Published May 7th, 2003 by Jim O'Halloran
Hobby Habit Racing - Round 5
Well, after a long break, it was time to line up again for Round 5 of Hobby Habit Racing. I’d replaced a pile of parts on the car after the accident last round, and things were almost as good as new. After some pretty disappointing results in the previous weeks I was hoping for a good run this week, and a decent finish. A small change to the front suspension (went to extra hard springs), and I was good to go. I put three packs through during practice, and got back into the groove again pretty quickly. The car felt good, and seemed to have plenty of speed, with no signs of the oversteer which had plagued the car in the previous weeks.
The first qualifier got off to a messy start. I came off of position 6, and got a good run down the straight catching Ryan (starting 5th) very quckly on the enterance to turn 1. Not wanting to push the car too hard on cold tyres, I elected to hang back and try and go around the outside rather than dive inside and risk an incident. Things didn’t quite go to plan, and there was contact. A second incident on turn 2 dropped me to last in the opening seconds of the race, but I clawed my way back from there, for a reasonable time on 13 laps, 307 seconds.
I was hoping to improve on my times in the second qualifier, but as soon as the buzzer went I knew something was wrong. The car just didn’t launch off the line like it should have, and the battery pack was fading badly by turn 1. After almost making it around for 1 lap, I had to give it away and go out and retreive the car from a marshal. When I returned to the pits, it looked like I’d changed packs after the last race, so the pack in my car must have been fresh off the discharger from the last meeting. No wonder it didn’t go a single lap!
The third qualifier was my last shot to improve on times, and looked set to be a good one, as Bryan, Scott, another guy and myself followed each other closely for the first couple of laps to open out a lead. However on lap three a slight touch against a barrier upset my race, and while I improved upon my time slightly, my final qualifying time was an average 13 laps, 305 seconds.
When it all sorted out, Bryan and Scott qualified for the B grade with times in the mid 14 lap region, and I was 4th on the C grade. With another stong turn out of drivers, even a time in the 15’s was no guarentee of an A grade place, which left Bryan and Scott facing a very strong B grade field.
The first final was a much better race for me. I was starting off 4, but the guy in third retired, so there were two cars in front of me at the start. I got off to a good start, and when 1 and 2 came together on turn 3, slotted through and took the lead. I was challenged strongly by a much faster car who couldn’t match me through the corners, but eventally got past him once and for all. Towards the end of the race another car was chasing me down, but ran out of time, and I held on for the win.
I geared up a little for the second final, and had to be careful while the tires were cold to begin with. Again I had to withstand a challenge from a faster car, but was able to get by him, and move up to second. Towards the end of the race I was closing in on the lead, but it looked like I might run out of time before I could get past. That was of course until the leader made a slight mistake on the final lap and I was able to slip by while the marshall retreived him from the barrier.
Two wins ensured an overall C grade win, which was just as well, because I stuffed the start in race three, then clipped a barrier later in the race, popping out a driveshaft. I was able to get the car going while the race was underway, but by then it was too late, and I finished well back in the field.
All in all, a bit inconsistent, but not a bad result considering the long break leading up to this race. Looking forward to the next one, which will probably be the last for the old Tamiya. The new Yokomo arrived last week, but I need to spend a bit of time setting it up before I go racing with it.