Andrew Webber wins NZ Nationals!

Andrew Webber wins 2wd and 4wd New Zealand Indoor Offroad Nationals Champs!

The 2015 New Zealand Indoor Offroad Nationals Champs were held on the 16/17 August 2015. The event was hosted by the Hamilton Radio Control Car Club at their indoor racing facility. The indoor carpet track provided quick laps and exciting racing the entire weekend. A new layout is produced for every event so new lines and setup changes were on the cards for all competitors.

The indoor scene in New Zealand has seen a shift away from open motors to a 10.5 motor limit in all classes of indoor offroad racing. Control tyres were also enforced with 6MIK Crunch and Schumacher Mini Pins the only two options permitted for the event.

The event format consisted of 3 qualifiers with your single fastest time giving you your qualifying position. Three finals were based on points with your worst score dropped but used for a possible tie-break.

I had entered in both 2WD 10.5 Buggy and 4WD 10.5 Buggy with the VBC FireboltDM and S104 EVO respectively. For power delivery, both cars were running Reds VX 10.5 motors and Reds TX120 ESCs. For tyres I had chosen 6MIK Crunch for both cars; Blue Crunch rears for both cars, Blue Axium for 2WD fronts and Purple Crunch for 4WD fronts.

Both cars were running my base setup for carpet and in practice felt really nice to drive. I made one small change the S104 EVO for the event, going up from 60k in the centre diff to 80k which provided a bit more forward drive which in turned helped in the rhythm section of the track. The FireboltDM was working well but was lifting the inside rear wheel which was causing a loss of drive out of the tight hairpin corners. A removal of the rear sway bay, a roll centre adjustment and a slightly harder rear spring helped improve this issue dramatically.

At the end of qualifying I had TQ’d both classes which was great. The S104 EVO was simply amazing to drive and was the only car to record 19 laps in 5 minutes. 2WD was much closer with the top 5 separated by only a few seconds. I managed to grab pole position by just 2 seconds. Finals in this class were going to be close.

In 4WD the S104 EVO ran untouched taking all 3 wins in convincing fashion. In 2WD I bolted on some fresh tyres for the first final and the car had a slight push. I felt this forced me into pushing too hard and I made a mistake over the rhythm section. Jordan Burley took over first place for a good portion of this race till he made the same mistake handing me the lead back which eventually turned into a win.

The second final in 2WD went like clockwork. I got my mojo back over the rhythm section and pulled a gap within the first two or three laps and held it. The car was flawless with the rear tyres on their second run providing super consistent steering.

Only needing the two wins out of the three finals in both classes, I took home two NZ titles in 2WD 10.5 Buggy and 4WD 10.5 Buggy. A huge thanks to my sponsors Reds Racing for their awesome motors and super smooth TX120 ESCs an also thanks to RedsRC.co.nz who continue to support my racing country wide.

Results:

2WD 10.5 Buggy

1st – Andrew Webber – #Reds VX, Reds TX

2nd – Jordan Burley

3rd – Nathan Toia

4th – Nick Moore

5th – Shane Gollop

6th – Brett Waudby – Reds VX, Reds TX

7th – Scott Brownhill

8th – Joe Daniels

9th – Steve Loomes

10th – Glen Clarke