oOple Southport

[kartstuffer]

Good luck to Kev at Southport representing the DMCC & Ireland this weekend.

[TonyM]

He's going to be pitting with us. If he's too good for our crap standard then we'll just have to nobble him.

[Legacy555]

Best of luck dude!

[MiCk B.]

Car look good last night.

Looked very good running modified.

MiCk B. :-)

[Click]

Just great no pressure like

Just doing this for fun I don't think anybody in Southport need worry, I'll do my usual plod around the track trying to keep out of everybody's way

Tony, best way to nobble me is to have a few bottles of whisky on hand, after I finish the first bottle it 'might' start effecting my driving

Normally I run a 10.5T in blinky mode so moving up to a 7.5T has taken a 'slight' adjustment!!!

Roll on the weekend

[The Doktor]

Dont forget the superglue! Youre an artist with that stuff.

Best of luck!

[Click]

Originally Posted by The Doktor

Dont forget the superglue! Youre an artist with that stuff.

Best of luck!

[h0m3sy]

....

[blade]

best of luck kevin hope all goes well

[Click]

Thanks for all the good wishes

I'm waiting for the ferry after the event so just thought I'd give a small update.

Weather: perfect

Track: fantastic

Southport club members: it was like being at home

Result: first place in my final which was ź or x !! !

I'll give a more detailed report during the week

[celticpanman]

Well done Kevin
Good show
See you Wednesday

[The Doktor]

Well done Kev!
Hope you shared your winning setup with the rest of the Schumacher guys...
Is there a section on the setup sheet to show where the racing superglue was added?

[Click]

I have to admit superglue was used . . . . . . . but on a Durango 410 front carbon shock tower, first on the RHS then on the left

Need to figure out how to offload a gallon of superglue, my supply for the Oople race

Nearly finished my 'short' race report, might be up later today with a few pics

[TonyM]

It was a pleasure to have had you pitting with is Kev. The bottle of Whiskey topped the weekend - many thanks. BTW we drank it before going home

[The Doktor]

Originally Posted by TonyM

It was a pleasure to have had you pitting with is Kev. The bottle of Whiskey topped the weekend - many thanks. BTW we drank it before going home

Hes pitted in front of me for the last year and Ive never seen a bottle of Whiskey. Whats the story kev? Wheres our whiskey?


Ill take the superglue in lieu of the whiskey for now

[Click]

Originally Posted by The Doktor

Hes pitted in front of me for the last year and Ive never seen a bottle of Whiskey. Whats the story kev? Wheres our whiskey?


Ill take the superglue in lieu of the whiskey for now

See what you've started Tony Lee what do you think I have in my flask

[Click]

Originally Posted by TonyM

It was a pleasure to have had you pitting with is Kev. The bottle of Whiskey topped the weekend - many thanks. BTW we drank it before going home

Glad it was enjoyed, real hardcore polishing it off before leaving

[danDanEFC]

Kev it was great to have you in the tent. If you wish to consider a more permanent swap deal involving you moving here and Ritchie moving to Eire, please let us know.

Can't wait to get over the sea to do some racing with Guiness!

[Click]

No bother Aidan, not sure about the Ritchie swop, we are based indoors so with Ritchie helping to deplete to ozone above Southport, come to think of it maybe thats why we had such good weather!!

Plenty of Guinness in Ireland for everybody

[Click]

Grab a coffee, tea or even a whisky and read about a big hairy guys visit to a strange (mainly it was Jimmy) land.

My ferry got delayed so I have more time to waffle on about the 2013 Oople R3 Open Series event.

First I have to thank the Southport crew Aidan, Richie, Gary, Codi, Tommy and of course TonyM (the Governor :-) ). They provided power & space for me in one of their gazebos and within minutes I was made feel part of the 'gang' and was very well looked after. I have to make comment on how handsome these guys are!!! If it was an Oople beauty contest our gazebo would have won hands down :-)


You can see for yourself in this pic, one for the ladies :-) (watch out lads Ritchie is about to deplete the ozone layer again)

The event itself was extremely well run but also had a relaxed friendly atmosphere. Jimmy was giving it loads on the mic commenting on anybody who caught his eye, he also did a fair amount of singing!!!
The track itself is great, mixture of astro, which was purchased new apart from the bit at the end of the straight which is like ours, full of sand. Theres also sections of cobble which gives the cars a fair rattle, theres also a tarmac section which is banked and a concrete section just before you come onto the straight, not forgetting the famous 'bumpy' section at the back, the quick boys could get a line through this, I just bumped over everything and tried to keep the car upright.
The track is very clever in that it has a series of islands which allows the club to change the layout for every club meeting (Lee would love this :-) )

The club is in its present location since the mid 80's and the've gone from a grass track to part grass/astro/clay (which I was told was American clay!) and have eventually developed what they have today. It would be well worth a visit for our club to see what is possible after many years of development. They also have some VERY nice ale in Southport :-) Here's a link to their club website: http://www.srcc.co.uk




Drivers briefing, no biting or slagging off the joggers and especially no biting the joggers :-)



From a racing point of view I got about 3 practice sessions before official heats started at about 11.30 on Sat. By the end of the day they had run 4 sets of 12 heats with 10 racers in each heat!! This was the biggest event I've raced in, you think you have loads of time but once you marshall, have a chat, look at the car, have another chat its time to go again!
I felt I was only just about getting comfortable with the track by the 4th heat (I'm a slow learner ) I was mainly doing my slow plod trying not to make too many mistakes, with 10 racers in each heat you also had 10 marshalls which was needed as the track is quite large.
Before I left on Sat. I changed the shock oil and changed over my diff (the one in the car was feeling gritty). The Schumacher Cougar SV2 felt very planted on the track, as usual I just needed to push the car more!!

Attempted to go out on Saterday night, went to Wetherspoons which was nominated as the 'cool' pub of choice for RC racers!, I had one pint of ale and half way through I was getting bobble head, I was knackered, I'd been on the go since 8am on Friday morning so by 8pm on Sat I'd been up for 36hours, it was time for bed!!!
Arrived early on Sun to glue some tyres and check the car over, I was warned that a marathon was taking place early in the park and that some of the roads would be closed. The area were the track is located is quite interesting. Its all council owned and there's a caravan park at the back of the track, there's also a model railway area and a large pond for model boating guys and lots of general park area for the locals to walk around, all eggs in one basket as it were.

Got an early practice session, after a few mins I lost 90% of my power? I thought it was the lipo, I was not 100% sure I'd charged it, but it was the newly built diff had completely backed off!
So, with diff in hand I found Tom Cockrill and said, fix this!!! well I asked a bit more politely than that :-) Tom was great he checked the diff over and gave me some advice on how best to setup the diff in conjunction with the slipper.
Now that I had Toms blessing on the diff I felt I was going to make the A final!!!!




Where all the magic happens!!!



Spent a while setting up the diff as per Toms instructions, tested it on a footpath and it had backed off again!!! Time was ticking and the races were about to start. I had another diff I'd built so I popped this in, went through Toms instructions, just as I tightened the last screw my heat was just about to start (they ran 5 sets of heats, 4 on Sat & one on Sun morning), quick sprint, well a quick walk, and I was whizzing around the track, everything was fine.

Once this round of heats was over they posted the finals, I was sure I was in the last final and I was correct :-) A few quick guys, who only turned up on Sunday and did one heat ended up in my race. These guys should really have been in a few races above me as they were much quicker so I felt a win was off the table.

I was pole so I had 8 or 9 guys behind me gunning to get into the first corner, first race I just kept saying to myself 'make sure you do a first clean lap', buzzer goes, I get into the first corner clean, pile of guys behind me, I managed to hold off Phil for 2-3 laps but he was right on my bumper so I let him pass, he had a quicker pace and as it was going to end in tears, mine of course! I finished the first race in 2nd place.

I got distracted chatting about 'stuff' with the Southport crew and when I looked up on the podium I recognised some of the faces . . . . . . . bloody hell this is my race, this time it was a sprint and I just made the grid on time!!!
The 2nd race was much the same apart from Phil who came 1st in the first race loosing his left front wheel, I just kept plodding around and got the win. Amazingly Phil kept running on 3 wheels!! and got a 3rd place, amazing driving :-)
(when I say distracted by 'stuff' what I meant to say was the ice cream van had arrived & I was busy scoffing an amazing ice cream, I could write a whole report just on the topping options this guy had :-) )

So final race, which I had to be reminded by Tommy that I was up next!!, and all to play for, managed to again get a clean first few laps but I was under a lot more pressure, some of the guys had got extra pace and were swarming around me, I let a few of them pass, not wanting to get tangled up, throw into the mix passing some backmarkers and I had no clue were I'd finished!! The SV2 ran great, the weak link was the driver!

All throughout the heats and races my Southport crew cheered me on shouting 'Go on Kev' 'You can do it Kev' 'Kev you're so great', hold on I think the last one was just the voice in my head :-) it was really great to have this type of support.
I went to my marshall position and then my name was called 'Kevin White go to race control' O nuts what had I done :-(
Next thing I'm been told I was the overall winner, Jimmy said go get your car we need to take a picture, next thing I'm smiling like an idiot, get handed a trophy & a picture is taken, then back out to marshall. This was a great idea as you didn't have to wait around till the end, also trying to gather together 100+ drivers at the end of the day would be a nightmare!!!

I managed to hand out most of the flyers for the WRI 2013 http://www.dublinmodelracing.com , one chap pointed out November was spelt incorrectly, I paused for a second and explained that it was the Irish spelling for November or something like that, not sure if I got away with that one :-). I did explain if you hand in the invite to Ryanair you get a free flight & that Graham was buying a pint for everybody who came over, this seemed to interest some (all!!) of the racers.(terms and conditions apply)

Even if I'd not won anything the trip was well worth it, I felt I've made friends with a solid bunch of lads from the SRCC club (apart from Aidan who is a whole other story )

The track in the Naul had prepared me well for this level of racing, 98% of the setup I use in the Naul was the same for the Southport track (apart from running a 7.5T motor).

I'd be encouraging as many members of the DMCC to have a go next year. I might try & do the entire series next year if funds allow!!.

Jimmy was bending my ear about going to the Invernational, I'm still thinking about the invite, you never know!!

Special thanks to MiCk from MSD models http://www.msdmodels.ie, for his encyclopideic knowledge of all things RC and ensuring I had backup tyres & spares, it gave me the extra confidence to travel to an away event. Also to Will for helping take a little sting out of the ferry cost with a discount code.

Also special thanks to Schumacher for making a car that even I can hussle around a track.

Kev