Hinckley Radio Control Car Club

Hi guys,

As we all know, the Hinckley track has taken a good hammering over recent weeks and is starting to wear quite thin. I have today been racing my CR2 at the Coventry 4WD regional on their grass track and I have to say at the end of the day the track was almost undriveable... especially for 2WD's which is mainly what we run at Hinckley. Another weeks racing on the Hinckley grass and I fear our track will become the same. Whilst today was a great days racing, the track condition did spoil it some what and it would be a tragic shame if the Hinckley outdoor racing success for 2010 was ruined because of the ground!

So... a vote would be good... post your thoughts to this thread!

As far as I'm concerned I'm a happy bunny as long as I get to race - but maybe we need to take action to ensure that racing at Hinckley continues to be successful right up until the end of the outdoor season... still quite a few weeks racing remaining!

Looking forward to next weekends racing (Saturday 10th July 2010) there's a few options to concider:

- Firstly we could continue to run on the grass as normal and put up with racing on dried mud
- We could move the track to a total new patch of grass to the right of where we currently set the track up, and just stand on the bank as a rostrum... we may need to move Race Control down onto the field but this shouldn't be too much hastle... may require some additional power extensions but I'm sure that wont be difficult to arrange
- We could move indoors for 1 week to race the buggies on the carpet and bare floor with some of the ramps like we did some months ago - this will give the track time to heal so that we can get back to racing as normal the following week (I dont think exams are on at the mo so the hall should be available)
- Or we could potentially contact the Coventry club and negotiate using their astroturf track for a week

Post your opinions!!!

Any alternative racing will need to be finally agreed by Dale and the committy so hopefully they will read this!

Thanks, Jon!

p.s, any other ideas would be welcome!

Can't race myself as am dosed up on eye drops and only 1 good eye, at the moment but 2 observations.

1) If you go to any decent size meeting on grass in warm weather. the track will turn to a dust bowl so it's good practice.

2) Change tyres. - Minispikes are rubbish once the grass is gone. - In the days before control tyres people would run american tyres in these conditions It makes a big difference which is one of the reasons all the tyre restrictions were introduced.

- Tread isn't particularly critical for hard dusty conditions but tyre compound is. I'd expect most people probably have some form of suitable old kit tyres knocking about in their pit box.

Losi silver's or golds used to be the tyre of choice but any american rubber will be an improvement over minispikes..

Warr mate... you misunderstand... its not about setting the cars up to run on the dusty dried ground... its about trying to maintain the grass as much as possible to last us until the end of the season!

Ta, JB!

I think getting the container down the field and then the track area can move naturally if we get on the top for the the rostrum.

Big nudge towards the committee to make it happen!!!

For now moving the track area would be the best option, hopefully we'll have some mid week rain to help it soon.

It is no fun driving on dirt, Jon if you thought Coventry was bad then you should have done the national at Oswestry the week before!! twice as bad!

According to the Weather Forecast, theres meant to be a drop of Rain Tomorrow & Thursday.......hopefully it'll show up & improve things ready for the Club Meeting this Saturday - 10th June.

If that fails, the best option would probably be to move the Track to the Right of the usual position, where the Grass still looks fresh.........using just the Banked section as a Rostrum is no big deal, as thats what we originally did anyway!
We'll just have to get someone to bring an Extra-Long Extension Lead down, for Race Control & the Lap Counting Loop!

Having a New 40FT Container down at the Trackside really needs sorting asap, as it'll make life so much easier for all the Racers that help Build/Pack away the Track week in week out........it'll save alot of time as well!

Wacker1 wrote:Having a New 40FT Container down at the Trackside really needs sorting asap, as it'll make life so much easier for all the Racers that help Build/Pack away the Track week in week out........it'll save alot of time as well!

the more time we can save the better... we can have a second final every week!

Or go one better and water the track after you use it on saturdays to help it?

stox217 wrote:Or go one better and water the track after you use it on saturdays to help it?

Certainly an idea... does anybody know if we have access to any exterior taps, and a v.v.long hose? otherwise we'll all have to take watering cans down - not really practical unfortunately.

JB!

Not to be one to complain about the weather being too good, but here is the latest forecast for the next few days via MetCheck... note the lack of wetness!!!

Wednesday


Thursday


Friday


Saturday... the scorcher!!!


Looks like sun cream is on the menu for Saturday... great for us... rubbish for the grass!!!

JB!

nice one ulrika seals johnson our new club appointed weatherman

News on the container for you all tomorrow.

Lets build a large flowing track and avoid most of grass where ground is thin, do this for a couple of week and we will have no problems. If we continue to put down twisty tracks on same grass we are always going to have a similar problem.

Once container down hill (v soon) I want us to review using the banked area to make Hinckley a unique track - lots of fresh grass there!