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Here is my little write up on the latest Serpent 1/10 electric touring kit “S411LE”.  The LE (limited edition) is a standard S411 with some of the optional parts come standard in the kit . Beside the platform minor improvements, the LE kit also come with a set of high quality tools consist of four allen wenchs, one flips screw drivers,  two socket  driver sand a turnbuckle wench.  The LE kit sell for around $520 US.   The S411 kit come in a small box with manual and 9 different bags.  Each one of the parts bag is for the 9 different assembly stages illustrated in the small but will organized manual.  The assembly step show in the manual are logical and is very easy to understand and follow.

Stage 1: Prep the chassis plate.  Because I am lazy   I have only sanded the chassis edge although the manual suggested that the edge of the chassis should be seal with CA.   As you can see in the following picture, this LE (limited edition) is of kit # 204 out of 300.  Serpent only released 300 of such LE kits to the market.

Stage 2: Build the motor mount and put on all the bulk heads and the rear arms

Stage 3: Build  the rear gear diff.  The gear diff can be build  in 2 or 4 gears configuration.   The following picture show the 2 gears configuration.

Stage 4: Build the front spool and put the drive belt on.

Stage 5: Install front Arms, install mid shaft and install steering rack.

Stage 6: Install rear upright and axle and install 1.4mm rear sway bar

Stage 7: Install Chub, and drive axle and install front 1.4mm sway bar

Stage 8-9 : Build the shock, install shock tower and install front bumper.    The shock is pre-built!  All you need to do is to fill it up with shock oil.  Serpent shock has the same design as the original losi shock where you fill and close the shock at the bottome of the shock.  It use a rubber foam inside the shock to control volume compensation and re-bounce.  One advantage of this design over the more conventional design is the fact that you don’t need to empty the shock in the process of changing piston.

On the track, the car in stock form is pretty quick and easy to drive.   I have been racing the S411  for three race weekend now and the car is getting better with setup changes each time out.  The car react to small setup changes very well.   Just in Feb 15 race, I have make a switch from a 1.4mm rear sway bar to a 1.2mm rear sway bar in attempt to improve stability on entering corner at the end of the long straight.  This .2mm changes in sway bar thickness  has a profound impact  on how the car handle and yet it didn’t really scarify performance in other area on the track!

In the end I am very happy with the S411.  It has excellent price performance ratio and  decent fit and finishes.  The only things  that I  would complain about is that it is difficult to get the suspension blocks in the orange color not to mention  local support for parts are non existing.

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Building a TRF product is always something I look forward to. The instructions are well done and everything labelled perfectly and the geometry settings from the manual are really very close, making it a drop your electronics in and race type of setup. So it was no different when I got to build the new TRF417X. Each time I build a new car I alwasy seem to say “this was the best build yet” and I got to say it yet again this time around.

Opening the box you will find everything neatly packed. I always like to lay out all of the bags get my tools ready in a nice neat work space cause once I start a build I can’t leave the table till I’m done.

So let’s get started!
The chassis is a 2.25mm thick woven graphite. The changes from the original 417 are a norrower deck with more material being removed after the front and rear suspension mounting locations. The first bag of parts concentrates on the drivetrain. Starting in the rear mounting the bulkheads and building the included gear diff. I like to use Gilles Groskamps online video to build the perfect gear diff:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_DhcfcO8dI

Assembly after bag A looks like this:
On to bag B:

Continueing with the drivetrain working on installing the front bulkheads and spool. Another option is to run the gear diff in the front but we’ll revisit this when I talk setup.

Included in the new car are some really nice balancing weights that serve as battery mounts as well. Very nice piece!

Next up is bag C. This is the tedious part with all the links lol! A little tip when you assemble is to make sure the arms freefall on their own after all of the susupension blocks are snugged up. This will ensure a free moving suspension on the track.

And after bad C assembly pics:

Onto bag D:
 Its getting close with the shock build and tower installation . I will also do a shock assembly section later on to answer some of the guys questions related to shock bulding.

And some after shots:

Another cool feature with the new car is the motor mounting. Now you don’t need special spur gear to get your mesh properly set.

And the race ready product

First impressions were good with the new hot rod. TQ and fastest laps but some bad luck while leading the main curbed the perfect day. Going to make some small changes to hopefully get some more performance and go even faster next time out!

Thanks to Joe Glover for this build review. Follow the discussion on the FORUM

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Schumacher Mi4CXL Build / Review

The Schumacher Mi4CXL is Schumachers new 1/10th Competition Tourer 4WD Sedan. The car was released in late January of 2012. The build itself was very simple as the kit is packaged similar to all Schumacher products. This particular kit has 5 bags labelled A thru E and inside each of these there are packages for each step in the instructions that are labelled 1 through 50. It’s much more enjoyable building a car and not having to look around for the right screws, bolts, spacers and other small parts that can be tricky in some other kits.

The build starts with installing the transmission on a 2mm carbon fibre soft weave chassis. The tranmission can actually be flipped either left or right to balance your car better (This decision would be dependent on the weight of your electronics / battery.) In this review it was built having the transmission built on the left.

The Mi4CXL kit comes with a Ball Diff for the rear and a light weight spool for the front. Changing the belt tension or removing the diffs from this car is extremely easy. Once the top deck is off you only need to remove 2 screws to remove each diff. This makes access to your diffs very easy and it allows you to change the belt tension or diff height with little work.

A potential option part you may want is the Spec R Gear Diff for the Mi4CXL (G868). This is not required, but it is note worthy that the option is available to those you like gear diffs.

The top deck included with the Mi4CXL kit is designed for Asphalt. If you will be running your Mi4CXL on carpet it would be suggested to buy the Carpet Top deck. This runs around 25-30$ (U3914 C/F Top Deck Carpet – Mi4CXL).

The top deck is mounted fairly high on this car and is longer then the normal top deck in a racing sedan. This design was done to control the flex of the chassis. With the carpet top deck the Mi4CXL is very stiff, expecially considering the main chassis is only 2mm thick.

The Mi4CXL kit comes with a unique single pivot steering rack, gold turnbuckles and pre-assembled rear and front drive shafts. The front and rear shock towers are 3 mm thick carbon fibre. They both have multiple mounting holes.

The pivot blocks attach to the alloy transmission housing. This makes modifications to the rear toe and ride width of the car easy to modify. The front and rear arms come with droop screws as well.

The shocks in the kit are beautiful with Nickle-Teflon coated shock bodies and Ti-Nitride coated shock shafts. They are very simple to build.

The sway bars in the kit are mounted higher then Schumachers previous sedan. This was done to make the anti roll bars have a more linear response. These sway bars can be easily changed when doing setup changes as well.

The motor mount on the Mi4CXL is a very unique design with many advantages. It’s a ring that acts as a clamp to secure the motor in place. The motor can be removed from the vehicle by loosing 1 screw (The fact you can slide the motor easily from left to right also aids in balancing the car). The motor can slide from front to back by loosening 2 screws. The two screws remain attached to the rear transmission housing and slides back and forth.

The chassis has two mounting positions for the battery (10 mm forward or backwards). The chassis also has center balancing holes to check the balance of the car. Both of these can be helpful tuning items.

Special Thanks to Matt Stacy for this write up.

 For more info on this build visit the FORUM

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A few weeks ago my good friend Clint showed up at Dirt Trax with this neat looking radio that really caught my eye. Having had some frustrations with a few of my spectrum receivers lately I was willing to take the 40$ chance on one of these radios for my self. Its was hard to resist a  2.4Ghz radio that also does VRC! As many of you know I am a sucker for great deal and like 20$ lipos this radio is a real bargain.

Included in the box:

-Transmitter
-small 3 channel receiver
-bind plug
-short antenna tube
-DSC to USB VRC adapter
-under $40USD cost.

Features:

- Model Memory
- Servos NOR/REV
- Steering Trim
- Throttle Trim
- Dual Rate
- End Point
- ABS Settings
- EXP Settings
- Trainer Port (for VRC)
- CE & FCC certified

Like most transmitters you either love or hate the way they look. Personally i don’t mind its looks, the wheel and the orange/red stickers on it are probably the 2 things I’m not crazy about.  So the the first thing I did was remove and install some decals of my own. The wheel will have to wait till i find time to remove it and see if i can use an aftermarket wheel.. Then again that would almost double the cost of this radio! LOL

When you first power it on the blue LCD with white lettering really catches your eyes. All of its 8 key features are right there on the screen, no sub menus to get lost in. And this is where you are reminded its a budget radio. Everything you need to go racing or bashing is there, but there are some notable functions missing such as sub-trim,idle up,timers and adjustable frame rate. Also missing is an instruction manual, which is just a PDF download a way, not big deal. I was able to work my way around the thing without it till i got to the point of Binding a receiver. This is where you will want the manual in front of you. Out of the box though the radio comes bound to the receiver.

How to bind the RX (receiver) to the TX (transmitter):

1. Plug bind plug into CH3, turn on car, the LED light should flash
2. Hold down bind button on transmitter module while turning on the TX
3. The light should go steady now
4. Let go of bind button, turn off car, remove bind plug, turn off TX
5. Turn on TX and then turn on car, it should be bound now

My first test for this radio will be on VRC PRO! For years I just keep finding excuses not to try VRC.. I guess the 30-40$ USB adapter was part of what held me back, but more so, was the need to have your car connected to a laptop or worse using up a receiver and a receiver pack just for playing the game. For the price of the radio i would not have expected the USB adapter to be included but this was the feature that really pushed me to buy this radio. The USB adapter plugs into the DSC port on the radio and of course into your USB on your pc. The wire is about 6ft long which should be find for most people. I found the FS-SM100 USB SLOT FMS SIMULATOR online for under 6$ so this could be a cheap option for anyone that has a DSC port on their current radio. I could not test it on my DX3R as it does not have a DSC so I cannot confirm its compatibility. I installed VRC Pro on my 6 month old HP Quadcore laptop and calibrated the controller using windows game controller calibration. First thing i did was play around with the controller setting to make sure the game was happy with what was connected then i jumped into a practice run! It sucked. And yes Zoofy knows why…. I however, did not right away. So i played around with steering exponential and calibration. The steering was just messed up and the car not drivable. Finally i figured it out… Yes Zoof, the sub $600 laptop lacks a good graphics card. I’m a victim of  ”you get what you pay for”. When i turned on FPS readout it was clear, 30fps just was not going to cut it. So after a few clicks in the graphics options i was able to get the thing up to 80fps now i could drive! The radio worked great! I can now race VRC! At this point i feel my 40$ was well spent but there is more… Next up a road test in my 4wd buggy….

Test two will be a track test. As many know that Durango DEX410 chassis is slim and a real PITA to fit electronics into. My ESC of choice being the GT2.0 lpf is a fat unit hogging up much of the the limited real-estate on the chassis. The included receiver is very slim and slid in place nicely and i was able to wire everything up without issue.

The radio had a good feel to it, the 8 double “A” cells helped give it the “quality” feel that my DX3r lacks. The trigger was a bit large and even with fuel tubing on the brake side of things my finger felt loose. So i took a ligher to it and molded the trigger to grip my finger more. Swapping between this radio and my DX3r all night was pretty easy, i was comfortable using it and it did what is was supposed to do, glitch free and with zero issues.  But there was one thing found missing just before my main. I had dialed up the brake power on my ESC just before the main and during warm up i found i had too much braking power. Unfortunately the radio lacks brake alt. So you cannot reduce braking power on the fly, you have to dig into the endpoint adjustment setting to make this change. Not a deal breaker but a negative just the same.

For the money this thing is impressive. I would recommend this to anyone that wants to run VRC or needs a affordable 2.4ghz radio that’s not traxxas ugly. It passed my noob test with my wife, she thought it looked better then the DX3R a radio 10x more expensive. From talking to Clint i found out that on rctech guys have hacked the software and improving this radio, so perhaps some of the missing features are available with a bit of work. Ill update this after some long term use and once I look into the hacking options for it.

PROS:
-40$
-easy to use
-great display
-nice weight
-8$ receivers!
-included VRC adaptor
-feels good in the hand

CONS:
-cheap looking wheel
-no instruction manual
-only 3 characters for naming your models
-lacks some features of more expensive radios(sub trim and brake alt)
-decals and branding just screams cheap radio

Discuss this on the FORUM.

So small! RX between spur gear and ESC under the red wire!

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Dirt Trax RC just finished it’s 6th Carpet Series. The series consisted of 8 races between November 23, 2011 and January 11, 2012. Dirt Trax is an indoor Off-Road Carpet RC racing facility. The series consists of 1/10 scale electric classes including 2wd buggy, 4wd buggy and 2wd Short Course.

In the 1/10 electric 2wd buggy class Sutton Aviation driver Jake Solt took top honours with his Schumacher Cougar SV. Solt had an impressive 4 TQ finishes and an impressive 4 first place finishes in the 8 race series. John Gagnon driving his Losi 22 finished in 2nd place behind Jake. John had a strong showing with 2 TQ’s and 2 wins throughout the series. Joe Limlaw driving a Durango DEX210 finished a respectable third place. He had one TQ and four podium finishes in this series.

Jake Solt with his Schumacher Cougar SV

Sutton Aviation founder Billy Sutton took the series in the 1/10 electric 4wd buggy class. Billy was driving his Schumacher CAT SXIII. He had four second place finishes in this series. Joe Limlaw driving a Durango DEX410 finished 2nd. Limlaw had one TQ/win and three podium finishes. Sam Souky driving a Durango DEX410 finished in 3rd. Sam had many top 5 finishes throughout this series.

 
Billy Sutton and his Schumacher CAT SXIII

In the 1/10 electric 2wd Short Course Team GFX Designs driver Shawn Fraser took the series with his Team Associated FT SC10. He had two TQ’s and three wins throughout the series. Jeremy Medaglia racing a Team Associated SC10 was second in the series. He had 3 TQ’s and 3 wins. Shawn Robinson driving a Team Associated SC10 was third in the series. He had 1 TQ and 5 podium finishes

Shawn Fraser with his Team Associated SC10

Additional information and full results can be seen on the FORUM
Matt Stacey

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VIDEOS! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIdAVjXJNHE

It is another year in the R/C world and that means another time to participate in the Tamiya Championship Series(TCS – http://www.tamiya.ca). RCO club was lucky enough to hold the first race of the year at their brand new Sutton Aviation raceway!

The facility opened at 7:30am where a ton of people were anticipating a great day of racing. Their eyes feasted on a brand new track design, changed from Saturday’s open practice, that seemed very technical and extremely impressive. Grins were ear to ear without the actual car touching the track. There were racers from Guelph, Toronto, Montreal and all over Ontario and Quebec to enjoy a great day at this fantastic facility.

Practice was available until 9:45 am. Thanks to some excellent work by Mihai, our race director, the registration process and schedule were clearly laid out from the start. A short driver’s meeting also explained the TCS format and expectations. Each class would have four rounds of races. Each race is counted as points based on overall time. It would be the total of the best 3 of 4 finished results that would decide your final score and the top 6 drivers, excluding former North American champions, would be eligible to participate in the TCS Canadian finals in August for a chance to participate in the North America finals in California.

Races started at EXACTLY 10:00am.

We had 71 entries over the five Tamiya classes including F1, Mini, FF-03, GT2 and GT1. Please take a look at http://www.tamiya.ca for more information on these classes.

The nice thing about TCS is that every time that buzzer sounds you are battling with the cars in front and behind you. One of the concerns with this format is at times it is difficult to get a clean run due to the excitement however I am happy to report that any mistake that was made yesterday was followed by excellent sportsmanship of waiting for the car to be marshalled. This allowed a great amount of battles on the track for every class. We witnessed great passing, exciting door to door corners and best of all a lot of happy racers and spectators.

We were also treated to a little home made cooking. Chili, sandwiches, coffee and such were all available in the canteen. Big shout out goes to the Sutton Aviation volunteers for keeping us fed and our thirst quenched throughout the event.

The traction of the track increased throughout the day and the racing got closer and closer. The highlight was the round 4 Mini race between Jake Solt and Gordie Tam(last years Canadian Champion). Gordie had the speed however was making a few mistakes. That didn’t stop Jake from holding his line perfectly through the entire 5 minutes. In and out battle was so heated and close that spectators(never seen an R/C race were yelling and hollering at the cars. When they both crossed the line people were jumping in the air and arms were waving. What a race!

The race event ended at around 4pm and the track was quickly put away within minutes. Big prizes were handed out thanks to Tamiya Canada and Dynamic Hobbies. A special door prize was awarded to a non-racer who purchased a ticket as well as 50/50 money that was slightly over $200 to the winner. Just a reminder that the other half of the 50/50 goes towards paying for the outdoor tent covering Sutton Aviation’s beautiful 140′ x 60′ clay off-road track!

It was a very successful event and there was a ton of buzz surrounding the pits. I was even able to see a lot of old familiar faces taking a peek. Good to see you Jeff, Mark, Steve and others! Hope you come out and join us soon.

Big thanks to Tamiya Canada for wonderful prizes, Sutton Aviation for making the race possible and most of all Mihai for giving up his entire weekend making sure everything ran so smoothly!

I can’t wait to see you all at Round # 2 at Lou’s Speedway(http://www.lousspeedway.com/)5 Starlight Lane, Dorchester, Ontario February 26, 2012.. That 90′ straightaway is going to be awesome!

Zoof

-ps- Videos and pictures to be available soon. For further discussion visit the FORUM

Continue reading »]]> This past weekend Ottawa hosted the first round of the 2012 Tamiya Championship Series.  For now here are the results. I hope to have one of my reporters write ups in the next few days.

MINI
* Jake Solt
* Gordie Tam
* Eddie Mon
* Franky Chan
* Jason Tsang
* Jeff Punkari
Bill Sutton
Fred Zufelt
Paul Taverner
Jonathan Girard
James Chychota
Gilles Charette
Richard Proulx
Sang Nguyen
Steven Thibeault
Richard Savaria
Corey Groves
Tyler Punkari
Jim Hall
Dan Villeneuve
Pierre Tessier
Paul Lalonde

GT2
* Joe Glover
* Franky Chan
* Jake Solt
* Shawn Therrien
* Sam Saouky
* Daniel Therien
Satish
Rob McRae
Brian Crosby
Trevor Cook
Jeff Punkari
Sly Joly
Richard Savaria
Corey Groves
Jonathan Girard
James Chychota
Tyler Punkari
Richard Proulx
Andrew Yeh
Gilles Charette

F1
x Mike Zufelt
* Brian Crosby
* Trevor Cook
* Fred Zufelt
* Paul Taverner
* James Chychota
* Jim Hall
Sam Souky
Eric Gutkmecht
Martin Paradis

FF03
* Gordie Tam
* Eddie Mon
* Daniel Therien
* Steve Maines
* Sang Nguyen
* Sly Beauregard
Dan Villeneuve

GT1
* Gordie Tam
* Mihai Gutescu
* Eddie Mon
x Mike Zufelt
* Franky Chan
* Satish
* Jonathan Girard

* : Qualified in this round for TCS Canadian final
x : Is not eligible for qualification

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The Sakura Zero S is made by 3Racing and this kit is considered their entry level 4wd sedan. This company has been in the after market business for many years supplying upgrades for numerous kits. They make a Pro level Sakura sedan with an all graphite chassis and pink alloy parts and also produce a FWD sedan and a Formula 1 car. My kit was purchased online. Parts support is also available online through RCMart, 3Racing, eBay and a few other sources. There are US distributors as well and I am sure your LHS can order parts. Please see your local hobby shop. KIT price varies between 95-140$

The kit comes in a very compact box (pic available) and all the parts are nicely separated in clearly labelled sealed clear plastic bags. The kit includes treaded tires and white spoke rims, but no body. The 40 page glossy colour manual is easy to read with full size pictures and diagrams of the items used in each step, very similar to Tamiya. There are a few pink alloy parts included in the kit including the motor mount, wheel nuts, body post, spacers and shock upper and lower caps. The battery strap shown in ads for this car is pink but mine was black. The bolts in the kit are all 2mm hex and worked fine. The FRP chassis, upper deck and shock towers are precisely cut, but the edges are a bit sharp and you may want to round them off with some emery paper. A parts list with pictures is included in the back of the manual along with a long list of upgrades with part numbers and pictures. I found the manual to be excellent and easy to read.

The kit comes complete with steel turnbuckles and full ball bearings and the hardware uses a 2mm hex wrench. No cheap philips head bolts! The alloy motor mount is a nice touch and helps secure the motor. The plastic used throughout the kit is very stiff and threading the bolts into pieces took more effort than with a comparable Tamiya kit. Perhaps a 3mm tap might be a wise investment as my hands were pretty sore after the build.

The car uses gear diffs front and rear and they build very easily. The manual shows basic assembly and includes diff fluid. There is an online tutorial showing how to build the diffs with anti wear grease to ensure long life. The kit does not include any anti wear grease. The diff pulleys are 38T and they offer optional 37T and 39T gear pulleys should you need to change ratios. The stock one piece spur pulleys are 20T. 3Racing sell an optional pink alloy spur adapter along with option spur pulley gears of 19T, 20T and 21T to further fine tune the gearing. This is a neat option and not usually offered.

The belt tension is adjustable as the diffs use cam style bearing carriers. There is a reference dot on each carrier, but as all the plastic is black it was hard for me to see. I added a drop of white paint to make the dots stand out better. The belts seems stiff and hopefully will loosen after a few days of racing. A belt tensioner is not included in the kit although one is available as an option.

Shocks are basic plastic body with bladders and include pink alloy upper and lower caps. They build quickly and easily and are reasonably smooth. The kit includes shock oil but I’m not sure of the weight. I used Associated 40wt oil on all four corners.

The chassis parts such as suspension mounts, motor mount, etc.. all use small pins that key into the chassis to help keep everything aligned. I found this to be a nice touch. The kit builds with 3 degrees of rear toe but includes an optional mount to give 2 degrees if desired. Another nice feature. The front bumper is solid and the included foam is firm. The foam bumper has cut outs that can be left in or removed depending on how your taste.

The front suspension is fairly typical with 4 degree C-hubs and steering knuckles. I have heard that Xray parts are a direct fit here. The front uses included 44mm CVDs and the rear uses basic dogbones. Both are adequate for their intended purpose.

One area that I feel could be better is the motor mount. The kit supplied 48P/80T spur gear is specially made with large holes around the perimeter. These are necessary as the only way to access the rear motor mount bolt is through one of these holes. If you change spur gears (as I did) then you cannot adjust the rear motor bolt. I have ordered the optional vertical motor mount to hopefully recitify this glitch.

http://os.3racing.hk/products.php?products_key=5049

SteveM

For more info and a race report CLICK HERE

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January 8th, 2012 – Ottawa has been racing indoor carpet since 1988 and we have always managed to race at some sort of venue including high schools, universities, local hobby stores, grocery stores, shopping centers, strip malls, convenient centers and a warehouse. Typically the race environment was based on necessity and whatever was available. The RCO community has always had it’s up and downs for participation so it was difficult to secure a great racing location that would fit the racing needs and our limited budget. The RCO Race Director, Mihai, always had a goal(since I have known him in 1992) to have a European style racing facility. The past year was spent at the local off-road facility, run by Dirt Trax, and although the facility fit the racing needs and was a great attempt to take care of two birds with one stone another opportunity presented itself to reach this goal. Bill Sutton, Sutton Aviation, had a great, centrally located and spacious aircraft hanger available to use on weekends. Discussion, planning and a ton of hard work allowed Ottawa to have it’s first Europe style on-road track that we will be utilizing in the foreseeable future.

When I got to see this track for the first time; it was a sight for any true race fan. Racers surrounded a grand 72′ x 48′ ozite track with corner curbs, simulated grass, heated floor and sky high ceilings. Fantastic, without any doubt. The track was very technical compared to our typical circuit. Flowing corners, tight chicanes and the ultimate prize – Le Cercle de Mihai (giant circle corner nicknamed – Stargate). I couldn’t wait to get my cars on the track that would most likely be a fantastic day.

The first race event held went off with a smashing success. We had a great turnout of 63 entries over our three classes – Mini, GT2 and F1.

The racing itself was fast and furious. One of the things that everyone realized very quickly at the new track is that you can’t bounce off the walls anymore. Our new corner dots are solid and if you hit them then your car will flip, get stuck or crash hard. After the first round of qualifying everyone seemed to understand that in order to be successful, slower and more patient driving will be required.

One of the main concerns about any on-road racing facility is the lack of consistent traction. This is due to overnight temperature dips and a typical concrete floor that doesn’t hold the heat well. Our new facility has a heated floor and it seemed to help keep the traction consistent for every round. I also can’t remember the last time Ottawa had so much traction on our ozite carpet surface. This will really improve our setup and driving abilities for any out of town event where in the past we seemed to be at a disadvantage. For those of you wondering, the only complaint about temperature was how hot it was. The -14C outside temperature wasn’t noticeable at all.

The facility had a few more perks that I got to utilize throughout the day including a brand new washroom and a large canteen(I heard that healthier lunch options are coming including home made sandwiches and more selection for the future — stay tuned). There seemed to be a lot of planning going into making the entire venue better so I can’t wait to see what Mihai and Billy have planned.

Back to the racing – The finals for each heat were fantastic. Everyone seemed to be improving and it was proven by close battles in every race! The new track rewarded patience so a lot of the time if you made one mistake then a few more followed. The winners might have made a mistake however they controlled their throttle to not make a few more right away.

Congratulations to our first ever main winners:

C-Main GT2 – Richard Proulx
B-Main GT2 – Rob Mcrae
A-Main GT2 – Jake Solt
Fastest lap in Mains – Michael Zufelt

C-Main Mini – Jeff Punkari
B-Main Mini – Carter Fisher
A-Main Mini – Gordie Tam
Fastest lap in Mains – Gordie Tam

A-Main F1 – Rob “Spur Gear” Lucio
Fastest Lap in Main – Fred Zufelt

After the event was completed the track was put away in about 15 minutes thanks to all the club members. We had a 50/50 draw for some great prizes donated by Dynamic Hobbies including an M-06 pro, Tekin Brushless motor and an Expert Built Mini M05. It also should be noted that it was announced that ALL 50/50 profits will go towards the outdoor tent purchase we will use to cover the outdoor off-road track. Plan on bringing some coin to the next event and participate in this great cause!

The new track boards are very well made so they can be changed for each event with relative ease and should allow for a ton of great track designs. I can’t wait to see what is next! The next event will be on January 22nd for the first 2012 race of the Tamiya Championship Series(TCS). We expect a good local crowd and tons of out of town interest. Get those Tamiya vehicles ready! Can’t wait.

A big THANK YOU goes out to Mihai, Billy, Corey and anyone else who helped out over the holidays. Ottawa has another first class facility that has already increased racing interest in it’s first day. I heard of about 3-4 people already planning an on-road racing purchase; I can’t wait to see them and others racing at the track!

It is also key to note that Sutton Aviation will also have racing events on their CLAY Offroad track(140×60) and pavement outdoor track(130 x 90) this Summer. For those of you who can’t come out on weekends – there is always a good time to be had at our other first class racing facility on Wednesday nights at Dirt Trax in Greely. Please look at the forum for more information.

It is a great time to be a racer in the Ottawa area. See you all racing soon!

Zoof

Address: 1495 Rockcliffe Pkwy, Ottawa, ON, K1K 4Y5

For ongoing discusion about this weekends event CLICK HERE