Weekend racing has tapered off a bit since our annual Spektrum Off Road Champs at Trackside here in the Milwaukee area, but I have raced every Tuesday night club race since.  

This past Tuesday was the first try at some big bore springs with our TRF shocks on my TRF201.  Going for the near exact stiffness of my previous Tamiya green front springs and our yellow rears, I found 4 Losi BB springs that fit the bill.  I did not have time for back-to-back testing, but the feel of them seems very similar without any spring-on-shock body rubbing.  

I will try some short LiPo battery pack testing soon and will report back in January.  It sounds like MANY TRF team members are liking them at their local tracks.  

As always, thank you to everyone at Tamiya America for the support in 2011.  Let's have a great 2012!  Happy New Year!

Aaron

Hello again from chilly Wisconsin!  This past Saturday was round 5 of Trackside Hobbies SNF race series and a warm-up for the 2011 Spektrum Off Road Championships.  

Qualifying for both 2wd and 4wd mod buggy went very well.  My TRF511 needed some fine tuning before racing started.  A shorter front camber link, a heavier front spring,  a rear ball stud height adjustment and heavier rear shock oil made big strides in taking my 4wd buggy to the TQ position on Saturday but by only one second!  All 8 buggies were in the A Main.  Sadly, a mistake by yours truly dropped me down to 8th position early, but battling through traffic I did salvage a 2nd place finish, although one lap down to the 2nd qualifying driver.  

The car felt quite good after the changes, but there is room for driving improvement for next weekend.  

A good first qualifier and even better second qualifier, slotted my TRF201 in 6th out of 27 2wd modified buggies after two rounds on Saturday.  Competition was close after the three rounds with 5th through 17th place having 18 lap/5:07 to 17 lap/5:07 paces.   My 18 lap/5:12 time would slot me 8th to take the final position in the A Main.  

The A Main tone sounded to finish off the night and I could not take advantage of anyones mistakes as everyone had a clean, freight train type start.  The top two drivers from the B Main bumped into our main, so I started 8th of 10 and finished 9th.  

Setups look solid for the upcoming Spektrum Off Road Championships, so all that is really needed is some fresh tires, shock oils and diff rebuilds.  A complete race report will soon follow!  Thanks again to Tamiya America for the continued support and stay tuned!  

Aaron

Hello Tamiya TRF fans!  

This weekend I had time to build a new TRF511 4WD buggy kit and it went flawlessly! 
I had stocked up on many option parts before I started the build.  Those parts include aluminum rear zero degree uprights/hubs, aluminum 10 degree front caster blocks, aluminum steering base, steering arms and steering bridge along with the aluminum servo horn to use with the factory servo saver, 3mm ceramic diff balls and grey reinforced ball cups. 
I am really looking forward to the release of Tamiya's new damper X-rings! 
Coming up this Saturday is Round 5 of my home track's (Trackside Hobbies and Raceway) Saturday Night Fever series.  With a new layout and next weekend's 2011 Spektrum Off Road Championships, the attendance should be high for both modified 2WD and 4WD buggy!  I will be providing a race and progress report on both vehicles.  

Thanks again to Tamiya America for their support and Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Aaron

 

As autumn approaches here in Wisconsin, so does indoor off-road racing!  Saturday, October 1st, fellow racer, Team Associated/JConcepts team driver Chad Due and I headed to Dirt Heaven Raceway in Champion, Wisconsin (just northeast of Green Bay).  Their track is roughly 70' x 40', but quite fun to race on with always a big turnout for 2wd modified buggy! 

Traction was unusually low the whole day.  The common tire choice was Gold Bar Code/Pink BK Bar/M3 or M4 Suburb-type rear tires and same compound pin-type fronts.  The format was three rounds of qualifiers and then mains.  After a sub-par first round 17-lap run, I did manage to get 18 laps in the 2nd round.  A resort seeded me 8th of 22, putting me last (8th) in the A Main.  A late entry and good drive in the third qualifier of mod buggy put me to 9th overall after three rounds.  I could not improve my time from the 2nd round, so I would start first in the B Main.   

The track had not grooved up much or gained any grip, so starting first was a big advantage.  I managed to keep the field behind me and ran 7 seconds better than my best qualifying time!  I do not remember making any changes to the car from my Trackside setup as both tracks are low to medium grip. 

Next week while on vacation, I'll be heading to Leisure Hours Raceway in Joliet, IL for some Wednesday night club racing and some more practice the following day.  The following week, I have some more vacation time set aside to build a new TRF511! 


Thanks again to Tamiya America for the support!

Well, summer usually means everyone has more important activities than r/c racing but I've been doing my best of attending our weekly Tuesday night club racing at Trackside here in Milwaukee. Some nights have a low turnout so it ends up being a practice night, but hey, laps are laps and what can you do until indoor season ramps up again?

The current layout at Trackside is quite bumpy now after their big short course race in June, but it's still fun. Last night before racing, I bumped up shock oil weights by 2.5 (30 to 32.5 weight in all 4 shocks) on my TRF201 and it just helped calm the car down especially since the racing area was quite warm (probably around 80*F). I also went from the brown to the black front spring (2.8 to 2.9 rate) last night with minimal improvement.
Weekly club racing will continue and I VERY much look forward to building a new TRF511 and the upcoming indoor season. I checked my schedule and I have a week of vacation in mid-October and plan on hitting some other semi-local tracks... hopefully a club race at Leisure Hours Raceway in Joliet, IL and RaceWorld Raceway in Griffith, IN (just east of Chicago across the Illinois/Indiana border) will be possible that week.
Thanks again to Tamiya America and I hope everyone enjoys the rest of their summer!

Yesterday,  Dirt Heaven Hobby & Raceway in Green Bay, Wisconsin was host to the annual April Fools Challenge race (2 weeks after the holiday, but who's counting?).  This approximately 60' x 40' indoor off-road track is now run dry to accomodate the normal pin style, clay compound front and rear tires (Taper Pins, Bar Codes, Scrubs, Suburbs, BK Bars, & Switches were all found in the pit area).  Some dust accumulated, but leaf-blowing the track made for very good, consistent traction on the racing line. 
With 31 entries in 2wd modified buggy, I qualified 13th after three rounds.  After starting 5th in the B Main, I ended up 4th by race end. 
Thanks again to Tamiya America for the continued support and I hope all fellow Tamiya racers & teammates are enjoying their TRF201s as much as I am!

This past weekend was the 2011 Chi-Town Shootout at Leisure Hours Raceway in Joliet, IL.  They held the 2010 ROAR Electric Nationals here last summer, but this would be run on their 125' x 65' indoor layout. 
Friday was a practice day with three qualifiers on Saturday, one more qualifier and mains on Sunday.  A wide array of tire choices were found in the pits from full slicks to ghost pin to full tread.  Virtually all weekend, I ran half-tread JConcepts Gold Bar Codes on my TRF201 with nearly full-tread Gold Bar Codes on my TRF511. 
With 54 entries in mod 2wd, I ended up 31st of 54 which would put me 1st of 12 cars in the D Main (2 bumped up from the E Main).  Got all 4 qualifiers in with two decent runs and two slowers runs with no DNFs.
I had some tough luck in mod 4wd with a servo horn screw backing out before the 2nd qualifier and running into an upside down car & breaking a front shock shaft in the 4th qualifier.  My qualifier in round 1 was not fast and round 3 was better but not what I had hoped for.  I qualified 21st of 33 in mod 4wd which would put me 1st of 13 cars in the last (C) main.

The 2wd D Main was fairly uneventful.  The first triple got the best of me at the start, but I did not lose that many cars and held onto 5th place most of the race.  Just not being able to catch the leaders, I ended 5th. 
My 4wd C Main was another story.  Again, I botched the triple at the very start of the race going from 1st to 10th in a heartbeat.  With 13 cars in this main, traffic was pretty intense but somehow I was able to make up some serious ground.  The last 4 laps of the race I went from 5th to 4th to 3rd to finish 2nd!  I could not believe it as many fellow friends and racers from Trackside were below me and said I ended up 2nd!  The top two finishers had the choice of taking a trophy and calling it a day or bumping up to the B Main.

Onto the B Main we go!  :)

Starting 12th of 12 in the 4wd B Main, what do I have to lose?  The race started, I told myself to do the infamous triple as a double/single and get through whatever crashes occur on that first jump.  Well, it worked well.  I think there were 3-4 turtles out there and I got through it clean.  This was my fastest run of the weekend and the 511 felt quite good!  I ended up finishing 5th of the 12 and only about a 1/2 lap behind the winner.  What a finish to a very fun weekend!

To finish up, there were only 3 Tamiya TRF201 buggies in attendance, but we all had a great time.  Ray Kindstrom, a local racer from Leisure Hours, recently purchased a TRF201 and was very thrilled about the car and should be.  Ray qualified 1st of 26 in stock (17.5) buggy and 33rd of 54 in mod buggy with the same car running his 17.5 in mod!  Congrats to Ray and it was great to meet you!

That's all for now.  Onto the 25th annual Cactus Classic at Scottsdale R/C Speedway in Scottsdale, Arizona (March 18-20)!