The Sport/motorsport of remote control auto racing

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I just finished editing the race report. Here it is!


FG Supply Grand Prix. June 24-25 2011

On Friday the 24th of June, My dad and I drove to the Artesia Transit Center to meet with the two people who would lend us a 5th scale ride for the FG Supply Grand Prix. The car was handling a little ill throughout the day but by the end. Shaw and Ray Takahashi, who own the car, helped get the car handling and setup well for me to drive. During the end of the day, I commented that driving a 1/5th scale car was the most fun I had ever had in my radio control car racing career. Not to mention I was saying “WOOHOO!” a lot of “on the drivers stand.

Saturday, June 25.

In the morning, my dad, Shaw, and Ray Takahashi continued to get my car setup better. My dad put new tires on the car and it was handling wonderfully. New tires defiantly make a difference! After I was done with practice I got ready for my first qualifier.

I signed up for the 1/5th scale street class, which is for racers who are on a budget or are getting their feet wet in the discipline. Qualifiers are ten minutes long and have a five minute warm up period.

Qualifier 1

I pretty much dominated this race; I was beating most of my competition by more than 4 laps and the closest being more than a lap behind me. My car was a little loose off throttle mid corner on right turns but it was still handling well. I end up taking the TQ (Top Qualifying) position by more than a lap as a previously said.

Qualifier 2

In this round my dad had bumped me up to a more competitive and skilled class, the 1/5th GT Class. This is a class for racers who are graduating from the street class and have invested a little bit more into their cars. The race starts out with me in second place, however I continue to reel in the leader every lap, by the 7 minute mark, the leader is having problems with his body shell dragging on the ground, and this gave me a chance to take the lead. By the last minute of the race, we are swapping positions and are fighting it out for the TQ position. As time expires I take TQ, by 3 tenths of a second. A blink of an eye! I was so happy and there were a lot of guys congratulating me on my victory.

There was going to be a third qualifier today, however due to a long lunch break, the race was cut to 2 qualifiers and I was able to keep my TQ position.

A main

I was pretty pumped for the race. I started on the front row, and was bubbling in anticipation for the race to start. Once the race got underway I was battling it out with 2nd place that was gunning for me, 3 laps into the race, the scoring system was not working and the race had to be restarted. Once the race started over, 2nd place and I resumed our battle for the win. For the first 3 minutes, 2nd place could not get under me. One lap later he makes a brilliant pass on me to take the lead. He then began to pull away from me ever so slightly, however 2nd place starts to have problems with his car which allows me to close back up on him again and then retake the lead. Once that happened, I began to pull away from the pack little by little. I weave my way through traffic and get spun around a few times, but I still am able to maintain a ¾ of a lap lead. With ten minutes to go, I am told to conserve fuel by Shaw Takahashi, the man who lent me his 5th scale for the weekend. I am very smooth on the throttle and I am doing my best to not floor it as much. By the 3 minute mark I am really conserving fuel now and going half throttle down the backstretch. With 20 seconds to go, my car starts to sputter and now I’m very worried that I might run out of fuel on the last lap. But fortunately, my car is able to make it across the finish line when time expires and I go on to take my first ever “big” 1/5th scale race victory. It also was my 5th big race victory of 2011.

My dad and I looked in the fuel tank at the end of the race a we saw that there was literally no fuel left and we were running on vapors. So I was pretty much seconds away from my car shutting down. We felt so relieved that my car made it.

I got my picture taken with the trophy girl at the awards presentation and then after that I thanked the Takahashis for lending me their car. My dad and I went home, took a shower and went to a racing friend’s birthday party in Laguna Beach with my mom that was on beachfront property. I had a fun time and I got to see a band play that was upstairs from my friend Craig’s garage. I also saw on the TV in the garage last night that my favorite baseball team the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Minnesota Twins 11-1 that day.

Thank you for reading, my next race will be round 1 of the California State Nitro Series in San Jose, CA on July 9-10.

This Friday, I leave for San Jose, CA for the first round of the California State Nitro Series. I will keep you posted more about this upcoming event.

The first round of the California Nitro Series is over. I didn't do to well. I only finished one qualifier and broke the last two and had car problems in the main. I will work on the report as soon as I get the chance.

guess i can post my new car here

That's an awesome looking F104W there MXH! Have you driven it yet? I hear that they handle awesome.

Yes i have. Not used to rwd yet but it is by far the best handling rc car ive ever driven. And thats a long list btw. I wish it had a bit more rear traction, i may get the soft tplate in a bit.

Yes MXH! the soft T-plate seems to work the best on low grip track. Also try rubbing sun tan lotion into the tires, those make the tires a good deal more grippy that's if your club allows it.

I just started work on the race report for round one of the Golden State Nitro Series, I will keep you posted on progress.

I am 39% done with the race report.

I have been a little busy as of lately. Last week I just started a new job and i have been going through on the job training, so i haven't been able to work on the race report much. However, I will finish the race report tonight. Also there is another race I am racing in coming up soon, I will be racing in the time zone grand prix, which is a on road nitro powered race in Southern Washington State(Northwestern USA), I will be racing against the current professional on-road nitro touring car world champion from Texas (middle southern USA) who happens to be my boss for my RC car sponsor (Xray), as well as some very good sponsored racers from all over the US. I am also racing the best racer from China. This race will be from July 22 to July 24. I will write a report on that race as well.

Do your best man! Also the sunscreen trick does work somewhat.

Thanks MXH! I will! I also will wear sunscreen, it's supposed to be real toasty up there. I leave for the race on Thursday.

Here is a picture of the track that I will be racing on. It is similar to the tracks run in Europe with a little bit of elevation changes.




Another thing to mention is I have completed the Golden State Nitro Series race report. Here it is!


California Golden State Nitro Series. Round 1. July 9-10 2011


Me, my dad, and my two friends Alex and Christian Lopez, made the trek up north from Orange County CA, USA to San Jose,CA USA and checked in to our hotel. I got some sleep and got up early the next day to head to the track for practice. During practice I noticed the track was very unpredictable and very inconsistent. There would be a lot of traction in one corner and then it would be slippery in another, which made me bang the boards quite a bit, which I was not accustomed to. I skipped lunch which was making me feel very dizzy and making my drive inconsistent, I had to fight the feeling and get ready for my first qualifier.


Qualifying was supposed to be by your fastest individual lap but they decided to change it the most laps in 5 minutes, this made me feel better.

Qualifier 1.

My car was a little ill handling and was not up to par, it would be loose in one corner then it would be understeering in the next. I was going a little wide on the beginning of the backstretch which was dust and causing my car to get loose. On the last lap I went way too wide coming onto the backstretch; I got in the dust and did a 360 while hitting the backwall at least three times narrowly missing two other cars that were behind me. My car ran out of fuel before it crossed the finish line, I end up 3rd out of 6 racers.

After the Qualifier, my dad deiced that we should try to get the car better set up. I was really feeling dizzy because I did not have lunch to eat, and I had to convince my dad to take me to In-N-Out (local California hamburger chain) after that I felt a little better but I was still dizzy when I got back to practicing one time I got loose and hit the backstretch wall in the rear of my car and broke the rear shock tower (part on car where the rear suspension is attached to). My dad was pretty upset and thought that we would not have a spare part to replace the part with. Luckily when we got back to the hotel, my dad and I found another shock tower and put it back on the car, after that went to bed.


The next would be the last two qualifiers and the A main. Nothing really much happened; I will explain what went down for the rest of the racing weekend. The good thing is I had lunch and this made me feel focused and sharp, but it couldn’t help the way my car was handling.

Qualifiers 2-3 and the A main.

The second qualifier I was having mechanical issues with my car and I failed to finish. In the third qualifier, my car was quite loose and I turned in to early and hit a board and bent one of my wheels which forced me to retire for the qualifier. Luckily, I had time in my first qualifier that was good enough to place me third in the Main, in the A main my car was pulling to the right on the backstretch when I hit the throttle during the warm-up and I didn’t start the race. However I did get into the race 15 minutes after the start but my car was still having problems I ended up finishing last out of 6 racers. I’m sitting last in points, but fortunately I have many races left to make a comeback in the series.

Thank you very much for reading my race report of the Golden State Nitro Series, my next race will be the Timezone Grand Prix in Northwestern USA.

Right now I am at timezone raceway. The racetrack is real nice and it's out in the country in the woods. Very sceanic and pretty. Tomorrow is the first day of the timezone grand prix. I will keep you posted.

I made a mistake, the real update is below. Thank you.

Last edited by Leester on 23 Jul 2011, 5:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Right now after 2 rounds of qualifying I am sitting 8th on the grid, which happens to be the A main. If I come in 9th today I will be in the B main. So if I stay in 8th today I will run a 30 minute A main tommorow. If I don't I will have to run a 20 minute B main and if I make the top in in the B, I will bump up to the A main. I will let you know how things are going.

Round 3 is over. In a close battle I have qualified 6th. I will advance to the A main! Racing begins tomorrow at 10am American west coast time.

I broke I the A main nearly halfway through the race, I know it wasn't the best of my races by I am proud and had fun. The race report will follow.