Cactus Classic - SRS

It was time for the last of the three US races scheduled so far for me this year, the Cactus Classic. It was going to be the first time for me at the race and I really looked forward to it!

In 2wd I used the Yokomo car this time as I heard there was going to be a lot of traction at the SRS Raceway and a slick tire was the choice for almost everybody I think. The free practice started out good, we were able to run quite a lot on Tuesday and I focused on my 2wd then and planned to do the 4wd on Wednesday which was also supposed to be free practice. I didn’t change very much on the 2wd as I felt it was good already from the start so I kept doing laps around the track and in the end it looked very promising.

The next day I switched cars and wanted to get the 4wd dialed in as well, what we learned in the very first run in the morning was that the amount of traction the track had compared to the first day. This made my car quite difficult to drive and I had to sit down and make some changes to it. As the day went on more and more guys checked in which made the driver stand very busy and they decided to change to “Controlled Practice” at about 2pm.. Perfect, right when I was done with all my changes, and wanted to try. About 50 heats were setup to run 4 minutes each on the track or so. This meant that we would only get one more run each car before we were going into re-seeding on Thursday. Anyway, when it was my time to go out with my 4wd the track conditions was different again as they couldn’t keep up with watering it so then it became loose instead. My car didn’t work very well, fast on one lap but I didn’t feel very comfortable with it.

2WD

As my 2wd felt really good all day on free practice I felt comfortable with it going in to re-seeding on Thursday. We were going to have two rounds where they took the best three consecutive laps from any of the two rounds to make the heat order for qualifying.

My first round out on the track was all right, made some dumb mistakes but still managed to put three laps together. However the track was pretty slow in the first one due to them only watering every second heat, which was not enough to keep it consistent. They would change this for round two but this meant that we got had a “dry” track in the first one which made it slippery and the heat before went a little faster.

I made no changes for the second round just because I knew it would be another track with more grip. They watered after every heat for round two and it made it more consistent and I was able to put myself in 9th place on the list of three laps, which meant a place in the “A” heat for qualifying.

In Q1 I didn’t have a clean run and finished 16th in the round, my car felt a little loose on power so I made some small changes for Q2. The changes made the car better and I was able to finish 6th for that round which was the last round of Friday. We were going to have another two rounds on Saturday and then 2 out of 4 results would count for the mains.

Knowing I had a 6th place finish with me from Q2 I had to get at least a top 7 run to be able to make the main, my car felt great so I was sure it would be no problem as long as I kept it on the wheels. That wasn’t the case in Q3 however as I put it upside down on the very first lap which put me in some traffic and a few more mistakes came after that. So Q4 was going to be my last chance to secure a spot in to the A. I made a diff oil change before the round to make it a little easier to drive. This time it worked out great and I had a shot for TQ in the last round if it wouldn’t have been for one bad landing in the back section. I got 3rd for the round, which put me in 6th overall, super happy to make the main at the first time at the event!

I knew that 6th on the grid might not be the best, but I told myself that as long as I took it easy the first few laps anything could happen up front and I just had to stay in striking distance. I had really good starts in all three mains and stayed right behind Lee Martin for the first few minutes in every A main and was waiting for something to happen. Unfortunately the luck wasn’t on my side as every time something did happen, I found my way through half of the pile ups but just for something to happen before I got through all cars and my car was on its roof every single time… I fell down to the back of the pack and would finish 11th in the end. A very disappointing end to something that looked very good from the start of the race, especially when Lee took 3rd from 5th on the grid and I was right behind him all the time!

4WD

Re-seeding in 4wd went better than I thought, in the first round I put three laps together but still struggled to find the consistency in the car. I made a few more changes for the second round and it was better both on fastest lap and overall time, still I felt like I was missing something to make it as good as I wanted to be. However, I finished 10th and got the last spot in the “A” heat for qualifying. I would rather have been first car in the “B” heat but anyway a decent feeling for qualifying.

The first day of qualifying didn’t go so well, my driving was not on top and I struggled to get a good feeling with the car. The track was very challenging with changing conditions from round to round. The whole HB team worked hard to find a good setup for the car, basically to get it easier to drive and not only fast on one lap which it really was.

Some changing over night and I crossed my fingers for better luck today as I had a 25th and 21st place with me from Q1 and Q2. My goal was of course to put it in to the A-main in the last two rounds but for sure secure a spot in the B-main where the winner bump up to the A. In the third round my car was better and I had a top 5 run going on until I crashed on the straight with just a few laps to go. I dropped some spots and would finish 13th for the round. This meant the to get in to the main I would probably need a top 3 finish in the last round.

Changed a few more things on the car and it came out to be really good. I put in a good run and finished in 4th, just 2 seconds off TQ. With a 4th place I had a very small chance on getting in to the A-main, waiting for the overall I didn’t expect to get in the A as I found my pace to late I thought. When I saw the overall I was tied on point with 10th place but lost on the tiebreak by 0.2 seconds, which was very frustrating.

I got my car ready for the B-main that hopefully would give me the last place in to the A-main in the morning. I finally found a setup that worked great so I felt good before going up to drive. I got a great start but after a few laps I cased the jump section in the back and dropped to third. I was fast enough to make it so I was just following around and waiting for a chance to pass. My bad luck continued and I got taken out which put me way back and had no chance to make up the time. I finished 8th in the B-main and very disappointing result. I wish I found the setup that worked earlier than I did and I would probably have had a better chance on making it.

Now getting ready for the third round of the EOS!

Thanks to the whole HB team for great teamwork and great times together!

Source: D. Ronnefalk