Sanford and Son RC headed out to Heritage RC Park in Chula Vista, CA on Saturday, September 13th for Round 4 of the Mugen Seiki Grand Prix Series. The turnout wasn’t quite like that of previous races in this series, but the racing was fun nonetheless. The track was watered every other heat.
My competition for this round would include Mugen drivers Drew Moller, Jaime Boquiren, Tim Long and Felipe Martinez, and TLR’s Don Vinkemulder and Gil Alontaga.
1/8 Scale Expert Buggy
We would have a wet track for Round 1 of qualifying, and I bolted up a fresh set of AKA Soft GridIrons. My Kyosho MP9 TKI3 was fantastic, but I caught a pipe with one lap left and would require a marshall. I would qualify in second place, 3.8 seconds behind Moller. The second qualifier would be run dry, but I liked how the GridIrons performed in the first qualifier, so I would stay with them. They actually had too much grip on the dry surface, and I had to be careful not to traction roll on a couple of the tight turns. I improved on my time for the first qualifier, and would also finish first ahead of Moller, but Moller’s TQ time in the first qualifier would hold up. I would qualify second for the A-Main.
For the 30-minute A-Main, I bolted up a fresh set of AKA Soft Impacts. I got a good start, and stayed within a second of Moller for the first few laps. However, a couple of minutes in, I had a rough lap, catching the pipe on the uphill in the left corner, and casing a double in the middle of the track. Moller stretched his lead to about 12 seconds. My pit man gave me a great first pit stop, and I made up a few seconds when Moller pitted. We both separated from the pack, but a flameout leaving the pits on my second pit stop would put me out of the race for the lead. I drove the second half of the race hard, with no mistakes. I would land in second place on the podium. Vinkemulder would finish third, but allowed Martizez the final podium spot.
While the flameout cost me an extra lap, I cannot be happier with how my MP9 TKI3 performed, and my lap times were on pace with the winner.
I would like to thank all of my sponsors for making it happen: Sanford and Son RC, Kyosho, KO Propo, AKA, DE Racing, Tekin, TTN Racing and Upgrade RC.
Radio duties were handled by the KO EX-1 KIY transmitter and KR-413FH receiver. The car was equipped with the KO BSX2 Response H.C. servo for throttle, and the KO RSX2 Power H.C. servo for steering.
