14.11.2013

Report by Donald Stark (VRC race reporter)

Racing Backwards
Okay so here is the deal, Off-road tracks are made with the jumps to flow in a single direction, when you reverse them it can have some adverse effects. RCE 13 is difficult to run in reverse but not impossible, there are a few challenges that require the drivers’ full attention. The table, double, doubles after the whoops are three sections that can be a race breaker. Swing wide in the turn clear the table, punch it for the double and coast over the last double and you have it made, mess up on the turn and take your chances on three jumps. I ended up on my lid more times than I would like to admit.
The winner of this week’s Pro 13.5 and Mod events had the section wired along with the rest of the track.

Racing Action
In the SC MOD Pro A Main, Rob Gillespie Took the lead and crossed the line in first place followed by Eben Coetzee, Matthew Stacey, Jerome djay Delcourt, Nicolas Evens. The challenger Eben Coetzee stepped up and took the lead he was smooth through the rhythm section and ran a tight fast line through the turns. Rob was right there on his fender showing a wheel in every turn but he could not get past. Lapped Traffic, on lap 14 the lappers were in sight of the leaders, the announcer began to call the leaders approaching lapper on the loud speakers “Drivers the leader is the White black and Orange Truck” “Just let him pass when you see him coming”. Lap 16 Eben made a mistake while overtaking the 10th place car to put him a lap down, while Rob went by on the outside. Eben would not let him go that easy and the two switched position for the next two laps until late in lap 18 when Eben made a mistake hitting the pipe and losing valuable time. First place was settled now it is up to Matthew Stacey to try to challenge for 2nd. Once off the pace Eben began to make a few more mistakes allowing Stacey to close on his position. On lap 22 Matthew took possession of second place when Eben ran his slowest lap of the race 18.817 seconds. The two went back and forth for a few laps and finally Eben cemented his 2nd place position on lap 27 of 28. This was a great race. Final Results posted Here

13.5 Pro Short Course
This race was much the same as the modified class, Eben got out front and ran smooth for the first 15 laps as Rob and Matthew exchanged positions. Around lap 17 Eben fell back as Rob smoothed out the RC Excitement track. Mathew Stacey took the lead early in the race but could not keep the pace up front.

Sport Class 13.5
In the sport class the race was settled in qualifying or so it seemed, as I watched I realized that the TQ Robert Sorjonen took off and never looked back. He was followed by Miquel Codina, Dan Schellenberg, Manuel Büssing, Csaba Palla. Csaba tried to get out of line and pass Manuel for a lap but he soon realized that this was not to be. The top 5 finished in that order. Results can be found here.

Distraction in the Office
I don’t know about you but I play VRC in my home office which is really a converted den, there is no door so it is within ear shot of the living room where my wife sits and watches TV while I race. She talks to me, the TV is loud, and the dogs chew on my chair and my feet. With all of these distractions it is amazing I can run a clean lap at all. I have learned to block it out, what I have come to realize when I am at the track if I can get my mind in the right place I can have a clean run at my pace no matter what is going on around me.
This is not true for my fellow competitors; a few weeks ago I was racing a qualifier and began to try to have a conversation with the person next to me during the race. He got flustered and began crashing everywhere. I made a few more jokes and left him in my dust. Afterwards I realized that this may be disrespectful to him so I apologized and went about my business. I didn’t talk to him in the main and we both ended up breaking anyways so it was a non-issue.

I guess the moral of that story is countless hours of VRC makes real RC second hand I will never be a player in the top fast guy class but I can certainly have fun racing and be in the top at my local track.

Until next time, have Fun Racing,
Donald

Comments

Only active members can post comments

(Total posts: 7)

Donald S Race reporter	24.11.2013 [15:47] Posted by: Pete Bent (NZ) on 23.11.2013 7:34:47 (UTC) I tried running Mike 1 Reverse...backwards the other day... only 4-5 secs off my forwards lap times but you gotta make sure you set you brake to 100% or you don't get full backwards power. :) lol It took me a minute but I got it and laughed. Good one Pete
Pete B	23.11.2013 [07:34] I tried running Mike 1 Reverse...backwards the other day... only 4-5 secs off my forwards lap times but you gotta make sure you set you brake to 100% or you don't get full backwards power. :)
Billy Y	19.11.2013 [02:06] Yes, reverse is fun !
Philipp L	16.11.2013 [17:40] the bash pit tracks are also reversed very awesome! try it :D
Josh V.	15.11.2013 [10:38] I hope so,.. Silver D reverse is a SWEET LINE too!!!!
Donald S Race reporter	15.11.2013 [01:23] I had a lot of fun at RCE 13 in reverse also. I actually like the challenge, just get frustrated some times when the back end clips the landing and flips the car. Silver Dollar Reverse is next right?
Josh V.	14.11.2013 [18:20] RCE REVERSE was sooo much fun!!! Once I got the lines, I was pulling better laps than normal direction! lol. :D