I am back from the SoCal Reedy Race Warm-Up, held in Camarillo by the Road Runners Club.  The track was fairly large in size, but with a tight layout.  The track was flat for the most part, only had a couple of bumps in the back of the track.  

 This had to be one of the most challenging races I have ever been to, the competition was good, but what really made it interesting was that high winds blew dust onto the track and absolutely killed the traction.  It was a struggle to find grip for everyone, and racing was sloppy, but I was able to finish every round on day 1 in the top 3 qualifying positions.  Day 2, they blew the track off in the morning, and grip was significantly higher in my first practice run, however by qualifying, the wind and dust had taken over and the track was loose again.  I was able to run the fastest time for the 4'th qualifier, which was good enough to seat me 2'nd on the grid for the main.

 The start of the main was rough as everyone was basically sliding into the first corner, after it was sorted it out I ended up in the back of the pack.  My car was good, but I made the wrong tire choice for the main, and was only able to come back through the pack well enough to finish 3'rd.

 On a side note, there have been questions about using overdrive with the 416.  I tried it out (by using a 36 tooth front pulley from the 415) but was really unable to get it really dialed in because of the low traction conditions.  On this track it made the car extremely twitchy and loose.  I was able to dial it in fairly well by putting negative expo in my radio, and dialing in more rear traction on the car.  I will continue testing with it once I get onto a high grip track (where overdrive usually works best) and give an updated report of how it works in the near future. 

 Randy Caster

Tamiya USA - Team Orion