THEQuagraine

1st 10th Euros, 11th place. His future right behind him, it’s all down to his ambition and willingness to put in the work. It’s possible…..

The 2016 1:10^th Euros are now over, and after a week of fannying around with 10^th scales on an 8^th scale track, I have gathered some thoughts here. I am too uninspired to write a structured and coherent report, so below you can read my observations, random stories, stats, and pluses and minuses. You know like dolphins or sharks, green light or red, under weight luggage or over, 4wd or 2wd, there are always some positive and some less positive things to write about.

+ Weather was great, sunny and hot. A dry heat – survivable.

+ Track was a return to offroad, got a bit rough and nasty. Good to see.

– It was an 8^th scale track. 8^th scale tracks just don’t promote the close bumper to bumper racing associated (no pun intended) with 10^th scale. Please let’s race 10^th scale on 10^th scale tracks.

One thing we learned is that breast milk really helps with concentration and focus. Max proved this after enjoying some during the week. On the topic of food:

+ The facility was decent. Not the best ever, not terrible. Kind of like my driving. Average. We had food, beverages, air pressure most of the time, pits in the shade..

– I wish they served more than dry bread and roadkill. BUT it’s better than nothing, and we can’t all be fans of Spanish food.

+ I only did 4 involuntary donuts in 2wd. This is a record.

+ I only took out one driver in 2wd…

-…3 times. Sorry Joel Valander.

In 10^th scale driver etiquette is very apparent. For the less talented drivers, it is more a question of things happening too fast and mistakes leading to contact, but when it comes to the elite, it is possible to tell a difference. They are all capable of racing close without contact most of the time, and minimising the contact if an error does occur. I think Jorn Neumann and Neil Cragg are two of the cleanest drivers out their. They respect the car in front no matter who it is. You have to admire that. And if you think you have to be dirty to win, just remember that between them they have 17 European Championships. Something to keep in mind when you are behind a driver you feel you deserve to be ahead of….

+ Control tyres. It’s good, it makes racing more fair for everyone, and a lot easier to pack for a race.

– The ProCircuit tyre cleaner provided surely gave some of us some form of cancer. That shit should be banned. Those poor girls who sat in that hot box all week had their brains soften to the extent that they could not comprehend numbers even in Spanish by Thursday evening. By Saturday they were just mumbling unintelligibly.

+ A lot of young drivers attended, and many of them were very fast. This is good for the future of the sport. Very good!

– The lack of atmosphere is quite appalling during the mains. Hush hush everyone has to be quiet. For what? We didn’t even have any announcing during the mains. I guess that’s why no penalties were handed out either, as the referees weren’t allowed to speak. We need to be able to cheer and yell ”Come on Neil!” every once in a while. It just makes it more fun, and I am sure the drivers can handle it. Even though we did have the strict decibel limit and emotion ban during the mains, when Jorn pulled that move on Coelho in the last main the crowd erupted into a 2.7 second unstoppable cheer, followed by complete silence. Get an announcer and let’s put on a show!

Some Last Thoughts

There is a thing called luck, but it’s not what most people think it is. It isn’t bad luck to rock up to the main with 1 number on your body instead of 3, and then end up starting at the back of the pack, or Craig Drescher putting a diff in the wrong way and you having to start at the back of the grid after scrambling to get it fixed. It doesn’t really apply there, that’s just stupid mistakes made at the wrong time. But when the same driver snaps an outdrive in warm up and misses the first main, and a few years back after TQ:ing the worlds rolls and breaks in warm up, and misses a main, you have to begin questioning where the line of ”you make your own luck”, and plain old uncontrollable bad luck is. You have to feel for Neil Cragg even though he has more championships than most. How often do you snap an outdrive? How often do you roll and break at that level in warm up?

Xray have got it going on right now. The crazy old man from Slovakia has done well and has built great cars and a formidable team in just about every category. Very impressive to see and one of the few companies that I feel are doing a great job in the RC industry, making a positive impact, instead of just messing around for unknown reasons. There are a lot of brands in RC at the moment, and it makes sense to support the few that are making a difference and doing more than simply selling another car.

After the Alfonso Pineda incident at the 8th scale Euros, I had a bit of a sit down with Pineda and Paul Worsley as moderator at the 10th Euros. Basically I apologised for my behaviour getting my panties in a twist over him not letting Max race, due to not marshalling his race. Pineda explained that the rule in question is not very accurate, and did not in fact cover the situations where you marshal before you race. This is why it had been decided at the team manager meeting, that the penalty for missing your marshalling would be a disqualification from your final. I accept the explanation, although I do not agree with those sort of penalties.

I apologise again publicly for losing my cool, writing some bullshit and filming some epic video isn’t the best thing to do in these situations, but I do feel like I do have a point where I am coming from. RC Racing is supposed to be fun, and every decision should be made in a way to further enhance the enjoyment of racing. When a rule is vague, how about taking the more positive conclusion every time, and then re write the rule for the future. Let’s remember that this should be fun!

On that note, I hope I never ever see someone put at the back of the grid because they aren’t in their grid spot 30 seconds before the start of the main, or see someone not allowed to race because they missed their marshalling. As drivers we put a lot of time and effort into this sport, and I feel that the rules should be made so your aren’t punished unnecessarily for small things like these.

So in short, I’m sorry for being a dick, and will not be one in the future. How about race directors do the same.