First race with the Team Xray T4 2017

TORC (Turkey Onroad Racing Championship) Round 1
Date: 29-30 April 2017
Class: Stock 10th onroad EP touring cars
Location: Izmir, EFMOD Club track.
Car: Team Xray T4 2017 (www.rcbuilds.net)

Introduction: Due to no offroad race series this year I decided to join the Stock EP class and see if I enjoyed it.
I have only had 3 onroad races and they were spread over the last 3 years, so time to be a bit more serious.

The Track:

Panoramic view of the track:

Friday:
Was just an afternoon of a shakedown test and to make sure the car was ok and maybe I needed to do some work for the official practice on Saturday.

All went well, changed just the esc setting for stock class to ensure 5% drag brake and punch level to highest at 9.
Apart from that all was well with the car and nice to drive on the superb track at EFMOD.

On a personal note Friday night was a bad nights sleep due to local dogs all speaking very loudly to each other and the lorries thundering by at what sound like warp factor 5. Also to add to the nightmare somebody else was doing a great impression of Gollum with thier snoring at 135 decibels. All in all a disater for me with only 3 hours sleep.

The Pit and Car:

Saturday:

There were 4 practice rounds and slowly I got faster and more sure of the car, once I was ready I decided to try a few different driving styles to see what worked best as I have only really run 10th onroad a few times.

No braking was the key except for one corner, smooth steady lines and no mistakes ( I am human though so mistakes were made)

I was put into the top group for qualifying which was a big surpeise to me.

The practice results:

: 1st practice

: 2nd practice

: 3rd practice

: 4th practice

: Overall practice

Qualifying:

Rnd 1 qualifying and slow and steady for the first one with a few errors and a tad too much enthusiasm, but ok for 9th overall.

Rnd 2 and I had a bit of a nightmare as the steering came loose, which was my error not using loctite where is was needed so only made 2 laps.

Rnd 3 I needed to have a clean run so concentration was the key, I had a good round not as fast as I would have liked but people had gotten faster and I was then 11th in the standings. I really wanted to qualify for the A main so the next round was important for me.

Rnd 4 and I had a great round it felt good and it was, the car was on new tyres and I managed to push myself up the order to be overnight in 9th and on for the A main final. So in the evening I decided to clean the car and recheck all the settings, after adjusting it on my Arrowmax setup station all was ready for tomorrow and the final round of qualifying, so no pressure NOTTTTT…..

Sunday and the big day:
Finally got some sleep, looking at results I had my fastest lap in qual 4 26.814 the first ever sub 27 so happy.

Rnd 5 Needed a clean run and managed a good one which resulted in me being bumped up tp 8th on the grid for the A Final so great news mission accomplished. I will not change the car and we will run the A final over 3 runs best 2 to count.

Another bonus some penalties were given and now I have been bumped to 7th place so 7th on the grid.
The Qualifying results:

: Qual 1

: Qual 2

: Qual 3

: Qual 4

: Qual 5

: Qual Overall

A-Finals:

A-Final Rnd 1

Not one to remember, the car lost traction and spun 3 times on the first lap and this put me back to last position, it was due to the GP cars apparently it affected traction for a few of us. Next final I will be more cautious on the first lap and then try to go faster.

A-Final Rnd 2

Again the track was slippery, even though I knew it would be I still made too many errors and got 9th after being taken out by another driver.

A-Final Rnd 3

It was my last hope to prove to myself that I could get a decent result, 1st lap and was taken out again and the driver did not stop and wait just said sorry and then carried on driving, ah well push on. I managed to get up to 6th place and after the race got pushed to 5th as somebody got a penalty, I did not complain to the director but maybe they saw the incident. Anyway with the 5th place I got 7th overall.

Very pleased to qualify 7th and also finish 7th first time out with the new car and little experience of 10th Stock Touring class.

A few pictures: