Making a start in Off-Road Racing

[Origineelreclamebord 45]

Hi everyone,

I have 2 track days under my belt now, it was a lot of fun and I've been invited for a club race. However, I have the feeling I'm missing some components to actually join races! I currently have:

- TRF201 + Electronics that are in the car (2.4Ghz)

- Spares for TRF201 (almost full chassis because I bought a second one, plus some spares like lower arms, hubs/uprights and of course small hardware and screws).

- Parts to setup the car (extra set of dampers and TRF spring sets, AE spring sets on the way for more adjustability).

- Necessary tools to work on it.

- Charger + 1 battery.

- Only one set of (somewhat used) tires that work on that track (Holeshot/4-rib M3 compound)

What I think I'm missing:

- A second battery.

- Some spare tires (especially as I heard they run Calibers on the rear as a control tire for 2WD).

- A transponder.

- L10 front bulkhead and J6 Front suspension block (they have been ordered).

Am I missing more? Is that about it? Or don't I need a second battery for example? There is another guy racing the 201 I think, but I'd rather not depend on someone else's spares box and his/her opinion about lending people a hand when needed.

[WillyChang 1814]

new set of tyres always good, if only to show you how bad half-worn ones are

got a good choice of pinion/spur gearings for tuning?

some ppl carry different sized/shaped/mounted wings for tuning too

[Origineelreclamebord 45]

new set of tyres always good, if only to show you how bad half-worn ones are

got a good choice of pinion/spur gearings for tuning?

some ppl carry different sized/shaped/mounted wings for tuning too

I have several wings and pinions, though I guess the wings aren't for tuning for me - I'm inexperienced, and it shows in the form of something that resembles the remains of a wing on the back end It's not that bad actually, but it's got plenty of cracks after two days of running around a track... If I run out of spare wings I'll buy LMR ones

As for the tires, I saw the Holeshots I used wore down on an angle, so if I turn them around they should have just a little more bite again? Only temporary though I guess...

[bromvw 744]

I have several wings and pinions, though I guess the wings aren't for tuning for me - I'm inexperienced, and it shows in the form of something that resembles the remains of a wing on the back end It's not that bad actually, but it's got plenty of cracks after two days of running around a track... If I run out of spare wings I'll buy LMR ones

As for the tires, I saw the Holeshots I used wore down on an angle, so if I turn them around they should have just a little more bite again? Only temporary though I guess...

do you have adjustable top links and steering links fitted ? these can make a lot of differance when dailing in the camber and toe in/out for various tracks .The other thing i've seen racers do is to have 4 small digital scales so you can set the balance up with a scale under each wheel - but thats maybe going too far for off road

[GregM 1109]

As far as I know both TRF201 and DN-01 Zahhak do come with adjustable L/R threaded links out of the box.

[sosidge 624]

All you need to go racing are your car and enough battery power to get you through the days racing. That's how I started in 1988.

One LiPo can cope with being recharged all day, if there is enough time between races.

Tyres and motors make the biggest difference. If Calibers are the rule, then getting them is obvious, as well as getting an appropriate front tyre to give a good balance. Motors in 2wd are usually open but check with the track rules - you don't need a very fast motor to be competitive. Gear your motor right as well - ask for advice at the track.

A small selection of tuning parts helps - a few spring rates, a few damper oil rates, maybe the odd geometry block - easiest starting point is a setup from someone at the track or from the manufacturer. I don't load up on spares personally beause most of them don't get used - that's why it's great to have a trackside shop that will carry the spares for you!

Driving is far and away the most important component in racing. Don't get distracted by the gear in the pits - the only thing on the track is the car, and the only thing controlling it is you.

And don't forget to have fun!

[igbandy 34]

A decent set of tools, spare batteries for your TX, a second battery is a very good idea as well.

Daft as it sounds, a Table and chair is a big help too.

[Origineelreclamebord 45]

@bromvw and GregM, the TRF201 has those adjustability options, no problem I don't have 4 scales though or a gauges for camber and ride height, but I guess I can manage my first club race(s) without those.

@sosidge: I mailed the guy who sent out the invitations, and as it turns out I forgot their club races are free in tire choice, the BNK (Belgian/Dutch championship) is restricted to the tires for clay/dirt I mentioned earlier. How does the gearing help by the way? Getting the optimum balance between acceleration and top speed on that particular track? I doubt they have a trackside shop, let alone that there are any 201 spares

@igbandy: the spare batteries for the TX are a VERY good idea - my 3PM uses them like 'we' can eat snacks when watching a movie The chair and table will be a problem, I'll be traveling by public transport about 140 kilometres to get to the track.

[bromvw 744]

@bromvw and GregM, the TRF201 has those adjustability options, no problem I don't have 4 scales though or a gauges for camber and ride height, but I guess I can manage my first club race(s) without those.

@sosidge: I mailed the guy who sent out the invitations, and as it turns out I forgot their club races are free in tire choice, the BNK (Belgian/Dutch championship) is restricted to the tires for clay/dirt I mentioned earlier. How does the gearing help by the way? Getting the optimum balance between acceleration and top speed on that particular track? I doubt they have a trackside shop, let alone that there are any 201 spares

@igbandy: the spare batteries for the TX are a VERY good idea - my 3PM uses them like 'we' can eat snacks when watching a movie The chair and table will be a problem, I'll be traveling by public transport about 140 kilometres to get to the track.

To solve the chair and table problem have a look at the seat box's fisherman use . A small folding camping stool and your sorted .Both are avilable from Amazon

[MadInventor 3884]

I've found a cheap chinese digital caliper (Around £10) very useful for setting lengths of trackrod / shock absorber, etc. This helps enormously with getting settings on the car the same for both sides.

[sosidge 624]

@bromvw and GregM, the TRF201 has those adjustability options, no problem I don't have 4 scales though or a gauges for camber and ride height, but I guess I can manage my first club race(s) without those.

@sosidge: I mailed the guy who sent out the invitations, and as it turns out I forgot their club races are free in tire choice, the BNK (Belgian/Dutch championship) is restricted to the tires for clay/dirt I mentioned earlier. How does the gearing help by the way? Getting the optimum balance between acceleration and top speed on that particular track? I doubt they have a trackside shop, let alone that there are any 201 spares

@igbandy: the spare batteries for the TX are a VERY good idea - my 3PM uses them like 'we' can eat snacks when watching a movie The chair and table will be a problem, I'll be traveling by public transport about 140 kilometres to get to the track.

Scales are almost a complete waste of time in off-road. Camber and toe can be eyeballed effectively enough.

Gearing is very important to make the most of the motor. Get it badly wrong and you will be either slow or the owner of a burnt out motor. The track or the manufacturers info are good places for advice.

Hopefully the track has permanent pitting and mains power. Otherwise 140km on public transport is going to be rather difficult to take the stuff you need.

[Origineelreclamebord 45]

Again, thanks guys for the advice

The fishing seat-box-things indeed look like they could be pretty nice for the job. I'll have a look at them soon.

I already have calipers, I always use these as I don't have the camber and ride height gauge (and it can do more than just give you more than just values for your ride height and camber like you mentioned),this works very well until I get rich and/or get very serious into the racing scene.

@Sosidge: The track doesn't have a pit area, but there is electricity. Last time I got a place at someone else's pit table though, so with a bit of luck

1.I will have a place to do maintainance and

2.I won't have to use it a lot

I drove on the track once before, the gearing I used did fine indoors on a dirt track, and I was a few weeks back on the same track where I'm going saturday. I didn't very intensively checked on the heat of the Motor or ESC, but I didn't have any problems even at the end of the 25-30 minute runs I made - at least I wasn't notified by extreme forms of heat coming from the motor, ESC or battery. That said, I do have bigger and smaller pinions and even an alternative size spur gear.

[Origineelreclamebord 45]

I thought I'd just report on the status of my first race...

Priceless, Awesome, Fantastic!

The day had a bit of a rough start for me. I should have caught the first train to the track by 06:46, but I either wens sleepwalking and turned the timer of my phone off, or didn't go off at all, because I woke up and thought... 'What a nice day, the sun is shining... Oh @!(*&^!!!' It was around 8:25 when that happened. Luckily I had already packed my stuff before I went to bed, so I could catch the next train of 8:46!

I came about 90 minutes late in the end and missed my first qualifying run. However, that didn't matter too much: The best 2 of 3 qualifying rounds counted. In total there were 26 drivers for the 2WD Buggy class. I had a good base setup for the day as the last time I drove with the 201 it was on the same track. It was however damp, and I was using Proline Calibers on the rear now instead of Holeshots (Calibers last way longer).

I had three goals:

1. Have fun!

2. Learn to drive consistently.

3. Don't come in last.

The first one was accomplished easily! Fellow drivers were very welcoming, helpful and happy to see me entering a race. The second thing is something I still need to work on in detail, but the basics are there: I made nearly zero (big) mistakes (such as crashing after jumps) which saved me a lot of time, and as a result I had no damage during the entire day! I do still need to work on keeping consistent lines around the track though, once I know which lines gives me the best times and suits my driving style and car. Finding the good lines was all down to watching the experienced guys run!

The result of the qualifying was very nice: I qualified 10th for the B-Final! Ok, my fastest lap was some 2.5 seconds slower than the person in the top spot, but all in all I was very happy with where I ended up: I had managed to keep 6 people behind me through qualifying, and I had nothing to lose in the B-final, I could only climb in the end results!

So off I went for the finals. The first run was very nie: I had a reasonable start, and whereas other people seemed to make mistakes, my car was saved from trouble in the early stages, which helped me a lot later on in the race. In the last minute I lost one to three positions due to a crash. However, I managed to end up fifth

The second final I had a very bad start, in a sense that there was some wheelbanging going on in the first few corners, and I was in the midst of it. It made my race a whole different story: I had to climb my way up. Slightly frustrating at the most, it was a good challenge to see how many positions I could make up again after having dropped to last place with a 8-10 second gap between me and the guy in front of me. In the end I managed to end 7th.

The track was drying up and I felt the car started understeering due to this. Therefor, for the second final I had to make some small setup changes over the three finals . First I tried 2mm thicker spacers below the inner ball studs on the rear and added an additional 10 grams of weight on the servo. The changes did help, but not sufficiently.

Then for the third run I made some more changes stiffer rear springs and more toe-out. This helped me a lot to ride the car with confidence, but didn't help me to be more competitive: I again had a bad first 2 laps with chaos all around me, but once that settled I managed to drive pretty consistently (for me then anyway), climb to the sixth spot and keep it. With one extra lap I would have overtaken the guy in front of me

In the end these are the results:

I ended up 18th, which is all I could have hoped for in my first race, especially as most of the people in the top 10 also drive in the Dutch/Belgian Championship. And besides that, I had a car that handled well, had no damage/breakage, and I had way more consistent driving than in the two track events I attended before... I can't wait to have another go at it soon

PS: Someone who lives 5 minutes from the track had brought me a table and chair! So working on the car was no problem at all!

[sosidge 624]

Sounds like you had a good day.

To finish as well as you did at your first race meeting is impressive, you should be proud.

Good to hear that the other racers went out of their way to help.

[Origineelreclamebord 45]

Sounds like you had a good day.

To finish as well as you did at your first race meeting is impressive, you should be proud.

Good to hear that the other racers went out of their way to help.

Thanks

It was really a great day, and perhaps it's because it was a club race, but it seemed not many people gave competition a higher priority over the element of fun A good sign I think, I decided I want to become a member at the club. I'll be dependent on someone else's presence to drive there unless the weather is good (there's no pitting area), but that's not a big deal probably: I only have time to drive in the weekends anyway, and driving with several people is more fun.

I'l probably haul my Dyna Storm to the track soon as well, just for fun, I'm eager to find out what the difference in performance and lap times will be!

[humbug 36]

Is that a joke? The dude that came 8th?

Mike Knipples?

ROFL!

Other then that, cool story bro

[Origineelreclamebord 45]

Hehe, I see what you mean, but in the Dutch pronunciation the K is clearly audible

Anyway, I'm really happy that I started racing - it changed the hobby for me (positively that is of course!) I've been to 3-4 races now, and I have another one this weekend.

A few weeks back I had a race which was undescribable: The Kampenhout GP. An international race event in Belgium that lures a lot of drivers from various countries. If it wasn't for the Euros in the week following the Kampenhout GP, Lee Martin, Tom Cockerill and many pro's from the UK racing scene would have been there. And yet despite the Euros, some chose the Kampenhout GP as the event to go for... I soon found out why!

The atmosphere at the event was amazing! Hardcore racing, but one huge party at the trackside! I can't explain how it was, luckily Jimmy from oOple did a report on the event:

http://www.oople.com.../belgiangp2012/

I didn't only drive (2WD), but also shot a lot of pictures! Here are some of the better ones:

http://s65.photobuck...ampenhout 2012/

Lastly, I've got a project running to make an FWD Buggy:

http://www.oople.com...ead.php?t=86091

This is a car I'll run with as much as I can for at least the rest of the year: A TRF201 based front wheel driven buggy. I've got manufacturing support from a RC race car developer from the UK, Atomic Carbon, and it's the goal to test how much potential there is in front wheel driven buggies (it is said they carry more corner speed especially as you can put the throttle on very early, and of course they have the ultimate cure for snap-oversteer: more throttle! Aka, it's 'always' stable).