This past week was the 11th annual Nitro Challenge at The Nitro Pit in Suprise Arizona. Starting a few weeks ago I started preparing my 801X and Xt to make them as fresh and battle ready as they could be. With the help of Fred (Medel) and David (Jun) I was given a pair of the new arms for the Xt along with the new matching drive shafts. I was now feeling much more confident about my truggy race program for this event. :)

Last minute preparations on Tuesday actually turned into a full day of wrenching and with time winding down I finished late and hit the sheets around 11:00pm to get up at 1:30 am to get on the road. On the road with my Track Star team mate Pres Ilog we met up with Gil Losi Jr and Carson Wernimont out on the highway and set off on our 4 hour drive to Arizona.

Wednesday practice went really well although the track was very fresh and there was yet a tire that would hook up. AKA will soon be releasing their new "Enduro" tire for buggy and armed with these new beauties I built my set up around them. Happily I only made one change to the buggy and it felt great! The Xt with my usual set up and new arms was fantastic! It turned harder and quicker than before and now without the fear of an arm breaking I could push as hard as I needed to.

Thursday; Truggy qualifying went as smoothly as I could have hoped for and set the round one TQ by 5 seconds. Second round was smoother as I was getting use to the track and its quirks especially in the rough sections. Another TQ and thus securing TQ for the event!! Round three I tried some new ideas and some different lines here and there. Mission accomplished.

Friday; Buggy qualifying started out rough. On the first lap I got tangled with a flipping car and it broke the left front camber link. :(   Second round I was out for blood and like Dracula I sucked the life right outta the competition and set TQ for the second round! The third round I was going for the Bi-fecta and once again my Alpha powered, AKA Enduro shod 801X set the TQ in round 3 to claim the overall TQ for the event!! 

Saturday we saw rain hit the track hard but The Dirt crew did their magic and got us back up and running in no time. The truggy A main went off and I slowed down to allow everyone to run themselves ragged then I would keep pace until I needed to make a move for victory. Unfortunately my race was interrupted by a faulty receiver and it put me 9 laps down by the time I got back out and with 3 others falling out I was 12th. Needless to say with roughly 30 minutes left I drove as hard as I could and made up 6 laps and was now sitting in 8th when the buzzer went off.

Sunday we saw yet more rain and with the track being saturated from Saturdays rain it was a huge mess. Joey and The Dirt crew worked 4+ hours straight to clean up the track and while having to make modifications to the lay out we were back to racing. By the time my buggy main came up I was ready to claim victory especially after what had happened on Saturday. With Track Star driver Dylan Elliot pitting me we set off to drive as slow and easy as I possibly could to make sure I wouldn't break or do anything stupid. In fact I drove so conservatively that the engine would load up and I would have to make a hard lap within 3-4 laps to make sure it didn't flame out. 

Having 1-1/2 laps up on second place I had two laps to go when I started one of the hard laps and then it happened...... I hit the first triple into the "dirty dozen" rhythm section and the car flipped violently and broke the front bulk head and tearing off the front shock tower!! Bound and determined to win I drove the track with the front broken off and got stuck many times also losing the front drive. I limped around and watched as the second place driver caught me and took back one of his laps. However I kept going and finally after 2 full minutes trying to make one lap I crossed the finish line and finally won the Nitro Challenge!!

Hello all,

             The RCGT Showdown series is over and it turned out to be a battle right down to the very end.

Armed with my TB03 I set off this year with a full assault. Starting off a little slow getting use to the car was easy. Right out of the box it was head and shoulders above my previous brand RCGT car which allowed me to immediately catch the leaders in points. Having use of the Tamiya home track made a huge difference in set up and if you read my previous blogs you'd know that the first time out I qualified second in the A main and finished second.

From there it was a 3 way points battle between Jeffry Lin from Ofna, Joey Orlanes from Hot Bodies and myself. This held true until the 4th round as Joey could not make the race which allowed Jeffry and I to jump ahead. At the fourth round Jeffry and I battled once again. This time it was I who took the TQ then during the main I traction rolled at the 5 minute mark allowing Jeffry to get by with Paul Dabao now second. To at least make this round a throw away I had to beat Paul to retain the points lead which was only 1 point. I caught Paul and passed with one lap to go but could not catch Jeffry.

Round 5 saw Jeffry and I get back on the Carpet track at OCRC where the first round was a disaster for me. I knew I had to beat Jeffry this time to stretch the points apart. This time Jeffry TQ'd and in the first turn I again rolled and this put me waaaayyy back to 7th. I thought to myself that this was it "game over" I battled my way through the field for the next 7 minutes and started to real in 2nd & 3rd only to have them tangle with each other with only 2 turns to go. This gave me a much needed second place as Jeffry again checked out.

So now Jeffry has gained two points on me in round 5 moving him up to first by one point. I had to out qualify and beat Jeffry at round six in Camarillo. The week leading up to Rd 6 I worked on my TB day and night. I went through everything, I used all of my prep and set up knowledge to ensure that I beat Jeffry. I wasn't just going to settle for beating him I was determined to TQ and Win to dominate.

Rd 6 the finals at Camarillo.

I got to the track a bit late on Saturday and in the hast to get packed and get there I forgot my tire glue..... I had to reload and go to the local hobby shop and get glue. None the less this cost me another hour out of already being late. (Hey, Camarillo is 2:45 drive for me..)
Anyway now being armed with fresh tires i went out to do some body testing. I ran a Gairiya, a R35GT an RX7 and a 2007 NSX. right off the bat the NSX was my choice. I started to get use to the track and burn in some lap times that I was happy with so I packed up and headed for the hotel. In a tactic I was asked "How was my car?" I said "not good" looks like Jeffry's got this one" :) Which of course i thought my car was dialed LOL)

The next morning we set up and it was cold and overcast. The traction compound (sugar water/soda syrup) was coagulating on the surface turning our tires into sugar donuts. Everyone was having this problem so I didn't practice. I had a trick up my sleeve if this was going to be the case in the first round. The organizers held off for an extra 30 minutes as the sun was barely peeking through and started round one. I pulled out my secret tire sauce and waited for my run. To make a long story short I TQ'd the first round by over 11 seconds! Jeffrey was sitting 3rd. The second round things got back to normal and Jeffry won his race but failed to meet my TQ only running 5 seconds quicker than his previous time giving me the much needed TQ point to tie things up! Now it was going to be up to the main to decide who was going to be the series winner.

Rather than tell you about the main. Why not watch it?!?!  Here is the link:

http://www.rcgtshowdown.com/rcgt-finale-expert-a-main


In the end it came down to .06 seconds to decide the 2009 RCGT Showdown Champion.

Round 3 of the RCGT Showdown was held at Hobbytown in Corona California as the hot day turned into some hot racing.

To start the day off I stuck with my previous setup from Rd2 at Huntington Beach. During practice my TB-03 felt a little slow in the transitions of which were many in this layout in Corona.

A few camber link changes and a correction in front toe adjustment and the TB felt good but not great. I reached for the Expo settings on my radio and found just what I needed. Now we're good!

 With the mid morning temps already climbing up into the mid 80's it was once again a choice for tire compounds....??? what to go with..?? I stuck my neck out and decided to go with the soft compound tire and use a lighter sauce with little heat from the warmers. This turned out to feel 90% but was enough to win my heat and secure TQ for round one.

Upon inspection of the tires they showed quite a bit of "graining" which meant over heating quite possibly from over saucing. Round 2 would see a different method and different sauce.

Setting my car down for Rd 2, my good friend Chris Vierra saw the TB take a few corners for the tires to temp up. Now being near 100 degrees (most of you will cringe) I stuck with the soft compound tires. The start for Rd2 was inverted so I was near the back. When the tone went off 10 RCGT cars come near full throttle into turn one, one stayed full throttle a little long and I was the unfortunate one to help slow him down and ended up pointing the wrong way in turn 2.

 Getting back going the right way I had to make a charge. I drove as hard as I could without making mistakes ( clipped dot here and there, but nothing major :) at the 5:30 mark I could feel the tires going away from getting too hot, I was over driving them but I was catching up. 7th, 6th now 5th by the 6:15 mark. Fourth and third were in a battle so I knew this was my moment to reel them in. Fourth dove inside and clipped a dot crashing hard and allowing me to get by. Could I catch third by the end which was 3 laps to go? It didn't seem aparent until the second to the last corner he clipped a dot and got stuck on a track barrier handing me 3rd.

 Who won the second heat? Who was second? Did one or both beat my TQ?

Turns out No! My TQ from the first round stuck! My first RCGT Showdown TQ and with only my second race with my TB-03.

 A-Main time:

During the break I tested some harder compound tires and my TB was being clocked too slowly for my liking. I knew my competitors would be squeezing every last bit they could out of their cars so I needed an edge and at the start it came.

 Going back to the soft compound tire only this time a fresh set, I sauced them up but did not heat them per some vital info I received from long time friend Gil losi Jr. Chris once again set me down to get things going but the TB was not responding. It was plugged in but nothing. We called a minute grace and checked everything. It turned out the receiver plugs were a little jiggly and were resecured. This time within 3 turns of warm up my tires were stuck and ready! We lined up in our qualifying positions and awaited the tone.

BEEEEPP! We're off! I dive in tight to see a pile up in turn one of 2nd-5th. Now I'm 4 corners ahead! I turned to my KO radio and clicked on the cruise control (well not really, but you know what I mean...) and set out on a 9/10ths pace to conserve valuable battery voltage and to not over heat my tires. I know they will catch me but this is a 7 minute touring car race on rubber tires in 95 degree heat. So yes, I let them catch me though I tried to keep a one turn advantage on them (or roughly half a straight away) then all of a sudden 2nd place pulls off some Twilight Zone lines in the infield and he's on my back bumper!

The cruise control switch gets flicked to "turbo boost" (yes, as in Knight Rider :) and now kids we're racin! Our battle continues lap after lap, swapping places and then all of a sudden third place Mickey Cohen (who also runs Tamiya) is mixing it up with 2nd and I and takes the lead!

Uht OH! (Mickey is fast, by the way) So now it's a three way battle between us with only 1:30 left to go all of us are swapping places we go two cars wide in an "L" shaped freighttrain into the first turn and I squeek a door handle in there and go from third to first! Woo Hoo! Second goes to third and Mickey to second. Mickey is hounding me in the infield and takes an incredible line through the sweeper onto the straight and takes the lead. I follow him for the next two laps looking to preasure him into a mistake and it happened, though not of his fault, one last lap to go and Mickey's motor lets go on the straight! I overtake the lead like Mickey's tied to a post, third gets by for second and Mickey limps it home.

Round 3 of the Speedtech RCGT Showdown is in the books and this time it's a Tamiya TB-03 on top of the podium!

It turned out to be a beautiful day in Huntington Beach California at the second round of Speedtech.com's RCGT Series hosted by Charlie Barnes' OC Circuit.

Opening the day, I set the TB03 on the track as set up from the previous day running at Tamiya's on road facility. Temping the track it was appearant that the soft compound tire would be the choice for the first round. Our performance was further enhanced by a few Tamiya Hop Ups which include TRF shocks, Sway bar kit, carbon steering bar and CV drive axles.

 The first round we were on pace to set TQ. A couple of mistakes allowed the first heat winner to retain TQ but we were right there.

Second round would come down to track temp. Would it get hot enough to switch to "D" compund or stay with the softer "Pro" compound? Turned out to stay cool enough and with a gearing change we were set to set TQ this round.

Setting out to the sound of the tone our inverted start placing me 7th on the grid was easily over come before the second lap was over I had taken the lead and pulled away. Somewhere along the line someone hit a barrier and it moved into the racing line causing a few of us to end up on our lids, this happening moved me back to second and just off pace for TQ. As we finished I missed TQ by .3 second..... ARGH! As it turned out, the first round TQ uped his game in the second round also!

Main time: Sitting second on the grid and having some heavy hitters waiting for any mistake I knew I had to be on my game. I checked, double checked and rechecked everything. Thirty seconds before the main ahead of ours ended I pulled the tire warmers off and to my dismay they were cold!! The guys I was sharing power with unplugged my A/C cord and thus my tire warmers! OH NO! OK..... no biggy I will have to sacrific some battery to warm them up during check in. We lined up ready to go and then we get a one minute call for a racer who was having issues. Now I'll have taken some voltage out of the battery and go right back to having cold tires......... OK this can still work. Not as much punch will help my cold tire situation...(I also clicked open the EXPO screen on my KO radio and took some bottom out leaving the screen open so I could click more back in down the straight during the race :D )

 The tone sounded and we were off! Coming into the first corner I quickly realized the tires were colder than I had hoped, I quickly fell back to fifth and luckily didnt fall any farther. I hung there figuring I would be out of contention and then they took hold, the tires were up to a temp I could get after the trigger and immediately dialed all my EXPO back in and it was on, 4th-3rd and quickly hunting down 2nd! After about a 2 minute battle I took an agressive move to the inside in the first corner and pulled away looking for first. He was a full (170 feet) straight ahead! DOH! But with 2 minutes to go I had some time to do what I could.

 I inched ever closer every turn, taking a few seconds a lap every lap until we had one more lap to go, I squeezed everything I had out of my Fantom powered TB03 but to no avail.... I was still 5-6 feet from the leader when we crossed the line.

Second qualifier and second in the A-main earned me enough points to move me substantially up in the series points so I am very happy with the results!

Huge thank you to Tamiya for keeping their facility open to allow us to test and tune! Without the time I had on the track the day before, my results would have been much different!

Thanks for visiting my latest blog here on the Team TRF site.

First race with the 801xT went very well considering all that happened.

Wednesday Chris Vierra and I went out to put some laps on the freshly built 801xT. We tried as many setups as we could within a couple of hours. We ended up with something pretty close and went with it for Saturdays first race out.

Saturday we started out with one change; going from Medium AKA Grid Irons to Medium AKA City Blocks.

The first qualifier found us running pretty close to top qualifier times, but I was fighting getting the truck to rotate mid corner.

A few set up changes for the second round and we were ready to set TQ.
To make a 7 minute story short I bobbled two too many times and missed it by .8 seconds.

In the main the TQ flamed out in turn 3 and we checked out pretty easily. While cruzing though the second place driver had his pit team knocking at our back door as our stops were done with a bottle. I made a mistake in the worst spot I could and he got by.

I turned up the wick and found that I could drive this truggy just as hard as my previous truck. So I caught him in nothing flat. We played cat and mouse until the next fuel stop where again they put a few seconds on us coming out of the pits but within a half lap I was right back on his heals. I figured I would play it cool until he made a mistake or until about 2 minutes to go and make a pass on a section I had been sticking my nose in all race.

And then it happened, a drive pin come out of the right rear CVD....

Thus is my luck lately BUT.....

The truck was awesome both at 9/10ths and 10/10ths. I'm equally impressed with it as I am with the buggy.

Welcome all to my next installment of my blog.

Previously I had reported on the build and first shakedown/test run of my 801x.

Leaving the setup the same Chris and I headed out to ARC this past Saturday to see if I could fair against our local fast guys with the 801x.

 Practice went well, in the last practice session we had some engine trouble that turned out to be a cracked engine case.

 Luckily I had just rebuilt another engine the night before. That engine was tuned and installed for the first qualifier which was going very well for the first 3 minutes. During the first qualifier I had stripped out a servo horn and had erratic steering. That first 3 minutes I was running a solid 3rd which I was happy about. The buggy was very easy to race. It did everything I asked it to.

Second round we got the servo horn replaced and went out to set TQ. Things were going great for the first 5 minutes....... Yep.... While running 2nd on a faster pace than previous, I clipped a pipe and pulled the screw out of the bottom of the left side knuckle (which was already loose I figured from the ease it came out).

So....... two DNF's landed me in 9th qualifying position. From here it was going to be difficult. Some of the fastest racers in SoCal are running tonite so I had to really put down some good first laps to get by them.

The tone was sounded and off we go! First corner meyhem and I'm already up to fifth. Working my way through another racer makes a mistake flipping over the back double, now in fourth. The field is widening as the really fast guys are pulling away and I'm doing what I can to catch them. A few laps later I get by, and take over 3rd. We are all seperated at this point and it doesn't seem like I'm catching anyone nor losing ground.

 The first round of pit stops comes up and we stick it out until pit lane is clear. Finally at the 8 minute mark Chris calls me in and he makes a lightening quick pit stop and we are back out! Taking one lap to hit the loop I here the announcer call out that I have moved into second! (Thanks Chris!!) To spare boring lap after lap details we were catching first by about a 1/2 second a lap until the 27 minute mark and suddenly I started losing positions..... Hey wait no one has passed me.... Uh-oh!........

The receiver battery quit. It didn't go dead as I thought maybe happened. One of the 2 cells of the lipo pack let go or came detached internally and the scoring loop wouldn't count the low signal and the servo's went dead slow......

 But hey! I was disappointed sure. But the buggy was so good, I was more disappointed that I couldn't keep driving it. And the best thing was the great comments I got on how well the 801x looked out there for it's first time out.

I can't wait for this weekend!

Welcome all! Thanks for stopping in to my blog here at TeamTRF.com

 As of yesterday I finished the build on my 801x buggy. Throughout the build I found everything to fit very well with no binding or slop in any of the parts. Even after all these years I'm still impressed with Tamiya's silky smooth shocks. Definately the class of the industry.

 Having built my 801x I couldn't wait to run it..... so I did!

My local track is A.R.C out here in (right now not so) sunny Southern California. My good friend/mechanic Chris Vierra and I went to put some laps on the new ride and gain some knowledge and insight as to what this new TRF buggy can do. Having spent the last 3 months running electric touring car I was unsure what "I" could do with a nitro off road buggy after some time away. To sum it up quickly, the TRF801x made it an easy transition back to the dirt.

 First noticable thing was the acceleration. The OS V-Spec coupled with the stock clutch and AKA tires was pulling the new buggy very quickly on the dry ARC track. First corner arrived quickly and the sweeping left hander was easily driven through even being slightly rutted the 801x swept through onto the medium sized double which was soaked up with ease. A quick 180 left and down into the compression turn, another 180, to the right and over a small double into a 90 degree left-right chicane...... WOW! this thing turns!

A short left hand sweeping run to a quick full throttle small double and on the brakes hard...... great, controllable stopping power! into a 90 left short downhill into another 90 left....... stable traction off camber!.... then down the middle of the track a medium length straight with an off power jump the puts you into a tight 180 right, up over a roller, down in the compression of a huge double up on OR over the table top. (Are you sure this isn't an AWD airplane?!) It flies so effertlessly with total in air control. (NICE!)

Landing the back side I was a bit nervous as I landed on the left front tire, the chassis settled and I made the 90 degree right over the roller jump with great stability even with the chassis now unloaded! Hard 90 left off camber into a sweeping left over a single jump, sweeping the 90 degree left squeezing full punch down the front straight to do it all over again!

Six tanks later....... We called it a day (a night actually as it got dark) My first driving impression of the TRF801x left a definate smile on my face. A few set up change suggestions by my "Pit Ace" Chris and we will have this thing in top contention first race out. I am that confident with it already.