It’s that time! Got the best birthday present. Trip to the Dominican Republic after the Euros Warm up. It is/was actually a TLR race, but it seems I am the best TLR representative available:-) I’ll take it. Time for some RC racing, JQ RC School, and a birthday celebration. Get the coconuts ready!
It’s late, I’m tired, and I still have to do my clutch, so eff off. Find something else to be offended about and someone else to hate today.
Name: Fat Jesus (aka David Gibson)
Nationality: English living and working in USA. (5 years)
What type of racing do you do?
1/10th and 1/8th off road.
How long have you been racing?
I started when I was a kid, stopped for a while and then started again about 8 years ago.
Current chassis / manufacturer?
Well last year it was Mugen, this year I have changed to HB but so far this year I have only run the 1/8 electric chassis.
How would you describe your skill / experience level?
Competitive / good club racer
Other races recently?
PNB 2017, Motorama. Reedy race.
How many Neos have you attended ?
About 5
How have you found The Neo generally this year?
The event’s as good as ever. Having been racing in USA it is great to come back to this level of professionalism and event organization. Phil, DXR, the BRCA and all the other staff do an awesome job, but the quality of drivers and competition is great as well.
How have you found spending time with the JQRacing Team?
Is this a serious interview ? (smiling) Its been good fun, everyone is helpful. A small but genuinely passionate team. People seem to be in the team because they genuinely believe in what JQ is trying to achieve. By the way it’s possibly the rudest team I have ever pitted with. It’s good fun. (smiling).
What were your reasons for trying a BLACK Edition?
Two reasons, one I was genuinely tempted to buy a Black Edition but once Lee Martin signed with Infinity and decided to race the HB I did as well. (note : Lee Martin is a friend of David’s so he generally runs the same chassis as Lee. Currently Lee is able to race different chassis as the infinity product does not exist yet). So my reasons for trying the Black Edition are that I had previously consider buying one, my HB nitro chassis arrived too late to get prepared for The Neo and when I saw the JQR Black Edition loaner for Neo advertisement I thought it was a great opportunity.
Initial impressions?
Solid. Looks strong. Well put together plus some clever ideas like the electrics being easy to install for example. You can tell it is designed by an engineer and racer as there are good solutions to common problems.
Practice impressions?
The Black Edition immediately felt safe, neutral on the jumps and good on the bumps. JQ suggested more toe in on the rear hubs and it was good throughout day one. However I did not do enough laps due to small engine issues and a few maintenance related teething problems.
Qualifying?
I drove poorly for the first round, crashing mainly due to poor judgment of distance. Once I got in the groove from Q2 onwards the Black Edition was excellent. As the track got more rutted it became obvious the car has no vices. Jumps, bumps, holes, the wash board section the Black Edition was excellent.
This the fourth year I have been eligible for the over 35 final and the first year made it. It is also my best ever overall Neo qualifying. To achieve that with a car with which I had absolutely no previous experience with says a lot about the Black Edtion. (Ed. note David qualified 101st overall)
Finals?
The BE felt good. Even with track rutted the car handled well. I struggled with getting into a driving rhythm though, partly due to engine damage affecting the tune
Overall?
It has been an awesome race meeting, I really enjoyed it. I qualified well but had a few engines issues in the main, however due to the strong qualifying I may not have bumped anyway. The car was really good, it didn’t miss a beat all weekend
Over all comments and thoughts?
I have run a lot of different cars and this is the first one I have run that I can’t think of a weakness. A very very good car for people to try. Probably what speaks to the truth of that more than anything is I have now asked my local stockist in the US to sell me a BE and Ebuggy so I can keep running the brand as a paying customer! JQ’s design is good and he was helpful throughout neo with setups and parts.
Finally a huge thank you to all of the JQRacing Team, especially JQ and Liam (Team Manager). The car, pitting, help, it was fun, the team supper, awesome weekend. Many thanks.
Well, it’s slightly challenging to write about the top guys, because I am busy smashing into them in the top heat. So far the highlights of my qualifying.
A lot of engineering going on in this hall!
Ironically, I am at the moment exactly where I normally am, around 20th. A year ago I wrote “It Sucks to Suck” and around the same time publicly announced that I would rather not suck anymore, and that I would try and improve as a driver. Well, one year later, same result, so FAIL you might say, but I’m actually not too unhappy. The reason is, that before I had this 20th or so pace when driving perfect heats, and not crashing. This year, I am having meltdowns, or crashes of epic proportions at times, and I am still 20th. The thing is, that I am in fact a lot faster, and also pushing more, and I just end up with one or two crashes, or traffic issues, and my time is basically about 10-15 seconds slower than a clean run. What that means, is that I basically have a 10-15 second better pace now, and if I can eliminate the mistakes, I will be much better. And it’s not like it’s impossible. In the 2nd round, I had 10 great laps, and one crash on one lap leading to a 9 second loss.
Having said that, I always drive a lot better in finals, so with the speed I have now, I am quite confident for the finals, I think I can do well if everything works. It’s going to be great fun to do battle (NO pun intended) in the mains.
On another note, JQRacing had a driver (no, Fat Jesus) in the old man final, and another, Max Mört in the Junior Final today, which was great. Too bad I had too many mistakes to make it 3/3.
The Batmobile attracts chicks! Also, please someone tell all women in the whole world that high cut jeans are terrible. Thank you.
I look at Fajar staring at me, and I remember that we got this life, and that’s it. Everyone starts at a different place, but we all deserve a chance. Be a good person and you will become surrounded by good people. It’s just how the world works. I have been given a lot of opportunities by a lot of good people, and you can be sure that I have made the most of them. I am extremely grateful for all the support I have received, and I hope the favours get returned over the years, and that I can pay it forward to others too.
I have been working very hard over the past few years, and at a point lost 99% of all available hope. Now things are looking much better, and all signs point to great things ahead. Motivation and dedication level up to 100% again! Remember that behind almost every overnight success, there’s years and years of thankless hard work.
If there is one thing I have learned in life, it’s that everything starts with you. Your own attitude and your own decisions determine everything about your life. There are no excuses. It’s easy for me to say, posting blogs from my privileged position, but I have met people who have gone through true hardships, and they prove this theory to be true, time and time again!
You know all those things you have always wanted to do? You should go do them.
On another note, I re-discovered pickled beetroot today. Man it’s good!
JQRacing believes in equality so during The Neo Race 2017 we are running a competition for every JQRacing fan or hater around the world.
LOVE – for drivers who are already intravenously injecting ‘the JQ cool aid’ this will be a chance to get up close and personal and learn closely guarded racing secrets from the man himself.
HATE – for the drivers who absolutely hate JQ it will be the perfect opportunity to confirm what you already know, that JQ is the compete dickhead you always thought he was.
COMPETITON :
All you have to do is correctly predict the total number of places of the FOUR HIGHEST PLACED JQRacing CHASSIS in the overall results at The Neo Race 2017 and you will win the opportunity of pitting with CEO, designer, almost qualified engineer, ‘sucks at driving pro’ and RC gypsy Mr Joseph Quagraine at a race. If you are one of the lucky or perhaps unlucky winners, JQ has promised to try not to be ‘too annoying and too Finnish’ (whatever that means) and will help you with wrenching, setup, engine tuning, pitting, driving advice and perhaps even buy lunch. (Not likely).
SO :
What are you waiting for, email your predictions to the address provided below and good luck to all you fans and haters out there.
Sincerely,
JQRacing
RULES :
1. the prize is to pit with JQ and have him assist you at a race, not arrange or pay for a race entry.
2. entries must be sent to justliam@jq-products.com and received by midnight GMT Friday Thirteenth April 2017 to be eligible.
3. the information that must be included in the email is as follows :
1st JQ Chassis – 10th place overall (for example)
2nd JQ Chassis – 20th place overall (for example)
3rd JQ Chassis – 30th place overall (for example)
4th JQ Chassis – 40th place overall (for example)
TOTAL 100 places
4. the winning JQ DRIVER must provide proof that they drive a JQ chassis.
5. the winning NON JQ DRIVER must provide proof that they do not drive a JQ chassis
6. in the event of a tie the entrant who is closest to the best placed JQ chassis position will win, if still tied then the closest to the second placed chassis will win, or third and so on.
7. in the event that race calendar cannot be coordinate with JQ, Liam Galvin JQRacing Team Manager will be available.
8. if within one calendar year from the first day of The Neo Race 2017 convenient race day arrangements cannot be confirmed with either JQ or Liam Galvin then a contingency prize will be awarded to each winner.
9. JQR reserves the right to disqualify any individual at their discretion and choose the next available entrant.
10. This is rule number 1o (Ten).
Who can tell the funniest joke
Some minor packing going on!
Been a bit quiet on here, compared to normal. That’s mostly because after 6 months I am moving back to Europe, and it’s always surprisingly hard to uproot your life and move. It’s 3am again, what a surprise, and tomorrow I’m flying back home. It’s been emotional.
It’s been 6 months since the Worlds. I have mostly spent it in America. I just went to China for a couple of weeks in November.
This trip my goal was to get fast. I wanted to be able to match the fastest lap times. I didn’t expect to win yet, but I wanted to be able to do the same lap times at least. I’ll write about that in another post.
2016 was the first year that my company was at a point where I could with a good conscience take time and focus on my driving. Even so, after Cavalieri spent one day with me at the track, and saw the work I did after getting home, he sincerely questioned “How do you do it? You shouldn’t have time to do anything!” It’s true, it’s pretty hectic, But I chose this over a family, a home, a “normal” life. And I’m willing to get up at 8, and go to bed at 2, and work all that time. I do many fulltime jobs, but I do it because I love it, and I want to achieve epic shit.
That’s why when things go wrong, it REALLY pisses me off. There are two issues I don’t have an explanation for, and I am reaching out to you for answers. Please reply if you know what causes this:
1. The pipe makes a motor flame out on throttle. It is guaranteed to happen, but it only happens after a certain time, and the motor is fine up until that point. Then you punch it and it flames out.
2. A tank does the same thing.
What actually happens? Why does a pipe, or a faulty tank suddenly start flaming out a motor? Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
Well, it doesn’t happen every day, but today is the 1st of April, and the BLACK Edition was Officially released. All pre orders were shipped out today, and the USA and EU store stocks.
Well, we made the kits available in the USA and EU stores already, and the day of the release, and we are SOLD OUT! The only kit left is 1 kit in the EU store. And I don’t expect it to be available for long, the way things are going. We are now figuring out how many weeks until we get more. Our distributors will of course have kits in stock, and you can check them out here.
And not only that, in America, ABSOLUTE HOBBYZ couldn’t resist the BLACK Edition either, so how about you all show them they made the right choice, and you make sure they are out of stock too?
So thank you for that. That’s pretty amazing, it went from OK to BOOM in just over a week. I don’t know what it was. Maybe it was #watergate?
You know all those things you have always wanted to do? You should go do them.
A: THECar BLACK Edition is a very good car.
B: JQ is a very good driver.
Pick one, because one has to be true.
THEQuagraine 