Tag Archives: bremerton

Treads Gone Wild summer race series is heating up!

Round 3 of TGW is now in the books, and it’s becoming a very VERY tight series. Two rounds left and unfortunately, I’m in danger of losing my 3rd place standing in the series.

Bryan is how tied with me for third, and he’s brought his A-game, winning last nights A-Main.

I qualified 5th running my black and yellow Cow Car 3 Kyosho Ultima SC-R Short Course, controlled with a Spectrum 2.4GHz DX-3R DSM2 controller.

Kyosho Ultima SCR

Here is the video of last nights race:

Race Video – Round 3 of “Treads Gone Wild” Stock Short Course

Watch the battle between me and the green Kawasaki truck of Bryan Schoening (whom I’m now tied for 3rd with in the series).

Stock Short Course “Treads Gone Wild” Series Points Standing
     STOCK S/C  (17.5 no boost)
					   
NAME	ROUND 1	ROUND 2	ROUND 3	ROUND 4	ROUND 5 	POINTS	PLACE	   
PHIL VANDEVER	30	30	25			85	1	   
DANIEL CORRENTI	25	21	21			67	2	   
DAVID DEMARTINI	21	16	18			55	3	   
BRYAN SCHOENING	0	25	30			55	3	   
JOE HASELBERGER	16	14	14			44	5	   
CHARLIE KRAUS	18	12	13			43	6	   
BRYAN HONSTAIN	13	11	11			35	7	   
PAUL HUDSON	0	18	0			18	8	   
JAKE EVERSON	0	0	16			16	9	   
GRACE HONSTAIN	14	0	0			14	10	   
RICH EVANS	0	13	0			13	11	

Despite some mistakes in driving, the Kyosho Ultima SC-R is a nearly unstoppable machine. In fact the series points leader is also running a Kyosho SC, which seriously mitigates any advantage in running the best short course R/C truck money can buy. Regardless, it was a worthwhile change out from the SC-10. By changing trucks I went (virtually overnight) from a back of the pack running to a consitant podium finisher, and have a handful of wins, something that seemed impossible for me to accomplish with the SC-10.

MooOOoooOOOoOoooo – The Milk Man Delivers!

Oh yeah, what a nice of racing!!!

This is the second outing of the ‘Mooo Mobile‘, drive by me, aka The Milk Man.

Had a good couple of hours of practice, and the truck was running pretty good. Did some baseline laps with the setup from two weeks ago, then I started tweaking the suspension.

For the last few days, I have been researching suspension from the other manufactures. Seeing what they do differently, and working up some research for a new iPhone / iPad App. Yes.. going to see about making this hobby pay off in $$$, not just silliness. During this research, I saw a possible solution to a setup problem in a set of springs designed for Losi trucks.

Here is the issue. For front springs, AE (aka Team Associated) maxes out with the ‘Red’ spring at 3.90 lb./in. Which is pretty stiff for a vehicle that weights maybe 4 lbs. total. The Associated spring is 2.25″ long, and right now I have to run it at the max length, just to get it to sit at the right front ride height. Adding to the issues, the setup sheets recommend cutting a coil out of the spring, making it shorter and stiffer. I’m thinking that cutting a coil will make for a sloppy suspension, since the top of the coil will no longer be flat, and not sit right on the spring perches.

Then I get this brilliant (well, different, if not brilliant) idea to purchase a set of the Losi front truck springs in the 4.1 lb./in. rating. They are close in diameter. Plus, the Losi spring is only 2″ long, also giving me the ability to lower the truck more using the shocks built in threads. Something I could not do with the stock 2.25″ spring.

It turns out, the Losi springs have a slightly larger ID. Almost too large. But, they fit well enough, and under tension do not move around adversely. So, I gave it a run tonight. And I must say, it did help quiet down the front handling, making the truck handle more neutral. Less sliding in the rear end. I took some notes tonight on what I tried, which I’ll be including in a different post later on this week.

I did OK tonight, again making the A-Main in Stock (17.5 motor) Short Course. We had a couple of pretty full grids tonight. I held my own in the main, finishing where I started, in 7th place. Not stellar by any means, but the track was also VERY loose, so those with better skills really dominated. Not finishing last is always a plus, when racing against so many more experienced drivers. Most of these guys have been racing for 10 years, a few more like 30! I’ve been at it for a total of 7 months so far… so.. I don’t feel to bad about my progress.

But, the best part of the night, was the post Main rounds entertainment. We call it Hack for Cash. This little race has a different set of rules. And they are pretty simple.

  • Race in an oval, skipping the inside, making the track 1/3 as long, and cutting the jumps down to 7 and 2 table-tops.
  • There are no corner marshals. You crash, tough. You wait out the race in humiliation, unless another racer hits you and accidentally knocks you back into the race. It happens a lot when things get dicy, so it’s truly not over until the fat lady sings.
  • Punting other trucks is encouraged. In fact the race leader has a big fat target on them, everyone wants to take them out
  • Last man standing, or the driver with the most laps when the 10 minute buzzer goes off wins the entry fees. Tonight it was 14 racers at $2 a head. 28 bucks on the table for the winner!
  • It’s OK to work as a team to take out other drivers, but in the end, only on person wins.
  • You cannot stop on the track. If you stop, you’re OUT! That does not include being crashed out. See the rule above about how you might get back into the race.

So, with 14 trucks in the race, starting in a modified Motocross start (trucks lined up side by side all the way across the lane in the back straight. Overflow trucks are placed *on top* of the front line trucks. When the buzzer goes off, it’s anyone’s guess who’s left standing. I was 2nd truck on the inside of the front row, so I started with a truck on top of me, as did most of the front 9. When the buzzer sounded, I made it 1/2 way down the straight before the truck that was on me, came up from behind and knocked me onto my side. I was out. I sat there for many laps being passed. Trucks trying to dodge me. Finally, I was able to wiggle sideways enough to get clipped by another truck and end up ride side up again, and back in the race!.

It was brutal. Crashing trucks, people yelling ‘Get the leader’. Take out the owner’s truck!! Brian, the owner, is a pretty damn good driver, and he’s won just about every single one of these Dash for Cash events. Tonight, we were all gunning for him. One of the racers said.. “It’s going to be tough to keep track of who’s in front.” I told him that it would be a little easier that he though, since he didn’t have to worry about it being me.

After a few laps, a couple of trucks were upside down, and one of them even flew completely over the wall and off the track. That one was NOT coming back. It was about 1/2 way into the race when I got my truck jammed up into one of the upside down trucks in the main sweeper (corner for you non-racers). Nice high speed WHAM!, CRUNCH!. My front wheel was jammed up into the other truck’s suspension. A truck with a reputation for being built like a tank. The best outcome I could hope for was someone else understeered into us exiting the sweeper, snapped off my first right control arm and gave me a chance to drag the chassis around the track until the end.

I didn’t have to wait long. One of the mod truck guys went in to deep on the corner, hit the wall then shot off it into me, knocking me free of the big Traxxis 4×4. Except, it remained upside down, and I didn’t lose my control arm! And, I was back in the race!

Nearing the end, Brian was clearly the target, and I was clearly driving way too fast, at least that’s what everyone was yelling. “Slow down! Brian is behind you.. slow down and take him out!” So I sped up! And in a few laps had run him down, and I had him square in my sights. On the last straight to the main fishing I had my shot, and I had to make it good. It’s a tight left-hander to the Start-Finish. He was 3/4 of the straight ahead of me but going slow, trying to make sure he didn’t catch up too lap traffic and also make a clean jump. I punched it. Let all 250A blast into my torque motor and did my best to t-bone him as he made the turn.

I missed. And with ever bit of speed my truck could make, went straight into the cinder block wall on the outside of the turn. Completely perpendicular to the wall. I could not have hit it harder. This time, it was game over.

Or, was it? NO! It was NOT! I bounced off (thank YOU RPM products for not letting my frame snap in half) and ended up on the complete other side of the lane, across the start finish, pointed in the right direction! I punched it and chased him down again! This time there were three of us right on his tail, and we were going to nail him to the wall on the outside of the big sweeper. We lined him on the front straight, and at the last second he jammed on the brakes and two of us shot straight past him into the turn at full throttle. Again it looked like a trip to the parts store for me. But this time I was on the binders, slid the truck in backwards, tapped the wall and was off.

Back in the throttle again, I put the hammer down trying to catch up to Brian. I was concentrating on the fact I needed to catch up to him, I sort of missed the fact that he’s been clipped by the 3rd truck in our assault, and was on his side! I just kept pouring it on, and then I noticed, there were only two trucks still running in the race, Steve and myself. As the timer counted town, Reid (Race Director) called out for a big “Mooo” and to not blow it. I only had 2 turns and two jumps and I was going to take the checkered flag.

Which, of course I did, because, I’m The Milk Man. It was and EPIC Hack for Cash. high-fives for me all around. It was a blast, and at the end of the night, all my racing was paid for with the winnings, and I split the rest with Steve for being the driver to finally knock Brian out of the race for good! Thanks Steve!

What a night! What a great design and paint job on the body, courtesy of my daughter, and what a blast!! I just have one last thing to say.

MOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Monday night R/C Racing at BRCR

Monday night was another great time down at Bremerton Radio Control Raceway.

On the heels of the 4 hour Enduro race just 2 days before, turnout was pretty light for a Monday night. In fact, there really wasn’t enough depth in each field to run the normal Novice, Stock and Open class for each vehicle type. So, instead of being able to race in Novice class, I was pitted with the Stock and Open truck racers that have been doing this for a long time. It was going to be a learning experience!

This week I was prepared with plenty of battery power, a dialed in rear differential, upgraded toolbox and new carrier box too. My pit space was a lot more organized than last time.

SC10 being prepped for the first race.

We ran 2 heats and a main event for “Truck” and “Buggy”. I held my own in the first two heats, finishing near mid-field, and certainly not last. I’d learned quite a bit in my first race the week prior, and it was paying off.

At the end of the first two heats, I have qualified 6th in a field of 10. Not amazing, but better than I had expected, considering I was not racing all Novice racers, and not all stock trucks (some of them were a lot faster on the long straight than my 13.5 powered sled).

We ran a 10 minute main event. It was chaos. Lots of vehicle contact, more a lot of rollovers. We kept the track marshals very busy. About 15 laps or so into the race I was starting to find my pace, and able to get all the way around the track without a running across the edges, without crashing out (without being crashed out by others) and hitting a pretty good rhythm on the double-double and double-triple jump sections.

To my pleasant surprise, I managed to cut a couple of very fast laps, that got the attention of the race caller and timer. What I noticed on the runs I did really well on, despite a sea of surging Lexan, if I put all the other vehicles out of my mind, not looking at relative speed to the other races, or where they were lining up their trucks, basically running like I was the only person on the track, I was much smoother and much faster. Sure, a couple of times I got pitted around by another truck, and I did t-bone another racer on who was much slower on the long straight, but, nobody got broken, and neither of us had to be recovered. It’s not going to be a strategy that will work 100% of the time, but I found that greater concentration on the line that is best for MY truck, my tires, my drivetrain and skill, I do much better.

In the end, the 6 1/2 hours I spent at the track testing, tuning and finally racing was so much fun, I was smiling for hours and hours afterward. And one of the test parts of all this, the 6 1/2 hours of entertainment, and friendship, cost me a grand total of $9.37. That’s a pretty good value, don’t you think?

SC10 ready for action. But not so pretty any longer.

R/C racing on Monday Night.

This past Monday, I took the plunge and ran my first full race with the re-bodied SC10 truck.

SC10 truck in the pits during Monday Races at Bremerton RC Raceway.

It was a real blast, but I have A LOT to learn about truck setup before I’m going to be competitive. The most challenging issue I’m facing right now, is the speed of the steering servo. It’s too fast! It makes the truck feel really loose. When hitting full throttle down the main straight, it’s very difficult to put in a little steering correction. Instead, I’m finding myself loosing control, needing to slow down, and often getting passed while trying to regain control of the truck.

The RC controller I have is made by Futaba. A well known, and respected name in Radio Control for decades. Checking through the manual, I was disheartened to find the radio I’m using does not have any ‘Expo’ (a configurable low-action or dead-zone) settings. It does, however have a Dual-Rate capability on the steering channel (#1), which might allow me to tone down the very fast steering servo. My concern, having not tested it, is that it might make the steering too slow, making the better servo a moot improvement. :/ Things you learn, right?

Even more daunting that the steering issue for me last Monday, was the fact that 45 minutes before the first heat race, I completely destroyed the stock rear differential I’d put after breaking the output shaft on the race differential that came with the truck. Ugh! With not much time, I had to rip apart the entire back end of the truck, remove the transmission, split it’s case and try to slam in a brand new Team Associated ball differential. With the cost of a rebuild kit of the stock costing $30, and a complete new competition ball differential being $40, the decisions was pretty easy. Go for the adjustable diff and learn to set IT up as well. Having been a racer for a long time (full-sized vehicles, that is), I’m well versed in the climbing of the learning curve. You just have to do it. Good racers have a lot of wheel time.

Upside for me, was that Brian (owner of BRCR) was kind enough to build the differential for me, while getting everything else ready for the race, so I could concentrate get the truck apart and back together in time for the race. Final 5 minute call to line up for the race came as I was putting in the last two screws. I selected one of my qualifier battery packs, ran from the pits down to the track and got in line, JUST in time for first heat.

I finished last, several laps down from the leaders, but it was great experience, a lot of fun, and I plan to race again this coming Monday, assume I’ve not broken the truck in the mean time. 🙂

A few Photos around Bremerton.

I took the 50D out for a little photography at lunch today. Geared up with my 70-200 f/2.8L glass (arguably one of the best Canon ever made), and a Hoya 77mm polarizer, I took a drive across the two bridges, picking up a sandwich along the way.

Olympic mountains can be seen all around town.

Olympic Mountains, seen from the Manette neighborhood of Bremerton, WA

The ‘iconic’ Manette Bridge. Soon to be replaced with a rather boring cement version, has served the community of Bremerton, connecting East (Manette) and West (downtown) for over 80 years.

The Manette Bridge, built in 1930, connects East and West Bremerton.

The Boat Shed – one my favorite lunch spots on a sunny day. During the warm moths, the deck is packed, and getting a spot on the dock has more to do with luck than anything else. Sometimes during the spring grey whales can be seen in passage.

The Boat Shed - one my favorite lunch spots on a sunny day.

Olympic Mountains from the Warren Ave. / Hwy 303 Bridge. Looking West over Port Washington Narrows and the Bremerton Yacht Club (left). Silverdale is far right and the Hood Canal just over the first set of green hills.

Olympic Mountains from the Warren Ave. Bridge

One of the massive rain forest valleys that head into the Olympic National Park.

Olympic National Park

Bainbridge Island cuisine

Bainbridge Island cuisine.

While watching Evening Magazine, I saw a couple of places that looked interesting, and plan to try them out in the near future:

detail2First, is the Four Swallows.

Four Swallows is described as a fusion of Northwest and Italian cuisine.  Located at: 481 Madison Avenue, Bainbridge Island.  ph: 206-842-3397.  I will write a review as soon as I can get a reservation.

aboutus2Also on Bainbridge Island is the Mora Iced Creamery.
All ice cream is made locally on the island. It is said that they have over 40 flavors! Located at: 139 Madrone Lane, Bainbridge Island. Ph#: 206.855.8822.
This is another location that I plan to check out in the very near future.

UPDATE: (18-Jul-2009) More Iced Creamery: Returning from a nice trip to Seattle today, I made the point of visiting Mora Iced Creamery.   It’s on the main street of downtown Winslow, but it’s in the back of the little ‘Madrona’ business area.  The place is well lit and had a very nice vibe.  The clientel was a mix of the well-healed, from students to retiries.   Everyone had a smile and I quickly found out why.  WOW! The ice cream is amazing.   I would have to say it’s the best I’ve ever tasted.   Coldstone and the famous ice cream shop in Port Townsend have N*O*T*H*I*N*G on this place.    In sort, well worth the visit!   I’ll be returning often!    VIEW LOCATION ON GOOGLE MAPS

View Larger Map


Adding one more to try, by personal recommendation of many that have visited there, Madoka. Located at 421 Winslow Way West, Bainbridge Island. Ph#: 206-284-2448. This is also on my list of places to try.

City Crime Incident Map – every city should have one!

I found this link of the local Kitsap area newspaper (  ) to an on-line Crime Map!    Very interesting tool to see just how bad crime is in the local area.  You can bring up all incidents in a date range, or create a sub-selection of specific crimes.

Crime Incident Map

The reports made by officers do not reflect actual criminal convictions, only the initial report taken at the scene by a law enforcement officer. Some incidents, such as suicides and rapes, aren’t published in adherence to the Kitsap Sun’s policies of what is published in the newspaper and on kitsapsun.com.

Westsoundguide.com‘s criminal incident map is made up of reports taken by law enforcement officers from the Bainbridge Island Police Department, Bremerton Police Department, Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office, Port Orchard Police Department, and Poulsbo Police Department.

This seems like a really great tool for Real Estate.  Wonder if that awesome house you found for a great price, is so cheap because it’s in the middle drive-by-city?  Now you can, at least for some Norhtwest citys do just that.  LINK:  Bremerton Area Crime Map

Narcotics Activity – May 2009

Assaults – Map 2009

I applaud the paper for putting together this information.  Every locality should be required by law to produce this sort of useful map + police blotter data mining.

Looks like spring is finally here!!

It’s about time.  Sunny skies all weekend, temps broke into the 70’s (pretty good for us on most any day!).   For me, it was a weekend of busy work around the house, husting kids around too and fro….  but.. I did mange to squeeze in a nice ride before the weekend was out.  An BOY was it worth it!

Bremerton 7:00PM

Rolled out of the garage, topped off the tank (1.9 gallons of high-test) and pointed west.  At this time of year, the sun is starting to say up well into the evening, leaving decent enough light for riding, even with a motorcycle headlamp, until at least 9:00PM.  This left me 2 hours of fun.

About 1/3 of the way into my ride, I was pleased to discover that Bear Creak – Dewatto Road was once again open.  The storms of 2007/2008 knocked it out (along with a number of other roads), and it had been closed all summer.  It’s a fine little ribbon with little to no traffic.   It’s also provides some very nice views of the Olympic Mountains as you meander along the ridge, once you get there.

Looking West towards Olympic National Park
Looking West towards Olympic National Park

There are not many places along the road to stop, and some of the best vistas are simply too dangerous to stop and photograph (unless you like being run down by a random pickup truck).   I was able to stop and snap this photo at the intersection of Bear Creek and Tahuya-Blacksmith.

Olympics at sunset.
Olympics at sunset.

One last photo, from the same location.   That neat little ribbon of road, and at least to me, a bit of the isolating sense of being out in this part of the county.

27 miles West of town.
27 miles West of town.

It’s days like these that I’m happy to live out here, on the edge of the ‘civilization’ as some would call it.  Great pieces of road, hardly offended by slow movers or Sherriff’s sniping with RADAR for tickets.   Just a man, a machine and some free time.   This is one of those incredible joys that makes my life so special to me.

I can feel the darkness of winter finally melting away.