Important to follow the domestic traditions

Last day in US we thought it would be important to follow the domestic traditions. You might as you.. What? Well, what is going on during 36 weekends in US? Nascar!! So, we followed the tradition: Drinking Beer and Watching Nascar!! and what a finish it was!!!

To be honest, we spend the day to first to some shopping (jeans, shoes, sweatshirts) However, the item on top of the list was impossible to get: Ipad2... :-(

While waiting on the 1:8 WC final....

Nice to have some stuff to look at before start of the 1:8 WC final... :-)

Found a guy from Norrkoping and it is not Dallas

Hot lap Homestead Speedway!

While waiting for the 1/16 final to come up we took the opportunity to visit the Homestead Speedway giftshop which was located 100m from the track. I bought myself a super detailed 1/24 Nascar car with Dale Earnhardt Jr paint schema. Then we we where finished we start talking with a guy who entered the shop. He was project manager for the track with responsibility for the complete facility. He asked us if we wanted to have a tour around the track. Could we say no? NO, NO!! Such an opportunity selldom pop up!! So, of we go with his FORD SUV making some hotlaps(!) around the track. We also visited the infield and looked at their jet engine blower who is used to clean and dry the track.

The guy who was driving us around, Mark Alexander, have been driving 1/8 track cars and was participating in WC in Gothenburg 1993!! What a conincident. He made our day and even of the 1/16 final ended in a bad way we still have good feeling.

Now we are looking forward to the final day. There are some risks for rain but let us hope it will keep dry.

Until next time folks,
Marcus/Wolfgang

GAME OVER!!

Folks, today it was a long, long wait for the 1/16 A final. It was run in the end of Friday but we did have some great time before racing (more information to come...) Ok, the 1/16 final was up next. The weather was getting a little bit tricky with some gray clouds building up. Warm was ok and the car looked good. Back to the pit and line up for the start. The sound alarm for the start kicked in and off we go! And the usual shit happens.... A mess in the second corner and Marcus car was flipped over. Sh-it... Dead last in the final and now we have to do some hard work. Marcus drow good and was taken back some places. Refueling also went good and we where looking forward to the last minutes of battle but then disaster happend. Around 13 min the car just changed direction in the sweaper after the straight and hit the barriers pretty hard. The car was damaged on the front right side and it was game over for us. The incident looked like a radio interference but when we checked the car after it seems that the servo arm for the steering has came off..... not much to do.

Secret weapon for the finals....

As you can see in the picture we have some secret weapon for the finals. For those of you who doesnｴt know motorsport in general and motorcycle racing specifically: Google on Valentino Rossi... :-)

Qualifying finsihed and looking forward to the finals!

Today (Thursday) qualifying ended with round 4. I will not write about other drivers as I assume that this is covered by LiveRC, RedRC and others. Ok, what about ourselves? Well we are ok with all our qualifying rounds. We had some small mistakes in round 2 with not doing the hot lap fast enough (thought we passed the finish line the lap before...) and a flame out in round 4 (10m before the finish line…). However, when looking at the details neither round 2 nor 4 would have improved the qualifying results. So, we end up running 1/16 final A tomorrow afternoon (does not the exact timing yet). Interesting to observe that there are some drivers in the 1/16 A final which where very guick in practice (top 10) but after tire treatment was forbidden they where not that fast anymore. We are looking forward to the finals and hope to make a copy of EC in Locorotondo 2009 (from 1/16 to semi final).... Keep your fingers crossed folks!!

Cheers,
Marcus/Wolfgang

What do you to if you are running out of tires?

Interesting observation at the WC today... A italiean guy arrived from Italy today with a suitecase full of tires. Obviously the they have been using too many tires during the week. What to do? Call a friend in Italy who rush to the airport and take the next plan to Miami!! This is not a joke folks....

Breaking News! Swedish retailer Biltema enters RC racing!

Seen at the World Championship is this new pitbag from swedish retailer BILTEMA! We also understand that it retails for only SEK 149!! This will be a hugh challenge for the more famous RC industry who retails simular bags for SEK 800-1000. Used by Team Lindner at the WC. This was todays big news at the WC!!

Just some pictures...

Is this WC or a local race?

Folks, sorry for not giving update on what is happening at the WC in Miami. Today the qualification rounds was suppose to start. Well, they did to some extent.... the first heat was run this morning but then everything was stopped! Reasons? A hugh discussion started if tire treatment should be allowed or not. Obviously some drivers have been using it as the IFMAR rules, for some strange reasons, does not prohibit it. Although there was a letter sent out in January from IFMAR stating that it will not be allowed.
One interesting thing was that IFMAR officials, during practice rounds, was spraying ethanol on the tires to neutralize any kind of tire treatment. The funny thing is that according to some (famous electric) drivers the ethanol made the traction even better!! What a mess!

You can imagine the loud discussions going on between drivers, officials and other people.... Ok, finally IFMAR decided to call all drivers for a meeting. Each block (EFRA, FEMCA...) called together their drivers to get their opinion. In the EFRA block we were against any kind of tire treatment. Some countries was very clear that if tire treatment would be allowed they will leave the WC....
The question was how to enforce the rule ... finally we came to the conclusion that tire impound would be the best if possible to handle. This was then taken by EFRA officials to meeting with the other blocks and luckely the EFRA suggestion was agreed by all blocks. So, now we have to handle in all tires to be used during qualifacation. When you need to true them, you get your bag with tires and you can start trueing with officials present to make sure you are not cheating. Then you have to hand them in again. When you are going out for qualifying you will get them in the warm up area.... Who said it is easy to attend major races?.....

Will all this mess todays two qualification rounds was cancelled which means that there will be 4 rounds instead of 6. Let us hope that weather stays as it is (sun, 32-35 degres). To have some actions going on today there was at least one additional practice. And how did it go for us? Not so good, the rear belt did slide of the gear axle pulley after two laps?!?!? Never happend before but better that it happend in practice then in qualifcation.

Tomorrow there will be more pictures then text and hopefully some good news from our first 2 rounds.

Till next time folks!

Testing the barriers....

Practice continued today and it was not a good start... first session ended in the third corner when the cable from the batteri came lose. Probably not connected correctly. Not sure if it was Junior or Senior who made an error. However no major damabe on the car other than a tire. Second and third was nothing to write home about.... contact with the barriers doesn´t improve the laptimes. For the fourth session we decided the really work through the setup from the beginning. After some discussions with other Serpent drivers we also upgraded the rear upper wishbones to the new ones provided at the track. This was absolutely the right direction to go. The car was much easier to drive and more consistent. Now have some basics to start from and hopefully the laptimes will improve... ;-)
Pictures will come tomorrow.

Cheers,
Marcus/Wolfgang

New Anti roll bar parts

New suspension parts

Here you see the old stuff on the left and the new parts on the right.

Temperature today.....

Summery of first day

Today was the first practice day for us and it was a little bit of challenge... The track is super smooth and hardly any bumps. However, the racingline is very narrow and if you miss it slightly you have no tracktion at all.
Our car was not set for the conditions today. We decided in the morning to run with a brand new car which only did have a 3 lap shakedown. Maybe that was not the right decision In the first and second run Marcus was really struggeling with the car. It was not going well at all and very difficult to keep the car close to the curps. For the 3rd and last run we decided to soften up the suspension (from pink/purple to blu/red). That in combination with other brand of tires compared to first and second run gave us at least a step in the right direction. We still have some work to do, to say at least
For tomorrow we have decided to switch back to our old car and upgrading it with some new suspenstion parts which Serpent handed out to all Serpent drivers (new larger upper alu bracket and a new shorter upper wishbone.

We will also upgrade to some alu parts which hold the antiroll bar in the front. The plastic ones ar not up to the standard you should require which makes it a little bit tricky to adjust the anti rollbar correct. Here you can see how it looks like:

Who is then fast on the track. Well, it is the usual names. Here are some of the fast guys:
R Pietch 16.005
D Balestri 16.065

I won´t tell you our fastest time today... :-)

First laps...

We have just turned the first couple of laps and we could say: We have some work infront of us.... :-) Well, the scope of the first outing was to find the way around the track and gradually tune the engine (which is brand new). We take it easy and not too much stress the first day.. :-)

Cheers,
Marcus/Wolfgang

At last.... arrived at the hotel

It was a loping trval from gothenburg to miami..... We started 05:00 Thursday morning and arrived 04:00 Swedish time. All baggage did also arrive which is a little bit surprising due to the change of flights in Toronto. We have set a new worldrecord from customs to gate 169. I will tell you the story tomorrow. Now I am too tired

Good night folks

On the way....

Ok, now we have squeezed us int the airplane for a 8,5 hour flight.... With the knees at the ears.... :-(

Secret weight saving tip

You can't go to far to save weight for your luggage when traveling to a race.... :-)



And yes, I don't believe they have toothbrush for sale in US....

Cheers!!

All the WC preps are killing me....

We did decide rather late that we will participate at the Worlds in Miami so I have been working like hell to do all the preps. The deciding factor was that we got engines from NovaRossi which was already preped and run. And trust me, they are really prepped and not tight at all! So, hopefully they will be fast... :-)

Normally we have a tendence to load the car with all the stuff we need (and don´t need...) but this time it will be a little bit tricky to go by car... :-) Ok, how hard can it be to do some "Biggest Looser" approach to the race stuff? Well, it is damn hard! After some packing, unpacking, replace some plastics boxes with cardboard boxes and packing again we are finally finished. Just under the baggage limit.

While I have been doing all the preps my driver is enjoying a good party... I mean, student life in Gothenburg. Actually, Marcus is also building a race car but a 1:1 scale or should I say 1:2 scale because it is a Formula Student Racecar. Marcus is responsible for suspension and all tests.

How about practice? Well, if you enjoy driving in +2 degress you know.... All in all, we have about 1,5 hours practice..... In a normal season that is not too bad beginning of April but we all know that this is not a normal season.... I am not happy with a WC in the start of the season. I believe that IFMAR need to be more carefully when deciding dates in the future.

On Thursday April 7th we are travelling to US. Keep all the fingers crossed that all the race stuff will arrive in Miami.

Over and out for now. We will do more reports during the WC.

Cheers,

Marcus/Wolfgang