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properchopper
07-30-2012, 11:51 AM
Apologies for posting in the Q & A forum, but seems to get buried in the Race section & the news is GOOD for everyone! Here's the deal :
Yesterday the SoCal Scale Thunderboat Club hosted a scale race at Legg Lake and our ever-so-FE friendly NAMBA D19 Director Ted McKay arranged for inclusion of four rounds of P-Ltd Cat 6-lap oval racing. The day was warm and sunny, the gassers were the same D19 Amigos , CPR's, H20 Gassers and others and the vibes were totally friendly and kicked back. Ted (Geico), Kim (Mystic), Stephen (Geico), Naveed (Mean Machine) and myself(Motley) had a ball on the oval, and the point I'm trying to make here is that these current RTR's can, with a budget-friendly investment, offer some exciting times minus the dollar crunching that other forms of racing can require. Point is that the emerging state of RTR's are really advancing the hobby and the fun/excitement level and that's GOOD NEWS for us all.

Result-wise : Well it's hard to tell the whole story - while you're piloting your boat you don't know what's going on with the rest of the pack, but in general : Ted's Geico was outdriving us all - My Motley was a good half-lap faster than all the other boats but a last minute servo replacement with a too-long servo arm (shameless excuse time:olleyes:) had the Motley getting way squirelly and oversteering. Stephen and Kim met mid-course and took out Kim's rudder, Ted drove flawlessly always beating me to (and holding) lane one, and I gave the buoys a good thrashing trying to get inside him to run away from him on the straightaways. Stephen got bitten by the loose-collet bug in one heat and found some fliperoo water as well. Naveed just kept plodding on with his underpropped MM but kept finishing. The highlight of the day (one of them, for me at least) was the last heat when Ted and I battled it out for the lead and at least five gas guys on the driver's stand were completely caught up in the action and were wildly gesticulating and shouting encouragement for me to overtake their homeboy Ted, but I rolled it on the last lap exiting turn two muffing what would have been a great drag race to the finish line.

The point I'm trying to make here is that FE, with the arrival of some accessably priced solid product, is alive and well, and we'll all benefit from it whether racing or funning.

Oh, the Class win ? Good old Naveed and his slower but consistantly finishing UL-1 motor powered Mean Machine scored the most points :rockon2:

Fluid
07-30-2012, 11:59 AM
Great story Tony! I'm glad y'all had a great time, and it looks like the fuelers got into it as well. Any new converts? (Maybe you can play an audio tape of a motocross race to give the sound effects some of them seem to require....). :wink:


.

ray schrauwen
07-30-2012, 12:01 PM
Consistency wins out over speed many times.

properchopper
07-30-2012, 12:21 PM
Great story Tony! I'm glad y'all had a great time, and it looks like the fuelers got into it as well. Any new converts? (Maybe you can play an audio tape of a motocross race to give the sound effects some of them seem to require....). :wink:


.

Turns out I'm about to build a P-Mono for NAMBA's National Gas Chairman - How's that for some news ?

Oh, and I have to work out how to put a playing card in the prop for that buzzing sound (NOT:olleyes:)

CornelP
07-30-2012, 12:28 PM
Better try one of these:
http://www.westbourne-model.co.uk/acatalog/Sound_Systems.html

TheShaughnessy
07-30-2012, 12:37 PM
congrats on the race Guys, exciting stuff. Sorry i couldn't make it down to support the race. My limited rig is out of commission at the moment due to a faulty rx with out the fail safe set ( could have swore i did) Slammed into the shore so needs a bit of TlC that i haven't gotten around to giving.

properchopper
07-30-2012, 12:42 PM
congrats on the race Guys, exciting stuff. Sorry i couldn't make it down to support the race. My limited rig is out of commission at the moment due to a faulty rx with out the fail safe set ( could have swore i did) Slammed into the shore so needs a bit of TlC that i haven't gotten around to giving.

Mike, no prob. If I can be helpfull in any way on the fix, LMK

CHIEFY_44
07-30-2012, 09:27 PM
A big thxs to mister director Ted mackay for arranging this race, your the man Ted thank you I had a great time. Also gotta agree with Tony this class of racing will bring more people into the sport as these rtr boats are really starting to hit the spot for cheap and fun racing, my mg is the cheapest boat I own and I admit I have done a lot of work to the hull as I usually run castle 2200kv motor in it, as Ted showed us in set up but driven well you really don't need to do anything but basic setup like cog, strut height and prop selection you can be competitive. Come on guys let's try get this as a namba racing class.

Chilli
07-30-2012, 11:17 PM
Oh, and I have to work out how to put a playing card in the prop for that buzzing sound (NOT:olleyes:)

Here you go Tony. We call it the Finch Device. Named after IMPBA Hall of Fame member John Finch.

properchopper
07-31-2012, 12:45 AM
Here you go Tony. We call it the Finch Device. Named after IMPBA Hall of Fame member John Finch.

Great idea !!

I'll test it on my custom Properchopper Redneck Vac-U-Pickle

81697

Steven Vaccaro
07-31-2012, 07:45 AM
Good job Tony!

properchopper
07-31-2012, 11:11 AM
Good job Tony!

Thanks, Steven. It just hit me that your signature," Offshore Electrics.Com - Where Racing on a Budget is a Reality" is absolutely in synch with the growing trend to promote and put on classes like P-Ltd Cat Oval Sprint. With the welcome and growing proliferation of solid rtr's - both cats and monos, coupled with the energy and fun factor of racing these, the door's wide open for anyone to jump in. P-Ltd Cat is in the pipeline to becoming a NAMBA sanctioned class and P-Ltd mono is likely to follow(had a conversation with Ken Haines yesterday and he's looking at putting a Ltd Mono class into the WaveBlasters race lineup.) Furthermore, as Jay pointed out, there's been some promising indication, at least based on the buzz among the fuelers who witnesses the cat race Sunday, that some crossing over might be in the cards. (Plus, these guys know how to RACE, and have been especially helpfull in teaching on-the-course skills). Add to that, at least here in D19, the offer that our Director made Sunday which allows the opportunity to include certain FE classes that we can fill to be put into future district SCALE events. As of now, P-Ltd Sport Hydro and P-Mono can run during scheduled races if the class minimum is met.

TheShaughnessy
07-31-2012, 02:54 PM
tony check your email. Good chance I'm just confused, but Ted described something slightly different, or at least i thought he did. Just want to clarify the ANY FE class part.

properchopper
07-31-2012, 03:42 PM
tony check your email. Good chance I'm just confused, but Ted described something slightly different, or at least i thought he did. Just want to clarify the ANY FE class part.

You're correct. I screwed the pooch in my misunderstanding; Ted said He'll allow a qualifying class of certain boats during the SCALE races. NOT any D19 event. My bad - too much dain bramage.:unsure:

TheShaughnessy
07-31-2012, 03:51 PM
Either way that is still good news. Electric boats going main stream, love it. A buddy just picked up a mystic hull, now if only i could get him to race it.

watts=power
07-31-2012, 04:00 PM
Wow I have been on hiatus for way to long, glad I made it out to Legg as a spectator on Sunday.

After checking out the P-Spec-Cat class I am dusting off a drifter and looking over the power requirements, I want to get in on this. Tony, glad to see a familiar face at the lake, look forward to running some boats this summer.

properchopper
07-31-2012, 04:53 PM
Wow I have been on hiatus for way to long, glad I made it out to Legg as a spectator on Sunday.

After checking out the P-Spec-Cat class I am dusting off a drifter and looking over the power requirements, I want to get in on this. Tony, glad to see a familiar face at the lake, look forward to running some boats this summer.

Bro, Good seeing you too. Been several years since we played "Dueling Drifters" . Also, you're an original member of SoCal FE ! To re-enlist, just bring your $5/month back dues up to date; let's see ; about 4-5 years, 12 months/year = :just-kidding:

Brad's still running my original Drifter S; my second one, UL-1 powered, holds the current P-Ltd Offshore (LSO) record at 67.771 mph with a 71 mph pass left on the table. Pop a UL-1 motor in one of yours and let's play. Might be a little small to race against the 29" - 30" cats, but there's other options. PM me your e-mail (I had it but can't find it) & I'll put you on the club e-mailing list.