CRC Raceway: Rome, NY

Driver: Kevin Crandall

Today was the first points race in the weekend series @ CRC. It was supposed to be last weekend but it was rained out. They had a sizable turnout, close to 80 entries if I remember correctly.

The classes they ran were Sportsman (entry level), Stadium Truck, 2wd Short Course, Truggy, 1/8 Buggy, and 4wd Short Course. They ended up running sportsman and stadium together to save time because there was rain in the forecast.

The track was VERY wet when we first got there.. nobody was running on it.. They put down sawdust to try to soak some of the moisture up. Apparently the track flooded again on Thursday, and they were still pumping water off the far side of the area next to the track. Due to the wet conditions we started about a 1/2 hour late.

Having the extra week (since it was canceled last week), gave me time to build my new Associated SC104x4. I got it up and running Saturday night. Did not even run it outside before venturing to Rome.

I got about 5 minutes of practice in and something seemed “off” with the truck.. It was about as slow as my 2wd SC10 w/ the Novak 13.5 brushless motor in it. This didn’t seem right because I have seen other trucks with this motor clear the triple here. I couldn’t clear anything.. not even the double. For electronics I am running a Castle Creations Mamba Max Pro paired with their 1410 4-pole 3800kv motor from the Sidewinder SCT Combo. I bought the motor used and sold off the speed control to get something a little more substantial.

I brought the truck back to my pit table and pondered what I could do to make this thing faster.. I ended up gearing it up from 13/62 to 15/62 (running the 32p spur). I also advanced the timing on the speed control from 8 degrees to 16. I took it out for another 5 minutes and WOW what a difference. The truck was an absolute land missile on the back stretch. At one point I hit the big Double jump with the throttle pegged. I didnt think it would land it had so much air time.. I ended up in a different lane of the track. The parachute effect I’ve heard about so much was REALLY noticeable. The Short course bodies are so big and wide they catch a lot of air under them, slowing you down (hence the term).

After the second 5 minute practice round my lipo hit cutoff voltage and stopped. Had to walk out on the track to retrieve it. I thought this was pretty strange only getting about 10 minutes of runtime, but apparently Matt gets about the same. I will have to see if there’s a way to improve this.

It was a waiting game being in the 7th heat, so I took some time and used the on site compressed air and cleaned up my truck a little because it had sawdust and mud caked all over it.

First heat went well.. This class is exploding, there were 14 trucks, and they were running them all at once. Two trucks couldn’t make it for the first heat, so we were running 12. It’s a staggered IFMAR style start where you start at your own pace and race the clock instead of the other drivers. This gives you room to kind of run by yourself and not have 8 cars wreck in turn 1.

I was more trying to get used to the car more than fight for a position, so I think I finished last but at least got some track time with it. It will take some getting used to. As you may have noticed from my last report, I’m still getting acquainted with dirt racing again.  I took a few good tumbles by not slowing down enough going into the turn, or getting too much air off the double.. it was kind of a mess, but I’m willing to say it’s driver error and not the truck.

I was rolling a few jumps because I still wasnt comfortable with the speed/air this thing gets.

In the second heat it started to rain.. I was a little distracted, worried about frying my esc, or my DX3R getting wet, etc.. But apparently I was driving better. I managed to shave 5 seconds off my fast lap between the 1st and 2nd rounds. This is a huge track where the really fast guys have an average lap of 35-40 seconds. One lap I actually nailed every jump and had a rythm going, which was pretty impressive to me since the track was changing every second with the rain REALLY coming down in the last minute of the race.

I pulled the truck off the track as fast as I could and got under the drivers stand. The truck, my radio, and myself were drenched. I took it back to our pit area and started packing everything up. They called the race after 10 minutes. It has rained almost everyday for the last few weeks here in Central NY, and the ground is so saturated it cannot take any more water. The track was basically flooded again by the time we left.

From what I heard the race is To Be Continued before the next points race which is June 5th.

Overall, I really like this truck. After we got home I took the truck onto the local track, Canalside Raceway. It was mainly to get the mud off the tires.. It was clear skies when we got home so I finished draining the lipo I was using and got about another 5 minutes of track time in. It could use some handling tweaks like toning down the steering and maybe some rear suspension adjustment but first I need a little more track time with it.