The first club meeting..........

I guess the logical next post should be about the club meetings.

I say club meeting as I’ll assume that no one is planning on their first race meet to be a Regional or National!

If you’ve been down to the club a couple of times for information before finishing your car then you’ll already know a couple of people there, especially the club organiser, so you should know where to put your stuff, where to grab a table and roughly how long the day/evening will be. If you haven’t been before then drop an email to the club’s email address off their website, or put up a post on their forum section if they have one, just so that you can get a couple of names, an idea of the time to arrive etc.

The best thing to do when you get there and are unsure of anything is just ask! I’ve never found anyone to be unhelpful or rude at a club meeting (despite appearances!), especially to new comers, so someone will help you find a seat, a table and a plug socket for you charger. Next thing to do is look for the man/woman sat at a table with a laptop as they will be the person booking everyone in, taking the entry fee and handing out club transponders to those without personal ones.

Something I wouldn’t worry about on your first night, but strongly recommend after you’re used to the format more, is helping build the track before racing begins and clearing it away after it’s finished. Just because the quicker the track is built and put away, the more time there is for racing (just one for the future rather than when first starting out).

Once that’s done you’re ready to go, the only thing left is to attach your club transponder to your car and then check the Heat List, once the organiser has finished all the booking in, to see when you’re out on track. The heats are normally grouped (or seeded) based on the organiser’s knowledge of the regulars so that the quicker racers are together and the slower/newer guys/girls are together also.

 

Most club meets will follow the following format each time:

·         3 or 4 x rounds of Qualifying Heats – 5 minutes each

·         1 x round of Finals – 5 minutes each (normally)

·         Each Heat and Final is normally made up of between 6-10 cars depending on overall numbers and skill splits.

Qualifying:-

This will normally be started in a particular order (first round in car number order, each round after that in order of fastest to slowest from the previous heats). The alternative is a mass start, but this is less common, where everyone starts on the sound of the buzzer.

Before the start the computer will give a warning countdown of beeps then if it is car-by-car it will call out the car numbers in order with a break of roughly 2 seconds between each one – that’s your cue to start. If it’s a mass start then after the countdown beeps there will be a pause of 3-5 seconds and a start tone for all to go.

The key thing to remember with qualifying is that it’s a time trial NOT a race!!! There is no gain from cruising up to the back of other cars and crashing in an overtaking attempt or in trying to hold up a faster car behind you. You are essentially trying to do as many laps as you can before the 5 minute buzzer goes, so it is a race against YOURSELF more than a race against the rest.

The target for qualifying in your first few meetings, and to be honest most of them after that, is a clean run. Simply, you’re trying to get around the track without crashing into others, crashing into the wall or track markers and also not ending up on your roof at any time! Sounds easy doesn’t it!!!

Especially in your first runs just drive to give it a shake down to check it’s all working right, and learn how to control the car. The best thing is to aim to stick to the centre line of the track, so avoiding the track markers and walls, along with just “rolling” over jumps and obstacles (this just means cruising over them in neutral or at most constant throttle) so that you limit the chances of breaking anything or ending up on your roof.

Remember, it’s clean runs and a lack of breakages that will help you improve more than stunning 10ft air jumps that end up in the wall! Take it easy and build up the speed as you build your understanding and confidence in the car. If someone quicker is coming up behind you just run a little wider on the next corner and let them pass, they are less likely to crash into you than if they try a racing style dive up the inside with you defending your line. If something doesn’t feel right then ask someone for their advice on how your car looks as it’s driving, they may even take it for a couple of laps between heats to get a feel if you’re ok with that, and they can point you in the right direction for changes or the most common reason for that horrible grinding noise coming from your car (hopefully not this last one!).

 

Finals:-

These will be created after the last qualifier based on either the best 2 rounds overall rankings or each person’s fastest 5 minute run of the whole lot, depending on the preferred format of the club (the former is normally what I found used).

This is where you are actually racing against the others. Everyone will line up in a staggered grid format on the main straight and after the countdown beeps there will be a pause of 3-5 seconds and a start tone for all to go, go, go!!! – Right into a pile-up at the first corner!!!

Normally the best approach for the first few finals is still treat them like a qualifying round. Just keep to the middle of the track, avoiding the markers and walls, to try and get a clean run. As you get more experienced, and gain more confidence, then start to try a few moves and overtakes in the finals, moving up the order and finishing higher than you started.

 

The main thing to remember throughout it all is to have FUN. Don’t get too worried about your position, focus on learning car control, going a little further in the 5 minutes each run and enjoying the chaos of the finals. Everyone there is doing this for a hobby, just like you, so as I said before ask if you don’t understand something as there is always someone willing to help. You will get better with time, everyone at the club started at the same level you are now, no one could jump straight into an F1 car and post pole position lap times, so why should you be able to when driving RC cars???

The Build.........

Hi all reading this. First an apology as I’ve not updated this for a couple of months, mainly due to time away during Christmas and a few other things that have cropped up since my last post which have eaten into my time.
I’ve been wanting to get the next post out, focusing on when I built my kit. Those of you who’ve bought an RTR (Ready-To-Run) car may not think this applies to you, but some of the key pointers will help you out too when it comes to maintenance and, more than likely, repairs!

When building your kit or about to do some significant maintenance on your car, the first thing to do is make sure you have read the manual. I know it sounds like a wimpish for a proper man to say, but you won’t feel like a proper man when your car breaks down on its first run because you’ve mixed up the screws, or diff, or suspension arms, or shock seals etc. etc.
Basically there are quite a few things that can be inserted wrong or built the wrong way which will not only shorten your run time, or ruin performance, more importantly to those on a budget it could cost some $$$ to fix.

So a few handy tips when building your kit:

• Read the manual all the way through.
• Read the manual all the way through again!
• Have the manual open to the section you need as you need it (particularly important during maintenance and repairs).
• Make sure you have all the correct tools for the job (no Irish screwdrivers etc.).
• Have a tidy work space with plenty of area around to place things (using a small coffee table or your lap on the sofa is definitely not recommended!).
• Try as best you can to only take the parts you actually need for that section of the build out of the packets and boxes (so that you don’t lose random screws or bolts by accident).
• Try to give yourself a few hours uninterrupted time to build the kit. Nothing is more annoying or potentially messes up a build than having to pack it all up mid-build because your partner needs the kitchen table back when you’re half way through building your diff.
• Double check your work (Once you’ve finished a section, double check it against the manual to make sure it is right before moving to the next section).

I know this may sound obvious to some, or overly pedantic to others, but if you build the kit wrong to start with then you will have parts break, the car may be a nightmare to drive, and/or it may ruin your “killer run” when you find yourself in the zone during a final.
Another thing that may be handy is to check out a good forum (like oOple) or the manufacturer’s website for build tips. As hard as they try sometimes there are errors in the manual, or a part molding issue, that isn’t always obvious so they upload videos or walkthroughs for the workaround.

Finally something that is often forgotten:
Give the car a couple of “shakedown” runs once completed. Either around your driveway or at the club on a race evening. Either way, take the first couple of runs easy, even turn down your throttle end point to make sure, so that the diff can bed in and the moving parts go through a few actions. This way you can double check the screws and fit of parts afterwards for any loosening or excessive play (movement). Also if anything does break you will be doing a slower speed and will normally see/feel it before it goes, so, it may not do as much damage as at full race pace. Build up the speed with each run, checking out the car after each run and by the end of the meeting you should have the car running at race pace and have picked up any issues early.

This is also where the advantage of running a popular car for your club lays. If anything does go wrong there will be plenty of help from people, who may have gone through it before you with that specific car, so it should be easily and simply repaired to get you ready for the next heat.
Hopefully these few tips will help when it comes to putting together, or carrying out maintenance, your first car. And these tips carry over for all forms of RC racing, not just the buggies I run. Once I had my car together I was itching to get down to my first club night to hit the track, although as I found out I hit quite a lot of it in my first few nights of club meetings!