THEQuagraine

This was my 13th European Championships, and my 4th with my own car. This year I was looking to get my best Euros result to date, but unfortunately it was not to be.

This year’s Euros marked the beginning of JQRacing, and our next step in establishing ourselves as an RC Car Racing Company. We now had a competitive car, and provided our racers with our new Pit-tents and other racing accessories. Unfortunately, our new team clothing that had been ordered already in June did not show up in time :-(. But in any case, as slow as it feels to me, we are making progress on every level! Just from last year, we have an improved car, more drivers, a clear presence at the races, and every indication that we are on the right path. This year, with 9 drivers present, we are tied for 4th, after Kyosho, Mugen and Xray, for number of driver’s at the Euros. Not bad!

We also had a bunch of new stuff! New shock towers, with an insert system for the upper link instead of the regular swiss cheese technology. Stiffer front and rear arms, and a bunch of white plastics. More about all that stuff later on when we get some pictures taken and get it all released. You can see the towers HERE.

It’s 9 not 8, I swear!

Winning in the pits! At least we win something.

Qualifying went well for me, and specially the 2nd round where I qualified 3rd. It was very hard to get a clean run in, and I had either traffic, or a mistake of my own in every run. Regardless of this, I was able to already secure my top 10 qualifying result during the first day. This was good, as now I was able to try some things on the second day of qualifying, without risking anything. Rayan Medjoubi also started off really well in qualifying, fighting for the last positions in the semi final. Unfortunately he did not get the one perfect run he needed on the second day, and just missed out, ending up in the quarter final.

Arto: “Ok I think I figured out these inserts.”

Max: “Arto, you have the wrong insert you retard, use this one.”

Jaanus Tiit (Plural form “Tits”): “I wish I was at the beach.”

An interesting point from qualifying was that Scandinavian drivers dominated, with Teemu Leino from Finland TQing one round, and David Ronnefalk from Sweden taking the remaining 4 rounds. And with 4/12 drivers eventually in the final being from Scandinavia, we must be doing something right up here in the north!

Team Finland, JQ and Teemu Leino

Check everything carefully for the finals Max, or I won’t give you any more white parts.

The finals were not very good for the JQ drivers. No one managed to bump, which was a real shame, bumping up is part of what makes 1:8th racing so great! Fortunately, when it came time for the semi finals, things changed, and I was able to bump into the main. I was quite slow in the semi final practice, and even after making some changes, I knew that I could not afford to make any mistakes if I wanted to make the main. I drove a consistent race and avoided mistakes, and managed to bump quite easily after all.

Even though he is Top Privateer, Coffe stopped by to soak in some Factory Team atmosphere.

What’s going on?

Ok I see, that’s ridiculous…There will be 100pcs for sale, may or may not go online on Monday…

For the final I knew I needed to make some big changes, as my pace just was not good enough to make any sort of challenge. I changed pistons, front link position, and tyres, but that was not enough, and unfortunately I just did not have the speed to do anything in the final. Martin Bayer had obviously also got something wrong with his setup as him and I drove around in last place far behind the others. The most boring race for me of my whole career. At least I beat all the French drivers 🙂

Thank you to all of our supporters and drivers. We believe that this was the beginning of our serious racing efforts, and next time, we are sure our newly married team manager Ilias Arkoudaris will be happy to join us. We are heading in the right direction, thank you to everyone who has stuck by us for all this time. We will get this all figured out, we are going to be successful, help you be successful, and have a lot of fun in the process, promise!

Jesus is my mechanic. Beat that! He believed in me so much that he left before the final.

R2D2, the race is over, if you haven’t figured out which way to put the inserts by now, I can’t help you.

 View Image Gallery Here (Thank you neobuggy.net and redrc.net)