Venezuelan Championships 2010

Last year I was invited to go to Venezuela to host a RC Driving Clinic. The idea was that I would help the locals get up to speed. It turned out to be a success, and this year I was invited back, this time to attend and race their Venezuelan Championships. The South American Champion, the likeable, yet bonkers Argentinian Adrian Castro was also there, adding to the international field. All the fast locals were present, and the track was prepared nicely. Although I have to say, shame on the organisers for putting diesel on the track, to hold the dust down! LETS NOT MAKE THIS A TREND!!!!! It completely sucks. There are easier ways to get cancer or some other illness, but I don't want to take any chances. The diesel fumes can be felt in the air as the track starts to get dusty, and of course it also gets on the car, which is not good as it then gets on everyones hands etc. Come on people, there are biological equivelents available, like for example dustex in Finland.

Anyway, enough negativity for now, the track was great, I would say more US style than European. Average size, many jumps, and some hairpins with a couple of shicanes thrown in for good measure. It was really fun to drive, although a bit easy. This made it very close between the drivers. After practice I knew it was going to be a close race, as the laptimes were so close. It was hard to make up time, basically only mistakes seperated the drivers.

Friday was open practice, and then on the Saturday the real action started. We had 5 rounds of qualifying, where the 3 best round points counted towards the overall qualifying results.

The first round went to local Mugen driver Miguel Villalobos. He was really fast on this track, and I remembered him from last year. I should have written this report earlier, because I have no idea what my excuse is for round 1. Lets just say, I did something wrong, and sucked abit also. One thing I did wrong that I do remember is, that I forgot my tyres at my friends house, where I was staying. That sucked! I had to run the same Calibers for the 4 first rounds, until I got hold of a set of Revolvers. For the second round, I changed my set up abit. I do believe I changed my rear link. I shortened it abit to make my car rotate faster in the corners, and turn more. On friday I had focused on making THE Car SUPER easy to drive. And now it was. Just too slow for my driving style.

On the Friday I actually let a bunch of people drive THE Car, just so they could give me some feedback. I kept trying to make it easier and easier to drive and it ended up pretty good. The track was slippery, and only bumpy in places, so my car was really good there. It still needs work on high traction bumpy tracks, but here it was already performing really well, and I was happy to hear that the locals liked how it felt on the track. Only complaint I got was “too much steering”, so thats good.

Another thing I probably should mention, is that I had a few cars with me, one that was freshly built, so I could show people something that looks decent, a practice car and a race car. On the friday, Christian Romanelli asked me if he could race my second car, and I thought why not? So we quickly put his receiver in THE Car and off he went. In qualifying he had a lot of issues, like missing a start, running out of gas, and a stop and go etc, but he managed to sqeak into the semi finals which was nice. And of course, he had to get used to THE Car also.

So, second round I managed to TQ, and I was on the right course again. I kept adjusting the setup on my car, leaning the front shocks over abit for more steering, trying different ackerman plates etc, and I managed to TQ all the remaining rounds. Villalobos qualified 2^nd, and a local fast kid by the name of Renato Tradardi Jr kicked butt and got 3^rd. He had improved a lot since last year! The South American Champ had some engine issues in the early heats, which caused him to end up 5^th after qualifying, but he was very fast too! Engines were running abit weird, I think due to the high altitude (over 1200m above sea level I believe). I was low on power, and the engine felt like it was running too lean all the time.

Mains

Sunday arrived and it was slightly damp. A tropical storm like I only normally see on TV. It was depressing. But it passed in a few hours, and somehow, DONT ASK HOW, the track was drivealbe soon after. Once the semi came around, it was actually already quite good! Incredible. With rain like that in Finland we could pretty much pack up and wait for next season, not in Venezuela though. That was nice.

In my semi final, I made a close to fatal mistake. I forgot to give my mechanic some very important advice. “Whatever you do, make sure the fueltank is full, don't rush.” Guess what. I ran out of fuel, it wasn't filled up all the way at the first fuelstop! After that it took something like 2 minutes to start the thing, so I lost a lot of time. I drove as fast as I could for the rest of the main and finnished 6^th! So I just made it, or so I thought. After the race I was told the main would be with 10 drivers only. I had assumed it was 12. (Later on, after long negotiations the organisers decided to run with 12 cars as they had told us we were “running like at the worlds”.) So Luckily I made it in. Phew! Tradardi won the semi I was in, and was really fast.

In the other semi Villalobos and Castro were very fast, so the main was going to be tough.

A- Main and After Party.

For the main I decided to make a tyre change. The track was getting bumpy, and it was very loose. Tyrewear was also surprisingly high, when taking into account the super loose conditions. I decided to run M3 BowTies, and that was the right choice I think. My car was much better than in the semi final.

I had to start at the back, so it took a while for me to get to the front. At around 15min we had a great battle going, me, Tradardi Jr and Castro. At maybe halfway of the 60min final I managed to pull away abit, and then soon after checked out and that was it! I won it. Castro had a flameout and ended up 3^rd, and Tradardi Jr 2^nd.

And what about Romanelli and THE Car? He was 5^th, which meant, that in the official Venezuelan Championships, where only locals are counted, he got 3^rd overall, his best result to date. Coolness!

This also meant that Tradardi Jr became the Venezuelan Champion with his Associated RC8. Congratulations!

After the race, we just decided to continue racing, and we held our own 3 and 5 lap races. It was a lot of fun I tell you! Thats the best way to practice, and push the limit. It was quite dark already, and the lights didn't really light up the back part of the track, so it was challenging!

I would like to thank everyone for everyting, specially the organisers, RC Xtreme Racing, Mr Romanelli, thanks for letting me stay at your place, and for getting 3^rd overall, thanks to all my new friends and see you all next year!

Thank you also to my sponsors, OS Engines, ProLine, Werks, LRP, Savox, JVD, and neobuggy.net.

 

Some random facts about Venezuela, and Venezuelans (is that right?):

Travelling anecdote:

I once wrote about travelling, and how I hate unreasonable people behind the check in counter. In Venezuela I met the most un-cooperative Lufthansa agent in the History of commercial aviation. I really should have given my trophy to her, but I did not think of it at the time. When flying to South America from EU, one is allowed 2 bags, weighing 23kg each, which means the total weight allowed is 46kg. I had two bags, one was 30kg, and the other one 12. Normally 30kg is the maximum weight for one bag. I have flown like this many times. I have never had problems, and going to Venezuela was no problem.

Enter the most un-cooperative Lufthansa agent in the history of commercial aviation:

Agent: Sir, your bag is overweight, you need to pay 15e per kg for your overweight luggage.

JQ: But the total is 4kg below the amount I am allowed.

Agent: That is not the way it works, the maximum is 23kg per bag.

We argue for a while. I realise that it is impossible to make any progress this way. I wasn’t going to pay, as I wasn’t actually overweight. It was a thing of principal, and it pissed me off a bit. I decide to repack. I can’t get enough weight into my smaller bag so I got an idea. I walked over to the plastic wrapping station, and took my clothes bag out of the big bag, and some other stuff, and made a plastic suitcase, handle and all, out of my small bag, clothes bag, and the other stuff. Now I had 2 bags, 19kg and 23kg. Enter the most un-cooperative Lufthansa agent in the history of commercial aviation:

JQ: Ok, I’m back, now I made my big bag 23kg.

Agent: Ok let’s see. Yes, now it is ok.

I put the plastic suitcase on the scales.

Agent: How many bags are in here?

JQ: What do you mean how many bags are in there, its one bag, what’s wrong now?

Agent: I can see that you put two bags in the plastic wrapping that’s not allowed.

JQ: You have got to be joking!

Agent: No it is Lufthansa policy.

JQ: Ok, give me my big bag then. I want to show you something….Ok, this bag is ok right?

Agent: Yes this bag is ok.

JQ: Lets open it. Look, here we have a second bag in the big bag, and we have 2 boxes etc. So my big bag, has many bags in it. Why is that ok, but my other bag made out of 2 bags is not?

Agent: Because the security may want to check your bags, so you can only wrap one bag in plastic.

I wished I could wrap the agent in plastic. I left the counter again and went to find a box. A guy was loading the vending machines, and he had some cardboard boxes, and I managed to get 2 from him, because one wasn’t big enough. I put my plastic suitcase in the boxes, and wrapped it in plastic, and went back to check in. Enter the most un-cooperative Lufthansa agent in the history of commercial aviation:

JQ: Ok, now I have one bag and one box.

Agent: How many bags do you have in the box?

JQ: One

Agent: Did you take the two bags apart?

JQ: Yes it’s just my clothes in there.

Agent: Well I am not sure…

JQ: Look, I have two bags, both are within the weight limit. Surely you can’t claim that it is Lufthansa policy not to allow one bag and one cardboard box wrapped in plastic, which are below the weight limit, and within size regulations. Would you prefer I stay here forever, because I am not going to pay you anything.

The agent checked me in. This was the short version. The whole ordeal took 2 hours, and a lot of running around in the hot airport wrapping bags and looking for boxes. I became the wrapping guys hero and best customer, and had to give two of them good tips for all their help. It was pretty funny in retrospect, and the plastic guys thought it was pretty amusing that I wouldn’t give up.