This Easter weekend, most of Texas converged down south in Corpus Christi. The weather couldn’t have been better. Sunny with a good strong breeze led to some great racing and great track conditions. I ran E-buggy, with my Pro-Line equipped Kyosho MP9, and 4×4 Open SC with my Pro-Line equipped SCTE. Friday was practice day and I could tell the track would take rubber and be fast. After practice with both vehicles I felt comfortable with setups, and tire choices for the next day.

Saturday showed to be exactly as I thought. 

With my MP9  Pro-Line tires were amazingly hooked up.  I ran M3 Blockades in the first round, and then went to M3 Revolvers in the 2nd round. However, in the 2nd round I had too much traction, and found myself dialing out traction, even more from practice from the previous day. During the 3rd round, I settled with M3 Snipers, and qual’d 14th overall out of 40+ cars in the class. 

In the B main after the sun started going down, the track seemed to loosen up, which was good for me. But my tire choice in the B main wasn’t the right choice. I went with soft M3 Snipers, which were good but not where I wanted to be. I finished 2nd, and took the bump spot.

In the A main, I changed from Pro-Line Snipers to Pro-Line Revolvers 2.0 and the car was awesome. With only 10 minutes in the triple A mains, I had to battle from the back every time.

In the first A main, I had the advantage of having run the B main, and knew what tires to run. I went back to M3 Revolvers. So, I was on pace with all the top guys, however, a few mistakes and a couple of rough drivers caught me out and I finished 8th that round.

A2, after the first lap mêlée I was able to get up into the top 5 and was having a good battle for most of the race. My pace however wasn’t on pace with the top guys, and one mistake allowed 4 guys to pass, and I finished again with 8th. 

A3, I again had a descent race.. But the top guys got a clean start, and I could only manage a 7th in this main. I ended up 7th overall.

4×4 Open SC was a different story, the Losi SCTE truck doesn’t have near the traction I get out of my Kyosho, however, it is fast in a different way. The quals went very well, changing track conditions would work to my favor, as the already loose truck would come to its own as the track grooved up. 

Quals started out loose, I ran M3 blockades all day. Knowing what my truck will do on Snipers, I didn’t want to make the change. I ended up 4th overall after the first round. It was obvious who was going to be the fast guys, Smiley Henn, Mike Battaile, Tyler Hooks, Issac Price, Darren Darnell so that’s who I was shooting for. The gusting winds from coastal track would be a problem for most; my Pro-Line Flotek body handled it great. No parachuting effects, for me, truck did exactly as expected.

I qualified 6th overall for the 12 truck A main behind the before mentioned drivers. A1, was a good start for me, the first corner mêlée was avoided, and I was able to come out 2nd behind Smiley Henn. Chasing him, I knew I was not on pace with him, so I settled in and finished 2nd. It was easy to see that my truck was able to jump the big jumps with ease and no worries about wind gust. I saw numerous other drivers crashing over the big jump in the back stretch, and over the big double in the front.

A2, I started 6th again, however, the corner leading into the big jump in the back caught a lot of people out. I was clean but didn’t have run enough to make the big jump and a driver from behind decided to try it, clipped my truck in midair and I landed on the right front pretty hard breaking a shock end. I limped the truck around, which is to say, drove as hard as I could but managed an 8th out of 12. Smiley Henn took the win, and the overall win.

A3, minus Smiley Henn for this race I started 5th. Again, the first corner mêlée was avoided, I was able to make the big jump on the back stretch, and everyone else either crashed, or didn’t attempt the jump. I jumped into the lead, and managed to hold it for almost the whole race. Mike Battaile, Issac Price, and Tyler Hooks managed to battle it out, but Mike Battaile started to reel me in. Nerves started kicking in, and before I knew it Mike was on my bumper, we both raced clean and fast, and managed to start to pull a gap. With about 10 seconds over 3rd place, Mike passes me on the backstretch, but he is no longer jumping the big jump, however I still made it easily. So I jumped back into the lead. Mike chased me down and made a mistake over the big double, which I think was the wind blowing his truck, but we had a quick marshal so he only lost a few seconds. I manage to keep a gap of 4 or 5 seconds and with 1 minute to go, roughly 2 laps left, I made my first mistake of the race. I jumped too close to the pipe, and it sent me into the other lane of traffic. Mike was able to capitalize. I was right behind him, and managed to traction roll my truck but I couldn’t make up the time in time. So I finished 2^nd that round and 3rd overall.  

Great weekend, great friends, great driving.