2008 races
June "Club race"
This was the first GT race ever. GT cars participated to this "club race" as one of the three classes that were run on this same day. Rules were pretty open and also 1:8 buggies with any engine were allowed with "real" GT cars like IGT and GTP. The only rules actually were that the car needs to have working brakes and a body that covers car's rubber tires.
Most of the guys had never raced a GT car before and many of us had issues. Only few cars managed to have a full race if even that.
I had a good thing going in the main and fighting for the 1st place, but suddenly my car started to slow down and eventually had to pull off since my 2-speed blew off. It wasn't the stock Kyosho 2-speed but a reinforced 2-speed that I had bought from eBay. It was supposed to last much longer than the stock but actually it was the opposite.
Although I fixed it, I never used it in racing again. The seller was nice enough to send me a new one, too, but they all broke eventually.
I think I finished 4th due to the breakage.
July 1st "real" GT race
In July we held the 1st "real" GT race were no other than "production" GT cars were allowed. I was personally the organizer for the race, and local Kyosho was kind enough to bring the prizes for the event. Rules were more strict in terms of the engine as only kit engines with the kit pipe were allowed, but other type of tuning was free.
The rest of the rules were the same as before, working brakes, rubber tires and a GT style body.
This was a success and we had a good bunch of racers finishing the day succesfully.
Qualification was run the same style as in 1:8 guggy. I was the TQ this time.
After this we had two 15 minute finals, where I finished 3rd in the first and 1st in the second.
In the first final I think my engine stalled after both refuelings as the idle was set too low. Restarting cost me time.
In the second final everything worked great and I was the first one to make the finishing line finishing 2nd overall. A tight race.
August GT race 2/3
Before the August race we had several weeks of rain. It wasn't good for the participation which was low.
A new style qualification was tried out, a free run of 60 minutes where the fastest lap counted. It was great.
After qualification I think we run three 20 minute finals.
I won the first, but on the second my engine blew off in the starting line as the rear bearing broke.
Luckily I had a spare engine, and since only two finals out of three counted, I was able to cruise to the overall victory by winning the 3rd final. Prizes were again organized by Kyosho and they were really nice prizes!
September GT race 3/3
In the September race we had a higher participation again. Several guys had the new OFNA DM-1 car, which was supposed to crash our old style IGT cars. The weather was really cold and the OFNA guys had been training over past two days on the track. This time the track was run into opposite direction and before the race day I had absolutely zero track time in more than two weeks.
The qualification was similar to the previous race but separated in to two groups where both had two 30 minute runs. The first run was a disaster due to a broken gas servo, but on the 2nd run I was able to get my act together and eventually made it directly to the A-main as the last one of top six racers. Oh boy it was tight.
To find out the winner we had two 15 minute finals. I think I finished 4th on both with a consistent run. My engine was a bit on the rich side so my car wasn't spectacularly fast but otherwise working well. Luckily the other guys except the first two were more inconsistent and had issues so I finished 3rd in overall. Good result considering that before the race we weren't given a chance with the "old" car (we didn't have Inferno GT2's yet).
With these results I collected most podium places and points in the GT race series in 2008.