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Too little fuel, too much rain - Jared Scott gives his account of the Winternats (24/02/2008)

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Laurant

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Serpent 960 08 1/8 scale 4WD, Serpent 966 1/8 scale 4WD EVO, Serpent 966 -TE 1/8 scale 4WD, Serpent 966 -TE v2 1/8 scale 4WD, 2008 Winternats


Team Serpent USA driver Jared Scott had an incident packed Winternats.  Wrong airport, not enough fuel, too much rain and finally brain failure meant his promise didn't materialise.  Jared sent us this account of his week at the '08 Winternats -


My week started out not so good and then got worse. First Chris by accident managed to get his ticket booked for Fort Lauderdale and not Ft Myers So I had to drive over and pick him up on Sat. But we were ready to go Sunday and the first run on the track I was quit pleased at how well the car was.

I was watching what others were doing and was pretty close with lap times and felt I was ready for qualification to start. The first round I started out running very hard and was extremely fast then with about 45 sec to go I ran out of fuel... I was a little disappointed and I just figured that maybe my fuel man forgot to top of the tank or something. I would make no changes to the car for the next round as looking at the lap times I was right on pace.

Then the second round I again was on a good run and ran out of fuel. Now I was very bummed because everyone on my team was making time and I was running out and not just a little short it was by a lot so after talking with everyone I decided to make some changes. Different pipe less nitro in the fuel and gearing. Then the rain came.....Booooo.

It rained for 2 days. Then on Thursday they decided they were going to run 3 rounds of qualifying so I figured all was good but the track was almost a half a second slower and with this no real chance of making the final. But I was still having fuel issues and I ran out 2 of the 3 rounds. In the 3rd round I finally made time but in doing so ran the motor too lean. But I was at least pleased to have a run that put me into the B final and a chance to bump. They ran the lower finals on Friday with practice at the end. I ran my car with the main setup and was pleased and looking forward to the finals.

On Saturday the weather was good and everyone was ready for a great day of racing. I started the final with a lot of confidence as I knew my car was ready to race. I did a lot of passing in the opening laps getting up to 4th quickly I was in 3rd by the time we came to the first fuel stop.

Fellow Serpent team mate Mark Green who had a bit of bad luck in qualifying got out to an early lead and was setting a good pace when he had some gear trouble that took him out of the race.  This opened the door for Michael Salven to move up to first and myself to 2nd and the last bump spot. I was cruising and was just about to lap the 3rd place driver when I, well for some reason had a brain fart and hit the wall before the counter and took myself out of the race. So that is were my weekend ended.

I was really hoping for a good result and in the end had some bad luck but that's how it goes. But the team I feel had good results Poalo and DJ making the final and Michael also. Poalo had a good race but some bad luck kept him from winning.
 
I would like to thank you and the entire serpent Team for all the help and support.
 
Til next time,

Jared



Team Serpent at the 2008 Winternats

Team Serpent at the 2008 Winternats