It was great to see three guest drivers from Bury St Edmonds tonight at the Club - thanks for coming over guys and hope you had a fun time!

Tonight's results have now been updated, and can be found here - Race Results >> and Track 24 personal best's have been updated here - Personal Bests >>

Tonight's results have now been updated, and can be found here - Race Results >> and Track 15 personal best's have been updated here - Personal Bests >>

Another night's close and fun racing tonight!

Isn't it amazing how sometimes it just takes someone else to look at your car and diagnose while the handling is awful? Well that happened to me tonight, as my X-Ray has been horrible for the past couple of weeks, and having played with the diff, it just took Adam a second to notice one of the rear tyres was almost totally unglued - I simply changed the wheel and surprise, surprise the handling was fine again for the finals!

All of tonight's results have now been updated, and can be found here - Race Results >> and Track 12 personal best's have been updated here - Personal Bests >>

Tonight's results have now been updated, and can be found here - Race Results >> and Track 15 personal best's have been updated here - Personal Bests >>

It was good to see a few new faces at the Club tonight and we look forward to seeing you all gain next week!

Well, it's been a few weeks since I've had a chance to update the website, what with holidays, and also it's been a bit quiet on a Friday night for a couple of weeks now. But now the results are all updated, and full results can be found here - Race Results >>

Don't forget we are now racing every Friday again, so come on down next week and join in!

This week saw a few "changes" at the Club, with Mark Clayton and John Reynolds having a go at Mini Racing, which meant 6 cars on the grid and four races of fun, tinged with frustration for some! With these cars all having similar performance (except for Adam who just seems to be flying at the moment!) it makes for close racing that can sometimes feel a bit like banger racing as you'll often get two or three cars all trying to occupy the same space in a corner. But none that seems to matter at the end of the race, when everyone walks off smiling and thinking about how they can try and get the advantage in the next race

It was also good to welcome a couple of new members, so to Richard Candy and Nigel Maples - hope to see you both again soon.

Full results for tonight's meeting can be found here - Race Results >>

Summer Racing Break

Because of peoples holidays and work commitments we will be taking a 3 week break from racing at the Club, so there won't be any racing on these dates:

13th August
20th August
27th August

But we will be back to normal on:

3rd September

We're sorry that we have to take the break, but as there was no-one who could guarantee to be able to turn up and run race control for the next three Friday's we had to take this decision.

It would be great if there was anyone else other Dave, Rob and I who want to find out how to run race control so we could avoid this in the future - if you are interested, let one of us know!

This weeks results have been updated, full results can be found here - Race Results >>

The mini results have actually been added for all four finals as well this week!

Change to Mini racing.........

Well, that didn't quite go as planned! Although each leg was run as a grid start, the first two legs were still qualifying rounds as far as the computer was concerned, so only the last two 4 minute races counted towards the overall result. It doesn't look like we can run the way we wanted, so it may be back to the drawing board and see if we can come up with a "work around".

It was a fast and furious time with the Touring Cars, as we were running on a modified Track 13, which effectively left none of the carpet unused, but it did make the infield just that bit trickier - still everyone managed to cope and some very close racing followed.

Full results can be found here - Race Results >>

Summer Racing Break - Advance Notice!

It's getting close to the time now for the Club "committee" to take a holiday, so here is advanced warning that we will take a break for two weeks during August. Racing will be as usual all other weeks, but we will not be racing on Friday 20th and 27th August.

Busy night this week, with us having to run four TC finals! It's been good to see a few new faces at the Club over the last couple of weeks, and we had a "family final" tonight, as three generations of the Reynolds family all ran in the same race. It was good to welcome Andrew Keen, Anthony Adcock and Peter Covell, who are quickly getting to grips with setup for our track and Andrew especially is vying for a win in the A Final.

Full results can be found here - Race Results >>

Track personal best's have been updated here - Personal Bests >>

Change to Mini racing

As it seems a bit pointless to run qualifying rounds for the mini's, as there is only enough cars for one heat/final anyway. So, from next Friday, we will start to run 4 x 4 minute legs of a final for the mini's. The first leg will have the grid set out based on drawing "lots" for each position. For the following legs 2 to 4, each will be run with a reverse order grid based on the result of the previous leg - providing we can all remember!

See you next week.

PHEW! it's been a busy couple of weeks (as well as hot!) and I haven't had the time to update the site, but now all the race results are up to date and the personal best have also been updated.

Full results can be found here - Race Results >>

Track personal best's have been updated here - Personal Bests >>

It was great to see another young driver take his "wheels" onto the track tonight, so to Daniel Gardiner, who did very well on his very first try at R/C racing.

There was also some very close racing in the TC-B Final, with Callum showing some excellent racing ability and certainly not afraid to "mix it" with the older drivers! The TC-A Final saw Dan disappear into the distance from the front, leaving Colin and Nathan to argue over second place, with Dave just a little off the pace, but still chasing hard.

The Mini's saw some close racing again, but Adam showed it's all about keeping nice clean lines, winning both legs to take a clean sweep!

Tonight's full results can be found here - Race Results >>

Hot weather and Bank Holiday week meant that numbers were a little down tonight, but there was still plenty of fun racing!

Tonight's full results can be found here - Race Results >>

to Ainsley and Lewis Reynolds, who came along tonight to have their first go at racing touring cars, and they both put on a good show, with some very respectable lap times and clearly much more to come from these two young drivers as they get to grips with running cars on a race track.

There was some very close racing in all the finals again tonight, with Kris, Dan and Charlie all looking very fast in the TC A Final and some very close laps, which Stuart just couldn't match as his car "played up" in each leg of the finals. The B Final saw Colin and Nathan "nose to tail" for most of the race, but we were so busy focusing on each other we failed to notice that Jamie was always there, just waiting for the inevitable mistake, which halfway through saw Jamie leading a large chunk of the second leg before a mistake from him let Nathan and Colin back through. Unfortunately John had diff problems throughout the night, which ultimately left him out of the second leg and languishing in bottom spot.

The Mini's saw Paul Upton return to defend his dominance in the class, and we welcomed Alan Petts from the Milton Keynes Club who brought his Mini Cabriolet for a run. By chance we ran the same track as last time Paul ran with his Mini - Track 13>> and yes, he couldn't be beaten again, but Adam certainly came close in the 1st leg after Paul had a bit of a "tangle" with Alan. Rob's car was also going quicker tonight especially in the second leg, leading to some very exciting laps!

Interestingly, Paul was actually slightly slower than the last time he ran this track, with the same 30 laps, but 10 seconds slower than on the 16th April - you can check out everyone's personal best times here - Personal Bests >>

The full results from tonight's racing can be found here - Race Results >>

We will be racing next Friday - 28th May, so see you then!

It was great to welcome two new drivers to the Club this week. Martin has been visiting for a while now and finally got his Losi onto the track - I think he enjoyed it , and Nigel made constant improvements to his lap times throughout the night with his XRay T2007.

There was some very close racing again this week, both in touring Cars and in Mini's. Well done to Callum Wilderspin for two really good runs in the C Final, which would not have looked out of place in the B Final - keep it up! His brother Thomas didn't have quite such a good run in Mini's, especially after forgetting to change batteries for the 2nd leg - but keep it up, you'll get there.

Kristian had electronics problems in the TC - A Final, giving the win to Stuart, but both Colin and Nathan were "keeping him honest" throughout, so it wasn't just a walk in the park! In the B Final, Jamie was really unlucky not to take the win in the 2nd leg, after a slide into the barriers let Dave back through on the last lap, and all the time John was hounding both of them - it was very close!

Adam didn't quite have it all his own way this week in the Mini's, after Colin had put some new tyres on his car [piece of advice - don't use S-Grips on the front of a Mini, they overheat and blister ], giving a very close race, with Andy and Rob hot on their tails - it only takes small mistakes to make all the difference in this class of racing - just because it's a budget class doesn't make it un-competitive

Tonight's full results can be found here - Race Results >>

Track personal best's for track 21 have also been updated - Personal Bests >>

New Corners

We now have a full set of new "bouncy" corners and "flappy" hairpins so that none of the older more solid corners need to be used and not only does this help minimise breakages, it also seems to result in much less marshalling needed, which is an added bonus!

It seems that Colin's "dominance" in the Mini class is now over, as Adam clearly now has a car just as quick and even though Colin led for most of the 2nd leg, a single mistake allowed Adam into the lead to take a clean sweep of both legs. It was good to welcome Chris Hampson tonight, visiting from Leighton Buzzard RC Club - these Mini's are certainly a growing class!

Tonight's full results can be found here - Race Results >>

Track personal best's have also been updated - Personal Bests >>

Facebook

For those who are interested, Neil Overson has created a Facebook page for the Club that is open for all to view, so if you want to post any pictures, comments, etc. then you can find it here KMCC on Facebook >>

Adam has posted a short video from last night showing the mini's / TC practice session, so go take a look!

Having introduced the new "car friendly" corners and sweepers over the past couple of months, we tried out a new design "flappy" hairpin tonight, and it worked great, allowing cars to clip it without causing damage, so more of those will be made as soon as I get the time!

Some very close racing in the Mini class tonight with a couple more people investing in "eBay specials"! Andy O'Brien looked dominant from the qualifiers and first round of finals, but unfortunately a steering arm failure put him out of the second round after only 8 laps, leaving Colin to take the leg win, and Rob to take the overall win with his new car! In TC's, Jamie Guiver had a great night challenging Nathan in both Finals, finishing ahead to take 3rd in the first leg, and behind him in 4th place in the second leg.

Tonight's full results can be found here - Race Results >>

Track personal best's have also been updated - Personal Bests >>

See you next Friday!

Another busy but fun night tonight - well for me anyway, busy trying to run two classes of car and race control, I'm amazed I managed the night!

A huge thanks to everyone who helped to set out the track and pack away again at the end of the evening, especially people like Andy and Jason - special carpet rolling skills there guys! I realise one or two had to leave early for various reasons, so I'm not "having a go" at anyone here. Particular thanks to Rob for coming to help even though he wasn't racing, that's dedication for you and also to Daniel Klinga, who was first to arrive, helped set out the track and was last to leave. I can't say enough how much I appreciate the help, as it means I go home with a smile and feeling relaxed!

So, back to racing, and another good turn-out of Mini's tonight, with six cars making the grid, you have to give Adam some real credit tonight as his "eBay special" only arrived today, and yet he brought it along and placed it 2nd on the grid, followed by a win in the second leg - nice one! My Mini went so much better this week with the new shocks and a decent set of tyres - no grip rolling at all, just got a bit too close to the corners at times, and one or two of the other cars. Jason made me laugh as I think our cars were magnetically attracted sometimes, or was he just trying to help Andy. I must say that while the TC's are faster, going slower with the Mini's certainly focuses the mind on getting a good line around the track and with John creating one of the most challenging tracks we've seen in a while tonight, it was important to try and get the corners right!

I think the track was perhaps more of a challenge for the TC's tonight, but that didn't stop some very close racing and I think the B Final was probably the closest with everyone leading the race at some point during the final!

Tonight's results can be found here - Race Results >>

Some of you were asking if we will be racing next Friday with it being a Bank Holiday weekend, and YES we will definitely be there, so see you next week!

It's a Mini Adventure....

...well, it sort of was tonight, with us trying out a new "budget class" of racing using Tamiya Mini's which run pretty much stock with Mabuchi 540 stock motors and very few hop-up's allowed. Although the cars are a bit slower with the silver can motor, that didn't stop Paul Upton putting in a fastest lap of 9.75s and 30 laps, which was not that far off some of the TC's!

This may become a popular alternative class to TC's, or maybe even a 2nd class for some drivers. There will be more to come on this if it takes off, along with some simple rules for the class, but for now, we will run to the same rules as Leighton Buzzard club - see here for a link Leighton Buzzard Mini rules >>

It was great to see an increase in drivers tonight, and we hope this will continue, as I find it adds to the excitement to hear that "buzz" in the pits and see so many cars out on track.

Tonight's results can be found here - Race Results >>

And Track personal best's have also been updated - Personal Bests >>

It was wonderful to see a few more "old faces" at the Club tonight, and it was a great night's racing with some very close racing in all the finals!

Tonight's results can be found here - Race Results >>

See you next week!

Well, it's been quiet for the past couple of weeks, with not enough drivers turning out to be able to race, but tonight we saw 10 drivers turn out which meant we went racing

Tonight's race results can be found here - Race Results >>

And Track personal best's have also been updated - Personal Bests >>

NO RACING NEXT WEEK - 2nd April Due to being Good Friday.

We will be back on the 9th April though!

Don't forget, you can always check out what's happening in "real time" by visiting the Club Forum >>

Tonight's race results can be found here - Race Results >>

And Track personal best's have also been updated - Personal Bests >>

NO RACING NEXT WEEK - 5th March

Due to the small numbers and several drivers not being available, there won't be any racing next week . We will however be back on the 12th March - so see you again then!

Tonight's race results can be found here - Race Results >>

And Track personal best's have also been updated - Personal Bests >>

Small numbers again tonight!

Only 6 drivers meant everyone in one final, we didn't bother with qualifiers, and instead had 4 races, which along with some DIY marshalling was great fun, with a final session of "last man standing", won by Dave - just!

Tonight's race results will be posted next week, but previous weeks can be found here - Race Results >>

You can't have too much of a good thing.....

...well that's what they say anyway! So for the second week we ran fastest lap qualifying, but with 10 drivers, we extended it to 30mins runtime. Not that it made a huge amount of difference in terms of sorting everyone for the finals, as you could have pretty much predicted John, Charlie, Dan and Kris being in the A Final, so that left the rest of us arguing over one place - which Nathan grabbed by a couple of 1/100's of a second!

Tonight's race results can be found here - Race Results >>

See you all next week!

Where is everyone?

I guess everyone is still recovering from Christmas, as numbers were at an all time low this week, with only 6 turning out to have some fun.

But despite the low numbers, we still had a really fun night

Something a bit different...

...Dave (in his infinite wisdom!) decided to try something a little different, so we had qualifying over 20 minutes with fastest lap over this time to set grid position for the finals. This meant you could go out as many times as you wanted (batteries allowing) in the 20 mins to try and set a superb flying lap! Right from the off, Nathan was fastest, with 9.4s lap, although this was then quickly matched by Colin to sit in P2. Over the following 15mins, Dave, Rob and Adam swapped places for 2nd, 3rd and 4th, getting closer and closer to Colin and Nathan's time, with Ian bringing up the last spot. As the clock ticked down to 5 mins remaining, everyone tried to get back out onto track to improve their position, and as lap times fell, Nathan put in a flying 9.3s lap, followed by Colin managing 9.35s. Rob followed into 3rd, with Dave in 4th and Adam 5th, Ian 6th - and so the grid was set for the finals!

We then ran two finals, one of 5 mins and then one of 8 minutes! Of course the limitation here was a lack of Marshall's, but we had two volunteers from the watching spectators (!) and surprisingly there was little need for marshalling in either race - although 8 minutes of concentration (and lack of prep - Nathan, make sure that battery tape is secure next time!) meant that only 3 cars finished the 2nd final - Colin, Rob and Dave.

No results to post this week though (still in the club computer!), and hopefully we'll see a lot more people next week!

New Track Corners

We've been developing some new corner designs since just before Christmas, and it looks like after getting to Version3, we've now got a corner design that is a lot more forgiving when you run into it than the older solid corners we had been using. The new corners have a flexible plastic section around the outside of the bend, which moves when the car hits it and all this does is unbalance the car slightly if "glanced" or pushes the car off again if hit "head on", neither of which causes damage to the car from the corner.

We will now be making up more of these to replace the entire corner set!

Many thanks to Iain Gardiner for his help with supplying aluminium plates to help keep the corner shapes from moving when hit.

If car damage from the older corners was ever a reason for folks to move away from the Club, then these new corners should help remove that issue!

Tonight's race results can be found here - Race Results >>

Track personal bests have also been updated to include Track 17 - Personal Bests >>

We hope you all had a great Festive Season, and are now recharged (!) and ready to race into the New Year.

It was good to see so many braving the cold and snow tonight in order to run our first meeting of 2010 and it was nice to see a couple of new youngsters having a go on the track with their cars during the breaks between rounds.

You can find tonight's race results here - Race Results >>

BRCA / Club Membership 2010

Don't forget, that if you haven't paid your BRCA or Club membership yet for 2010, you need to do so as soon as possible. The BRCA membership remains at £13 for 2010, and the Club membership to just £2, so that it only costs £15 for both, the same as last year. If you need to fill out a membership form, you can download one from here>>

See you all next week......