Beginners Guide
to RC Racing - Racing
A typical day meeting will start around 8:30am to 9:30am. At HNMC we recommend
people to pre-book for racing. However, we do also allow people to just turn up
on the day. Pre-booking allows our race directors to prepare better for the
racing.
You’ve arrived
at the track and unloaded your RC racing gear into our covered pitting area.
First you get your charger set up and batteries on charge (unless of course you
have charged them the night before).
Before racing starts you’ll have some time to do some
practice laps. As you are new to racing, make the most of this time to get used
to driving on track and the layout. Driving around a narrow track is a lot more
difficult than casual bashing. And yes, you’ll certainly have a few crashes.
Don’t worry about this - you will very quickly get used to it. Everyone has the
odd crash now and again – even the very best racers. Take it slow and just get
a feel for driving around a track.
An incorrectly
setup car (common when buying a secondhand rc car) can drive with some very undesirable handling
characteristics. If this seems like the case, try and reset all tuning
adjustments back to their base settings. Also worth getting some advice from
your fellow racers.
Much of the fun
of RC racing is tuning and adjusting the setup of your RC vehicle to change the
way it drives. Please make sure you thoroughly understand what you are doing
and why before going down this route.
For club racing you are free to use whatever tyres you like, but if you get
these very wrong it is going to make driving more difficult for you as a
beginner. Ask other
racers for advice; you’ll notice they’ll mostly be using the same tyre because
it works well. On our 10th track, for example, we mostly run cactus
and mezzo tyres with cut staggers for the front in yellow (dry) or silver
(wet).
Ride height is another adjustment that will depend on the track layout and
conditions. It will really help you as a beginner if you get it right. Either
use the stock setting or find out from other racers what they recommend.
At some point before racing starts, racers will be asked to book in. This can
be online before the event or on the day. To book in you’ll need to give your
Name, BRCA number, Transponder number(s) and class or classes you intend to
race. Race fees are normally paid at this poin
Once all
drivers are booked in, the race computer can generate the heat listings for the
day. These are usually posted online but could also be printed off and posted
up on a display board. We use LiveRC and our online
race portal is hnmc.liverc.com
Having a large number of racers competing, different classes available and the
need for marshalls; races are divided up into groups
called ‘Heats’. The race director will use the timing software on the
computer to generate heat listings for the day. Check the heat listings to see
what heat/race you are in.
If 40 people are racing - they can’t all race in the same race; they wouldn’t
all fit on the rostrum, the track would be too crowded, and there would be no marshalls to attend to any crashes on the track – and there
will be crashes. People could also be driving in multiple classes. Different
classes are separated into their own heats. Although classes can race together
if there aren’t enough racers at the meeting. We also try to group drivers
together based on ability.
Typically, the Heat listings will group racers together into a maximum of 10
vehicles per race (10th) and 12 vehicles per race (8th),
but this will depend on how busy the race meeting is.
If you flip your car, crash or come flying off of the track, you need to be
marshalled. Racing wouldn’t be much fun if you had to keep leaving the rostrum
to go and turn your car back over after a crash; that’s why we have marshalls.
Most clubs
don’t have the budget for employing a bunch of marshalls
to turn flipped cars the right way up. So all racers
are expected to marshall the next race after their
own. Let the race director know if you are unable to marshall
(eg you have a broken leg) and they will find a
substitute for you.
Safe marshall points will be marked in various places around the
track, and marshalls are usually the only people
permitted on track while racing takes place. Marshall points
are often, but not always, marked with numbers. When they are present, your
race number determines where you need to stand. If you are vehicle 4 in your
heat – you marshall at position 4. Many racers bring
their own hi-viz vest to use while marshalling – but
the club also has them available.
·
Pay attention to the race in your zone or area when
marshalling.
·
Don’t be tempted to watch the leader all the way, as you
will lose sight of your zone and miss any crashes that are close by.
·
Do not use your phone, smoke or vape.
·
Get to the cars quickly, but safely. Keep an eye out for
other drivers coming along your section and wait, if you have to, for them to
pass.
·
Always place the car back on the track in a safe position
near to where it came off; ideally off the racing line.
·
Marshall how you would like to be marshalled
Typical start time is between 9-30am to 10am for a morning meeting. A typical 10th race meeting might
consist of 3 qualifying rounds and 3 leg finals while an 8th race
meeting might consist of 3 qualifying rounds and 1 final (with bump-ups for
winners to next final). On a Tuesday 10th evening (April to
September) we race 2 qualifying rounds and 1 final.
Qualifying is
the way we organise drivers for the Finals. Your position at the end of
qualifying will determine your starting position in the Finals.
In qualifiers you race against the clock, not other drivers. Your goal is to
complete as many laps as you can in the best time. If you get the most laps in
the least time then you are Top Qualifier (TQ) (not very likely for a beginner)
and you will start the finals in pole position, which is a great advantage.
The qualifiers
typically last 5 minutes each, but this can vary. At the start of qualifying,
the cars’ numbers are announced one by one by the race computer so everyone is
going around the track evenly spaced apart. Slower drivers will inevitably drop
back and the experienced drivers will catch up and overtake. It is courteous to let any faster, lapping
cars pass, and, hopefully, drivers you are lapping will do the same.
The qualifying information will be found on our race link –
hnmc.liverc.com
Normally about
5 or 10 minutes before the first qualifier starts, the race director will
instruct any drivers / marshalls that are in the
first heat – heat 1 – to get ready. Then as each heat is run, an announcement will be made for the next heat, and
so on. So if you are in heat 2, get your car ready
while heat 1 is running. Once you have raced in heat 2, go straight to
marshalling of heat 3.
When your heat
is called, you’ll need to get your car ready – charged battery in and powered
up. Place it on the track at the designated area and walk up to the rostrum
with your transmitter. You’ll have a few minutes to get a quick practice lap or
two in before the timer starts counting down. This depends of course on how
quickly you got everything ready and the instructions of the race director.
Once you hear
the automated race computer announcement of ’30 seconds until race starts’,
finish your practise lap and head to the start line. Cars generally all sit
together several yards back from the start line waiting for the beeps that
indicate racing is about to start. The lower numbered cars need to be at the
front of the group since they will go first. As racing starts, the computer
will call ‘1,2,3,4, etc’ with spacing of a couple of seconds between. As soon
as you hear your car number called, you can start.
In the first
round, the cars are always called successively starting from car 1. In
subsequent rounds, the starting order is determined by the results of the 1st
round, and as each round progresses throughout the day, your starting position
will change based on your overall qualifying position so far. Don’t worry
though, the order for each round will be announced by the computer as each
round starts, so listen carefully. Once the countdown has finished and your car
number has been called, throttle up and off you go! Please be quiet on the
rostrum while any qualifying / racing is running.
If there was only one qualifying round, then racers would be sorted by whoever
completed the highest number of laps in the least time.
With multiple
qualifying rounds, things get a little more complicated. Results can be
calculated based on the FTQ or Round by Round Methods.
FTQ takes your
very best qualifying round and uses that one for the final calculation.
It doesn’t
matter how bad you did in any of the other rounds, as long as you got one good
run. But what if you had a really poor first round, and then it suddenly rained
and the track was wet for the rest of the day? You’d have trouble rectifying
your poor first round performance because the wet weather meant a much slower
pace for the rest of the day. Those that beat your time in the first round
would have a very unfair advantage.
This is the
reason Round by Round Qualifying is more common at UK clubs.
This qualifying
will be setup with a certain number of rounds and how many of those will count.
Eg.2 rounds of 4 to count or 2 rounds of 3 to count.
Example:
Four qualifying
rounds total, with the best two to count towards your score.
Your results
are:
|
Round |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
|
Position |
7 |
25 |
9 |
17 |
Your best
rounds were round one (position 7) and round three (position 9). So your score for qualifying is 16 overall (7+9=16). A lower
number here is better.
This system
seems a bit fairer. If there was a nice dry track for the first round but you
had a disappointing result, and then it rained for the rest of the day, you can
still redeem yourself.
The final
result is made up from the position of each round, not the best single time as
with FTQ. If there is a draw between racers, it then comes down to the times of
the two rounds.
At HNMC we
utilise both formats – eg. 10th Sunday
racing we use Round by Round while for 10th Tuesday evening racing we use FTQ
Once qualifying
is all finished, you’ll have a break before the Finals begin. The Qualifying
results, shortly followed by the Final listings will be posted online. These
will show your qualifying position, and where you will start in the finals.
Finals may comprise of a single final, multiple legs or utilise bump ups where
top racers of one final then compete in the next final. For multiple leg finals
– the results are added together similar to Round by Round
qualifying.
When there are
too many drivers to fit into one Final for a class, the finals are broken up
into groups. There will be an A Final, a B Final, a C Final etc. with the best
drivers in the A.
Finals
themselves are fairly straight forward. This is a race. Simply come first to
win.
Check the
listings for the Finals to find your start position. The Top Qualifier is
always car 1 on pole position, followed by everyone else in order of their
qualifying position. Line your car up on the grid on the correct number and
wait for the countdown and starting tone from the Race computer.
The finals can
be quite crazy. All 10/12 cars going off at once, very closely spaced,
competing to get in front. The cars in the middle of the grid are often the
ones that end up in a pile up on the first corner. If you are near the back,
and this occurs, you can plod around the carnage and carry on, quickly jumping
ahead of 5 or so cars. It is therefore a good strategy to take the first corner
easy – you can’t win the race on the first corner; but you can lose it.
Like in full
size motor racing there is similar etiquette to the racing during finals. If
someone is lapping you – let them pass. If you cause a crash – wait for the
other driver and give the place back.
And that is
racing. Once the finals are done, the podium places may have their photos taken
and then everyone will pack away their kit and head off back to their families.