The Indian RC Dirt Series – Round 2 Report:
The Round 2 of India’s only racing series was conducted October 18-20, 2013 at Hyderabad Axles Raceway. Weather was excellent compared to round 1 and all racers were looking forward to great fun.
Racers started arriving 2 days ahead of the event. Racers had a great time to practice and test their setup. Several first time racers had signed up for the event. Organisers continued with tradition of having a separate Amateur Buggy category to encourage first timers a chance to compete.
Axles Raceway decided to work on the track ahead of the race and fixed some issues. Traction was much better but certain places need further work. Taking a cue from the famous Pattaya track, Axles Raceway decided to use oil to make the dirt stick. It worked to some extent. Also they setup a wonderful sprinkler system. This system was able to wet the track in very short time and kept the dust at bay.
We had racers from Chennai, Bangalore, Coimbatore, Mumbai and Hyderabad. The brands that were represented were Hong Nor, Mugen Seiki, Team Losi, SWorks, JQ. Friday was official practice day. It was decided to remove the Short course truck, Monster Truck and eBuggy categories freeing up so much time. The event was basically a Buggy/Truggy only event.
Saturday was the qualification day. We used a simple qualification system for the finals grid. One fastest lap in a 30 minute session. There was intense competition among the racers to set the fastest time. Drivers could be seen working on their cars after a run and getting back on track to shave off a few milliseconds. Tires were the biggest factor in setting clean laps as the surface eroded towards end of day resulting in traction loss.
Satish Ganesan grabbed pole position on both Buggy Expert and Truggy. Dhinesh Kannan made it to the first spot for the Amateur Buggy Class. Back at the hotel, racers worked late into the night to ensure, cars and setup were prepped for the Finals. Some had only a few hours of sleep burning the midnight oil with the cars. We worked on our diffs, replaced the clutch bearings and checked all critical parts of the car and also on the setup.
Finals started as per schedule on Sunday. Amateur Buggy class starter first. Finals were 30 minutes duration. Dhinesh on pole position with his Losi 8ight took off and was unchallenged till the end. Gautam with some consistent driving on his Hong Nor LX2 managed to maintain second position throughout the race, but was intimidated often by Zahir on his Hong Nor X3. Bharath who was initially doing well on his Sworkz RTR has issues and fell behind. Zahir was almost certain for a 3rd place but broke his rear shocks forcing him to go slow. Bharath seized the opportunity and sealed the 3rd position. We had few cars dropping out for various technical reasons.
Nitro Truggy started next with a 30 minute final. Satish was on pole position followed by Amey and Murali. This was an exciting race with Amey and Murali trading positions several times. Satish had a comfortable lead and stuck to his position. Murali had few initial errors and fell behind Amey who could be seen catching up to the leader. Murali with intense pressure managed some fast laps and clever jumps got ahead of Amey. Murali also made late pit stops which helped him to finish 2nd. Amey finished 3rd and both received a great applause from the crowd for an exciting race.
Buggy Expert was the last class. Initially decided to be a 45 minute race, majority racers voted for 30 minutes. 2 top drivers from the Buggy Amateur class were invited to drive in this class. Satish was on pole again with his MBX7 followed by Sarath Uday on his Losi 8ight and Murali on his Hong Nor X3. The first corner resulted in a small pileup but everyone was back on track in a jiffy. The race saw lots of drama and was competed very closely. The first casualty occurred after Satish was involved in a hit with another driver he was lapping ending his race. We then had second position Sharath flaming out losing considerable time and unable to restart his engine. Amey on his Sworkz took the lead from Satish keeping Murali on his rear wing and trading places often. Ajo Joseph with his MBX7 silently managed to move up 3 positions from 5th place. He was at 2nd position in the race when a flame out exiting the pit lane cost him some time. Sharath now back managed to pick up pace with fast laps. However he didn’t have enough time. Ajo Joseph finished 3rd with Murali coming 2nd and Amey taking the victory.
Round 3 and grand finale of the Dirt Series has been announced for January 24-26, 2014. We look forward to increase the rounds to 5 and have a successful season next year.
24th August 2013, 22:36
(1)
Thanks
