Scottsdale 2011/2012 Race dates

[D. Newland]

Club racing at McKellips Pond:

Sunday, October 9th
Sunday, November 6th
Sunday, December 4th
Sunday, January 15th at Indian School Pond

Winter Warmups VIII Fri-Sun Feb 24th-26th, 2012

Core Classes:

P-Ltd Offshore
P-Ltd OPC
P-LSH
P-Ltd Hydro
1/10th Scale

Winter Warmup classes will be posted separately.

[D. Newland]

October 9th, 2011 Club Race

85 degrees and sunny. It was a perfect race day, though we were a little low on attendance. No matter!

OPC: 3 racers entered. Dave Zelinka, Dick Roberts and Gary Rose. Dave runs a VS-1 and the boat runs very well, getting (2) 1st place finishes and (2) 2nd place finishes for an overall win. Dick was close behind with his Cobra tunnel, but he was having steering throw issues later in the day. Gary spent too much time running his boat without the cowl! A light love-tap or a barrel roll would have that thing bobbing up and down on the race course. However, and I forget the make, his boat had a very good ride attitude and he even let Ted McKay run that last heat with it. HPK...HPR...something like that.

Dave Zelinka: 1400 pts
Dick Roberts: 1325 pts
Gary Rose: 350 pts.

P-Ltd Mono: This is the first time our club ran this class as we typically run P-Ltd Offshore, but we thought we'd give it a go. We had a shortened course due to some pond weeds in the back-field, so we actually were running 8 laps all day, anyway. 5 boats made this class and it was a good group of boats. Cyberstorm 32, a Delta Force knock-off, NS-3, Rico and a Titan 29. Welcome Lucas Newland to the adult class! He has his chops and raced hard all day, plus (enjoyed) retrieving all day for us. He was running a NS-3 that he ran the previous week at the District race in the kids class. The guys were cool with him running a 12L Nemesis and an x637 prop as I was too lazy to set him up with a legal setup. Next time!

The kid had me beat through 6 laps at the 3rd round, but he lightly got tied up w/a dead boat and flipped. The last round, he got me. Unfortunately, I don't have much else to report on this class as I was busy racing my boat, stopping the countdown clock mid-race and pitting for Lucas!

David Newland: 1500 pts
Lucas Newland: 750 pts
Dave Zelinka: 575 pts
Dick Roberts: 225 pts
Gary Rose: 219 pts

P-LSH: 4 racers made this class with 3 Insanes and Gary's ever-so-trustworthy UL-1. Well, not today. Ted and I kept trying to get a good heat together, but he got plagued early with a leaky O-ring and fought back the demons just enough to get his boat to finish. He was also confused about the 8 laps vs. 6 as he thought he won the 2nd round. If he wouldn't have DNF'd early in the 1st round he would have known we were running 8! I made my move just after lap 6. At least he had that "duh-winning!" Charlie Sheen feeling for 6 laps.

David Newland: 1225
Ted McKay: 1025
Gary Rose: 550
Dick Roberts: 75

Dick and Gary also did an exhibition run of their 10th Scales for 1 round.

Next race, Sunday November 6th!

[D. Newland]

Next race Nov 6th.

[Bullwink]

Hi David

I am new ro RC Boats after a 25 year hiatus. I live here in Phoenix. Can you give me some more info of the races? Where exactly is McKellips pond? I have run at Indian School and Hayden.

Kerry

[D. Newland]

Kerry-I'm sorry that I didn't check this thread since you posted. McKellips Pond is at the southwest corner of Hayden and McKellips Rd. Just a few miles south of the Indian School Pond.

[D. Newland]

11/06/11

We had a storm roll through late Friday night that lasted into Saturday. It left us with a perfect day on Sunday. Sunny and 65 degrees. We were still down a few members from a typical club showing. A few injuries and a possible life change...Paul? Saturday nights creating a bit of a problem come early Sunday morning, perhaps? Get back out there, man!

OPC:

Dave Zelinka still has has VS-1 running very well. Dick was trying out another Cobra build but was having one of those days where the dang thing ran perfect a few days before the event, then the gremlins went to work. I still like Gary's ride attitude. A little loose as he flew it off the last heat, but it looks good right before it does it!

OPC:

Dave Z: 1125 pts
Gary: 750 pts
Dick: 425 pts

LSH was also a 3 boat heat. Ted McKay was trying out some fresh drive line modifications he had worked on non-stop for the past 4 weeks and it seemed to work fine...if he'd just have worked on finding the leak. A little water on the servo and/or Rx put him (lightly) in the bank grass a few times. But, heat 3 finally provided an opportunity for us to get some close laps in. Gary finally ran out of duct tape for his UL-1 and retired his hull. Not to the pond gods, but to my kids. No-it won't be re-built. Maybe nailed to the wall as art or something! I finally got the turn fin shape and position where I like it on my Insane.

David N: 1200 pts
Gary: 350 pts
Ted: 75 pts

P-Ltd Mono

We pulled it together for this class. 6 boats, and welcome Kim McKay to the racing circuit with a fresh 32" Cyberstorm build. Dick put together 29" Delta Force and had it running very well for this race, and I tried my Delta Force 25", which is my N-2 hull. No wind to speak of today, but 6 boats did create some good chop and we have a wave-effect entering turn 3 that can create some hairy situations. I think it was a good "test" day for that boat.

Dick, Josh Newland (BBY Patriot) and I were 4/4 with finishes. Kim had a gremlin or two, but the last heat she thought she flipped so she called herself dead and proceeded to watch the rest of the race. After the race, we (well, she) realized that she thought Dave Z's flipped boat was hers and her boat was nicely parked inside of the turn 1 point buoy, just waiting to go out and play but frustrated as to why it's owner just wouldn't squeeze the trigger! Woops. Dave Z is running the Delta clone and he did major drive line and tab mod's over the past month and he's much happier and is going in the right direction, but there is still some tuning to do. Last month, I think he was ready to give it to me to nail on my wall as art, too.

Lucas Newland had his NS-3 running well the but the turn 3 wave action got him in 1 heat, and the final heat he climbed up a rooster tail. My Delta 25 was a rocket, but had to be "driven" by lap 3. I'm used to a full throttle boat for 6 laps, but I actually had fun running this boat. Everyone kept adding laps for me, saying I cut this and hit that. Poor sports. Sometimes bringing a scalpel to a gun fight works. After taking the 1st 2 heats, my boys were pissin' and moanin', so I let them pick the prop for the 3rd heat. Josh pulls out an X437 that had been shaved down to 35 mm, back cut and shaped. I was running a 45/55 for the first 2 heats. Well, the 3rd heat 5 out of 6 boats finished, and I got 5th. Sorry kids, I'm picking the prop for the 4th round. I'm such a jerk. X440 I thought was a fair compromise...and still enough to spank.

David N: 1325 pts
Josh N: 1021 pts
Dick R: 919 pts
Lucas N: 650 pts
Dave Z: 444 pts
Kim M: 200 pts

Other than Gary retiring his UL-1, no carnage! I don't think his boat was involved in any carnage (1 love-tap by me), it was just plain worn out.

Gary and Dick also tested their 1/10th scales and 1/6th CB's, and Pat showed up and brought his newly purchased Jersey Skiff. It will be cool to see them run the course at WW VIII.

[D. Newland]

12/04/11

Another storm rolled through a few days before raceday, making for a very sunny day...but cooler. 38 degrees in the morning, then heating up to 56 degrees by mid-day. I actually had a hard time setting up the course because of the fog. Still down a few members, but Leonard Feeback was out today running 1/10th scale with us.

P-Ltd Offshore

We have been running P-Ltd Mono this season, but wanted to get some O/S practice before WW VIII, so we set up the O/S course. The cold (or my bad epoxy job) took issue with Kim's servo mount, which came unglued before the 1st heat. A nice CA job got the boat back in business for the rest of the day. I suffered from my pushrod coming off of the servo, plus a bad leak, so I scratched a few heats. Lucas and Joshua came out with (finally) legal P-Ltd boats and did well, but I was chasing electrical/radio issues early in the AM with their boats. I think that was their first time on an O/S 4 min course, too. Gary had fun watching me drive, flip and tune his Titan 29 for a few rounds and learning that his boat is actually quite capable of running away from the field...once he gets new cells. And, I think he was the only one without a scratch today! But, Dave Zelinka cleaned house. Not fazed by the weather or 6 boats on a tight course. 4 finishes with no penalties.

Dave Z: 43 3/4 laps
Team McKay: 31 laps
Lucas N.: 24 1/4 laps
Josh N.: 23 laps
David N.: 16 1/4 laps
Gary Rose: 6 laps...but a nice running Titan 29 by the end of the day!


LSH:

Just me and Ted today, so we continued testing/tuning our Insane 30's. They are running dang near identical, but mine was a little light in the nose today, for some reason.

Ted McKay: 1100 pts
David N.: 750 pts


OPC

I finally dusted off the Purple Passion Cobra, which hasn't been run since April. I spent the last month on some rather detailed sponson mods and I'm happy with the results. Though Gary didn't finish well, he was happy to get some tuning work done and he's closer to having a really smooth running tunnel for WW VIII. Dave's VS-1 continues to give him consistant finishes, too.

David N: 1200 pts
Dave Z: 900 pts
Gary Rose: 75 pts


1/10th Scale

It was nice having Leonard join us today. His boat is smooth. Really smooth. Also, Ted has a 1/10th scale running, but it still needs some tuning.

Leonard Feeback: 825 pts
Gary Rose: 725 pts
Ted McKay: 25 pts

We are scheduled to run our next race January 15th, 2012 at the Indian School pond since McKellips gets drained for dam maintenance. However, please pay attention to this thread and your email boxes...the date may change to the 14th (Saturday) so we don't interfere w/the Gas guys testing on Sunday.

[D. Newland]

01/14/12

A very nice race day on Saturday. We had a little breeze, but nothing serious to contend with, and a high of 71 degrees. We were at our back-up pond due to dam maintenance at McKellips. it's an odd-ball pond to hold a race due to a poor race-stand position (right off of turn 1 buoy), but it works for tuning. And, we're ready for WW VIII!

P-Ltd Mono

Back to P-Ltd mono and I must say it's every bit as fun and exciting as P-Ltd Offshore. I thought at the beginning of the season that, if given the choice, I would want to run Offshore...but sprinting this class is loads of fun, too. After doing it...3 times I think, it's really a toss up which I like better. For this day, consisency ruled. Kim McKay ran a steady race for all 4 heats and stayed away from the Dave and Dave rubbing and bumping show, even though we discussed at the beginning of the race day to take it easy as we don't want to be repairing boats before WW VIII. Well, D and D have a little repairing to do! Fortunately, nothing major. All good fun. Welcome Kerry Winkle to the drivers stand! He has a load of FE boats and is just starting to get used to the racing scene. The day didn't go his way, but with more stick time, he'll be ready for WW VIII.

Kim McKay: 1225 points
Dave Zelinka: 1025 points
David Newland: 1025 points (my DQ in round 4 gives the overall 2nd place to Dave thanks to hard-ass CD, Ted McKay! So what if I cut 3 buoys).
Kerry Winkle 100 pts

Here's Kim with her winning boat!

Kim Ptd mono.jpg

OPC:

Just Dave Zelinka and I today and his VS-1 continues to perform. I made the mistake of doing sponson mods on my Cobra tunnel with poor results. I mean, I just can't leave the '10 Nat's champ boat alone. What's with me. We ended early as Dave ran into some servo issues and his servo requires 10 tools and various parts to be disassembled to get at it.

Dave Zelinka: 425 pts
David Newland: 325 pts

LSH:

Another 2 man show, so Ted and I kept tweaking as the day went on to prepare for WW VIII. Our boats are so, so close in performance that it created a spectacle for onlookers to watch. Unfortunately, a little water in the hull may have shut him down in round 4.

David Newland: 1500 pts
Ted McKay: 1000 pts

That's it! Congratulations again to Kim for having a great showing with her Whataburger Cyberstorm 32. We'll see you guys at WW VIII Feb 24th-26th. If anyone has questions about the upcoming race, please let me know.

[D. Newland]

Forgot to mention...Pat does have his Jersey Skiff running! He made a couple of test runs and it does run like a skiff! Up wind it took flight, but suprisingly landed right side up...except for 1 time..?

Anyway, it will be a hoot to see Pat and Tony go head-to-head in February!

[D. Newland]

2 more club dates before we close out the season.

Sunday, March 25th, and Sunday, May 6th.

March 25th: P-Ltd Mono (rather than Offshore), plus LSH, OPC, riggers, 1/10th scales and whatever else shows up. My P mono will be there

May 6th: P-Ltd Offshore (rather than Mono), plus P mono, LSH, OPC, riggers, 1/10th scales and whatever else shows up.

Both dates at McKellips pond.

[D. Newland]

03/25/12

Light day today due to a district race schedule change that landed on our club date. No problem, though! It really turned into a very nice tuning session with some racing mixed in as well. We had nice weather (high 70's) with the breeze picking up in the afternoon.

OPC:

Dave Zelinka is working on some prop changes to his VS-1, and also snapped a cable. I've been chasing setup issues on my Cobra ever since I blue-printed the bottom and changed from a Hyperformance bullet drive to an OS drive. But, I think I'm getting closer. Nothing more frustrating than deciding to change a National Championship boat, then having 1 headache after the next.

David N: 825

Dave Z: 450


P Mono

We have enough P Mono's now to have a nice club run and I'm glad we put it on the schedule. Kerry was chasing ESC setup issues all day, but was getting his finishes and he made nice progress for round 3 and finally had some good speed. Dave Z and I swapped back and forth with our Titan's, that are very well matched.

David N: 1200 pts
Dave Z: 900 pts
Kerry: 675 pts

P-Ltd Offshore

I had my Delta 25 set up for this class because my Cyberstorm is in pieces. Something about my desire to change a perfectly good running boat again. Anyway, our Offshore track is a good one, if I do say so myself. You really can get into a groove with it. Dave and I were neck and neck the entire 3 heats, with just minor driver errors causing each of us to give up the lead. He runs the knock-off Delta Force and it was running better than ever. My boat got a little small by the 3rd round due to the wind. I submarined it twice, but it came back up-right each time. Kerry's still working the bugs out of his Impulse 31. It will get there!

David N: 34 3/4 laps
Dave Z: 33 laps
Kerry: 4 1/4 laps

Next race, and last race of the season, is May 6th! I'm hopeful the weeds won't be a problem...

[D. Newland]

05/06/12

Sunny and a high of 91 degrees today for our last race of the season. We had 8 drivers today, with a few gas guys running the course for practice between FE heats. We're coming up on the Nat's so the only thing said at the drivers meeting was, "don't crash into anybody". Did we listen...??? We were also dealing with the hottest day of racing this season. Still somewhat comfortable, but we had to pay more attention to the equipment as it was around 15-20 degrees hotter ambient, and the water temp was probably +25 degrees as well. However, nothing baked, so I guess we're doing OK!

LSH:

A full 6 boat heat and 4 rounds today. Ted McKay was half asleep all day, but it worked to his advantage because he just went out there and raced his race and let the rest of us flounder in misery. I couldn't keep my boat upright, after changing nothing after a district race in Tucson last month where the boat was flawless. Well, I take that back, I put stickers on it. Hmmmm. Jim Osborne was tuning a new turn-fin all day and never did find the tune. Kerry's boat is fast, but can't finish. There was a collision somewhere, too, but I just know my pit guys Ted, Jim and I weren't involved! We've got some work to do before June...

Ted McKay: 1500 pts
Dick Roberts: 494 pts
David N.: 475 pts
Jim Osborne: 375 pts
Gary Rose: 225 pts
Kerry Winkle: 100 pts Perfect!


P Mono:

More pre-nats shenanigans. Ted's boat didn't move after the 1st heat launch. 2 ESC motor connectors de-soldered during the last district race and the shrink hid it. I guess he didn't blip the throttle in the pits..? Like I said, he was half asleep all day. Then in round two, his boat died 100 feet from the finish line and it turns out his 1521 1.5D puked the endbell. Pinned my ass. Fortunately, the motor is fine but that ended his day. It took Gary until after each heat to figure out his Titan 40 has serious potential...he just couldn't prove it during a race. I think Dick and Kerry got tied up in the 1st heat before the start, too, but Dick laid it down for the next 2 races. I was comfortably in the lead with (2) heat wins, but the gremlins got me in the third heat as I lost steering just before turn 1 and my boat coasted right up onto the concrete dam. Damn. Fortunately, just a few scrapes and a needed filing to the lower rudder and I'm back in business. Needless to say, we all looked at each other and said 3 rounds is enough of P mono today!

David N: 825 pts
Dick Roberts: 700 pts
Gary Rose: 325 pts
Ted McKay: 25 pts
Kerry Winkle: 25 pts

P-Ltd Mono

OK-we got our crap together for P-Ltd Mono. A full 6 boat heat, which included my boys Luke and Josh. Jim has a brand new Cyberstorm that was off-the-bench worthy of competing. I had a manageably-tuned Delta Force 26, Luke had my Cyberstorm, Josh the BBY Patriot, Kerry the Impulse 31 and Dick had (I think) a Delta 29. Jim had 4 solid finishes, but not as solid as Luke with (1) 3rd place and (3) 1st place finishes. Josh's BBY Patriot is getting tired...and may be forced into retirement after 9 years of turning laps. He had 2 stuffs which turned into DNF's. Usually, that boat pops up upright! Kerry is still working on the Impulse and did get 2 finishes with it today.

Luke N: 1369 pts
Jim Osborne: 1050 pts
David N: 950 pts
Josh N: 519 pts
Dick R: 402 pts
Kerry W: 315 pts

We had a good season and the '12/'13 looks promising! We'll get fired up again in October. Stay tuned.

[properchopper]

David,

Nice report. Sounds like good practice for June. Darn, I may have to set up a dual residence to get some more racing action to feed my addiction. Oh, dibs on the Patriot if you retire it; what a good boat !

[D. Newland]

Final season point standings:

OPC:

Dave Zelinka: 5950
David Newland: 3725
Pete Wijatyk: 1900
Gary Rose: 1775
Dick Roberts: 1750


P-Ltd Mono:

David Newland: 5625
Dave Zelinka: 2913
Lucas Newland: 2769
Dick Roberts: 1923
Josh Newland: 1540
Kim McKay: 1425
Jim Osborne: 1050
Pete Wijatyk: 825
Kerry Winkle: 465
Gary Rose: 419


LSH:

David Newland: 6775
Ted McKay: 5963
Jim Osborne: 1744
Gary Rose: 1369
Dick Roberts: 569
Kerry Winkle: 100


P-Ltd Offshore: (400 for class win, 300 for 2nd, etc...no individual heat points tabulated)

David Newland: 927
Dave Zelinka: 741
Kim McKay: 369
Pete Wijatyk: 300
Kerry Winkle: 250
Lucas Newland: 225
Josh Newland: 169
Gary Rose: 96

P Mono:

David Newland: 3950
Dave Zelinka: 2250
Dick Roberts: 2100
Ted McKay: 1544
Kerry Winkle: 1194
Gary Rose: 325