Grid Up

As most of you know, I had a great opportunity when I was living in Japan to compete in the Tamiya Grand Prix Series – a great event that I’ve reported on elsewhere (click here). When I heard that there was a TCS competition here in OZ, I was eager to enter, although it would be nearly a year later before I began the trek to Castlehill.

Here is my weapon of choice - DF03 Dark Impact .

False Start

When details earlier this year mentioned that the top Tamiya cars weren’t permitted to run, I was very vocal about their (and I still think) wrongful elimination. I, like many others had invested heavily in a TCS legal car and it was frustrating that I couldn’t run it. I knew that Japan was still running a proper GT1 class with the 415MSX and the EVO V and I recently had confirmation that this is accurate although they have to use a Sports Tuned motor rather than the GT Tuned 25 turn they’ve used in previous years.

Despite a myriad of reasons being given, it still irks me. So what to do? I didn’t want to buy another tourer when I already had a 415MSX so I decided to buy a buggy. Enter Tamiya’s new DF03 Dark Impact. The buggy class is very popular in Japan and I’ve posted a video of it previously (click here). I was now looking forward to building a new car and trying to get the desired performance out of it. The great thing about the buggy is that it’s almost indestructible. I hope that it gains in popularity as an event as newbie’s would find this a cheap car to run – akin to the mini. The other great thing about buggy is that two of my best racing mates jumped on board and decided to run the car as well.

As you can see, there were a lot of entries creating some fierce competition .

Practice Lap

We’d had the good fortune of landing a fun night at our local club (BRCCC) the week before TCS and used it to test the vehicles. They jumped well but there were issues with the universals popping out of the diff cups. I sorted this out with a spacer under the shock piston so it would stop droop. Little did I know that suspension was going to be the main item scrutinised over the weekend. Stu managed to break his rear gearbox open and without spares available from the local supplier, I made an emergency purchase to Japan for replacements which, thankfully, arrived in time.

The journey up went without a hitch. We took Ben’s girlfriend’s Tarago (thanks Kath) and Davo’s Frontera. With the amount of Red Bull, Beer, Bourbon and Coke crammed into the two cars we may have to think about bigger vehicles next year!

Everyone was pretty tired so we went to bed early, got up early and hit the track for practice on Friday. The Castlehill track is brushed concrete and provides grip in one direction only. So watching GT1 is similar to watching Tokyo Drift. A lot of work is done in choosing the right tyre. With buggy, we had different problems to overcome – namely a big tabletop. When I first approached this in the morning, I had little trouble clearing it but as the day wore on, I was flipping the car over and not getting through as cleanly.

I also noticed that the tyres wore down very quickly and this was a concern. Motors became a critical issue so the dyno’s and com drops made their way out on to the table. Over the course of the day I noticed my car getting slower for reasons unknown. Maybe I was tired but the car lacked the punch it had in the morning.

The winners in each class for the concourse d'elegance .

The Heats

During qualifying I noticed that my car was getting slower – lots slower. I’d clocked in 16 laps in the first and down to 14 laps in the second. I tried speedy changes, juicing the hell out of my batteries (thanks should go to Scott Harris for these great packs) and nothing was working. Then Ben heard the noise. It turns out my diff was as loose as a Vegas hooker. Tommy turned the screws and I was immediately back in action. The car was working the way it was supposed to and my times kept improving. Tommy himself was turning in some great times and qualified for the A mains, as did Dave in Mini (his GT1 car just didn’t work out for him) and Ben in Buggy. Stu and I made the B final – as did Peter and Dave for GT1.

One point I should make is that the radio pound just didn’t work. There were problems with glitching and with radios being left on. I personally saw a car and radio go straight into the scrutineering tent and being worked on. The peg wasn’t returned and the radio was left on. Some people were just taking their pegs back to the pit areas, others were swapping the pegs between mates which is okay but then the cars weren’t being immediately run on the track. I did see the new Futaba version of Spektrum (can anyone say “the horse has bolted…?”) which will improve matters greatly next year. Let’s just hope that Toy Traders allows Spektrum and not just the Futaba unit.

Ultimately this radio problem (as well as a stop/go issue that I won’t expand on) led to Peter taking his car out of the competition on the Sunday. It was a shame that the radio problems seemed to plague both Peter and David but as I said – bring on Spektrum for 2007.

On Saturday night Trev and Linda invited us to dinner at what must be the largest RSL in the known world. The food was great, but most of us were pretty tired so we headed back to the hotel for some drinks, tuning and sleep.

Sunday started early as we wanted to get a good spot to set up. The previous days had us setting up in the sun and it was getting a bit too warm in the afternoon. The last qualifier went well although we didn’t improve on our positions.

Prior to entering TCS I had been in communication with a guy from S.A. and I was lucky to meet him in person at TCS. For a car in basically stock condition, James was getting some good run times out of the car. Unfortunately he just dropped out of the A final on the Sunday and then had a major breakage in the B final. It was great to meet a new face and I look forward to racing with James again.

BRCCC represent - Me, Benno, Stu, Davo and Tommy .

Finals Time

Of the five of us still left in the competition, three us had made the A finals with Stu and I relegated to the B final. It’s probably too hard to describe every twist and turn in the various finals but suffice to say; Dave drove the tyres off his mini and did pretty well in his B final for GT1, Ben gave the buggy his all but really needed the extra gearing that was denied the DF-03, Tom put in consistent hot laps but never quite got to the podium (not bad considering it was a loaner car). So Tom finished 6th in the A final for Stock, Ben finished 7th in A final for Buggy, Dave finished 7th in the A final for mini and also 3rd in the B final for GT1. Stu and I finished 1st and 2nd respectively in the B final for buggy. The finals were running very smoothly until the Josh Pain incident (read below). After that was resolved we finished the last final and the awards were handed out. Dave won concourse for his mini shell and I won concourse for my Akira inspired buggy. Since Dave put the paint down in the shell I give him my concourse award (only after I displayed the buggy and the award in the shop for a week). More awards were handed out as well as the major awards (trips to Japan). It was quite emotional for Trev who was moved to tears over the anguish that both he and his family had had to endure not only over the Josh Pain incident but also other detractors that seem to find great pleasure in making racing far more difficult than it should be. Again, I tip my hat to Trev for finding the precarious balance of running an event for interstate drivers and accommodating local club members.

I would urge anyone considering TCS to try it next year. A lot of people are worried about the cost but when you consider that Toy Traders cough up for two night’s accommodation for interstate drivers it definitely makes the trek worth the effort. Consider borrowing a car from a friend (many did) and a radio if you need that too. Although a change of venue would be good (Castlehill has held the event for the past three years) I found the track to be very forgiving on breakages (I didn’t break anything).

Big thanks to The Hobbyman for giving me time off work to attend the event, BRCCC for paying our entry fees, Kath for supplying the transport, Scott Harris for his batteries, Ben for his safe driving, Dave for his awesome paintjob, Glen Hamilton for his awesome masks, Champ for our spares, TT for hosting the event and of course Trev and Linda for their tireless efforts.

Happy Campers - winners of buggy and mini concourse.