Big Tee Racing - 2011

May 2011

OMRA Southampton
For this weekends racing, the team had decided to travel down to Southampton the day before the race. The plan was to meet up with the Mcop Racing Team and get in some pre-race testing at Calshot. Phil had spent the previous week building the brand new Pacer 80 and as both the engine and hull were unknown quantities, it was felt prudent to test before racing it on the Sunday. As it turned out, Mark Copley of Mcop racing had also been building his 84 inch Apache and the plan was to race these two behemoths against one another the following day. Testing with the Apache seemed to go well however the brand new engine in the Pacer 80 did not want to play ball, so amidst deep disappointment it was decided that Tony would take the engine back to the workshop for a strip down and to investigate the cause of the running problems. Mcop would therefore have to carry the torch for this new generation of big boats in OMRA.

After a lengthy testing session both teams enjoyed a very amenable evening together, followed by an extremely wet night under canvas. Sunday morning saw the teams awake to a very soggy windy and cloudy day. After breakfast on the move the OMRA convoy arrived at the Mayflower Park circuit with the weather threatening to be much the same as it was two years prior. Winds were gusting force 5/6 with a nasty onshore chop. However, blue sky was in evidence on the horizon which bade well for later in the day. So on with the race reports:

D class heat 1
Phil and DP were up first. Phil with the little Pacer 60 and DP with his Pacer 70 D boat. By this time the wind had really piped up and the straight between turn buoys 1 and 2 was very challenging, as both the wind and the short chop were coming from the port bow. This meant that too much speed along this leg would be met with the wind trying to flip the boats over, such was it's force. It was possible after carefully negotiating turn 2 to open the boat up a bit on legs 2 and 3. DP had a stoppage about half way through when his drive dog worked loose but after that he had a fairly steady run. Immediately prior to the start of the mill time, Phil's radio set lost it's binding which meant a very rapid swap of rx and tx. On launching at the start of mill time Phil found to his dismay that the rudder servo was reversed as the boat promptly threw itself on it's roof. Luckily this all happened during mill time, so a quick restart meant that Phil only dropped a couple of laps. A non-stop run thereafter saw Phil placed at 3rd at the end of the fist D heat with DP lying in 5th.

PD/C Class Heat 1
Due to the high number of entries these two classes were mixed which meant that both Tony and DP were both running in this heat - Tony with his PD class spirit of Oslo and DP with his C Class pacer 70. By this time, conditions had become even more challenging so DP took a tentative approach by starting off steadily and building up his speed bit by bit. He had a good run overall but finished nine laps down behind C class champion Mark Copley with his Phantom 145. Tony on the other hand had no alternative but to take it steady throughout the whole of this heat as the little Oslo was being buffeted and blown all over the place. One stoppage early on was offset by the remainder of the heat being non-stop leaving Tony still in the running for a podium in this class.

D Class Heat 2
Both Cam and Tony were out in this heat - Cam sharing the 60 with his Dad and Tony with his very quick Pacer 70. Both had a very difficult first heat in this class with Tony suffering from waterlogging due to a split cooling pipe and Cam much the same only his waterlogging was down to the 60 trying to cope with the extremely lumpy conditions and the bailers not being man enough to keep up with the inflow of water. This in turn meant that Cam had to drive relatively slowly which meant that his plug was oiling up too.  Both Cam and Tony managed just 8 laps apiece in this heat with heat winner Ryan Bird only managing 1 lap more!

Second round of heats

D Class 1 Round 2
Dp decided not to run his D boat as he was still experiencing technical difficulties so this left Phil out on his own in this heat. A stoppage fairly early on meant a restart attempt but sadly the cord on the pull start snapped bringing this heat to a premature end for Phil.

PD and C Class Round 2
This heat was over before it started for Tony as water ingress in his radio box had killed off his rudder servo, so he took a early bath and had to settled for his first heat score. DP however had Mark Copley firmly in his cross hairs and was pushing very hard to claw back his nine lap deficit. All his best efforts were thwarted when a pressure pipe worked loose from his fuel tank bringing his heat to an end but he did have an excellent run and was trying very hard to claw back those laps.

D Class 2 Round 2
Tony had elected to take a different strategy with his Pacer 70 in this heat and was absolutely driving the prop off it with the Pacer 70 taking the conditions in it's stride.  Cam too was back out in this heat after Phil had fixed the pull start. Even though Cam was driving as fast as he dared with the 60 he frequently had to move over to let Tony's much faster 70 past. Tony was really pushing hard until an errant wave catapulted the 70 onto it's roof caving it in, in the process. So much so in fact that the collapsed lid impacted the HT lead, splitting it and killing the spark plug. Cam in the meantime was still thumping round in the little 60 to finish the heat with a very creditable non/stop run.

Final team results were as follows:
PD Class: Tony 2nd
D Class:  Cam 3rd, Tony 4th, Phil 6th
C Class: DP 2nd

April 2011

OMRA TORQUAY Awesome weather, sunny skies and smooth seas always make for quick times in Chase Boats Races,  and so it proved for the team at Torquay on the 17th.  The team were one man down in the shape of Cam as he was in France, but the usual trio was augmented by the appearance of DP who was to run his C Class Pacer 70 in his very first Chase Boat event. We were also fortunate enough to have the presence of our sponsor at this event more of which later. 

Big Tee was first up with his Skater Cat PD class boat running a stock RCMK 26.  He was slotted to go fairly early on as being one of only two Cats entered in the event,  if the weather cut up rough later then it would have been curtains.  As it turned out Tony got the Skater well set up in advance of the event and as soon as it hit the water, it looked as though a quick time was on the cards.  The boat ran really well, coping with the occasional bit of chop around the island as is usual, and a non-stop run saw a benchmark time of 11 minutes dead which ended up as being the class-winning time.  The skater loved the conditions and for cat lovers amongst you, watch this space..... ;)

DP was up next towards the middle of the day, and his CMB91 powered Pacer 70 set off at a blistering pace.  Circumspection was the name of the game however as this was his first Chase Boat event and it really is quite different from circuit racing.   The big 70 looked eminently stable throughout however and took every little bit of chop and wake firmly in it's stride, with there being nothing in the conditions that unsettled it at the pace DP was running.  Again, another non-stop run saw DP bring home his first ever Chase boat run with a time of 11.21, enough to bag him a second overall at the end of the day.

Next up was Big Tee again with his D Class Pacer 70. Right from the outset, this looked like it was going to be the fastest run of the day so far as the 70 was really tearing up the water.  The Chase Boat was struggling to keep up and the big Pacer was literally eating anything that came its way.  All of a sudden, the boat took to the air at an alarming angle and performed a mid air barrel roll only to land and submarine.  A quick restart got it going again in no time, but it was found that there was no rudder control.  A servo failure had caused the crash, and brought Tony's second run to a premature end.

Also running in D Class was our sponsor, Guy Barnard, with a Pacer 70 running a Zen 7 26cc.  Good power coupled with light construction saw a very quick maiden performance from Guy, and his 70 looked to be on for a good time.  Approaching Thatcher Rock, Guy encountered the inevitable chop, and the Pacer was fine with this but suddenly took off like a scalded cat and threw itself on its roof.  It transpired that the lumpy conditions had broken the radio box loose, making all the servo control go haywire.  A lost lid and a few loose bits were all that were awry, but Guy can gain solace from the fact that the boat has loads of  promise and with a bit of development, will be very competitive.

Phil ended up running last [as usual!], and just as he was settling into a rhythm, the Chase Boat almost immediately ran out of fuel!!  A quick refuel saw him restart and from the get go, the little Pacer 60 was blisteringly quick.  His first abortive run had allowed him to trim the steering as he went, to make sure the boat was running straight and run straight it did!  Out to the island was very swift and the return run with the wind behind the boat allowed Phil to push the pace without risking submarining.  The turn around the second marker was met with another stoppage of the chase boat and simultaneously, the clock whilst the problem was sorted.  Phil had to keep the Pacer circling until the chase boat was ready again and the clock was restarted in time for the race to the line.  thankfully the chase boat was quicker than on the outward leg, and the final dash for the line gave Phil the fastest time of the day overall and a win in D Class

Overall Team results were 2 firsts and a second which is a superb achievement so early on  in the season.

March 2011

OMRA Hove
At the first outing for 2011, with the new team sponsor OPIE OILS, the team were running in Production D Class, [Phil], and Modified D Class, [Tony and Cam].

Modified D Class Heat 1
In the first heat, Cameron ran Tony's Championship-winning Spirit of Oslo and found the handling rather challenging, as it's a very fast and twitchy race boat. The conditions were rough and windy along the back straight making things even more difficult. Cameron had a non-stop run although he did manage to submarine the boat just after the finish hooter!  Although it was not the fastest boat on the water in this heat, Cameron was lapping consistently and this gave him a good position ready for his second heat.

Tony ran in the same heat with the big Pacer 70 with the powerplant being a hybrid zen/rcmk 28. The big pacer absolutely lapped up the choppy conditions and Tony's very consistent and steady driving produced another non-stop performance, putting him in an excellent position for the second modified D class heat.

Production D Class Heat 1
Phil had a very fast turnaround to get the Oslo ready after Cam's post-race underwater antics. The Oslo was running a stock zen 26 so under OMRA rules it was eligible for both petrol classes as it had two different drivers. Phil also found the conditions a little challenging but also had a very steady run with the only blemish being a random stall at turn three which cost him a few laps. Again this put Phil in strong contention for a PD class podium.

Modified D Class Heat 2
Tony was having a ding-dong battle with fellow racer Richard Bridgman's Apache and he was hammering the 70 around the long and fast Hove circuit. Cam, on the other hand, was still having problems getting to grips with the flighty Spirit of Oslo and this, coupled with a lack of horse power in comparison to the fully modified petrol class boats, meant that he was not lapping as fast as he might have wished. On one particular lap the Big Tee Racing Team became the Big Tee Synchronised Stunt Team with Tony having an uncharacteristic submarine whilst Cam simultaneously lost his fight with the twitchy Oslo flipping it onto it's roof almost side by side with Tony's stalled 70. 

A quick recovery and restart saw Tony back in the fray after dropping only a couple of laps whereas Cam's return took a few laps longer due to the almost complete immersion. After this little mishap the final hooter came round quickly to signify the end of the heat.

Production D class heat 2
Sadly Cam's acrobatics with the Oslo had cooked the coil so after refuelling, and emptying water from the radio box Phil found much to his dismay that the Oslo would not start.  Several spark plugs later, all of which had no spark, Phil deduced that the coil was nerfed. At this point the heat was about to start. Phil did not think it was viable to fix it in time as the heat was only 15 mins long. So Tony hopped into the rescue boat to do another stint. In the mean time Cam encouraged Phil to try to fix it even though the heat had already started.  A frantic coil swap then took place which brought success in starting the engine. A quick launch was followed by some determined driving from Phil who was putting in some blisteringly fast laps to try to claw back the deficit.  Tony, who was out in the rescue boat, was astonished to see the Oslo back in the race and being driven so quickly. Sadly the end of the race came around far too quickly for Phil to achieve a podium finish but at least he was in the points and did not DNF.

Overall, the team results were as follows:
Modified D Class: Cam 3rd place Tony 2nd place.
Production D Class Phil 4th place.

GALLERY  

February 2011

Nene Valley RC Car Club
After an initial go at the beginning of Feb, the team decided to join fellow OMRA Racers Richard & Jessica Bridgman and Darren Smith at the final round of the BRCA Rally Cross Champs.  Tony had a sterling result in his heat and actually managed to pull off a third place in his first ever final!  [Just one thing to remember Tony..... nobody likes a smartass! - Joke!]  Having had such a good result and with Cam also really getting into this form of racing, it looks as though during the closed season for powerboat racing, we will all be going car racing too!  Watch this space....