> News

Michael's Winternats '06 (23/02/2006)

By:: Michael Salven

Dear racers

I am racing at the Winternats for quite some time now. I don’t even remember which year was the first time, but I remember that Ralph Burch was TQ in an Associated 500. He did 23 laps, something, that the best 200mm sedan cars achieve today. Back then it was an impressive performance by Ralph and his PARIS powered car, and I remember that I was second after qualifying, with a massive 2 laps down on Ralph!
A lot of memories, but what I always achieved was to make the A-main. Not this time!

It would be easy to call this my worst Winternats, but I don’t think it actually is! There have been more frustrating years in the past, where I only did a few laps or the feeling inside the team was bad.

This year was special in another way too. The week started very cold, the two practice days started with freezing temperatures, that never exceeded 8˚ C. I had problems with myself (forgot my Winter jacket) and with the engines, which I needed to run in. They did not like the cold, as did I.

Car wise I was quite happy, although I had some little understeer in the hairpins, which I never really got rid of. The other Serpents were doing well, I was especially happy for Steven Cuypers, who did very well for his first year at Ft Myers.
I never did finish a qualifier, either because of mistakes or because I ran out of fuel, while Steven and Barry and Paolo all could do 5 minutes with the same engine. I later discovered that my engine had suffered a “small” seizure during running in, something that can happen, when you are not patient enough and it is could. It cost me later also the possible climb into the A, when the engine decided to call it a day.

Anyway, I didn’t make it, but our cars were 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th after qualifying. Mike Swauger took pole, he was simply too fast for the rest, which was 1 more solely Mugen and 4 Kyosho cars (actually Dave Campbell was using a Delta, but forgive me if I just call it a Kyosho).
In sedan we did very well. Out of 12 cars we had 6, with Paolo and Scotty taking the 1st and 2nd spot. It looked as if they would also finish that way, but with both being in the lead 7 laps in front of 3rd, Scotty’s battery went dead and his transponder didn’t count for 4 laps. He lost another 4 while replacing the battery. But because it went dead already after 35 minutes I guess it wasn’t charged properly, right Scotty?

Anyway, the 1/8 scale A-main was very, very disappointing for our team. Despite his early lead Paolo could not hold off the hard charging Swauger. When he was in second his engine broke. Scotty lost his servo-lever, while running third, and Barry and Steven both broke the screws that fix the front upper suspension holder. They used aluminium screws, something that I surely don’t recommend.

Anyway, I left Florida with mixed emotions. Let’s say, there is room for improvement, surely we have to get rid of these stupid things that force us to retire from finals.
At least I learned lot! Next races can only be better and I bet they will!

the track

even Austrians are freezing on sunday

Paolo and Barry

Paolo's winning car

Paolo's 960