Had my first race in 14 years last week and put it this way, I learnt a lot.

It started on Tuesday when I got home from work and thought I'd test my brand spanking new Mi2EC on the landlords tennis court, so off I went, put the car and throttled away, boy that baby was fast, oh and look at the trails I'm leaving in the gravelly surface of the tennis court, don't they look good..... Damn what am I doing! Doh!

Well, I ended up splitting the front belt and spitting gravel into every orifice of the car - my history in off road had done nothing for prepping me on just how exposed these touring cars are. So there I was at 6pm thinking I had about 3 hours to completely strip the car down and rebuild it. Fortunately, my off road history did teach me to buy plenty of spares before going racing so I already had a new belt ready to install. Well blow me, I did it, I was seriously impressed with the ease at which I could pull off the suspension front and rear and dismantle the drivetrain to replace the belt and clean everything out.

So it came to Wednesday night and I get myself along to the club having pre-charged all my batteries (so I thought). After setting up the track, I peak one of the batteries and get into the practice, man that car is so much faster on carpet than it was on gravel and now I only have 4 or 5 feet of width to drive in. Anyway, practice came and went and the first heat arrived. 30 seconds in, wallop! Bang goes front hub and steering yoke so I'm out, still smiling, but out, those brief seconds of racing were damn good fun.

I had some spares so I replaced the broken parts during the second round and was ready to go in the third and final round. Half way through, things are going well, I'm getting used to the throttle grip transmitter and the level of steering, but now the damn thing is pulling to the left, no problem I think, I'll just adjust it on the transmitter - the wrong way!!!!! nooooooooo!!!!!!!!! So bang into the sidewall I go and wrong end the car into the chairs piled up along side the track. The steering gave up after that and after a little while of investigation it turns out the servo lead came out of the receiver. Phew! no big bills there then. But too late to get back on the track.

So it came to the final, obviously I was in the bottom one LOL. I was all prepared and ready to go, I got a good start and I was actually in the lead for the first few laps, then, after every bad thing that had happened previously and karma should have been shining on me, the battery dumps! In my haste to get ready, I stuck the previous battery pack in.

Needless to say, I had fun during the night and after my final, some of the A final chaps set my car up for me to have a test run at the end. Gee Whizz, what a difference it made. Must say, they're a great bunch down at the club and can't wait until Wednesday night to get some more practice in with the much better set up car. Let's hope it is more fruitful than the first one, and if it isn't, I'll just keep on doing it anyway. What a buzz! :D

sounds like you had a great time mate, keep at it, the more you race the better you get and its great fun along the way :)

i always put a peice of duck tape on the bottom of my car to cover the spur and diff hole to keep the crap out
works really good... might be sumthing to try there mate :)

i run the undertray on mine, it keeps out the dust and also stops the chassis getting scratched up