Category Archives: Radio Control

Full week of Short Course Racing.


It was a full week of Short Course Racing. It started with my last Novice race on Monday night. Followed with my first real heads-up class racing in Short Course Mod. The week wrapped up tonight with heads-up class racing in Stock Short Course, after swapping out the massive 7.5T Novak + GTB open class power system, for a Tekin RS 17.5T stock class motor.

Monday Night Racing

It started out pretty quite, not may people showed up due to the weather, at least that’s the way it looked until race time was almost upon us, and a flood of people loaded up the racing classes, especially Novice!

Despite the huge class of racing, and being faced with the largest truck I’ve seen yet, a Traxxis REVO 4×4 monster truck (more than twice the mass of an SC10!), I dominated. Having won both the the qualifier heats with only one real competitor, a couple of the experienced guys pulled me aside and said that it was time for me to move out of Novice. I was getting the call up to the big league. 🙂

Here are the results!

Novice A Main Round# 3, Race# 2

________________________Driver___Car#____Laps____RaceTime____Fast Lap___Behind_
              Demartini, David    #2      19     8:05.113     23.670           
                   Clark, Mark    #3      18     8:02.379     25.008           
                 Metzger, Kyle    #6      17     8:29.142     26.673           
                Glivar, Tucker    #1      15     8:01.589     25.647           
             Stephens, Charter    #8      13     7:45.109     31.380           
                   Etue, Mason    #7      10     8:19.594     40.323           
                    Evans, Bob    #4       4     1:27.544     26.853           
                 Prier, Steven    #5       4     1:32.793     28.857      5.249
Wednesday Night Racing

It was a tough night of racing. Didn’t run very well, and it seems quite clear to me that I need to put a smaller power system in the truck, at least for the time being. There is more power in that truck, with it limited to 50% power, than I have the skill to drive.

Open Short Course A Main Round# 3, Race# 3

________________________Driver___Car#____Laps____RaceTime____Fast Lap___Behind_
              Schoening, Bryan    #6      23     8:15.376     18.071           
                  Steve, Smith    #4      23     8:15.551     20.455      0.175
                  Braget, Wade    #2      23     8:22.401     14.807      7.025
              demartine, david    #1      18     8:04.301     24.701           
Saturday Night Racing

First race night with the new Tekin system, made affordable by selling off a spare truck and power system.

I was not able to get the A-Mail from Saturday. I’ll work on that next time I’m down at the track. I was able to construct the data for the two heats (iPhone camera to the rescue) to create this graph:

Saturday (Feb 26) Heats 1 and 2.

Some Analysis

Comparing Monday to Wednesday night laps times shows a bit of consitancy between nights. In fact the last lap of each night was far off the pace, but nearly identical in time, and I ran the same number of laps in each of the races.

Monday vs. Wednesday Night Lap Times

Wednesday Night Short Course Racing – Another win!

Ah.. it’s good to win. 🙂

SC10 Factory Team - in pit at BRCR
So, it’s still in Novice class, but it was not an easy win. There was one competitor (also named Dave) that was really giving me a run for my money, in fact he was just ahead of me when his truck broke on lap 5. He had qualified just ahead of me in the first two rounds, but not by much!

So.. here are the results… in all their ugly glory. It was a hard fought race, and I crashed many times, many more times that I should have. But I was victorious none the less. One more Novice win and they’ll kick me up to the big-boys. Which, I’m not that worried about since I raced them heads-up on Monday and came in 3rd. 🙂

                             Bremerton R/C Raceway
Novice A Main                                                 Round# 3, Race# 2
9:16:02 PM  02/09/2011
________________________Driver___Car#____Laps____RaceTime____Fast Lap___Behind_
              Demartini, David    #3      17     8:03.504     24.370           
                      A, Steve    #5      16     8:11.161     27.822           
                      O, Johny    #2      15     8:20.383     28.348           
                       F, Jeff    #7      14     8:24.719     25.223           
                    T, Garrett    #1      13     8:06.876     24.525           
                       R, Dave    #6       5     1:58.614     25.758           

Unfortunately, this will likely be the last race for this truck’s body. There are now parts of it missing, and one crack that extends from the front wheel well all the way into the windshield. She’s just about dead, Jim. I did keep it together by drilling 6 holes along the crack and using zip-ties to keep it from breaking completely in half. It looks pretty rough. The paint touch-up I did this morning is really of no consequence now. I already have a new body ready to go, but I’ve come up with a brand new concept I want to debut for this Saturdays race (it will be my first Saturday night race with the big crowds). But first I need to get some vinyl graphics cut for the truck, and even before that, I need to design them!

This hobby is not cheap (but not that expensive in the grand scheme), but it’s good clean fun, lots of great people to meet and talk too. I’ve even run across a number of people racing R/C that I used to race with when I was running my Porsches with Bremerton Sports Car Club. Some people are just gear-heads, and I’m one of them.

Monday Night Racing results

Wow, it was a challenging night at BRCR on Monday. Turnout was a little down so Alex (race director) combined what is typically 4-6 racing classes down into two.

Class 1 – Novice, Stock and Open Class Short Course Trucks.

Class 2 – Stock Stadium Truck, Stock Buggy, Open Stadium Truck, Open Buggy.

So, instead of racing just Novices (we are allowed to basically run ANY set-up in our Short Course trucks), I was racing against Stock, Modified and Open class Short Course as well. Field was 8 entries deep:

   Demartini, David    #1    (novice)  
   Kuiphoff, Chris    #2       (novice)     
   Arns, Zach    #3                
   Hansen, Dylan    #4     
   Livingston, Wes    #5     (open)          
   Wirtanen, Tony    #6      (open 4x4)        
   Pergam, Ewan    #7        (open)     
   Cigledy, Mike    #8   

Still sorting out some handling issues from last week, I was not running at my best, yet, I managed to complete the two qualifier rounds and start in the 4th grid position for the final A-Main!

The race itself was a little chaotic. With the fast drivers and fast trucks picking their way through the slower traffic. Again, I had problems getting my track rythem until the last few laps. Really not my best work at all. I was really concentrating on getting good laps in and not paying any attention at all to my position in the pack. I knew I’d been lapped at least twice by someone, but when the 10minute race was over, I was VERY happy with the results!!

                             Bremerton R/C Raceway
Novice A Main                                                 Round# 3, Race# 1
 8:24:46 PM  02/07/201
________________________Driver___Car#____Laps____RaceTime____Fast Lap___Behind_
                Wirtanen, Tony    #6      21     8:21.280     21.988           
               Livingston, Wes    #5      20     8:22.139     22.404           
              Demartini, David    #1      18     8:20.438     24.441           
                 Hansen, Dylan    #4      18     8:26.542     24.410      6.104
                  Pergam, Ewan    #7      17     7:54.331     23.808           
                 Cigledy, Mike    #8      17     8:00.449     25.100      6.118
               Kuiphoff, Chris    #2      16     7:55.236     26.385           
                    Arns, Zach    #3      13     6:37.676     26.224           

Racing against some of the best Short Course competitors in the area, I managed to pull off a podium finish. I even turned my 2nd fastest lap so far! I think that if I’d not spent the first 15 laps crashing and lawn-darting the jumps I could have been right up there with the top 2 guys on the lead lap.

There’s always Wednesday Night Short Course racing! 🙂

Team Associated releasing a 4×4 SC10! Oh, is this a must have?

While checking on the RC10.com site for blank setup sheets (I want to record the current tuning of my Factory Team SC10), I am faced with this:

NEW Team Associated SC10 4x4

SC10 4×4 Kit

1:10 Scale 4WD Electric Short Course Truck Kit.

Experience the thrill of four-wheel-drive action and performance with the SC10 4×4!

* Unique dual gearbox drive train coupled together with a 5mm heavy duty belt system with external tension adjustment
* 32 pitch front and rear gearboxes with sealed fluid filled differentials
* Decoupled center slipper clutch allows for front and rear wheel drive to slip independently, resulting in more traction and stability on bumpy track conditions
* CVAs with captured drive pins and heavy duty 6mm alloy axles
* 12mm hex drive KMC® replica wheels front and rear with aggressive short course racing tires
* Championship short course racing body (clear), with Team Associated decal sheet
* 13mm blue aluminum big-bore threaded shocks with low friction X-ring seals
* Composite modular tub chassis with Low-CG and Low Polar Moment design
* Enclosed water-resistant receiver box, and removable ESC tray for easy clean up and maintenance
* Ball bearing steering system with adjustable steering stops
* All metric hardware and ball bearings throughout
* Uses most 540 and 550 brushless motors

Video preview of the upcoming truck. Looks slick, and it looks like they addressed a few of the remaining issues in the 2WD SC10 (like the shocks, which are now being dwarfed in size and performance by competition, such as LOSI). Having just sheared my Factory Team truck in half tonight during practice (more on that in another post), this updated truck seems like a must have? But, is it? I don’t know. Yet!

More on this as information becomes available.

New Short Course body completed.

Photos of my new SC10 body in progress, along with the final result.

Test fitting the new body, and marking for the body clip posts:

SC10 Body B - measuring for mounting holes.

Masked and ready for paint:

Body masked for the first stage of painting (main color)

Primary color applied. This silver does not adhere well, so I had to apply 4 main coats:

First few coats of main color go on.

After the 4 main coats of silver, 2 rounds of spot touch-ups were required:

After 4 main coats and 2 rounds of touchup. Main color is complete.

Next the detail colors were laid down. First the Competition Orange applies to fenders and sides. Next was the black layer for door stripes, and finally, a small layer of white for the detail stripe down the door stripe center. My experiment in using Sharpie pens to add some line detail to the body, mostly failed. I was able to apply the lines with acceptable results, but contact with the paint caused the lines to start bleed, making them puff-up, which is what you see in the photos. Big, soft Stay-Pufft like lines. It was a useful experiment.

Nearly completed result after 3 more colors applied.

After completing all the layers and a little touch-up in corners, all the masks are removed to reveal the bare painted shell.

Paint completed and all masks removed.

Finally, the end result, at least for now. A small amount of decals applies to give it some visual interest. The challenge here is to resist the urge to over-do the decals. I have piles of them, and the temptation to turn the thing into 3lb. rolling bill-board is sometimes bothersome.

Final Result.

A few of you may have noticed that this is not a Team Associated body, in fact it’s manufactured by their main rival. I selected this body for several reasons:

  • Price – it was $10 cheaper
  • Design – body has high wide wheel openings
  • Convenience – body was already fully trimmed.

Do you know who made it?

Short Course R/C Racing – My Novice season just about over.

The journey started in mid October. I was in Port Orchard, having a beer and pizza with some friends, when one of them suggested we drop by the R/C track in Bremerton afterward. I’d never heard of an indoor R/C track in the area. I used to have a couple of the early electric R/C cars back in the 70’s and 80’s. It was some pretty crude stuff, with speed controllers made of a large ceramic brick wound with resistant wire, and a big sweeping ‘arm’ that adjusted motor speed by moving across the big resistance block. Closer to the end, shorter the wire and faster it ran. You had to sand the arm often to remove the carbon burns, and the resistor brick didn’t last that long either.

Having been into electric R/C helicopters for over a year, I’m quite familiar with the advances in electronic speed controllers. Long gone are the days of that stupid rheostat ‘brick’. What would these modern R/C vehicles looks like and how would the perform? Curious I was. And fascinating it was.

That weekend, I took the kids to the track. We were there until they closed at nearly midnight. The next day I bought my daughter a Team Associated RTR (Ready-to-Run) 1/10th scale Short Course racing truck. And down the slope I slid.

Here is a video from Team Associated. You get an idea of how capable these little vehicles are, and it also includes video of the REAL Short Course racing trucks.

By mid November I’d bought a used truck for myself. Also a Team Associated SC10, but it was far from ready to run, but it was pretty close, all I needed was a radio system and batteries. Soon I was at the track a couple of days a week, practicing, watching and learning the ropes. Come December, I’d started racing in the Novice class.

I had a lot to learn, and a lot of stuff to repair on the truck. The best part about it was the upgraded NOVAK 13.5 power system (still qualifies for stock class), the ball differential and a big set of extra tires and wheels. In the first week I replaced the trashed Lexan shell with one I ‘custom’ painted for myself.

SC10 Racing Bodies, New and Old.

Within a day, I had this little gem:

My first SC10.

By the end of December, there were three, one for each of us.

Team Associated R/C trucks

When January started, I was pretty consistently racing 2 nights a week at the track. I was addicted. I’d bought a set of high-C (high burst capacity) batteries, transitioning the original 20c batteries I’d purchased (about $60 each) to the kids. Soon I had a pretty good setup of 2 35C 3800mAh qualifier batteries and one 50C 5000mAh battery for the longer Main. I used to laugh a little inside at the massive kits these guys would show up at the track with. Rollers, piles of chargers, tools, tires, gear sets. But soon, my pit was starting to look more and more like the others.

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

R/C racing is challenging. It’s one thing to race well while sitting in the driver seat, feeling the vehicle move around, literally using your gut feelings about how the vehicle is handling. It’s entirely another thing to understand those dynamics, from 50′ away, using only your eyes. However like with most things, you start to train your brain to perceive and understand the subtle messages the little vehicle is sending. And when you understand that, and you start to hone your skills, it starts to be come amazingly fun. Then, the competitive streak kicks in. And you just don’t want to get around the track once without crashing, you want to WIN!

But to win, you need to at least be playing on a level field with your competitors. As I wandered around the pits, checking out my competitor’s vehicles one thing became quite clear. There was one model of truck the really fast guys were running. The Team Associated Factory Team SC10. The writing was on the wall. I had to upgrade.

Now, when we first started this adventure, the attractive, glossy Factory Team kits on the shelf in the store got my immediate attention. And so did the price. The Ready-to-Run Trucks (pre-built, just add battery) were $290. The Factory Team kit was only $250. So I of course inquired. The Factory Team kit was full of up-line parts, like Titanium suspension components, updated performance threaded shocks, and a heavy dose of Aluminum fasteners (instead of carbon steel) and carbon fiber. But, it had not motor, not ESC, no radio, no servo. To totally kit out the Factory Team would require another $110 for a basic radio, $50 for a good metal-gear servo, $250 for a motor and ESC. Add that to the price of the kit (which you have to build mind you), and you’re talking $660. That’s a lot more than the $290 for the same basic chassis, a pre-pained shell ($50), r2.4GHz radio ($100) and motor and ESC system ($140 – don’t ask how I know that). So, the RTR was what I bought (the RTR SC10 belongs to my daughter and the RTR truck to The Boy), and for a while, it was plenty awesome.

But racing is most fun when you think you can win. Because of this, mid-January I stopped thinking about it, and pulled the trigger on a brand new truck kit, the SC10 Factory Team.

SC10 Factory Team.

Thankfully, I’d taken the old truck apart and put it back together again many times repairing things, so I knew what I needed to do, to put it all together. But, wow.. I didn’t expect it would take me about 2 days to get it done! From assembling the titanium turn buckles, to installing all those little fasteners, radio, motor, servo, BUILDING the 4 shocks (and all that includes such as working the air out of the shocks, time consuming), setting up the transmission, selecting gearing, gluing up the tires. It’s a lot of little work!

If I’d bought a kit for my daughter, stead of the Ready-To-Run, I think we’d been far too paranoid to break it, and would not have had nearly as much fun.

First time on the track, I ran the WORST race so far. I was horrible. It was horrible. I could not get the truck to jump, I could not get it to turn, I was really, REALLY thinking I’d made a $300 mistake (bought a pair of Panther front tires at the same time, stock fronts are worthless). It was frustrating. But, the great group of people that work and volunteer at Bremerton Radio Control Raceway were amazingly helpful. Eventually, I was running consistently enough to get a #1 position in qualifying.

Running the #1 plate for qualifing.

On Wednesday night, 26-JAN-2011, I finally won my first A Main race! Still running in Novice class, it was not a track roasting run, but I did dominate the race, leading almost all of the 13 laps. And my average lap times would have put me in the middle of the pack for Stock Short Course, racing with the regulars (and my regulars, I mean the guys I see there every night).

So, it looks like my lazy, hazy dayz in the Novice class are starting to come to an end. One more Novice Main win and they will bump me to the ‘Big Boys’. I’m going to need to keep stepping up my game if I plan to compete there! If all goes well, I should have only 2 more Novice races in the next week (Monday and Wednesday night).

Wish me luck?

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. 🙂

Re-Bodied the SC10 R/C truck.

The old Mod-class SC10's body shell.
With a few days off, I finally got around to working on a new body for my SC-10 R/C truck. I bought the truck used back in November, and the body on it was trashed. Tires had worn through the paint in the tops of the fenders, every corner was ripped and flapping around, and it was about as visually exciting as a Keanue Reeves movie.

There were a number of options available for the truck from both the OEM (Team Associated) and aftermarket supplies. Prices ranged from $30-$50. There are likely differences I’ll never be aware of, but for me, I decided the $30 OEM body (a Ford) was just fine for me.

Now, the tricky part of working on these things, is the bodies are made of Lexan. Lexan, is a flexible, tough but a rather ‘oily’ feeling plastic, so you need a good paint. One that will adhere to the material, and is formulated with a lot of flex agent in it. These bodies take a beating!

$12 for two cans of spray paint and a couple of hours in the garage, and I was underway. The kit comes with masks for the windows, which were easy apply. This makes the production of a decent looking shell (body) a lot easier. It’s also supplied with a few of the standard Team Associated body decals. There are no sponsor decals in the kit I purchased.

One thing some readers might not be aware of, is that they shells (bodies) are painted on the insider, not the outside. This has a variety of benefits:

  • Durability – these things crash, A LOT and paint on the outside of the bodywork would not last long. The decals are very thick vinyl, and they still show the wear of normal abuse
  • Aesthetics – which is akin to the durability already mentioned, however, when one paints these shells, one can be, well, I’ll just say that one can be less than meticulous in your painting, and yet the appearance is always bright, shiny and smooth (at least until you send the thing sliding down the track on it’s roof, which you will do).
  • Others – there may be others, but at this late hour, I’m unable to consider them

Now, not only do you paint these on the inside, which requires some planning. You can’t simply paint over a mistake, it’s there, on ‘top’ of the paint, for all to see. You can’t just ‘re-paint’ over a mistake. So, plan wisely, paint the darkest colors first, then go to the lightest. Often it’s best to finish up with a white ‘backing’ color.

After the pain is applied, next you’ll need to get out another special tool, Lexan compatible scissors, to cut the vacuum formed shell to it’s final shape. Cutting out the wheel openings, wings (if it’s equipped with such), number boards, etc. It take a little time to get one of these things from this:

Standard unpainted SC10 body.

To this:

SC10 body painted and trimmed.

And finally this:

Final result. Custom painted SC10 Championship body, ready for action.

From start to finish, it took about 36 hours (wall clock) to complete. Effort required, about 3 hours for masking, painting and trimming. And, a lot of waiting while it cured.

I’m pretty happy with the final result, and the old used SC10 looks right at home with it’s brand new stable mates, an Associated T4.1 Truck and an Associated SC10 Short Course (Makita RockStar):

Unfortunately, in the first lap running full-power with the Mod SC10, I blew up the roller-ball limited slip differential. But, that’s an article for another day:

One broke truck.