Race Report: NEO’14 with Cody King

Not a win, but any bridesmaid would be proud. 🙂

The Track
The layout broke through yet again with previously unseen obstacles. This year featured a cleverly placed dip in the track going onto the straight which would provide options; either a punched high flying style, or keeping the wheels planted and putting down power. Very race-able with no washboard and less chicanes than last year.

Practice
Weather was cooler this year over last, so we anticipated some set-up adjustments, especially tire compounds. We began with last year’s set-up with some mild modifications, and the car was ok, but we adjusted the shock damping a bit. Cody was on pace and able to seed in the top group, so we weren’t too worried. We still weren’t totally satisfied, but good enough to go into qualifying.
Qualifying
Tire choice was difficult with the changing temperatures. The temps were wavering from day to day between the 50s and 60s, and for tire selection, that means a lot. Cody’s qualifying was riddled with crashes and problems with traffic. Here is a summary of each round for Cody:

tycody
Round 1 – lap times were slightly off, but nobody was real fast.. sitting decent mid pack but then a mistake on lap 5 dropped down to 13th..
Round 2 – fast lap this round with 29.6.. again looking ok early and pushing the pace, but another mistake on lap 5.. drivability was an issue and need to soften the clutch.
Round 3 – pace was still good, but another crash (this time on lap 3) dropped back to 14th. Cody did a couple 29 second laps and clawed his way back up to 8th. Not everyone did 29 so that was pretty good. This would be his best points in qualifying.
Round 4 – (day 2) slow.. disappointing after finishing the day fast yesterday. Tires I picked were too soft. The car was still too punchy and we went to .95 clutch springs to smooth things out.
Round 5 – 29 second lap was really rare as the track slowed down. Cody battled a little but had a couple bad laps and traffic related issues. Not a great round result-wise, but we learned some things and still had a positive feeling for semis and mains.
This year was quite the contrast to last year, as Cody TQ’d two rounds last year, and didn’t TQ any this year. We still felt good about his pace and fast laps in round 2. We ended up with the standard shock set-up after trying the angle hole pistons we ran last year. This track was quite different with the off-camber corners. If you set-up the car for the off-camber sections, you can make up a lot of time. During the course of these struggles, we made some changes to the car to make it more consistent and easier to drive. This was especially true after it was obvious Cody was not going to TQ. We used the remaining time to make choices what he would do in the semi and main. The entire time we didn’t get discouraged and we knew he still had the pace and experience to get it done. That was an important part of this, to stay confident you can win. We always felt he had a good chance to do well in the final.
Semi
On Monday, the temp was up to 65f, and it made our tire choice much easier. We would be on Pro-Line X4 Suburbs the entire day. After some careful shock preparation, and a small camber link test in the semi warm-up, we were ready.
In the semi, Cody knew what he needed to do and drove a steady race. He had one less pit stop than many of the guys, so he knew that was working in his favor. It just allows you to relax a little more. Cody finished 4th in his semi and it was much faster than semi B, so he would grid up 4th for the final. That was a goal of ours to grid in the top 5. You really need to be near the front to have a chance.
Main
For the main, Cody quickly got into third and then battled with David Ronnefalk for the 2nd place spot. David cased the catapult jump and Cody went inside to get 2nd, and then went after Ty Tessmann. Cody took the lead and the crowd cheered their approval, but Cody cased a jump a few corners later and gave back the lead. On the first pit stop, Ty and Cody came in together, but Cody crashed coming in and lost time. Adding insult to injury, he also crashed going out and surrendered 8 seconds to Ty in one lap! This lead would remain the same most of the following 30 minutes, with Cody battling through traffic. It wasn’t until the last 6 laps that Cody realized he had a chance to win the race. Realizing his pace was quick, he really pushed and did two 29 flat laps to shave 5 seconds off the lead and nearly caught Ty in the end but came up short. Cody’s Kyosho teammate David Ronnefalk would hang on for 3rd, with Jared Tebo 4th and Elliot Boots 5th. It was a Kyosho logjam at the top of the results, with 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th.
Wrap-up
We got close but didn’t close the deal this time. With the fastest laps of the event, and especially the last 6 laps, doing TWO 29 flat laps that shattered anything that had been done, and 28.9 in the middle of the final, that was pretty special. It’s a good confidence builder for the other very important races coming up this year. Big thank you to all Cody’s sponsors for the great support. Also, the Neorace crew and all Cody’s team mates and friends in England for a fun time. Cheers!