Iconic cup 2023

[Scottrc 225]

Hello again! 
If you have read my previous foray into Tamiya racing as a complete beginner you will know I have no idea what I’m doing! That being said now after a year of racing my TT02 indoors on carpet and spending a lot of time and money I finally have it set up well and my drivings improved a lot. 

Last year I heard about the popalong gp an outdoor rc car race local to me, from their YouTube channel. I signed up and managed to book a space into the stock Tamiya class. I took my TT02 and had a great time and since then have always fancied another crack at outdoor racing. I had also seen that the popalong guys had taken part in the iconic cup and thought it looked like good fun, so as soon as I heard about this years race tickets available I booked in for three rounds, Broxtowe twice and west London. 
 

First things first I had booked into the stock Tamiya class but my trusty TT02 was too new. I have a TT01E truck that I used to race at my local indoor club but they have now stopped racing the class. It made sense to convert the truck to a touring car and get it race prepared for iconic. 
 

To the truck chassis I had already fitted an alloy propshaft, ball bearing kit and core 21 motor. To start with I removed the truck shell and rear bumper. Then following the iconic stock rules I added a metal motor mount, went up to a 28t pinion, 55t spur, adjustable turnbuckles, yeah racing shocks and fitted a high torque servo saver. For the shell my supra body wasn’t legal in stock so found a nice Impreza hpi shell that was legal and cheap at £22. I painted the body yellow with some left over Tamiya paint and made some tiger stripes with some black vinyl wrap. I also added the Tamiya option rear wing. 
 

Fast forward to a week before round 2 of the iconic cup (my first round) and the car was ready but hadn’t been run. I decided to take it to Leighton buzzard where I now race my mtc Tuesday nights and give it a shake down during the break. Mark from popalong was racing his TT01E and was chasing me around for a good few laps. After setting up my steering trim and end points the car handled really well but the gearing was way too long for indoors. 
 

The week approached quickly as I tried to get everything organised and ready. I couldn’t make practice on the Saturday so left early (5:30 😬) to make the 2 hour journey to Broxtowe. I was very nervous but excited, unfortunately the weather hadn’t been great the night before so the track was still very damp in the morning, but what a track! The main straight wasn’t as long as I expected, the corners with the bumps, jumps and banking were amazing.

 
I got all my kit set up out the back of my car and as soon as practice opened for an hour I headed out. I started with an old set of sweep 28 tyres and no additive as the track was still a bit damp. I went out three times during practice and each time it went the same. I would do 2 or 3 sensible laps get over confident then slide it on the grass and that was game over 😂. 
 

I wasn’t feeling too optimistic for my first heat but after changing my pinion down to a 25t and saucing my tyres I got to grips with the track and to my surprise I finished second! And it really was a surprise as I was car 8 but thought I was car 5 so started in the wrong position! Rookie mistake!

For the second heat I didn’t change anything. The track had dried right out now and I quickly found out I was on the wrong tyres after some big slides. One slide while at nearly full speed send me under the catch fence meaning the Marshall had to leap the fence to get it meaning I lost a couple of laps. I finished a disappointing 7th. 
 

For the next heat I switched to 32 front and left my 28 tyres on the rear. I also borrowed a 26t pinion off my friend as I was lacking top speed. I started much better and put in some good laps untill lap 7 coming into a slow hairpin the car just died. I still had steering but no power. Back at the pits I quickly found the grub screw on the pinion I just fitted had come loose 🙄. 
 

For my final qualifying heat I went with 32’s all round and left everything else as it was. Had a good run again with some consistent laps and finished in second again! 
 

The finals were split into A,B,C and D. I had qualified in second position in the C final. Again I left the car alone as it was handling well. I started well closely following first place for a few laps and pulling a gap to third. I then made a mistake and touched the grass causing me to slide off and the Marshalls had to get me back on track. I was down in eight but within two laps I had managed to work my way back to forth and was reeling in third! That’s when my luck changed again as now at the half way point in the race it started raining! Whether it was my old tyres or inexperience at driving in the wet I just could not get the car to steer how I wanted. It was under steering everywhere no matter how smooth or gentle I was trying to be. When the chequered flag fell I was seventh which was a bit disappointing as I felt I had the pace to be nearer the front but that’s how it goes sometimes. 
Now I have some tarmac racing experience I’m really looking forward to the next round I’m doing west London in July! 
In the mean time I will try to improve the car within the rules and keep you updated 👍🏻

 

[Scottrc 225]

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[Scottrc 225]

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[Mad Ax 7887]

Good write-up!  The Iconic Cup is great fun, very close racing and I think you can learn an awful lot about racecraft.  Plus outdoor racing adds so much more to the whole experience, having to think about weather, track temps and keep dry during your marshalling stint  (or, at some tracks, like West London, keeping try on the rostrum  )

I'll be racing at West London, I'll keep an eye out for your yellow Imprezza  

I wasn't racing at Broxtowe but I did stop there for 30 minutes on my way back from Manchester.

[ThunderDragonCy 7071]

Glad you had fun. Broxtowe is my club. Love that track! If the weather is anything from OK to warm, Rush32 work well, and anything that constitutes sunny and hot you want 34 or 36. I used to run staggered tyres (harder front than rear) all the time on my TT01E as they are so tail happy. 

Good luck for next time. 

[Scottrc 225]

On 5/8/2023 at 5:50 PM, Mad Ax said:

Good write-up!  The Iconic Cup is great fun, very close racing and I think you can learn an awful lot about racecraft.  Plus outdoor racing adds so much more to the whole experience, having to think about weather, track temps and keep dry during your marshalling stint  (or, at some tracks, like West London, keeping try on the rostrum  )

I'll be racing at West London, I'll keep an eye out for your yellow Imprezza  

I wasn't racing at Broxtowe but I did stop there for 30 minutes on my way back from Manchester.

Thanks. I really enjoyed it as you say the track evolved throughout the day which made it more interesting! Could of done without the rain though! 
Yes look out for my car at west London and come and say hello. 👍🏻

[Scottrc 225]

15 hours ago, ThunderDragonCy said:

Glad you had fun. Broxtowe is my club. Love that track! If the weather is anything from OK to warm, Rush32 work well, and anything that constitutes sunny and hot you want 34 or 36. I used to run staggered tyres (harder front than rear) all the time on my TT01E as they are so tail happy. 

Good luck for next time. 

It was a great day thanks! Your very lucky to have such a decent track and club nearby! Took me two hours to get there but was worth it. Nearest outdoor track to me is west london at an hour away.
Thanks for the tyre advice I will bear that in mind for my next round at Broxtowe. I could do with some new tyres really so will get some rush 32’s 👍🏻 

[dlruk 12]

Glad you had fun, I didn't really. Two classes was a nightmare, especially with marshalling twice. Probably should have run the M03 I got for more than 10 minutes before as well as it was constantly falling apart/breaking/being useless! I eventually got it to 3rd for the A, up to 2nd in the final then it bounced off the track as handling so bad, marshal took 7 seconds to recover it from 1 metre then a lap later a shock fell off (see earlier comment) so that was that.

As for Stock. No idea how they are going fast with this years motor, I was miles off. Tried another one and a further half a second slower! Just scrapped into the A and 5th at the end, maybe would have got 3rd but I waited ages for a car to be recovered after a 50/50 (marshalling was some of the worst I've seen at this event). The final at least had some fun bits as it was in the wet and whatever I'm not aware of motor wise didn't matter so much. All tracks should have built in sprinklers, should also do this for real motorsport.

Wish the events had more than 1 final, drop a qualifier and do 3+2

On the plus side I didn't have a TP go up in smoke, the one in the M03 lasted all day, very rare

Booked into both classes again at Carlisle, hopefully a less franctic day. If I have an issue with one of the cars then the river is only ~10m over the hedge so I reckon I could get the car in it with a decent throw

[Scottrc 225]

On 5/12/2023 at 2:37 PM, dlruk said:

Glad you had fun, I didn't really. Two classes was a nightmare, especially with marshalling twice. Probably should have run the M03 I got for more than 10 minutes before as well as it was constantly falling apart/breaking/being useless! I eventually got it to 3rd for the A, up to 2nd in the final then it bounced off the track as handling so bad, marshal took 7 seconds to recover it from 1 metre then a lap later a shock fell off (see earlier comment) so that was that.

As for Stock. No idea how they are going fast with this years motor, I was miles off. Tried another one and a further half a second slower! Just scrapped into the A and 5th at the end, maybe would have got 3rd but I waited ages for a car to be recovered after a 50/50 (marshalling was some of the worst I've seen at this event). The final at least had some fun bits as it was in the wet and whatever I'm not aware of motor wise didn't matter so much. All tracks should have built in sprinklers, should also do this for real motorsport.

Wish the events had more than 1 final, drop a qualifier and do 3+2

On the plus side I didn't have a TP go up in smoke, the one in the M03 lasted all day, very rare

Booked into both classes again at Carlisle, hopefully a less franctic day. If I have an issue with one of the cars then the river is only ~10m over the hedge so I reckon I could get the car in it with a decent throw

Sounds like you had a bit of a nightmare! Still managed to get into both A finals though so nice one! 👍🏻  
You wasn’t running a gold Ferrari shell by any chance was you? Guy pitched up just behind me in the carpark and was running two classes. Madman! 
I agree another final would of been good I did so well to get second on the grid in my final only to make a little mistake and then have to contend with it starting to rain. 
The next round I’m doing is west London so hopefully will see you there 👍🏻

[dlruk 12]

nah, blue Impreza. I am booked in for West London but it's over 5hrs each way for me so depends how Carlisle goes and then Halifax....  Good track though WL, would go regulary if lived near

[Scottrc 225]

Last weekend was round 5 of the iconic cup. It’s the second round for me as only booked to race 3 rounds. 
A week before the race I thought I’d better get my TT01E out and check it over ready (nothing like being prepared!). After the last time I used it in the wet Broxtowe final it was filthy so stripped it down and gave it a good clean. Was chatting to my mates I race with indoors and they had managed to get cancelled spaces for West London so there would be a few of us this time. They also suggested I cut down my top deck for extra flex and as I had a spare I cut it down and refitted it. I also swapped my springs from front to rear so now have softer on the front than the rear. I swapped in my 28t pinion again as was told this was the best gearing for west London. The only other thing I changed was I got a bigger motor cooling fan as my last fan was too weak. 
 

I missed practice again Saturday but the other 3 guys I was pitting with went, with a couple of them completing over 200 laps! 
The weather was looking a bit over cast for Sunday with possible showers but was dry when I got there early in the morning. I put my old 28 tyres on with additive and waited to get called out in my stock heat for our 5 minute practice. I was in my own heat with 2 of my mates in the stock heat before me and 1 of my mates a couple of heats back in super stock. 
 

Practice. This was the first time I’d ever raced at West London and I was really impressed with the track. It’s much flatter than Broxtowe and not as technical but faster and flowing. I picked it up pretty quickly and put some ok laps in with out and crashes. The car felt really good too just a bit slow but there wasn’t much I could do about that, some of the other cars although using the same motors were noticeably faster. 
 

Qualifier 1. I stuck with the 28 tyres and made no changes. I Started off in position 9 out of 10 so that suited me as would rather not have the pressure of being at the front letting the faster cars passed. I had a really good run putting some good laps in and getting past a few cars along the way. Finished in 4th with 14 laps. 
 

Qualifier 2. The temperature was warming up a bit so switched over to my scrubbed 32 tyres. Had another good run this time with a couple of little slides where i was pushing in places just trying to find my limit. Still got 14 laps and managed to get a slightly faster best lap. Finished in 4th again. 
 

Qualifier 3. Stuck with my 32 tyres again. Still felt like the right tyre and again had a good run with no issues. Had a couple of little clashes with a couple of drivers, and did spin out on the straight when I went wide and hit the side of popalong Carls car which I felt bad about. Apologised and all was good. Finished 3rd this time with a faster lap again and 14 laps. 
 

Qualifier 4. The temperature had risen again so I fitted my new 34 tyres. These tyres were brand new but I had run them round a carpark for 5 minutes to bed them in. Again I had probably my best run of qualifying really getting to grips with the track and driving more consistently. The tyres felt great too. Managed 15 laps this time and finished 3rd again. 
 

Finals. I managed to get into the C final with both of my mates that were in the stock class too! I stuck with the 34 tyres although it was a bit warmer (I had no 36’s). Lee was on pole, Luke 5th with me just behind in 6th. For once I actually got a really good start and within 2 corners I was up into 3rd! It didn’t last long though as 2 corners later I got hit and rolled. Luckily I didn’t lose much time and held onto 4th. For the next couple of laps I stayed consistent and put some really good laps in. There were a few crashes around me I managed to avoid and around 5 laps in I was in 2nd place! I then started to gain on Lee still in 1st position. I stuck to his rear bumper for another really close 4 laps but couldn’t find a way past although felt I had the pace too. I could see 3rd place starting to gain on us so was desperately trying to find a way past! That’s when I made a mistake and ran wide and up a kerb letting 3rd and 4th position past. I didn’t lose too much time but had to push really hard to catch back up. In hindsight I should of maybe slowed it down a bit and stuck to my lines not panicked but I thought I could of won so went for the win it or bin it mentality! 😂. When the chequered flag dropped I was 4th narrowly missing out on a podium place and a trophy. Lee won though and Luke finished 3rd so all together we had a real result. 
Overall we all had a great day, not just the racing we had such a good laugh and it stayed dry all day! Result 👍🏻

[Scottrc 225]

[Scottrc 225]

 

[bavee 821]

Thanks for posting! Enjoyed reading.