Jump to content
Sign in to follow this  
Mad Ax

Dirt3D Festival Race - Review

Recommended Posts

I don't think I could have been more excited about the opening of a new purpose-built off-road circuit in the local area.  I heard the news a few months back, when I was trying to initiate some regular bashes at other tracks, and it was enough to make me put my plans on hold and wait to see what happened at Dirt3D.

https://www.dirt3d.com/

I managed to get over to the track a couple of times, but as I had my two-year-old daughter on both occasions my running was limited to a few short blasts while she was being shepherded by the track stewards.  So, roll on 22nd September and the Dirt 3D Festival Race.

The track is situated on a farm, and 22nd September is the date of the farm's harvest festival.  A one-day championship was planned as a demonstration event to the general public.

Of course, true to British form, two weeks of warm temperatures and beaming sunshine gave way to torrential downpours on the day of the event.  I've lost count of how many times this has happened in my lifetime - but if I've learnt anything at all, it's that I'm not made of salt, mud can be cleaned and, crucially, all cars have to slow down by the same amount when it rains, so racing can be just as much fun in the wet or dry.  And while there's a joy to standing outside while the gentle Westcountry sun warms the shoulders, there is also a sense of achievement in battling the elements and surviving with only a soggy rain jacket and filthy boots.

I arrived on the day to find that not everybody else saw it that way.  Adie, owner of Dirt3D, told me that lots of people had registered but quite a lot had failed to pay.  A few more had paid but had pulled out, and he expected a few more to do the same.  In all it was a shame not to have more entrants, but we had enough to go racing.

The track remained closed until 11am, when the downpour was forecast to end.  In the mean time I made sure my cars were ready to go (my Top Force Evo for the vintage 4wd class and my Wild Mini for the wheelie/monster race), and helped Adie to get a vintage Manta Ray running for his entry.  Somebody else had swapped the diff for him but the gear case hadn't been refitted properly; a minute with a hex wrench and all was sound and ready to run.

The rain was not quite gone by 11am but we kicked off with round 1 anyway.  There were 3 entries in Short Course Trucks, 3 in DT02 Stock with a wildcard entry from the sole 2wd Buggy, 2 in 4wd buggy, 2 in Wheelie / Monster and 2 in Vintage 4wd.  Such a light turnout meant that if we weren't racing, we were either marshalling or monitoring race control, so a dead heat was added to give everyone a chance to clean their cars and swap batteries before the next round.  I barely had enough time to fry my burger in the van during the lunchbreak.

I won't bother to document the Wheelie Race, because it was really just about razzing around the track and having fun.  My sole opponent was the young son of a regular racer having a learning day with a Lunchbox.  His day opened with dad helping to drive and a lot of run-ins with the barriers, and ended with him driving the finals on his own and doing some successful laps :)

Vintage 4wd was another matter.  I'll freely admit that I'm not the best racer in the world, or even the country, or, if I'm honest, within a 100 metre radius of where I'm sitting now.  I'm sure there are people in houses nearby or driving past on the road outside who could shepherd my Top Force around the track faster than I could.  My opponent was Adie, Dirt3D owner, an experienced racer who seems to be able to make anything go fast.  I say anything - he was running brushed with NiMHs, a stock Manta Ray that hadn't properly been looked at probably since it was built over two decades ago.  Despite their shared heritage, the only things that matched between our cars were some gear cases and the silver dart tyres we were running because of the wet weather.  Even so, Adie managed to put several laps on me in round 1 while I was busy trying to find some balance between limited grip and 9T brushless power.

Long-term plans for the Dirt3D track are to be part grass, part clay and part astro, but due to outside reasons the astro isn't down yet so it's mostly grass and clay.  The ground around these parts is natural clay, and makes for a great surface, wet or dry.  On dry afternoons the dust comes up off the back straight like a scene from a 70s Baja 1000 documentary; in the wet it becomes sticky (like, well, clay, to be honest) and has way more grip than one might expect.  It was surprising to be able to go flat out with 9T brushless all down the back straight and watch the Top Force geometry keep the car going dead straight when the bumps wanted to send it everywhere.

It also gets over everything.  Check these short course trucks after race 1:

IMG_20190922_111614.jpg

IMG_20190922_111617.jpg

 

Fortunately the track has a hosepipe and compressor for getting rid of the worst of it!

I won't bother to document all of my races in detail, because there were only 2 of us on track and it felt more like a test day.  We ran 4 heats and 2 finals.  The track was almost completely dry by the first final, and I had a lucky win thanks to Adie's car going out with a dropped upper arm.  I felt like I was losing power just before the end of the race, but my ESC has a LiPo cutoff, so I hoped it was a binding problem and not a failing battery.

At the end of the race I removed the 3250 LiPo stick pack - freshly charged the previous day - to put it in my King Blackfoot for the last round of monster finals, only for the case to come apart in my hands.  The cells had swelled enough to split the case :o

The motor was fairly gosh-darned hot too, although the drivetrain was still spinning freely.  I think 9T is probably a bit too aggressive for Top Force gearing and if I had any sense I'd get something more appropriate, but I don't, so we put the puffed LiPo safely out of harm's way in a roped off area and got ready for the second final.

We had another downpour just as the second round of finals were about to go out, so my hopes of swapping to yellow minipins for the last race were dashed.  But that was probably for the best, as I'd spent all day on a wet track and I knew how it handled.

Final 2 kicked off with a good start and - at last - I was able to keep pace with Adie.  The rain stayed off and we had a fab race, passing and re-passing each other as we both had little offs.  About half-way through I started to drop the pace - making too many mistakes - and not long after that the car started to slow.  Again, if I had any sense, I'd have stopped, but I decided to push on regardless.  I mean, what's the worse that could happen?

Well, the worst was probably that the LiPo (an identical 3250 to the one that puffed in the previous race) could have caught fire and taken my vintage Top Force with its rare HPI chassis and white arms with it.  The odds (while perhaps not the best) were still in my favour and I managed to finish the race, although it was a slow crawl across the line.

The pack was well and truly puffed.  I got it out of the chassis without too much effort, but like one of those trick "dried scorpion body" jokes that people bring back from holiday, it sprang apart in my hand and almost fell to the floor.  It ended up about 3 times its size, next to its sibbling in the roped-off area.

So - I think I need to check that ESC over, reduce the gearing (if I can) or get a different setup in the Top Force before I race it again, because I can't afford to keep throwing LiPos away.

The sun came out in time for the trophy presentation.  Dirt3D decided to go one better than the usual one-day championship and gave out engraved glass tankards.  More expensive than a plastic trophy, but nice to look at and functional too.  The benefit of turning up on a downpour day meant that everybody got a trophy (I think there were a few to spare, too!) and because I'd raced in two classes I earned the title of "Pot Hunter" (probably the only event I will ever achieve that name) and came home with a pair.  One for the trophy cabinet and one for my weekend Budweiser.  I can't really say I earned my trophies with my driving, but I think we all earned them by bothering to show up in the first place and show some support for an enthusiastic track team and a great new venue for south-west RC racing.

There's something quite nice about the long drive home from a weekend race, but this time there was no such thing.  It's normally 3 hours plus back from any big event.  However there's also something nice about getting home in time to put my daughter to bed.

I usually get back so late that I treat myself to a takeaway on race weekends, but this time I was early enough to cook my own, and enjoy a celebratory beer in my hard-won trophy.

IMG_20190922_200245.jpg

Look forward to more from Dirt3D - Iconic RC have just announced a race weekend there in May next year.  Since it's going to be some kind of early-season off-road vintage RC event, I'm inclined to call it the Iconic Previval :D

  • Like 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Few more pics of the day:

IMG_20190922_121215.jpg

IMG_20190922_132712.jpg

IMG_20190922_123216.jpg

IMG_20190922_123112.jpg

IMG_20190922_123057.jpg

 

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Looks like a nice circuit, although that grass is going to tear up a treat and it will probably be a good idea to get some astro down sharpish on some of the sharper apexes. Where were the drivers standing? Was it on the top of that steep bank?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
17 hours ago, Yalson said:

Looks like a nice circuit, although that grass is going to tear up a treat and it will probably be a good idea to get some astro down sharpish on some of the sharper apexes. Where were the drivers standing? Was it on the top of that steep bank?

Keeping it natural would be so much nicer than Astro, keeping it real like. I don't get the craze for Astro I'd rather battle grip with mud or dust and sometime be rewarder by perfectly tacky dirt.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
On 10/4/2019 at 4:44 PM, Balgaroth said:

Keeping it natural would be so much nicer than Astro, keeping it real like. I don't get the craze for Astro I'd rather battle grip with mud or dust and sometime be rewarder by perfectly tacky dirt.

If only that was what happened. What is more likely is that if the track retains the same layout, the apexes of the corners and areas of hard acceleration and braking will wear away and develop ruts, making the surface exceptionally difficult to safely navigate and less fun for everybody. While I always loved a bit of dirt and grass myself, after a while a pitted surface like that reduces the amount of skill involved, increases the number of undeserved accidents and forces drivers to take bizarre lines through corners to avoid the holes. The astro would not be to remove the dirt surface, but rather to just maintain a workable driving surface for everybody.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
35 minutes ago, Yalson said:

If only that was what happened. What is more likely is that if the track retains the same layout, the apexes of the corners and areas of hard acceleration and braking will wear away and develop ruts, making the surface exceptionally difficult to safely navigate and less fun for everybody. While I always loved a bit of dirt and grass myself, after a while a pitted surface like that reduces the amount of skill involved, increases the number of undeserved accidents and forces drivers to take bizarre lines through corners to avoid the holes. The astro would not be to remove the dirt surface, but rather to just maintain a workable driving surface for everybody.

Fair enough I've only ever drove on dirt when I was bashing and now I started on the track which is Astro. I have to admit that I was slightly disappointed but if that's the only way to keep the track in shape for a while that's it.  

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
2 minutes ago, Balgaroth said:

Fair enough I've only ever drove on dirt when I was bashing and now I started on the track which is Astro. I have to admit that I was slightly disappointed but if that's the only way to keep the track in shape for a while that's it.  

There are other options, but it requires a bit of work. I used to race at a club where the race controller set out a different circuit with pipes and old tyres every week, but that requires a lot of commitment and a lot of time. Some dirt surfaces can withstand wear better than others, but they will all cut up through the apexes of the corners eventually, meaning drivers will have to either drive through it and hope for the best, compromise their set up to deal with it or apex the corner outside the affected area. I remember this used to happen on temporary grass circuits at events even when they were only used for a day, especially if it was wet. None of these are particularly ideal and add a bit of pot-luck to the driver's race, since you can still get taken out by another driver who hasn't adjusted their line and rolled over, even if you have.

A good off-road circuit these days will often have a mix of surfaces like a 1:1 Rallycross circuit, including dirt, grass, astro and even tarmac and concrete, to keep driving interesting and to prevent excessive wear making the surface a rutted mess around areas of high braking or acceleration.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
13 hours ago, Yalson said:

There are other options, but it requires a bit of work. I used to race at a club where the race controller set out a different circuit with pipes and old tyres every week, but that requires a lot of commitment and a lot of time. Some dirt surfaces can withstand wear better than others, but they will all cut up through the apexes of the corners eventually, meaning drivers will have to either drive through it and hope for the best, compromise their set up to deal with it or apex the corner outside the affected area. I remember this used to happen on temporary grass circuits at events even when they were only used for a day, especially if it was wet. None of these are particularly ideal and add a bit of pot-luck to the driver's race, since you can still get taken out by another driver who hasn't adjusted their line and rolled over, even if you have.

A good off-road circuit these days will often have a mix of surfaces like a 1:1 Rallycross circuit, including dirt, grass, astro and even tarmac and concrete, to keep driving interesting and to prevent excessive wear making the surface a rutted mess around areas of high braking or acceleration.

I get what you mean but now let's have a look at 1:1 stuff like Moto Cross for exemple. The track will always develop ruts same as what you describe. I do Mtb DH racing and the same is true. Yet it would never come to our mind to put tarmac on the corners, ruts are part of the game, it is off-road after-all and your setup should take this in account otherwise you start sanitizing everything, first you remove rocks, you end up removing pebble and then put concrete everywhere. Concrete with jump isn't really off-road is it ? Drivers would have to increase travel as well as ground clearance but since you wouldn't have as much traction as with Astro, things like traction roll would be much more manageable wouldn't it ? I am just thinking out loud as this is something that is also starting to show it's ugly nose in DH Mtb and is definitely present in BMX racing and it seems for years in Off-road RC.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 hour ago, Balgaroth said:

I get what you mean but now let's have a look at 1:1 stuff like Moto Cross for exemple. The track will always develop ruts same as what you describe. I do Mtb DH racing and the same is true. Yet it would never come to our mind to put tarmac on the corners, ruts are part of the game, it is off-road after-all and your setup should take this in account otherwise you start sanitizing everything, first you remove rocks, you end up removing pebble and then put concrete everywhere. Concrete with jump isn't really off-road is it ? Drivers would have to increase travel as well as ground clearance but since you wouldn't have as much traction as with Astro, things like traction roll would be much more manageable wouldn't it ? I am just thinking out loud as this is something that is also starting to show it's ugly nose in DH Mtb and is definitely present in BMX racing and it seems for years in Off-road RC.

I take your point that in some sports it is part of the nature of the circuit to cut up like this and driving or riding round it is part of the skill involved. The degeneration of the track is part of the challenge of motorcycle beach racing, for example, while road circuits like Knockhill, Monaco and Bathurst all have bumps or bumpy areas which are part of the character and challenge of the circuits.

But there are limits. The Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico was so bumpy that it became unsuitable for F1 and had to be completely rebuilt at great expense. You can race rally cars over gravel, but not over large rocks. You can play football in the rain, but not on a waterlogged pitch. The issue with surface degradation on RC courses is not that the cars cannot use dirt surfaces, or that drivers can't handle a few bumps. The problem is that it doesn't stay at just being a few bumps, but the circuit will instead gradually deteriorate until it becomes unusable. Then the club or organisation involved faces considerable inconvenience and expense fixing it, which is why they tend to use astro and concrete to cover vulnerable areas. Beach racers and Motocross riders face a gradually deteriorating circuit, but those circuits tend to be rebuilt before every meeting. We used to face a deteriorating surface when we raced on grass at events, but those circuits only tended to be used for one or two days. We used to cut up the grass at our Saturday morning meetings, but our race controller used to set out a different circuit every week, to prevent the surface getting too badly affected in any one area (although there were two holes on the front straight which were part of the circuit and had to be avoided, which was part of the venue's character).

While some roughness in the surface is to be encouraged, the nature of the sport means it never stays at a reasonable level, which is why some parts of the surface have to be protected.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
2 hours ago, Balgaroth said:

I do Mtb DH racing and the same is true.

What is Mtb DH racing, by the way?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 hour ago, Balgaroth said:

DownHill Mountain bike :D

Ah, I see. Nice one!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Been a long time since I dropped in here.

@Yalson to answer your old questions:

The driver's rostrum isn't in those photos but it's at the top of a steep bank, off to the left in the last photo.  It's a purpose-built wooden structure with a safety fence but no roof.

The track owner has plans to fit more astro.  The final track will be a mix of astro, grass and dirt which should make for a really challenging track.  Personally (as a completely rubbish racer) I'm a big fan of indoor astro tracks since I always know what I'm going to get every time, but we all agree it's about time dirt was re-introduced to RC racing.

Right now the track has an issue with a natural spring underneath the tabletop - it appeared with the onset of winter and is going to need some work to get rid of.  I haven't spoken to the owner since before Christmas but I'll catch up with him soon.

There's a big race weekend planned for May including an endurance and a mix of vintage and modern racing.  Unfortunately I don't think there will be any evening races there, which is a shame as it's easier for me to go racing of an evening than a weekend.

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  

×
×
  • Create New...