4 Hour Vintage Enduro - '08'

[Bormac]

With the ever increasing popularity in vintage off road racing scene the Knox club in Melbourne-Australia has been working on holding a 4 hour vintage enduro to be held this 30th of November ( my 35th birthday I might add).

There will be 12 teams of two drivers with each team allowed either 1 or 2 cars from circa 1990/1.

Darryn and I will be teaming up again this year hoping for a sweeter result than last years but either way it will be a blast just competing. Can you imagine a field of 12 drivers at ay one given time? Oh yeah this will be a hoot.

Here's a link http://www.rctech.net/forum/australian-racing/240074-2008-knox-4-hour-vintage-enduro.html which will take you right to the thread which has been going on for some time over at RC TECH....more news to follow.
Cheers-Jason

[Bormac]

Got some cars ready for the meeting...yipee!

[Mr. ED]

Good luck guys! bring home that trophy and leave the trophy girl at the track

[Bongo Fury]

Shouldn't he at least take her out for a nice dinner? Just leaving her doesn't seem very Gentlemanly.

[Mr. ED]

Nah, he has to be a good boy since he got married only a couple months ago

EDIT: hey that race was today, where are the pics! Lazy slow,...

[RETRO R/C]

Hi Guys, We won!!

Jason and I teamed up again for this years event. Last years dissapointment (we snatched defeat from the jaws of victory ) , turned into celebration this year. What made it even better is that it was my birthday last week - and Jasons on race day!

The racing was fast and furious in the "Öpen" class (which is what jase and I ran). We had a much better run this year.

Just got back from the 800 klm trip - absolutely wrecked - so will put up some pics within the next 24 hours. Hopefully I will be able to give a little "report" too.

Really was an awesome weekend.

Cheers

Darryn

[Mr. ED]

Congratulations to the 2 of you!

And the big question on every-ones lips: what did you run?

[Bormac]

Yep it's true alright, Darryn and I fought long and hard amongst a feild of 11 teams with many of the competitors being accomplished drivers to take the win. Darryn running his Losi Jrx Pro and me with my Topcat/Cougar. It was a whole lot of fun but at the same time very challenging. Neither of our cars had any real issues coping with the hammering the track and competition were giving us. It cetainly was a great way to spend my 35th birthday and to come away with a win was really something. Darryn certainly put the wind up the competition with his very skillful driving whilst I knew it would be a long race so I did my best to keep all my driving smooth. Both our cars were certainly very fast considering the motors and conservative gearing. Possibly one of the best events I've ever been involved with and very well run by our very good friend Antony and the Knox club. Would like to thank Darryn for helping me to get our team over the line with the most laps. Well done champ.

[RETRO R/C]

As promised - here a few pics....seems I took more than I thought - nearly 200...have to keep some for the magazine - however here are some of the "good atmosphere" ones:

Friday at Keilor - Jason making a birthday wish perhaps?



SATURDAY - Practice and general stuffin about:

Rob Geremia's (concourse winner) tray back ute - these things should be in every blokes garage!



Look at me - I really am special! Ants awesome trailer - and Jason's "ÿou will never have this" look.........



Jasons Cougar getting prepped before a run.....



AIR TIME - first practice run for Jason's Cougar........



Luis and Brendan Sola's Losi JRX2 - first run - MORE AIR!!



Jason's JRX2 gettin some air - and some "ësses" action:





Some pics of my Lazer ZXR and my SWB Trinity "Butterfly" Optima Mid doin their thing:


















SUNDAY - RACE DAY - a couple of pics - not as many as I would have liked - but I was otherwise engaged!!


The Concourse line up:



Robs's Deserving concourse winner - so so pretty! (the car - not him!!)



My nice clean JRX Pro - before the 4 hours of torture:



Luis and Brendan Sola's car before the race (AS it was raced in 1990 at the S.A state titles!!) :



The very tired winning cars:



The very tired, sunburnt winners of open class:



Ant doing the presentation with the camera crew recording it all - I think they got a great show and hopefully the club and hobby will benefit a little from it.



This event really was a blast - and next year will be even tougher - as a couple of old racer friends of mine have made rumblings that they are gonna dig theior old cars out of the closet for a race. I have tonnes more pics - will try and add some after the article is submitted if you guys are interested.

Bring on the next one!

Cheers

Darryn

[Mr. ED]

Serious coolness in the air!
I never expected such Big Air jumps for a 4hour endurance. Must have cost some teams in repair time for sure.

Hip hip hurray for the winners, and thumbs for all participants for their good spirit

[RETRO R/C]

Hi Ed,

Mate - we dont do things by halves that is for sure. The tripples were about 8 - 10 ft in length (in total) - we were sometimes doing all three - or playing it safe and duble singling it..the track is pretty hard core off road. Nothing that a well prepared car driven sensibly cannot handle though. The "race" cars (losi associated etc) certainly stood up to more abuse though - some of the Tamiyas were certainly a little worse for wear at the end of the event!

Got some more pics coming - glad you like the true off road running!

Cheers

Darryn

[scr8p]

darryn, i see your car has a silver can 540 motor. did everyone use those?

great pics by the way.

[Bongo Fury]

Wow, 4 hours with brushed motors right? Even "only" 2 each, yikes. Pictures are great, sure would be interested to hear the repair/pit details. Were you able to run the whole time? Notice some tape that at least on the Losi didn't appear to be there to begin with, suspect the same on the Schui based on earlier pictures if I'm not mistaken.

We tried to do this many years ago, about when those cars were new, but it didn't happen. Not being hardy Aussies we were planning on 4 man teams. Would have been with 1400 & 1700 batteries in our defense though.

Very cool guys, thanks for sharing.

[RETRO R/C]

Last year we ran Tamiya "sports tuned" motors. While these are a bit faster than the silver cans - they are pretty much "hand grenades" in terms of their durability. I have had them last for 20 hours of use - and I have also had them last for barely 2 minutes before lunching themselves - for me - I wanted the reliability that comes with the 540.

The rules of the event allow you to run ANY motor you want! Batteries were open to any roar approved pack - LI-PO or conventional NIMH. Jason ran a sports tuned - however was being very conservative on the throttle and not giving it a hard time - only giving it a "squirt" of full throttle on the straight and on the lead up to the jumps for that extra bit of lift. Normal stock motors would probably be the best - however the shorter run times associated with the running of anything other than a sealed can motor really do kill the strategy. Run times on the sealed can motors were anything from 25 through to 45 minutes! Stock motors were struggling to run for more than 15 or twenty (I tested them), with the stock motors only being a max of 2 to 3 seconds a lap quicker (for me). As it can take up to 2 or 3 minutes to change a battery (witht he driver change over etc) and with lap times around the 30 second mark with the sealed can motor - it is not hard to add up the figures to realise that the sealed can was the way to go.

For us, this year, breakages were an absolute minimum. In fact the only part that broke for either of us was on my car - a flippinn roll pin of all things on the layshaft!! I could not beleive it. Jason did a "double stint" when mine failed (just over an hour of driving straight). At the 20 minute lunch break I replaced the pin (in fact I ripped the whole gearbox out thinking it may have been the diff - however I only took the spur off last - it was only then that I saw the snapped roll pin........lol - not even a 2 cent part!!). I did a double stint at the end of the race.

Last year we were in the lead - however we both blew up our motors in the last 20 minutes. This year we were a more conservative - it really paid off.

I thoroughly enjoyed the event. I love driving for extended periods (I am used to gas car racing - 1 hour finals are standard). It makes for better racing, as one mistake does not mean that you have no chance of making the time up - you have a whole hour!

"RACE TAPE" certainly was used. I had to use it to hold my wing on after getting it ripped off tangling with a back marker. Jasons body got absolutely SMASHED - literally in half, after a tangle with a back marker. At the end of the day though - these race cars are tough cookies. To qoute the movie Grease "it takes more than a coat of paint to make it at thunder road" - they mightent look pretty now - but they sure did the job. Nothing a bit of TLC wont fix anyway.

Will put some more pics up asap.

Cheers

Darryn

[Bormac]

I guess I didnt study the rules as closely as Darryn, I was under the impression that we were to run a 'sealed can' motor and the obvious choice was either a 540 silver can for reliability or if you need a 'speed fix' a Sports Tuned. If we were alowed an open can I would have loved to fit a sports tuned arm into a can with bearings and descent brushes-LOL.

Indeed the race was always about lasting the 4 hours and while some racers thought it to be a 5 minute race both Darryn and I knew that we had plenty of time to watch the other teams fall away. Darryn had the reliability of the silver can and was driving quite hard while I had one of the sports tuned 'grenades' bolted into the back of my car. I was suprised to see that my motor was lasting out quite well and with Darryn out of action with his roll pin snappage it was a lot of fun running till the midway brake. It was quite funny making our way through the back markers,forget about lapping etiquet here, we were forced to work hard each and every lap doing our best to make our way past 'bouncing' Grasshoppers and Frogs.

The race was split up into 3 categories- OPEN, SPORTSMAN and HARDTAIL. Open consisting of your old school race buggies such as Cougar's,RC10s,Losi's etc... while the Sportsman were for Brat's,Frogs etc... and the Hardtails for the Grasshoppers,Hornets etc... I felt this was a great way to envourage those who didnt own a comp spec buggy but wanted to race an old favourite.

After half time and some 'race tape' repairs we were back on with Darryn onto the track first,then i was to tag in after his battery was out. Indeed Darryn wanted to make up for some lost time and he got 2 more packs in consequtively leading up to the last part of the race but he wasn't getting the full duration he wanted and i had to tag in one last time at around the 8 minute to go mark. I thought i was done for the day but the Cougar was needed to bring us over the line and that it did. The Cougar hadnt missed a beat all day long and my only real incident was after a very hard landing my motor pinion mesh came loose. After a very short pit adjustment the car was spot on again. It was a great feeling to make it over the line with more than 20 laps in the lead ( I'll need to check for the exact details there-LOL). As I was leaving the stand I had a film crew approach me straight up and ask what I was feeling. It was great. Darryn had walked up to me with my car he picked up from the track and I ofcourse mentioned something about the Schumacher getting our team over the line. What a HOOT!

Last years race had only been 2 hours and as Darryn mentioned we blew both our motors in the last 20 mins- DOH! - and had to sit out and watch the other teams take our leed. This year we were better prepared and it paid off. It was a super day and a great way to spend my 35th Birthday.