This past weekend was the 2022 Southern Indoor Championships. This event has become the kickoff race of the new year for many with over 500 entires in attendance and a Nationals level caliber of drivers in attendance. This year had a change with the watering schedule as it was reserved for only the outside edges which allowed the track to dry much more than normal and get pretty rough and dusty. The bumps on this track produce the sharp variety which when they get deep enough can provide some pretty extreme crashes so line choice is critical. The layout this year was a lot of fun with lots of places to pass and make moves on people.
As practice got underway on Friday it was all about track time for me. This was my first time taking my new Kyosho rides on a big track and there is plenty to learn! I got on the track and made as many changes as I could to start getting comfortable on the track. I was so preoccupied by learning the cars I only ran one set of AKA SSLW Impacts and P1s through the whole day. Setup wise was adjusting first to the big track and then as the track dried out and started to build some character adjusting for that as well.
In truggy I only ran 2 tanks of practice on my Kyosho MP10T. I only had two tanks on the truck coming into the event and so by the end of the main I have a total of 10 tanks on the truck. I did some preemptive setup changes to truck before arrival going up in swaybars (2.6/2.8) and up in spring red front and rear. The truck was pretty solid from the get go and so I really focused on the buggies.
As qualifying got underway on Saturday we started out with truggy where I piloted my Kyosho MP10T to a 4th place finish and was battling with the top guys most of the run. It was a great start. I would remain consistent in truggy qualifying 4th in the last two rounds as well putting me 5th on the grid for the Amain!
The buggies were a bit more of a challenge. In ebuggy I was working with weight distribution running the batteries full forward and then fully back. I tried lots of different things with shocks and then transitioning some parts from the original MP10 to the TKI2 parts. So it was a big trial and error time for the class for me and the results were unfortunate. A 16 and 11 were my best qualifying runs seeding me 16th overall or 4th in the B main.
Nitro buggy was pretty solid and I came out swinging with a 6th. I was able to back it up in Q3 with a 5th to seed me 6th in the Amain. Because my focus was so much on learning the cars it made my tire game very simple this weekend. I was primarily just running SSLW Impacts and they seemed to end up being the top choice by other AKA drivers come main time too.
Sunday we got underway with the mains. Ebuggy was up first and at the start I had a good battle with #3 until we got back to the. All right corner which I think I landed on the pipe, sending me tumbling off the track and into dead last. Not the start I was hoping for. I started to put down some decent laps and by lap 9 I was up to 5th. But that was all I had and that’s where I would finish. For sure disappointing but I know with some more track time I’ll get on the pace I need to be on.
Nitro truggy was up shortly thereafter and I made a couple more changes before the main. Again I have a total of 10 tanks of fuel on this truck now so I have much more to learn but I liked some of my changes and perhaps some
Others weren’t the best. Common theme: I just need more time. But I did my best and stayed in the top 6 and with some attrition I moved up to 4th and would finish there. I opted for AKA SSLW impact front and grid rears in truggy.
Lastly I had Nitro buggy and I thought it could be a solid race. However as soon as we started our warmup laps something was wrong. I was loosing power when the car landed and I immediately knew why. As I continue my string of self sabotage I took the car back to my pits and swapped out my fuel line with that from my truck (thanks to those who helped me!) (earlier in the day when I went to check my fuel mileage in my buggy from the night before, when I hooked up the syringe it wouldn’t draw fuel. I thought this could be a problem. Eventually after some coaxing it finally drew and I left it along. I should have replaced the fuel line then and there but in not doing so caused the issue I was not dealing with. I got out there to do one warmup lap but with the new fuel flow the engine was rich upon starting the main. I did move up to 4th, 3 laps in before crashing in the whoops in which they had to let the field go by. I told my pit guy we would have to come in early for the first stop as well and adjust the tune which we did but things just weren’t right. A tank or so later I overshot and flat landed pretty hard on the back tabletop and it flamed me out as well loosing 50 seconds.
So in all yet another disappointing Nitro buggy result, a string seemingly going back over a year. It’s going to get rectified and the results are going to come this year. I just need some more track time and less self sabotage. Overall I was very pleased with the pace of my MP10TKI2. I was one of only 3 drivers to dip into the 34 second range in the main so for a first go at it I’m pretty pleased.
I would be headed out to the Nationals warmup this weekend but I came home pretty sick and thus am going to have to cancel. Hoping to find somewhere to go practice some more before DNC in a months time.
Nitro Buggy: I felt pretty competitive with the MP10TKI2. I still want to make it a bit easier to drive and less unpredictable when transitioning from low grip (dust) to the higher grip (groove) sections of the track. I also think I may have preferred the Red 70mm front and Red 85mm rear springs I was running earlier in the weekend but I need to really work with the springs some more to get a proper feel of things. Just need more track time.
EBuggy: This is the car I felt least comfortable with still. I still have a lot more I want to work on set-up wise, but here is where I am at this moment. I also used the Saddle pack battery configuration with two ProTek RC 6100 Shorty 2S batteries and I had them mounted fully back in their respective battery trays.
Nitro truggy was pretty competitive all weekend. For the main I went with the shorter 55m rear shock body in all my cars to try to get the piston higher into the shock body to displace more oil and provide more support to the rear end. I think it worked well. My truck was fast but had an oversteer somewhere in the mid to exit part of the steering that I need to work on still. I still only have 10 total tanks on the truggy so more track time will be beneficial still. But I feel this is a pretty good fast set-up for the condition.
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