29.04.2013
Report by Donald Stark (VRC race reporter)
Season 2 Round 2 “RC Excitement” Fitchburg MA. USA
The week’s race was held at the “Snowball Off- Road Champs” track housed in RC Excitement, Fitchburg, MA. RC Excitement is the home track to a few VRC Racers such as Jim Edmonds, Josh Vulte, Edward Stover, and Shawn Handy. This is a tight track with plenty of turns, high traction and a few strategically placed jumps.
IN REAL RC, The Snowball Offroad Champs, was run in January of 2013 the average lap times in each category were 17 seconds with some of the top lap times dipping into the 16’s. Fast laps in VRC averaged 16’s and the very fastest lap average were in the 15’s. The VRC Track is scaled to the real track, the difference in VRC average lap times is due to the vast amount of practice drivers get in the game opposed to the real track visitors.
Racing Action
The race starts with two rounds of qualifying. Qualifying Round 1 allows for 10 runs, Qualifying Round 2 6 tries and finally the main. The racing is stretched out over seven days. This series has two classes of trucks open to drivers of all levels. 13.5 Spec. chassis and open chassis, the spec chassis allows a few adjustments’ to accommodate different driving styles, while the open class allows all the chassis adjustments of the real model. The fast laps and race times are almost identical on the small tracks such as RC Excitement and Mikes, but as the series move to the outdoor tracks expect to see a big advantage in the open class.
The fastest run of the event came in Round 2 of qualifying by David Joor. David is sponsored in real life by AVID, maker of top quality RC parts. David ran 20 laps in 05:15.784, he eventually went on to win the A main by a comfortable margin but never made the 20 lap mark again.
The A-Main was loaded with the usual suspects but this week I am going to focus on the B Main. These guys work hard week after week making it closer to the top so in honor of their hard work I will cover their race this week.
At the horn 4th qualifier Nicholas Evens jumped out to an early lead. Nearing the end of lap two Nicholas lost the lead when he clipped the landing of the triple, this sent him into a front flipping roll into the pipes and just like that he was relegated to the back of the pack. Now the leader who has more words in his name than triplet’s; took the lead. Pedro Jose Lueiro Rev began his short lived run for victory.
Lap 4
The race leader began to be attacked by the pipe clipping gremlins. After 3 mistakes he was off the back of the lead chase. As Pedro’s lap times declined his competitors Pete Bent and Jussi Kankaanmäki remained smooth and consistent averaging steady 16’s.
Lap 7
Pedro began to settle into a rhythm and began making up ground on the battling leaders by lap 8 he could see them on the same straight away.
On the home stretch heading for the stripe on lap nine Jussi lost control after grabbing a hand full of throttle. Pete shot buy and pulled away, it appeared that Pedro would have a chance to overtak Jussi for second but he also lost control of his car.
“Track workers must have over-watered that section of the Track”
As Pete motored away from the pack a three man battle for second was developing. Jussi, Pedro and Nicholas began to exchange positions like the actors back stage on the set of Cats change costumes.
On lap 14 Nick and Pedro began making mistakes simultaneously this let Jussi pull away. Pedro and Nicholas would use the next four laps to settle the final spot on the podium, Nicholas was smooth and consistent the rest of the way while Pedro seemed to be struggling with the tight “S” turns leading to the triple. In the end it was Pete Bent in first, Jussi Kankaanmäki second, and Nicholas Evens in third.
Top 3 A,B,C
A Main 13.5 Short Course
1 David Joor US 120 19 05:04.562 -
2 Kirby Backemeyer US 117 19 05:06.574 +2.012s >
3 Barnabás Tóth HU 114 19 05:07.612 +3.050s >
B Main 13.5 Short Course
11 Pete Bent NZ 105 18 05:00.558 -
12 Jussi Kankaanmäki FI 103 18 05:03.662 +3.104s >
13 Nicolas Evens BE 101 18 05:04.166 +3.608s >
C Main 13.5 Short Course
21 Shon Harding US 93 18 05:08.270 -
22 Justin Glaze US 92 18 05:12.394 +4.124s >
23 Jack Ingberg US 91 18 05:13.856 +5.586s >
A Main Open Short Course
1 David Joor US 120 19 05:00.522 -
2 Barnabás Tóth HU 117 19 05:04.556 +4.034s >
3 Eben Coetzee ZA 114 19 05:06.280 +5.758s >
B Main Open Short Course
11 Pedro Jose Lueiro Rey ES 105 19 05:16.056 -
12 Masato Kuroda JP 103 18 05:00.342 +1 laps >
13 Shon Harding US 101 18 05:02.842 +1 laps >
C Main Open short course
21 Jim Lindbloom US 93 18 05:06.646 -
22 Jussi Kankaanmäki FI 92 18 05:07.336 +0.690s >
23 Justin Glaze US 91 18 05:09.476 +2.830s >
In the Pits, In My opinion “IMO”
The opinions expressed in this section are not that of the Developers or Owners of VRC Inc.
This week in the pits there were two interesting conversations going, Race time for main events and custom painted bodies. Racing VRC is fun but the 5 minute race has to be changed. I remember looking for the best matched cells and building the best battery possible in hopes of running a 5 minute main event back in 1989. In 2013 I can take my off the shelf RTR lipo-powered stock truck to the local track, throw it down and run for 10 minutes easy.
In VRC I can run 104 laps in 30 minutes on RC Excitement. I have to pit 3 times but it is easy to pit. Pull in, hit the change battery button and wait 15 seconds, Car drops and I am on my way again. The main events need to be longer than 5 minutes. 15 minutes would be perfect length because it would ensure that a pit stop must be made unless the driver gear way down, they may be able to make the whole 15 minutes. This allows for race strategy, and that would add to the fun.
Custom Painted bodies in real life are between $3,000 and $50,000 dollars in RC cars the price can be as much a $100.00 per skin. For those of us who are handy with an air brush it is very fun and affordable to customize a paint scheme. In VRC there are options for many different bodies but no current way to paint your own bodies. Other sims have ways of letting subscribers customize their rides, why not VRC. It is not necessary for the game to function it only adds to the overall experience and time spent thinking, manipulating and playing the game.
The Local Yokel
I went my local track last week, I asked the person running the races if he had ever heard of VRC he said he had heard of it but never tried it. I went on to talk about VRC and the benefits of extra practice that VRC provides. I had to laugh when he bragged that he preferred to race real RC cars as if RC is a real sport and Internet is just pretending.
In my opinion, any kind of racing that has no danger to the driver is not real racing so to compare RC Racing to Internet racing as if you have the real world advantage is ludicrous. In fact VRC offers more intense competition than the local track could ever pretend to offer.
There were 67 entries at the local track that night and only one of those guys would have been able to place above the D main in VRC. As I Sit here I have a constant nagging in my right arm from a steel plate and 6 screws “Bicycle Motocross, world Cup qualifier.” My right tibia and fibula broken at a local Motocross race, both knees Medial Carpal Ligament’s missing from dirt jumping crashes and mountain bike crashes.
I know real racing but I know also know the most fun you can have per racing dollar in pretend racing is VRC. IMO….
Until Next Time
CYA@THERACES
DES
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