Eye Spy

So we been tweaking on about 4 different designs and concepts in the Krazed shop. Winter time is here and while our origin is rock crawling things havent slowed down just because its getting colder. We’ve been lucky to have some great customers and the need for custom work, it really has been pushing us to do more. With this we have been keeping the machine running 3-4 days a week straight through to bed time.

Among this we have been working with our local hobby shop on an SK car kit and finally got to run it some. We were able to sneak some spy shots in between charges. It was fun driving an oval car again, I did the math and it was 1999 when I last raced one. Time flies for sure and theres a lot to setup Ive forgotten. The car did well for its first time out and in a blinky class. Blinky’s a no timing locked motor type spec class they run so figured it was a good place to start.

At the end of the night the car felt smooth, capable yet slow to compare to other cars out there. Honestly there was just one other car and old lap times to compare it too. The following week was the man up week, time to put this thing in the open class with the big boys. This would show all the faults there was to be in the car and it sure did. With some help and recommended advice given by a professional oval racer we got the car closer.

I was quick to learn that my hook was actually the car pushing, pushing so bad that when it was finally slow enough in the corner the tires had traction and turned. Hmmmm Yup I didn’t see that at all. So being told to change the tires, not in those exact words, and try it I decided I should listen. My first qualifier was coming up and my tires were already sauced up no sense or time changing over now. Ran the car with my pushy front tires in place and showed some speed amongst the cars, got a good enough run to reshuffle my up to some faster guys.

Now I definitely had to swap the tires over and scrub them in. With not much time between runs I soaked the tires and blasted the pack to a peak and hit the track. Tires felt better, car turned a little more and carried a bit more corner speed. They helped but it still wasn’t there yet so we kept tuning. Hit the track for our second qualifier and the car was much better the more the tires came in, put our self up 2 laps and only 1 off TQ. That was quite the jump for us considering after first round we were almost 4 laps off pace. YIKES.

So more tweaking and tuning and some friendly spoken advice with adult words we got some good pointers for changes. Having thrown what I could at the car for a night of racing I was able to mangle this thing to a 5th spot in the A-main and finish 4th overall among some veteran drivers. Not too shabby for a retired oval driver who hasn’t seen a track since 1999 lol.

The car has the speed it needs down the straight – that was the good part for the night. The car has plenty of tuning potential – that I definitely found out being able to work it faster and faster in one night. Back to the computer it went for some changes. First night of open class I have to say was very good, very pleased with the car and what I learned from it and other racers. New one is already cut and hoping in coupe weeks be able to go up and try it again.

Got some spy shots for now though ……