Florida RC Championship Round 1 Deans All Out RC - Apopka, FL

2024 Florida RC Championship Race Season is here!!! We kick off Round 1 back at Deans All Out RC in Apopka, FL. The days leading up to the race the forecast was showing a high rain chance then COLD!!! We were on the fence about going and others were too. Once Lance posted that racing was on, we committed!

Thursday I get a super late start to the short 2 hr drive to Deans All Out RC.

Ram Rebel Instrument Cluster — Florida RC Championship Round 1 Deans All Out RC - Apopka, FL

The rain had been a steady all day. I arrive at the track, still raining, and its dark with poor lighting in the parking area. Dropping the trailer should be a real good time, righttttttt. Once I get on the North end of the track it has nice muddy spot at the junction to going alongside the track. Since I have a small trailer my plan was to park just past this junction in a small spot out of the way. That would leave the big spots for people with campers & rv’s. Of course that puts my truck right in the slick mud to back the trailer up. It was so slick at one point I had to go into 4wd just to make controlling the trailer somewhat possible. I enjoy those challenges just wish I had a spotter to help guide me as I couldn’t see anything with zero lighting.

I get the trailer dropped and head back to the hotel. We stayed at the same one last year and it was an awesome place to stay, easy to get to, and has a resturant/bar inside. I went to bed knowing their was going to be a delay to start of practice or the race may get cancelled all together.

As expected practice was delayed, so I headed to the track around 1300. I had tires to glue and balance so at least I would be productive. At 1630 the track opened for practice. The entire crew of Florida RC Championship and Deans All Out RC did an incredible job turning the track around and keeping things running the entire race, I can not stress this enough. I decided to wait to jump on the track and see how others did. As to be expected it was very muddy. After about two hours I decided to not practice at all and call it a day.

I woke up on Saturday with a plan to head to the track and get some laps in before qualifying starts. Terrible idea especially with two brand new kits that have never seen any track time. I set them up with a base setting I thought would be good for Deans from what I remember last year. While I may have thought about a lot, what I failed to think about was charging. Last year I ran Tekno and they use one 4s LiPo. This year I am running Kyosho which utilizes a two battery 2s LiPo in saddle configuration. Why does that matter? Well you need a charge cable designed for 2s balance charging. Since I previously ran Kyosho a few years back I had two of these charge cables. At that time I ran E buggy & Nitro Buggy, not two electric vehicles. Having two leads put me in a situation where I could only charge two batteries at a time. I was charging a new set of batteries too and that always takes a little longer on the first charge. Since time wouldn’t allow me to run both buggy and truck I decide to run buggy to see what it feels like, get laps in, and go from there with the truck during qualifying. I decide to go out on SSLW (Super Soft Longwear) Talons and they felt good. I start to get a little flow and Lance calls end of practice. 0745 had hit and it was time for the drivers meeting. I got around 3 mins of practice time, so I”ll have an interesting day ahead of me.

I am up first in truck and then buggy. Truck I head out on S (Soft) compound Talons and they were awesome! Truck felt great but it was missing some speed. I seeded 3rd and finished 4th which is not bad considering I felt like I was down on power. I get back to the trailer and decide to bump up 2 teeth on the pinion to a 17. I also raised my throttle EXP from -15 to -12. In the next qual I did similar performance but had the top speed I needed but needed more punch. I adjusted the throttle EXP from -12 to -6. After the two rounds I found myself on the pole for E truck B main. Considering the circumstances, it’s not a bad job.

Buy Talon Here

Buggy I would head out on SSLW (Super Soft Longwear) Talons like I did in practice. By now the track had dried a little bit and traction came up. I found my tire choice to be good except for the fact I had too much side bite and found myself on two wheels a decent amount of time. I would seed 8th and finish 3rd and Q2 in 7th, this landed me in the B main in position 4. For Q2 I did change up my tire choice, I went with S (Soft) Spitfires. These worked well but lacked some of the forward drive I had with the Talon. Before the main I also decided to swap to a 17 tooth pinion in the buggy as well. I did leave EXP alone for buggy.

Buy Spitfire Here

Truck B Main is up first. I choose to stay with my S (Soft) Talons, excellent choice! On lap one 2nd place drilled me in the last turn. That allowed 3rd to catch us and we all rushed to get across the line. They both crashed from over driving on the jump to the straight. That let me take the lead and I stayed there for the whole race. Placing first bump me to position 11th in the A Main.

Buggy B Main I decided to throw on SS (Super Soft) Blackbirds. My thought was its a blend of a Talon and Spitfire with its mixed pin size. I had these glued pins out. The Blackbird can also be glued bars out to reduce side bite. This is also my first drive with the gearing changed. The decisions I made were the right ones. I started 4th and after a really rough first half of the race, I found myself basically last. But I had finally gotten a feel for the buggy and started clicking off fast laps! I would work my way back up to 4th.

Buy Blackbird Here

Truck A Main I stuck with Talons but went to SS (Super Soft) compound. Talons did not disappoint but I found myself insanely exhausted. It was along dayyy with all the racers. With that being said and drinking my 4th Ghost of the day I did what I could with my frozen hands and brain! I worked my way up to 3rd then fell back to 6th.

I was mostly loaded up at this point, I just had to hook up to the trailer and I was out. I got the hotel and found there was basically no parking for a truck and a trailer finally but I found a spot that was super tight but either way made it work. It was 35 degrees outside and 0200 when I walked into the hotel.

This was another amazing event hosted by Florida RC Championship & Deans All Out RC! See everyone at Round 2 at Sundancer’s RC - Port St. Lucie, FL

2024 Florida RC Championship Round 1 Deans All Out RC - Apopka, FL

2024 Florida RC Championship Round 2 Sundancers - Port St. Lucie, FL