, when ever Holly crashed Dave crashed and vise versa for Dave. Dave ended up wininng 1st. Dave was also running 2 classes stock buggy and stock truck. Aaron was running in the 4 wheeler class and I think was in the C-main and took first. All in all it was a fun time. hopefully I will remember to bring my camera next time in Madison to show some pictures.

First Post

2008-01-27T21:15:00.000-06:00

Well this is my first post ever. After reading my friends post from my Local Track S&N Trackside. His name is Dave AKA Ridge Racer. ( you can read his Blog at http://www.countdowntovegas.blogspot.com/ ). I just had to start writing my own blog. Well now I have to get going have to get up for work early. But I will write about my Trip this past weekend to Dirt Heaven Raceway in Green Bay WI. All I can say is it was a blast.