Well AMS 5.0 has come and gone! As one of the most largely attended events in the country, and also serving as my first true national level race, I was expecting an awesome time! And, despite all the bobbles, enormous lack of sleep, and rain/power outages, I was not disapointed. I now understand why they call AMS the Greatest Show on Dirt!
Practice Day:
After arriving at the track around 8a.m. on Thursday, we jumped right into practice. I knew practice time would be limited, so I tried my best to make use of each practice session. The first run with the E-Buggy was confidence inspiring; the car did most everything pretty well and there were no glaring setup changes that needed to be made. I just focused on learning the technical track and making smooth consistent lines. Trying to get the nitro buggy dialed in was a little more intense. With only one full race weekend on the car, I had to rely on the setup I’d found for the electric car and simply attempt to learn how to drive nitro.
As is always the case tires were the first thing played around with. Knowing from friends advice what worked last year, I ran Holeshots and Blockades both in M3. As the dust was pushed off the line a little bit, Holeshots started to work better and better but were a little harder to drive. I decided on Blockades for the seeding round to let me run a little more consistently and avoid wrecks. I also made some small adjustments to the cars to get a little more stability out of them.
Unfortunately a large storm blew in which not only blew over a few tables and tents, but caused the power to go out right before the seeding rounds. After a long wait, the organizers called it off and we simply ran the heats the way they had been initially setup.
Qualifying Day:
Having never attended an event this large or well attended, I really didn’t know what to expect results wise. I simply tried to get some clean runs in initially then push for position on the last qualifier.
Pro Electric buggy-
First round-Despite some other drivers choosing to go for a smaller pin tire, I instead chose to continue running the Blockades as they felt safer and I wanted to simply put in a decent run for the first qualifier. I was able to run pretty consistently and only have two crashes which put me 15th overall for the round.
Second round-Again I chose to run Blockades, even though at this point HoleShots were probably the much faster tire. I still just felt like I could run more consistently with them. I was able to push just a little more and place with a tenth for the round.
Third Round-For this round I decided to change over to Holeshots and try and place myself in the main. I got off to a good start and just ran as fast as I could without wrecking. I was on a pace that would put me fourth or fifth for the round when I just miscalculated the back section and got stuck underneath a tube. It took the marshall a little while to pull out the car but after he did I could tell something was wrong in the steering. I attempted to pull together the round but I ended up with some terrible laps which dropped me way down the field.
I would have to fight it out in the B-Main in order to bump to the A…
Pro Nitro buggy-
As I said above I am still very much learning nitro in general. Despite having a decent setup on the car the power/power delivery just didnt feel good at all to me and that made it extremeley difficult to drive. Long story short I ended up with a qualifying position somewhere in the C-Main. Very disappointing but not unexpected.
Mains Day:
After qualifying pushed into the wee hours of Saturday morning, everyone rushed back to the hotel to try and get some much needed sleep. If you were lucky you ended up with about 5 hours.
Pro Electric Buggy, B-main:
After the speed I had in the last qualifier of the previous day, and a hopefully fixed steering issue, I was feeling confident in my ability to bump up. My car felt the fastest it did all weekend in the warm up and I was ready to go. As the main started off everyone got around the first corner okay, but landing the tripple caused some huge chaos back in the pack. All the drivers in front of me, and myself, landing the triple perfectly. However, the driver starting out behind me (who is known for having some driving skill, so maybe a little agressiveness was going on….) that would be a perfect oppotunity to pass and tboned me in the middle of the corner. His wing caught onto mine and we had to wait for the entire field to pass before being seperated. After getting underway for about five feet I discovered I had no steering at all. After pulling off the track it turned out to be a broken rod end caused by the overzealous driver. Definitley not how I wanted to finish this event.
The entire weekend I used my Team Associated RC8.2e, Blazing fast Hobbywing 2200kv Xerun motor and 150amp Xerun ESC, Pro-Line Rc8.2e Bulldog Body, and Pro-Line M3 Holeshots and Blockades wrapped around Lightweight Velocity Wheels.
Pro Nitro Buggy, C-main:
After working on the car all night in an attempt to fix the issues, I hit the track. During warmup the car was almost undriveable, so I pulled off and didnt start the main to avoid ruining someone elses weekend.
I used my almost brand new RC8.2, Pro-Line Bulldog body, and M3 Holeshots and Blockades again on the Lightweight Wheels!
Recap~
All in all not a terrible first National level race. I was able to prove I had some good speed ability in me, but just didnt have the luck to actually utilize it. Oh well, these things happen! I will be more prepared the next time around in the Nitro class and will hopefully be able to get some better results with the E-Buggy at the events still remaining this year.
Besides the actual racing, it was pretty cool to be able to experience the race as an event. There were some great prizes given away, cool company booths, and good opportunities to sample all the fast food chain’s breakfasts at 3 in the morning. All in all a very well ran race and an awesome experience, cant wait till next year!
