Hobby Haven Shootout

[3pointX]

Hey just a heads up for you guys that'll be at the Shootout, they're changing the layout again. I was down there tonight to get in some more practice and to my surprise the track as we knew it was gone. Looks like they're going to open it up a bit to be more nitro friendly, and the're going to have two or three tabletops. Not sure how fast it'll be but this last layout was starting to grow on me. Hopefully this one will be even better.

[hakmazter]

It looked pretty stupid to me as I was there tonight with my son and his rustler for the first time...But they have proven me wrong before and there wasn't much there yet.

Someone has a hard on for jumping over another section of track like a big X and I really don't care for it....they always change the layout for the big race.....

[bc24fl]

....they always change the layout for the big race.....

I suspect this is done to encourage foreigners to the track so that locals can't dominate the track. That's probably the last thing the track owner wants to do.

[hakmazter]

You are correct. Everyone is on a level playing field, but it still is what it is. The guys that travel some and drive on different tracks dominate anyways....

[vnmsgt]

So I am going to "travel" up there and Dominate you, Cam, and Fusion!

[hakmazter]

I can assure you that I would be your only hope.....

but at everyone elses present rate, I might actually win with 30 laps in 45 minutes....

[bc24fl]

I can't wait to settle all this smack talk when when virtual rc comes out with off-road. ?&^

[3pointX]

Went down there again tonight and it's still not finished, so I doubt they'll be racing tomorrownight like they usually do unless they really step it up tomorrow afternoon. But it looks nothing like it did the other night. I don't know, Mike, I've never raced at any other track, and at that I've only seen the last two or three layouts they've used. But I guess if it's a better layout for 1/8th scales, especially nitros, so be it. I liked the layouts they've had this year but even with my limited experience, the track usually seems to be way too tight for 1/8th scales to be even remotely exciting. The tenth scales are friggen fast but the layout just plays into their favor.

[Mr Fusion]

There just isn't much more you can do with the size of the track. We have had some really great layouts there in the past, but it's a 1/10 size track so making a killer 1/8 track just doesn't happen.

But the small track is actually a lot of fun even for 1/8... and it requires some driving talent to go fast, more so I think than the huge wide open tracks.

[3pointX]

Yeah it's definitely a hard track to drive 1/8ths on, especially if you're a sucky rookie like me lol.

[hakmazter]

I went tonight. It looks a lot better. There will be a really high speed section. I was thinking about running, but I realized that they would probably post the races on youtube as usual and I am not quite sure I could put up with all the heckling.

But I have 2 excuses. I have not raced in 3 years. I still have never driven a Caster.

[3pointX]

You're more than welcome to drive mine any time you want, Mike. Tell you what, once I get the radio and engine upgraded, I'll enter my very first race - IF you enter too. That way, you can kick somebody's ass (mine) and not look a fool, and I can say I actually raced my buggy.

[hakmazter]

I'm racing Sunday.

[3pointX]

Dammit! Well, good luck. I won't be racing until I get things sorted out. I stripped my buggy down last night to sort out some issues I've been having and aside from a couple of siesed bearings and a cracked clutch shoe, I need a new rear driveshaft. Mine is bent just a small fraction (possibly from that incident after I first picked up the buggy) and it's not much, but it's enough to make the rear end bind up and I think it's the reason the rear drive cup kept popping off. So until I get a new shaft, I'm out of the running. I'm going to check to see if the Ravager's driveshafts will fit since it's got a dead engine anyway. Might even steal the clutch off it since it's pretty new.

[The Machinist]

Will you guys have any extra tent space Sunday, my wife hasn't given me enough allowance to buy one yet

[The Machinist]

And I could use a couple of Caster stickers for my car if anyone has some lying around, my daughter love sticker, so she took off with mine

[hakmazter]

I don't use a tent or even a table.....lol.

[vnmsgt]

I don't use a tent or even a table.....lol.

Those are for people who break and need to fix there stuff! You guys going with HAK tell us the truth after the race if HAK finished or something happened! LOL!

[NetFryer]

Looking forward to these races! Ready to put the Fusion out on the track.

[Mr Fusion]

I have an ez-up and a couple tables... I'm sure we can cram a few guys under it, team style. But, no fuel bottles or starter boxes allowed.... LOL!!!

[hakmazter]

I don't break stuff, so I just need some shade. I will bring my own rocking chair.

[3pointX]

If the races are Sunday too I'd be happy to come down and help out if anyone needs a pit man. I have to work Saturday but I think Sunday I'm free, or at least the wife hasn't said otherwise yet.

[hakmazter]

electric = saturday
nitro = sunday (except 1/8 scale electrics run with nitro)

[3pointX]

Hmmm... Maybe I'll race Sunday. I've got my buggy back together now. I don't, however, have a decent radio yet. Still running the RTR AM stuff.

[hakmazter]

Doesn't matter because there will not be very many am on nitro day.....

[The Machinist]

I just got back from the races and it was a great day, 14 hours at the track might have been a bit much thow, I am quite burned.
I had a crappy day,
My first heat the clutch bell stripped, got that problem fixed.
Second heat I was extremly loose, and flamed out at the end.
Third heat I made some adjustments to try and get a little more traction, it got a little better, but my throttle servo started acting up, but i managed to finish the heat towards the back of the pack.
C Main-I figured i would have no problem bumping up, I thought I fixed my servo problem, I thought I had some interference from my engine being a little loose on the mount. I was wrong, it was much worse. When i went wot and let of the servo would jump back to wot so there wasn't much else to do other than call it a day.
I stayed to help out with the rest the mains.
Hak got 1st place in the sportsman B main. His Fusion was running great, and he was wheelin like a pro.
In the pro A-main Cam was running a strong 2nd, that guy can drive, but then he "Flamed Out" I think he finished 9th
Fusion was running a great race to, but he also "Flamed Out" but came back shortly after. He finishe somewhere in the top 10, and he finished 3rd in pro-truggy.
And the winner of pro-buggy was our own Matt Rogers.
A great day for Caster

[The Machinist]

I also won a Losi hat, I was super stoked

[hakmazter]

Oh man, you just ruined vnmsgts day. I can only imagine how he was waiting for a dnf.... I know that Cam had his phone number on speed dial and was heckling me all day...

[hakmazter]

OK, I will give my version of the day for everyone else, then for me. The big problem is that the a-main was 20 minutes long. I think that Cam and Dustin tried to do 8000 packs and got bit in the butt because of poor track management and hence the biggest problem with electric..... Here is what happened... They did a rolling start and raced for 4 minutes (I know because I was the pitman) and then they stopped the race for some reason. They then did 6 or 7 parade laps and got started again. So Cam was battling hard against his nemesis and friend Mack whom is sponsored by AE. Dustin dumped with about 6 minutes left and Cam dumped with about 3-4 minutes left. No one can expect them to run hard for over 20 minutes and of course, they didn't.

[hakmazter]

but they were both right there and doing really well...So what happened was after Cam dumped, Mack broke and it looked like Tony Bacon won. But after looking at the results and seeing that his first lap was 11 seconds, Matt Rodgers ended up winning it. The great part is that he really did win it and I am proud of him. Congrats for a job well done!

[hakmazter]

Now for my day. I had a box stock Fusion and I put Fusion 50 weight up front, 40 weight in the rear, then I took a shortcut and left in the grease in the diffs (since everyone said they leaked) and did 5000f 7000m 3000r. While assembling it, I put some rubber spacer deals inbetween the dogbones and they were too tight. I had to take the front and rear apart as I was getting heckled by Cam. Got it going and had Dustin hook up the motor and esc. He then set the steering as I forgot how to run my m8. I went out first heat after NO practice and never driving a Caster and not driving for 2 years and made 16 laps. (point of reference Cam did 21) So I got heckled again, but he said I looked pretty smooth.

[hakmazter]

So I check over the buggy and move the rods forward on the ackerman plate and Cam tells me to switch tires. (I was running brand new Mayhem ones from 2 years ago) and went out again and did 17 laps. I asked Dave Darrow if his Fusion turned different from left to right and he said his was fine. I went over to Matt Rodgers and he runs a m8 and he said he would look at it. We recentered the servo and I got my turning..

[hakmazter]

SO I go out on heat 3 and decided I had too much steering and hated the tires. Cam said change them back then, but thought I was crazy. Wife and son showed up for the main and watched me run. I moved the ackerman back to the middle hole and put the sportwerks tires back on. I started out in 5th and Matt Rodger's dad started out in second. (Caster backup or original) My buggy did exactly everything I wanted it to, I got tied up twice, but it was pretty silly. Not sure if it was dumb luck or the car, but there was no way I should have done well. My goal was to not dnf and not come in last. My problem was that my store transponder wasn't working quite right and I talked to the track announcer and he thought I took third. I told him that I honestly thought I lapped everybody and he agreed I was flying because he was watching me as he had to manually enter when I went by occasionally. I told him it didn't matter to me, but I thought as stupid as it sounded, I thought I won the B-main...

[hakmazter]

So apparently, I was right as I left before they were done. My honest opinion is that these things are rediculous. There were 21 entries, I have raced a xxxt 3 times (day event 3 heats, 1 main) in my life, a xxx 2 times in novice, an e-maxx twice, a GS Storm 4 times, and a Sportwerks 2 heats and haven't raced in 2 years. So if you take a person with less than 200 minutes of race time...oh wait, I raced in Novice with a Kyosho Optima in 1984 on vacation in AZ....and win a b-main.....9th out of 21....that is really saying something about the car. My official opinion, watching Cam and Dustin...not so much of an advantage....sportsman....unfair advantage.

[hakmazter]

what was funny is that I was saying I was going to count every car when they post the races on youtube....so I could see where I really placed....

Just thinking of how badly I would get heckled on here was the motivator.....

I really want to try racing some bigger sportsman races if they allow electrics. I am not as bad as I thought or this car is really easy to drive. It literally went exactly where I wanted it to go and it jumped amazingly well.

I need to find out what I borrowed from Dustin. I know that I have a m8 with spektrum and I was using my old Airtronics servo. The motor was black so I think it was a Neu and I think that the battery packs were home made.....lol. The plastic rear body mount came loose in heat 3, but other than that, it was bulletproof. Did I mention no big bores and no front swaybar?

[hakmazter]

I hope everyone else posts on here. Their day wasn't nearlt as exciting as mine though...

[vnmsgt]

So apparently, I was right as I left before they were done. My honest opinion is that these things are rediculous. There were 21 entries, I have raced a xxxt 3 times (day event 3 heats, 1 main) in my life, a xxx 2 times in novice, an e-maxx twice, a GS Storm 4 times, and a Sportwerks 2 heats and haven't raced in 2 years. So if you take a person with less than 200 minutes of race time...oh wait, I raced in Novice with a Kyosho Optima in 1984 on vacation in AZ....and win a b-main.....9th out of 21....that is really saying something about the car. My official opinion, watching Cam and Dustin...not so much of an advantage....sportsman....unfair advantage.

So are you making a excuse for how you did?? Blaming the transponder system?? :&!@ Just kidding! Sounds like you did very well for not driving in a long time. Now you physically see how easy the Caster buggy is to drive even if never driven in a long time. Would love to see some vids?&^ Glad Caster had a great showing! There are now 2 other caster's running locally here besides me and are doing pretty good now!

[bc24fl]

Sorry I'm confused. In the sportsman race you had were they all electrics? And if so how many?

Or did you race nitro with electric?

[3pointX]

Congratulations, guys. I wanted to stick around longer but I was just making a quick stop before my wife was done shopping (gotta love it when you can just drop em off at the store!) and everyone looked pretty busy. I do hope to start racing soon, it looked like a blast.

[hakmazter]

Cam and Dustin were in pro buggy running electrics with Matt running nitro. Dave Darrow and I were in Sportsman buggy running electric. Dustin also ran a Caster electric truggy, but I didn't watch as I am against truggies almost as much as nitro.....So that is why we keep Cam and Dustin around...to keep you guys happy.......lol. There was a guy there with a Kyosho buggy that was converted and there was a guy there with a Kyosho truggy that was converted. I do not know how they did, but the buggy guy beat me in the heat I came in second...

He must have been in the sportsman a main with Dave Darrow...

[hakmazter]

So of 8 in the a-main pro, there were 3 Casters...

[slick4time]

ok i got to run i cam in last over all but it was my 1st race so i wasnt going to go out in cill but i got beter as the day went on and now im looking good

[Mr Fusion]

We had 140 total entries for the weekend. 81 on electric Saturday and 59 on nitro Sunday.

I think there were 17 in pro buggy and 21 sportsman.

3 Casters made the pro buggy final, with Matt taking the win.

2 Casters made the pro truggy final, finishing 3rd and 4th or 5th...

In the 20 minute main, Cam and I both ran 6000mah batteries. They way Cam's car setup was, we knew he was going to be cutting it close on finishing the race without dumping.

But after running I think 4 hot laps, and then the rolling start lap and 1-2 laps of racing....... then having to restart, and running a few extra slow rolling start laps while the director was trying to get the computer figured out.........

well, we pretty much knew Cam wouldn't finish... just didn't know exactly when.

I'm running a different setup on my speed control, and I have a little different motor and driving style than Cam and I was getting better "mileage" out of my batteries.

I didn't dump, but I did push the little Mamba too hard and it apparently shut off. I'm not running any type of cooling on it, and it bit me in the arse. I guess it's time I put a fan on the poor thing like most others are doing.

[hakmazter]

I was wondering what happened to you. By the way, you guys raced for 2 to 2.5 minutes before the stop....I can't believe Cam made it as far as he did. I would have finished....lol...every time he would say "I burned up 2500 milliamps and you only burned up 1500" "the track time was the same, but going 4 extra laps is the difference"