Back to racing after 12 years, Batteries!!
 

When I last raced, we all used 2300 nimh and had a battery pack per heat!! and a few spares!

Now starting up again, how many battery packs will I need for competative day of racing, I will buy top grade Lipo's Orion carbon or something simular, realistically how many packs will I need to buy for a days racing in one class? can lipos be run in more than one heat?

1 pack will do as long as there is enough time between heats to charge, but 2 would be better.

2 is all I ever had since lipos were first brought into RC racing.

I remeber the days of have 5-6 packs of nimhs so you had 1 per race. Loving the Lipos, so much easier.

Thanks Dragon, good news less money I need to justify to the wife!!

Yep, 2 is Plenty, with a decent set of 5000 to 6000 mah I can run 2 heats without charging in a 2wd, in fact I ran 3 last night plus Practice laps but that was maybe pushing it a bit lol

In general a 5 min run will use 1200 to 1500 mah in a 2wd, 4wd I found was about 2200 per run.

They can be used more than once a day no problem, just try not to recharge when they are still warm after a run.

Main thing is not to run them flat, most speedos have a voltage cut off built in, and don't leave them plugged in after a race day

Thanks John, I was expecting to have to buy more than 2/3 packs so very pleased Lipo has moved things on that much!!

I use 3 packs(cheap Gens Ace 4800 saddle lipo packs) and they have lasted over a year now!. Great thing about Lipo cells is that you don't discharge your cells after a race,you just top them up(recommend to charge in balanced charge mode).
Also with Lipo packs if you don't plan to use your packs for a few weeks them your charger should use the storage mode. The packs shouldn't be stored fully charged or flat/low.
Hope this helps.