CRC Raceway: Rome, NY

Driver: Matt Peterson

Saturday was interesting to say the least. After driving Jim’s SC10 in the 2wd shootout, I realized my 2wd SC10 setup was out to lunch. I changed which springs I was using in the front and rear, and also changed shock mounting positions. It improved some, but I was just no match for the other drivers. I took third in the B main. The top two bumped to the A main. I had plenty of speed in the straights. I was even clearing some doubles that the other trucks didn’t seem to be able to clear. But in the end, they were able to maintain a higher speed through the corners. At every corner they would pull away. I would gain some back in the straights, but not enough I’m afraid.

In the 4wd SCT class, the Losi was fast. There was an interesting combination in front of the driver stand. After crossing the start/finish line, there was a small single, then a table top. The table top had a lip on top of it that you could launch from. Then there was a double. The spacing of all of this was such that many 4wd trucks were able to hit the first single, then launch off the table over the double. At first I was having trouble with this section of the track. I talked to Jarodd Goedel about it, and he gave me a pointer. If I rolled onto the table, rather than jump the first single, I would have a little more run up, and gain enough speed to clear the double. He was right. Over a few laps I was able to determine at exactly what speed to hit the first single so that I landed right at the beginning of the table, and then gun it. I had no issues clearing it the rest of the night.

In the first two 4WD heats, I was taking it easy, trying to find a line that worked. In the Main I went full bore. There were times that I would get through traffic and gain on the leaders, but after a few laps, and a few mistakes on my part, they pulled away. With just a minute or two left, I tried going for a triple that all day I was short on. This time I cased the last jump. When I came down the other side, I had no throttle. When I got the truck back to the pits, I found that my rear drive shaft had popped out of the center differential. The outdrives are starting to show some wear. Its easy to pop it back in, but its still frustrating to not be able to finish a race.

My biggest issue in both classes was vision. I just can’t see the trucks at night. CRC Raceway has lights setup, but when I get to the back straight all I see is a blur. I was watching some of the other races, and the trucks that were bright yellow were easy for me to see. Guess I know what color to paint my trucks.

CRC Raceway: Rome, NY

Driver: Kevin Crandall

This was the 3rd race of the Sunday Series points season. It was sponsored by AJS Machine and Canalside Racing Products. They gave away several prizes through the night.

I raced my Team Associated SC10 4×4 in the 4wd Open class as usual. I haven’t really made any changes to it since the build, and it has help up to racing besides the single stripped hex, and I also lost a mudflap. This race started later than usual, 4:30pm, so by the times the mains started it was getting dark. CRC does have a pretty good light setup though and most of the track is quite visible.

I finished in the rear of the heats, as this is a new track layout that they just did for the RC Pro Series this coming weekend. The SC10 4×4 was pretty loose in the first heat. I was all over the place trying to learn the layout, and I over drove some of the corners and ended up spinning out.

In the second heat and the main I adjusted the steering rate down on my Spektrum DX3R to 85% and it helped by slowing down my steering a bit. It took a lap or two to get used to but I already felt myself having better control of the truck and spinning out less. The Associated DS1015 servo I am running in the truck is a beast and can really cut the wheel pretty fast. Needed to tame that down a little.

The main was rough. It was dark, and my truck was running a borrowed dark blue body (since the old one broke in half at Buddyboys last time, and the new one isn’t ready yet). Visibility was an issue for me. CRC’s track is gigantic and I have a hard time judging the back area even during the day, so you can imagine my struggle at night. I also ended up standing on the end of the drivers stand, which is under one of the track lights. It was insect-mania. There were a couple times where I actually had to let go of my wheel to swat a mosquito trying to attack my face. Bug spray would have been a plus if I had the foresight to anticipate this.

I ended up finishing 8th. Not really where I wanted to be, but not much I could do. I think I’m done with Night Racing for a while.. It was still fun though, and a great evening of racing.