Team Pro-Line finishes 1 -2 in both Truck and Buggy at the 4th annual Ice Breaker

This past weekend the 4^th annual Ice Breaker was held at Indy RC World in Garland, TX. Even though the turn out was a little lighter than in years past that didn’t stop the talent level from showing up in full force. The track surface at Indy always provides great and fast heads up racing. With a smooth, grooved and consistent surface lap times were very close and one mistake could easily loose you half a track if a marshal couldn’t get to you quickly.

In qualifying it was the Ryan Lutz show and with top qualifying honors in both truck and buggy he was the likely favorite for when the mains rolled around. My buggy and truck were working well from day one of arriving and I knew that if I could get my tire choices dialed in then I stood a good chance of having great success, Indy was usually a good venue for me and I always seem to be fast there. In buggy I could never seem to have that one clean run but still I managed a respectable rd. 3 and would set my self up 3^rd on the grid for the main less than half a second from 2^nd.

In Truck qualifying I never quite had the correct tire choice until the last round in which I TQ’ed coming with in tenths of a second of Ryan Lutz’s TQ time therefore securing 2^nd on the grid and raising my confidence going into the main. Through out qualifying more and more rubber was building up on the smooth surface giving the track more traction, which can be good or bad. On M3 Revolvers my car was a little too hooked up so I tried M2’s in the A-main warm-up and if I didn’t stay in the groove then I got loose real quick. I decided to go with the M3 Revolver with the closed cell foam so hopefully it would keep the rubber from stretching and I would have good traction through out the main. In truck I decided to go with M3 Calibers knowing that when I wore down the top layer of the pin then the tire would really come in and be good on the high bite surface.

In the truck main, TQ, Lutz suffered early problems, which would take him off the track for repairs to get back into the race. I took full advantage as I lead from lap one and even though I was getting some early pressure from Team Pro-Line driver Derek Guidry I eventually pulled away, only having to be marshaled once in the 45 minute final. I would go on to take the win leading from wire to wire with Derek Guidry finishing 2^nd to make it a 1 – 2 finish for Pro-Line.

In the buggy main Lutz again suffered early problems when his motor cut in the first corner off the start. Team Pro-Line driver Kyle Skidmore, who was 2^nd in qualifying, got caught up with Lutz when his motor cut allowing me to make a move to get around them to take the lead. Skidmore worked his way through field fast to eventually catch me and through out the 45 minute final we swapped the lead multiple times giving the crowd a great show. With 5 minutes remaining in the main Skidmore had a 5 second advantage on me so I began to push harder and harder to catch him. With 30 seconds to go in the race while on our last lap I had regained the lead but it was not to be. I clipped a pipe forcing me to swing wide in a corner and that was all Skidmore needed to regain and take the win with myself finishing 2^nd, again making it a 1 – 2 finish for Pro-Line.