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Tamiya Race Day Saturday 15th March @ Medway RC Raceway Unit A, 33, 37 Second Ave, Chatham, Kent. UK Link to event info on Facebook A morning filled with racing open to all on road Tamiya models from TT02 to Ta08 to TT01E truck racing and if there is enough interest they will run a Tamiya F1 race as well. Rules: Tamiya only and restricted to any brushed motor and ESC only. No brushless systems will be allowed. Schedule: Practice starts at 10 AM, and racing kicks off at 11 AM. Format: 3 heats + a final where everyone gets a chance to race! Fees: £10 for adults, £9 for children. What you’ll need: An iRace transponder (available onsite £19 if you need one). A LiPo bag for charging LiPo batteries (available at the track if you don't already have one). You can watch a video of the last events A final here

Hi everyone, I’m new to the rc world and have nearly finished my buggyra fat fox 🙂 I’m interested in racing and was wondering if there’s any race events in wales or not to far outside of wales that I might be able to attend? thanks in advance

*apologies to NJ’s second favourite son JBJ for the title* But man was I Livin’ on a Prayer hoping to find anything in stock in these difficult times, seems like any Tamiya kit is Wanted Dead or Alive. But when hope was lost I Kept the Faith and Fusion restarted their webshop coming though with the Aqroshot like a Blaze of Glory. Selling the Top Force was Bad Medicine but getting this basher is sweeter than a Bed Of Roses. I Regret Nothing.

I’d hoped to start micro scale racing again, but the chain of lockdowns sucked the momentum out of the scene, both Nationally and locally. In fact for a large city Bristol has curiously been underserved with racing for as long as I can remember. I’ll be taking the Aqroshot to Swindon/Mendip and Tiverton over the summer but also wanted something to race indoors, hence a truck. These TT-01E trucks seem to be perfect for budget/clubman classes and that exactly what this will be. Rules are loosely based on the Tamiya Eurocup, only bearings and alloy drive shaft and cups allowed as a hop up, stock tyres only, 20t brushed limit (but torque tuned encouraged to level the playing field.) Still waiting on the prop shaft to arrive, so I got straight on with the body, which is nice as it appears that by picking the Buggyra Fat Fox, I’ve taken on a big task.

I've posted a few Back to the Track series in the past, each time documenting my return to the wonderful world of indoor club racing, each time starting full of enthusiasm and delight and, as often as not, ending a few months later in apathy and boredom when I hit my plateau and get bored of getting nowhere, declare that I don't really enjoy racing and pack it all in for another year or two. Will this time be any different? Who knows! But this has been something I've wanted to do for a little while, so here's a nice and typically long opening post to get us all started. TL;DR: I went back racing. Continue to the next post if you don't care about my epic ramblings on the state of my life I haven't been a regular racer since I retired my M03 a few years back. We raced to Clubman rules, with a Saturn 20 control motor, Sweep control tyres, and bearings and oil shocks and springs being the only allowed hop-ups. By that time everybody was using the M05, and no matter how hard I raced I could never quite get on the back of the top racers. It might have been my skill, it might have been my setup, it might have been the deficit of the M03 against the M05; more likely it was all of them, in various measure. Either way, I got bored of having to pick up 3rd place whenever somebody else didn't show. I got frustrated that my hopes for a podium finish in the championship hinged not on my success but everybody else's failure. I shouldn't really race for the trophy but there's got to be a goal, otherwise it wouldn't be racing, it would be bashing, and I felt (rightly or wrongly) that my laptimes were as good as they were ever going to get. So, why am I going back again? Well, various reason. 1. My 2018 Revival Failure. I went to the 2018 Iconic Revival full of enthusiasm and confidence. I had a great car (a vintage Top Force with vintage hop-ups) which had done me well the previous year, I'd raced well at the opening round of the Iconic Cup that spring (unfortunately I couldn't make any other rounds, as that turned out to be the highlight of my RC year), the weather had been fantastic and we were all looking forward to a dry weekend. The reality was different. I'd failed to properly prepare the Top Force and it punished me for it in every race - loose screws, seized suspension, the lot. I let the red mist descend when I couldn't get it to drive straight, and ruined most of my heats with bad driving. The weather turned the day before the event, treating us to three days of downpour, and the pit shop didn't have any wet tyres in stock. I, as an infrequent off-road racer, didn't have any wet tyres either. To top it all off, I was taken ill and spent half the weekend in the toilet tent. My wife came down with the same virus but owing to a medical condition, she was taken into hospital on the Sunday morning, having to leave our 18-month old daughter in the care of friends. As a good father I should have aborted my race weekend and made the 4 hour drive home, but unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you see it) my camper was at the very back of the camping field and blocked in by at least 5 other tents and caravans, so there was no way I was getting off site until the end of the day. Plus, given heavy winds, a lot of gazebos had been damaged so I'd offered my awning to some other racers - leaving early would have left them and their kit out in the rain again. Despite all that, I managed to get 2nd place by the first corner of the C final and was all set to hold the position - until the timing system failed and the race was aborted. I started badly in the re-start, was plum last after the first lap, and two laps in the car became impossible to drive. In a proper example of racetrack bad manners, I stormed off the rostrum after a huge head-on crash with a wooden post, to discover the Top Force had lost a kingpin from the front hub. No wonder I couldn't drive it. Why is this relevant? Well, the Revival is usually the highlight of my year. Bad weather and ill health can't be helped, but I could have done a lot better if I'd prepared and practised. I underestimated how much prep the Top Force needed and overestimated my ability as a driver. Taking a hiatus from racing had not just affected my laptimes, it had affected my judgement, and my enjoyment of a rare weekend away. I left the venue determined to do better next year. 2. My 2019 Iconic Success I only managed two races in 2019: the first round of the Iconic Cup at Mendip RC Raceway in April, and the Iconic Revival at Bingham Model Raceway in July. First change I made from 2018 was downgrading my ability rating from 5/10 to 3/10. Less expectation on myself and less embarrassment if I had a bad day. I never expected success at Mendip because my TL01-LA didn't have the speed tuned gear set, and was up against much newer chassis in the Super Stock class (the LA isn't eligible for the Stock class). Mendip is fast, so the speed tuned gear set is pretty essential. Even with the biggest pinion, I was being slaughtered on the back straight - it didn't matter how much corner speed I could carry (and as a 3/10 driver with limited tyre and spring options and an older chassis, I was never going to run rings around the class leaders) I couldn't get close to the FTD. But that didn't matter. I focused on small setting changes and improving my technique. I found a setting that kept oversteer to a minimum out of the tight hairpin and, as temps came up, learnt to drive around the grip-roll that started to occur there. Despite having a(nother) upset stomach all day (who would believe it..?) I had a really enjoyable time, improved every race and went home feeling happy. I wouldn't race again until the Revival in July, where I campaigned a new-built Novafox and my fully-restored Top Force. It was almost a disaster - my older MRT transponders don't work with BMR's new timing system - but tireless Revival organiser John Weston loaned me his spare, saving my weekend. The new pit shop (local heroes and new friends Racecraft RC) had a great supply of wet weather tyres, so even the anticipated downpours couldn't spoil my challenge. The Fox was epic. Properly prepared with a rebuilt Super Stock BZ, it had just the right amount of speed for the wet weather. Like at the Cup, I didn't expect to get on the podium - but I went out to enjoy my racing and improve every heat, and that's just what I did. Top day. The Top Force was almost a failure - a brand new Alturn high-speed race servo (a model I've been using for a long time) turned out to be slower than a slow thing on national slow day. I've now had a couple of really slow Alturns - I won't be buying any more. Adie from Racecraft had a spare race servo lying around which wast just perfect. Disaster averted, the Top Force was an absolute dream. I didn't go out to win - I went out to improve, and that's what I did. I qualified 3rd in the C final, with a qualifying time that was miles away from either 2nd or 4th, and I figured if I stayed out of trouble I'd take home the 3rd place trophy. I got tangled in an incident in the first corner and was last, but I kept my cool, reeled in my competitors, made neat, careful passes and - thanks to the mechanical breakdowns of my closes rivals - finished in 2nd. For the first time in ages, I genuinely felt like I'd earned my trophy. Why is this relevant? Because I really enjoyed racing. For the first time in an age, it wasn't just about getting drunk with mates, talking nonsense about toy cars, eating fried food and camping out in the rain. It was about racing, as well. I really got my money's worth that weekend. So I figured - if I'm seeing results from my racing just by being patient and taking time to learn, how much more would I see if I did that every week? Is it time to go back to the club? And how much better will I race at the Revival next year if I get in some regular practice? 3. My 2019 Rut OK, so the whiny and self-absorbed bit now - outside of RC, I've really struggled to find a happy place this year. With a 2.5 year old in the house it's hard to be anything but Dad. Being Dad is OK (it's not every day I can even bring myself to say that), sometimes it's the best thing in the world (I really mean that) but it's so hard to being anything else. Once the bedtime story is read and the toys are tidied up there's precious little evening left. Add to that the exhaustion of disrupted sleep and interrupted downtime, and once my duties are over, all I can do is flop into the sofa. The things that my life used to be about have fallen away. It's hard to write good music in a brain that's cluttered with nursery rhymes and kid's TV theme tunes. It's hard to write good fiction when you're used to tempering every thought for toddler ears. So I figured I could either sit on the sofa, feeling miserable and yearning for that one weekend every month when I can pack up the camper with toy cars and head off for a couple of days of freedom, or I can use the time I've got to go out and have fun. So really, that's it. WWMCC races on Monday nights, and Monday is my night off. I get Fridays off, too. I'm allowed to go do whatever I want on those nights (provided it's legal and compatible with continued marriage). So instead of locking myself in my studio and feeling sorry for myself, I decided I'd get out and actually do something. So... Let's go racing!