HEI International Pty Ltd

Latest News

The Muchmore Masters is held every year at the Sydney Model Autosports radio control car club, which is a small multi-layout outdoor medium traction track. This year the track was quite technical with a tricky center chicane. Attendance was low compared to previous years but racing was enjoyed by all participants. For 2010 the major sponsors were Northern Beaches Hobby centre and Hobby Express International who also provided the control tyre, a premounted Muchmore absolute V-32 for all touring car classes with one set being available for the 6 qualifying heats in both the Stock and Super-Stock classes and two sets being available for qualifying in the Modified class, with the option to use another set for all A-finalists.

Click Read More for the full report...

Practice:

During practice I aimed to find a well balanced base setup early in the morning so that in the afternoon I would have time to test a variety of different tyre additives, bodies and work on the gearing and speed control settings while keeping track of the tyre wear as it is usually quite high at this track and I had limited experience on the control tyre.

This would be my second time racing the T3 and I was keen to see how the car performed compared to the T2-008 and T2-009 that I had used the previous years. Straight away I expected the car to be okay with my starting setup that I had devised using a combination of my experience with the old car on this track and my limited experience with the T3. I was not looking forward to the track as it was the only one that I have found myself struggling for speed on a few occasions. But I need not have worried, I was staggered at the difference In grip that the T3 was producing compared to my older experiences at this track the car gave me much more confidence through the tight centre section and I had a lot more steering in the long on power sections. The only changes I needed to make to the car during practice were I went up in the spring rate from 2.6 in the rear and 3.0 in the front to 3.2 in the front and 3.0 in the rear and thickened up the damping from 350cst to 450cst in the front and 400cst in the rear to match the harder springs. Laid over the rear shocks one hole and used a .1mm lighter anti roll bar front and rear. Also for the first time I found the Protoform LTC-R to be faster than the Protoform Speed 6 that I usually use.

Qualifying:

Qualifying this year was not going to be determined on fastest run but was determined on the points system with your best four point scores combining to determine qualifying positions dropping your two worst rounds. My plan was to preserve the tyres and push only hard enough to win the first four qualifiers on Saturday so that I would not have to use good tyres on Sunday and could try some set-up changes on 4^th and 5^th run tyres during the last two qualifiers on Sunday giving me two new sets for the finals. I won the first qualifier by 5 seconds, and the second by two seconds from fellow XRAY racer Sandy Iavazzo. Unfortunately while leading the third qualifier my rear top link pulled out of the rear upright and my car just went straight on into the barrier in the sweeper ending my run and my plan forcing me to use good tyres on Sunday. Fortunately that was the only damage and I was able to get the car out for the next run and put down the first 19 lap run of qualifying and set a new lap record of 16.050 seconds which I was very happy with. On Sunday during the first qualifier about half way through the run the pin started to come out of one side of the differential end of the driveshaft and I could only manage second. Before the last qualifying round on Sunday it started to rain and it delayed racing for about an hour which I was not to happy about as it always changes the track and I had to finish in front of Sandy to ensure TQ. Straight away the car was not quite as good and I had to push really hard to stay in front and won by a small margin, this time I could only manage a 16.276 but interestingly the rain had not as significantly effected lap times of the other Mod drivers. So I managed to take the TQ with maximum points

End of Qualifying Modified:

Timothy Lee XRAY T3/ LRP/ LRP
Sandy Iavazzo XRAY T3/ SPEEDPASSION/ SPEEDPASSION
Jordan Cullis YOKOMO BD5/ LRP/ LRP
Justin Vergunst SHUMACHER Mi4LP/ LRP/ LRP
Ben Cribbin XRAY T3/ LRP/ SPEED PASSON
Rodney Maslovsky TOP PHOTON /? / ?
Robbie Lloyd TOP PHOTON /? / ?
Darrin Campbell TOP PHOTON/ SPEEDPASSION/ ORION

End of Qualifying Stock:

Harrison Hawke Hot Bodies Cyclone
Paul Smith XRAY T3
Darren Laughlin Losi JRX-S
James Ainslie XRAY T3
Grant Booth XRAY T3
Peter Beckett
Matthew Stamboulis
Simon Arnold
Keith Chui
Andrew Sienniak

End of Qualifying Super Stock:

1. Troy Laughlin Losi JRX-S

2. Cristian Silva XRAY T2-009

3. Paul Hartmann XRAY T3

4. Craig Mcphee TAMIYA TRF 416X

5. Simon Arnold ?

End of Qualifying 1/12 scale:

1. David Warner ASSOCIATED 12R5

2. Hiroshi Ishizaki ASSOCIATED 12R5

3. Brett Douce XRAY X11 Link

4. Andrew Miller ASSOCIATED 12R5

5. Tom Matley ASSOCDIATED 12R5

6. Daniel Maher ASSOCIATED 12R5

Finals:

In Modified it was a battle between me and fellow XRAY driver Sandy Iavazzo

For the lead, but after the rain Sandy’s car was better and my car was not as good but we had some really good battles anyway. In hindsight in order to challenge for the win in the finals I probably needed to change back down a spring rate to compensate for the lower grip conditions as my times consistently were .2 slower, where Sandy on softer springs was able to set his fastest laps during the finals. But that’s racing and well done Sandy on a well deserved victory.

Final Results Modified:

1. Sandy Iavazzo XRAY T3/ SPEEDPASSION/ SPEEDPASSION

2. Timothy Lee XRAY T3/ LRP/ LRP

3. Jordan Cullis YOKOMO BD5/ LRP/ LRP

4. Justin Vergunst SHUMACHER Mi4LP/ LRP/ LRP

5. Ben Cribbin XRAY T3/ LRP/ SPEED PASSON

6. Darrin Campbell TOP PHOTON/ SPEEDPASSION/ ORION

7. Robbie Lloyd TOP PHOTON /? / ?

8. Rodney Maslovsky TOP PHOTON /? / ?

In stock pole sitter Harrison Hawke had a lot of problems only finishing one final allowing XRAY driver Paul Smith to take the win in two of the three a-main legs giving Paul the overall win. Meanwhile Grant Booth put in three solid A-main runs fighting his way through from fifth on the grid to complete an XRAY 1-2.

Final Results Stock:

1. Paul Smith XRAY T3

2. Grant Booth XRAY T3

3. Peter Beckett

4. James Ainslie XRAY T3

5. Darren Laughlin Losi JRX-S

6 .Matthew Stamboulis

7. Harrison Hawke Hot Bodies Cyclone

8. Keith Chui

9. Simon Arnold

10. Andrew Sienniak

In the always competitive super stock Cristian Silva qualified well to start from second on the grid after just being edged out for the TQ by Troy Laughlin. In the first leg Cristian had some bad luck and crashed out after seven laps handing Troy the easy victory by eight seconds. In leg two Troy took the victory again guaranteeing him the overall win, Cristian however felt that the could have gone faster had his differential been in better condition so decided to rebuild it for the final run to see if he could go faster. In leg three with a new differential Cristian Silva blew away the competition taking the win and setting the fastest time of the finals by a massive six seconds taking him to second overall.

Final Results Super Stock:

1. Troy Laughlin Losi JRX-S

2. Cristian Silva XRAY T2-009

3. Craig Mcphee TAMIYA TRF 416X

4. Paul Hartmann XRAY T3

5. Simon Arnold ?

Final Results 1/12 Scale:

1. David Warner ASSOCIATED 12R5

2. Brett Douce XRAY X11 LINK

3. Andrew Miller ASSOCIATED 12R5

4. Hiroshi Ishizaki ASSOCIATED 12R5

5. Tom Matley ASSOCIATED 12R5

6. Daniel Maher ASSOCIATED 12R5

In 1/12 scale Brett Douce debuting his new X11 Link finished strongly improving from qualifying to claim second spot on the podium.

Finally I would like to thank XRAY and HUDY for the T3, HEI and Northern Beaches Hobby Centre for sponsoring the event and providing the control tyre for the weekend, the club for running a great event and I look forward to returning later in the year.