GenkiDoriDori- Drivers Journal - RC Drift

DIY Sticker Tutorial

2008-11-20T14:01:00.034+09:00

Hey All!

Well, I finally got around to doing a tutorial for the DIY stickers that I always do. I hope that this will help some people with their creations and benefit our RC Drifting community! Anyway, a lot of credit has to go to Mac Cruz of Team Touge Knights. He's the one who first showed me this technique of doing these types of stickers. Also, credit also has to go to Jon Lawrence of Team Arai for discovering the use of the laminate sheets. That tip solved the problems of bigger stickers. So, here goes the tutorial, hope you guys enjoy.

First things first. I can't stress enough how much research goes a long way. I spend more than half my time researching all the different stickers, sponsors, and paint schemes of a certain car while doing a replica. Although I might not go as far as to make custom body work for my shells, I do like to make sure that all the paint and decaling is as close to the original as possible. After all, i'm a graphic designer, not a fabricator. =) But this tutorial is about making the sticker, not making replicas. So, find a decal you want and go with it.

This next step is where some people may find a road block, or find it difficult to do. If you have a program like Adobe Illustrator or Adobe Photoshop, you can trace and/or draw out your decals on the computer. I find Ai (or Adobe Illustrator) the most proficient, because since the drawing is not pixel based (using Adobe Photoshop for example), it is rather based on vector points and shapes which are mathematical equations in the program that basically let you shrink and enlarge an object without losing resolution. In a nut shell, you can make your drawing bigger or smaller as many times as you want without it getting blurry. This is good for testing and resizing when making your decals.

If you don't have these programs, you can simply research decals on the internet or your favorite forum, and just print these out as you get them.

Here is an example of a completed and completely drawn from scratch window and door banners for the Red Bull Drifting Championship presented by Formula D. A very key important thing to mention when drawing your decals or finding them on the internet, is that you want to have the background of the decal be the same color as your car. That way, you won't have to worry about cutting out those small pieces in-between letters or objects. But, since these decals can just be cut around the edge like normal decals, we won't have to worry about that.

Now it's time to print. You want to get as many decals on one sheet as you can. That way, you won't have to waste decal paper or any other materials that cost a lot of money.

Make sure to give your prints ample time to dry. Be extra careful that you don't touch the ink on Avery Brand paper. It will easily smudge and you'll have to print all over again. I'm not sure about other brands of sticker paper, but this does happen with Avery, so BE CAREFUL!!!

Here is a shot of the Avery Sticker Paper and GBC Laminate which we'll be using in a couple of seconds.

For this next step, your going to need white vinyl. Since the Avery sticker paper is somewhat transparent, you need to use white vinyl or white sticker (I like using vinyl, it sicks better), so that the sticker won't show through on the body color.

Now your going to stick on the clear laminate on top of the sticker you just assembled in the previous step. This is so you can handle your sticker as much as you want now and will somewhat protect it from bashing from use. The laminate is thick, so curved surfaces might be hard to get smooth or stick to the body, so just be mindful of that. If it's that big and complex, you might want to consider just painting that large portion. Also, be very careful in this step as well, b/c air bubbles are really easy to get. You don't want those, and they are almost impossible to get rid of (even if you do cut a slit in the sticker and try to push out the air). I like to start from one side of the sticker and smooth out and press as I go along to the other side of the sticker.

Here's what your sticker should look like so far.

Now it's time to trim around the edges. Try to get as close to the edge as possible. I even tend to cut a little bit inside the edge, just so you don't get a nasty white outline of your sticker. Also, if you've tried to color match the background of your sticker to the body, it's still a good idea to cut as close to the edge as possible. It looks a lot cleaner. Plus, that step was meant more for the little spots in-between letters.

Here's some finished door banner's for my Super Autobacs R34 driven by Takatori. All that's left now is to peel and stick. Make sure though, that you only peel off the backing of the vinyl otherwise you're sticker won't have a backing!

And there you have it. A finished product ready to go.

Here's Takatori san with the replica. He was really happy to see something like it!

Here's myself with the real 1:1 car and my R/C.
Thanks for reading, good luck with all your future projects!

Team GDD Interviewed on Rice Boy TV!

2008-09-13T12:03:00.006+09:00

http://www.riceboytv.com/watch-shows/event-coverage/U.S.-RC-DRIFT-NATIONALS.html

Hey all! Just wanted to share some coverage of Team GDD on Rice Boy T.V. The footage was taken at the Groovy Drift Nationals. They previously heard of and saw (from some photos that I emailed to Antonio Alvendia), the {TK/GDD} Rice Boy S14 that was provided by Genki! After seeing it, they wanted to take some footage and ask a couple of questions. Hope you guys like it! Till next time... =D

D1RC Round 4 colchester

2008-08-28T05:39:00.003+09:00

Hi all,

Well its been a while since the eurocup event nearly 2 month's ago to be precise, and with that in mind i guess everyone was getting withdraw symptoms of track action.

With the great british weather promising to become wet and stormy the weekend was not looking promising at all, so we all made it to the track and the the weather seemed to be on our side so with without further time wasteing a track was designed by myself and fellow drifting partner Steve Davies and what a track once the direction had been reversed, it proved to be quite a stinker (before it had been reversed it was almost undrivable)! It followed an old classic Colchester drift circuit at first, a longish drag off the line down to the first 180 degree hairpin, then back through a right/left kink into a 90 left, 90 right then a left kink, 90 right and 140 left to the finish line. The 90 right, kink, 90 right was the problem because to score points you had to hold a drift off the first 90 through to the next and the kink in between placed a kerb right where the rear half of your car needed to be to accomplish the feat!

Well the qualifying started and proved to be a little tuff on everyone due to the complex track layout, the club class started and driver Adam McEwen who posted a best qualifying score of 95 points, matching the best the Pro Drivers could muster. Adam was followed by Ben Moore on 89, Pete Gray 87, Robert Papworth 85 and Richard Lincoln Smith bringing up the top five on 78.

And the Pro Class Stu Cave managed to match Adam's high 95 score with Phil Warner chasing with 93, Yumeda following on 92, then Michael Fryett on 90 and Steve Davies on 88

Best body went to myself, with my kyosho KPGC10

And best chassis went to the man himself John Turner with his XRay rever

well the club drivers got down to the semi-finals for it was Adam McEwen and Robert Papworth who set off first, Rob taking the first run 6/4 but on the second run Adam spun and gave Rob a 10/0 victory. then it was Pete Gray to take on Ben Moore, the first run being judged a 5/5 but this time it was Ben’s turn to drop a 10/0 infringement and Pete was through. Ben stayed on the rostrum to battle Adam for 3rd place, Ben running off road on the first run giving Adam the trophy 10/0, 5/5. The final then was between Rob and Pete. Rob secured a 7/3 lead on the first run as Pete struggled to drift a good line but it was Pete, showing his greater experience, that took the Club first place by pressuring Rob into a 0/10 off road error on the second.

Rob and Pete in the final

In the Pro finals it was Stu Cave, Steve Davies, Maz Yumeda and myself who made it into the semis. Unfortunately the scores for the Pro finals were mislaid in the tidying up session but Steve beat Stu and Phil beat Maz in the semis and Stu saw off Maz in the 3rd place battle. This left myself and Steve to battle for the Pro Class victory and It was a very close battle indeed as they posted a 6/4, 4/6 which lead to a “one more time” from the crowd and another two runs, this time Phil taking the win.

Steve and myself

The winners!

A big Thanks to Genki Dori Dori for all his support!

Drift Nutz Area-D Competition

2008-08-19T15:26:00.008+09:00

Hello All,

It's been a busy month for the SoCal RC Drift scene. Just last week was the Drift Nutz Area D competition held at Speedtech RC in San Gabriel, CA and this past weekend was the Groovy Drift Nationals Competition. The Area D event was really fun, just because it was so lax. Some say that drivers tend to do better when they're relaxed and don't put so much pressure on themselves. I guess they're right because the result couldn't have been better. I ended up taking home 1st place in the Area D competition, so it was pretty cool! After coming off of last month's victory at Red Line Time Attack, it felt pretty good keeping the momentum going for this one. The car felt pretty stable at first, but I ran into some problems with the steering while accelerating. Sort of a chunky grinding sound. Came to find out from Jeff, the owner of Speedtech RC, that I installed my "c hubs" on my front end on the wrong sides. So left was supposed to be right, and vise versa. Oh well, that late night build prior to Red Line was pretty late, go figure. So, I ended up switching them and managed to finish off pretty strong.

Another funny thing about the event was having to battle Veje, the "National Champ". Our tandems were pretty damn fun, not to mention pretty damn close! I also ended up being crowned the new Drift Nutz National Champion. Twas an exciting and memorable run.

Group Photo!

The BRS Widebody Supra in competition for the second competition win in a row!

The Drift Nutz!

This guy is seriously that famous: James Revilla of RC Driftclub/Xtreme RC Magazine signing an autograph for HPI's Andrew Hilman. James had a whole Drift King spread on Drift RC Magazine, nice!

The expression on my face sums up the whole day in general. Coming soon: Designer TougeKnights star boardshorts... just kidding =P

Thanks to Drift Nutz for throwing their first of many official competitions, Jeff of Speedtech for the tech help and donating the Team Orion Li-Po for the 1st place prize, Andy and HPI Racing for supporting the event, Falken Tire and Spektrum for donating prizes, TK for representing (congrats on 3rd Place Mac!), and last but not least Genki for all his support!

Here's the official coverage from HPI Racing's site: www.hpiracing.com/news/2008081102/

Till Next Time!

2008-07-25T19:28:00.005+09:00

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!

D1RC Eurocup 2008

2008-07-23T05:45:00.002+09:00

Well where do I start here, well it was saturday morning 6am and of i set with my friend steve for what was about to be the best weekend's drifting ive ever had.

Upon arival we were amazed to find we were almost the kast to arrive and get set up, so of to it tents were up gazebo and all ready to hit the track for some all important practice and to get a good feel feel for the track.

The big line up, from all over europ....... the drivers...

The cars..............

So of to the practice track with an old mini cooper shell (thanx to EL Barto) on my Alex Racing CER chassis which im still trying to find that perfect set up, so after about an hours practice on Yokomo single ring drift tires it was becoming obvious from many other people that the chosen choice was the HPI T drifts, so with that in mind i set to change the tires and give them a try... and wow what a diferance they made, more grip and speed instantly giving so much more control.

So with the tire choice now made it was time for the qualifying, i decided to use my Alex \racing CER over my Alex Racing CE-4 as ive found it to be more posotive in transitions, so of i went to find out which group i was in group 9, so practice was up for my group and with a very windy day the mini was getting blown all over the place, but persistance didnt pay of.... as i qualified 17th over all.

So after finding the weather was against me with the mini it was time to get my CE-4 on some T drifts aswell, on to the track and after a few camber adjustments i found this to be the choice of chassis for the finals the next day.

Yokomo S13 shell with the GDD sponsor decals.................

So my qualifying put me into group C in the finals for the next day, at this point i was very dissapointed with myself for not choosing to use my CE-4 in the first place.

Well as the daylight started to fade the BBQ was on and the fun begain, food and drink a very big must to end a gret start to a 2 day event, so out came the lights on the cars, some fun was had by all on the practice track and the full size track.
So to end a gret day and night it was of to the tents for an early start tomorrow.....

And gees did that come round fast lol, hardly any sleep after a late night.. but on to it it was, practice practice and more practice. So as i was down in group C i thought i had little chance of getting into the A final but after knocking out my oponents in C group through to the B final i started to get a litlle more faith in myself..........

Next up came the B finals and again cutting through the group i amazed myself as to how well i seemed to have my chassis set up, before i knew it i was in the semi finals and then through to the final NERVES haha thats an understatement lol.... well it was to be a very dificult decision by the judges and after about 8 runs it was decided that first place was given to Clifford Romeyn, and well deserved to. I had more fun than ever before at this event and met some really great people from all over europe.

Thanks guy's to all who participated and to those who organised such a great event.

First place, C;ifford Romeyn

Second place myself phil warner..

Third place Ozdemir Ozerem..

Thanks looking.....

DriftClub Round 4

2008-06-23T03:11:00.005+09:00

June 14th, 2008

Hello All,

Round for of DriftClub was by far the best event of the season. It was held at HPI headquarters in Foothill Ranch so the venue was just awesome! Although it was piping hot, all of the competitors made due and had fun anyway! Not only was this the last round of the season, but it was a big deciding factor on the whole point series as well! Anything could have happened that day as far as final placement in points.

Attending this event was Joel "Magic" Johnson, 33-time ROAR National Champion and 2-time IFMAR World Champion, in both off-road and on-road. Oh, and did I mention that he's also head of Kyosho USA? Crazy huh!?! I had the pleasure of giving him some tips on how my car was setup, how I drive my car, what I do differently and even running a few laps next to him and giving suggestions along the way. Other drivers and judges were also there to help give pointers to him as well, so it was just nice to be around that type of friendly atmosphere. He was happening to drive the chassis of HPI USA's president Shawn Ireland too so can't go wrong with that.

This day started off with morning practice and setup. The track was a simple kidney bean shape on paper, but turned out to be one of the best tracks all season. It flowed really well and showed off some really great tandems! Sometimes less is more I guess. Anyway, after that was the drivers meeting, group picture and concourse. I was lucky enough to get top three in concourse! Didn't win, but hey, not too shabby! I was driving the new HPI 200mm S15, which had a pretty cool color. I used Tamiya transparent orange backed with chrome and topped it off with orange chrome and regular chrome vinyl decals. It came out pretty cool in my opinion. Oh, and I also added a 3-d front end with intercooler as well as some new black and chrome Work XSA 02C wheels (that you can get here in the shop =P). I love em, they look really aggressive. The deep dish action is crazy!

Anyway, after that was qualifying. This was run differently this round. Instead of running one competitor at a time, we did groups of 4-5 drivers on the track at one time. Each driver was judged on two clipping points and was given a total score based on a zone type of system. It was really efficient, not to mention fast! It wasn't boring or anything to watch, which made it enjoyable. I happened to qualify 4th that day, so I did pretty decent.

On to the tandems. You'll never guess who I was to go up against in the top 16. Any guesses? Well, it happened to be Joel Johnson. Talk about nerve racking! It was crazy to go against someone of his caliber! To win that many championships and have to go against him?! Hah! I was super nervous! We took our practice lap and man, did he nail it like there was no tomorrow. I mean, we were all shocked at how well his practice lap looked, because he looked like he was drifting for years! Mind you it was his first drift comp and all. So we went on to battle. The first lap was scored with my advantage as Joel went a little wide after the switch back and ended up in the wall. The next lap was sort of similar but it was cool. So with that I moved on to the best 8. It was truly a pleasure to drive alongside someone like him. He's a really cool guy!

In the best 8, I faced Val Hoang. I don't know why, but I always seem to go against him for some strange reason. We both kept it clean, but Val ended up going a little wide on the first initial sweeper and hitting the wall. Not sure if his motor cut out and he couldn't power out of it, but that resulted in me moving on to the next round. Good job Val! =D

The top 4. I was going against Sang Nam of team Arai. This guy was just on this day, well, pretty much like every other day too, and today was no exception. He was top qualifier that day so that proved that as well. The first laps were clean on both ends so it called for a one more time. The second go around we were both running clean laps, but he was a little more aggressive on the ideal drift line, so that gave him the slight advantage resulting in him moving on. Oh well! =)

Battle for 3rd, I had to go against Jon Lawence from team Arai again!!!! I don't know why, but he's another one I always have to drive against. And lets face it, he's not exactly the easiest person to beat (which to this day, I have never beat him still!). Again, today was no exception, as his clean flowing driving style was able to edge me out of 4th. But just barely. Haha. If your reading this Jon, it's on next time!!! LOL. Just kidding, it's all good with me and him like always. We drive like we're just at Arai, it's never really serious competing, which I love.

Anyway, I ended the day finishing 4th, and it was a good day overall. Team Arai ended up sweeping the entire podium for class-I. And from my understanding, it's a first for them. Also, props to Gil of team Arai for holding it down the whole season and getting 1st in this event, as well as overall in points! Congrats guys!

Oh, and as for the point series, I came out 4th overall. My TK teammate Lloyd beat me out of 3rd by 2 points, and Jon beat me out of 2nd by 8 points. Heartbreaker, i know! Oh well, there's always next season! Congrats to all of the winners and thanks to DriftClub for an awesome season! Thanks for reading!

*Photo credits go to Richard Eslava of Drift Nutz and Dave from DriftClub.

RCX, Pomona - Day 1

2008-05-12T01:44:00.005+09:00

April 19th, 2008

April 19th, 2008 was the first of two days at RCX for the HPI Drift Challenge. This weekend was sure to be a fun weekend, as well as a busy one. 34 RC Drifters ranging from NorCal, SoCal, and even as far as Hawaii, came to battle it out in Pomona.

Day 1
The day started out early as usual with pit set up and such. There were a number of things that were to be ran differently with this competition. One would be that it was a 2 day cumulative event, and 2, the qualifying would be a bracket style as apposed to the normal single driver style. At first this style would seem as if it would be a bit too sketchy, but it worked out really good. Qualifying was more exciting than just watching a single car run, which was better for the audience that only had a few moments to watch, this in turn had many of them staying to watch a large portion of the event. James of RC Driftclub and HPI did a good job with this, so kudos!

HPI took the liberty of taking individual photos of each driver and their car which I thought was a really cool extra. These would eventually be used on the official HPI website which was even better! After this, we all gathered on the track for a quick drivers meeting running down the list of rules and such, just like any other event. Thereafter, we all took a group picture followed by the concours competition. There were a lot of great looking RC bodies being put out for this event, so there was sure to be some eye candy. The judges had chosen the top 3, consisting of Ryan Degala with his R35 inspired 350 Z, Alfonso Jay Williams with his Subaru Impreza along with a motor, and myself with a replica of Tanner Foust's 2008 AEM/ Rockstar 350Z. In the end, it was Alfonso taking 1st, myself taking 2nd, and Ryan taking 3rd.

Now, it was time for the qualifying Battle Bracket 1. My first battle was against Ian Fadrigon. Since this battle was the first for the day, my head was pretty clear. I got a good amount of practice in the morning so I was pretty warmed up. Also, since this was sort of a qualifying round that counted only towards the next round I was pretty relaxed and concentrated on just having fun, and not putting too much pressure on myself. Anyway, it was pretty cool getting to drive against one of the Team Redline NorCal guys. We both kept it fun and clean during the battles and I ended up advancing because I managed to put a little pressure while following. My next opponent would be Mac Cruz. I love going against my teammates because there's a real good sense of sportsman ship between all of us. Even though only one of us gets to advance at the time, we all wish the best for each other. Mac, what can I say, he's pretty gifted and a very talented driver, so it wasn't going to be anything but tough to advance. Mac and I often practice tandems a whole lot whenever we practice, so we're pretty familiar with each others driving style. We both kept it clean and just tried to give the crowd a show with some close tandems! We got the crowd going for a bit. But someone had to go on, and I ended up advancing to the next round, might have been luck, haha. Next was the best 8 round. I was going against Wes Handy. Wes is one crazy driver because he manages to pull off some sick runs with using an almost stock HPI E10 with a 27 turn brush motor. He trips me out with that and is also really good, hats off to him. But one person could only move on so I was going to get to move on. My next opponent in the best 4 round was Drift Nutz member, Ken Elslava. Ken Ken is a really overall cool guy and is another fun driver to go against. He'll always give you a run for your money and he did this round. We kept it clean and battled tight, but I was going to get to go on the the finals! Not bad for the first part of the day! This time I had to go against Brian Lemi. I never really drove against Brian, but I've watched a couple of his battles in the past, he's pretty good. With that said, it was no surprise that we went one more time, but in the end, I came out with the win. It was a pretty good morning so far.

With pulling off the win for the first bracket, the winner of the first bracket was up to go against HPI employee and driver extraordinaire Thad Garner in a super battle! This was probably the craziest tandeming i've ever done period. The crowds absolutely loved it and we seriously kept it waaaay close. It was so fun! Literally, pretty much everyone was yelling with excitement, including my self, well, inside at least while driving. But it was too crazy!

It was time for lunch along with the Time Attack qualifying round! It was actually really really fun. The track conditions with pretty good for time attack as it started to get warmer from a gloomy cold morning. With the sun finally shining, drivers put on a good show for this portion! It was amazing to see how many spectators we got during this time. To give you an idea, we actually had 2 separate tracks (one competition course and one practice course) right next to each other. The crowd we had throughout the day for the most part was lined up along the competition track. For time attack, people actually filled up along both tracks with multiple rows of people. It was pretty cool! The crowd loved this portion as well as the drivers, because drivers consistently kept getting better and faster times. Out of the whole grid, my teammate Eric Tubig was driving super fast that day and he was the guy to beat. I managed to be a couple of milliseconds faster, and pulled of the top qualifying position! It was pretty on edge and exciting!

Bracket 2 was a pretty short bracket for me. First I went against Timothy Truong who I've never drove against. Due to some spinouts in his first lap, I managed to keep it clean and move on. Next I was going to go against John Ramos, another member of Drift Nutz. It always fun and relaxing battling against people that are really chill, because I don't really care who wins, as long as we have fun, and John being one of them, it was pretty cool. We both kept in pretty clean again, but with a slight advantage, I was able to pull off an advancement to the best 8.
This round was where my streak ended for the morning. Battling against Nick Viglionzoni was pretty interesting. After a clean lap by both of us, I was to chase next. On the second to last turn when trying to close up on him, I ended up hitting him on the transition. Not really sure what happened, wether he had an motor/ esc cut out issue or something, but (at the time) it might have been seen as a brake check. We both were maintaining the same speed and line, but somewhere he slowed down a pretty good amount, pretty quick. With that hit he was able to move on. I wasn't mad at all and I didn't scream out "Brake Check!". I just took what I was dealt and accepted it. We shook hands and being the good sportsman that he is, Nick came up to me later that day and explained that he didn't intentionally brake check me, and that in order to transition, he had to slow down pretty quickly in order to make the transition. That's pretty understandable as the point of the chase car is to follow the lead car's line along with speed and angle. All was good and we were totally cool (not that we weren't before), but it was nice of him to come up to me and make sure that all was good. He actually went on the win the bracket, so good job Nick!

More to come for Day 2 soon! Stay tuned!

RC Drift Club Round 1

2008-03-14T15:33:00.005+09:00

The RC Driftclub Round 1, Season 2 one was upon us. After a long off season, things were about to kick off for another season. This event would be a little different with many new sponsors and new drivers, as well as the subtraction of qualifying gates, which were replaced with 'Drift Zones'. That was a vast improvement on last season, as it didn't disrupt the flow of driving, like when the gate was not cleared last season. Not only that, there were now 4 classes: Class-B, Class-A, and the new Class-I. Class-I is an invite only class and the only way to compete in this class is to 1. Podium at any of the past RC Driftclub events, or 2. Get invited by RC Driftclub themselves. Of course they also still had their Class-S category, consisting of fastest lap times while drifting.

I was invited to join Class-I and it was the only class I signed up for. This class was filled with top drivers from the So-Cal area and was sure to be challenging. Among them were some well known Team Arai members including Mike Chung, Gill Espinosa, Ulysses Pascual, Sang Nam, and Jon Lawrence. As well as drivers from other teams such as Returning RC Driftclub Class-A champion Jhon Mundo and Mike Surinsuk from Team D-Style, Ryan Delmendo and John Ramos from Drift Nutz, and many other very talented drivers. Touge Knights drivers also made an appearance with Lloyd Javier, Alain Chau, and the young phenom, Mac Cruz.

The weather was nice, with a bight sun shining and a little bit of a breeze, so it looked to be a great event. I however, was very weary on how I would do in this competition, not because of nervousness or anything like that, but because I was using a brand new chassis, literally. 2 nights before the competition, I was able to get a Hot Bodies Cyclone S Hybrid chassis. This chassis is very similar to the Cyclone S 'Limited Drift Edition' from Japan. It's basically a Cyclone S chassis with an array of hop ups that come with the kit from the regular Cyclone as well as the World Edition. My Touge Knights Teammate Eric Tubig helped me out with the build, as he knows his way around the Cyclone chassis well, and that I needed some time to adjust and tune. To be honest, i'm not much of a tuner. I just love to drive and adjust my driving style to the car that i'm driving. I know that might not always be the best option, but it does make for a well rounded driver, lol. Anyway, the day before the event, Driftspeed, Zero1 Motors, and Team Arai had a drift session at Zero1 motors in Los Alimitos, CA. That session would be a test day, as the morning of, I barely finished the ret of the chassis build. Things were very out of tune for the most part, and after going back and forth from the track with literally 20 second runs, I was almost going to go back to my Sprint 2 workhorse. But luckily Mike S. from team D-Style was able to help me out with the tuning of the chassis and wow! It made a world of difference. After a couple of test and tune laps, I felt ready for tomorrow. So, all that was left was to compete. I geared up with my Novak 7.5 GTB, Spektrum radio, and {TK/GDD} D-Max AE-86 Hibino replica body, provided by Genki Dori Dori.

The day of the comp, I set up shop and ran a couple of practice laps. Although we had tuned the night before, I had ball differential issues, after those few laps and had to completely change out the diff as it kept coming loose. By the time it was ready to go, practice was over. For the most part of the day, it was waiting your turn to run in your class, which was sort of lengthy. Not to mention that morning practice was your only time to run before your qualifying run. That was a pretty scary thought, considering no testing could be done (aside from 1 practice lap from a one 3 lap qualifying round). Something that I wish was different, but, what can you do with so many classes. I was up to qualify and driving felt kind of foreign with this chassis. The first counted lap was a little shaky (as I bobbled on one of the last turns of the course by correcting my line), but the second lap was better and I ended up qualifying 6th over all.

After a looooonnnng wait, Class-I, the last class, was up to drive. After feeling the drainage from the sun and heat, we were up for competing. My first competitor was Ryan Delmendo. We took our practice lap and it looked to be an exiting match. I have to be honest, I was nervous as hell and thought my hand was going to fall off from all the shaking. Ryan is a very talented and consistant driver and I was not taking him lightly at all! We were on the first lap and I was to lead first. I got a pretty good gap on Ryan and stayed consistent through the first lap. Now I was to chase. I was able to close in at a very close proximity and applied a lot of pressure. Because of this, I was able to move on to the next round.

The top 8 round was up next and my next opponent would be TK teammate, Alain Chau. This time, there would be no more practice laps and we would just go straight into tandems. At this point, I was used to driving with Alain, not only because he's my teammate, but also we've battled several times in the past. So, I was to lead again and we both led a clean lap. The next lap, I was able to apply some pressure, but this time Alain went a little wide with his drift line causing him to bobble a little bit, resulting in me being able to move on.

For the top 4 round, my next opponent was none other than the returning Series 1 champion, Jhon 'Mundo Time' Mundo. Jhon is well know for being a very fast and agressive driver that can chase at a very close distance. Needless to say, I was again getting pretty nervous. Since Jhon qualified 2nd overall, he was to lead the first lap. This lap was pretty even throughout the entire lap, and I was able to keep a good amount of space between us. Not too far, and not too close. Just enough to pull off a 5-5 score. Now, I was to lead. This is where it Jhon would be in a very good spot to move on, as he is very good at following. We took off and on the first sweeper, Jhon slightly tapped my back bumper from following too close, but I was able to correct, not altering my drift line. He kept it close the whole way through, but at the second to last turn, he again tapped the back of my bumper, this time a little harder, resulting in spinning me out. The lap was scored 10-0 in my favor and I was able to move on!

Just when I thought things couldn't get more difficult, they did. The final round I was to face one of the best drivers in rc drifting, none other than Team Arai's Jon Lawrence. Jon and I have been practicing a lot together as of late with all the Arai and Drift Speed sessions, so we were well aware what each other was capable of. We have much respect for each other, so going into battle was a little more at ease. It felt more like 2 friends just practicing. Which was more fun to me, b/c I didn't care who won or lost. So, we headed into tandems. The first lap was lead by Jon, as he was the higher qualifier. I wasn't able to stay as close to his car as I wanted to, but that lap was still scored 5-5. It was Jon's turn to chase was up and he was following at a close distance, so with that, he was deemed the RC Driftclub Rnd 1 winner. We shook hands and congratulated each other on a job well done. So, in the end, it was Jon taking first, myself taking second, and Gil taking third. Good job guys!

Over all, this event was very fun. It gave me a chance to try out a whole new platform and the chassis felt solid after only about an 50 min. total driving time, thanks to Eric and Mike. Needless to say, i'm very happy with my new Cyclone S Hybrid set up and will try to stay consistent with this platform this upcoming season! I'd like to thank my sponsor Genki of Genki Dori Dori and hope to represent him well in upcoming events. Also a big thanks goes out to Andy Hilman and Rodney Wills for all their support! Thanks all for reading, till next time!

-Marc

**Tandem picture courtesy of RC Driftclub**

Ride Racing Drift Tyre - Type H

2007-11-08T15:02:00.000+09:00

Genki DorDori Driver Marc Marquez has been kind enough to give these new tyres a good test and these were his thoughts...enjoy :D

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My first initial look at the tire, I noticed that it was a solid carcass, so it gave good incentive for long life of the tire (being that it would most likely be run down to the wheel). The compound still felt like rubber (but more so plastic), was still pretty firm, which led me to believe that they would be a faster tire. I liked that the had 2 inner lips for better stability (to stay on) on the wheel after mounting. After putting them on, here's what I found (in order of testing):

Prepared Polished Concrete

-Was very fast compared to Yokomo DR-02, HPI Type-T, or ABS on this type of surface and was very comparable to the handling characteristics of RPD's

-Although a lot of speed was given, controllability was still there, so it made it easy to control drifts

-Ability to hold the drift was surprisingly very good. It wasn't cut short b/c of the grip, but gave a combination of speed and drift distance

-Felt like somewhere between Type-T's and RPD's

-Felt a little 'twitchy' at times, so for a beginner, it would be difficult to master how to use them right away

-Fun none the less

Asphalt

-Had similar Characteristics as when tested on the Polished Concrete

-Drift length was a little longer, compared to Polished Concrete, maybe due to the inconsistency of the surface (i.e. rocks, not that much contact from tire to ground, etc.)

-Pretty much the same for the most part

Unprepared 'Sidewalk' Type of Concrete

-Was very very fast on this type of surface

-Very comparable to HPI Type-A Radials

-Controllable, but you had to be on your toes

-Length of drift was okay, not too short, but could be longer. Although, was lengthier compared to HPI Type-A's

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All in all the Ride drift tire is a very good balance of speed and
control. It's has a good amount of grip, but not too much grip, as
long as your on the right surface. If you like medium to fast
drifting, you'll love these. However, I think newcomers just getting
into the drift scene would benefit more with a tire such as ABS, HPI
Type-T's, or Yokomo DR-02's because they can get a better feel for how
your car reacts when in different situtations with drifitng. But
that's not to say that they wouldn't have any fun with these tires.
Beginner to advanced, RC drifters will enjoy these no matter what. For
those with novice to advanced experience, these drivers would have a
blast with these, as they would be able to harness the benefits these
tires have to offer. In competitions with open tire choices, the Ride
tire would definitely be one of my top three choices to use in
competition.

Drift Speed Competition

2007-11-05T03:39:00.000+09:00

Saturday 10/20/07

October 20th, 2007 at Zero1 Motor Sports in the City of Orange, was the setting for Team Arai's 2nd competition in conjunction with Drift Speed. The event was to be judged D1 style but with a unique twist. All entries were not put in a specific class at registration, but rather their placement within beginner, novice, or advanced was determined by how they qualified. Line, speed, angle, and clipping points were all a determining factor, but overall smoothness was the emphasis for qualifying and was key from the judging standpoint. Drivers were given 3 runs, like in D1, and were judged on their highest scored lap.

All drivers were split up into groups of around 6 per group, with a total of 7 groups. Qualifying went really smoothly and quickly for the most part, as most drivers were ready on standby, only with exception to those that needed a quick 5 min. to fix their cars, but very smooth none the less. I was put in the last group and had okay qualifying runs. Nothing outstanding for me, but just overall consistency of mediocre driving was what I was coming out with. Overall, I ended up qualifying 6th in advanced, and it was on to the tandem rounds. For qualifying, I used my TK/GDD Team Toyo S15. But for some reason, I didn't feel comfortable/ and confident in using the body. I'm sure it doesn't play a huge factor in driving ability or aero-dynamics, but I didn't feel like I could drive well with that body. Call me crazy for swapping, but I ended up switching and using my TK/GDD Blitz ER34 for tandem rounds. Again, call me crazy, but I did in fact do much better, felt more comfortable, and stayed way more consistent by switching to the Speedway Pal ER34.

Since the grid was split up into 3 classes, there were less drivers total for top 16 in the class, top qualifying drivers were given a by run, so I went straight to the top 8 round. First up I was pitted against Groovy Drift leader/ member Ben in his Falken Tire scheme Estima. Ben was driving extremely well that day and I was worried that I would be eliminated right off the bat in the top 8. He was the higher seeded qualifying driver, so he was to lead first. We took our warm-up lap and things looked really exciting, just in warm-ups alone! We proceeded with the first lap and things couldn't have been anymore exciting. The judges put heavy emphasis on trying NOT to pass. Which is, I feel, the best way to judge a chasing cars skills. Matching the line and speed of your opponent and getting the nose of your car to the inside of their car is what makes for exciting tandems. So with that, that's exactly what I set out to do. And it worked! The judges were impressed by the chase lap and gave me the advantage. I was to lead next. We started out from the line and I was able to get a pretty good gap in length away from Ben, so I was able to advance to the next Round.

In the top 4 round, I was to go up against another Groovy Drift team member Aidz in his copper colored ER34. This was to be a battle between the two power horses in drifting so to speak, (car-type wise that is, in 1:1 scale) with both of us using high powered Skylines. Anyway, we took our warm-up lap and looked to be another promisingly good battle. It turned out to also be another nail biter going almost very similar to my past round. I was able to close in on Aidz from the get-go while chasing to get the advantage and the following lap was dead even. It was on to the Final round for me, and I was very excited!

The final driver that I was to go up against was none other than Jhon Mundo. Known for his amazing chasing skills and crazy fast speed, he was proven to be a though driver to try to beat. After our warm up lap, we proceeded with our judged laps. Things were tremendously exciting while I was leading in the first round as Jhon was chasing and was able to get the nose of his car well on the inside and got a 6-4 advantage. Next, I was chasing and this time, I was able to return the favor, sending us to a Sudden Death round. During sudden death, Jhon kept consistent and kept it very close in distance, to earn him a 6-4 advantage. This time however, we both kept the lap clean, but I wasn't able to get in close proximity to his car and the lap was scored 5-5. So with that, I ended the competition with 2nd place, Jhon in 1st and Aidz in 3rd. I was very happy with the outcome and congratulated Jhon on his victory and Aidz as well.

Now it was on to the team drift competition. After several minutes of practice, my team, Team Max Out, which included myself, Jhon M. and Kristopher Kristomo (Touge Knights team driver and winner of 2nd place in Novice). We were one of only two teams (out of seven teams) that were able to score on their lap. The other five teams were judged a zero, due to some sort of spin out within their team. After about 30min. of back and fourth qualifying between the other five teams just to score, the final four were decided. My team qualified first, following Team Arai Old School (Mike, Gil, & Rob), Team Arai New School (Jon, Sang, & Ulysses), and last but not least, team N.O.B. (No One Better, named after ex. D1 driver, Nob Tanaguchi) which included Lloyd Javier (TK driver and winner of 1st place in Novice), Alain Chau (another TK Driver), and Edgar F. (a heavily involved member of RC Driftclub).

The first battle was between Team Max out and Team N.O.B. We were able to eliminate team N.O.B. by running clean laps and staying consistent. Next was team Arai New School vs. Old School. Team Arai Old school proved to be victorious as they were able to squeeze by, due to a slight driving mistake of one of the drivers on team new school. The final round was a good one, with both teams staying consistent, and getting scored exactly the same score. We went into a single lap sudden death, and although both teams stayed clean, Team Arai Old School pulled off the win, due to a closer proximity within their 3 drivers.

All in all, it was a very fun and successful event, and I would like to thank Team Arai and Drift Speed for putting on such a great event, Zero1 Motor-sports for hosting, and most of all my sponsor Genki Dori Dori for his support!! Can't wait till the next Team Arai competition in April!

More pictures can be viewed here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tougeknights/sets/72157602587020254/

D1RC round 6

2007-10-07T21:40:00.000+09:00

Saturday 6/10/2007

D1RC series final round.
My body of choice for this final round was yet again my very old favorite the Kyosho KPGC10.

by phil warner

Well after a cloudy start to the day we all arrived around 9am with the final round in hand for the club class and pro class of the D1RC series, First of everyone got together and prepped the track with some sweeping and barrier setup to get the course right after much discussion of what track design we were going to run.

After getting set up and some car tweaking here and there we all set to the track for some practice and boy was the track extremly slippery today, for some reason this track (Colchester MCC) has a way of changing the way it feels, maybe this was due to the colder weather now later in the year or due to what vehicles have been run on the surface over the past couple of months.

So we all got some practice and then went fine tuning for more driveability and then drivers briefing for some last minute discussion on the track layout and clipping points with how the track shapes out for the final round.

Now it was time for the best body of the day and chassis so we all got lined up on the track and votes cast as to whom had the best shell and low and behold steve davies took it again with his widebodied tamiya subaru impreza.

With qualifying of to a good start with the club class saw some great results from these guy's of up and coming talent. next saw the turn of the pro class with eddie turner taking the top score and john turner second with myself third, the club class took to the track for the tandems and wow some great runs from these guy's with close battles and re runs but coming down to the wire the finals came and the results were Ben Kemp taking first place in the final with luke conte taking second and michael fryett taking third.

So next up we go to the pro class for the tandem battles and some interesting battles were had,with myself up with ritchie hood and going through to the semi's, then i was up against john turner and yet again myself going through to the final. This then took the turn of who was to decide to take third place and was taken by john turner leaving stu cave and myself to battle it out for first place, after the first 2 runs it was decided to run again with myself taking first place in the final yippeee!

More to come from the D1RC crew in the winter series.........

Team GDD Driver Marc on hpiracing.com

2007-09-25T08:12:00.000+09:00

Team GDD driver Marc Marquez and his NL-86 can be seen on hpiracing.com
The body speaks for its self and is an amazing peice of work...so a bit congrats goes out to Marc.
Don't forget to check out HPI's great products while you are checking out the RC Drift Club coverage.

Introduction to GDD

2007-09-13T05:36:00.000+09:00

First of a very big thanx to Genki DoriDori for the sponsorship I am so pleased to have been chosen from the many great r/c drifters out there, its an honour.

Well most of you out there will know me for creating such great bodyshells such as my Yokomo 180sex and the Tamiya Z-Tune door slammer.

Well I best start really with how i got into the drift seen haha well i used to race R/C buggy's as a young teenager and didnt really do that well for some unknown reason things were always breaking and as a young lad money was always tight, and if you know the type of vehicle i was using at the time they were the likes of tamiya sand scorchers which were fairly fragile.

So after a few years of mucking around with buggy's I became a little older and got to the age of driving 1/1 cars so after passing my driving test it was all down hill from then with r/c as the interest became strong for real car modifications which as we all know takes all your money and more. As time goes by we reflect on the things we do as a youngster and my wife said to me one Christmas what do you fancy for a present this year? Well for some reason I said I fancy getting back into R/C cars just for fun as a hobby like we know and love, so of to my local LHS and a couple of hundred pounds later a fully hopped up Tamiya TL-01 was of to a flying start, well after playing around for a few weeks more power was needed and along with more body's LOL. Then one day I decided to go searching the internet for more hop ups and stuff and stumbled across rcdori which from that day forward I have never looked back, after many hours of searching the r/c drift scene and then more and more forums popping up and joining its just got bigger and better by the month.

Ive now been into r/c drifting for around 4 years now and as most people that know me, know me for my bodyshells and of course the all loved Tamiya TA-03, which is one of the best r/c drift cars available at this moment in time, ive personally moved on from the TA-03 since i came across the ARD CE-4 which with the help and thanx to Genki DoriDori has made it such a great chassis for me to drive.

As for entering the D1RC series it was the best thing i have ever done, I entered the last 2 races of the 2006 season and found it a massive learning curve using full r/c purpose built tracks which as most of us who enter into the drift scene start in back yards and car parks, After many chats with the organisers Eddie Turner and John Turner I have learned a lot more about car set up and how to prepare your chassis for race conditions and have never looked back since.

Well enough of me for now just glad to have been chosen for the GDD sponsorship.

More to follow soon.................

Groovy Drift / Autobacs

2007-09-11T23:12:00.001+09:00

BY: Marc Marquez

The day started out with heat yet again, blistering early. At 7am it
was roughly around 85 degrees. As we pulled up, the set up of the
track was already completed an hour and a half before competition
time. Eric and I set up our tents to form our little "tent village" to
get the most shade out of the day. Registration began and people
stickered up their cars with the provided sticker sheet. I was able to
hand out a good amount of GDD stickers so that drivers would have the
option to use them for today.

The Type-T class was first and it went by rather too quickly. Almost
as if it were to say, "Let's hurry up and get this over with". For the
people that didn't qualify and didn't sign up for a different class
were out of luck. Their day ended really fast. I ended up qualifying
14th for some reason. People were very unsure as to how they were
judged during qualifying. The first battle that I faced was against
Aki, an employee of HPI in the R&D department. He is very skilled in
Type-A's and is a very, very good driver. We went on to go one more
time after 1 full battle and I ended up advancing to the next round
because of a spin on his part. My next opponent was James (Raine). He
is also a very skilled driver and would be a tough battle for sure. We
had several sudden death rounds in the round, and was a very very
exciting round of battle. I barely edged him out by a 6-4 decision by
the judges and moved on to the semi finals. As if things couldn't get
any harder, my next opponent was Gil from team Arai. The same scenario
went on here as we again had several sudden death matches. It finally
had to come to one final lap to decide who would move on. This time,
Gil was able to beat me by a score of 6-4 and I was now in a battle
for third. My opponent was Mac Cruz, my Touge Knights teammate. We
battled it out and I ended up taking 3rd place over all in the Type-T
class.

The next classes were beginner, intermediate and advanced. I also
entered the advanced class aside from the Type-T class. A new twist
was added as the GD staff decide to (after the advanced practice
session) to change up the track to make it more difficult. I felt that
this was kind of unfair. I know that we're in the advanced class and
all, but they should have done so before the practice session. In any
case, I qualified 3rd this time and would make it all the way to the
top 8. I then was eliminated by Mac Cruz this time and ended up taking
7th place in the advanced class.

RCDC Rnd.6 @ Speedtech RC, 8.18.07

2007-09-11T22:39:00.001+09:00

BY: Marc Marquez

The day started off with the usual morning practice and last minute
tuning among the drivers. Although it was only 9am, it was already
roughly 88 degrees F. A lot of people were questioning what type of
tire they were going to run. For some reason, HPI Type-T's tend to be
slower on the Speedtech surface, ABS are normal, Yok's are avarage
depending on the setup, RPD's are fast but controllable, and Type A's
are rediculously fast. I decided to go with ABS initially since my car
was set up for Type-T's. I didn't have enough time to re-setup my car
for Yok's, plus I've used Yok's for every comp in the RCDC series, so
I thought I'd give a new tire a shot, being the last round, just to
see how they'd fair. But that turned out to be a bad decision to go
with ABS. During warm up, the heat made multiple driver's tires fall
off because the surface was so hot. I think it ended up being like
101*F throught the competition. Not to mention they were waayy too
slow compared to everyone else. The hot track made harder rubber
compound tires, i.e. RPD's the tire of choice. Man, they were AWESOME
on that track with those conditions! Total control, enough speed to
keep in close tandems, but still having the ability to slide, even if
you had to use the brake while following.

The drivers all lined up their cars for the group picture. Also for
some reason, a lot of people were asking me what I had planned for a
body for this comp. I didn't tell anyone other than my teammate Eric
about what I had planned. So wanting to surprise everyone, I brought
out the body wrapped in a black shirt. With everyone staring curiously
and anxiously, I took the body out of the shirt and set it down next
to the other lined up cars. Of course everyone had the look on there
face like, "That's it? That's what all the fuss was about? It looks
cool, but I expected something crazy.." At least, that's the look that
I thought they had. Then I removed the hood… and the reaction was
priceless! All I heard was one big unified, "OOOOOOOOHHH!!!!!!" It was
truly one of the best feelings I've had in RC drift ever. I felt a
sense of accomplishment and it made all the hard work worth while.

Soo, back to the comp. During qualifying, my car was unresponsive, and
I mean, not working at all. The RCDC 3 minute rule went into effect
and I could not get my car to move five feet away from me. After
several tests, I determined that it was my radio (DX2) that was the
problem. The antenna had been dangling from a broken piece of the
antenna base for a while now, and I guess it just gave up on me. I
quickly went home (I live 15 min. away) and got my DX3.0. Everything
was fine after that. I apparently qualified 14th with 1 DNF out of 2
qualifying rounds, so things went pretty good for not having a first
qualifying run.

Tandems were nice and tight. Really good match ups and a lot of
upsets. I didn't really expect to get that far, but again, I'm happy
things turned out the way they did. In the final round Gil and I had
to go one more time, and then b/c of a little understeer on my part on
the sweeper in sudden death, a 6-4 decided the match following a 5-5.