Let me start by saying I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time at Templestowe for the 2010 Victorian EP Onroad Champs.  I’ve learned some lessons along the way, met some new friends and re-acquainted myself with some old ones….and enjoyed the racing. What more could one ask from a weekend away racing?
I’m on the boat home to tassie tonight with nothing to do….so click through for a long-ish reflection on the weekend, and my Mi4-LP setup. The car was a jet! (photo unashamedly stolen from Peter Dooley’s facebook collection).

TFTR Track Rocks
If not the best TC track in the country, Templestowe is definitely up there.  High speed corners requiring total commitment, twisty chicanes demanding pinpoint accuracy, good traction, and some character-inducing bumps are all part of the mix.  And without question, the fact that it’s built on the side of a hill makes the track even better.  I’ve reflected before that 3d tracks are awesome and I generally prefer them to flat layouts, and TFTR reinforces that for me.  Blasting down the main straight into an off-camber/across the slope sweeper, threading down through the chicane and then up to a heavy brake at the hairpin. All good fun!  Massive driver’s stand and good pit area complete an excellent package. If you’ve not raced there, look for the opportunity…the Metro Masters this November for example.
What Makes a Good Club?
TFTR is more than a good track.  It has a long history that has allowed good systems to develop, leadership in the form of Nigel, Ian and their team is strong, but sensible, and the whole club exhibits an enthusiasm for the sport and their club. Families are encouraged and children are everywhere.  Best of all I think, there is an attitude of hospitality that pervades the place.  Nothing was too much trouble for those of us visiting from interstate – and that included my visit on a club day a week before the Vics as well as on the championship weekend itself.  That’s one mark of a good club – how welcome are newcomers and visitors.
New Faces
It’s alway fun to race with new groups.  Having not raced in Victoria since the 1994 Offroad Nationals, nearly everybody I met (with the exception of the guys who’ve travelled to Nats or to the Tassie Champs earlier this year) was new.  I had some great races in the finals with guys I’ve never raced against before.  Going to new tracks, racing against new opponents, that’s all part of what I enjoy about R/C.
Weather….sucks
Let’s name it, the weather was ordinary.  And being an on-road race, we had to wait for the track to dry completely before racing could resume – which on a cold cloudy day often meant 2 hours or more of drying time.  Both days we didn’t get started until after midday.  But the club managed the situation well, squeezed three qualifiers in on Saturday and made the right call to get straight into finals action on Sunday when the track dried out around lunch time.  Commitment to the event was evident as people wheeled super-soppers around to soak up water, deployed beach towels to do likewise, and swept and blew the track clean and dry after each rain interuption.  Nice work fellas!
My Race
Along with all the general stuff, I enjoyed this weekend’s race myself for a few reasons.
One is just that I enjoy driving modified TC’s.  They are super fast, and the rewards when you get it right are definitely worth it.  I managed to string some good laps together from time to time, and really liked it.
This is also the first time in many years I’ve gone racing with someone who was helping me work on the car. Pete travelled down from Brissie to hang out for the weekend, and offered to wrench on my Mi4-LP over the course of the weekend.  Working with Pete was good for several reasons. Firstly he had the patience to do a much more thorough job on diffs and shocks (the two jobs I hate the most!), building smooth and consistent units every time.  I don’t think I’ve ever had a better differential, or better built shocks on my cars.  Not having to think about driving meant that Pete was able to give attention to detail that often escapes my focus. And that mattered.  More than that though, having a pair of eyes watching the car closely from ground level meant that after each run we could debrief on what was going on with the car, how it was reacting in various parts of the track, and how it compared in performance terms with others in my race.  That’s gold, and you can’t do that yourself.
Of course it wasn’t all sweetness and light, and we often disagreed on which setup direction to go.  Fortunately sanity always prevailed, and we ignored my opinion most of the time!  Kidding, of course. Pete and I from my perspective worked well together, and the end result was a car that was better than I would have settled for if I was on my own, and comfortably the best TC I’ve ever driven.
The car was a jet, and my rusty skills barely did it justice. It had great power down, rode the bumps really well, was fantastic through the sweepers, and easy to drive through the technical parts of the track. Mid-corner speed and on-power steering were a strength. If I could have anything more it would have been a tiny bit more initial bite on corner entry, but that’s nit-picking.
In terms of gear, I ran the Schumacher Mi4-LP, LRP Sphere TC Spec ESC, Speedpassion 4.0 motor, Intellect 5000/40c Lipos. Tyre treatment was Marc Reinhard goop.
Compared with my “normal” starting setup, we went softer in springs, and much firmer in damper fluid than I would normally run.  My normal starting point for both is HPI Silver springs front and rear, and 35 wt oil, with 100% rebound.  This weekend I ended up with Schue Blue (fr) and White (RR) springs, and 50 wt oil with 50% rebound. The heavier we went with oil, the better the car went.  I tried both Hara and HPI springs, but kept coming back to the Schuie springs as a better option. Likewise, we also bounced between full rebound and 50% over the course of the week, but 50% was better all round for me.  Here is the  full setup sheet for those who are interested: mi4-lp_scott_2010_vic_tftr (pdf)
Queenslander Observations
The Qld guys who came down for this race had a mixed experience. Both Leonard and Anthony wrestled with cars that just wouldn’t do what they wanted them to do, and made driving difficult.  Corey Broadstock on the other hand had his car working sweetly, and thoroughly deserved his A final position (his first at an interstate meeting I think?).  Corey had a rough run in the finals, getting bashed about a bit, and goes home I think a little disappointed not to have finished further up than 9th. He definitely had the speed, and Geoff put together a car to enable him to compete.  Corey will do good things over the next couple of years…and I doubt I’ll ever beat him again.  I like that too.  Anthony’s finals were similarly rough, with two DNF’s due to breakage after early contact.  Leonard put together a good B final to finish second having made a little progress with the car on Sunday morning.
Superstock is Over
From what I saw this weekend, Superstock has past its use by date in its current form. The cars are so close to modified in outright performance terms, that to operate it as a seperate class seems to me unnecessary.  The winner of Superstock here was turning times fast enough to be in or about the top 3 in modified, and straight line performance from the SS cars gave away only a tiny bit to the Mod cars.  The idea that Superstock is a stepping stone to modified in terms of getting used to horsepower, or that it is any easier on equipment seems a bit nonsense to me.  Anyone that can drive a modern SS car can easily go straight to modified, where the horsepower available from about a 6.5 turn motor is near enough to identical to a 10.5 with modern turbo esc.
ESC Wars
The ESC performance in the spec classes was of course epic. Tekin, Speedpassion and LRP SXX Stockspec all had competitive horsepower in both stock and superstock. For the moment at least it seems that these three are relatively equal…..until the next software update kicks off another arms race.  Of course if you don’t own one of these three, it’s difficult to compete with the brute power available.
Chassis Wars
Schumacher won two classes (540 Pro and Superstock), XRAY one (Stock) and Yokomo one (Modified).  In modified there were Schumacher (2), Yokomo (1), XRAY (3), Hotbodies (1) and Tamiya (3) in the finals, and little to pick between them.  Numerically, Schumacher and XRAY seemed most common.
Mod in the Dark is Hard!
One of the highlights of the weekend was the last two heats of Modified on Saturday night running in near total darkness.  The flash of sparks, glowing ESC lights, and sheer muscle memory were about all that made it possible to drive. I could barely make out my car, and went 0.5 secs per lap slower than in daylight, but to be honest, I’m glad we did it. Sometimes these weekends are all about the serious, but this was a fun experience. We probably should have said no, but I’m glad we didn’t. If nothing else, piloting a full-on modified TC in the dark is an adventure!
Enough for now. The boat is rockin’ its way back to Tassie, and I’m going to try find a TV with the Turkish GP on it.  Great weekend, I’m glad I was there.