Xray Wins 2013 Racing Lines International
The second weekend of January 2013 saw the final meeting ever of the Racing Lines International.
The 2013 meeting would bring this renowned event to an end and close a chapter of R/C Racing in
the upper north island of New Zealand.
Hosted by the North Harbour Radio Control Car Club (NHRCCC) the meeting has seen some of the
best racing in New Zealand and this year’s event would be no different with 2 international drivers;
Anthony Atack and Dan Maher both from Australia attending.
The event is run over 3 days with Friday as an official practice day, Saturday with 5 rounds of
qualifying (2 run under lights) and then onto Sunday where three finals (two counting) would run to
determine the winner of each class. Entries levels were very good with B Mains for the majority of
the classes.
Biggest surprise in terms of entries is the continued resurgence of the Pro12 pan chassis class in NZ.
The class was absent from last year’s event but this year saw an impressive 14 drivers entered,
including Dan Maher bringing his T.O.P. chassis over from Australia and two racers up from
Christchurch (Craig Lamb and Daniel Webber) just to race their 12th scale cars.
I first saw the Pro12 cars running in anger at the 2012 Southern Clash and was so impressed that I
decided to give them a go. I purchased an X12 a few months ago and have been racing it on a regular
basis ever since, including a trip to the Australian Nationals and most of my local club meetings. It’s
been a real challenge compared to the touring cars I usually run. I’ll cover my Pro12 experience later
in my report. In the meantime Ill cover the Open Touring or Modified racing with my Xray T4.
OPEN TOURING - QUALIFYING:
Open touring or modified as it’s referred to in NZ, is an open brushless motor and controlled chassis
class. Restrictions are similar to those at the IFMAR worlds with the biggest exception being our
weight limit of 1425grams. This rule can make it difficult to get a car, like the Xray T4, up to weight as
the cars are now super light out of the box. It also affects the handling of the cars greatly and can
result in our setups being a bit unique.
The control tyre for the event, a Much More 32, would again be tortured in some of the hottest
conditions I’ve ever experienced at an R/C event. Air temps hitting well over 30 and track temps
hitting 55 degrees Celsius were making car setup difficult and draining energy levels very quickly.
Friday started off fairly well. It was an open track for most of the day where lap times were called
during your run. I touched 19 second laps on a regular basis which is a very competitive time around
the tight and twisty circuit. I was also running on last year’s tyres as I wanted to get a good idea of
how the car was going to handle on worn tyres due to a limited number of the control tyres allowed.
To add a bit of spice to the meeting, there were issues with consistency with the control tyres. There
were a number of tyres which felt softer than others and upon closer inspection; there was a colour
difference between the belts. The race organisers found a solution for the meeting by eliminating
the softer feeling tyres from the meeting. I had concerns about how my car was going to react on
these tyres, especially when I wasn’t sure if my practice tyres were the ‘soft’ or the ‘hard’ ones.
With the tyre issues still playing on my mind, I concentrated on what I had at the time and after
some small changes to my setup including ackerman, wheelbase, rear diff fluids I was fairly happy
with my car. I also switched between progressive and linear spring to try and get a feel for how they
worked and by 10pm, practice had finished and I had settled on 2.5-2.8 progressive front and rear
with the intention of monitoring the track for grip level changes during qualifying.
Saturday morning and we were greeted with more hot and sticky weather. Qualifying would be
based on a points system and out of the 5 rounds scheduled to run, 3 would count. Five runs on 1
set of MuchMore 32’s were going to be tough going, so managing tyres through the day would be
vital.
I bolted on a new set of tyres for the first qualifier and was immediately concerned about the cars
behaviour. The front end was vague with very little feeling of traction and the rear was very loose on
power… a real struggle to drive. I knew I’d be playing catch up most of the day and would need to be
changing the car between one qualifier and the next. Anthony Atack took out the first qualifier win
with me in second, a disappointing 7 seconds behind his 15 laps 5 min 3.667 second run. Jonathan
Thompson and his Xray T3’12, came through with the 3rd fastest time.
Second qualifier and things were on the improve, I changed springs again, moving to the 2.7 front
and the 2.3-2.6 rear progressive spring in search of a slightly softer car and a bit more traction. I also
thinned the rear diff down from 3000cst to 2000cst to stop the on power over steer I was
experiencing. The second run was much better with Anthony again setting the fastest time with his
Xray T4 and me just under 5 seconds behind. Simon Noton took out the third fastest time with his
first 15 lap run of the weekend.
The 3rd and 4th qualifiers went in my favour with Anthony making an uncharacteristic mistake in
qualifier three - rolling his car on lap 13, and loosing 6 seconds in the run. I finished 1st with my
fastest run of the day (15 laps in 5m 7.589 seconds), Anthony second, just under 2 seconds behind
and Luke Duthie, his first time running modified touring, setting a time of 15 laps in 5m 12.463
seconds, biting at our heals. For the 4th qualifier, which was run under lights, I had changed to 2.7
springs front and rear, laid the shocks in one hole on the front and rear shock tower and lowered the
front of the car ever so slightly. The difference was incredible; the car was now stable and super easy
to drive. Almost too easy but I was happy to finally have a car I was comfortable with. It was super
close in terms of times with my TQ run for the round only 0.237 of a second ahead of Anthony (15
laps in 5m 3.640 seconds). Luke Duthie set the 3rd fastest time while Simon Noton taking out 4th.
With two wins and two seconds between Anthony and myself, it came down to the last qualifier to
decide who would be off the pole spot for Sundays finals. Starting at 11pm the 5th qualifier was
guaranteed to be the fastest of the day. Anthony put in a storming run to pull off the only 16 lapper
and grabbed the top spot for the finals. I missed a 16 lap run by 0.7 of a second, a slight bobble on
lap 11 resulting in lost time.
QUALIFYING LIST:
1st Anthony Attack - Xray T4
2nd Andrew Webber – Xray T4
3rd Luke Duthie
4th Simon Noton
5th Jonathan Thompson – Xray T3
6th Cain Coulton – Xray T3
7th Matthew Van Der Haas
8th Rob Stephens
9th Tom Parvu
10th Stephen Li
OPEN TOURING - FINALS:
A quick turnaround between the end of qualifying (up till 1am) and finals day wasn’t easy but I think
the majority of the racers were prepared for it. I’d left the car unchanged over night and simply
bolted on a new set of the control tyres.
First final was expected to be a close battle between Anthony and myself but a broken insert on
Anthony’s T4 meant he was out of the race early on. I took the win with Luke Duthie taking second
and Rob Stephens coming through the field from 8th on the grid to 3rd.
The second final and with grid positions the same order as the first race, Anthony bogged off the
start causing everyone to bunch up into the first corner; a high speed sweeper. Anthony ran wide
and we both went side by side into the next corner. This slowed us both down and give Luke Duthie
from 3rd on the grid no room. He accidently tagged us both, sending me spinning and Anthony onto
his roof sliding off the track. I ended up in 7th and Anthony in 9th after the first lap. By lap 4 I had
managed to get passed the cars ahead of me and took the lead. Anthony had ripped through the
field also coming up from 9th to 2nd on the same lap. We stayed in these positions till lap 6 where
Anthony made a small error dropping him down to 3rd. By lap 8 he was back into 2nd but was unable
to catch me. I took the win and secured my 3rd Racing Lines International Modified title.
Final Results:
1st Andrew Webber - Xray T4
2nd Anthony Atack – Xray T4
3rd Luke Duthie
4th Simon Noton
5th Rob Stephens
6th Jonathan Thompson – Xray T3
7th Tom Parvu
8th Stephen Li
9th Cain Coulton – Xray T3
10th Matthew Van Der Haas
A big thanks to Xray, Zoom Resources, KPGraphix and Hobbywing for their support.
Link to setup sheet - http://forum.teamxray.com/xform/index.php?act=view&ID=137&setup=t4
PRO12 QUALIFYING:
Pro12 took me through many highs and lows of R/C during the weekend but I thoroughly enjoyed
every bit of it. Practice the car felt good and was putting down some high 20 second lap times. A
fairly competitive number based on what the competition was doing. The car was a bit twitchy
coming into a corner but I could drive around it. I left the car alone completely in terms of setup and
waited for the traction to rise before attempting to make changes.
Saturday was the day the ‘fun’ started. The car had started to suffer from a low battery fault in
warm-up resulting in the servo shutting off at full throttle. It would be OK to drive for the first 6-7
mins, and then it was a complete nightmare for the last 1 or 2. To try and get around any of the
corners I had to make sure I didn’t squeeze the trigger too hard otherwise the servo failed to
respond sending the car straight ahead. To try and fix this problem I added a receiver pack to the car
in an attempt to bypass the ESC circuitry and bump up the voltage. All appeared to be working ok till
the first qualifier came around and the car wouldn’t turn on. A DNS in the first race was extremely
disappointing.
Back at the pits the fellow Pro12 racers gathered around to lend a hand in trying to fix the problem.
A solution was found where the receiver pack and the ESC could work together and it seemed to be
working in the pits so I felt confident all was OK . That was until lap 6 and the ESC thermalled. This
was something I’d never experienced with the HW ESC before and put it down to some issue with
the receiver pack and ESC not liking each other. To be honest, the HW V3 is not designed for 1s
racing so I should’ve been prepared for issues to begin with. So, at this stage I was desperate for a
solution and decided to pull the HW V3 esc out of the car and go back to the V2 version with the
build in booster. It took me about an hour to get the wiring all sorted but it was worth it.
I’d already blown 2 qualifiers (one DNS and one 6 lapper) and with the last 3 counting towards my
finals grid position I went out just wanting to complete the run. The car ran flawlessly and I was
amazed to see I had TQ’d the round with a 24 lap run 8 minutes 8 seconds, a 2.5 seconds advantage
over Craig Lamb in second place.
The car ran perfectly for the next two qualifiers but I just couldn’t quite match the pace of the guys
up front. In the 4th qualifier, run under lights, Luke Duthie came through for the win with almost a 26
lap run, Craig Lamb came in second and I managed to grab a 3rd. In the 5th qualifier I grabbed a
second. Luke again grabbing another round win, myself 8 seconds behind and Daniel Webber in 3rd.
With qualifying complete, TQ honours went to Craig Lamb based on a tie-break situation with Luke
Duthie. Both those guys sharing equal points.
So after qualifying was complete, the running order was:
1st Craig Lamb
2nd Luke Duthie
3rd Andrew Webber - XRAY X12
4th Jayden Duthie
5th Matthew Van Der Haas
6th Daniel Webber
7th Rob Stephens
8th Nigel Bish
9th Shane Gollop - XRAY X12
10th Si Jorgensen - XRAY X12
FINALS DAY FOR PRO12
Fresh tyres fitted and my X12 was ready for finals day. First race up and out of the blue came Matt
Van Der Haas on an absolute flyer! He’d changed to a different chassis and he was calving through
the field. There were a few first corner collisions so the running order changed a bit and Matt took
his opportunities; coming through from 5th to 2nd place after lap 1. From there it was nose to tail
stuff with no one able to make a break away. 8 minutes later, the finishing order was Luke in 1 st,
Matt in 2nd and myself in 3rd. First to third separated by just 2.1 seconds! Great racing.
The second final was just as exciting. Craig kept his nerves and managed to use his TQ position to
retain the lead on lap 1. Unfortunately a mistake on lap 2 cost him 1st with Luke taking over that
position. The running order now Luke, Craig, Luke, Matt and myself. By lap 5, Matt had gotten past
Craig and to take over 2nd place. Lap 8 and I snuck through to 3rd with Craig dropping down to 4th.
From there it was again, nose to tail stuff with Luke eventually taking the win, and the 2013
RacingLines International Pro12 title, Matt finished second and myself in 3rd. Craig dropped down to
5th but eventually recovered some ground to collect 4th position.
So with 1st position sown up, it was a battle in the 3rd race to see who was going to finish second
overall. It was a chaotic start with Luke bogging off the line, me getting up beside him, only for both
of us to touch and spin into the first corner. Craig got away cleanly, Matt again, killing the start and
grabbing second spot. I was now 7th after the first lap, Luke 6th, Rob Stephens 5th, Daniel Webber 4th,
Jayden 3rd, Matt 2nd and Craig 1st. By lap 8 I had moved into 3rd and Matt Van Der Haas had taken
over the lead from Craig. Matt now out to a decent gap was cruising for the win till a back-marker
accidently clipped his car, costing him 2.1 seconds. Both Luke and I managed to take full advantage
of his misfortune moving past Matt for 1st and 2nd place respectively. From there it was just a matter
of holding off Luke and by the 8 minute mark, I went across the line for my first Pro12 final win; just
2 seconds ahead of Luke.
With my win and a third and Matts two seconds we were tied on points. After the tie-break and 16
minutes of hard core racing, Matt collected second place by under 2 seconds. Still a fantastic result
for the X12 and myself in 3rd.
Finals Results:
1st Luke Duthie
2nd Matt Van Der Haas
3rd Andrew Webber - XRAY X12
4th Craig Lamb
5th Jayden Duthie
6th Daniel Webber
7th Rob Stephens
8th Shane Gollop – XRAY X12
9th Nigel Bish
10th Si Jorgensen - XRAY X12
Big thanks to all of the Pro12 guys from some awesome racing and help in the pits. Big thanks to
Hobbywing and Zoom Resources.