Last night I got back home from my first outdoor race, which was held at Kuusankoski on my birthday (22.5). I had no goals for this race and I was a bit nervous about my performance, but in the end all went quite nicely. Two weeks before the race I visited this same track and tested my car with 8 packs. I didn't make any huge changes to car, just a bit raised my ride height from 5mm to 6mm and changed my front camber from 0,5 degrees to 1 degree.

I arrived to Kuusankoski one day before the race. My intensions were to test my car on Friday afternoon and then make my final adjustments before Saturdays race. When I got to track weather was very good, but as soon as I set upped my equipment, it started to rain. Rain lasted for about 15 minutes and after that sun started to shine, so I decided to start charging my batteries while track was drying on the sunshine.

After 2 hours of waiting track was quite dry and I was able to test for 2 packs before It started to rain again. During these two packs I was able to test all what I needed. After this I made my final adjustments into final drive ratio and packed up my gear.

During Friday I also received some bad news. Motors (Matrix V-10) that I have been using so far in stock races, they have been banned from races and this meant that I couldn’t take part into this race with those motors. I made some calls and I had new Trinity Monster Pro reserved from importer and I was about to get it next morning one hour before the race starts. This meant that Saturday morning wasgoing to be quite busy, since I needed to install shottky diode and connectors into this engine, so that it would fit into my car. Also I was a bit worried about final drive ratio, but since both Matrix and Trinity engines are high rpm engines, I decided to go with same drive ratio that I used with Matrix (6.397). Later this decision turned to be very good one.

Saturday morning I arrived to track a bit before 7am. My first heat was about to start at 8am, so I had a bit over one hour time to fix this new motor in place. Anyway importer didn't show up in time, so I didn't get the engine before 7:30am and because of this I did drive my first practice with old Matrix still. After first practice I managed to change the engine and all rest of the heats I did drive with Trinity motor.

I was placed in very first group and so my heat was the first one to drive. In first practice track was very slippery and I had some hard time to stay on track. On second practice track was already a lot better, about normal I say. This second practice also was official one and it's results ruled starting order into first qualifying heat. I placed first and started first qualifying heat from first place as well. I did won all qualifying heats as well, so I started every qualifying heat from the first place. During first and third heats I had some problems getting way from other racers when I was taking them with one or two laps already, so I wasn't able to get good times from these heats. I got hit by other cars and I spinned couple times because of this. One time I also got pushed out of the track and I needed to drive ½ extra lap. Anyway, during heat 2 I managed to clock quite good time that placed me into 14th position in overall ranking. During heat 3 some other drives improved their times and I dropped somewhere near position 18. In last heat I (again) gave my best and managed to improve my time a lot. After qualifying ended, I was ranked 13th in overall results and this gave me 3rd position into B-final. This was a lot better than I expected and I started to worry can I keep my place in the finals.

First final started and I still was a bit nervous. Start went well. Car that started from second place managed to take lead and I started to chase 2nd car. I made one little mistake during first lap and after that I realized that I wont have any chance anymore to take over second place. After that I just concentrated into my own driving and waited for mistake from either driver in front of me. They didn’t make any mistakes and I finished 3rd. I was quite happy with this result cause my primary focus was keeping my 3rd place in B-finals.

Before second final it started to rain and this changed everything. All started to protect their cars from water. I protected my receiver and speed controller; also I placed some tape into bottom of my car. I didn’t have any special tires for this kind of weather, so I needed to drive with normal slicks. Second final started and I realized that my car was very hard to handle. Speed was ok, but I had some very hard time to turn the car in multiple places on the track. I guess this is quite normal in this kind of weather since there is not much traction because of the water. I did my best and managed to keep my car on track, but couple drivers got pass me and I placed 5th.

In overall ranking I got 3 + 5 points. Unfortunately driver who placed 6th in first final positioned 2nd in second final and got the same overall result in points (8), but because he had higher result than me (2nd against my 3rd) in another final, he raised into 13th position and I dropped into 14th place in final ranking.

Final ranking can be seen from here.

I visited at our off-road track yesterday. It wasn't in best possible condition after winter and track was still quite wet, so I didn't have possibility to try my B2 there. Looks like it's going to be next weekend when track should be in proper condition. Also at the same trip I went to look place where our new outdoor on-road track will be build. I took some pictures from both places and I uploaded pictures just couple minutes ago. I took those pics with my cell phone, so quality isn't that good.

Some time ago I made RC10.FI stickers and many have been requesting original image so they could print their own stickers. I packed original PSD-file, used font and GIF-image for people who don't own Photoshop as one package that they can download and print theirselves. Packet can be downloaded by using this link.

I got home Sunday afternoon from Laukaa where I did take part into a national class race for the first time. I signed up into open stock class couple weeks ago without bigger expectations and result was 7th position in C-finals.

Race was held at local sports hall, but there also was tropical spa inside the same area, so temperature at the track was very hot and air was very humid. This made carpets a bit bumpy and racers to sweat a lot, but track and traction were both very good in the end.

I arrived on Friday evening well in time before open practice that started ~ 7pm. This was my first time when I was racing on any other track than my local club and speed difference was huge. I knew this already in advance and that's why I specially wanted to take part into open practice. I got there, set up my gear and marked my xtals into practice board. I wasted my first battery fighting with radio problems. I took my car out of track after 4-5 laps cause I wasn't able to control it much after someone turned his radio on a bit after I went into track. After taking my car out, I looked xtal lists and noticed that there was other guy driving with xtals that only had 5KHz of difference into mine. I change my xtals into board and started to wait for another heat. I drove 2 heats after this without any radio problems. I got quite familiar with track and I lapped my best time 13.46 in second heat. I packed up my gear and dropped them into my hotel room. I got some food from the city and went to sleep.

Next morning I waked up ~ 6am and got into race track a bit before doors opened (7am). I was placed into first group, which had all beginners and racers with low-end results. First practice heat was 8am and I lapped time of 14.45, I wasn't much happy with it, but I didn't think about it much at that point. This lap time gave me 6th starting position in next heat that was first qualifying heat from total of 4. After starting from 6th position I managed to raise into 3rd place and lapped time of 13.74, got result of 21 laps and time of 5:00:35. After first qualifying round ended I was at 19th place in my class. I was pretty amazed from that, but also I saw that this wasn't the whole truth, there were some faster drivers coming from behind and fast..

Second and third qualifying heats went totally under the table. Into second one I started from third position, managed to rise into second position, but in half way of the heat I got smashed by some racer who was trying to give me way when I was trying to pass him. Instead of giving me way, he drove his car right into mine and I fall into 4th or 5th position. I rose from there as second again, but it happened again and I wasn't able to improve my time and came as 4th. Anyway I improved my best lap with couple tenths and it was 13.44 at this point. Third qualifying heat was quite much repeated from the previous heat. I started from 4th position, raised into second place, got smashed etc and ended up into 5th position. Yet again I improved my lap time and it was now 13.21. After third qualifying round ended, I was at position 28 in my class.

When fourth qualifying heat started, I knew that this was the last chance for me and I needed to get a clear run without any crashes or mistakes. My praises were answered, I got a perfect clear run, I rose from 5th position as 2nd and all went damn well. I lapped my best time in whole race that was 12.95 and improved my result into 22 laps and time 5:09:16. After qualifying heats ended, I was at position 27 and this placed me into 7th place at the starting grid in C-finals.

There were two finals and scores from both were added together and this formed the final result. In first final I managed to rise into 6th position, but after driving a while I was taking part in small pushing and this made me to drive off from the track in very crucial part of the track. I missed sensor that counts laps and their times. I lost one lap because of this and I drove into finish at 6th place, but I ended up being last (10th) because of that one missing lap. This quite much got me pissed off, but there was nothing that I was able to do about it since jury didn’t see it happening. My best lap was 13.18.

When preparing into the last final I took as my goal to keep my original place that I had before finals (7th of C-finals). I knew that I need to make a good run to keep it, so I was a bit nervous when this last final started. Everything went very well and I ended up as 4th in second final. This was just enough to keep my original position and I was quite happy into this result. My best lap time was 13.17. I guess first race could have gone worse than this.

I always speculate a bit too much, but if that first final would have ended me as being 6th like I was supposed to be, then my final result would have been 4th in C-finals. Tough luck, but I guess this is part of this hobby. I hope next time will go better at Kuusankoski, where next FinnTrack event is being held. I made a decision that I will now take part into all remaining races in FinnTrack series.

It's time for my first race. I have been quite nervous about going into my first race, but now it all starts to look good. I have been stressing a way too much about little things and now all seem to look really good. I got confirmation that my missing 3 pairs of crystals have arrived and I can get them just a day before the race. This means that I can use my new Sanwa M8 and leave my old Graupner XR-3 back home, because I now have all 4 required pairs of different crystals. I ordered these crystals from Japan and that's why I wasn't able to get these right away, but waiting for an extra week wasn't such a bad thing, because I saved 13 EUR per pair by ordering this way (LHS price 32.50 EUR per pair). Thanks to omx, who relayed my order to his supplier. :) Also I was able to pick all missing accessories from local stores (two-sided tape etc general stuff). Also reseller who has a stand at the race confirmed that they have some body weights reserved for me (since I'm still missing ~ 60g from the race limit).

Last weekend I was tweaking my set-ups for a stock engine and all went just fine. I guess it was one of my best weekends at the track, because I came back home without breaking a thing. Plus I was very happy about the handling of the car. I rebuild my front shocks before the weekend and changed new fluids into them. Car was good already before that, but I didn't know what fluid my front shocks had at that point, so I decided to rebuild them to be sure. I changed AE 40wz fluids into front and opened 3 clicks from the adjustable shocks. Result was very good. As I said car was good to drive already before I did it, but after it was even better.

Last couple times that I have been able to drive with Xray (had this car less than a month), I used that time to find good setups for the car in general. I used 17T motor and CS-22 tires, but now I had stock motor in use and CS-27 tires. During first battery I changed gear ratio for couple times and in the end of first pack, I had found quite a nice ratio that I used into end of the day. I'm going to keep it that way and when I get to race track, I'll just start from the same ratio and then fine tune it to suit for the actual race track.

It has been a while since I have updated anything these "news". Someone might have noticed that some time ago I added some Xray pictures here (and I just added couple more), so here's the story short.

Finnish importer of Losi didn't manage to deliver those spare & hop-up parts for the car ever, so I cancelled that order and decided to change it into another brand. I got pretty nice deal from one Xray with acceptable price, so I switched into Xray and I'm very happy with the car. Handling is a lot better in Xray and finally I have droop screws that actually work(!). I have been finding the right setups for couple weekends now and many other Xray drivers have been giving me good advices. Thanks to them I have found very well performing setups and my driving has improved a lot at the same time and I have now more experience how each change affects into handling. This weekend I'm going to test this car with stock motor and find correct ratios for it, because I have signed into my first race, which is held at Laukaa during next weekend (17.4.2004).

To have my old Losi still in good shape, I ordered some of the most needed parts straight from Germany and they arrived within one week. I updated my equipment page to include these new Losi hop-ups and Xray specs are now also there. So I have now two good racing cars. I have no plans yet what I'm going to do with Losi, but I guess I'll find some use for it during summer. Difference in weight is huge when comparing Losi and Xray. Losi was ~ 1570g with all stuff equipped for racing (including transponder), but Xray is only ~ 1450g with all the same stuff. Now I need to add some more weight into my car to have it inside the rules. Unlike with Losi, I was trying to loose weight with almost any possible way from it.

What I cannot understand is that how Finnish Losi importer didn't manage to deliver those parts. I waited for 2 months for god's sake! Around week after I cancelled my order, they mailed me that the packet is now in mail with tracking code. I cannot understand this either, why they are sending me an order that I have already cancelled? I guess this just means that I don't need to make any orders into this store anymore. Where are these a lot discussed customer service and rapid relivery?

At the same time when I changed into Xray, I also changed my controller and receiver from AM27 into FM40. My old Graupner XR-3 controller and B6 receiver are left into past (not in use atm) and new FM40 replacements are installed. To be exact, I have now Sanwa M8 controller and Sanwa RX-311 in use. Looks like I need to get some new FM40 receivers too at some point in the near future. And last but not least, I ordered Sirio .21 Kanai engine & tuned pipe into my upcoming Hobao Pro-R. I guess this 1:8 buggy will be quite intresting project, as soon as I just get it.

I upgraded rest of my ball cups into same RPM Heavy Duty yellow ones yesterday, which I used earlier. I noticed that steering came quite a bit more stable. Also I mounted transponder holder and aluminium motor plate for some extra cooling. Car looks like a candy now, I'm going to take some new pictures later today and upload them here. Also I installed front and rear sway bars, I guess all these together should make the car a lot more stable to drive. Only drawback is that car is a bit fat at the moment. I measured weight of 1567g with transponder and drive batteries etc, so there is extra 45g that I should loose somehow. Some of that I can loose by changing into aluminium CVD's that should arrive next week, but I guess that's not enough.

For two days I have been trying to find new One-Way without any luck, so I assembled normal diff. into front last night. Now I can at least drive with it during next weekend. Next week I should get my load of XXX-S parts finally (according to supplier) and with some luck I was able to get One-Way assembly into same shipment, so probably I can drive with new One-Way within couple weeks. Only the price is quite horrible for it, 89.90 EUR.

I totally forgotted to take any pictures on saturday at the club, but I guess that's not a big deal. Otherwise I got quite nice results with my new 17T training motor. I was able to lap quite good (= ~ same) times with it against some more experienced drivers that were driving with 17T motor as well, but with foam tires. Shame that our track here changes every weekend, so I cannot much compare those times with previous ones. After driving 5½ battery packs without any problems, my one-way broke and that pretty much was end of my practices on saturday. Right front tire lost all traction and so my car started to slip badly on the right. When I got home, I opened front diff cover and removed whole one-way assembly and discovered that right side bearings were a mess and when I removed right hub from the assembly, five bearing balls falled out with it. At the moment I'm trying to find a new one-way assembly or right side bearings, but looks like there aren't any in stock here in Finland. This means only one thing, for sure I cannot take part into FinTrack event at Riihimäki. If you happen to have extra suitable one-way assembly somewhere in bottom of your kit, I would be more than happy to buy it from you.

On sunday I started to work with my B2 parts that I got on friday. I made all four shocks with 30wd fluid and placed new aluminium caps into front. I replaced front bumper, rear arms, rear arms mounts and placed e-clips into places where they were missing. I went for a test drive and noticed that my "new" Team Tekin receiver was broken and replaced it with Hitec receiver. After this all was working like a dream and I drove 2½ battery packs that were left from saturday. No problems occured. Later I tried to fix Tekin receiver. I opened it, cleaned it with contact cleaner spray, cutted antenna wire a little from both ends and soldered it back into place very carefully. I charged one battery pack more and tested it, but it still didn't work. After doing all this I installed Hitec receiver back in place and drove this charged battery back into end without any problems. Also I changed my radio settings a little, because of the snow surface I had some problems to steer it. By increasing servo range into max (which normally isn't such a good idea) I got a lot better handling even of snow surface. I was afraid that car would have came harder to handle because end of the car is loose pretty much all the time and keeping it straight requires lot of "fixing moves". So by changing steering range these fixing moves also have more affect and what I was afraid, was that it would have made car to oversteer when trying to keep it straight.

To sum this all up, looks like B2 is now again working and all problems that I noticed earlier are gone cause of the new parts. XXX-S doesn't look so good, might be that I cannot drive with it for couple week unless I can find suitable one-way assy that I could obtain faster.

I got new training motor for my XXX-S (Matrix TI V9.0 17T) that I'm going to test tomorrow at the club. Some other related parts came with it, but most of them are just some general purpose tools, fluids, brushes, transponder dummy etc. Last week I was able to test my B2 outside on snow surface and I must say that it was very impressive. Only drawback was that I somehow managed to break right rear shock cap and I needed to order new one for it. Today I just got my parts which I ordered to replace it and let's see can I get it running during the weekend. Since the original shock cap was made from plastic, I decided to order aluminium ones this time for all 4 shocks, there were only 2 in stock, so I got 2 now and rest 2 will come later. In the same order I received new bumper, some nuts (aluminium and plastic ones), spare rear arms, e-clips and 3 degree rear arm mounts (previous owner had installed 2 degree block on the other side and 3 degree block on the other). I got used Team Tekin receiver for the B2 couple days ago, it might be a bit broken (some signal problems, prolly cause of the antenna wire) so I'm going to test it as soon as I get new parts installed.

I'm still waiting for my XXX-S spare parts. I made the order almost 6 weeks ago, so it should be about the time to get them finally. Reseller claims that they have left from Germany at the beginning of this week and should be here during next one, but I doubt that a little since he said it to me last time too, that parts have left from Germany. This is not the order that I talked about in the previous news item below. Order below should arrive next monday or tuesday (quite much confirmed). I just hope that I get all this stuff during next week so I don't need to be thinking all the time when I get my parts finally. :) Last week I also ordered Hudy pinion caddy that should arrive sometime during this month. Also I got quite good deal from Hobao Hyper 7 Pro-R (1:8 Offroad nitro buggy) and looks like I'm goin to get one during next weeks.

So that's the story with orders. What comes into actual racing, I think that I have found quite nice setups for the car now and looks like everything starts to be quite ready for my first race. Maybe I'll signup into next FinTrack event, or maybe not. Time will tell. As mentioned above, tomorrow I will be training at the local club. Probably I'm going to update some new pictures tomorrow evening.

And oh, I totally forgotted to mention. Team Losi parts which originally were supposed to be on sale at national touring races, those will not be available since sponsored driver of the importing company dropped the contract. Therefore he will be not selling the parts in these events. Basically this means that all Losi drivers should have their own stock of parts for the events. I ordered quite nice pile of all kinds of parts, so probably if I'm present at the event, then you can check if I have the part you need (in case that you don't have it yourself).

I added some pictures, which I did take at local club. Most of them are from other cars than mine. :) You can see my new yellow rod ends (cups) in some pictures too. There's still couple rods without heavy duty rod ends, but I ordered some more, so I can get rest of the rods (lower front links) upgraded too. Actually I ordered a bunch of other stuff too: front and rear sway bars, purple motor plate to get a bit better cooling for my Matrix, transponder clip, 4 pairs of crystals and b-type rear wing. Those should arrive sometime next week. Also I made couple orders to local stores, but I don't know yet when those orders will arrive, looks like every order I make are lagging quite badly.

I just updated contens of these pages quite a lot. I'm still working with my "story" section, so it's not available yet, but should be finished during next couple days.

First before browsing any deeper into this site, I would like to mention that I’m NOT a professional racer and there really is no team called Klamath Racing for real. What this site really is about, it’s just my thoughts and experiences related to this hobby, which I thought that might be nice to share with some other people who have the same interests.

My plans indeed are at some point to take part into our national series, but at the moment I don’t have any idea when this is going to happen. Let’s just say that when the time is right. That propably is at some later point of this year. :)

I will be updating this site on “when I have time” basis, so please bear with me if I cannot always get the latest things into here. Anyway, I doubt that I will have anything so important to say here, that should be on this site asap and could not wait for another day. I guess I should be glad if someone even finds his way into these pages. ;)