Hello,

I'm sure some of you will think it's lame to be so happy about a 2nd place finish but I've got to tell someone how thrilled I was yesterday! I headed down to my local track armed with my Nitro CRT and my Electric CRT. Now and then we have enough Electric Truggy/E-Maxx/E-Revo guys that we do run a class but I figured if there was not enough I'd run with the Nitro Monster guys...well, only one of those guys showed up and since I run my Nitro CRT with the truggy class my only option was to run in a full heat (7) of 1/8th scale buggies. In qualifying I was very pleased and qualified 3rd.

Now, I had NEVER run my Electric truck for more than 5 mintues in a race. Last year I had 3200 LiPos which JUST made 5 minutes with a warm up lap or two. Plus last year I had plenty of thermal issues with my old Schulze 18.97 and I'm not exactly running the most efficient motor. Anyway I was told the main was to be 15 minutes (many times this track runs 10 mins, but because of the low turn out they decided to go a little longer.) This year I switched over to the Trakpower 4900 batteries and while I've run them for a while in practice, I'd not tried going for a long race yet...I had my Nomadio voltage sensor set at a very safe level and headed out to the start line.

I decided to take it easy in the hopes of finishing the race. I still ran a quick pace when in traffic or making a pass but when I was all alone I decided to just give it what it needed and try to conserve battery. At the 5 minute mark, the truck was running fine, voltage was looking good. At 10 minutes I was still in the low 15's for voltage. At 13 minutes I started to get worried and saw the voltage go down into the low 14's but I kept going and by the end I had worked my way into a very solid 2nd place and finished under full power. Voltage was still around 14.

Oddly enough, I think not slamming the throttle everywhere helped. Trying to drive conservative kept my lines very clean and reduced wheelspin. I can't wait to do another 15 minute race next week!

DM