KOC round 1 race report and Tamiya TC-01 Set up tips

After several great seasons racing in the Iconic cup, I decided to try something new for 2022. I have seen the King of Clubs series going from strength to strength, so decided to give it a go

The idea of the king of clubs was to combine the efforts of 5 clubs around the south east of England. This includes Aldershot, Adur, West London, Colchester & Eastbourne. They also have an inter-club competition to find the champion of these clubs via nominated drivers for the respective clubs. You don’t have to be a member of these clubs to still compete in the individual championships

There is also a focus on the younger generation of racers. They actively encourage a class called Tamiya junior-E. This is eligible for racers under 12yrs of age. Whilst they can compete in the main classes, this allows them to compete against racers of a similar age.

The cars are the ever popular Tamiya TT02. With minimal hop ups allowed, this shifts the focus on learning the race craft rather than chasing the ultimate setup.

When you attend race meetings with no/little experience, you can become quickly overwhelmed by the faster/more experienced drivers. It ends up with people not enjoying the racing & losing interest in the hobby.

The future of RC racing!

This is the perfect opportunity to allow the racers to gain experience & have fun. Most racers I saw were having lots of fun. They were also encouraged to seek out advice from the top drivers who are more than happy to help in any way they can. I also saw a lot of kids of very talented racers, so you’ll see these names top the time sheets very soon.  They also gave out preloved trophies to all the juniors, a very nice gesture

In addition to the Junior-E class, there is also an additional class called TC talent cup. This allows some of these juniors to move up to the touring class as a feeder series. There was the son of a multiple BRCA national champion & worlds A finalist, defiantly one to watch for the future!

I entered the Tamiya GT-E class. This is a stock class that can also be used as another feeder series as it allows the TT02 chassis but with more hop ups. It also allows seasoned racers to compete with realistic GT bodies. Other eligible chassis include TT01, TL01 & TC01. The main rules ensure a level playing field with the following control items

Motor & ESC. Hobbywing Justock 17.5t fixed timing motor with 60A ESC. Set in blinky. You can also use a sealed can 15t brushed motor. 

As you can see the Justock is a tight squeeze in the TC-01, but it will fit if you remove the fan.  The series also requires you to use. Ride grooved tyres, importantly No tyre warmers or additive are permitted. 

These rules have limited the speeds of the cars & removed the ‘black art’ of tyre prep. This makes it fair for everyone

 

I chose to use my TC01. I read the rules & fitted the hop ups where permitted within the rules

• Chassis: TC01
• Bodyshell: Bittydesign Seven20
• Motor: Hobbywing Justock 17.5t fixed timing
• ESC: Hobbywing Justock 60A
• Battery: Silverback 6300
• Servo: SRT BH8015
• Tyres: Ride Frontie BRCA 2022 grooved

 

KOC - Race meeting round 1

Round 1 was hosted by the Demon raceway in Aldershot. It was a lovely sunny spring day with only only the occasional cloud in the sky. 

Practice

This was the chance to see how the car faired and the scrub the tyres in. I found the car easy to drive, but the lap times weren’t as quick as some of the top drivers. 

I felt the car was too stiff, not allowing the chassis to flex to gain traction. I removed the chassis & motor mount braces

Q1

I started the day in the top heat, car 6. As its qualifying and a staggered start, its hard to gauge the speed of everyone else in the first run. I clipped the inside kerb onto the straight on lap 1, so lost 7 seconds immediately! I re-joined near the back & just focused on driving around as best as I could. After 2 minutes I worked my way back up to 3^rd, so was happy with the pace. After 4 minutes I was up to second. Then the leader had a wheel come loose, so I was now in the lead. I crossed the line with a round 1 win

 

Q2

For round 2, I raised the droop numbers to see if this allowed the car to lean a bit more. The car actually felt worse to drive, but not horrible. A car that didn’t finish the first round was now up to speed & was faster than me so he took the win, I finished in 2^nd

 

Q3

I softened up the shock oil as I was on the softest springs I had & reset the droop. The car felt better to drive, but was trying to catch the lead car. Unfortunately for the lead car, he got caught with some back markers & managed to retake the lead to secure another round win

 

Q4

The car felt loose on the rear, so I had increased the width on the rear. I was in the middle of 3 cars who were now of very similar pace. 1 mistake would cost a massive time. The same thing happened for car 1 & retook the lead, but a small margin from the car behind. I secured another round win. With 3 wins, I took pole position (best 2 of 4 rounds)

 

Final 1

Although the car was getting loose on the tyres during the day, the pace was still fast. I checked the setup & changed nothing. The final was a hard race. Cars 1, 2 & 3 were all on a similar pace. If I rolled it or spun, I would moved quickly to 3^rd. Thankfully, I kept my nerve & focused on driving a clean race to secure the win

Final 2

I changed nothing again as the car felt good in final 1. Car 2 was not present for this race, so the main battle for the win would be between me & car 3. The car was very loose for the first 5 laps. The clouds settled in & cooled the track, this affected the tyres quite dramatically. Car 3 had a similar situation, but was never far behind. 

Another determined & focused race netted me another win. So I took the victory at this round. 

Summary

I was very surprised to take the pole position. From some pre season testing, I could see I was some way off the pace of the other cars. I thought this may be down to the choice of chassis as everyone else was using the TT02. My testing was done with much lower track temperatures so this may have helped.  

Importantly I was able to gear the gearing where the motor was in its optimum range & managed to tune the setup to where I was competitive

It was also an exciting challenge to race with the Tamiya TC01. Its obviously a very niche car to race in the UK, and is doesn't have much race pedigree. The car has a great layout as the weight is focused in the middle, so near middle weight distribution. The transmission is super free when shimmed up correctly.  Its all very compact as it was designed to fit the Formula E bodyshell

Setting Sheet

Here is my setup sheet from the meeting. Any questions, feel free to ask

King of Clubs (Click Here)
Junior-E (Click Here)

Thanks to Andy Hyde for organizing the series & some photos