First Race Since Lockdown

[Mad Ax 9292]

It was 7am when I turned the key in my camper and set off for my first day at an RC track since 14th March, which was just over one week before the UK went into lockdown.  This time I would not be setting off on a 5-hour drive to the north for an open bash on carpet and astro; this time, I would be racing an unfamiliar car with an unfamiliar club at an unfamiliar track, under some very unfamiliar conditions.

Cotswold Model Car Club is what you might call a "serious" club.  The circuit, in the scenic heart of the Cotswolds and situated on the site of an active airfield, is a fast, flowing asphalt affair designed for 8th scale nitro.  Running multiple classes for nitro and electric - the slowest touring class being 13.5 blinky - a fairly slow and casual racer like me was going to have a hard time keeping up.

In fairness, I've been racing on-and-off for well over a decade.  But the 'on' times have been at most once per week indoor on carpet, and the off-times have been a year or more when I don't see a track at all.  Most years will see me doing 2-3 months of indoor evening racing until I get fed up with the hassle, 2 or 3 vintage outdoor events and the rest of the time I'll be drifting, bashing or going to lorry meets.  I've never really learned how to properly set up a car and I never allow myself the budget for a pit hauler full of springs, pinions, shock oils and caster blocks.  I don't even have a pit hauler.  I carry my cars in Really Useful boxes.

However, I had heard from a friend of mine that Cotswold run a Frontie class.  Frontie is a new class that has completely passed me by, but a read-up on the rules on the BRCA page got me intrigued: all cars should be approved FWD chassis; tyres are controlled; bodies should look like real cars (not jellymoulds), should be hatchbacks and based on a real-world FWD model; paint jobs should look like 1:1 race paint schemes, not tribal flames or fluorescent blobby things.  Motor is 17.5 fixed timing running from a blinky speedo.  So, maybe something I could really get into after all.

I bought myself a used Xray T4F 2019 chassis from ebay, which came with a bunch of spares, a new set of tyres and a BittyDesign HCF body.  The body wasn't painted too well so I threw it to one side and stuck on a Tamiya Beams Integra body wearing my own colour scheme from 2018's Iconic Cup (interestingly, the last time I raced at the Cotswold circuit).  I plastered it with sponsor decals borrowed from other Tamiya bodysets and even printed up my own CMCC door spots on my new laser printer.  The chassis looked to have been set up for carpet racing, so I ordered some BRCA-approved Sweep tyres for asphalt racing, some smaller spur gears to keep the speed up along Cotswold's long back straight, stuck it on the Hudy to get back to base settings and was all ready to go.

Under clouds and strong winds I arrived at the track, with car, batteries, packed lunch, various tools and spares and all the PPE I would need to remain safe and compliant in today's world.

Face masks must be worn within the track fencing - that is, under the permanent covered pit area, at race control, on the rostrum or at the tuck shop.  Face shields would have to be worn on the rostrum if it was crowded, but reduced numbers (and some clever fencing) made sure the rostrum was kept to 2m social distancing parameters, so thankfully we didn't have to wear them at all.  We brought our own yellow jackets for marshalling (in fact it was convenient for most of us to just keep them on all day), and work gloves (not rubber gloves) for marshalling, to reduce contact with other people's things.  Actually I enjoyed marshalling a lot more with gloves on - no catching skin on a jagged piece of lexan, no fingers getting chewed up in a pinion or belt by a trigger-happy driver, no touching a hot exhaust and leaving a patch of skin on it.  I don't know why we didn't start doing this years ago...  We were permitted to take our masks off while marshalling (as we're a long way from other people) but as by that time I'd already been handling railings and surfaces in a public area, I felt I was better off not touching my face to remove it.  I kept some hand sanitiser in the van so I could give my hands a scrub every time I left the track limits and before I took off my mask.  Masks had to be worn on the rostrum but if (like me and my fellow racers) you wear specs, there is the problem of misting.  No doubt this will be a million times worse in wet weather (as a motorcyclist, I know all about misting in the wet!) - but it's just another obstacle to get around.  My mask has a flexible nose band that helps, and Cotswold is a breezy location, so the fresh wind kept my goggles mostly clear.

I digress.  Booking in was mostly done online although I had to visit race control to provide my PT number, social distancing applicable.  Although most clubs say this every time, booking in online and providing your BRCA and PT number before you get to the track makes for a prompt start and an efficient day.  Not really a problem now while things are still quiet, but as events get busier, we can hope to see the racing day getting started earlier (maybe even on time!) as people are forced to book in pre-arrival or not race.

A related change for the positive is the lack of timing sheets.  No longer do we have to crowd around the board while the printer churns out page after page of timing data - it's now all available online and reported live and in realtime from race control.  Pretty good if you're on the opposite side of the complex and you want to check how long until your next race  but also good for the environment (think of how many pages get printed at a race day) and saves having to hang around waiting for the sheets to print, then battle through the crowds to see them.  The only downside is you need a smartphone and a data connection (I have a very small data allowance on my contract and often use it up 2 weeks into the month).

A drawback of the new regs is reduced grid sizes.  V-shaped fencing has been erected inside the covered rostrum to stop us from getting too close.  There's now a max of 6 drivers on the rostrum.  6 is an acceptable number for a heat, but on a big track like Cotswold it's easy to end up midfield and in a race of 1.  Plus on any given race day there will always be no-shows and breakages, so 6 is a maximum.  On this particular race day, owing to having a large number of classes but a reduced maximum competitor number, heats were very small.  My Frontie class had just 2 other drivers, one of whom missed the last quali and both finals for mechanical reasons.

On the plus side, it gave me plenty of time to get used to my new car.  A brand new out-of-the-pack set of tyres needed some desperate scrubbing in first practice, and as I don't usually do tarmac racing, I didn't have any tyre warmers.  Apparently these are essential at Cotswold - not because they switch the tyres on, but because you need the heat to get the additive into the compound.  There's something I didn't know.  I had applied some additive before the race but had struggled to wipe it off.  Practice was pretty much a write-off as I couldn't get any heat into the rear tyres.

For first quali, I swapped the tyres front-to-rear.  The fronts had got a good scrubbing, so I hoped they'd give more grip on the rear.  Sure enough, things were better (a bit).  After two laps I had the rears up to temp and was able to (mostly) corner without spinning out.  The car was very responsive and I had to dial in a lot of steering on the handset (it's an easy thumb switch on my DX3C) to keep it manageable, but otherwise was a dream to drive.  The downside was my speed.  It was barely faster than a walking pace.

After quali 1 I went to my spares box and got the two new spurs I had bought.  Except I'd ordered 48dp, not 64dp, and they wouldn't fit.  The T4F has a front-motor mount which puts the front pulley very close to the shock tower.  The 96 tooth 48dp spur was about as big as it could handle, and even with a 49 tooth pinion the FDR was a massive 4.65.  The other cars were running between 3 and 3.5, so I was way off the pace.  I had a bunch of 48dp spurs and pinions, but they were all too big to fit.  I managed to borrow a 94 tooth spur from another racer, but the difference was marginal.  At least it gave me enough speed to put a bit of heat in the tyres.

So that was about as good as I could get.  I opted not to change the car setup after that because I'm sure the car will handle very differently once the speed is up.  The rear tyres will probably switch on much quicker with some more speed and will either vastly improve the handling or show up some other glaring problems with the chassis.  Time will tell.

Above all - the day was a roaring success, everybody had a good time, it was great to get out and race after so long being shut inside, even if it wasn't the vintage touring or buggies that I love so much, and even though I was several laps down in the finals I still learned a lot and have decided to make my visits to Cotswold a regular thing.  As a club member, I can book time at the circuit away from race days so I can get my car dialled in when my new pinions, spurs and tyre warmers arrive, and I've already booked in to the next club day in 2 weeks time.

So - for anyone itching to get back racing again, I can tell you - it's great!  Read the BRCA guidelines, follow the club rules, remember your PPE, stay distant and wash your hands regularly, and you'll have a great time  

[hedge 314]

Good read, Cotswolds is an awesome track, that back straight with that kick at the end takes some getting used to at full tilt, marshalling at that end, is like being a wicket keeper, specially for noobs with modifieds Oh yes you need tyre warmers essential race kit, once you get them you'll wonder how you ever did without, took a while to fully understand that the best set of tyres for tarmac are brand new out the pack heated and treated, just like F1. I keep promising myself a trip there again but with my 1/5 scale bike, however the months go by and I find I've missed it again for another year.

[WizardWithGuns 1]

That was a great read, especially as i’ve never raced. I’ve seen that track, it looks incredible, I have thought about becoming a member as I live near Chippenham.