Nicole Colombo R/C Photography
Nicole Colombo R/C Photography
Tuesday 31 July 2012
2012 IFMAR World Championships Hemsteede
Last week from Wednesday to Sunday saw the 7th running of the IFMAR 1/10th electric touring car world championships in Hemsteede, Netherlands.
I was going into this event completely open minded. I had no chance to go and test before hand, have never driven the track before and never raced at a worlds before so it was just going to be a learning experience.
When I arrived at the track on wednesday morning I was pleasantly suprised by its size. Very similar to what we have here in the UK.
Wednesday
On the wednesday we had two free practice sessions. I was given the new parts from HotBodies to upgrade to the TCXX prototype in the morning but decided not to change the car at this stage as I wanted to use these 2 sessions to just learn the track and adapt myself to modified again. The track was very difficult to drive. The curbs were that "good" it was super easy to grass cut and go over them to much at high speed. I really struggled to learn this track in those 2 sessions but at least I got a rough idea.
Thursday
On thursday we had more free practice sessions followed by 2 rounds of controlled practice. On wednesday night I rebuilt the car to TCXX specification. The car felt really good in the morning to drive but my pace was not fast, but i was putting this down to purely me as I still had absolutely no idea where I was going haha. By the time controlled practice came round the car was not too bad and I was driving more consistently, but still at a slow pace. But I wasn't bothered about pace to much as I didn't practice before hand so I was always going to be on the back foot for half the event.
Due to the Technical inspection chaos during controlled practice round 1 of qualification was delayed until friday where we would run a straight 6 rounds.
Friday
All drivers had just 2 sets of tyres for qualifying so it was crucial to pull off and save tyres if you made a mistake otherwise you were wasting rubber as the tyre degradation was huge!
My first qualifier didn't last long at all. One lap until I was up behind someone and they stopped on the racing line, breaking my car and forcing me to retire.
Round 2 wasn't too bad. I drive very conservatively just to get a score on the board as I hate early qualifying screw ups as I then get really pressured for the remaining rounds. Round 3 was another retirement after I made a very silly mistake of trying to overtake a lapped car off the main straight in the braking zone (I accelerated off the track). This was the mistake that would cost me.
Round 4 was a pretty good round and I found a bit of extra pace and scored a fairly respectable time. I just needed one more score to have a fairly ok result, maybe top 50 - 60, which I would of taken after no practice.
Round 5 was where the shit happened as usual. I knew before hand rain was on its way soon but I was praying it would stay dry for everyone. But nope. Halfway through my run the rain started and the race was stopped. Round 5 of qualifying was cancelled due to the track being different conditions throughout the heats. This meant I would have to count round 6 in potential wet conditions....and we weren't allowed a wet chassis! So the mad rush started with everyone changing electrics etc. Bullshit!
Round 6 came and i went up to the rostrum with my wet electrics in and instantly realised I hadn't centralised my servo properly with the TX. Because IFMAR still have a stupid TX impound for 2.4 systems and the fact I was in a crazy mad rush to prep the electrics into the dry car, I screwed the servo horn onto the servo into a "guess" position as to where neutral might be. With the view of going up to the rostrum before my race with the car to sort it properly. But I forgot to do this and couldn't trim it over enough, so couldn't even start the qualifier. At this point I felt so bad. All that money spent to go to the worlds and I make a stupid mistake like that? That i wouldn't even make when i first started racing. Unbelievable, I think it will take me some time to get over it lol. Even my Dad couldn't look at me, as he knew Id screwed up any chance of a respectable qualifying position.
After my DNS the track was getting dryer and dryer, to the point that heat 13 it was pretty much totally dry so my heat wouldn't of been very good anyway. Then heat 14 went on track with Ronald looking good for TQ....AND IT RAINS AGAIN!! After this round the protests started, complaining that this was exactly how it was for round 5 and they cancelled that round so therefor, this round should be cancelled meaning it would be 2 from 4 to count...Which would mean I would of qualified ALOT higher up lol and not down in 88th.
My opinion
Race control announced at the start of the round it was declared a wet round and you can use slick or dry...just like here at the nationals. We race on regardless of weather. What I do think was rubbish, is how round 5 was cancelled. So what if it rained during my heat? Wet tyres should already have been allocated to the drivers in their tech boxes so we could race on and count the round. And not stop racing and cancel it because it rained. You either race in changing weather conditions properly and carry on and let luck take its toll. Or you don't full stop. If it rains in your race at times, thats just how it goes, happened to me ALOT at nationals, but you cant do anything about it, we all just get on with it and race on. It was just poor organisation that led to this problem.
The finals were ok but I didn't finish 2 of them due to pulling off in one to save tyres, and the other final I drove like a retard and crashed when trying to make some ambitious passes. But my pace in the 3rd final was pretty fast before i retired. I changed the car and was running the pace I ran on new tyres on third run tyres! But too little to late as always haha.
NEVERMIND :)
The car was great throughout the meeting, it was purely lack of track time and poor luck that led to my bad result and bad driving at times. Im looking to turn it round straight away at the BTCC this weekend at Snetterton. Iv'e learnt a lot from this event and a hell of a lot about further car setup from Andy and Hara.
I still had a good time with team HPI and looking forward to meeting up again with the international team soon. Id also like to thank Toshiko (Haratune) at Hot Bodies for providing me with the new parts :).
For now tho its back to work at Hpi Europe for the rest of the summer and UK racing!
il post pics up later on, just looking for the camera :-)
Thanks to all my sponsors for awesome support
Hpi Racing/Hot Bodies
Moore-Speed
Thunder Power
MB Models
Stef
I was going into this event completely open minded. I had no chance to go and test before hand, have never driven the track before and never raced at a worlds before so it was just going to be a learning experience.
When I arrived at the track on wednesday morning I was pleasantly suprised by its size. Very similar to what we have here in the UK.
Wednesday
On the wednesday we had two free practice sessions. I was given the new parts from HotBodies to upgrade to the TCXX prototype in the morning but decided not to change the car at this stage as I wanted to use these 2 sessions to just learn the track and adapt myself to modified again. The track was very difficult to drive. The curbs were that "good" it was super easy to grass cut and go over them to much at high speed. I really struggled to learn this track in those 2 sessions but at least I got a rough idea.
Thursday
On thursday we had more free practice sessions followed by 2 rounds of controlled practice. On wednesday night I rebuilt the car to TCXX specification. The car felt really good in the morning to drive but my pace was not fast, but i was putting this down to purely me as I still had absolutely no idea where I was going haha. By the time controlled practice came round the car was not too bad and I was driving more consistently, but still at a slow pace. But I wasn't bothered about pace to much as I didn't practice before hand so I was always going to be on the back foot for half the event.
Due to the Technical inspection chaos during controlled practice round 1 of qualification was delayed until friday where we would run a straight 6 rounds.
Friday
All drivers had just 2 sets of tyres for qualifying so it was crucial to pull off and save tyres if you made a mistake otherwise you were wasting rubber as the tyre degradation was huge!
My first qualifier didn't last long at all. One lap until I was up behind someone and they stopped on the racing line, breaking my car and forcing me to retire.
Round 2 wasn't too bad. I drive very conservatively just to get a score on the board as I hate early qualifying screw ups as I then get really pressured for the remaining rounds. Round 3 was another retirement after I made a very silly mistake of trying to overtake a lapped car off the main straight in the braking zone (I accelerated off the track). This was the mistake that would cost me.
Round 4 was a pretty good round and I found a bit of extra pace and scored a fairly respectable time. I just needed one more score to have a fairly ok result, maybe top 50 - 60, which I would of taken after no practice.
Round 5 was where the shit happened as usual. I knew before hand rain was on its way soon but I was praying it would stay dry for everyone. But nope. Halfway through my run the rain started and the race was stopped. Round 5 of qualifying was cancelled due to the track being different conditions throughout the heats. This meant I would have to count round 6 in potential wet conditions....and we weren't allowed a wet chassis! So the mad rush started with everyone changing electrics etc. Bullshit!
Round 6 came and i went up to the rostrum with my wet electrics in and instantly realised I hadn't centralised my servo properly with the TX. Because IFMAR still have a stupid TX impound for 2.4 systems and the fact I was in a crazy mad rush to prep the electrics into the dry car, I screwed the servo horn onto the servo into a "guess" position as to where neutral might be. With the view of going up to the rostrum before my race with the car to sort it properly. But I forgot to do this and couldn't trim it over enough, so couldn't even start the qualifier. At this point I felt so bad. All that money spent to go to the worlds and I make a stupid mistake like that? That i wouldn't even make when i first started racing. Unbelievable, I think it will take me some time to get over it lol. Even my Dad couldn't look at me, as he knew Id screwed up any chance of a respectable qualifying position.
After my DNS the track was getting dryer and dryer, to the point that heat 13 it was pretty much totally dry so my heat wouldn't of been very good anyway. Then heat 14 went on track with Ronald looking good for TQ....AND IT RAINS AGAIN!! After this round the protests started, complaining that this was exactly how it was for round 5 and they cancelled that round so therefor, this round should be cancelled meaning it would be 2 from 4 to count...Which would mean I would of qualified ALOT higher up lol and not down in 88th.
My opinion
Race control announced at the start of the round it was declared a wet round and you can use slick or dry...just like here at the nationals. We race on regardless of weather. What I do think was rubbish, is how round 5 was cancelled. So what if it rained during my heat? Wet tyres should already have been allocated to the drivers in their tech boxes so we could race on and count the round. And not stop racing and cancel it because it rained. You either race in changing weather conditions properly and carry on and let luck take its toll. Or you don't full stop. If it rains in your race at times, thats just how it goes, happened to me ALOT at nationals, but you cant do anything about it, we all just get on with it and race on. It was just poor organisation that led to this problem.
The finals were ok but I didn't finish 2 of them due to pulling off in one to save tyres, and the other final I drove like a retard and crashed when trying to make some ambitious passes. But my pace in the 3rd final was pretty fast before i retired. I changed the car and was running the pace I ran on new tyres on third run tyres! But too little to late as always haha.
NEVERMIND :)
The car was great throughout the meeting, it was purely lack of track time and poor luck that led to my bad result and bad driving at times. Im looking to turn it round straight away at the BTCC this weekend at Snetterton. Iv'e learnt a lot from this event and a hell of a lot about further car setup from Andy and Hara.
I still had a good time with team HPI and looking forward to meeting up again with the international team soon. Id also like to thank Toshiko (Haratune) at Hot Bodies for providing me with the new parts :).
For now tho its back to work at Hpi Europe for the rest of the summer and UK racing!
il post pics up later on, just looking for the camera :-)
Thanks to all my sponsors for awesome support
Hpi Racing/Hot Bodies
Moore-Speed
Thunder Power
MB Models
Stef
Monday 9 July 2012
Welcome back mind!
Recently, Iv'e had distractions in my life that have been really screwing up my racing. My prep has never been too good, and my mind frame at events when Im actually driving has been all over the place.
It's true as well, I have plotted when this "distraction" occurred, and since then, my results and percentage of finishing runs has gone down hill alarmingly. This distraction has now gone, and I feel I can safely say..."IM BACK". By that I don't mean near the front, or challenging for wins (what will be will be), I mean in terms of my attitude towards racing and my dedication. If your mind isn't in a positive place, your never going to be able to compete with the guys at the front anyway, its impossible.
Im very lucky to have great sponsors such as HPI, Moore-Speed RC, Thunder Power and MB Models. I want to give back to them what they give to me in the form of results, helping out other racers, and just been a positive representative at the races and not someone who doesn't want to be there.
Its fair to say my form this year and attitude has been horrendous. Im more keen than ever to turn it round at halifax, and more importantly, start enjoying myself again :)
See you all at the weekend :-)
It's true as well, I have plotted when this "distraction" occurred, and since then, my results and percentage of finishing runs has gone down hill alarmingly. This distraction has now gone, and I feel I can safely say..."IM BACK". By that I don't mean near the front, or challenging for wins (what will be will be), I mean in terms of my attitude towards racing and my dedication. If your mind isn't in a positive place, your never going to be able to compete with the guys at the front anyway, its impossible.
Im very lucky to have great sponsors such as HPI, Moore-Speed RC, Thunder Power and MB Models. I want to give back to them what they give to me in the form of results, helping out other racers, and just been a positive representative at the races and not someone who doesn't want to be there.
Its fair to say my form this year and attitude has been horrendous. Im more keen than ever to turn it round at halifax, and more importantly, start enjoying myself again :)
See you all at the weekend :-)
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