California Speedway, Fontana, California, 95ºF: The setting of the the 2008 Redline Time Attack. This event was just awesome. Being around the atmosphere of loud cars, hot girls, and RC Drift AND Time Attack. What more could you ask for!!! Well, maybe an air conditioner, but that's beside the point.
The season finale of RC Driftclub in conjunction with HPI Racing was a great event. The event was split up into two days. The first day consisted of qualifying for both time attack and drift. The second day had one more additional qualifying rounds for both classes and the final brackets for each as well.
Pre Race Day:
Preparation for this day was pretty much no different from any other event for me. It usually consists of (this time being no exception) staying up all night, working on a body to use for the event. I sort of have an inner rule to myself. I always like to compete or run with a body that I'm proud to use. I very rarely compete with a basher or something I don't care about. For me it's just one of the quirks about me. Not to say that I won't re-use a body, it just has to be something that I'd want to run at the time, or enjoy looking at while driving. After all, that's what makes drifting (along with many other motor-sports) so great. It's not only is it about the action, it's about looking good at the same time! I dunno, call me weird, but that's what I do. Thus, I was prepping my custom wide-body BRS Supra for the competition ahead of me the night before, working on only 3 hours of sleep. Like I said, that's usually what happens the day before, no sleep b/c of working on a body. And to be honest, I was actually working on this project for 2 weeks on and off a little here and there, but the grunt of it was done at the last moment! I knew we'd have some time at the event before it started, so I just finished the body there and sticke'rd up the body the morning of the event.
Day 1:
Getting there around 7:00 am wasn't easy. Well, at least with the amount of sleep I had. California Speedway isn't too far from my house so it took me around 35 min. to get there. Many of the teams and drivers sprung for a hotel, which wasn't too bad of an idea, considering gas prices nowadays. Annnnyywayyy.... I started off the day with helping with track set up. Then after a small break, open practice and qualifying for time attack was up. I initially thought that drift was on Saturday and time attack was on Sunday. But I was wrong, thus some quick wrenching and swapping of setup had to be made. Thanks to Mac of TK and Val, I was able to get my car ready in time. The setup I use for drift consists of a ball diff in the front and a spool in the rear. But apparently, for "grip" it's a spool in the front and a ball diff in the rear! I came to find out that if you use the drift setup for grip, you tend to over steer and it's a lot easier to spin out. So good thing the Cyclone is a pretty easy and convenient car to wrench on. Also, I came to find out that the two classes were going to be alternating throughout the weekend so if you had one car for the weekend, you were doing ALOT of swapping and wrenching. Kinda wish that was different, but I made due. Anyway, on my first qualifier for time attack, I posted a 19.90 sec. run. Not too bad considering it was my first time running a car competitively like this. And to be honest, I like it! It's a good change of pace and was really fun! During the second qualifier, I ended up breaking a front left "C-Hub", so I received a DNF.
After qualifying, a repair and setup swap, drift qualifying was up. The format was the same as RC DriftClub's Round 4 qualifying format. 5 cars at a time on the track, 1 practice, 2 scored (3 continuous laps in total). This track had 2 scored zones. 1 hairpin and 1 "Max Out" zone. To be honest, this was actually not as exciting as time attack qualifying. I think I was looking forward too much to time attack and it took the concentration out of drift. But, I didn't do too bad as I qualified 3rd for that Day.
After hanging out, checking out the pits and snapping some photos of the event, I decided to re-swap my setup and practice grip some more (after most of the competitors were gone) I even did a little bit of RC drag racing! Practicing was probably both good and bad. Good because I got some good practice in, but bad because my chassis might have took too much of a beating. I ended up rolling the car and slamming into the wall. So, after looking over my chassis that night, I found some things that needed to be replaced from being broken or just not working. Instead of rebuilding, I took the Cyclone S that I won at RCX and built up a whole new car that night (using hop ups from the previous car and new hop ups that I held onto). I also converted the setup I had and made it into a Cyclone TC/S hybrid. New shock towers, new spool and ball diff, etc. This was actually a really cool experience. I felt like I was rebuilding a motor that blew at a 1:1 comp and had to pull an all niter trying to rebuild in time for competition. So it was really fun actually! After another sleepless night, I was working on building right up until I absolutely had to leave or else I'd miss the comp. So off to the comp!
Day 2:
As soon as I got to the speedway, the concours competition and group photo was on. The BRS Supra ended up being in the top 3 along with fellow TK member Mike Surinsuk and also Mac Cruz of Touge Knights taking 1st with his RX-7! After all this, I really needed to set up my car and make sure everything worked. After-all, this car never even touched the ground! So after some time on the setup board, testing on some controlled practice laps (only the drivers that were in that group are allowed to practice) went well. I ran some really really good laps! I was pretty happy with the way it felt. I was up for my time attack 3rd qualifier and ended up with a 19.00 sec. lap. It was decent, and definitely an improvement over the previous day.
After another setup swap, the top 5 drift qualifiers were up for the last qualifying round (is this enough qualifying or what?!?!). The new car proved to be a really really big improvement because I came out qualifying 1st! Since my break between time attack and drift was so short, I decided to stick with the drift setup for time attack, and take my chances at putting my emphasis at drift. After time attack controlled practice, I was up. Wow, when I said the car over steers with a drift setup on grip, I wasn't kidding! I was all over the place. On top of that, I ended up hopping a dot on the sweeper, flipping my car forward, breaking off my wing, slamming into a wall and still managed to finish my lap with no damage. I ended up with a 23.22 sec. lap. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. Mac Cruz ended up taking 1st with a 16.94 lap! Wow, that was super fast!
Drift was up and the top 32 grid was up. My first opponent was Rob Rosales. We battled and I kept it clean and controlled and ended up advancing due to some wall contact on Rob's Part. Next I was up to go against HPI employee Aki W. in a rematch from a couple of rounds ago! We both kept it clean, but I was able to edge out the win due to a small mistake by Aki after the switchback. Next I was up to face fellow TK member Mike Surinsuk in the best 8. This was a tough battle as we had to go one more time! The first lap was scored 5-5 as we both kept it clean. The second lap I was chasing so I was able to stay really close to him and his line to pull away with a 6-4 to take the win. On to the best 4. The cool thing about this best 4 in this comp was that the best 4 also happened to be the top 4 qualifiers! My next opponent for the best 4 was none other than Val Hoang... again. Like I said in the previous post, I always seem to go against this guy!!!! This was also a really really close battle, but I was able to get a pretty good gap leading on the first lap and was able to close in on the second lap. Even though we both had a good max out lines, they gave me the advantage and I was able to get into the finals! In the final 2, I was to go against Bryan Agustin. Bryan is a very consistent driver and has some serious skill. After a SUPER close battle, the judges deemed that I was able to have a more stable line throughout the course and was able to barely edge out the win!!!!! This happens to be my very first 1st place win in sponsored event!
Thanks to Genki Dori Dori for all his support!!! HPI Racing and RC DriftClub for putting on such a great event! Also, to TougeKnights for holding it down at the event! Till next time readers! See you at the Groovy Drift Nationals!
The season finale of RC Driftclub in conjunction with HPI Racing was a great event. The event was split up into two days. The first day consisted of qualifying for both time attack and drift. The second day had one more additional qualifying rounds for both classes and the final brackets for each as well.
Pre Race Day:
Preparation for this day was pretty much no different from any other event for me. It usually consists of (this time being no exception) staying up all night, working on a body to use for the event. I sort of have an inner rule to myself. I always like to compete or run with a body that I'm proud to use. I very rarely compete with a basher or something I don't care about. For me it's just one of the quirks about me. Not to say that I won't re-use a body, it just has to be something that I'd want to run at the time, or enjoy looking at while driving. After all, that's what makes drifting (along with many other motor-sports) so great. It's not only is it about the action, it's about looking good at the same time! I dunno, call me weird, but that's what I do. Thus, I was prepping my custom wide-body BRS Supra for the competition ahead of me the night before, working on only 3 hours of sleep. Like I said, that's usually what happens the day before, no sleep b/c of working on a body. And to be honest, I was actually working on this project for 2 weeks on and off a little here and there, but the grunt of it was done at the last moment! I knew we'd have some time at the event before it started, so I just finished the body there and sticke'rd up the body the morning of the event.
Day 1:
Getting there around 7:00 am wasn't easy. Well, at least with the amount of sleep I had. California Speedway isn't too far from my house so it took me around 35 min. to get there. Many of the teams and drivers sprung for a hotel, which wasn't too bad of an idea, considering gas prices nowadays. Annnnyywayyy.... I started off the day with helping with track set up. Then after a small break, open practice and qualifying for time attack was up. I initially thought that drift was on Saturday and time attack was on Sunday. But I was wrong, thus some quick wrenching and swapping of setup had to be made. Thanks to Mac of TK and Val, I was able to get my car ready in time. The setup I use for drift consists of a ball diff in the front and a spool in the rear. But apparently, for "grip" it's a spool in the front and a ball diff in the rear! I came to find out that if you use the drift setup for grip, you tend to over steer and it's a lot easier to spin out. So good thing the Cyclone is a pretty easy and convenient car to wrench on. Also, I came to find out that the two classes were going to be alternating throughout the weekend so if you had one car for the weekend, you were doing ALOT of swapping and wrenching. Kinda wish that was different, but I made due. Anyway, on my first qualifier for time attack, I posted a 19.90 sec. run. Not too bad considering it was my first time running a car competitively like this. And to be honest, I like it! It's a good change of pace and was really fun! During the second qualifier, I ended up breaking a front left "C-Hub", so I received a DNF.
After qualifying, a repair and setup swap, drift qualifying was up. The format was the same as RC DriftClub's Round 4 qualifying format. 5 cars at a time on the track, 1 practice, 2 scored (3 continuous laps in total). This track had 2 scored zones. 1 hairpin and 1 "Max Out" zone. To be honest, this was actually not as exciting as time attack qualifying. I think I was looking forward too much to time attack and it took the concentration out of drift. But, I didn't do too bad as I qualified 3rd for that Day.
After hanging out, checking out the pits and snapping some photos of the event, I decided to re-swap my setup and practice grip some more (after most of the competitors were gone) I even did a little bit of RC drag racing! Practicing was probably both good and bad. Good because I got some good practice in, but bad because my chassis might have took too much of a beating. I ended up rolling the car and slamming into the wall. So, after looking over my chassis that night, I found some things that needed to be replaced from being broken or just not working. Instead of rebuilding, I took the Cyclone S that I won at RCX and built up a whole new car that night (using hop ups from the previous car and new hop ups that I held onto). I also converted the setup I had and made it into a Cyclone TC/S hybrid. New shock towers, new spool and ball diff, etc. This was actually a really cool experience. I felt like I was rebuilding a motor that blew at a 1:1 comp and had to pull an all niter trying to rebuild in time for competition. So it was really fun actually! After another sleepless night, I was working on building right up until I absolutely had to leave or else I'd miss the comp. So off to the comp!
Day 2:
As soon as I got to the speedway, the concours competition and group photo was on. The BRS Supra ended up being in the top 3 along with fellow TK member Mike Surinsuk and also Mac Cruz of Touge Knights taking 1st with his RX-7! After all this, I really needed to set up my car and make sure everything worked. After-all, this car never even touched the ground! So after some time on the setup board, testing on some controlled practice laps (only the drivers that were in that group are allowed to practice) went well. I ran some really really good laps! I was pretty happy with the way it felt. I was up for my time attack 3rd qualifier and ended up with a 19.00 sec. lap. It was decent, and definitely an improvement over the previous day.
After another setup swap, the top 5 drift qualifiers were up for the last qualifying round (is this enough qualifying or what?!?!). The new car proved to be a really really big improvement because I came out qualifying 1st! Since my break between time attack and drift was so short, I decided to stick with the drift setup for time attack, and take my chances at putting my emphasis at drift. After time attack controlled practice, I was up. Wow, when I said the car over steers with a drift setup on grip, I wasn't kidding! I was all over the place. On top of that, I ended up hopping a dot on the sweeper, flipping my car forward, breaking off my wing, slamming into a wall and still managed to finish my lap with no damage. I ended up with a 23.22 sec. lap. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. Mac Cruz ended up taking 1st with a 16.94 lap! Wow, that was super fast!
Drift was up and the top 32 grid was up. My first opponent was Rob Rosales. We battled and I kept it clean and controlled and ended up advancing due to some wall contact on Rob's Part. Next I was up to go against HPI employee Aki W. in a rematch from a couple of rounds ago! We both kept it clean, but I was able to edge out the win due to a small mistake by Aki after the switchback. Next I was up to face fellow TK member Mike Surinsuk in the best 8. This was a tough battle as we had to go one more time! The first lap was scored 5-5 as we both kept it clean. The second lap I was chasing so I was able to stay really close to him and his line to pull away with a 6-4 to take the win. On to the best 4. The cool thing about this best 4 in this comp was that the best 4 also happened to be the top 4 qualifiers! My next opponent for the best 4 was none other than Val Hoang... again. Like I said in the previous post, I always seem to go against this guy!!!! This was also a really really close battle, but I was able to get a pretty good gap leading on the first lap and was able to close in on the second lap. Even though we both had a good max out lines, they gave me the advantage and I was able to get into the finals! In the final 2, I was to go against Bryan Agustin. Bryan is a very consistent driver and has some serious skill. After a SUPER close battle, the judges deemed that I was able to have a more stable line throughout the course and was able to barely edge out the win!!!!! This happens to be my very first 1st place win in sponsored event!
Thanks to Genki Dori Dori for all his support!!! HPI Racing and RC DriftClub for putting on such a great event! Also, to TougeKnights for holding it down at the event! Till next time readers! See you at the Groovy Drift Nationals!
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