Florida RC Championship Round 6 Epic RC Racing Complex - New Port Richey, FL

Florida RC Championship Round 6 Epic RC - New Port Richey, FL

No need for fancy in transit pics or hotel pics for this round of Florida RC Championship. Round 6 at Epic RC Racing Complex is an easy 30 minute (13 mile) drive from home. While Lake Park RC is half the distance, a 15 minute (6.6 mile) drive form home. I consider Epic RC to be my home track. No hate on Lake Park in anyway but they don’t race frequently, & Epic RC is EVERY weekend!

Thursday I load up and drop off the trailer. Epic RC is a big track on a small lot. The track crew worked together and they packed everyone in tightly and made the most of the available space for all 212 entries. Thursday night I had no prep work to do or anything. I knocked all that out in the few months I took off from racing in the summer. During that time I glued tons of tires, freshened up both Tekno RC rides with LW shock towers and -2mm options. I also switched over to MIP Hi-Flow Bypass pistons. That’s right I haven’t stepped foot on a track since the memorial day race until the weekend prior (10/01/2023) to Round 6 (17 weeks off).

Friday is open practice so let’s get going! Since I raced Epic the weekend prior I had an idea of how the changes affected the vehicles. These changes completely improved both vehicles for me. They both exhibit an “in track” feeling now versus before they always felt disconnected. These changes improved my confidence with the vehicles. With that being said some minor tweaks and tire choice is all both vehicles needed, the rest was up to me.

The track on Friday morning was very hard packed with a decent moisture content. My plan here was to run as much as possible as the track was coming up throughout the day. That way I could collect the data I needed for Saturdays possible track conditions. I headed out on SSLW (Super Soft Longwear) Raptors on both buggy and truck.

Buy Raptor Here

Both vehicles felt great, stabile and fast. As the groove came up and the track dried out I started to experiment with different patterns and compounds. Pattern I stayed with Raptors in SLW ( Soft Long Wear ) compound. the Promotion Phantoms were also a great choice. I felt like they were a bit too hooked up for my liking. I was also still getting a feel for the new setups which probably fueled my lack of confidence which comes from time behind the wheel. Some may like the car glued to the track like a touring car. I am not a fan of that grip level as this is off road racing you’re gonna have holes form etc and hook one of those with a high bite tire and it’s a bad time.

Buy Phantom Here

Fridays practice went good with testing tire compound and pattern. The sun shined all day and it was hot. That really allowed the track to come up with a dark groove. The only changes I made to the cars were thickening up both center diffs for more forward drive. I left feeling confident with my pace and knowledge.

Saturday morning at 0800 starts qualifying & mains. It is warm with overcast skies and decent water in the track. I am in 14 & 18 quals and first up is truck. Open E Truggy is filled with FAST dudes so I do not expect to keep pace with these guys. I went out on SSLW (Super Soft Longwear) Raptors. Truck felt great, I started 10th and finished in 6th and I was happy with my run. Especially considering there is no Pro E Truck class in FRCC. Which would take out the top 3 instantly. My second qual I went out on SLW (Soft Longwear) Raptors and felt great. I started 10th and was able to get a 5th place finish.

Next up is buggy.

Buggy qualifying I was in group two so I wasn’t with the fast dudes but I wasn’t with the slow ones either I guess… “Thin at one end, thinning at the other, and a sorta fat bit in the center.” - Jermey Clarkson

I am the fat bit!

Buggy I went out on the same combo as truck SSLW (Super Soft Longwear) Raptors. The buggy felt great and I had a fast enough pace to set TQ for my qual and overall! That was short lived as heat 3 brought in the fast dudes and Miller Froyd captured overall TQ! Great job Miller Froyd!

Round 2 I went out on SLW (Soft Longwear) Raptors was a similar result with me TQ my heat of ebuggy. We finished qualifying and then the mains started. This is where I begin to struggle. Besides all the race stuff I am also running my camera and planning photoshoots while at track. No time for rest. So I typically go into my mains pretty exhausted.

I made the A Main in both E Buggy and E Truggy. My main format was race, marshal, race, and marshal again. Sucks. I say it sucks because you’re running around and you can’t get your place on the drivers stand. 99% of tracks do not have a system in place to prevent this. You should go on the stand based on qualifying position not just a person who posts up two races in advance.

Open E Truggy was up first. I decided to stick with SLW (Soft Longwear) Raptors for both truck and buggy and boy that was mistake. I got my spot on the stand and started 10th and after some issues finished 7th. Definitely needed to go to a Soft or SSLW (Super Soft Longwear) Raptor. This is another reason why race, marshal, race sucks as you have no down time in between to make changes. Oh well.

Truck A2 I went out on SSLW (Super Soft Longwear) Raptors. I started in 10th and finished 10th. I was barely eyes open at this point lol. Truck felt good but at this point it was almost 2100.

Buggy A1 & A2 I would start 4th and after some mistakes I would finish in 7th. Not being able to swap to a softer compound from lessons learned in truck set me up for failure in Buggy A1. At least I consistently suck!

My Tekno RC rides on Promotion rubber performed flawlessly. I failed to keep pace as expected. Florida RC Championship crew put on an Epic event at Epic RC Racing Complex. See everyone at the final Round 7 at Callahan RC.