F1 Big Bash

Saturday 6 April was a beautiful Autumn day, and 22 drivers enjoyed a series of fun F1 activities. Unusually for an on-road event, there was no competitive racing but the smiles on the faces of the participants told the story. We also had more than 40 registered spectators who drifted in and out during the day, and we offered free F1 drives for those who haven't yet experienced this fun hobby (with an instructor and limited to 50% throttle).

Thanks to the TFTR club (www.tftr.org.au) and in particular to their president Tim Boundy for his help on the day.

A big thank you to the sponsors Essential RC, Speedy RC, Metro Hobbies, Bezerk RC and Hearns Hobbies (if you need anything RC related these guys have great service, prices and range. More info below). Also to all the volunteers: Ian Miller and Tim Boundy for preparing the track, my wife Jackie on the canteen, son Aaron on the photos, Chris Bismire everywhere I needed him, Rob Barci on the BBQ and Matt Subotsch on the drone. 

F1 clothing was encouraged and a lot of people took the opportunity to promote their favourite F1 team. Some even went so far as to buy clothing just for this event!

Unfortunately, we didn't have enough cars to break the world record. However, we still ran all the cars on the track at once to open the event. 22 cars on track was awesome fun and the smiles and laughter told the story.

Setup Workshop

Seven drivers attended the F1 setup workshop where Dave Stevens went through our F1 Setup Cheat Sheet, explaining the basics of car setup and troubleshooting common problems.

Static Display

The roped off static display area had some fantastic looking cars and body shells. Of particular note were: Andy Bishop's 1/5th scale F1, Dave Stevens's World Record F1 car, Andy Cooke's display winner (Ferrari - bottom right of photo), and Rob Llewelyn-Jones's body shells as driven by Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandorne (on left below the bottle of Chandon) as shown in the video below:

Indy Car

We ran an Indy Car track session where we only used the outside oval of the track. All participants ran 21.5 blinky, rubber tyres, no gyro. Only one car ran independent rear suspension (marked with an asterisk below). Each driver had one lap only to set their time. Everyone enjoyed it so much that they all queued up again to have another go (and some tried 5 times!). However, only their first lap counted. Results (fastest to slowest):

Best Body Shells

• Static Display - Andy Cooke - Niki Lauda Ferrari
• Concourse - Dave Bain - Red Bull

Photos in photo gallery on this page.

Raffle Winners

• Brian Stewart - Infinity IF11 donated by Speedy RC
• Scott Rawlings - $200 Voucher donated by Essential RC
• Door prizes: Dale Aitken & Aaron de Fina won an F1 body shell each, donated by Hearns Hobbies

Super Licence

The following drivers chose to enter their best 3 consecutive laps to qualify for their Super Licence by achieving less than or equal to 70 seconds:

• Ian Miller - 62.946 seconds
• Tim Boundy - 63.312
• Emma Wilke - 67.136
• Chris Wilke - 69.906

The Super Licence was a bit of fun and not having one doesn't mean you can't race :)

Photo Gallery

Sponsors 

Massive thanks to our sponsors whose support made this event possible, please support them:

Essential RC - For all your F1 needs

Speedy RC - F1 and general RC products - big thanks for donating an Infinity IF11 kit as a raffle prize.

Metro Hobbies - Your local RC store

Bezerk RC - custom carbon fibre products

Remember, if you want to race RC there's probably a race near you every week, and most clubs will put on an F1 class if 3 or more drivers enter. See our Where to race page.

Why Race F1  |  Getting Started in F1  |  F1 Buyers Guide