Category Archives: JQ USA Tour

Jan 07 2017
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10th Scale Stuff, JQ USA Tour, PR Racing Advice, Race Reports

PR Racing MM and FM Setups for Dirt.

So, today me and Matt Schreffler were on it again, at OCRC! Matt TQed and I was 2nd this time, with both of us getting our runs in, in the 2nd round, under pressure. And this time we made it round clean for the first lap! That was great, then maybe on the 3rd lap Matt hit the pipe and collected me :-D. So there was a 4-way battle with Nick Miller and “The Admiral”. Eventually Matt got to the front, and I got 2nd. I managed to get 2seconds from Matt, and then with about 2 laps to go I sent it on the quad and jumped off the track. I still managed to hold on to 2nd. Miller time tried to pass me at one point, so I punched it and swerved right into him, unintentionally, it was like James Stewart when looses it in the woops, sort of deal. On that subject, he just posted he isn’t retiring. Thank you motocross god. Anygays, sorry Nick, I didn’t meant to take you out.

So here are my PR Racing 2WD setups, pretty dialed if you ask me. I haven’t run the MM now in a while, but I almost think I would run the stock front bulkhead, and not dremel the front arm, just run the hub forward like on the FM for less steering, or back for more. There was a mistake on the MM setup before, so I am posting it again.

*Uptravel limited with 2mm shims + 1 o-ring on all shocks.

PR Racing S1V3-MM QUAGRAINE Setup OCRC USA December 2016

PR Racing S1V3-FM QUAGRAINE Setup OCRC USA January 2016

FM Version

MM Version

Jan 02 2017
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#rcgypsy, #TBT, JQ USA Tour

A day in my life – This video still makes me laugh

I was reminded of this video today because I saw that same (homeless?) guy I gave money to in the video. He rode by on his bike and I recognised him!

Dec 22 2016
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10th Scale Stuff, driving, JQ USA Tour, Race Reports, RC Tracks

2wd 1st Win Ever & LiveRC

FINALLY! I finally kept my shit together enough to win a club race in 2wd at OCRC. For anyone who hasn’t been there, I can tell you, that it’s not an easy task! The locals are super fast here, and specially in 2wd. It was a great race too, 5 lead changes, 3 different leaders, and check out that sweet inside move for the lead at 1:50 or so. How do you like them apples?

If you have been reading this blog, you know that I started it by saying that I want to see if it’s possible to go from average to above average by dedicating more time to driving practice, and having a thoughtful approach to improving. One of my goals was to improve in 2wd in America, because it’s a hard class to do well in here. When I arrived I was getting lapped by these guys, and now just over a month later I can hang with them. There’s still 1 month until the Reedy Race, so let’s see if I can find some more speed for that. One good thing this year, is that the drivers I am racing against now, have in past years been completely unbeatable for me. I’m talking a lap faster in 5 minutes. So some improvements have been made, that’s obvious. The PR Racing car is working well too. I have been running the standup gear box MM version, but now I will be trying the lay down FM version to see how that performs. Everyone else is running lay down cars, so I might as well give it a try.

LiveRC have recently updated their websites results viewing section, and after hating the damn thing at the worlds, I am beginning to understand it. I still click on the wrong link at least once before getting to see the results where I get to check my lap times, but this version clearly has a lot more potential than the previous one. One cool feature I didn’t even notice until today was that you can watch all the races on the results page, at least from OCRC. The results page for the above race is here.

Not bad, not bad at all. Now just make it a bit more simple and clear to use, and it’s a winner! And fix the glitches, I mean there still isn’t a results sheet from the Worlds in Vegas….

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Dec 18 2016
4 Comments
JQ USA Tour, Race Reports

Time For a Break

revToday was the last nitro race for me of the year. It didn’t go very well. Qualifying was ok, King TQed, Drake was 2nd and I was 3rd, but we were all within about 5 seconds. The track was very tricky, and this time I made the mistakes that I didn’t make last week. Laptimes were good, and I felt good. But then in the main, once again it didn’t work out, but this time I drove really bad. I really sucked in the main. I didn’t get a good pace going at any time. I’m not making excuses, I wasn’t on the pace, but I really need to figure out this racing at night thing. My eyes loose focus on the car, and I find myself losing the car in sections for a fraction of a second, and then I have to “find it” again. It’s really frustrating, I don’t know how to fix that. I’ll do a corner or a jump, and find myself staring at where the car WAS. Anyway, what a terrible race to finish of with. I still finished off 4th, but not the way I wanted to end the year. Drake won from Colin Herzig, and King. Great job Colin! He was dialed all day, finally all that wrenching is paying off, maybe if you practice driving too you will start winning lol.

On a good note, Garen Hagobian drove my loaner buggy, which is identical to mine, to TQ and win in the 40+ class. This loaner buggy is an idea which we will continue with in 2017. We will have an extra car at the races for anyone to try (Adam Drake is already on the waiting list (no joke)). We will also have a car available to be shipped out to people for 1 week at a time, just so you can try it out for yourselves. We will require a deposit, but it will only end up costing you the shipping fee, for shipping it back to us. That’s it!

Finally, we got a new junior driver out on track, and looks like he will be sticking with 1:8th nitro for 2017, so that’s good. Always good to get new people into the sport!

self-made

In other news, rumours surrounding Dave Wentz grow even stronger. Today Dave was seen sporting a ARMA Energy JQRacing hat, and also incredibly won a motor, pipe, and a new transmitter, perfect for his new JQRacing buggy!

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Dec 17 2016
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#THETourist, JQ USA Tour

Insane Day

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Today was such a great day, blog posts for days. But now it’s too late, and I have to get up too early, in about 5 hours from now. I need to go. But long story short for now, I did some dirt bike riding! Went to Ocotillo Wells, if you don’t know, google it! I was an experience, that’s for sure!

Then I headed to OCRC for club racing, and was on the pace, better than ever. Now only 5 seconds or so off the 2WD 5min track record. That my friends is UNHEARD OF! PR Racing 2wd is on point! Anyway, lot’s to talk about there, but some other time.

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Dec 16 2016
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driving, JQ USA Tour, rant, THECar Advice

Small Changes To Get It Right

jqracing-we

One thing I have written about before, and I even mention in the manual, is that the right way to set up a car is to make a few small changes, and not to make huge ones. With a good, balanced car, like the White Edition LV, you can go from a loose, hard to drive car, to a stable easy one by only changing a swaybar 0.1mm, camber 1 degree, and a change in rear arm height of 0.5mm. That’s not a lot of changes at all. You might say, isn’t that a bad thing? Well, yes and no. The good cars out there are like that. Ever wonder why the Kyosho guys always run almost the same setup? The changes aren’t significant that they do, but sometimes they are dialed, and sometimes they are off the pace. And looking at their setups, it’s almost like nothing changes, only minor changes to camber, rideheight, downtravel, swaybars, springs. That’s because the car is good, and  that’s where the White Edition LV is now.

Most people would go overboard, changing links, diff oils, shock springs, tyres, 3 deg camber, adding weight, different wing….Take it easy. If you start from a setup that I have posted, to make it suit you, all you need to do is make small changes. Trust me. If you don’t know what to do, ask me.

Today I was at Revelation and my car was a bit nervous and loose for my liking, so I lowered the rear arm 0.5mm, I put a 2.6 rear swaybar on from a 2.5, and I reduced rear camber buy maybe 0.5 deg. The car was suddenly a lot better and really good for me. If I wanted to calm it down even more, I would have done some more minor changes like that, I would not have made it a whole different car!

Dec 15 2016
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10th Scale Stuff, driving, JQ USA Tour, Thoughts on Work

Racing Practice

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Recently I have managed to get a bit faster with 2wd, and I’m closer to the top pace. Where before I was over a lap off  the pace, now I’m about 10 seconds off the pace on a 5min run. That’s a huge improvement for me. This means that when club racing with drivers who I was basically just in the way of before, I’m now actually somewhat of a legit threat if they make a mistake and I don’t.

So racing is a lot more fun now, as I am racing better drivers. This means that when you have a club race at OCRC with Cavalieri, Hartson, Thielke, Denney, Thayer, Waffle Stomp Walnutz etc, I need to be perfect, and I’ll be in the mix. This sort of practice is really good, and exactly what I need right now.

Today I was doing really well, trying to push a bit more, and I made mistakes every run. It really pisses me off to crash, even in a club race, but right now I have to go faster, so I am going to crash. I can’t back it down, I need to go even faster. More practice, and the mistakes will go away.

Another thing, the mental game. I started 5th, 2 guys ahead of me tangled, I almost got by, got clipped, flipped, dead last. Mentally I just blew out right there. I made a couple of more mistakes and that was it, I still finished 5th but I should have been 3rd in that race. No matter what happens, you should always keep your focus, and not blow out and give up subconsciously. So, next race, back at it, and try and improve. It’s not easy trying to improve, but it seems like it’s possible. Skills, technique, car setup, mental game, there’s a lot to it.

Dec 12 2016
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#Inspiration, driving, JQ USA Tour, Race Reports

A Main Speed

American Adrien Bertin Greg Degani has a very direct approach when it comes to constructive critisism.

American Adrien Bertin Greg Degani has a very direct approach when it comes to constructive critisism.

So, yesterday I did the T4T race at Thunder Alley, and managed to steal the TQ away from Cody King and Adam Drake. To me that’s a huge accomplishment, because those guys are so fast here on their home tracks! This one feels better too because I don’t practice at TA as it is quite far from where I am staying, and it’s a very US style track, and very difficult for me. So all in all very good qualifying. But what I need to do now, is translate my new found speed in qualifying to speed in the main. Here are a few points.

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  1. At US races the main is almost always very different to qualifying, because it’s run at night, so the track is different. This is one hard nut for me to crack, but I think more mains at night will help. Get used to racing at night, and learn what to do to the car for those conditions.
  2. I actually have relatively little experience racing really good drivers head to head. So I need more wheel time racing for the win of these sorts of races, against good drivers like Adam and Cody. I need to be more precise with my driving, be more aggressive, and take advantage of their mistakes, as well as not give them opportunities to get by me, or punt me. Actually I was already a lot better this time than the last mains I have been in.
  3. Normally it seems that in the main, the top guys step it up, and find some extra speed. I need to be able to do that. I need to be able to get more comfortable, find a groove, and go even faster than in qualifying. I have to push myself more at these races to get faster.
I love it when tracks get rough like this!

I love it when tracks get rough like this!

As for what I could have done differently at this race, I think I should have run different tyres. Something in super soft instead of the soft impacts I ran. My car also faded at about 15-20 minutes, and I made some mistakes and lost time, before I adjusted my driving and was ok again. I think my diff oils were too thin. My engine was also too lean, I noticed it in warm up but I figured it will be ok and didn’t want any drama just before the start. It ran ok, but was a bit lean and it was harder to drive towards the end, and get all the timing right.

All in all, THECar and my racing has been heading in a positive direction over the past few months, and what I need to do now is gain the skills and confidence to do my best in the mains.

Dec 11 2016
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#Inspiration, #rcgypsy, JQ USA Tour, Race Reports

Hiljaa Hyvä Tulee

results

So I’m just going to leave this here for now, and analyse my 3rd place finish tomorrow. The big picture is, since March, when I embarked on THIS, clear progress has been made, on all fronts. Step by step improvement and progress, that’s the name of the game. I’m not done yet, even though Degani says so.

 

car

Dec 09 2016
4 Comments
10th Scale Stuff, JQ USA Tour, PR Racing Advice

PR Racing S1V3 Testing at OCRC – Base Setup

Below you can find the setup I am now running on my PR Racing mid motor standup gearbox 2wd buggy here at OCRC Raceway. This seems to be a pretty good setup for a clay off road track. Some notes for what I found today.

  • Harder springs, but not quite as hard as the PR ones, AE whites were good, along with the 2×1.7 front, 4×1.2 rear, 35/15 oils. The suspension could still be better, but this was the best so far.
  • I raised the links, lowering the roll centres front and rear to make the car more forgiving.
  • More anti squat, 2mm under the C-plate really helped the car a lot, it squares up better and has more side bite, I can drive it more aggressively.
  • 24 front, 23 rear ride height made the car have more rear grip and it felt more comfortable to drive.

Download my setup here.

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