Welcome to the FastCats Canadian Challenge R/C "O" Mini Review
This review started off as a few comments on a club forum and then got so long, I decided to put it here for all to see
You know you had a great time when you don't stop talking/typing about it..
First off..Huge congrats to FastCats for putting on another awesome show..
All the sponsors (too many to list) and some of the fastest R/Cers (too many too list) in the world were on hand to put on one of the best R/C events I've ever seen..
And it was great to see the race on-line in real time as well..Team R/C Ontario only did 1 qualifier on the Saturday, but when we got home we were able to follow the live action on LiveRC.com .. WOW!!!
Some of our friends were also keeping an eye on us as well..Its a great tool and for future races I will definitely let people know about this so they can tune it at home..
Saturday for us was a bit of a stinker..The R/C Kid's car was awesome but he messed up on batteries and dumped way too soon..
My days and weeks past have been nuts..Get tagged by some kid(hard)...Messed up my car..Replaced broken parts with wrong unbroken parts..Finally sort that out..Car is glitching like crazy..Fought that forever..Finally turfed my diode and no more glitching..Now my brand new motor is freaking out..Seems to be hanging brushes..Fought that all day and hopefully figured it out for my qualifier..Nope..Car gets tapped and dies...Repeatedly
play with motor and brushes a bit and I'm good to go again..Qualifier is over though..
Come home..Think about it..Decide to buy new motor..
Hope tomorrow is a little cheaper.. (the bill for motor/tires/parts got just a little high Saturday)
By the way..Very impressed with that Keven Hebert..He is running 2nd in mod 1/10 and chasing Paul Lemieux for first..And trailing him is Martin Crisp, Dave Johnson, Jeff Dayger, Corey Whiteman, Wayne Vince, Korgae Scales & Louis Vanderwey...
What's the big deal, you may ask..This kid is a kid..Younger than Than The R/C Kid..14 maybe??...
OK..Checked this out..He is actually 17 years old.....But we were very impressed..He is so fast and so cool about it..Did I mention he was fast??..WOW!!
Sunday we were pretty confident the bugs were all outta the T2's...Got there at 6:30'ish to practice..Motor was great..no glitching..Completed first qualifier cleanly..20 laps..
Re-sort!!!..We were in the D-Main qualifier..Its ok..Just times were keeping our 20 lappers outta the C-Main(which was a respectable place to be)
In our first qualifier on Sunday, I was traction rolling and The R/C Kid was ballistic as usual..Dumped at the end though..We could certainly improve..And we did..I had a hard go with slower D-Main traffic in the 4th qualifier, but The R/C Kid was flying..Lapped me..(it's ok, I'm getting used to it)
But he was struggling with lap traffic too..Our goal was just to pass them enough times to get up a main for the finals..
Mike got 21 laps and a guaranteed spot..I gained about 4 seconds on my 20 lap run....Would it be enough??
Barely...10th in the C-Main for me and The R/C Kid was 5th or so..
Yahoo...I actually thought my best qualifier was gonna be about two spots outta the C and was a little dissapointed..(I slowed down for lap traffic a couple of times and got 1 slow marshall)..I was thinking I missed it by mere 10ths of a second..
We were really happy with where we sat..Up enough to be outta the basement and down enough to watch some great racing after!!
The A-Mains were truly a feat..And there were some very exciting B's as well..Too much to describe..You really had to be there..
New thing at FastCats..Bleachers!!
And they were packed..Mostly with non-racers/spectators who came just to watch..
S & N's Trackside Hobbies & Raceways' very own Scotty Ernst, from Milwaukee, WI., was on the microphone..He is an awesome announcer and he really made the show..
Have a look at the A-Mains results below...The amount of talent that was at this race was phenominal
If you can't make one of these races in the future you should at least make an attempt to attend the mains and just watch some of the best R/C racers in the world duke it out..Our Canadian boys all did very well and although the pros were at the top of most podiums, there wasn't the huge domination we've seen in the past..
We're talking about guys on the same laps as the best in the world..Watching them race is something..We really have no idea how they stay so calm, bumper to bumper, lap after lap..
But I guess that's what makes us happy as club hobby racers and that's what makes them Pros..
Some of my favorite race highlights were:
Joon Kim and Martin Pilmajer duking it out for 2nd place in the 1/10 19t B-Main..Joon was hot on the first lap.Too hot..His car was smoking..Literally..You could smell it rippin' around the track..
Pull over with a dead car??..Nope..Give 'er..He was hot on the trail of 2nd place Martin and reeled him in..Planted his car right up on the rear bumper of Martin and they raced like that lap after lap..It was very impressive to watch..Joon obviously had more ponies, but Martin's line was flawless..
The smoke eventually cleared and Joon eventually made a move..Very clean and very precise...Took 2nd place and Martin was only 1 second behind for 3rd..Great racing guys..
Louis Vanderway and Mike Burr fighting for 3rd place in the 1/12 19t A-Main..Again..Just an outstanding performance by both these guys..Louis took 4th on lap 21 and started reeling in Mike..He managed to take 3rd from Mike on lap 35..3 laps from the finish..But not before they both put on one heck of a show..
It was so exciting that everyone lost track of the two leaders..Jeff Dayger started on the pole and led the entire race..He took off, in fact..Wayne Vince was tracking him the whole race but it seemed the jump Jeff got was too much..
It wasn't until the race was over that we looked at the results and realized they had quite the race as well..Both ended with 40 laps and only 4/10ths between them..Wow!!
Martin Crisp and Dave Johnson in the 1/10 19t A-Main..Martin Worked his way through the field after a rocky 2nd/3rd corner..We saw some great racing from Martin as he tracked down Keven Hebert for 2nd spot..In the meantime Dave Johnson was checking out..We were rooting for Martin to take 2nd but after that he kept forging and surprisingly we saw he was gaining on Dave..Wow..That was a huge lead for Dave and Martin was putting down some awesome times to catch him..Its not just seeing how fast these guys are, but watching how cool and clean they are..Dave saw Martin coming..The crowd was cheering..Martin had the time but he was pushing hard..Got so close and then bobbled..1st was pretty much over but Martin hung in there to finish less than a second behind Dave..Great racing!!
Keven Hebert and Paul Lemieux in the 1/10 Mod A-Main..This race was outstanding..Talk about great starts..Tone goes and all the A-Main Mod guys made a freight train around the first few corners..Canada's own 17 year old phenom, Keven Hebert, leads the pack and as the laps go on it becomes apparent that Paul is the only guy who has something for him..Keven got a great start and a reasonable lead over everyone, but it wasn't long before we saw Paul work is way through traffic and inch close and closer...It took Paul most of the five minute race to catch Keven and get in a position to pass..But he was definitely gaining..Did Keven seem nervous?.Not to us he didn't..Talk about cool and collective.This young man is absolutely a treat to watch and if you ever get the chance, make a point of seeing it for yourself...Keven lead 25 of these laps, but unfortunately his battery started to noticably fall off on the most important one..Lap 26..
Paul quickly gained as Keven's batteries were going away on lap 26 and the only thing Keven could do was give him room to go..A little fender rubbing but, Paul Lemieux takes the A-Main Mod on the last corner of the last lap..
Congrats to Paul as well..He spent this entire race driving awesome lines and reeling in the youngster from Quebec..I'm not sure if Paul could have actually caught Keven, if Keven's batteries hadn't gone off, but....(we'll never know..)
Our Main??..
I geared up 2 teeth(1 more than The R/C Kid)...
Car was great but I think my rear diff was a little tight..Pegged 'er at the start and hung a hard left into the boards..No probs..Just brushed 'em and continued on..
Car was flying..Didn't really get into a groove though(takes me a lap to settle in--guess thats why I'm in the C-Main)..On my second lap I'm full tilt down the straight..Car on the straight!!!..
Wow...Boom...Nailed this guy who was parked right on my line..Ripped the front wheel right off..But it still sorta ran..Did a couple of turns thinking about whether it would go, but I was done..Pulled it off..
No probs...Had an awesome weekend and went out in a blaze of glory..It was really a full speed spectacular crash..Cool!!
And I heard the "crowd" all grimace and moan..Was kinda neat..My 2 seconds of fame..hehe
The R/C Kid was also pumped for the main..We had a little side bet going...Think I still owe him a Loonie..(don't tell 'im, eh?)
His car was hooked and he spent most of his spare time playing fooseball and video games while I sweated all over my car..(Checkin everything I could think of)
He had a great start and was off...Remember that guy I nailed at the end of the straight..Turns out he was still floundering around when The R/C Kid was coming by too...Bam..Head On collision..And he was in 2nd at the time..Ouch!!
And beleive me when I say that he was not a happy camper.."GRR..People going the wrong way on the track!!..GRR GRR"...
Has a quick look at his car..Just a battery connector came loose..He pops it back in and he's off to the races again..Lost huge time though..But you should have seen his face..Grinning from ear to ear now..
So here I stand watching the kid put lap after lap on me..1 for me and 14 for him..
Not much but it was enough to move him up to 6th place..Which is pretty good compared to Dad's 10th place finish..GGRRR!!
It was all in good fun and we really did have a great time..
Looking forward to doing it all again next year...Bring your A-Games baby!!
Fanx for the ear,
The R/C Guy
Results
Name-Laps-Time-Fastest Lap 1/10 Mod A-Main 1 Lemieux, Paul 26 5:13.749 11.664 2 Hebert, Keven 26 5:15.652 11.79 3 Vince, Wayne 25 5:06.214 11.856 4 Johnson, Dave 25 5:06.976 11.954 5 Dayger, Jeff 25 5:16.913 11.91 6 Scales, Korgae 24 5:08.039 12.065 7 Schinzano, Leonard 23 5:01.353 12.303 8 Whiteman, Corey 22 4:47.092 11.957 9 Frechette, Mark 11 2:34.055 12.399 10 Crisp, Martin 9 1:57.839 1/10 Stock A-Main 1 Steele, Michael 21 5:11.845 14.469 2 Wheeler, Ben 20 5:10.005 14.828 3 Imineo, Nick 19 5:02.274 14.686 4 Tam, Jason 17 5:04.835 16.08 5 Bloksma, Eric 17 5:05.900 16.29 6 Deas, Thomas 16 5:02.865 16.982 7 Leung, Beric 16 5:06.587 14.988 8 Grant, Ty 15 3:53.134 14.707 9 Pearce, James 15 4:59.329 16.814 10 Lagueux, Fred 1 22.620 n/a 1/12 Stock A-Main 1 Vince, Wayne 37 8:10.332 12.665 2 Trandell, Joe 37 8:12.270 12.869 3 Calandra, Mark 37 8:13.982 12.901 4 Burr, Mike 36 8:02.516 12.741 5 Wynn, Brian 36 8:11.468 12.844 6 Stillwell, Rob 35 8:00.127 13.145 7 Klebert, Peter 34 8:01.538 13.3 8 Bauer, John 34 8:01.712 13.234 9 Posthumus, John 34 8:05.487 13.066 10 Provost, Vincent 29 6:58.044 13.267 1/10 19t A-Main 1 Johnson, Dave 24 5:02.939 12.432 2 Crisp, Martin 24 5:03.349 12.191 3 Hebert, Keven 24 5:05.362 12.215 4 Glover, Joe 23 5:00.334 12.489 5 Bortolotti, Steve 23 5:10.499 12.597 6 Grant, Ty 23 5:12.530 12.817 7 Trandell, Joe 20 4:30.627 12.76 8 Schinzano, Leonard 8 1:48.311 12.663 9 Whiteman, Corey 3 39.269 12.449 10 Frechette, Mark 1 17.568 n/a 1/12 19t A-Main 1 Dayger, Jeff 40 8:11.296 11.7 - - 2 Vince, Wayne 40 8:11.866 11.943 - - 3 Vanderwey, Louis 38 8:04.848 12.077 - - 4 Burr, Mike 38 8:05.132 12.127 - - 5 Granton, Charles Alexandre 37 8:07.676 12.404 - - 6 Lecuyer, David 37 8:11.305 12.611 - - 7 Calandra, Mark 35 8:13.337 12.159 - - 8 Klebert, Peter 35 8:15.114 12.701 - - 9 Stillwell, Rob 21 4:41.746 12.501 - - 10 Lecuyer, Martin 18 4:06.917
John Catricala..Paul Lemieux...Scotty Ernst...Keven Hebert...Korgae Scales...