Last weekend I attended the invitational class at the Reedy Race held in Roseville, California. The race this year saw a really strong field of competitors with all of the major teams present with their top drivers. The venue was changed this year because of problems with the Tamiya Facility so it was now held at the Speedworld Raceway, which is located more up north, a 2 hour drive from San Francisco.



The track itself was a parking lot style with a very smooth asphalt surface, and using only boards as track markers. The layout was pretty good, but I did not like the boards a lot since they are totally unforgiving to mistakes. However the conditions are equal to everyone and the facility sure worked for a big and important race like this one.

When we arrived at the track on Wednesday night we got the message that this year the race would use a revised tire rule which meant no tire warmers or additive in the invitational class. We would simply receive our new set of tires upon check-in and would then just mount them on the car and go race. These kinds of conditions are completely new to me and to most of the other drivers. It basically meant that we would have no traction for the few first laps. So everyone could do 2 warm up laps to make sure the tires had some heat in them, and then go racing. It also meant that overall traction was much lower than usual and most of the cars suffered from under steer.

It was extremely difficult with chassis setup for this race. Especially my car never seemed to have the right balance of traction or steering. It mostly seemed to be lacking overall traction. The key to this seemed to be to use thicker shock oils as well as more rebound in the shocks. I tried this too late, while messing around with the rest of the setup in the earlier stages. However when I tried this my car finally had good traction and left to right reaction. I could not believe it since all my testing back home had proven that less rebound was the key. But the conditions here were so different.

The Tamiya, Hot Bodies and Yokomo cars looked very good around the track and especially Atsushi Hara had some really good rounds which eventually would give him the overall win, in front of fellow countryman Masami Hirosaka with his new Yokomo prototype. Masami was also driving really well but his car looked a little loose from time to time.

My race was unfortunately very bad. I was never fast. I was driving badly and making easy mistakes which I normally don’t make. My car was never really good and I believe that I changed my setup for every single battery throughout the weekend without a significant improvement.

The race was however a great experience and I will especially remember the nice shopping, the food, and the last Japanese dinner together with HB, Tamiya and Yokomo teams. Satoshi taught me how to deal with them chop sticks, Naoto showed his famous tooth pick tricks, and Masami got quite drunk. It was a night to remember. Hara also did his famous Masami impersonation from the Preworlds, video shown in the next post.

I need to inform you about a major change on my website as well. This blog provider that I have been using will be switched to a different one very soon, simply because my older posts has been flooded with spam. This is my last entry in this blog, and if you want to read my older blog posts.. they will all be available at this adress. But the new blog will replace this one.



The last pictures shows our rental car with 4 people and 12 bags inside! Super close!

Just found a nice video from the 1:12 scale euros

You can download it here: http://www.dankel.de/filme/em-ingolstadt-2008.wmv

I will post my own report as soon as I have time.

It has been quite a while now since this event but here is my report.

I went to the Viol track in Germany three days in prior to this event to practice and prepare together with Xray teammate Hugo Van Den Berg. The track itself was quite nice but the carpet was really strange which meant that the car was always pushing. No matter how much steering you put in your setup it still had no cornerspeed. So testing was pretty different compared to my track at home and the upcoming TCM. However many top drivers attended the practice like the HB team with Hara, Hayato and Miura. The Tamiya team with Marc, Viktor and Jilles. Marc Fischer and Simo from Corally as well as Bart Wubben for Serpent. From France came two other teammates, Cyril N'Diaye and Hugo Ragaut. The test was pretty good for me in the end and I was one of the faster and more consistent drivers.

When I arrived in Eppelheim on Friday morning I could witness a nice track with the same layout as the previous year, but with a new blue carpet. Rumours had said that the carpet was really good and had super high traction which meant that we would suffer from problems with traction rolling early on. However the traction rolling never really got bad and for sure not as bad as at the ISW race in October.

On friday practice my car was shit for the first two batteries but improved a lot when traction increased and even though I made almost no setup changes the car just got very fast and easy to drive later in the evening and my laptimes was well on pace with the quickest drivers which were at this point already the TRF team and Teemu Leino.

On saturday the track had changed a lot and traction was really high which meant some drivers were already traction rolling a bit. In the first qualifier I was in the lead after about 2 minutes when my car suddenly flipped after the difficult chicane. I landed on the wheels and could still continue with a good position. But I then made a big error in the chicane which spoiled my run. I then got it together for the following rounds and could finish in the top 10 easily every time.

On sunday I got a very good final round where I finished 5th. The only major setup change that I did throughout qualifying was that I switched the 38T pulleys for the smaller 34T pulleys. This improved the car a bit and it did not traction roll anymore. I also put superglue on the front tire sidewalls.

In the finals I started from the 5th position on the grid. In the first final I was unlucky as my car got hit in the second corner which resulted in a broken speedo. It was a strange error but I just put in a brand new speedo for the 2nd final and it then worked perfectly. I was not so fast in the second final and I had to fight my two teammates Wichnewski and Weiss for the 5th place but I could not get pass so I finished on the 6th position. I was also involved in a "race incident" in the opening stages of the race as I made an inside move on Jilles coming onto the straight. Jilles car was turned over by this and the referee decided to give me a stop-and-go. I did not understand this but Jilles was for sure happy. The TRF team was simply unbeatable at this race as their cars were really dialed and fast. Marc had already wrapped up the win after the two first finals. In the third final I was very lucky and ran almost the whole race on 2nd position fighting back Leino and Hara from behind. In the closing stages Viktor was catching me but I could defend my position all the way to the finish line. My 2nd place would result in an overall 4th position. A fairly good result considering the TRF team was so dominant.

I said to myself before this race that an A-main finish would be quite easy, but making the podium would be tough considering how my testing had gone and how confident I felt. However my anticipation was correct and I almost made the podium once again.

The race was good fun this year even though the Xray car was never on spot with setup. I had some trouble to find the right balance. My car was so good in practice but actually got worse for qualifying when traction increased and was never the same after that. It just seemed to lack overall traction.

Thanks everyone for a great weekend and it was especially nice to meet my friends from the UK again. Also big thanks to Hugo Van Den Berg for your hospitality before the race and thanks for a great week in Netherlands / Germany.

So much to do, so little time.

I returned home from Germany and the LRP TCM a couple of days ago. A race which for me was fairly good.

However the preparation for the next race started directly when arriving at my house so I have now spent the last few days preparing for the upcoming 1:12 scale Euros in Ingolstadt, Germany.

So I will fly back to Germany tomorrow with my father. The race itself should be pretty good with a big and open track.

As you all know I will be representing CRC for this years Euros, and the owner, Frank Calandra, will join the race as well. I believe the team is quite strong with names such as Hupo Hönigl and the quick German racer Daniel Sieber. There has been rumours that the TC racers Ronald Völker and Steven Weiss will join as well with their CRC cars.

I have only done a little bit of testing with 1:12 scale since the Friendship Race in November. But these sessions have turned out to be pretty good. I have mainly focused on tire testing but also did some back to back testing with some new and old parts for the front end on the Generation X car. I am still not sure which front end to use for the Euros but my starting setup has the new one on, with the longer links and pin brace mounted.

For tires I have tested both Parma and CRC tires without feeling a big difference. However it is the Magenta compound that works for both front and rear with both makes. I have tried softer and harder compounds as well but with those the car just do not seem to have the right balance.

I will get back to you with a big report from both the TCM and the Euros in just a few days. Stay tuned and enjoy.

SAWANIKA! I am back from Thailand and Bangkok for some time now but it is time to write a short report or column or whatever you want to call it.

So the Xray team had decided to send some drivers to the TITC race in Bangkok, Thailand this year since it is the track where the World Championships will be held in November. Martin and Juraj Hudy came together with myself, Teemu Leino and Steven Weiss from Germany.

The track itself is the famous Radio Control Speedway which is located centrally in Bangkok. It is a very nice asphalt track with permanent curbs and a smooth surface. The area is fantastic with large and open pits, a hobby shop and a small restaurant. It is just a great place to be. I can understand Atsushi Hara who recently moved to Bangkok. There are some other local heroes, Surikarn, the Hot Bodies driver, and Meen V driving for Xray.

We arrived a week before the race to practice and prepare. There were already a few teams present during the first days of practice. Things went reasonably well for us as we gradually improved the setup on our cars. The problem during the latter days of practice was that there were simply too many drivers on the track. For the last day of practice the organisers put a limit to 17 drivers on the rostrum, which is still a bit crazy. It was very difficult to get consistent practice time during the last 2 days. During practice it was clear that Teemu Leino had set the pace for the others to follow. I was quite pleased with my car as well even though I struggled a bit with rear grip but as I went on to copy Teemus setup completely in the end it worked very well.

The race itself went really really well for us except for Martin who suffered some bad luck throughout qualifying. I only did one setup change during qualifying which was to put on softer rear springs. This made the car more easy in the evening when the traction was high because the car has much more steering and is more reactive due to the higher traction. Also referred to as "Happy hour", as the track was 60 degrees hot in the afternoon, it became super fast at around 6'o clock when the temperature dropped. It is amazing how big the difference is, almost a lap on a 5 minute run.

You probably know how the finals went as it is written a bit about it on the Xray website and various forums but I might just give you some small details here.

In the first final everyone had to use a new set of tires, and as it was afternoon, it meant mega push. The Xray car was not perfect in these conditions so we struggled a bit. I was however quite fast during the first laps and made my way up to 4th place when I got crashed by Marc coming into the "roundabout" curve. I lost a few positions and my car was tweaked. I still managed to finish 5th in the final.

In the second final my car was super good on the 2nd run tires and the cooler conditions because it was a bit foggy. I tried a bit too hard and made a mistake onto the straight which cost me 2 or 3 positions and I finished 8th.

In the last final I returned the favour to Marc and hit him slightly just after the start, I was then lucky with some other drivers crashing in front of me so I just went on and suddenly I found myself in 2nd place right behind the leader Andy M. My car was incredible so I pushed a bit but soon realised I would not catch Andy so I tried to stay cool and secure the 2nd place.

It was a fantastic weekend for Xray and I can't wait to go back to Bangkok and RCS.

Some other impressions... Everything is super cheap, especially food and drinks. Everybody took a taxi to the track everyday. It was just that cheap. The hotel was super nice. The Pizza Hut delivery to the track was perfect.. Pizza for lunch everyday!

It is amazing what kind of reputation you get as a foreign top racer. This is the first race where I had to sign autographs on a regular basis. That was just super cool.

The racing culture in Asia is just different from Europe. People tend to be very organized in their pits and about their equipment. People are a bit more focused on the small details. I have to say that I like it this way.

So this was quite a long report but I still think there are many things to be said. There are so many things to remember from this trip.

The Swedish carpet nationals were held last weekend in Malmö, southern Sweden. The facility is quite nice with a good looking track. Most of the Swedish top drivers attended the race except for Joel Myrberg.

I had prepared two different cars for this race, one with my old setup that I had used for practice here earlier, and one with some new setup ideas. The car from DHI Cup seemed to work the best on friday practice so I decided to use that one. I only made two changes on my car throughout the weekend and those were the ackerman and additive time. I put my ackerman more forward on the servo saver to create a bit more mid corner steering. The track is really tight and narrow so a lot of steering was needed.

On saturday morning I was clearly the quickest, being the only one to run 12 second lap times. My car felt great and I was confident for the qualifiers. In the first qualifier I was TQ with 2 seconds to Viktor on 2nd place. In the second qualifier I went even faster, improving my time by 3 seconds. Unfortunately, the scrutineering had decided to disqualify me from this round due to my wing being 1mm too wide on the outer left side. This was a very hard decision and a strange one too as my wing was already proven to be OK in the first round. As a result of this I later lost my TQ position. In the next qualifier I made a mistake and could not challenge Viktor. In the last qualifier I was leading easily with a good pace, but after about 3 minutes my rear diff broke, and got very hard, so my car became difficult to drive. I tried my best to keep the car on the track but I made a mistake with a few laps to go and lost TQ in this round as well. I was very disappointed but had to focus on the upcoming finals on sunday.

In the first final I just kept cool and waited for a mistake from Viktor. After 3 minutes he hit a dot and I could win quite easily after Jonas on 3rd also made a mistake. Jonas was really quick in the finals and a challenger for the win in all mains.

In the second final I rolled it after about 2 minutes. I also had some trouble to pass Jonas because of the super narrow track so I finished 3rd in the second final.

In the last final I was faster than Viktor during the first minute so I tried to put pressure on him. I tried on the inside going into one of the hairpins but there was no room for me. A few laps later I was hit by Jonas so I landed on my roof, and Viktor was far gone...

I am disappointed with my result because of the bad luck but still happy to know that I ran the quickest lap times, and had the chance to win the race. I actually ran the fastest laptime of the race by 2 tenths of a second, being 12.78 in my second qualifier, so my car was really quick.

And the organization, well what can I say. The scrutineering sure knew how to spoil peoples races. And the track? It is a nice and good looking track, but it also has a few problems which made it difficult for many drivers. For example, if you are not standing on the correct spot on the rostrum, you can not see all the corners or dots, due to the big posts in the middle of the track. This is of course not good for an important race like the nationals. The other thing is, the track is way too narrow for good racing. It is almost impossible to make a clean pass without contact.

Anyway, it was a fun event and I hope that I will have some more luck next year!

A nice video from the race is available here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXkcN4sv6XY&eurl=

Sorry guys, I have been a little lazy with this update.

Last weekend was the DHI Cup again in Odense, Denmark. A very nice race with some good competition. Most of the European top racers attended. Not much to be said really. The track was big and nice with some technical parts. It had high traction but the tires were slow so we did not have any problems with traction rolling this time.

My car was pushing in the beginning so I made a few changes during the practice sessions on friday. I put on a bit softer front springs, HPI Pink. I also put on a slightly softer front swaybar, 1.3mm instead of 1.4 which I normally use. I also did a couple of other small changes like less front camber and more front droop for a bit more roll at the front of the car. This helped a lot and for the first qualifier my car was finally quite good and I were almost on the pace, finishing on 10th position.

On saturday the track got much faster every round and so did I. I actually finished in the top 10 in every single round and improved my time every round as well. My car felt really good, it was easy to drive and I really enjoyed driving it throughout qualifying. Teemu Leino, my teammate, was super fast and ended up as TQ. My last round of qualifying was the best where I finished on 3rd place after a great race with Martin Hudy just behind me, pushing it hard as well.

In the finals I had both good and bad luck. In the first final I could finish 5th after recovering from an early misfortune, being put out in the second corner.

In the second final I was again on the pace and really quick from the start. I was right behind Jilles Groskamp after about 2 minutes when I made a move on the Tamiya driver, coming through the hairpin, I braked on the inside of his car and we came together, as a result of this, his car flipped over so I received a stop and go. To me this was a very strange decision as it was simply a racing incident. This was one of many strange decisions made by the referee this weekend. I finished 8th in the second final.

In the third final I had better luck. I came through the first laps without trouble and started to hunt down the leaders. Jilles, Steen and Andy all had trouble so I eventually passed them and was now 3rd, right behind the battling leaders Viktor and Teemu. As Teemu made a mistake as well I could pass and take an easy 2nd position finish in the last final right behind the winner Viktor Wilck.

It was in the end a very good weekend for me and I was very happy with my car. I really enjoyed racing this weekend and I felt really confident throughout the meeting.

I made some new friends like every race and this time I would like to congratulate Luke Hobson from Xray UK for his a-main finish in the 19T class. Good job Luke! I also met Nicholas Lee from Singapore for the first time. A nice guy with a nice blog like myself. Haha!

Next weekend is the Swedish Nationals on carpet.. stay tuned.

Not long until the DHI Cup. Only a couple of days to be more precise. I felt it would be interesting to tell you all how I prepare for such a big and important race. But first I would like to report back from the recent practice.

Recently I was testing a bit in Eskilstuna with the new Sweep tires that will be used at DHI Cup. The tires have a low profile and are quite strange. They feel slow but are not really much slower than normal tires like VTEC or Absolute. However, I managed to get my car to handle quite well and I think it will be a good start for DHI Cup.



Many people know that I don't change my setup much. I have used a very good basic setup for the recent races and I think it is a good start for most tracks. So when I go to a track to practice I look for the small details which can make the setup perfect. These can be almost anything but I tend to change rollcenter or springs for a start. Last weekend I tested both high and medium front rollcenter for the arms and I think it is not a big difference but, the medium position is better for low traction. And the high position is better for high traction when the car is becoming edgy or traction rolling. For swaybars I think that it varies a lot between tracks and conditions but I have been using a bit harder swaybars recently which I tend to like because it makes the car more flat. And the 008 has a lot of traction due to the bigger pulleys and different suspension geometry.



Anyway, let's move on to the preparation part.

First of all, the equipment must be in perfect shape. I guess a quote would work here, from an old but very successful r/c racer. Matt Francis once said, I try to follow the five P's: Previous preparation prevents poor performance. And he is right. Preparation is crucial in this sport.

For a start I take my car apart and look for broken or worn parts. Especially the drivetrain is subject to wear and sometimes I replace the belts, pulleys or bearings if they are not in a perfect condition. Then I move on to the suspension. I rebuild my shocks with new oil and perfectly set rebound. Then I look for the free movement in the suspension, the swaybars to see if they are straight and not bent. Sometimes I replace some of the plastic parts if the car is old or has been in a big crash recently. The driveshafts are important, I make sure that they are not bent as well and then I take them apart and clean them, and then put on new grease in the couplings. Last but not least I rebuild my differential which is always important for the handling of the car.

So I hope this short insight can you help you guys become more prepared for races! Good luck and have fun.

 

And I would also like to inform you a bit about my future racing schedule. I had previously planned on going to the Snowbirds. But this has changed. My main sponsor, Xray, is putting the priority on the TITC and the Worlds warmup race. This is of course not what I wanted from the beginning but I guess it is more important because of the Worlds. So I am going to Bangkok, Thailand and RCS for 11 days in February to practice and compete in the TITC. It should be a lot of fun and a really good opportunity to prepare for the Worlds. From the Xray team it is Martin, Juraj, Steven and Teemu that is going along with myself. The RCS track is a super nice track which is perfect for the TC Worlds and I can not wait to go! It will be so much fun.

Last weekend I travelled all the way to Malmö in southern Sweden to practice at the track there. The reason for this is that the Swedish Nationals will be held there in about one month and as I had never been at the track before it was time to go.

When we arrived at the nice facility located in the harbor of the city we saw a quite big but very technical and narrow track. The track was really difficult and required some setup changes to gain more corner speed around the tight bends. Present this time for practice were some good drivers, for example Viktor Wilck, Joel Myrberg, Alfred Widmark, Niclas Nilsson and some other local drivers.



In the beginning I had trouble to find steering in the car so I decided to do some changes to the suspension, for example I put on some very soft springs, HPI Silver front and Blue rears gave the car a lot more roll and steering. To compensate a bit I also put on slightly stiffer swaybars which were 1.5 front and 1.4 rear. I also went from 3 to 2.5 degrees of rear toe-in. The last change I did on sunday was to put slightly lower front ride height to get even more rotation. My car was now really fast and my laptimes were similar to both Wilck and Myrberg.

There are some more detailed reportings in Swedish at this page: rcblogg.blogdog.se

Next weekend I will go back to Eskilstuna to test some more and prepare for the upcoming DHI Cup in Denmark.