This past weekend was the Mugen Challenge at LCRC Raceway and I had high hopes for the event after a very good showing last year. I decided to run all 4 of my Kyosho race cars again this year which kept me busy overall. I also had some fun this weekend arriving Thursday morning to play a round of golf with a group of racers which was fun, and then participated in the Friday night cornhole tournament with Joey Bourdon which we were able to take victory in!
On the track things were going well and with 477 entires at the event we would have just two 5 minute qualifiers, with one qualpoint counting and then fastest time being a tie breaker. I was basically using my same set-ups from Wicked Weekend at this one with hardly any changes. Temperatures were about the same as were grip levels and the track had a decent groove with dust outside.
In Etruggy I would run SSLW Gridirons in my first qualifier and then SSLW Scribbles in the second qualifier when the track had a bit more pronounced groove. I was able to TQ both rounds to take the overall TQ. In Nitro truggy I did the same tire choices and was running near the top taking a 2nd in Q1 but bounced back to take TQ in Rd 2 by a tenth to take the overall TQ!
In ebuggy which was up last in Rd 1 and so mid day I opted to try the set of Medium/Soft Components (Not yet available) and they were really good allowing me to TQ the round by a second. In Q2 which was at night, I went with SS Components and my car just felt off. I made some mistakes and the car acted wierd and I chalked it up to running at night. Being the last race of the day I packed up for the night, but in the morning I looked and noticed my rear swaybar wasn't hooked up. Oops! Still with the solid Q1 I got TQ in ebuggy as well!
Finally we had Nitro buggy and I think I ran SSLW SuperNova in Q1 and I had good pace but a nearly 3 second crash would have me 4th. In Q2 battling with near equal times with Maifield on lap 7 I would crash in the triple triple loosing about 3 seconds again, this time taking 2nd to qualify second overall. All in all 3 TQ's and a 2nd going into main day made for a good weekend of racing thusfar.
Sunday brought all 4 mains within the last 7 races of the day. All preparations were made leading up to those races and the plan was to run SSLW Scribbles in the truggies and SLW Lux in Nitro buggy and perhaps the Med/Soft Component in Ebuggy. First up was Etruggy and I decided to make it interesting. I opted to go for the launcher quad on the first lap and I landed inside the pipe and couldn't get back over it and relinquished the lead. A couple more mistakes on early laps left me sitting about 6 seconds behind the leader. I cleaned up my driving and by lap 11 was able to take back the lead and bring it home for Victory.
Next was Nitro truggy and I opted for a fresh set of SSLW Scribbles with all foams taped down. The line was very tight so I knew I had to keep it in the groove and avoid the dust. I made an early bobble on lap 2 but was able to regain the lead on lap 4. After that I put my head down and ran a clean race. I had Wiggins challenging me mid race as he found good pace but he had a mistake giving me some room and I dialed in my groove and had the fastest pace for all lap metrics. This gave me TQ+Win number 2 on the day.
Next was Nitro buggy and I ran the SLW Lux with all foams taped down. Initially I wished I had gone up a touch in shock oil as the grip was highest it had been. Or perhaps ran MLW Lux instead. However I turned down my dual rate about 4 points to make the steering a bit smoother. I wanted to keep Maifield in my grasp as best I could and I did that pretty well over the first 13 laps and in fact I was able to take the lead after his first pit stop and hold it until my second stop. But out distance stayed the same apart and I regained the lead on his second stop. I would have to do one extra pit stop so I knew I needed to get a gap. Fortunately I kept the pressure on and he made a mistake and I was able to get a big enough lead heading into my final pit stop which I made on lap 41 and held the lead. Then I was able to hold a clean rest of the race and take a victory by 14 seconds!
Finally we had the Ebuggy final and I was starting out front. At the get go though I noticed I didn't have the steering I needed and I was very loose in the dust. I had opted for the Medium/Soft Component again and it just wasn't what I hoped it would be with the biggest struggle being no grip in the dust. I managed to hold the lead for a little but got wide in the dust on the front left. I stuck with Wiggins for a couple laps with some fun battles but I tagged him before the triple triple and had to wait which allowed Bornhorst to catch up. Now I had Joe on my bumper and a couple laps later made a mistake on the top right and Joe was on me and we lost a few seconds to Wiggins. I was able to throw down an absolute heater on the last lap with the hot lap of any vehicle all weekend with a 35.339, so the potential was there I just didn't drive it well enough and I came away with a 2nd just 1.1 seconds back.
What a great weekend it was! Three TQ's and Three Victories along with a 2nd. Not to much to be ashamed of and super pumped as we head into Worlds.
I also stayed on Monday and did some final testing of ideas for Worlds and I'm pretty sure i'm ready to do much better this year than last time. I also for the first time camped at the track this weekend which was a bit of an uncomfortable experience in my one man tent but if that's what it takes to get these results I wouldn't mind doing it again. haha.
Next up is the one we have all been waiting for, the IFMAR Worlds!
Set-up Sheets: I was again running some new prototype parts with KPI on the front of both of my Kyosho buggies this weekend. Thus I don't feel right sharing the set-up at this time since it cannot be copied. But you could use my ebuggy set-up from Wicked Weekend for a good baseline for what I most likely would have used here as well.
Comments