Midwest Motiv Carpet Indoor Race #2

Last weekend, I went to the second race in the Midwest Motiv Indoor Carpet Series.

170 miles of driving, to go to a r/c race.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Company/MOTIV-presents-the-Midwest-All-Star-Carpet-Series-102677532856/

Amusingly, something like 1/3 of the drivers were people I know and drive with at WindyCity.

So lets start off with the track.



I got to talk with Bill, the race organizer before I got to get in and run.  The building is from the 1890's, and... shows it.

It's hard to see, but the floor isn't flat.  Like.. at all.  The back straight waves a little, and the floor has bumps by the pillars.  Cars would lift tires, would rotate more, or less, as they went around the infield.

The race track is over the hobby shop.  The hobby shop has 15' ceilings, and tin tiles.  It's awesome.  ... it's heavily weighted towards supporting the dirt oval.  I was looked at a little funny asking about Tamiya parts.

Speaking of the dirt oval.  The pits and track are in a newer building attached to the back of the HobbyTown USA shop.



I did not get to run on the oval at all.  But it seems that most of the cars they run there are slash based.  My education on dirt oval stuff is to say the least, lacking.

As much as WindyCityRC is a destination track, so should be Revolution Raceway in Oshkosh.

My question at the shop, regarding Tamiya parts stems from this.

I brushed the inside of the sweeper and the car got directed straight to the outside of the track.  My wonderful PSM chassised TA-07 slammed into the outside wall and broke some parts.

The track felt tight.  Some spots on the track were quite narrow.  For instance the gap you see on the right side of the picture below, is smaller than 5'.  

It's tight here too...

Happily I took to the track rather quickly.  I was very concerned about being ready for the track.  I showed up at 7:40am. (Yes, this means I left my house at 4am..)

I got batteries charged, motors swapped, weights setup, and the cars going.  Then I got a solid hour of practice before the racing started.

My pit technique needs some work.

When I stepped out for lunch, I saw this nutjob.  I expect it's a DUI-cycle.  But kudos on anyone for scooting around in the snow and slush.

In an effort to be 100% legal, I did a 5 minute project on my VTA car.  Koro Sensei drives my Baracuda.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_Classroom

I did catch some people running on the oval track.  Seems lap times are in the 3.5 to 4.5 second range.  

I'd like to try it sometime.  I should have asked if I could have run my VTA car.  Hah. 

So how did I do?  I wasn't last in VTA, but my USGT car was definitely not served well by my driving.

How was the racing?  The racing was great.  Adam Ska is doing a great job making this race series happen.  The race day goes fast, races are happening on time.  Cars are getting teched and not holding things up.



I got caught in tech for being light!  That was an easy fix... but still, effective teching is lovely to see.  Mike did a great job at the tech bench.

I'd go again. Sadly, the next race in the Motiv series syncs up with the Tamiya Championship Series race in Chicago, so I'll be missing that race.

As usual, here's the rest of the pictures I took.