Iconic Cup 2024 - Race Reports

[Mad Ax 10575]

Having got 3rd in the final, I had to wait around for a trophy.  To be honest I like to wait for the trophy presentation anyway - it's always a good way to wind down after a day's racing, but most of the events are 3+ hours from home and there's always pressure to get on the road, especially when I've been feeling ill all weekend and am looking forward to my own bed.

So winning a trophy is a good excuse to hang around and unwind, watch the ceremony and have a last opportunity to say goodbye to my race buddies.  Plus the organisers like it when people make an effort to enjoy the entire day and not just the roundy-roundy bit.  It was to be a long ceremony this time too, since it wasn't just the day's racing but the end of the championship, so there were two lots of trophies to hand out.

The trophy ceremony was an emotional one for me, as it was the first time I've ever completed an entire season of any major championship, and I was tired, and feeling unwell, and a long way from home, but also buzzed, excited, relieved, and so, so grateful for the opportunity to have taken part.  I had plenty of time to reflect on that while I was sitting on the grass in the sunshine, watching people I've come to think of as friends collecting their trophies and lining up for applause.  So many memories this year.

The curry night at Mendip, starting up my new generator for the first time at Broxtowe.  The long, long drive to Carlisle and the soggy holiday in the lakes after the race.  Mike's wonderfully elongated description of where to find the toilet paper at West London, and the night with Mark-not-Bob-but-Mark, Bob-not-Mark-but-Bob, MartIIIIN!, Carol-oke, and the whole Kettering team at South Hants.  And of course, two long, hard days of back pain, kidney pain and upset stomach at Halifax, a weekend that could have been nothing but pain and misery, but was turned to sheer unbridled joy by the people who shared it with me.

So, there we have it.  What a journey.  What a journey!  I've been all over the country, seen places I would never have seen, I've had late nights, I've eaten barbecued burgers, I've eaten takeaway from a tin tub while sheltering from the rain, I've raced against some of the best vintage racers in the country, and I've made some awesome, awesome friends.  There's a tear in my eye as I write this, and it's not entirely due to the codeine.

There are far too many people to thank in a post like this, but mostly, thanks must go to John Weston for being the energy that has made Iconic RC such a fantastic group and makes all these races possible, to the entire Kettering Model Car Club crew for their hospitality (and snacks) this year, especially to Phil for loaning me his spare parts in a desperate bid to get my laptimes closer to his, and of course to my wife for making it totally OK for me to spend several weekends away from home.

[Mad Ax 10575]

So, is that it for 2024?

Well, no, not quite!  It's now just over 2 weeks until the Iconic Revival at Broxtowe - 3 days of vintage buggy racing on a purpose-built astro track - and just over 3 weeks until the Iconic GP at the fantastic Cotswold Model Car Club.  The GP was added to the Iconic calendar quite late after CMCC were given an extension on their eviction notice, a last chance to try to raise some cash and hopes for a track that suddenly found itself at risk earlier this year.  That means it's not officially part of the Iconic Cup (which is a shame as I'd have loved another official round in the championship) but it's run to the same rules by the same organisation, and will have mostly the same people attending.  It'll be a fab way to end my 1:10 racing for 2024, and this time, I'll be trialling the M05!

[Mad Ax 10575]

[dlruk 32]

Been waiting for this write up and it's great that your final went well. I've been to Halifax a number of times and always have a terrible time, not sure why! Was a bit to far to come and watch. I've read about all the motor nonsense....

Did you check the battery after Round 4? The 1060s are plagued with going into limp mode. Setting them to nimh helps but they still do it even if you fit a large capacitor. Totally random. Mine can do it first run out at a meeting then fine rest of the day. If you stop and do no transmitter input for over 5 seconds they normally reset themselves and you are good to go. I've gone and put a 1080 into my Mchassis now as I was fed up with it. Totally random though, the one in my TT01 I don't think has ever done it.

 

Love the trailer as well

[Mad Ax 10575]

7 hours ago, dlruk said:

Did you check the battery after Round 4?

I did, and it was pretty low, unfortunately.  It was my fault - I'd put several runs through both batteries on practice day and thought I'd been on top of recharging them after, but I guess that one got missed.  In my head it was a fully charged battery, and it's my best one, so I usually save it for the final.  I felt so incredibly relieved after I came down from the rostrum, as I could have really spoiled my final with a stupid mistake like that.

[Andreas W 2507]

Thanks for the writeup. I have saved reading it for the weekend, as it's nice to have a long read while enjoying the coffee on a lazy Sunday morning. I am happy to see you got it sorted in the final and that your pace was good enough for the podium. Congrats! 

 

Your new bodies look ace. I thought about getting a Phat JCW, before going for the Swift instead. It was easier to not have to order from abroad. 

 

[gogsyfinnie 667]

Well done Ax, it’s been a pleasure reading your reports and getting an insight to the series.  👍

[Mad Ax 10575]

Some more updates!  So, I mentioned that I'd be retiring the M03 after Halifax, and that meant I had to get the M05 ready for the Iconic GP at Cotswold Model Car Club in September.

I originally build the M05 to campaign the M-chassis class at the CWICS back in 2021, but I don't really enjoy racing indoors and I got tired of it after a couple of rounds.  Since then the M05 has been sitting on the shelf gathering dust.  I've been carting it around to various Iconic Cup meets as an emergency spare chassis just in case something went horrifically wrong with the M03, but so far it hasn't been used.

Here is how it was after I pulled it off the shelf.  Complete with dust.  Gunmetal colour is a really good match for the wife's 1:1 Yaris, although hers is much older and not a GR model.  Actually a month ago she traded it in for a slightly newer Yaris, but fortunately it is the exact same colour, so I don't have to buy a new bodyshell.

This shell however is rubbish for racing - it's hard to see on a black carpet or tarmac track, and gets hit a lot.  So I won't be using it at the Iconic Cup (although it looks great, and the LWB is more stable on longer circuits).

It was fitted with "placeholder" shocks and no servo or wheels.

One thing I was seriously looking forward to was a proper diff!  One that I don't have to rebuild 3 or 4 times per race meeting, and one that won't splatter blu-tac all over the inside of my transmission and clog up my bearings.

ooooh....  I filled this with 50K oil, as I generally like a nice tight diff.  Although I'd quite like to buy a second diff with something like 7K, for wet races - a tight diff can pull the back end around and make it spin out on the straights.

Installed

[Mad Ax 10575]

There was an obscene amount of play in the rear axles, so I found these wishy washers that were a perfect fit.  Or, they looked like a perfect fit, but caused the back end to lock up when the wheels were torqued on, so I had to take them off on race weekend.  I really need to order some proper shims.

I decided to fit a Savox servo this time.  Only a cheap one, but should be better than the Alturn that I was using in the M03.

Reconfigured in MWB format, with the JCW body fitted.

[Mad Ax 10575]

The Iconic GP took place just one week after the September Iconic Revival at Broxtowe, so I had limited time to prepare - in fact my awning was still wet from having been packed away in a shower when I arrived at the track on Saturday morning.  We had our fingers crossed for a dry weekend, but surely we all knew we were in for a soaking.  Fortunately Saturday was mostly dry, so it was time to get some laps in and learn the circuit.

Cotswold is one of the bigger circuits in the country, on a par with Halifax and Mendip.  It's a prestige club and runs national events, and also runs 1:8 nitro as well as some super fast touring classes - I've been there on club day and some of those touring drivers are wickedly fast.  It's a really nice circuit to drive once you've got a rhythm on - in fact it's one of my favourite tracks to drive - but it punishes mistakes, and with M-chassis tyres there's almost no chance of getting back on track if you go on the grass.  The back straight runs parallel to the rostrum and is so hard to judge, especially with a Tamiya that wants to wander across the track.  Get it wrong and go off and you'll be waiting for the field to pass before a marshal can cross the track for recovery.

Also, being a nitro venue, and also being near some trees, means it gets very slippery when wet, or when it hasn't been driven for a while.  Saturday morning was treacherous.

Practice 1 - the track was wet, so I fitted Volante 24s all round.  I've come to favour them over the Sweep EXPs that I ran at the beginning of the season.  I had some new-ish tyres up front and some older ones on the rear, although I probably should have gone the other way around.  I also went with the same base spring setting that I used on the M03 - blues up front, reds on the back.  Shock-wise, I was running the same alloy shocks that I'd had on the M03, with 3-hole pistons and 27.5wt oil all round (approx. 300cst, slightly lighter than the 350 that was recommended to me by my pit buddy Phil because it's the closest I had).

Out on track, things were near-impossible.  The back was constantly overtaking the front, even on the straight - in fact, especially on the straight.  That tight diff was probably not helping here, but even so I desperately needed some grip.

Practice 2 - for my 2nd attempt, I swapped the old 24s onto the front and put the newer ones on the rear.  It was understeery, but it was driveable and didn't loop out on the straight.

Practice 3 - I decided I needed more front grip, so I went to the yellow spring, keeping the red on the back.  The surface was damp to dry.  I added 1 degree toe out to try to keep the car going straight down the back.

Suddenly it got very hard to drive - it was understeery, but also wanted to spin out for no reason.  I aborted my run after 2 crashes.

Practice 4 - track was mostly dry, with some damp patches.  I set the toe out back to how it was (approx 1 degree) and fitted 30s up front.  Also changed the EPs on the transmitter to 90% throttle, 50% brake.

The car was better, but was very twitchy - I crashed while trying to avoid traffic, which ended my run.

Practice 5 - dry.  Changed the rear spring to yellow.  With the track drying and rubbering in, suddenly the car was easy to drive (it was too much to hope that changing the rear spring did that!).  Very stable and planted.  I turned the throttle back up to 100%

Practice 6 - heavy shower just before we went out.  I'd been advised by my pit buddies that we set the M05 up the opposite to the M03, i.e. softer springs on the front, so I put the red up front and left the yellow on the rear.

I also left the 30s on the front, which was a mistake in the wet.  The car was understeery and slow, although didn't spin out, which is much better for me.

Also our pit tent leaked, mostly over my pit area, so a lot of my stuff got wet, but it was OK because it's a camping holiday and that sort of thing is to be expected.

Practice 7 - soaking.  Fitted Volante 24s all round.  Understeery but planted, with zero traction on throttle, but the rear end was well-behaved.  I had a good long run to really get a feel for driving in the wet and try to get the hang of pulling lightly out of corners and feeding in the throttle through the straights.

Practice 8 - I moved the punch on the HW-1080 to level 5 to try to control the wheelspin.  It went well, I was pleased with my efforts.

I handed the transmitter to my pit buddy to he could see what he thought of my setup, but half a lap later the party balloon that I'd used to seal my Sanyo transmitter came unstuck and went under the wheels, pulling out the servo plugs and stopping play completely.

After that we decided to call it a night.  I was totally lame with my camera and only took 2 pictures the whole entire weekend, and they were of our cooking efforts.

These are Phil's burgers:

This is Phil preparing his burgers:

Much merriment was had an a few beers consumed, although it was cold, the ground was wet, we were all somewhat soggy after a day of wet racing, and we chilled off quickly once the sun went down, so we called it an early night and jumped into our respective campers to get some much-needed sleep before the big day.

[Mad Ax 10575]

The Big Day

It rained overnight, and the track was sodden when we went out for morning practice.  I put the newest Volante 24s I could find all round - I did have a complete new set in a bag but I wanted to save them for next year, as M-chassis tyres are getting really expensive.

The car was spinny at first, but soon settled down and became stable and predictable, if not exactly fast.

I should be pleased to announce that I made it into the A, but as there were only 10 cars booked in and only 8 showed up, I was guaranteed a top spot regardless.

Race 1 - wet.  I added 30g of ballast to the front bumper (so far I hadn't thought to add any weight to the car).

The car was spinny at first, but there were no big dramas until I caught the road paint coming off the chicane while taking a tighter line when recovering from a 360.  The tight diff pulled the car up onto the grass, and that was that for my race.

It was a moot point as it transpired my transponder had become unplugged and I wasn't recording any time.

Race 2 - I put the red springs back on the rear to try to settle it down, and fixed the transponder.  Also changed the throttle expo to -20 - I don't usually do expo on throttle (or on steering tbh, I prefer linear control) but it was so hard to control the wheelspin out of the corners that I was doing everything I could to limit what power I was putting down.

I had a good clean race and came in 5th, just under 2 laps off the lead and my best lap 2.5 seconds off the pace.

Race 3 - wet.  I reduced the steering D/R to see if I could control the understeer by giving less input, but I turned it back up again in the race as I couldn't get it to turn in at all.

I had a clean race until the last lap, when the timing system gave me an extra lap to finish, but unfortunately a junior hadn't realised his race was already over and was a lap down on me, and he clipped me as I tried to pass, so I was timed out before I got around again.  Still, my position was secure, I finished 4th in front of local racer Tom, who had been steadily improving all day after having mechanical trouble with his car.  My fasted lap was the same as the previous race, but the leader had improved so I was now 3 seconds off the pace.

Race 4 - no changes to the car, tyres hadn't worn in all the wet weather so I didn't need to open my new pack.

I finally broke the 10-lap barrier, but sadly didn't finish on the lead lap as the leader went all the way to 11, and I was now over 3s off the best time, despite a .5 second improvement.  Tom had got to grips with his car and passed me, putting me down in 5th.

Final - here we enter the realm of creative journalism, as I didn't make any notes about the race.  If memory serves, it absolutely tipped it down just before the finals and the track was once again waterlogged, but we all clomb the steps to the rostrum to await the bleepity-bloop and the first lap shenanigans.  I qualified in 5th place, got a good start and (I'm making this bit up here) had a mostly clean race.  According to rc-results I had a bad lap 8, but otherwise I was low 30s all the way around, and scored my best time of the day, less than 2.5 seconds off the best.  Harrison had led the timesheets all day and was looking spot on for a win, but Hugh pulled it out the bag for the final and took the top spot, relegating Harrison to second, and Tom came in third.

I expected to finish 5th, where I started, but my pit buddy and chief burger-cooker Phil, who had been a consistent 3rd all day, found himself stuck on the grass in the middle of the straight (see paragraph 2 in the post above) and had to wait for a marshal.  So it was that I came in 4th, fastest of the 10-lap finishers, happy with my progress on my first round with the M05.

After that it was time to pack everything away, including the absolutely sodden awning, which is always a challenge because it doesn't want to go back in its bag when it's twice its normal size with water.  And then there's all the hassle of getting it out again when I get home and hanging it in the workshop to dry.

I doubt the M05 will get another outing this year, and with Mendip off the calendar for 2025, literally all 6 rounds of the Iconic Cup are away races for me.  I can probably get away with West London, Broxtowe and South Hants as one-day events (although I always perform much better if I do the practice day) but somehow I've got to find the fuel money for Carlisle, Halifax and Colchester in April and May next year.  Fingers crossed for fuel and road pricing to not increase between now and then, although given the economic forecast, that might be wishful thinking...

[bavee 1140]

Thank you for writing down your story!

[Mad Ax 10575]

12 hours ago, bavee said:

Thank you for writing down your story!

Thank you for reading  

[Andreas W 2507]

Thanks for making the writeup. What a cr.. weather. It's never nice when everything is soaking wet and you are a long way from home. The last time I was at Nürburgring we got thunder and monsoon rain, so I had a river passing through my tent. Ended up sleeping in the car - which is not nice given a slightly grumpy 16V KR on Weber 45 DCOE, which also didn’t like the weather. 

 

Despite few competitors you can still be happy and proud of the result. With such awful conditions It's an achievement making it to the finish line anyway.