HPI Flux Pro Team Driver and 1/10th off-road racer Craig Collinson returned from the recent BRCA Nationals with a sterling report from his weekend running 2WD and 4WD using HPI Flux Pro power and the upcoming HPI brushless racing speedo! The Track This weekend Robin Hood Raceway (RHR) hosted the 2nd round of the BRCA 1/10th Off-Road National Series, with 2wd on the Saturday and 4wd on Sunday. The track was all Astroturf and for both days the layout was very tight and technical, really testing your skills and ability.
- Saturday (2wd) Qualifying Qualifying for 2wd was a bit of a lottery with the weather being really unpredictable, scattered showers and sunshine was the order of the day. I've raced at RHR a quite a few times over the last year or so but nearly always in the dry. Any track knowledge was taken away with the rain coming down for the first round of qualifying. I managed to put in a respectable 8th in round with a steady but clean run. Round 2 the rain had stopped and the track started to dry up but unfortunately wasn't quite dry in time for my heat, which meant the last two heats all put in quicker times. This meant I had to put in at least a 7th in round to secure a place in the A-main. Round 3 was again a clean run but just not quite quick enough giving me another 8th in round. The last round was do or die, unfortunately for me I achieved the latter of the two, making a few mistakes and blowing my chances of making the A. Three of us were tied on 16 points but the other two people had a higher round score which put me pole in the B final. Still not a bad result given the level of competition. Final In the B final I led from start to finish only making a few small but not costly errors giving a fairly comfortable win. Electrics The HPI electrics proved faultless all day as per usual. I opted to run a HPI Flux Pro 6.5 motor (#101728) with a standard rotor and standard timing. My HPI Speedo was also faultless and really helped in fine-tuning my power input to suite the ever-changing track conditions. When it was raining I turned the punch from 7 to 3, which you could notice straight away. The bottom end felt much smoother giving more control over my throttle input which made diving in the slippy conditions so much easier. - Sunday (4wd) - Qualifying In practice my buggy felt dialled right from the start and with the weather looking set to be dry all day I was feeling confident in making up for the disappointment of not making the A-main in 2WD. The first round of qualifying I put in a really quick run to give me TQ with only two heats to go. As I marshalled for heat 11 the top contenders to beat my time were Tom Yardy and Ellis Stafford. Both these two drivers made some small mistakes, which meant my fastest time was still safe with only one heat remaining. I watched the final heat of qualifying anxiously only to see Lee Martin, the current 2WD and 4WD European champion, and Paul Bradby just beat my TQ time. This gave me 3rd in round, which I was more than happy with to say the least! In round 2 I put in another clean run to give me 4th in round losing out again to Lee, Paul and the current 2WD National champion Tom Cockerill. With a 3 and a 4th in round I was safely in the A-main. With me been safely in the A final I wanted to push the car as hard as possible for round 3 to see if I could qualify any higher up the grid but this proved to be a mistake as I pushed the car too hard, causing me to make some small errors which resulted in me finishing 7th in round. The last round of qualifying I went back to concentrating on putting in a completely clean run which gave me another 3rd in round, putting me 4th overall for the Final! This is my highest ever-qualifying position at a National, proving that my choice to go with HPI power was definitely the right move! Finals The Finals were run over three legs with your best two results to count. The Finals didn't quite go according to plan, with some close racing and hard-fought battles I finished 5th in each leg, which gave me an overall finishing position of 6th. Again I was still really pleased with my result, as the level of competition at Nationals in the UK is so high. Electrics I used a HPI Flux Pro 5.5 (#101727) in 4WD with a standard rotor and standard timing. The car was quite simply a missile! Even the race commentator made a comment about how quick my car was down the straight!! My speedo settings were 8 for top speed (highest setting), 7 for punch, which was more than ample. I used the lowest possible setting for drag brake and only 50% breaks which allowed me to carry more corner speed rather than stop starting all the time. Overall the electrics were quite simply amazing and I would recommend them to anyone. The next National is in three weeks at Talywain so keep an eye out for the next update!
