John Watkins battles to victory in 4wd SCT with JConcepts at the 2013 Far East Model Car Association’s 1/10 EP Off-Road Championship.
Event: FEMCA 2013
Track: Challenger Off-Road Raceway
Location: Taichung City, Taiwan
Date: 25 – 27, October 2013
Race Reporter: John Watkins
In early 2013 the opportunity arose for me to race in Taiwan and attend the FEMCA 2013 championship, I quickly jumped at the chance to race at a new event and visit a country that I had never been to before.
In the lead up to the event the language barrier soon became apparent and immediately came into play with information and discussions becoming increasingly difficult as the preparation went on.
The event was to be run to IFMAR rules with exception of 4×4 SCT, with 6 min races and bump ups for all finals. Thanks to a great JC team mate of Ash Peeler for the loan of a 4×4 SCT for the week, this was an attempt at getting more track time as sessions were going to be limited. This was an open tyre event.
Upon arrival at the track on the official practice day I was greeted with the sound of silence as I was the only person there! After taking a taxi to the top of a nearby mountain for almost an hour, I wandered the facility and did a track walk, only to find that the track layout and surface had changed from what the club had released 1 week earlier. After about an hour a few of the locals arrived and started to make me feel welcome and showed me to my pits and helped me setup, there was even a dedicated marshal for me in the morning!
The track had been rebuilt 4 days before the event as the original surface had blown apart with heavy traffic during open practice in the lead up and the large volume of heavy 4×4 SCT trucks. In an effort to stop this from happening again and provide a more consistent racing surface the track was heavily coated in PVA glue. This made for an interesting surface that was shiny smooth with varying levels of grip and minimal side bite. The track failed to show signs of a groove regardless of how much rubber was being burnt.
Track surface temperatures were in the mid to high 30’s (Celsius) most of the time. The track was built on top of one of the nearby Taichung Mountain ranges as part of a local farming precinct, this made for a very windy event and every jump section became more and more crucial as the wind incresed as the event went on. Even though the ambient and track temps were high the only tyres that worked were Blue Bar Codes and Pressure Points, this made tyre management critical as majority of competitors had limited sets of softer compound tyres in Bar Code style.
Qualification went reasonably well for both 2wd and 4wd buggies after some late timing issues in Q1 and Q2 of 2wd buggy which saw the re-run of both of these runs; I was forced to run slicks for these as my blue compound tyre quantities were dangerously low. I Finished 11th in 2wd, and 12th in 4wd after 5 rounds. Over 2 days. I had Radio Problems with the 4×4 SCT in Q1,Q2 and Q3 which saw me sit out these runs, after diagnosing the problem to a simple Lipo failure issue I hit the track for the second time ever in a 4×4 SCT in Q4, with the best 3 of 5 rounds even after 2 solid run in Q4 and Q5 I found myself in the awkward position of having to bump my way into the Finals.
Sunday Finals Day: The TRCCA Club (Taiwan Radio Control Car Association) had done a great job of organising paid marshals for finals day!
Finals didn’t go to plan in both buggy classes as the track got slicker and I missed the bump into the both A Finals and I finished 15th in Both Classes. Lee Martin and Naoto Matsukura had an epic battle in both the 2wd and 4wd classes with Naoto taking both class wins after Lee Martin forced the decider in both classes winning both A main Leg 2’s.
My SCT Semi finals were great and made up for my disappointing results in both buggy classes. I easily bumped my way into the A finals.
Having the tough task of coming from 7th on the grid, the truck was on rails and tyre management wasn’t a issue as I was forced to sit out the first 3 Qualifiers on Friday and Saturday.
A1 went well finishing 4th, A2 even better making a pass on the second to last jump in air to finish second. A3 was a dream run with me coming home in first and taking the FEMCA 4×4 SCT title!
Blue 3Ds in the morning were great and Blue Bar Codes in the Afternoon were epic. Thanks to Ash Peeler for a incredible truck that handled flawlessly, up until this event I had never driven an 4×4 SCT before.
I would like to thank the host club TRCCA for their hospitality and putting together one of the greatest events I have attended. Masami needs to be congratulated on his efforts too as a true global ambassador of our sport. I made some great friends that I’m sure I will keep in contact with throughout the rest of my racing years.
JConcepts Winning Products:
0243 – Illuzion SCT body.
3353B – Hazard SCT-E wheels.
3049 – Pressure Points (blue)
3061 – 3Ds (blue)
3044 – Bar Codes Blue
2095 – SCT Backpack (A must for the traveller – Perfect for carry on luggage)
2207 – MT4 radio bag.
2209 – Medium Roller Bag (I managed to fit 46 sets of glued tyres and rims into this)