Speed World Wed Apr 27

I went by Speed World this past Wednesday in order to scrub/break in my new rear Schumachers before this weekend's racing. Also, after all the setup changes I've made to my RB5 over the past couple of weeks, I thought I'd try running my slim yellow mini pins on the front again.

As you can see, I've had to trim off the outer 3 rows of pins just to make them usable on Speed World's very high-bite carpet. A few weeks ago they still had far too much traction for my old setup, even with the 3 rows trimmed off. I had to drive very cautiously just to keep from rolling in the corners. I had to make sure I was completely off of the brakes before entering a corner too, otherwise I'd roll for sure. My low/mid speed cornering was awesome, but any time I made up was easily lost by rolling over every once in a while. So back to an old set of stagger ribs for a few weeks.

However during those weeks, I'd made some big changes to my setup, including roll centre, ackerman, shock oil/springs and mounting positions etc. When I tried the tires again, almost all my traction roll problems were gone. Not only has my low speed cornering greatly improved, I can still power through corners like the sweeper and hairpin corners with little threat of roll over. Haza!
Here are few laps from Wednesday's practice:

[/Tim Sanderson]

Wheel Salvaging

Seeing as we had the day off on Friday, I thought I'd get around to doing a few things I had been meaning to do for a while. One of those things was salvaging some used wheels I had in my tire box. I had several matching pairs of worn out Schumacher tires that were no good on the track any more. Using some old lexan scissors, I cut the rubber off of the rims, leaving only pieces of the tire's bead glued to the wheel. I even managed to salvage a few sets of inserts that were in good shape.

The easiest way to remove the rest of the rubber from the wheels is to buy yourself a seal-able container and a bottle of acetone. I bought the Acetone from Rona, and the container from a dollar store. First thing you want to do is make sure the acetone you bought doesn't melt your container. The first time you do this, you may want to do it outside, so if it melts the container, it doesn't wreck your wife's/mom's kitchen table. If the container hasn't melted, pour in some more acetone. You only need enough in there to partially cover the rubber on one side of the wheel, in this case, only a few mm's. Drop in the wheels, put the lid on and let them sit for a few hours. The rubber literally falls right off the wheels. In some cases, I didn't even have to peel off the rubber, it was already floating in the acetone. Flip the wheels over, and do the same for the other side.

Now all that's left is to clean them up with some soap and water, and you've got yourself some good-as-new wheels!

CAUTION: Be aware that some wheels may not like this process... Some wheels have been known to melt when exposed to Acetone. Nylon wheels should be safe, but other 'cheaper' plastics may not fare so well. It's safest to test one wheel, before you throw all of them into the acetone.

[/Tim Sanderson]

EC Euro's 2009 Bilbao 1:10th off-road FINAL "A1" 2wd

Here's another awesome track from Bilbao, Spain in 2009. This one's outdoor and (mostly) AstroTurf. I love how they incorporated the hill on the side into the track. I could, however, do without the dirt section before the straightaway. (but hey, that's just the carpet guy in me talking ;)

[/Tim Sanderson]

Winter Jumps Jyväskylä & Helsinki

Here are a few vids from this seasons final 2 Winter Jumps in Finland.
Jyväskylä - 2WD - A3-Final - Winter Jumps 2010-2011 #5

Jyväskylä - 4WD - A3-Final - Winter Jumps 2010-2011 #5

Helsinki - 4WD - A3-Final - Winter Jumps 2010-2011 #6


For more Winter Jumps races, be sure to visit air2kfinland.

[/Tim Sanderson]

Speed World, Apr 1 2011

Here were the A mains from Friday April 1st, at Speed World in Hamilton, Ontario.









[/Tim Sanderson]

Champion Will Be Crowned

Tonight is the final night in the mini-series at Speed World, in Hamilton. Here is the breakdown on who the contenders are, written by Derek Petre on LondonRC:

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When the smoke clears tonight 5 men or boys will stand tall as the Winter/Spring opening series champion. I have confirmed with Aaron that we will be dropping your worst race and using 3 out of 4 races to calculate a winner. If you were on the fence about coming out tonight because you only had 2 races get your butts out there. At least give yourself a shot at taking home some early season Hardware.

4WD looks like it is going to come down to Steve Dziuban, Jay Christiano and Jason Lee. That is if Jay and Jason are able to show up to night and put down a solid run. Steve will be hard to beat, if he can overcome the mechanical gremlins that have effected him as of late he should be able to lock it down.

2wd looks like it is going to be a good race for the first loser, also known as second place. As the real deal smooth as silk Bill Jones as already locked up the title with 3 TQ and Wins earning him the maximum points available to this date. But 2nd place is anyone's guess at this point, Tim Sanderson currently has a grip on second place but anyone from 3rd through 8th can potentially knock him off tonight. Jason Lee and Todd Waite probably have the best shot of knocking Tim out of second as they have had two solid points nights thus far. If they are able to put down a solid 3rd round of points tonight they will be in good position to fill out the top 3.

2wd Short Course looks like a tight battle between Joe Ferguson and Mike Cole as they are currently tied at the top of the leader board. with 145 points a piece. However Steve Newstead has the best shot at taking home the title as he first two races have been very solid. With another top 5 tonight he has a very real chance of being the champion come nights end.

4wd drive Short Course is also going to be a very close race. Joe Ferguson currently has the top spot on the board but has the potential of Mitchell Warren tying him after tonight's race. The rest of the 4wd field also has their two races and if they are able to race tonight will make for an interesting race.

Micro is shaping up to be an close battle for fist spot between the current leader Giancarlo and second place Steve Dziuban. Dziuban has won the last two races tq'ing one of them and is in great position to lock down the second championship trophy of the early season. As well we can't rule out Jason Lee as he is one point back of Dziuban. We can possibly rule him out though has he just hatched a new baby girl this week and may have his hands full back in the family world.

Good luck all, Keep the painted side up!!!!

Derek Petre

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Great write up, Derek! I can't wait to get to the track tonight. Tonight should make for some very exciting racing!

[/Tim Sanderson]