It's the late edition on Friday night! Why freebie Friday? On Wednesday, Marc drew my name in the new racer appreciation drawing where one racer on Wednesday gets to race for free on a Friday and vice versa on the Friday night drawing.
Not only was I racing for free tonight, but I received my new radio today! I have been patiently waiting to find a great deal on a radio, and just last week I did! 3PK, FASST module, receiver, FM module and receiver, nylon carrying case for less than you would pay for the FASST module and receiver alone! Now this thing was no beauty queen, but I had a good feeling that I could remedy that. I ordered a new Dynamite Red anodized aluminum wheel, a new grip and a dry cell holder for the radio in advance to be certain. I got the thing and immediately knew what kind of racing the previous owner did with it - there was dirt EVERYWHERE! Needless to say, I cleaned it up, put on my new parts, greased the wheel centering plastic (creaky plastic when turning the wheel - ewww!), removed the drop-wheel, replaced his mismatched screws with all new M3 stainless hardware and removed all the tape residue left over from removing the Frankenstein's monsters hand grip that had been field-engineered onto this radio. Cutting to the chase, it looks and performs like new now! I'll post before and after pics together early next week.
Oh, and since I had been thinking ahead by putting in that Futaba BLS451, I was able to put the transmitter into HRS mode right away :) This combination of radio, servo and car really is clicking - the radio really made the whole thing gel for me tonight!
Anyway - it's Friday, which means lower turnout and three qualifiers. I get a few laps practice with the new radio, and the car is loose mid-corner and pushes out of the corner - it was UGLY! I wrenched quite a bit after that before qualifier #1. I loosened the diff significanlty - it's still not free-wheeling loose like James runs, but it's super smooth and still not slipping. Then I also checked my suspension travel and droop and found it just didn't seem to be where I left it - one arm at each end was off pretty badly, so I evened everything out, taking just a bit of droop out of the rear and making sure I had just a bit in the front. I moved the inner rear upper camber link out to the middle hole to shorten that up just a bit, and then set all wheels to -2 degrees of camber.
Same track as Wednesday, it's just myself, James and Bob in VTA tonight. Qualifier #1 again was going to be my fastest - James didn't get to pass me until the absolute last minute and I turned a 22/5:10. I tagged a number of boards still getting used to the new radio feel, plus the car just TURNS! Fast lap of 13.2, and top 10 average lap was 13.477. Fast lap on Wednesday was a 13.549!
Qualifier #2 was much the same as #1, but I had two problems - the foam on the new wheel started rubbing against the face of the radio and wasn't centering properly since I have the centering spring very loose. Also, the front right tire was peeled from the rim on the outside lip. I only managed a 22/5:12 this time. Fast lap of 13.2 again! Filed the foam quite a bit more, can see daylight between the foam and radio face now!
Qualifier #3 was a near replay of #2 with two exceptions. I was on a 23 lap pace most of the time until I started banging off some boards, got stuck and needed marshalling - then James accidentially rolled me in turn 10 thinking I was going wide for him to pass me, when I was actually about to do it in turn 11. And again, the right front tire peeled off the rim. Time worsened to 22/5:14, but I was faster by quite a bit with a fast lap down at 13.091! After this qualifier, I noticed the front left CVA binding due to a loose setscrew/axlepin. Cue Incredible Hulk tightening job.
I glued the hell out of that right front tire for the second time tonight, and then I swapped the front tires from side to side, putting the lip that kept coming off in a position to where it would be pushed the opposite direction most of the time. I got about 5 laps of practice where I turned a 13.1, 13.2 and 13.3 plus two scrubbed laps. James asked to drive my car and did three to four laps - it wasn't to his liking and he wasn't too fast with it, and then, the car died in the middle of the sweeper - the right rear CVA came loose and the pin took a chunk out of the rear hub! I was able to get it fixed and I again performed my best imitation of the Incredible Hulk when I tightened it - so far, I've had to rebuild the joints approximately four times. James offered a suggestion of a drop of superglue, but that sounds a bit extreme - I'll get it sorted eventually.
The main started wonderfully! I didn't lead the first lap this week, but I was glued to James' rear bumper, and even got inside his rear fender a couple times - once in turn nine and again in turn ten, and was close enough to draft him down the straight, where I noted I didn't lose ground on him. He got some breathing room when I bobbled turn three - oh well! I kept him in my sights though and cranked out two consecutive 13.1's, two laps later a 13.038, then two laps after that a 13.098. I had a 14.7 in there for some reason, and on about lap 16 I boarded, having to bump my way out losing 2.5 seconds or so. I wanted 23 laps so badly, but I fell just short at 22/5:01. I'm certainly not upset though, because that's still outstanding as it's nearly 10 second better than my previous fast time, I almost broke into the 12's, improving yet another .2 seconds on fast lap and the best part : my 20 lap average was 13.545, faster than my fastest single lap on 13.549 just two days ago! James took fast lap in the main with a 12.599, but had a 12.505 in a previous qualifier. I'm closing up the gap slowly but surely, and am certain to surprise Kevin next Wednesday as he's running in the 22/5:10 neighborhood.
Later today - practice!
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