This past weekend was the annual R/C kickoff to the new year, the SIC or Southern Indoor Championships in Autaugaville, AL. I made one big change for the new year and that was signing with RAWSpeed tires and so this was my first test to see how I would be able to adjust to the new kicks.
We began on Friday with a track that had been well watered and it stayed that way most all of Friday practice with the added moisture from the rain outside. I quickly settled on clay (white) Mach One tires and they were helping me turn some of the fastest laps throughout practice and I was the first to dip into the 28’s. What was nice is they didn’t require sauce to be fast with the moist track conditions. The plan now was to wait to see if they would water overnight or if I needed to make other plans.
Come Saturday morning it was noted that they left the track to dry. In Q1 I would still remain on clay in truggy in which I got a 2nd for the round and in nitro buggy which I was able to TQ. The biggest thing I notice when running clay when the conditions call for it is they offer lots more steering and forward bite than the regular compounds. They generally go out of favor when the track dries too much and they can feel looser or too twitchy grippy. Either way when I noticed the track was continuing to dry I knew I had to think of another option.
Harkening back to my AKA days, when I wanted something closer in feel to clay but in a regular compound, that would be accomplished with SLW and saucing it up really good. I was hoping this might work for RAWspeed as well. So I mounted up some double yellow (SLW) Mach Ones and heated the tires and sauced them and bagged them. About 45min later I repeated the process, at this time I was using sticky kicks purple. Come Q2 I still ran clay in truggy but that loose feeling was presenting as the track dried. I had a couple mistakes and only mustered a 10th. In nitro buggy I ran that double yellow set of Mach One and they were great and easy. Good grip and a bit more forgiving and I was able to battle with Phend and take the TQ and thus secured the overall TQ. In Ebuggy I tried a set of Yellow Mach One (soft) with a single heat/sauce/bag and they were solid too and I netted a 5th for the round with a mistake.
For the final qualifier in my hunt to try more things (among having limited qty of each compound) I opted to try Yellow (soft) Mach One on truggy with a heat/sauce. They again were decent but I lacked a little pace with the now pretty dry and dusty track. I managed a 9th with some mistakes which would qualify me 6th overall.
In nitro buggy I opted to test how the clay would work in the dry since I already had TQ. As expected they were a bit looser and a little off the needed pace. Good to learn from. In Ebuggy I went the opposite direction and tried pink (gumball) with a heat/sauce and they were pretty decent and even with a mistake I came back for a 6th and overall would be 7th. There are so many combinations to try and learn it’s impossible to do them all in one event, but I feel I got a basic beginning knowledge after this weekend to begin to build my reference library I’m going to need.
In discussing with teammates I decided to change up my saucing program for Sunday mains. First up was truggy and it was time to run my one set of double yellow (SLW) Mach Ones that I had brought with me. I did a heat/sauce/bag treatment on these with FDJ Red. My truck had good grip in the 30min main and I had good pace. I was 5k light in the diffs which posed some issue with being able to push but I was able to move up from 6th into the top 3 and battle with Fuller for a while but with a longer mistake I got relegated to third which is what I would hold onto for the remainder of the race bringing home a solid podium finish.
Next was Ebuggy A1 and due to my limited stock of Double Yellow I went with single Yellow (Soft) Mach one. They got same treatment as truck and they felt good as well. I had a great first lap
Moving up a couple spots before hitting a nasty run and flipping right over coming onto the front. Back I went, and made progress before getting tangled with a crashing car in that same corner and having to be marshaled again. Still had good pace and was able to salvage a 7th in the end.
Nitro buggy was next with a 30min final. Double yellow Mach one was the choice with the same prep as truggy. My nitro felt good and my Alpha Falcon was running strong. Still same engine since the IFMAR Worlds running great. I had a great first lap pulling a little gap and feeling pretty comfortable before braking into a rut on the back rough section and endo-ing upside down. Knocked back to third I would battle back and run with Maifield for a bit before getting by and setting sights upon Phend who had a decent lead. After my first stop, when Phend did his I had caught up and was right behind him and was hoping to battle for a while but I stuffed the pipe in the middle of the track in the uphill corner coming at the stand (hardest part of the track for me from where I was standing on the drivers stand.). This ended up being a horrible crash as I couldnt get off the pipe and there was no close marshals. It was about 6-8 seconds of agony as my chance to run up with Phend faded into the sunset. I was able to retain the 2 position though and in the end take the 2nd place podium position. Happy overall with a new tire sponsor and it’s my best indoor racetime finish in a number of years.
Finally was Ebuggy A2 and I had to quickly mount a new set of soft Mach one and I think I simply didn’t have enough time to sauce properly and I lacked a few tenths of pace. Also a number of crashes just didn’t have me in contention and I would settle for 9th overall when all was said and done.
If I had more double yellow I would have ran them in Ebuggy as well. All about learning what to bring to these events now as I traverse this new year. *(Adding this note a bit later, I may have prefered Gumball (Pink) for these Ebuggy mains...Something for me to figure out for future.)
Next up, heading out west in a couple weeks for the TNR Challenge in So-Cal. Can’t wait to get back out there again and #EnjoyRC
Set-up Notes: The Buggies again have the KPI hubs so these set-ups can't be copied until those hubs are available**
