In this edition of the JConcepts Friday5 we talk to Australian team driver, Ray Munday!
1. When you first got into RC racing, what pro driver did you look up to and why? Or maybe there was a local/regional driver that you followed?
I first started racing in 1990. Internationally it was Masami and Cliff Lett who I idolized. Masami was the ultimate professional driver, able to win at everything with amazing skill. Cliff was the coolest guy around and was ahead of his time with setup and vehicle prep. I was fortunate enough to meet them both a few years ago which was awesome!
2. In your region you do quite a bit of racing on outside off-road dirt surfaces. It seems like today’s car designs and more geared towards indoor dirt or carpet/turf surfaces. Why do you think this is and how have you adjusted to the current vehicles to stay competitive on those outdoor tracks?
In Australia we have mostly outdoor tracks as there is a lot of parkland however buildings are very expensive to hire. In the USA and Europe it’s much more common to race 1/10 inside to avoid the weather and indoor tracks have evolved to create higher traction surfaces. Tyre technology has also improved so we are able to get higher traction on almost every surface including outdoors. The car design has had to evolve to keep up with the tracks. It’s been a fun challenge to tune the latest designs to the lower traction outdoor surfaces. Initially there was a lot of skepticism about mid motor but now pretty much every vehicle down here is mid motor and we have found that they are faster even in lower grip. We have had to tune things such as rear toe in, arm sweep and sometimes adding some brass parts to the rear in addition to running higher down-force packages and tuning the geometry to match higher ride heights, but the modern designs have such a massive tuning range once we worked these things out the cars are fantastic to drive. The setups used at the Slovakia IFMAR world’s in 2019 were very similar to what we use week in week out!
3. What is your biggest win to date and why?
My best result was placing 25th at the 2017 IFMAR world’s in China. The track was very challenging and I felt I drove to the best of my ability. I have won 2 national titles (Mod 2wd Buggy in 2008 and Mod 4wd Buggy in 2018) and 4 Keilor invitationals.
4. Name one JConcepts product that you feel is overlooked by many but you find it very useful. It could be a tool, tread pattern, wing, etc.
That’s a tough one! Probably the JC Satellite tyre bands and super glue. They make gluing tyres so much easier!
5. Besides RC cars, what other hobbies are you into?
My work keeps me very busy so I don’t have a lot of free time, but I am a big fan of any full-size Motorsport and I’m also a big fan of anything Star Wars related. 🙂
2nd image courtesy of Mozzed Photography.