Race-report for Serpent Cobra TE gaspowered buggy:
This past weekend was the first round of the Ohio Pro Series, held at Medina RC Raceway. This would be the first time for me at this track, so we decided to get there Friday for some practice. The track layout was a blast to get around; fast laps were high 25 seconds and low 26s. There were a couple sections that you just had to slow down to be fast, this is where the 811 was a step above the others. As my practice day came to an end I was very confident in my set up and tire selection. I had only made a couple changes to my set up throughout the day, going to a softer spring front and rear springs.
So for saturday morning the track crew had done a lot of work to the track, fixing pot holes that had developed from the rocks and little pebbles getting ripped out of the dirt. They also blew the track off and watered it to try and keep the dust down. As the first round of quals were coming up I decided to make a clutch adjustment, going from 4 carbon shoes with MED. springs to a more aggressive setup, 2 carbons same spring and 2 Alum with extra hard spring. I ran the first qual and ended up 4th for the round. Originally after day 1 I went to a softer rear spring(purple). After the 1st round of qualifying I felt it was too soft and went back, only on the rear to a stiffer spring (green). The first round ended up being the fastest round out of the 3. The rear spring was still an improvement in the later rounds, but tire choice was a cause for not improving my time.
As it came time for the mains I’d say it had dropped at least 15-20 degrees as the sun went down and the lights came on. I kept the setup of the car the same and just went to a softer tire than I had been running all day. As I took my warm up laps I was thinking wow I’m gonna win this race, my car is hooked up and suuuuuuper easy to drive. As the tone went off and I came across the start finish I was in 3rd with 1st and 2nd not too far away. The 2nd place car made a mistake in the double double section this made it easy to get around him and now I Had my sights set on getting my 811 out front. Once I caught the leader I made my move on him very quickly and was driving as hard as I could trying to stretch my lead because I knew just about everybody was going to be coming in for fuel around the 10-11 min mark and for some reason I could only go 8min. As I came out of the pits Second place was still behind me so I kept the same pace until I heard his pit man call him in for fuel. Now I just set the cruise control and tried to keep it clean, for the next 20 min. which is exactly what I did. Bringing home the BIG W….
My set-up: here: Ryan Johnson Ohio Pro Series Modina
I want to say thanks to my sponsors: Serpent America and Proline.
Ryan Johnson