Everyone has their bad days or events and this past week at the ROAR 1:8 Electric Nationals at LCRC Raceway in Oakland Mills, PA we would get a taste of it. The four day event set the record for ROAR on this specific event at 212 entries. Ethan Mackanick entered into the 1:8 E-Buggy class which had 111 entries and Jason Mackanick entered into the 1:8 E-Truck class which had 77 entries. The event ran from Thursday July 9th through Sunday the 12th. Four days seems like a stretched out event, but it was enjoyable with 2 heats of racing on the 1st three days and the Mains on the final Sunday. All racing was completed by 6:00 p.m. each evening which gave us plenty of time to clean up, have dinner and get some rest and not worry about running into the later hours of the night or the early morning hours like some of the other large events.
Ethans equipment for the event started out with his MBX6R Electric Buggy, Pro-Line M3 compound LockDown Tires with a Hobbywing ESC and Tekin 2050 motor, Pro-Line Gen3 Bulldog body with a Trifecta wing . I entered into the 1:8 E-Truggy division with a Tekno ET48 powered by Tekin Electronics RX8 Gen2 electronic speed control paired up to a Tekin T8 2000 electric motor and Pro-Line M3 compound Blockades with a new Pro-line Enforcer body and Trifecta wing. The Enforcer body made the truck extremely stable and easy to drive compared to the stock body.
Three to four minutes of controlled practice was given each morning. Wednesday started off with practice and Ethan would have a failed speed controller with two laps into the practice. Off to the solder station to wire up a new Tekin RX8 Gen2 and put a basic tune on the esc for his 1st seeding round run. The dark cloud would continue on for Ethan. A green track with a speed control having its current limiter set too high would lead to one of his tires coming off the rim. I was pretty stunned by this because we have not had a problem with tire to wheel adhesion following our normal gluing techniques. After my practice run in Electric Truggy, it had become apparent something was not right. One of my tires came unglued also in the practice. We had glued the tires onto the rims the previous day following our normal practices but one major thing was different. We did it outside at the track in high humidity. Something did not set right with the glue is all that we could guess.
Now the funny part of the week. Being the past ROAR Regional Director for Region 2 the previous two years, I am very familiar with the rules on battery voltages, body ventilation, wing sizes, etc. Irony would have it that my truck failed pre-race technical inspection for seeding qualifying based on being over the maximum voltage of 16.80 and mine was at 16.85. I had even checked it on my own digital meter before going over to the tech area where it had shown 16.77. Lesson learned for everyone is to check it before hand with the meter that is actually being used for inspection. Kind of funny being I am responsible for doing the inspection of ROAR batteries for the approval list. So, my first seeding run was a DQ.
The afternoon started the 2nd round of seeding and I went out on Pro-line Suppressors for the truck class. The truck was a little loose but nothing unexpected considering it was still a track that had not been worn in yet. I was still learning the track and getting the feel for the flow, so I was not as high in the qualifiers as I would have liked for Friday. Ethan would not get a second seeding run for the day to rain coming before his heat could get run. The 2nd seeding run for most of the electric buggies was cancelled. So, after the first day, we both needed to turn it up a notch on Friday. I would spend the evening re-gluing both of our tires and double checking over all the other maintenance items on the vehicles.
They say when it rains, it pours and that logic would still apply to Ethan on Friday. Although the weather was less humid and plenty of sunshine, he still managed to dismount two of his tires in his first qualifier. I double checked the re-glued tire from the previous day and it was still good. So, lets repeat prep, clean and glue the two that had just come partially off. You can probably already guess what came to that set of tires in the afternoon. Straight to trash can. Saturday, we would make the switch to Blockade tires as the track had a good groove set in. Doubting my gluing technique, the hobby shop owner offered up two sets of his glued up tires. Ethan went out on a good nineteen lap pace for qual three and with two laps to go, a rock would get jammed in between his rim and the hub which would put him down again. After coming off the track, we dislodged the stone and examined the tires. Sure enough, they were coming off also. Taking no chances, we put on another new set for the fourth round. These would stay on good and Ethan would put in a 19 lap run which put him 24th of 111 entries for that round for the day. With the other three qualifiers having problems, Ethan would still start in the second position for the D-Main.
Following Ethan’s lead on tires, I would switch to Blockades for the final three qualifying rounds in the Electric Truck division. I was able to put in three solid fifteen lap runs which came out to a twelfth place starting spot in the C-Main. Sunday was mains day and I would be the first to go in race number seven. Starting twelfth on the grid, I would have some work to do to try and make the podium. I put in the best run that I could with only one mistake and was able to make it up to the fifth position and maintain it until the end of the race while still closing the gap on third and fourth. I had fun and it was an enjoyable week of racing up until this point.
Ethan was all prepped and ready on brand new M3 Blockades for the number two starting spot in race number fifteen which would be the D-Main. As he goes out for his one warm up lap lightning would strike again and finish out his weekend. Ethan had slowed on track to avoid a pile up of cars on a jump and the four cars behind him did not slow and they plowed straight through him. The resulting damage snapped the aluminum rear front hinge pin holder before the race even started. Needless to say, that was tough to swallow at the end of the week. He held his chin up as he walked off the stand to come get his car which he understood was no fault of his. After cleaning up for the day and a little bit of silence, Ethan was still able to tell me he did have fun this week even with all which had happened. You can’t win them all, but they can’t take away the time I was able to spend with my son for the week.
This was our third national event attendance in our family. Each time, we seem to be climbing the ladder and improving. It is a learning experience everytime. Here is what we have come away with this year. Take new tires for every single round. The qualifiers are the same length as mains, so they see some use and if high traction comes in, they are worn even more. Lesson number two, it is called a warm up lap. The race has not started, so why beat and bang and race hard before the game even starts. Finally, have fun and remember those times with family and friends. They only stay young and are with us for so long. Thanks to Pro-Line for supporting us at the track.
