Georgia Championship Series Round – During my tear down after the PNB I noticed something that I have been dreading, and knowing that sooner or later it would happen to me.  And it did.  I have been running a OS Speed for about 6+ races now.  Needless to say..I really like the Speed engine, I just don’t like the price.  Well during my inspection I realized that my air filter was doing its job properly(torn) and the engine sucked a large about of very fine dust during the main.  OUCH!  I tore down and didn’t see any scaring or bad bearings inside the case.  I was hoping I got lucky.  The rest of my 801xT looked great.  The Diff look good and the Arms seem to be holding good tolerance as far as play and wear. 

Practice – Being a director and promoter of this series I knew that I would not be able to give practice day 100%.  Also my son Logan(10 year old) was racing also and he is really excited about racing this year I was excited about the race weekend, mostly because I was sporting a new Ko Propo Eurus radio system.  After months of radio issues…I was confident that I would not have radio issues this weekend.  And I was right.  The new radio performed flawlessly, I kick myself in the head for not switching sooner!  I was also trying out some setup changes on my 801xT.  I was trying running the 801x buggy wheel hubs mod that Jimmy Wright had been talking about on the TRF forum. This narrowed the wheel base and gave the truck a tone more steering. Goes Bad HERE- I went and fired up engine and bench tune I realized my fears that I may have ace’ed a $450.00 engine have came true.  The engine just would not stay running consistently.  I now own a very expensive paper weight..;-).  Installed another engine and hit the track late in the evening after the sun went down.  The track was slick but was able to get some time learning the new track.  The truck “rotated on a dime” and seemed really stable in the air.

Qualifying – Not 100% familiar with the track each qualifier I got faster and faster.  But so did many other racers.  My 801xT felt good.  .  It was a red clay grooved up but not abrasive. It was a tight and technical track with a tricky step up in the middle.  My truck felt nimble and turning was spot on!  So far the narrowing by using the buggy wheel hubs will be permanent on my 801xT.  We see what happens next weekend.  After the Qualifying, I was sitting in the 12 spot 2^nd in the B-Main…uggh!

Main – Heading into the B-main though disappointing I realize that the times that separate 3-12 positions where extremely close.  I was confident the way that my truggy was handling and my Lap times reflected that I was on point to bump into the A-Main.  Race started…after a decent start, I was 3^rd in a freight train of truggies. On lap 2… I got the wrong end of some close racing that resulted in me in the pipe upside down.   This would not have not been that bad except for the area was not guarded well by marshals(I should have not crashed..doh!!).  Even so just like at the PNB I found myself battling from Dead last for a bump spot.  I started making my way into the top 5 fast and clean when it struck again….turn marshal threw a truggy right on top of mine inside a turn…I just cant catch a break!!!  I was not upset with the marshal…its tough turn marshaling in some areas of the track and this was one of them. Just bad luck!  Even so I was back on track after a 5 minute battle with 2^nd place I finally secured a comfortable position in the “magic bump spot”.   After 16 minutes of battling from dead last twice..it look as if my patience was going to pay off.  Then suddenly coming out of turn and hammering down the front straight…Wizzzzzzzzzz!  I now had a front wheel drive only truggy crushing my hopes of a bumping.  At first I was thinking it might be a blown rear diff.  But the Diff design of the 801xT is so tough and well designed I really doubted that that was it.  After inspection It was a pinion gear bearing that blew apart.  After the extremely loud noise I felt certain that the gears where toast.  The pinion gear and ring actually survived with no damage. 

My engine ran great on Byron Gen2 Race blend and no radio issues with my new Ko Propo made the weekend less stressful.   Even with a terrible finish I had a great time with friends and really enjoyed running my Tamiya 801xT

Tamiya 2010!