Thornhill Masters

It was inevitable as time doesn't stop. I participated in my first ever 40+ class this weekend at the Thornhill Masters. In general I wouldn't pariticpate in the class as I can generally still keep up with the kids. But I wanted the track time at Thornhill to begin building a deeper database of set-up knowledge in preparation for the upcoming IFMAR World Championships at Thornhill in September of 2026. I ran my Kyosho MP11 in 40+ and U40 Nitro buggy and my MP10e TKI2 with MP11 rear arms and uprights in Ebuggy.

Throughout qualifying my plan was to run my selected tire naturally in 40+ and then to try the same tire sauced 30min later in the U40 class. In Q1 the track was starting to have a line and I opted for Rawspeed Pink Radar tires. In 40+ I had a 42.0 fast lap and then in U40 I had a 40.9. So the sauce (FDJ red in this case) helped for over a second on laptime and the car just had more grip. In Q2 I tried the new Triumph in Yellow (soft) compound. They are very easy to drive and forgiving and the track was getting a better groove at this point. In 40+ I had a 41.4 and followed up in U40 sauced with a 40.8 again feeling more grip feel with the sauce. So I think I established that Sauce is worth a good deal on this track.

I primarily found the most success with Pink radar and Yellow Triumph. For the mains I opted to try SLW Triumph with a good sauce. Conditions were around 80* and there was a decent groove but grip wasn't as high as nationals. In 40+ the tires felt good and safe but they probably weren't the fastest. Yellow may have been a faster choice. I still opted for the SLW again in the U40 main and as suspected against some fast guys I was a couple tenths off pace and also had a mechanical issue that was my fault at the start and my switch went out near the end keeping me from doing much battling.

In the end I was able to TQ + 1st place the +40 class and take 3rd in ebuggy.

I stayed after on Monday to try some set-up changes to the MP11 that I haven't had the opportunity to do yet. Perhaps the one i'm most intrigued by and wish I had more time to backtest was narrowing the pivots on the suspension blocks. I achieved this by putting the pills with the small dot towards the inside instead of outside and adjusting the D block pill to maintain the same rear toe in and then adjusting the camber back to the same. What I noticed was minimal on the front, perhaps a smoother steering arc. The rear seemed a little more pronounced and I felt it had a quicker rotation and squared up better on corner exit. For sure a setting I want to play around with more. (One thing to note, If you run the narrow pivot and you are trying to use the 94mm universals, you need to make sure you do not have too much negative camber and you will really need to trim the pin and 45* angle the top edge of the pin so it doesn't bottom out into the diff outdrive.