On 12th February I attended the Tonisport Onroad Series (TOS) Race in Beindersheim (close to Mannheim). In total 41 racers in 6 different categories have taken the way to the nice sports venue, which is also a part of a school.
I raced in 2 classes (TOS Fun 17.5T and TOS Modified) with my TRF420 and TRF420X. Furthermore Martin Bollenbacher and Tim Kohmann raced Modified with me (both TRF). In TOS Fun Tim Kohmann, Eric Staubach and Christian Vossen both raced also TRF alongside me. I will use their feedback also for the aftermaths!
Here is my short report on TOS Fun 17.5T:
In the TOS FUN class, which is the most popular TOS racing division, a total number of 14 participants have met. I raced my TRF420 with my Stock Standard Setup, where I thought, it would be fast enough for fighting for the win. But after all 3 quali runs, I had to admit, that still some speed was missing (between 0.2 and 0.25sec.) to the TQ position:
I tried different setups (Onboard Toeout / Antidive / Rollcenter / Springs and some droop settings), but all changes almost had no impact on my speed. E.g. I have never raced 4.500cst diffoil before! Here, I didn’t find a better choice, as my rear was quite nervous onpower. However, the car was driveable and pretty stable and thus allowed me to secure P3 after all 3 qualies. Anna unfortunately had to quit the race due to some private reasons at Home! Good recovery to your kids Anna (and David!).
For the finals I again changed my setup substantially in hope to find more speed (which didn’t go as I was hoping). For F2 I even forgot to put in my charged battery and drove the F2 with the already used (not not recharged) battery from F1. About 30 sec after start I realized my mistake. P3 on this run for me with about 1/2 missing lap (to what I can do with 100% battery) and about 0,05sec missing on my fasted lap.
All in all, I have to say, that my TRF420 was nice to drive, but it was simply too slow! I will go into the detailled analysis during the next weeks and try some new prototype parts, which are made especially for carpet (high traction) racing such as longer suspension arms.
For Tim the race ended with P4. He was racing the H2RD 420MM Conversion Kit – but as we was focussing more on Modified division, he was not changing too much on his TOS Fun car.
For Eric the race has ended with P10 with his TRF420 (which was P2 in B-Main). In the beginning phase of the race he had a lot of trouble with the race track and also his car handling. But till the end he got more calm and improved his consistency a lot!
For Christian this race was not, what he was expecting! In Q2 he caught a corner dot at the end of straight and hit the wall barrier quite badly with his TRF420X. Main Chassis, Topdeck, Motormount was done! But many other racers have had substantial damage in this corner as well. Go fast or fly high!
However, for F3 he managed to repair his car and gained back some confidence. Christian, we need to practise more on club-racing level!
TOS Modified:
In TOS Modified in total 5 racers took the challenge! Here I am also somehow disappointed with my own performance! My TRF420 wasn’t too bad, but also not on point! Tim did a great job with his TRF420X. He was more consistent with his driving than me. In all 3 qualys the speed of my car was better, but Tim was extremely consistent. As he always stated as first, he didn’t get nervous even when I was trying to catch up. Well done mate!
For the finals I changed only a few smaller tweaks on my car, which in the end didn’t change much on the speed. In F1 I tried to pass Tim a few times, but couldn’t do more than be side by side with him. In the end I always had to let him go, as I didn’t want to crash. For F2 and F3 I did my traction-rollovers which didn’t let me fight for P1 anymore, unfortunately! And that is mainly the reason, why I am not satisfied with my driving.
But also setup / performancewise I was not fully happy, as e.g. David was doing a 7.9sec. lap in 13.5T Stock. Also here he was about 0.2sec faster than me in modified!
Tim did an amazing job with defending his P1 (against me) and staying cool all the time. Despite he was lacking some speed, he could compensate with his big load of consistency! Well done!
Martin Bollenbacher, who has also raced this TRF420X has a terrible weekend, as he was hitting many barriers and walls. At least he finished all 3 qualys, but he decided to retire afterwards and not drive any final. Quite a remarkable decision, as he felt, that something was (badly) wrong with his setup and he just wanted to avoid to fly again.
Aftermath:
It was a fun day of racing, no question! But it has left me in a state of permanent thinking about the root cause for my lack of performance! When things doesn’t go, as I want it, I get extremely picky about all small details, that could have an impact on the overall performance of my car(s). How as the carpet season is ending and the asphalt season will start very soon (maybe end of March?) – I will relax a bit and furtherly find out each and every opportunity on my TRF420/TRF420X. At least I have some ideas for the next carpet season. Stay tuned!
TRFworkz!
Full result: https://www.myrcm.ch/myrcm/main?pLa=de&dFi=tonisport&dId[E]=68887&hId[1]=search#
