JConcepts CLASH - day 3 - 13th December 2008

Racing started at 9am and with half a round lost yesterday it was going to be tight to fit in the 2.5 rounds today. To save time the organisers also decided to remove the fun nitro slash class. The weather was looking better too and the blue groove had remained from yesterday unlike from practice day to qualification day 1 where it was just washed away! Unlike the UK where from round two onwards the start order is based on results round two here was simply reversed from round one (1,2,3... to 10,9,8...) we saw a few guys suffer from this with back markers and slower cars, round three and four order would be based on results thankfully.

A lot of guys were doing tyre 'voodoo', they clean the tyres off then soak with motor cleaner/nitro cleaner or similar then place in a sealable plastic bag for about 10 mins. The tyres come out softer and very slightly tacky. It tends to slightly unbond the glue though so you have to check this every run and reglue if necessary. Sounds like a right farce to me!

CSRCCC's on road track is just 100 yards from the Off-Road one

The grip level increased dramatically by the end of round 2, many guys lapping 2 seconds per lap quicker. Fast drivers in all classes switched from the double dee tyres to barcodes by early afternoon when the track had started to groove up but by the end of qualifying most drivers had changed back to double dees (green) which were a bit more forgiving if slightly offline in the dust.

We saw a lot of cars with extra weight added to just get that little extra drive, a number weighing in quite a bit over 1800g.

Multiple worlds A-Finalist and top UK hero Paul 'Bradders' Bradby who drove like a star to TQ round 3 in 2wd has brought some exclusive Trishbits parts with him, an awesome brass bit and some cool thumb screws. Bradders was really disappointed that we were unable to get hold of any Trishbits stickers in time for this event, so we used marker pen instead and I have to say it looks pretty awesome. Also new in the world of Trishbits is a top notch new logo, check out the website for no details.

By half way through round three it was apparent that there would be no time for a fourth round, a bit worrying for those who hadn't had good runs yet. The organisers decided to calculate points for finals with the best 2 out of 3 runs.

Qualifying finished at 4pm so with an hour and a half of daylight left so to make use of the time in lieu of the lost round a half hour slot of free electric practice and the same for nitros took place.

The pressure was on in round three, the brits were having mixed fortunes with some technical failures and traffic - a simple tag off line or a roll hurt times so badly it was hard to get a mixture of the clean run but without being too pedestrian.

Ben-Jammin did right proper ace today following his crap luck yesterday, beating some big names and finishing 6th place overall in 4wd, 7th in truck, and qualifying B9 in 2wd.

The grip when the blue groove came up was impressive, the 8th electric cars would wheely from a standstill and minor off camber corners saw grip roll if pushed too hard, a downside seemed to be heavy tyre wear.