|
June 5th 8:00 AM Five guys turn up at the HPI offices with 12 Baja 5Bs and 5Ts between them. The HPI race trailer gets packed to the roof with supplies and we are off. The next 9 hours are packed with the average buddy brow beatings, ego clashing, and race set-up theory. It's funny how you can get 5 guys together that all have tons of race experience, and a healthy racing resume and get 5 very different opinions on how cars should be set up and driven. 7:30 PM Arrival in Cloverdale, Ca. at the Best Western Hotel. All of us on board for the trip have day jobs, so the race prep begins for tomorrow's off-road race at Thunder Valley R/C Raceway. 2:00 AM Most of us are done and retire for the evening in attempt to get a few hours of sleep before tomorrows race day. June 6th 8:30 AM Arrival at Thunder Valley Raceway in Lakeport, California. http://www.thundervalleyrcpark.com/ Address:
3851 Hill Rd.
Lakeport, Ca., 95453 Map of the location:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=3851+H...num=1&ct=title Once on Hill road, you will look for the Thunder Valley RC Park sign on the West side of the road. you will then turn West onto a small access road. Head down the access road a half mile or so and look to your left for another Thunder Valley RC Park sign. There is a gate. It may be necessary to open the gate to enter. If its open leave it open, if its closed, please close it after entering. (Don't want the cows to get out if they are on that part of the property.) Upon entering the Park Complex, Take the road the goes in between the House and the 8th scale track and veer to the left after the house. There is a parking lot / pitting area down and to your left in front of the track. First impression of the track and facility is WOW! Being a Southern California resident, big open spaces and huge Baja tracks are not the norm. This facility is well on its way to being a top notch racing locale. The track surface was unique, very slippery when extremely wet and extremely dry, but ripe with traction while damp. The most interesting aspects of the track were the elevation changes, challenging off camber turns, and shear size. There is optimum room for many different lines that produce equal lap times making traffic driving fun instead of frustrating like with some smaller tracks. The organization of the event was spot on, making the racing experience very enjoyable and not leaving any competitors confused as to who, what, where, when and why. John and his family are doing a tremendous job with their facility and a wonderful service to the Baja community by offering great racing in a beautiful place at a reasonable price. If you get an opportunity to visit and compete at Thunder Valley Raceway... Do it! You will be glad you did! 6:00 PM Departing Lakeport and headed south to San Jose, Ca. John Schultz at the helm of the excursion decides we will take the scenic route. Some of the most beautiful mountains and valleys most of us have ever seen. 11:00 PM Arrive in San Jose and stayed in a very nice hotel room. Another night of thrashing to clean up dirty and abused off-road buggies and trucks. This didn't last long though, as rest was atop the list of necessities. June 7th 7:00 AM Arrive at the Mission College campus for the RAMS club RC on-road event. After we set up all the EZ-UPs and tables we took a few minutes to walk around and meet some of the guys and check out their cars on the track. This would be the first time racing on-road for most of us and the first time racing BAJA's on road for all of us! Guys like Fast Eddy, Ted from DarkSoul, and Frank Marcos were happy to come over and offer us some set up tips. The cars still dirty from yesterday meant there would be little to no time for practice, just enough time to repair yesterday's damage and get a baseline set up in the works. The system applied by the Rams club for parking lot racing is absolutely awesome. White 2x4 planks of wood are stacked then attached together to line the entire track. VHT is applied for traction for all the cars. When the "Auto Cross" (on road baja racing) portion of the event gets under way there are obstacles added to the track including 6" tall jumps, "mine fields" of steel round discs, and 4" tall pyramids in the middle of hairpin corners. The RAMS club has a very nice trailer that carries all of the obstacles and doubles as a drivers stand to give the drivers ample view of the entire track. Racing on the asphalt was a very different experience to say the least. Car set up made all the difference in the world, each set up change was very noticeable. It was fun to see how the car changed through the race. As tires heat up toward the end of the qualifier the car would handle very differently. These facts made the set up very challenging. The consistency of the track made on road racing with the Baja an absolute blast! Please visit http://www.rams-rc.com/ for more information and future events. Autocross (A Main) 3 Round# 3 Top Qualifier is Colon, Angel 21/10:06.511 (Rnd 2) www.RCScoringPro.com Race# Timing and Scoring Driver Name Pos Car# Laps Race Time Colon, Angel 1 1 41 20:01.805 Schultz, John 2 2 39 20:12.245 Scott, G 3 4 39 20:19.120 Simpson, Ted 4 8 37 20:01.616 Kelly, Tom 5 10 37 20:23.616 Travesty, XXX 6 7 36 20:12.855 Brown, Gabe 7 9 36 20:28.505 Marcos, Frank 8 3 28 15:20.996 Shauver,Erik 9 6 23 12:31.217 Davis, Ken 10 5 22 12:18.616 Autocross (B Main) 3 Round# 1 Top Qualifier is Colon, Angel 21/10:06.511 (Rnd 2) www.RCScoringPro.com Race# Timing and Scoring Driver Name Pos Car# Laps Race Time Brown, Gabe 1 1 19 10:17.161 Kelly, Tom 2 2 19 10:21.295 Wendel, Eric 3 5 18 10:08.701 Schley, Aaron 4 4 18 10:22.402 Knapp, Ed 5 3 16 9:12.685 Ali, Walter 6 6 16 10:19.401 Flynn, Mark 7 7 8 10:34.063 Gerace, Steve 8 8 0 6:00 PM On the road again! The crew heads home after a long sleepless weekend of Baja racing. If you live in the Northern California area be sure and make it out to some of the events at either of these facilities with either of these groups. Like all HPI Baja racing the prime focus of the events is pure fun, not a lot of seriousness. The staff and competitors at both locations were all extremely friendly and helpful to everyone. We all look forward to making some time to come do these events again in the future. Thanks!!
 Use your arrow keys to move through the images. |
 Use your arrow keys to move through the images. |
 Use your arrow keys to move through the images. |
 Use your arrow keys to move through the images. |
 Use your arrow keys to move through the images. |
 Use your arrow keys to move through the images. |
 Use your arrow keys to move through the images. |
 Use your arrow keys to move through the images. |
 Use your arrow keys to move through the images. |
 Use your arrow keys to move through the images. |
 Use your arrow keys to move through the images. |
 Use your arrow keys to move through the images. |
 Use your arrow keys to move through the images. |
 Use your arrow keys to move through the images. |
 Use your arrow keys to move through the images. |
 Use your arrow keys to move through the images. |
 Use your arrow keys to move through the images. |
 Use your arrow keys to move through the images. |
 Use your arrow keys to move through the images. |
 Use your arrow keys to move through the images. |
 Use your arrow keys to move through the images. |
 Use your arrow keys to move through the images. |
 Use your arrow keys to move through the images. |
 Use your arrow keys to move through the images. |
 Use your arrow keys to move through the images. |
 Use your arrow keys to move through the images. |
 Use your arrow keys to move through the images. |
 Use your arrow keys to move through the images. |
 Use your arrow keys to move through the images. |
 Use your arrow keys to move through the images. |
 Use your arrow keys to move through the images. |
 Use your arrow keys to move through the images. |
 Use your arrow keys to move through the images. |
 Use your arrow keys to move through the images. |
 Use your arrow keys to move through the images. |
|
