Comments and Recommendations about the club
 

I thought I'd start a thread around comments and ideas for the club.

Club Championship
 

I think to maintain a good level of new comers and consistency with numbers. A winter and summer championship should be run, 12 meetings 8 count or something like this? Trophies for top 3 and some special ones for most improved and new comer?

Let me know what you think?

That sounds good, you can post race results up on here to to keep tabs on your nearest rivals.

Work parties are a really good way to get a club to grow, as people have pride in their club and the track. At the last club i raced at we would do one once a month on a saturday afternoon, strimming, mowing, redressing the track and the like.

I like the idea of having a club championship. 2 & 4 would always have to be split up.

Also a young ones or a novice class is needed too.

Hi

these are great ideas, just need to get the numbers up in order to split novices etc out. Not sure about the junior element as I've seen some bloody good junior drivers in my time and been beaten by them..

Mike

Jumps!!!!
 

With a few people talking about track features, i have offered to make a moveable and adjustable jump which can be tried/tested and adjusted to suit various points on the track. It can be used to simulate a real (permenant) jump when the track is redesigned or extended.
Any suggestions on a starting size and style, let me know at the track.
Neil

I think it depends.. if the ramp is lets say-1 foot You wouldn't need a landing ramp.. 2 foot.. maybe but think 2foot+ you would need a landing ramp of some sort.. TBH for titchfield.. which is a fairly tight and some sections pritty fast.. I would think something relatively small is more suited. Plus the chances or breaking things are slimmer too.. think something more like a wedge would be better if it was in the faster sections.. but think best thing is everyone to chat at the track and go through some ideas.. probably the best route..

In my experience a landing ramp should be twice as long as the take off ramp, this makes for safe landings and no slap downs, and keeps the momentum up.

Yea your right it would need too!.. Personally if there lower than 1 1/2 foot I dont think you would need one.. specially onto astro.. but those kinda of things can be discussed at the track..

Woo hoo !!!!! JUMPS:thumbsup:

lol you fitted your speed passion yet.. had one in my SC10 was nice!

It's in, would like Mr Brown to help me with a small problem though.
JUMPS WOW!!!!!!

Part's finally arrived from M-K-You spare is here tony. So redone mine.. changed the layout.. but still seems to have the glitch issue.. occasionally on high throttle.. Going to try the rx away from car and try ect.. but its hard to tell unless you run it properly.. its odd. have the rx and aerial in the top right corner far away from motor wires ect.. still have issues.. hmm starting to annoy me now..

Yoy have set your ESC to 2.4ghz? I'm sure we looked and you had but just check.

Yea its all setup fine... It very annoying.. im starting to think its the ESC itself.. Even changed accel to med and still surges ect.. Im getting very frustrated with it.. cant put a finger on what it is..

If your running brushless, try changing the sensor lead.

They are cheaply made and require regular replacement

Matt

Yea-I showed it to a very leccy knowledgeable guy at clanfield today. To look at and he, says a few Spektrum people have issues with similar things.. but yea I might try a new sensor lead..

Personally I would sell the Losi and get something else. I view them as nothing but trouble hence why I never got one. Get a LRP Sphere TC, Speed Passion etc.

Have you got the voltage capacitor plugged into the Spektrum RX?

When are you getting your clanfield lot to come electric racing :p

As for club improvements:

1) Paint the rostrume or get hold of the pub again now the Christmas panic is over..

2) Extend the track or certainly the start area, maybe think about getting the timing loop in a pipe and laid. Unless taking it in and out is working fine?

3) Astro turf the middle sections so the area is 100% astro turfed - depends on contacts and money.

4) Get some firehose tubing and dockyard rope. Need to contact the relevant people (Firebrigade and ABP)

5) A small table top jump, but the track needs to be extended first.

6) Amp and speaker system so that the warble and race control sounds can be heard properly (donations for amps and speakers accepted). I am looking on eBay at the moment.

Any other thoughts?

Once some of these have been ticked off then all day meetings and summer series are certainly more feasible etc.

All relevant points and some need discussion in detail, but on the whole an achievable plan.

I would like to see some dry weather and the digger can be used to clear the outside edges to clear some more space for parking, look to dig down 5 inch's and lay some hard core, hopefully cheap ton bags. We all would have some nice areas to part our vehicles all year round, so if funds permit this would be the most beneficial action. Relay the starting grid to one decent sized piece of astrotuf and install permanent tubes for amb.

The other will come over the coming months and weather, with agreement of the club members to have once a month all day meets, say from 9.30 - 4, this to count towards a club championship. Not make things complicated just kiss.

Mike, I would reckon a poll for all day meets once a month, for and against. Based on the time's above with counting towards a championship.

Really like the idea of all day events over the summer as once you have got up and got to the track you might as well stay for the day..

BUT, think we need to make sure we are going to get the numbers as if it is 2 or 3 heats, we are going to end up with 10 qualifiers and a couple of finals which might be a bit much. Could think about mixing the format up a bit if numbers are lowish - 5 qualifiers and then 5 finals with points for each final?

Sure if we give enough notice we can encourage a few visitors from here on Oople.

Rob

Another things you could think about it, If by then you had a few removable features. You could mix things up-2/3 Heats then slight track change then 2/3 heats or finals or whatever. I think, that would work well too.. Even if its like a rumble pad or something small.. just to make it a little different.

Bump Up Finals
 

So at a 1/8th race last weekend the 1st four cars in the g final bumped up to the next final. I know we couldn't do it on that scale but it got me thinking, why can't we bump up the winner of the b final for example?
Is it worth trying? Might make a summer series a little different to others?

That would be a cool Idea. A couple of textured sections a set of little camel hums or such like.

Having said that TORCH is my favorite track that I've raced so far. Also Steve and the crew are always polite helpful and are there for all of the right reasons, and they learn everybodys names really quickly. Thank you guys top club.:wub

just surfing a little.
 

i have never seen the torch track before 6 weeks ago, but have to say, its great, as are the lads and the racers.

Love the new track, the system and the people.

I hope to be there often to blat the buggy around the astro. much fun had by all!

Keep up the good work torch crew!

Tartman.......:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumb sup:

TORCH 13-05-2012
 

Just wanted to say it was a joy to race today, a relaxing stress free day and good banter. Well done to all the winners and the committee for putting on a good event.
Also thanks to Mr Warren for assisting with my marshalling due to my absence :blush: I think i made up for it with the punnishment (I got abuse from Hollywood for most of the day :thumbsup:)
Lots of hard has gone into bringing this club upto the level it is now and well done to all those involved.

Thanks for your comments Tony, always a pleasure seeing your face down the track. Well at least the real face does not look as bad as your photo in your wallet.:p (70's porn start look alike)

I did my 1st meeting on the new track yesterday and it got me thinking, have you guys considered running a 1/8th electric buggy class?

The track is definitely good enough, we used to run 1/8th nitro buggies at the Tiverton outdoor track which is about half the size of the new TORCH circuit and the club has the professional approach needed to achieve this.

Alex

Thanks for your comments, we will discuss the 1/8th electric option at our next meeting.

What sort of numbers do u think we might get if advertised and you had some influence ?

Thanks Steve

TBH here at South Coast RC it's mainly 1/8th truggies who are happy where they are because it's a truggy circuit (bumpy) but the closest 1/8th buggy astro track to you is Swindon (I think) so if you advertised on forums etc you'd probably get enough to run a heat.

Your jumps are certainly big enough for the 1/8th guys:woot::thumbsup:

I definitely think brushless is the future of 1/8th, the acceleration is so much more immediate than nitro, they're easier to work on/use and with reference to our current barbecue summer, Hobbywing have just released a waterproof 120A esc.

Sorry I can't be of any more help from here but i'd definitely be active on the forums if you decided to go ahead with this.

well i was a die hard nitro boy and i am slowly going over to the dark side.

i am about to pull the trigger on a tekno v4 rc8 kit and then pull all the bits over from my rc8b that has almost all the 8.2 bits on to it.

as in power and wear and tear etc.... i think the 1/8th and the 1/10th do the same amount of damage to the astro the only thing that take more of a beating is the walls and sides as the 1/8th is heavier.

your track is def bigg enough for the 1/8th and the track will be very tech and tight but still fun.

i will stay in nitro still but with my truggy as i can have the best of both worlds nitro and electric.

if you do go 1/8th electric let me know as i will be racing there. but for the moment i need to get my 1/10th electric running again aas the new motor is broken already. *pretty pissed and guttered TBH*

cheers
levon

I would certainly be up for some 1/8th electric action at Torch.:thumbsup: The track is more than up for it. You may have to change or remove the sleeping policeman jump that is before the triple jumps though, not sure if an 1/8th buggy could end up beached on top of it. You may have to review some of the marshalling points as well.

mmm 1/8th MP9E tempting and hollywood can convert his Mugen!

For me it's all about how much damage these things cause, as Steve mentioned we the commitee will discuss.

As Levon has said above you'd need stronger barriers as with more speed if they have an off and you get an 8th flying through the air at you it needs to be stopped before it comes through the barrier. Which goes onto what Badger5 has commented on above, the marshalling points would need to addressed.

Electric 8th seems to be getting a bigger following and it would be good to have a dedicated place that ran electric 8th on the South Coast. I appreciate South Coast RC are only down the road but the track there is really rough and as Hotshot has pointed out is really only suitable for truggies.

To combine 8th and 10th in one club is a great idea, possibility of new members to increase the club and then people starting to race both classes which can only be good for increasing numbers more and sales to the model shops.

I personally think once you mix scales at a club you can cause problems.
I would love to see 1/8th ELECTRIC take off but I think the beauty of TORCH is the 10th factor on a large track that currently everyone is enjoying - be careful not to ruine what everyone is loving at your club......

It's a great idea, but my view is there would need to be alot of rethinking on marshal spots. And more safety barriers- stronger ones at that. They are great fun, but they can cause some serious damage to people. As they weight a lot and more than a nitro. It would be good to see them at torch, but I can't see there being a bug enough group to make it worth all the £ that would be needed to redo parts for safety reasons IMHO. And a good amount of the local racers like torch as its so friendly and there not spending a fortune on stuff. As 1/8th electric is a big price investment to get going. Which would be a huge factor, I for one would not be that interested in my view. Torch is a perfect 1/10th track, and just as much fun running a 1/10th around there than a 1/8th I reckon. But that's my 2 pence! :)

Hi when is someone going to update the websites with results form the winter rounds. ? All I can find is the summer rounds.

Hi Paul, apologies for not posting sooner, I've only just spotted your post. We're in the process of revamping the website at the moment, results for all of our races can now be found athttp://results.torchracing.co.uk/, just click on the event or series you're interested in!

RC4
 

It seems the move to RC4 is inevitable, it's only a matter of time.

With this in mind I notice that Matt at Silverstone has managed to negotiate a cracking deal for members, trade in an old style amb/mrt for a Harry for just £30.

Would it be possible for whoever is responsible for the system at TORCH to contact BBK with a view to negotiating the same deal for our club?

I have a couple of MRTs I'd like to exchange and I am sure this would ease the pain and therefore the resistance amongst members to the RC4 upgrade.

Pip :)

Already on it and details, info will be provided when ready.

The only thing is as I understand it is once you upgrade the clubs without the new system wont recognize your new Percy transponder? Please could some one clarify..