First race and podium

[mccrash59]

I´m quite happy, I managed a 3th spot on the podium in the very first ride with the CAT.
This weekend we´ve raced the 2nd round of the Regionals in the just opened Club CAPA facilities. A not so large but technical track, venue of the Spanich Nationals 3th round in september. Even being Regionals there are people from all of the country and some really fast guys (tops in the Nationals).
A couple of track pics under the lights


I never thouhgt racing 4wd but received the car Saturday morning. So I spent the morning fitting the electronics and making the paint job. I was able to hit the track Saturday evening for a while, but with my 2wd. I didn´t have even tires for the cat, because the spikes don´t suit the clay in the track. But I just wanted some track time with the car, didn´t matter the final result.
Finally Sunday morning I aimed the track with a set of borrowed Hole Shot from a friend (used J ) and completely box stock. I wanted to try the car with the standard set up, anyway I didn´t have time to change anything racing both classes the same day.
A couple of laps before the round 1 to trim the car and get used to the class, this was almost my first race with a 4wd after one with a bj4 which handles worse than my 2wd (my fault).
ROUND 1.- DNF… Not a single lap completed. The battery conector turned off the ESC swicht
ROUND 2.- DNF An steering bolt missed took me out of the round to soon. Is difficult to finish with one wheel steering LOL
ROUND 3.- Even starting with the number 8 at last I had a clean run. I got the pace and finished 3rd. Enought to start with the 10 in the A main.

Mains.- Starting from the last spot is difficult to get thru the pack, but we run 7 minutes finals and in the first two mains I was able to get great pace thanks to the predictable handling finishing 3rd in both and even catching the 2nd spot. I had a tought last final since my tires were really worn (same tires the whole race). But I fineshed 4th just behind the 3rd.
3rd is much more than I expected, I was happy just reaching the A main.
As I was read the car is quite tought and fast. Even with the diffs tight as stock form it turns in a dime and jumps flat with no correction needed. No spur stripped (thanks guys for the tips). My best lap was full second faster than my 2wd best lap which won the 2nd Amain with.
Now I have 2 weeks to work on the car before the Nationals but very few time to spend. I hope to put the CAT in the A main too.
This is my ride

See you.
Pablo Olea

[bigred5765]

wow what a track

[big air]

well done mate and looks a nice track keep us informed

[showtime]

well done dude


the track looks great, road trip anyone?

[cjm_2008]

that surface must be tremedously entertaining - a lot of time has to be spent sideways

[mccrash59]

It´s a bit tricky, the line has serius grip, at the end of the race some parts got blue groove, but out of the line there´re no traction at all. The funiest part is the white wide sweeper in the first pic. The turn is made of tiles with no traction, so is so funny make it drifting sideways. Another difficult section is the 180º off camber turn just before the astro-turf wall, if you enter to fast for sure will lose a couple of seconds.