Philippine Masters 2025 #PM25

I had the privilege of once again traversing to the other side of the globe to attend the Philippine Masters event for the second year in a row. This is regarded as the largest event in this part of the world and it's easy to see why. A world class track that stays consistent all week long as well as paid marshals so you can stay out of the hot sun. You also get the best race caller Scotty Earnst giving it his all on the mic every race all weekend long and a truly top notch media crew bringing the play by play action throughout the event.

I arrived this year knowing much more of what to expect set-up wise which helped me to be on pace much quicker this year and it's a good thing. This year saw many more entires and so practice time was a bit more crowded than last year. For me the traction was maybe just a touch higher than last year and I made sure to bring clay tires this year which I ran all week long. Clay Rawspeed Radars were the ticket for me and provided me a good pace all week long.

Some of the set-up differences I had from last year included going up even more on diff oils. Ending basically on 60-60-50 in the diffs (with standard 10/20 gears). I also was noticing a bit of a scrubbing of speed upon landings and so I worked a bit on limiting uptravel more than usual. (I almost always run about 4mm (or 2 o-rings of uptravel limiters on the front). But this weekend I went to 3 o-rings equivalent on the front and also did 2 o-rings on the rear to where the rear chassis barely touched the ground upon compression. This did seem to help my landing speeds and allowed me to carry a bit more momentum when landing jumps. (I use these soft rubber shims now on the front, (I would have used on the rear as well but didn't bring enough of them. One is approximately 2 shock orings) https://www.lutzrc.com/product-page/rubber-spacer-o-ring-shim-3-37mm ) **For learning, the negative of running uptravel limiters is going to be bump handling. You get less shock stroke and the shocks are going to bottom out sooner. On the front when you go from 2 orings to 3 you notice a slight loss of steering as well, (which can be fine on very high grip tracks when you have too much) I almost always run 2 though as I feel that the stock geometry does provide a little too much uptravel which results in the front collapsing too far in corners if not using any limiters. (Do note that I may notice some of these things more as I am pushing the car to it's limit more.)

Qualifying was mediocre for me as I stayed near the top most of the time but never quite had a break-out run. In ebuggy I would get a 3rd in both the first two qualifiers and a 4th in Q3. I often would come out of the gate fast with a lead but have a traffic or self inflicted issue at some point throughout the run. In ebuggy we could launch the front table step-up which was awesome when nailed correctly but often the afternoon winds would pick up making it a bit more of a struggle. Overall in the ebuggy class I would qualify 4th.

In nitro buggy I had some pretty consistent runs with really just a couple bobbles here and there. I never quite had top pace but was consistent in the 3-5 range every qualifier which netted me 5th overall for the one hour A-main final on main day.

Saturday afternoon also saw ebuggy A1 where it was multiple disappointments for me as I landed on a car that shorted the stretch triple on lap one and then got tagged again a few laps later as a car reentered the racing line and I got the worst of both scenarios. In the end finishing a disappointing 4th in this one. In A2 on Sunday morning things didn't improve as I tried to make a move when the car in front of me went wide into the right side elevated corner but I didn't have the room I thought and we collided sending me to the wall and things didn't improve from there with a 5th place finish. Finally we had A3 which I had a great start and was putting in tighter lines than those ahead of me allowing me to put my car on the inside and with a couple mistakes by those ahead I moved up into the lead and held off a hard charging Pekko to take the A3 victory and to get on the podium in 3rd overall for the event.

Finally it was time for the one hour nitro buggy final. I went up a little in shock oil and freshened up all the diffs for this grueling race in the 95* Philippine heat. My buggy felt decent but I noticed I wasn't quite on the pace I needed to be. As the race progressed I noticed my biggest struggles were rear end rotation on the tighter corners and that my car was popping a bit too high off the front jumps and sometimes sending the nose high off one or two of them that had slightly deformed jump faces. When I was in battles these are the times I noticed I was loosing the most time. I'm not quite sure what I could have done to correct these areas without some good practice/testing days. In the end with some attrition by others I would finish 5th.

Overall the event was a huge success again. This is one of those bucket list events we such an amazing track and great vibe around the event. We also had a banquet on Friday evening for all the racers which is a nice added bonus as well. I want to give a shout out thank you to David Backer for offering to pit for me all weekend and doing a great job! Also I got to help a little with two young guys Eric (8 years old from India) and Dion (15 years old from Sri Lanka) with their pitting and setting up their Kyoshos. And Dion also helped pit for me in the A-main with David and he did a great job! I hope to have the opportunity to attend this race again in the future!

Set-up Notes:

-Biggest things are the uptravel limters of about 6mm in the front and 4mm in the rear. This made the rear chassis barely able to touch the ground.

-72mm front brown spring in the rear. To make ride height you may have to use IS216.

-Wings were moved forward about 15mm from their standard hole positions.

-I raised the ackerman plate about 4mm. (Have to use a new low profile nut upside down and tighten it into the plastic a bit to have a secure hold) I raised the ackerman this far to minimize bump out upon compression. (I feel the bump out on compression on this high grip causes a bit of a push entering and until you get on the throttle. But then when you get on the throttle the outer tire turns in faster as the front end raises which can cause an oversteer on exit) Having less bump out makes this transition more consistent.