Bajas at The RC Tracks @ Milestone Ranch MX Park

When: Saturday, July 19th, 2008
Where: The RC Tracks @ Milestone Ranch MX Park, Riverside, CA

20 Bajas came out last Saturday to The RC Tracks at Milestone Ranch MX Park for a fun day of awesome competition. We saw many new faces out at the track as well as returning regulars. GBE and TeamphatdadRC drivers we're out in force, as well Jason Bowen showing off his front caliper/rotor set! Mike Mcallister from HPI Customer Service also decided to check out the scene. The mains we're setup with 12 drivers in the B, with the top 2 bumping up to the 30 minute A main. In the B main it was Ryan Carol who took the win with a screaming drive from Tom Coulombe (TeamphatdadRC) in 2nd. Both drivers then had to get ready for the A main... The A main was fast and furious from the start with 12 1/5th scales going for it from the gun... As the race settled down a bit it was Rodney Ketcham in the lead, with close battles all around. After a long hard fought 30 minutes... it was Rodney Ketcham taking the win from Scott G, with Andrew Hilman (HPI) taking the first 3 spots.

Special thanks to Larry Cross and the crew at The RC Tracks@Milestone Ranch MX Park!

TeamphatdadRC available at DDM Racing @ www.davesmotors.com
GBE goodies available at www.gabebrownengineering.com

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My First experience with the Baja 5B in a competition environment was fantastic.
By Scott George

When this car hit the scene a few years ago, I just had to have one. I managed to secure a first run RTR kit, and was looking very forward to discovering its off-road potential. Almost immediately I built a front and rear skid plate system. In the end this proved strong, yet complicated maintaining the car in a few minor ways. This made me realize the exceptional engineering behind this scale model. It looked mean and ready for action, its performance was impressive to say the least, and its strength second to none in large scale capacity. I was about ten years old the last time I was at the helm of a large scale car, it was called the JacRabbit. This ¼ scale buggy was fun, and assuming you didn’t briskly bump into anything, it stayed running. The HPI Baja was to be quite the opposite. On my first tank I thought it would be cool to jump the car, so I set up a few pallets behind the shop and found some plywood. I started out just rolling off the lip, and ended up hitting the lip wide open. A slight miscalculation on my part led to me to ascend only half the launch ramp at full tilt. This car started to cartwheel and continued flipping and rolling to the end of my parking lot and beyond down the grass hill in to the neighbors lot. I just turned around in disgust pondering my driving shortcomings, and the dent I was about to put in my wallet. When the unique sound of Plastic skipping across asphalt came to cease I realized the Baja 5B was still running. I slowly made my way to the edge of the lot to discover the Baja sitting down there, on its wheels, ready for more. I thought……..Wow… this is going to be a great car.

I have spent about half my adult life working on the very vehicles the Baja was designed to perform like. I immediately started looking at the suspension geometry, motion ratio for the shocks, and axle angles throughout the range of wheel travel. It was very impressive, as a few very key points were hit perfectly by HPI. There is virtually no scrub (tires moving in and out from center of car throughout wheel travel) in the front end, which is a major cause for spindle/upright failure on full scale Buggies. The drive train appeared sound, and very beefy for a 5th scale vehicle. Then I picked up the car and realized that this isn’t my 8th scale truck, this thing weighs….. well,…. A lot.. I have always been fascinated by the performance of my 1/8 HellFire, lightning acceleration and virtually bulletproof drive train. I was able to treat it virtually exactly opposite of a real off-road truck, which requires an extreme care when the throttle can and can not be applied. I can land on the wheels on full power and not even stress the components. I have to believe the Baja 5B will lie somewhere in the middle. A Class 1 Buggy or Trophy Truck will suffer drive train failure if the throttle is lit before landing back on the earth. I have spent way too much time under a Trophy Truck changing a Transmission, rear 3rd member, or axle in Mexico because a driver kept it pinned over a jump or across a washout. The problem is compounded if the ground is tacky and provides good traction. I tend to try and compare the real world human carrying machines to their scale counterparts. In most cases my “Bashing” of the Baja had been on loose surfaces, I had yet to try and stretch its legs on a purpose built, groomed, and tacky off-road track.

On July 17th I picked up a small supply of parts and set my sights on preparing for the July 19th event in Riverside at Milestone MX park. On the 18th, My ten year old son Jacob and I worked well into the 19th about 2 AM cleaning the car, painting and cutting the new body, and assembling the new spiked front tires, and some new soft compound rear tires. I had recently upgraded the shocks to the standard HPI SS models, and added the HPI tuned pipe to the 23cc power plant. Our attempts to make the venue in Riverside by 8:00 were dashed, and a misleading sign at the exit of Market had us touring the city of Riverside looking for gas and breakfast. Necessities handled and we were in at about 9:00. We opened the doors to the van to the sound of Tuned Baja’s screaming around a rather large track. The atmosphere was cool, yet intimidating. My first glance of the track saw a Baja come off the last corner onto the long straight slightly picking up its front wheels whilst getting up on the pipe…. Wow! I thought to myself, that is awesome.

I found Larry and asked to get signed up. I paid $25 Roar Membership, $20 transponder rental fee, and $25 entry fee. I have paid less to rally my full-size Subaru, yet I am an event organizer myself, so there were no complaints from me. I immediately found Andrew Hilman from HPI, as I was told he could help me get this all figured out. I had raced 10th scale off road regularly about 15 years ago, and done a few days at ARC with my Hellfire playing around. This just seemed like so much more than what I remembered. Andrew was very helpful explaining proper etiquette on and off the track. Linking up with someone at your first event is very important, as the stress of understanding the way to do things properly is substantially relieved. Thanks Andrew!!!! You are the man!! I ended up pitting in between Andrew and Michael also from HPI, Michael… Thanks for the rear SS shock mount hardware. I was very lucky to have these 2 guys on either side of me, any Baja questions I had were immediately answered and advice was golden. I headed out to watch a few laps put down by competing drivers. The different lines and technique people chose to take were endless, yet the times seemed to be close. I found the most impressive to watch were the guys that approached the track with utmost respect rolling the sharp obsticles, and only clearing gaps when everything seemed to be going right. I decided that would be my approach to the experience. I didn’t think my 23cc Baja would be doing any wheel stands or making too many impressive straight away blow-by-passes so smooth driving was the call, or so I intended.

Practice 1
I approached the drivers stand looking around for the board that shows all the frequencies in use as to not turn on my radio unless I knew I was the only one on Blue number 6. A quick question to Larry and he drug it out of the box and hung it on the fence. Apparently I was only 1 of 2 people not running a DSM radio out of 23 running cars. A quick yet embarrassing question dated my R/C knowledge, and educated me on the advancements in the industry and electronics. I shook it off, and fired up the Baja and headed to the drivers stand, going over all the things I did to prepare for the occasion. I managed to get around the track a few times without hitting anything or anyone, so I decided to try and clear some gaps and pick up the pace. The car seemed to react really well with the suspension setup assuming I hit everything perfectly. I wanted a little room to make mistakes (in traffic) so I decided to make a rear shock oil change. I emptied the 5 wt. and opted to try the 10wt.

Practice 2
Feeling a bit better now I started attacking pretty hard and learning the limits of the car. The experience reminded me of Rallying my Subaru. I could attack, go balls out, and produce a decent time, but I was a bit hard on the equipment. I slowed the pace substantially in several parts of the track and improved significantly, about 2 seconds quicker, and not so hard on the parts. The run was less spectacular, not as much air, not as much sideways dirt flying action but still quicker time wise. So, the original plan stays in effect, drive smoothly, follow the least abusive, tightest line, and keep it pinned where I could. That evil competitive side of me wouldn’t be completely ignored as I still couldn’t resist trying to clear the last big double before the long straight, as it rendered a much higher speed at the end of the straight which I felt important running against more powerful equipment. This was a crap shoot, as a successful attempt would be slightly beneficial, yet a miss and an off or a rollover would be grossly time consuming. I managed to do it consistently in practice running a high line on the preceding berm. Will it work in competition? We would have to see.

Heat 1
My first time to stand up on the drivers stand with 8 other drivers all raring to go racing was intense. I have rode in at least 6 different Trophy Trucks, a Dakar/Class 1 buggy, several Truggies, open class rally cars, and driven a few myself, and my heart never beat so hard. I kinda’ had an internal laugh about the situation, as this 5th scale car had my adrenaline pumping 5 times more than the real thing. Maybe it was because I wasn’t hiding behind a helmet, I am still not sure what it was, but nerves had me wired, and nervous. A rolling start got things underway which was very advantageous for me as I could stay away from other drivers and focus on my lines and smooth driving. The announcer was calling out times, though hard to hear over eight screaming Baja 5B’s, I managed to pick up that I had been running consistent 28 second times, and I figured I would just keep doing the exact same thing to the end of the heat. About 12 hours later the 10 minute heat was over, and I was excited. The car was still running and in one piece. My son Jacob came running up to me expressing that we achieved a second place result, and his smile really made me feel good. Jacob took charge of the car, removing the wheels tires, and body and cleaning them back to their original bling. I headed to the track for turn marshal duty. This was an intense experience as well, as I chose the triple jump to look after, I wanted to see the lines of other drivers, and instead I had ten minutes of playing dodge the thirty pound flying machines as I rescued rollover victims, kept the heart going.

Heat 2
I was a little late to begin with, as I installed the SS rear shock tower (thanks again Andrew and Michael), and I made it to the track and realized I forgot to fuel the car. I rush back to the pit, quickly fueled the car, and got it running in time for 2 laps at speed before timing started. The track was far more wet this time, and provided better traction in some areas, and a bit of mud out in the marbles(outside of turn). My “double clearing” outside line seemed to have gotten very soft, and didn’t offer the required traction to get over perfectly, and I spent most of the heat squeaking over that jump without a rollover though I did spend too much time on the front 2 wheels. About 5 laps in I started to have a strange problem with the car, as one of the rear wheels was vibrating violently as if one of the shocks had gone dry, or a wheel was separating or coming apart. The car would act as though it had massive stagger (different size tires from left to right) in favor of the right side of the car. Every time I would accelerate or Jump, the car would leap to the left, making driving the car accurately very difficult. Like every frustrated driver I made some further mistakes compounding the issues leading to risky double jump attempts, and foolish rollovers. I managed to get calmed down, slow down, and finish the heat with decent results. I later learned that my outside line before the last double was the reason for my issues. The loose dirt on the outside of the berm had gathered inside the right rear wheel of my Baja on just one side and threw the balance off horribly! A quick swipe of the clumped mud/dirt with a finger, and problem solved.

The Mains
We learned that we had qualified 3rd in the A main, and were excited to run with some different guys all with similar pace. I was headed out to the track to turn marshal when Andrew told me the B main would run for 20 minutes, and the A main would run for 30 minutes!!!!! I don’t think I have ever driven the car for 30 minutes straight!!! I again posted up at the triple. About 15 minutes into the B main cars started dropping like flies. I noticed several of the cars were landing from big jumps on full power. I pulled at least 2 cars off the track at that location both cars still had their engines running, but suffered drive train failure. The first car had an axle hanging out of the cup, the second car had axles in tact, yet sounded like a clutch failure. Talk in the pits after the round of racing was that there were spur gear failures. I feel HPI has done a good job with their spur gear mounting system allowing for a little shock within the rubber mounted system, though the power being put to the ground by some of these cars was phenomenal. My theory is that the car needs to be driven a little more carefully like their real counterparts over big hits, especially to go the duration of 20-30 minutes. The driving style of some of the competitors did not seem to change from heats to mains, just the duration in the mains was longer, and the components just ran out of strength. I would be very mindful of this going into my Main event.

My main goal at this point was to finish the race, and not have any failures. The standing start had me intimidated, as I knew 75% of the cars out there with me, several starting behind me had the power to beat me to the 1st corner. The 1st corner became my worst nightmare. I got passed on the outside, then the car spun in front of me. I t-boned the car and we started the pileup. Somehow I ended up on the bottom with a few cars on top of me. The turn marshal waited for the dust to clear before heading out to sort the issues (I don’t blame him, too many throttle happy racers raring to get going, very dangerous). I ended up last on the road, I think Rodney had passed me by the 3rd corner to lap me the 1st time, and was gone. My frustration and attempts to make up time got the best of me, and I proceeded to roll the car over at least 6 times during the first 10 minutes of racing. I got settled down, and continued at a smooth pace remembering my goal to finish. I got into a groove of smooth driving and managed to start picking off cars 1 at a time. A lot of the traffic had spread out and some good racing developed between myself and a few of the guys. Slower traffic was very considerate by pulling over a bit to let you by when they knew you were running a faster pace. The run seemed to go on forever…. I was so worried about finishing that I rarely risked jumping the back double, though when conditions were right I went for it and made up some valuable time. At the 20 minute mark, I had second place secured, and had my sights on 1st, though there would be no ketchin’ Ketcham (not this time). I decided to run as smooth as I possibly could and finish the race, and try and secure 2nd. I became nervous as I heard Andrew Hilman was on the charge and had worked his way up to third, so I again stepped up the pace to protect my position. At the 30 minute mark Time was called and Rodney had annihilated the field, I managed to capture second, and Andrew was comfortably in 3rd. I was exhausted, sun burnt, and very relieved to have made it to the end. At the end of the event I received a few compliments from some of the other drivers which made me feel at home. I intend to further pursue this, and start tuning the 5B specifically for competition. I feel HPI has all the parts available to make the my Baja5B a winner, maybe I will come back with a 26cc next time and see if I can give Rodney a run for his money ☺

The experience as a whole was great, the people there were very helpful and giving with parts, advice, and information. If you have a chance to go race your 5B, jump on it, it will be great fun. Just remember that the 5B is much closer to its real counterpart than most smaller scale models, and require the style of attack to be a bit more conservative. The slightly conservative approach rendered my 50 minutes of racing time, and the extra time was spent tuning instead of repairing. I am extremely impressed by HPI and their engineering staff, their vehicle has brought hours of joy, and heart pounding fun for me and my family…. Thanks HPI

P.S. Rodney Ketcham… Great driving man….. I am coming to get you!!!!

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Save the date for the next event...Saturday, August 2nd!

For race information contact Larry Cross at (800) 266-7745, www.quarterscalemotorsports.com

Milestone Ranch MX Park
12685 Holly Street
Riverside, California 92509

Contact: Larry Cross (800) 266-7745
www.milestonemx.com

Race Day Schedule:
7:00 AM Pits open
8:00 AM Track opens
10:00 AM 1st Qualifier

Milestone Ranch MX Park entry fee $10
Race Entry Fee $25

AMB transponders required
If you do not own one, transponder rental is available at the track for $20

ROAR membership is required and available at the track

The RC Tracks @ Milestone Ranch MX Park 2008 Schedule

July 19th 1/5 scale off road
July 26th 1/4 scale asphalt oval
August 2nd 1/5 scale off road
August 9th 1/4 & 1/5 scale dirt oval
August 16th 1/5 scale off road
August 23rd 1/4 scale asphalt Oval
September 6th 1/5 scale off road
September 13th 1/4 & 1/5 scale dirt Oval
September 19th, 20th, 21st 1/10th & 1/8th Scale Gas Championships Tentative
September 26th + 27th QSAC West ¼ scale Asphalt Oval
October 11th 1/4 & 1/5 scale dirt oval
October 25th 1/4 scale asphalt oval
November 8th 1/4 & 1/5 scale dirt oval
November 22nd 1/4 scale asphalt oval
December 13th 1/4 & 1/5 scale dirt oval

Results for 07/19/08

A Main
1. Rodney Ketcham
2. Scott George
3. Andrew Hilman
4. Moto Ishibashi
5. Jason Bowen
6. Tom Coulombe
7. Angel Colon
8. Ryan Carol
9. Frank Killiam
10. David Groom
11. Daniel Ast
12. A.C. Goins

B Main
1. Ryan Carol
2. Tom Coulombe
3. Dale Frischkencht
4. Jonathan Sanders
5. Kaulin Hall
6. Bob Sarnelle
7. Gabe Brown
8. Jeremy Cox
9. Glen Luna
10. Jeremy Sanderfer
11. Mike Blair
12. Michael Mcallister

The countdown has officially started for the 1st Annual Baja 5B Nationals on November 8-9, click the link below for more info!

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