Motorama 2005 CheepShot 3.0 Xhilarating impaX For this years NERC Motorama event we teamed up with Robert Woodhead of Team Mad Overlord. Roberts Kids couldn't make it due to school so there was plenty of room in his Minivan for  Andrew and I and our new 12lber "CheepShot 3.0 and our proven 30lber "Xhilarating impaX. Robert was bringing his 30lber, that had recently won last years Nationals, "Totally Offensive".   Friday 18 February, 2008 Robert arrived up at our house in Cary bright and early and we got going north just after 8.00am. Weather was fine and sunny the whole way and with only short stops for Gas, Lunch  at a "Friendlys" near Richmond and to swap drivers we had a pretty easy drive up in about 8 hours total. We went straight to the venue (this is where I remembered that I had left our entry tickets at home!) where we  unloaded our stuff, got batteries on to charge and checked out the Arena. This was smaller than the "Toad Tank" of last year and with a wooden floor but seemed fine for 30lb weight limit for the competition. Andrew and the Arena. Our Pit Table All bots got through safety without problems. CheepShot 3.0 was only 10.5lbs, Xhilarating impaX at 29lbs and totally Offensive right on the 30lbs limit.  We then headed out to  check into our Hotel, the "Hampton Inn" on Union Deposit Road, a few miles from the venue and then to Dennys for a quick dinner. Saturday 19 February, 2005 We arrived back the following morning not long after 8am. There were the usual difficulties in getting everyone's bots built and through Safety (what is it with bot builders!) so  the fights didn't start until after 11am.  I took the opportunity to countersink the armour on CheepShot 3.0 with help from Chris (the carbide countersink bit) and team EMF for the drill press. CheepShot 3.0 v VBT Thanks for most videos go to Robert Woodhead of Team Mad Overlord . CheepShots first fight was against my old nemesis VBT. This Bot or earlier versions had beaten every version of CheepShot each time we had met. CheepShot 2.0 had come  close at RCRAII until a motor failed so I thought CheepShot 3.0 would have a good chance of finally getting the better of him. The fight started well with CS3 getting under VBT a couple times and pushing him  about. VBT then got a good hit and flipped CS3 over. CS3 is invertable but the hit also seemed to have knocked the drive out at one side so after getting beaten up a bit I tapped out. This start was very  depressing! Strangely when we got the bot back to the pits it worked fine!  See a video of this fight here. Xhilarating impaX v Helios All but two bots got a bye in the first round of the 30's. The two were Xi and  Helios, the number one ranked 30lb bot in the country (Xi is 8th) and a deadly  drumbot. Andrew was pretty nervous before this fight as it possibly would be his toughest yet. The fight went very well for us. Helios could not seem to get a good bite on our S7 armour and soon flipped himself after going over the top of Xi. Andrew went on to dominate the  fight for a clear win. The Judges scoring however made it quite close and it seemed to us at least that there might have been a little favouring of active weapon bots........ See a video of the fight here.    This win was a big encouragement. Xhilarating impaX v Dark Thunder II Dark Thunder is a well built, well driven Flip Bot. He had beaten Xi at the last Motorama and we were keen to get revenge. Andrew was getting the better of Dark Thunder II when he got flipped over once and then flipped back upright again. Andrew then avoided getting flipped again and pushed and slammed  him about for the rest of the fight apart from one last flip at the end. We won by a close Judges decision again. Video Here. Xhilarating impaX v Morpheus Morpheus was ranked 3rd in the country before Motorama and was the top ranked Wedge/Brick. We hadn't fought before but it was time to decide who had the top bot!  Morpheus and  Xi are well matched,  having similar power and speed with perhaps Morpheus having the edge. This would have been a tough fight but for Morpheus making the mistake of fitting ground hugging wedges to the sides and  back. The fight started with us running over Morpheus a couple times before catching an edge of his wedges and pushing back. It looked like that was the way the match would go when Morpheus high sided himself on his  wedge. I would have left him stuck but my Son is a nicer chap and pushed him free after some boos from the crowd. It made little difference though as he almost immediately got himself stuck under the edge of the arena.  Andrew decided one free push was enough and Morpheus was counted out. Video here. CheepShot 3.0 v Son of X Son of X is an overhead spinner. The chassis looked well built but the weapon appeared too light to be very effective. The fight started with CS3 shrugging off hits from  the blade and then proceeding then to give him a series of box slams cumulating in one big one with knocked him right over. As he did not tap out I then went on to push him around the box before finally righting him  again. I flipped him over one more time and decided to let him get counted out. CS3 had performed well despite my less than perfect driving. Video here. The first day had gone pretty well with Xi going 3 and 0 and Cheepshot being 1 and 1.   We went to Dennys again for dinner (service very bad this time and Andrew  ended up eating for free after we complained) and then an early night as both Andrew and myself were completely beat.   Sunday February 20, 2005 The competition was to restart around 9.00am, but before going there Robert needed some spare bolts for Totally Offensive. There is a big Lowes DIY store just across I83  from the Hotel so a quick trip there found what was needed. We watched some Go-Karts doing practice laps for a while before the competition got going again.  CheepShot 3.0 v Penalty Shot I had fought Penalty Shot once before with CheepShot 2.0 and won a close match. It's a 4WD Bot with a low hinged wedge and this should have made it a difficult opponent.  The Bot that entered the arena however was a poor shadow of its former self with at least one wheel just hanging on by a thread.  The fight went easily to CheepShot with Penalty shot putting up little  resistance.  Video here. CheepShot 3.0 got easily past Skittlebrau and Gamma knife when they both forfeited. I never saw Skittlebrau and Gamma knife had been badly beat up in his fight with  Truncation. After a bad start CS3 was really moving through the brackets! Xhilarating impaX v Mangi Mangi is a 4WD hammer bot with a front wedge. we had been told that the hammer was not really very effective and that our top 3/16" lexan would easily protect us from it.  Mangi was driven very well and pinned Xi several times and scoring quite a few hits on the top. His Hammer then stopped working and Andrew got control of the fight giving numerous box slams including one that put Mangi  up on the kickplate. Mangi managed to bump himself free but it was clear that the drive was damaged and could only move in circles. We finished up the fight with a few more slams and looked to have won it on both  aggression and damage but much to Andrews dismay the match was given to Mangi.  View Video here. CheepShot 3.0 v Wardrums CheepShot 2.0 had been well beaten by Wardrums at the last Motorama and I knew how good a DrumBot it is so this could have been a tough fight. Wardrums weapon spun up at  the start of the bout but soon stopped working (apparently gummed up by the remains of foam chewed out of ALF in a previous fight). He still probably had the edge in pushing and the fight could have gone either way when  he got stuck under the kickplate. I planned to jam him in further but just succeeded in knocking him free again. He got stuck again and this time I made sure he stayed there by hammering him in a few times for the  knockout.  Video here. Xhilarating impaX v DarkThunderII (losers brackets) This fight started of much like the first with Dark Thunder II flipping us over after a bit of pushing back and forth. we then made the mistake of being too near the edge  when he flipped us back ad we got hung up on the kickplate. Xi was out of the Comp. going 3 and 2.  Video here. CheepShot 3.0 v All hail Kitty All Hail Kitty is a well built thwack bot but like all true thwack bots it has the big disadvantage that it is very difficult to show aggression and they rarely have  enough of a hit to damage a well armoured bot.  CheepShot 3.0 took all the hits AHK could deal out and gave him some good slams finally hanging him up on the kickplate. I could have knocked him off but there seemed  little point and only would have drained my one battery. Video here.  30lb Rumble The 30lb rumble was a blast! Andrew slammed Helios right at the start and a general melee ensued. Grue was disabled early on after losing one of his wheels, During a hit on King of  Clubs,  Xi  ran up into Grues jaws and got chewed on a bit just missing our RX. Soon only Morpheus and Helios were still moving. Morpheus knocked us free whilst finishing off Helios and then Morpheus and Xi  pushed each other around a bit with Morpheus getting the best of it.  Xi then got under Morpheus and slammed him into Grues Jaws. Grue just failed to catch the back edge of Morpheus and then Morpheus wriggled free  back over the top of Xi. A quick slam backwards flipped him over back on top of Helios who was hung up on the kickplate. Andrew was just deciding whether or not to free Morpheus when the fight was over. You can see the  video here. Grue CheepShot 3.0 v Solaris This fight for a place in the semis never took place. I placed CheepShot in the arena but when I test drove it only one side worked and the motor on the other side started smoking.  I should of asked for a postponement but I was tired and couldn't face a hurried rebuild just to face a tough opponent like Solaris.  I regret this now as I probably could have done it as CS3 is pretty easy to  strip down for motor change......Still going 4 and 1 in actual fights and 6 and 2 in the official records was a outstanding first competition for a new bot and placed it 11th in the national rankings! Xhilarating impaX v Premium Blend (Grudge Match) Premium Blends Team asked us for a grudge match and we were happy to oblige. Premium Blend got one good hit in then a good slam but then things went downhill fast for  him. He got stuck then released flipped over at least twice, his power link got knocked and replaced then was generally beat up by Xi. I counted at least 5 knockouts in the 6 minute fight! It was a fun way  to end the fighting for us. Video here. Some other bots at Motorama. ALF the now notorious Foam built 12lber. The Bot won several fights but made such a mess in the process that there is talk of banning the use of  Foam used in this way. Corona with the "NAR" drive motor built into the drum itself. The Drum worked well but the bot needs a little more work to make it fully  competitive. Kobe had a poor first comp. The flipper motor died before the first fight and the bot got badly beat up fighting Maligno and Helios going out 0 and  2. Ntertainment excelled at Motorama performing well in a tough field to finish second only to Solaris. Microkarts at Motorama Several people brought "Microkarts" to Moto. Jr was a particular hazard in his! Watch one of the "races" here We were booked into the hotel for the Sunday night and were glad not to have to start driving back at that time of night especially as there was snow forecast. We stayed  and helped strip down the arena and help tidy up before heading out for a clean up at the hotel and then a good steak at the "Lone Star" steakhouse nearby. Robert was a little disappointed in the  performance of Totally Offensive but most of the problem had been his driving rather than any major failing in the Bot! Andrew and I felt that with a little more luck Xi had been in with a chance of winning  the whole competition but had done well anyway beating two of the top bots in Helios and Morpheus. I was well pleased with CheepShot 3.0 and think it has a bright future in upcoming events. Monday February 21, 2005 We got going by about 8.00am after breakfast at the Hotel. Two inches of snow had fallen but the roads were already clear. We stopped for lunch at another "Friendlys"  near Richmond and Andrew watched DVDs while we listened to a taped Patrick O'Brian book. We were nearly back in Cary when we pulled up behind a large Dumper truck at a set of lights when it rolled back into  us. I was driving at the time so I pulled back so we could check the damage and the truck again rolled back into us. It was now obvious that its brakes had failed so we put our brakes on and stopped it  rolling back any further. A Durham County Sheriff soon arrived. he was relieved to find that the report of a Minivan hitting a Dumper Truck was not as bad as it sounded.  Soon a second Sheriffs car and a State Trooper arrived. At this point some "rubberneckers going the other way hit eachother hard and the State Trooper had more important things to do. Soom we had another State  Trooper, a large Fire engine and an Ambulance as well. The Ambulance took away the guy in the small white car and it was another hour or more before we got all the paper work filled out and got on our way. Roberts Van was  only slightly damaged but will need a new front bumper and a little work on the hood. An unexpected end to a great trip!