Practice and Qualifications Day at an RC Buggy Race, a Photo Story

Spending the weekend at an RC race track as a team mechanic during the weekend, so I figured out I can share some photos and tell you a bit more about what it is. Races with radio controlled cars are usually more than just one day, so the racers can get some time to practice on the track, and then do some qualifications and the actual race usually takes part on the next day. One weekend can be enough time without too much pressure on the people participating, especially if the race covers multiple classes. This weekend's race however is only for one racing class - 1:8 scale Nitro Buggy, so there is enough time for everyone to take the time and do some practice on the first day, then do some qualification runs and be ready for the finals on the next day...

Before even getting on the race track you need to check your car model, repair or replace something if needed and make sure everything is working properly. You need to start with some initial setup for the suspension for example and then you may need to readjust when you try the car on the track and see the settings are not working that good. That is precisely why you it is always good to have more time for practice, as you can get used to the track and have enough time to tune and tweak everything to be suitable for the race conditions you are facing.

You may actually need a new engine for the RC car in order to use for the race and that is something that will require extra time and attention. With new engines you need to spend some extra time to get it ready for racing, it needs some breaking in time with specific settings before you can get it on the track and be able to push it to the limits. Sometimes people like to disassemble the new engine first and clean it up and oil it up before starting the breaking-in process, this can be especially useful for not so high-end racing engines. RC car engines are not so complex like larger scale engines, so they are easier to work with, though you should still be careful just like with another engine.

With hobbies such as RC cars having a rotary tool handy is pretty much a must as you never know when you may need one to fix something or to tune a component a bit. It is not only rotary tools such as Dremel that are needed, you often may need a soldering iron (especially for electric RC race cars) and various other tools. The idea is that you need to know what you are doing and be skilled with the tool, so that you will do it properly and not overdo things and as a result d more bad than good with your efforts. If you mess things up the first time you can just get a new part and install it as it is or try tuning or fixing it again until you get it right.

You might want to check the tires if they are properly glued, even if they are new and should be properly prepared from the factory it is always good to double check. If you have used them on the track already, then they may need some fixing up with CA glue as well. The tires for RC cars are not being inflated with air, they have an inset that is usually some kind of foam and that is it. They are pretty soft as they need to also act up as a means to dampen bumps on the track, if they are to hard they can pass vibrations and hits to other components of the car and that can result in more damage.

Between runs on the track you might also want to check the car and do some maintenance or fixing if some part needs that kind of attention. Sometimes if you do a jump and land bad or hit something while driving fast it can result in damages such as plastic parts breaking or even metal ones bending, gears stripping teeth and such. During the practice runs this may not be a big problem, but you probably would want to avoid this happening to you during qualification runs or especially during the race finals. So properly maintaining the car between runs and checking for possible issues even before they have presented themselves such as loose screws for example can help in reducing any possible problems afterwards.

The drivers are on a higher platform where they can see the whole track well and can optimally control their RC car from there. Their goal is to drive as best as they can and making as little mistakes as they can, none at all if possible, though that is actually pretty hard to achieve even fr the top RC racers. No matter how good driver you may be your RC car can still fail you unexpectedly by something breaking or failing while you drive...

This is where the team mechanics come into play, these are the people that stay down in the pit lane ready to refuel your RC car (or change batteries for electric models) as well as to give you technical support if your model stops running for some reason. It is important for them to be quick and efficient, not to mention that they need to know the RC car very well, including the engine as they may need to tune it multiple times during the race to get the best performance out of it. So RC racing is essentially a team effort as well as even with a very good driver if your mechanic is not good you may still perform bad in the end and the opposite is also possible - finish better even if you are not that good driver, but have a great mechanic. The best combination of course is to be a great driver and have a good mechanic.

Much like with larger racing cars, with the smaller scale RC cars you still need to have timing system in order to be able to measure how fast each car is and to track laps in order to be able to know who the best driver is and have a winner. Lap timing is also important when practicing and for qualification runs as it helps you see how different setting may be affecting your time. Often the one that does perform better is not the driver that has made the single fastest lap, but the one that manages to consistently keep the lap times at around certain fast time, even if it is not the fastest. When fighting for the first place even a small mistake can cause you to loose, so it is important to be careful and not make mistakes if possible. Being too careful however can result in you getting slower and also loosing because of that, so it is never easy to find the optimal balance.

When you are starting up a nitro RC car you usually need a battery to provide power to the glow plug and a starter box to get the motor running. There are motors with pull starters as well, but they are not preferred for racing models as you need to be able to quickly start up the engine if it flames out and the starter box does that best. Once you fire up the engine you need to allow it a bit of time to slowly heat up before you can really push it to the limit on the track. When you need to restart the engine if it flames you need to be quick in order not to lose valuable time, but also not to allow the engine to cool down too much. These engines usually operate at over 100 degrees Celsius, optimally at around 120-140 (depending on the engine used) as if they heat up more that can cause you problems and may result in the engine getting damaged from overheating.

While the car is running on the track it uses the air passing though it to cool down the motor, however the motor needs to be properly tuned to work in the optimal temperature range and not be too cool or too hot. That often requires the mechanic to do some on the fly tuning of the car, so the driver can bring it to the pit lane and have the mechanic do some tweaking, then take it out to the track again and if needed repeat the procedure. During practice and qualifications these tune ups are not a problem, but you would want to avoid having to do these during the actual race or the finals... you would want to have the engine already properly tuned by then.

The skill of the RC car driver is very important, but also the remote control that is being used is really important. In races you can normally see high-end RC transmitters being used by the drivers as they are offering little delay and better precision as well as much more extra features for tuning up the way things work. You can play with sensitivity of the throttle and steering, use curves and other features to help you get the best performance out of your model. So the controller of the car plays an important role and must not be overlooked in order for you to get good results.

During the practice (some races even have a day just for that) things are usually calmer and you are not in much of a rush, but as soon as qualification runs start it gets more intense. So drivers and mechanics need to be more focused and efficient and not waste time, and when the time for the finals comes it goes really crazy, so if you are involved in the race it is hard to take photos as well... you have other more important things to do all the time. That is precisely I'm taking some photos earlier when I can do it more easily, though if you just go to an RC race as a photographer you can really focus on making good photos and you will have enough time and things to shoot.

The offroad RC racing tracks are a bit of a challenge as they are not flat and easy like a regular racing tracks, they are more like taking rally car tracks to the extreme. You can see a lot of turns with varying terrain and a lot of jumps that you need to go through with your RC model actually flying pretty high in the air and you needing to maintain control and land it properly and continue driving after that. When you are new to this and you have been driving an RC model in the park, but go to an offroad race track you may get discouraged by your initial bad performance, but it is something that needs a bit training and getting used to. So probably not a good idea if you have never driven an RC car on a race track to go to a race directly and participate in it.

In local RC races you can usually see somewhere in between about 20 and 40 drivers, even more if there are multiple classes and not just one or two. If you go to larger multinational events the number of racers participating can easily go in the hundreds and these usually take a lot more time, so that everyone can get time to practice and get ready for qualifications and then the actual race. Regadless of the size of the even it is really fun way to spend the time with the hobby you like and some friends that may also race or just drive RC models for fun and even make some new friends as well.

In the end of the day your best friend is probably the air compressor as you need to remove a lot of dust from your RC car and equipment. Remember that this is an offroad track and there is quite a bit of dirt and the cars racing on the track are bringing it up in the air so it sticks everywhere and on everything... even on you. Washing the RC car with water however is not a good idea, so the best thing is to use compressed air and the water is for washing yourself.

Camera: Canon EOS M3, 18-55mm Kit Lens

If you have a question or want to add something, then please leave a comment below.

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