Stupidest Racing Mistake Ever

[pudder]

Everyone, tell what was your dumbest mistake you have made at racing.

I still think my biggest mistake was forgetting my RADIO at home! I dont know how, but I managed to find a way :(

[sixandeightstringer]

I carpooled with friends to a track about 30 minutes away once... I met at one of their houses and accidentally left one of my bags in my car.

That bag had both of my cars in it.

I didn't realize it 'til we got to the track. Had to borrow his car, drive 30 minutes back to his place, and 30 minutes back to the track.

Duh.

[Gutter Ball]

I brought the wrong radio. I used to have an XR2 and an XR3, grabbed the XR2 and was off to do nothing but marshall all day.

[pudder]

And then there is always the classic; putting a dumped pack in your truck. :mad:

[clancy]

I forgot to secure my batteries, I made it into the second lap before The batteries flew out after a crash and almost injured a spectator. Good times, good times:(

[pudder]

And then there is another little one: not tightening down the pinion/wheel nut. :p

[rocknbil]

I used to race in buggy and truck class. One of the things I did between heats of both races was pull the motor, clean it, and put it back in. Doing that and peaking batts can keep you pretty busy weeeelllllll . . . . threw the truck on the track for the second heat and reached under the body, turned it on . . . . nothing. Thought I'd forgotten to connect the battery and took the lid off . . . nope, battery fine . . . .


NO MOTOR.


DOH! :D

[getoffmylawn4]

A while ago, I raced a GT on a track that was an hour away every Sunday. I took the main motor and spare motor out for cleaning, and forgot to put them in my pit bag. I drove two hours round trip to turn marshall all day. That was great fun:rolleyes:

Ben

[ViperKid]

don't feel bad rocknbil your not the only one who has done that. I spent two hours putting my truck back together after i replaced a striped gear, then i took it to the track with no motor. you forgot to put it in, i forgot to take it.

[josche_rs42]

i forgot to put a hole for the stinger on my new body ones. the car kept stalling on the track all the time i gave it trottle. i thought the engine was screwed or somethin. i checked it about a dozen times until i realized it was the body!!!!!!! lol

[Scomp87]

howbout bringing the transponder back home with you on at the end of the race?

[TC3Racer]

oh thats a good one! i have brought the transponder home numeral times!

my dumbest mistake was probably switching servos and not attaching the horn to the servo... buzzer goes i floor it and turn... AND TURN... no turning for me and i break a hub carrier and an a- arm. ouch.

[nitroguy2001]

I forgot to recharge my reciever batteries the nite b4 and durring the main, i noticed the car not breaking or turning very fast, and then all of a sudden it wouldnt turn and i didnt finish and i was in first, ggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
i charge the nite b4 now

Brian~

[MAXX 2.5]

forgeting to refuel inbetween heats

[Prinler]

Forget the brush Springs on the motor :( bad bad bad

[Xray Joe]

I forgot to put in the cross pins that transfer power from the layshaft to the belt drive pulleys. I had no idea what was wrong, and I had to pull the whole car apart to figure it out.

[InspGadgt]

Not checking all my solder joints right before the A-main of a major national event :mad:

[Gutter Ball]

and just happened this weekend: forgot ALL my radio/receiver crystals. Lucky there was another fellow who had an M8 and let me use a set.

[Prinler]

NOW THATS STUPID AND DUMB :p :D :cool:

[Dinternetman]

my first race ever, the HPI challenge in southern california.

I started my nitro car put it on the track and forgot to turn it on!!!

[Prinler]

Im missing something. You started the car. then put it on the track and forgot to start it? How does that work?

[Gutter Ball]

Haha, I'm not a nitro person, but I think you can start the motor up without any of the electronics on so it kinda sits there......idling!

[mab_man20]

How about soldering the motor leads on backwards after cleaning.

Buzzer sounds, i hit full throttle, the guy behind me gets really mad!!

Fortunatly it was just a heat.

[pudder]

Ugh, i've done that before...

How about not putting in a transponder?
Not putting on body clips?
Not soldering your motor at all? :p

[Clod_Killer]

There was a kid at the track once that broke a rear bulk on his T-Maxx, when he put it back together, he flipped the diff around on accedent. :rolleyes: Needless to say it was a 1 truck tug of war when the start tone sounded. I couldn't stop laughing.

[Distro]

I jsut did it this weekend, thought i was on chan 88 but i had 66 in because i had to change the week before for the race and i forgot. So during practice and stuff i was on 66 (while there was this other guy who had 66 also) but i grabed the 88 pin over and over. So when it came for the first qual i was wondering why my car was not acting right and his also.. So i switched cryst6als apologized really dumb mistake on my end.

[pudder]

One day I was out running at home and broke a rear a-arm mount for my T3. The next day I went to racing, ran into the pro shop and bought some RPM a arm mounts. I went back to install them. They looked nothing like my other ones. And they had 3 holes. I was so confused, and asked someone I knew. He said "what the hell are you thinking, you bought the GT a arm mounts!"

I was so embarrased, put the crap back into the bag (luckily I saved it all) and fortunately returned it in exchange for the correct T3 ones.

I went back to my pit table to install them. But I couldn't seem to get them right. The screwholes on the rear chassis plate and the a arm didn't match up. I took a look at it once i finally got them installed, and I had mounted them onto the spot where the chassis plate mounts to the rear chassis! Agh! I ripped it apart, put it back on the proper mount holes, and still had plenty of time left before my race!

[Ian Dunn]

Not getting the channel clip, two of the same frequencies and a parking lot full of angry racers don't mix.

[pudder]

One day last indoor season I was driving my Evader around the track for practise at lunch time. There was a guy tuning his 1/12 pancar at the end of the straight (dumb if you ask me) and I didn't see he was there. I was barreling down the straight, and approaching his car, the guy stuck out his foot and my truck went flying away. Lucky for him because I would have hit his car, but still he could have been nicer about it, he sorta started telling me off. :(

[Clod_Killer]

Hey pudder, you could write a book lol. :p

[pudder]

I'm sure I could. :(

[dainjarouz]

i wasnt racing or anything....just screwin around in the back yard...i mustve thought the radio was made of steel because i was turning and mustve put like 100lb of pressure on the steering wheel and it snapped and kept turning (later futaba told me i broke the steering pot) the radio and ,consequently, the stadium blitzer were out of commission for about 5-6 years?!...currently looking for a used vintage futaba mag jr or mag sport radio. :o

[Prinler]

E-mail me... i just purchased 2 brand new Tx's so i have an old old Futaba magnum. the antena is beat up and the battrey door needs to be taped on... its acually in my garbage can right now. lol
hiimsteve@charter.net

[nitrofun]

letting my little cousin hold my remote control for me while i wnet to get my other car, he floored it because he thought it was a toy and lets just say my RS4 is closer to 1/12 scale now, broke front A arms, shock tower, busted 3 tie rods broke rim, destroyed bumper body and one body post, also bent chassis...can we say $$$ for repairs, but at least I can fix it cause I have enough money from xmas, but yeah my cousin is never gonna be near one of my cars again. Little punk...why I oughta beat the...nevermind..hehe :D

[JitsuGuy]

Man, this thread is hilarious! Just a few weeks ago, I changed the kickup block on Losi XXX-S. This required me to remove the front bumper... Very easy. Okay, so I removed it changed the block then replaced the bumper... After that I adjust my droop again to 3mm. Race Time!!! Wahoo!!! Put my car on the track and then run it towards the starting line... The whole front end is dragging!? I'm like WHAT THE HECK!??? So I look at it and when I replaced the bumper I forgot to attach the bumper brace to the chassis. So when I adjusted my droop screws it pushed the front bumper down, down, down and I didn't notice it!

Then just last weekend, I was adjusting my camber to -1.5 and when I turned the rear turnbuckle with the punisher wrench the ball cup popped off. No, problem, just reattach it. RACE TIME!! Wahoo!!!! Put the car on the track, run it to the starting line, but don't run it hard so I can conserve battery life... AND WE'RE OFF!!! WHAT THE HECK?!?! I have hardly ANY acceleration! The car goes by me, (vroooooom, whiiiiiiiiine) I'm thinking to myself, man, what's wrong here?! I run it a little longer then pull it, because it's just so doggy. After looking it over, when the ball cup popped off the CVD came out of the outdrive! When I reattached it, I didn't put it back in!!!! DUH!

:D

Jits

[TXT Crazy]

I once brought the wrong crystals for my radio. that sucked but they had more for $30.:( , then the classic oops I forgot my transponder start the race over everyone is always happy about that one:rolleyes:

[fmolzer]

We had a parking lot race 2 years ago and it was a point series. I was the points leader with a couple of points over my arch rival at the track. As I grabbed my radio from the impound area to get ready for the main and switched on the Rx in the car, it did not respond at all. I got stressed up and started to look for possible problems as the "less than 5" was yelled. By now I was furious with my car that did not cooperate, the last resort was that the switch was bad, so I cut the wires to the switch and twisted them together, still no sign of life and now the race was already missed... Later while packing up to go home and take out my revenge on the car, I noticed that my nametag had come of the Tx. On closer examination, it turned out it had the wrong crystal too. Yepp, you guessed it by now. I lost my lead in the point series because I grabbed the WRONG radio from the impound. :mad: :mad: :mad:

This is why, all my radios these days feature a flourocent orange colour around the entire base...

At least, I try to learn from my mistakes.
My arch rival (and close friend) thanked me a lot for messing up though....

[drift]

Some dudes bumber came off, and I ran it over so it got caught between my tire and body and was just scoring my tire away on one spot, so then i brought it into pit and my bud down there got it out, i told him "nah leave it on, that tire'll do good for the rest of the race"

Next thing I know, coming around the first bend my tire guts itself and i had to bring it around that lap on its rim, differential unloading the whole time.

COULDA been worse..Coulda been real. I dunno what the race was, it was in the summertime, but if anyone follows the Trans-am races, a similar thing happened on a corvette, and the rim heated up so much, in addition to the brake's heat, and the lug melted itself onto the rim of the car and they had to saw it off and replace the hub to stay in the race. I think it was the yellow and white corvette with the palm tree on the doors.

[Peterbilt]

Its not a racing mistake but it was still pretty stupid.

I had finished one of my break in tanks on my 2.5 T-Maxx and had shut it off to cool.

The stupid part?

I purposely touched the cooling head on the engine:rolleyes:

I'm not really sure why...guess I wanted to see how hot it was:rolleyes:

[pudder]

I accidently grabbed the wrong TX from the impound once, luckily as I was walking back to my pit I realized and got mine. I have a very different and unique wheels on mine now.

[tamiyajoe]

i remember once me and my friends were having parking lot races, but it was setup just like the real races and (of course) i was rushing to finish my car i was on the track and i just finished tightening up my driverside wheels.

we started on a straightaway and everything was fine, i was in 2nd, then we had to make a Very simple left turn. at first it looked goos, then out of nowhere, my passenger side rims came flyin off. i look on my work bench and waht is on it? 2 wheel nuts!!

[Pro3/nmt105]

at the ny hpi challange the antenna tube came loose on my nmt and i didnt wanna stop to put it back on and loose a few places so i kept going and eventually the antenna was ripped in half and i lost control. well that ruined that qualifier. second qualifier steering ball cup pops off only one wheel steering i couldnt make the turns but none of the marshalls would pop it back on so i kept hitting stuff. i till made it into the a-main cause lots of people had problems. then the worst happeen 3 minutes before the a-main im starting the engine tuning it a little and in my head i was thinking wouldnt it suck if my pull start failed me now. then a couple seconds later starting it the knot holding the starting cord to the handel came undone and the rope slipped into the pullstart. well i figure a starter box can start it like this so i get a guy to lend me his starter box well the pullstart locked the engine up and i missed the main. It was the worst rc day of my life.

[biturbo15]

I just wanted to say thanx for writing these. I want to get into racing but unfortunently all of the tracks around me right now are shut down for winter. But N E ways I get to see what you guys did bad and I get to learn from your mistakes.

[pudder]

Heh, this turned out to be pretty good! Get's me in more of a mood for getting back into racing on the 5'th. :)

[biturbo15]

the 5th? is that when the season starts? aww I want to race soo bad!

[Peterbilt]

Pudder, is your track indoor or outdoor? Mines indoor so we race all year.

[pudder]

The 5'th is when MY season starts, I don't know about everyone else's.

For the winter we have indoor carpet racing. The owners of the track just rent out a building or small warehouse with power, heat and facilities. The location changes every year for it. In the summer we have a permanent offroad outdoor track location. I like having two different tracks, much better to having one year round, get to appreciate things more. :)

[Off_Road_Fury]

Originally posted by Clod_Killer
There was a kid at the track once that broke a rear bulk on his T-Maxx, when he put it back together, he flipped the diff around on accedent. :rolleyes: Needless to say it was a 1 truck tug of war when the start tone sounded. I couldn't stop laughing.

I'v done that before! luckey I caught it before I went driving. I thought something was Seriously wrong. Iit was myfirst 4wd. figures :rolleyes: