It is time for the next (big) race: Declared as german nationals this run at MCC Türkheim is the official warmup for the euros coming in August this year.
Friday 26th May was the first practise day, where most of the warmup participants already took the opportunity to do setup tweaks and speed controller refinements.
Practise went ok for me. End of the straight there is a big bump on the inside of the racing line where I hd massive issues with. In the end I needed to slow down (coast) while entering the corner after the straigth.
I will keep you updated about today (Saturday = Practise + 4 Qualifiers) and Sunday (2 more Qualifiers + 3 Finals).
Results can be found here in Myrcm: https://www.myrcm.ch/myrcm/main?dId[E]=70940
First controlled practise didn‘t go well. My rear was very unstable and I could not push. At least I saved the run and didn‘t had a major spin. For the next practise I will try new tires in the hope, the balance will come back to more stability.
Update27.05.2023 21:30:
First 4 of 5 quali heats are in the books. Difficult track for me, as I still have massive issues with rear instability after the bump on the straight. In Q4 I have used new tires and was still not able to follow my mate Tim, who was on old tires. Now I am sitting at P11 (from 11 competitors). Tomorrow we will have one more quali run, where I don‘t expect any change.
Tim has a slightly better pace than me (and loads of more talent 😉 ).
Now we are sitting at the dinnertable and enjoying some more good food. I will try to finish my runs tomorrow as clean as possible and still try to get some more speed.
Sunday (Finals + 1 more Quali):
I was fighting all day long… mostly with myself! To make it short: P11 (out of 11 drivers in the end)! Pretty disappointing…
When summarizing my car was missing corner speed. For sure I was „overpushing“ the car to a certain point. But me and Tim had the strong feeling, that our TRF420X was also not able to keep the same corner speed as all other 9 competitors. Next up we will analyze this fact. Our first thought was the suspension geometry, which we changed quite a lot (I have never made such extreme changes during one race ever). In the front I was driving C-D (pretty narrow), while on the back I was keeping 1X on 1E with 3.0° of static toe-in + 1.0° of gain. This was the best, I could achieve in terms of corner speed.
As I was the „BQ“ it was decided to run the A-Main with 11 drivers (which was also a relief from organizational point of view for the race organizer). Thanks to all A-Main drivers, who let me take part.
What was positive?
At least I finished the whole weekend without any breakage (I lost my battery once, as I didn‘t tighten up my battery holders) – and did a rollover – but no damage to the car. Overall I was even surprised with my driving, as I didn‘t make any bigger mistakes. I had also loads of „saves“ due to over/understeering – which sometimes pretty much surprised me.
What next?
I will analyze all the technical points on my 420X by disassembling it. Due to the massive changes to setup and body (Xtreme Twister 0.5 in the end) by body was not 100% well fitted to my chassis (which is crucial in modified class). I will also think about major modifications (hardware) to get more corner speed.
Next races are 2 regional nationals (Ettlingen and Mannheim). Then the german nationals in Munster will take place, before the euros will start beginning of August in Türkheim.
Finally one last picture of my car after F3:
