1/21/12 TQ R/C Raceway Chino Calif.

    The week previous I decided to get my feet wet in a class that I haven't run in over 15 years; Formula 1. I took the plunge and ran my F104 at the ROAR Region 12 Indoor Champs and had a blast with it and wanted to race it again soon.

    This past Saturday I had that very opportunity and decided to run against Southern California's best drivers in this class at the UF1 series. UF1 is the brain-child of local racer Charles Lightfoot who has a passion for R/C and the realism that this class brings. So why not put the two together and create a similar format as to the 1:1 F1 cars which goes like this.

    There is one class and the rules are simple. Any F1 kit with F1 rubber tires, 21.5 motor on 2S lipo, "blinky" (no turbo or ramp timing) esc and make it look as real as possible either with replica graphics or your own. The format is set into heats of 5-6 drivers for 2 minutes. Within those 2 minutes you run the best single lap you can to seed you in the "mains" or groups with the same speed of driver. Then each group runs three, 10minute races. Each ten minute race there is 2 mandatory pit stops. One in the first 5 minutes and one in the last 5 minutes. Each pit stop is on a timer for 8 seconds. There is a "pit marshal" that runs the timer and puts a sticker on your car showing that you made your stop an when your timer is done he releases you out.

    What makes this format unique is that even if you ended up in a "slower" group for your 3 "mains" you can still win the over all by running the fastest time with the most laps just like in conventional "rocket round" qualifying. It's a nail biter right down to the last main to see who will win the over all for the day. So with that explained lets report.

     I started out the day with the same set up that I had from the Regionals.  Practice proved that I was roughly .6 avg slower than the fast guys. During practice I heard "12.9 & 13.0" where I was running 13.7 and my hero lap was a 13.5. Changes needed to be made. The new layout was a bit more technical than the Regionals and my F104 just wouldn't transfer through the chicane nor would it stay rotating when I got on the throttle. My first change was to loosen the pod so I dug into my off road pit box for some of our (Track Star RC's) silicone orings for the SC10 4x4. This along with changing the side damper to 375cst fluid made the car transfer through the chicane. My next challenge was to get the car to stay rotated under throttle. For this I changed the center shock spring from red to yellow. This was a major improvement! My lap times were now down in the 12.8 range. 

    We set out for qualifying and I ended up starting P4 in Group A for the mains. My rivals had sped up as well. The P1 car had posted a 12.4!! I again have to find .4 seconds. The practice between qualifying and the mains was a test and tune session. I tried different saucing techniques, battery placement, radio settings, ride height etc What I ended up doing was taking camber out (going from 2 to 1 degree) and added more physical steering back into the car with a little more sauce on the fronts and more dual rate on the radio. I found .2 seconds here.

   The mains started and were pretty straight forward. I ran the best I could making a few mistakes in Main 1. I ran a flawless run in Main 2 and made one mistake in Main 3 trying to get past a back marker that wouldn't move over even under direction from the race director. :-/ My Main #2 run was good enough to secure me a 3rd position on the podium. These guys are fast at the UF1 series. With only a couple of rounds more to go it will be interesting to see how I come out in points after missing the first 4 rounds. Stay tuned for more!