Craig Collinson sent us this detailed race report from the Talywain leg of the BRCA 1/10th Off-Road National Series. We're a bit late getting this online but it's still great news for the HPI Flux Pro speedo and motors, as well as Craig, since Craig finished in the A Final in both 2WD and 4WD! Read on for all the details from the weekend, which proved to be a good race for HPI and Craig.
The track This weekend Talywain hosted the 3rd round of the BRCA 1/10th Off-Road National Series, with 2wd on the Saturday and 4wd on Sunday. The track was all Astroturf with lots of hairpins, fast sweeping corners and a massive straight, which meant you needed loads of horsepower to be on the pace! Saturday (2WD) Qualifying During the fist two rounds of qualifying the weather was terrible with constant rain and no signs of it slowing down. With the track been on the slippy side I knew I had to put in consistent error free runs, as one mistake would be costly. The first round couldn't have gone any better, I put I a completely clean run to give me 3rd in round, with only Neil Cragg (former world champion), and Lee martin (current 2 and 4wd European champion) ahead of me. To say I was pleased with this result is an understatement. This filled me with confidence going into the 2nd round and my confidence showed as I put in another great run giving me 2nd in round. The last two rounds of qualifying the track really started to dry up. With my place in the A-main already secured I decided to push the car to see how high up on the grid I could go. This proved to be a mistake as I made quite a few errors in round 3 and 4, but still managed another two top 10 scores in each. With qualifying over my best results were 2 and 3 in rounds, leaving me 5th on the grip for the A-main. To be mixing it up with some of the best drivers in the world was pleasing to say the least! Final The finals didn't go quite as well as planned but never the less I still managed to finish 6th in leg one and 4th in leg 2. These were my best two results of the 3 legs, which gave me an overall finishing position of 6th. This is my best result of the season so far in 2wd which I was really happy with. Electrics The HPI electrics proved faultless all day as per usual. I opted to run a 6.5 HPI Flux Pro motor again 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. Just like at RHR when it was raining I turned the punch from 7 to 3, which again 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. When the track dried up from round 3 onwards, I cranked the punch back up to 7, which gave me so much drive coming out of corners! The car was ballistic down the straight, which was a must on such a large track. Sunday (4WD) Qualifying With me having such a good day in 2wd I was on a high and feeling confident about having just as good a day in 4wd. The track layout was identical to Saturday but run in the opposite direction. Just like on Saturday the weather was shocking! The sky was grey and the rain constant with no sign of it clearing. As the track was run in the opposite direction it seemed to have noticeably less traction than in 2wd making racing really challenging. In the first two rounds I put in some clean but steady runs giving me 13th in each round. Then just like on Saturday the rain finally stopped and the track died almost instantly! When I went out in round 3 my buggy was nothing less than dialled!! Even though I had a few errors the car was so quick I still finished 3rd in round!! As far as I was concerned my day had started from this point and I was determined to make my weekend a double A final. In round 4 again I made some small errors on a very bumpy and challenging track, but despite my errors I still put in another top 10 score, securing my place in the A-main!! To make the A final in 2wd as well as 4wd really topped off my weekend and I was chuffed to bits with these results! Finals The finals as usual were run over three legs with your best two results to count. The finals went much better in 4wd as I managed to finish an impressive 3rd in leg 1, 5th in leg 2 and a nothing in leg 3. My best results were 3rd and 5th, which meant I finished 5th overall. One place higher than my qualifying position and equalling my highest ever 4wd National result!! Electrics I used a HPI Flux Pro 5.5 in 4wd with a standard rotor and standard timing. The car was quite simply a missile! The huge straight really showcased just how fast HPI electrics really are! My Speedo settings were 8 for top speed (highest setting), 7 for punch, which was more than ample. For the last two rounds of qualifying I increased the breaks from 50% to 75%, which really allowed me fly into a corner, slam on the breaks then accelerate hard out of the corner. This isn't something I would usually do, but as there were a lot of 180-degree corners this proved to be the fastest way round. This just shows the adjustability of the Speedo and how your able to fine-tune the settings to suit whatever track your racing on.
