I had a really enjoyable night at Logan last Saturday night.  It was the first time we have run modified on the new Logan layout and surface – and it worked well.  What’s more there was a great feel to the event and a few lessons learned (or re-learned).

One of the great things about the night is that the club take up a collection and then order in bulk pizzas.  When the pizzas arrive racing stops and everyone stands around eating pizza and telling tall stories (as only racers can). It provides a great feel – great idea Logan.
Interestingly last night there were 8 cars in mod tourer – and 7 of the 8 were running brushless motors. The brushless motor revolution has hit Brisbane full force it seems!  I was really happy with my Novak 4.5 and had heaps of top end for the long front straight – and plenty of rip out of the tighter turns. All the brushless guys were enjoying horsepower with no maintenance!
The new Logan layout and surface is a good improvement over the old. I think tyre wear rates are a bit higher, but grip is good and the tyres seem to work well right through their life.  Some of the guys were running tyres that were down to the canvas (literally) and still getting plenty of grip. My own tyres had about 10 runs on them before the night started and still worked great all night.  Interesting also was the comparison between rubber and foam.  In mod there wasn’t a lot to pick (I ran rubber tyres while Mick Sherman was running foam), and in stock similarly the winner ran rubber, runner up on foam.  Ultimately I think the foam would be faster, but for now there’s nothing much to pick.  For reference I ran leftover Sorex 36/C Medium/Sorex rim wheelsets from the Hobbystation Invitational.
The layout has some good improvements.  The section off the back straight is very challenging, and the re-setting of the kink to the left of the driver’s stand has helped settle the cars on entry into the sweeper.  It’s hard work to come up with a track layout on a long and narrow stretch of bitumen, but this looks like a reasonable effort.
I re-learned a useful lesson after thinking through my night, and chatting with Bob Vardy (true!).  I was lucky enough to drive Mick Sherman’s Mugen MTX4 in one of the heats – and though wildly powerful and great fun, I found driving the car really hard work – it just wouldn’t do what I wanted it to do.  I realised that the most important thing about setting up a race car is having it work “right” for you – the driver.  My EC is so amazingly easy to drive that I can put it anywhere, do anything with it, and it just comes back and asks for more. It never steps sideways, hardly gets wheelspin, just reacts smoothly and comfortably.  For me that is perfect.  I could go looking for more steering to make it more reactive – but the truth is I can’t drive as quickly or consistently with a car that is overly reactive.  The MTX-4 was hard work because it simply wasn’t comfortable for me – there’s no doubt that Mick Sherman could hustle it around the track much faster than I.
Bob comes into it because after setting up his new car according to Atushi Hara’s recommendations, he found he couldn’t drive the car. It didn’t suit his style.  He chased a setup more suited to Bob’s own (unique) style and found himself going faster.
This is all pretty much common sense I suppose – but sometimes the obvious doesn’t strike us because it’s just too simple…..