Tweet
Hey guys,
This summer I've had the good fortune to make a couple friends who have been exposing me to scale racing. It's been an interesting season for sure.
I just had to put a post up about my experience racing with the Classic Thunder 1/10 scale club last Sunday.
I couldn't have had a better time. Brad Lewis and I decided to make the mods to two of his 1/10 boats and go race with these guys to see what the club was like. I've never felt more welcome at a race before. We got the boats through tech inspection, Brad's U-77 was fine but the 1957 Miss Rocket was a little long (CT has the tightest scale requirements of all the local 1/10 clubs). They gave us a waver for the day with the understanding that it needs to be corrected before it races again (the transom is being moved as we speak).
Great turnout, 16 modern and 17 vintage boats. The other thing that really impressed me was the number of boats built by the racers, lots of guys with one off stuff.
Now for the racing part of it.
The conditions were rough with a good breeze quartering the course. The first thing that became obvious was there are no dog boats, some were faster than others but generally a very high level of performance.
Second thing I noticed was that the majority of the boats were finishing heats, even in the rough conditions.
The third eye opener was the reliability of the boats, these guys are pretty savvy when it comes to the tech side. I only witnessed two mechanical failures, one broken strut (hit something in testing) and one melted connector on a prototype power system (modern boat, open motor class). Other than that, everything was dead reliable.
Now for the best part. These guys can drive and they go out to seriously race every round. Great starts and lots of corners with 2 and 3 boats running for position. Several finishes where 1st and 2nd were within a boat length of each other (including the modern final with a pass in the last corner for the win). Even with all that, there were only two contacts all day. Just great clean racing all day long.
Now for my end of the racing. Brad loaned me his '57 Miss Rocket. It's a beautiful boat built by Craig Bradshaw (I really need to take some painting lessons from these guys). The two main changes from a NAMBA legal 1/10 vintage boat were the motor switch to the Scorpion 3026-1210 outrunner and the CT legal 1.5" long .375" deep skid fin. Now I'm used to outriggers and sport boats that drive like slotcars, so you could say I was a little nervous about how it was going to handle. Not a problem, it slides yes, but it's very controllable and you can drive surprisingly consistent lines with it once you get used to it. As a rookie with driving experience, I had to start as a 5 second trailer boat until I collected 500 points in competition. It was great, the first heat I made it up to 2nd. It took some serious work to make the passes, these guys hold a lane and don't give an inch but at the same time drive very clean. I DNF'd the second heat, misjudged a corner and hit the apex bouy while trying to reel in the first place boat (yes, racer brain strikes again). On a side note, I realize I can be hard on bouys. But if you don't hit them once in a while, you just aren't trying. By the third heat I was really comfortable with the boat and the other racers, had to dodge a boat that flew off in a gust (did I mention it was a bit windy) and ended up third.
In the end I missed making the connie by a position but did collect enough points so that I'm not starting as a trailer for the next race.
Thanks so much to all the Classic Thunder members for treating the new guys like old friends. It was by far the best scale racing experience I've ever had. We'll definitely be coming back.
This summer I've had the good fortune to make a couple friends who have been exposing me to scale racing. It's been an interesting season for sure.
I just had to put a post up about my experience racing with the Classic Thunder 1/10 scale club last Sunday.
I couldn't have had a better time. Brad Lewis and I decided to make the mods to two of his 1/10 boats and go race with these guys to see what the club was like. I've never felt more welcome at a race before. We got the boats through tech inspection, Brad's U-77 was fine but the 1957 Miss Rocket was a little long (CT has the tightest scale requirements of all the local 1/10 clubs). They gave us a waver for the day with the understanding that it needs to be corrected before it races again (the transom is being moved as we speak).
Great turnout, 16 modern and 17 vintage boats. The other thing that really impressed me was the number of boats built by the racers, lots of guys with one off stuff.
Now for the racing part of it.
The conditions were rough with a good breeze quartering the course. The first thing that became obvious was there are no dog boats, some were faster than others but generally a very high level of performance.
Second thing I noticed was that the majority of the boats were finishing heats, even in the rough conditions.
The third eye opener was the reliability of the boats, these guys are pretty savvy when it comes to the tech side. I only witnessed two mechanical failures, one broken strut (hit something in testing) and one melted connector on a prototype power system (modern boat, open motor class). Other than that, everything was dead reliable.
Now for the best part. These guys can drive and they go out to seriously race every round. Great starts and lots of corners with 2 and 3 boats running for position. Several finishes where 1st and 2nd were within a boat length of each other (including the modern final with a pass in the last corner for the win). Even with all that, there were only two contacts all day. Just great clean racing all day long.
Now for my end of the racing. Brad loaned me his '57 Miss Rocket. It's a beautiful boat built by Craig Bradshaw (I really need to take some painting lessons from these guys). The two main changes from a NAMBA legal 1/10 vintage boat were the motor switch to the Scorpion 3026-1210 outrunner and the CT legal 1.5" long .375" deep skid fin. Now I'm used to outriggers and sport boats that drive like slotcars, so you could say I was a little nervous about how it was going to handle. Not a problem, it slides yes, but it's very controllable and you can drive surprisingly consistent lines with it once you get used to it. As a rookie with driving experience, I had to start as a 5 second trailer boat until I collected 500 points in competition. It was great, the first heat I made it up to 2nd. It took some serious work to make the passes, these guys hold a lane and don't give an inch but at the same time drive very clean. I DNF'd the second heat, misjudged a corner and hit the apex bouy while trying to reel in the first place boat (yes, racer brain strikes again). On a side note, I realize I can be hard on bouys. But if you don't hit them once in a while, you just aren't trying. By the third heat I was really comfortable with the boat and the other racers, had to dodge a boat that flew off in a gust (did I mention it was a bit windy) and ended up third.
In the end I missed making the connie by a position but did collect enough points so that I'm not starting as a trailer for the next race.
Thanks so much to all the Classic Thunder members for treating the new guys like old friends. It was by far the best scale racing experience I've ever had. We'll definitely be coming back.
Comment