Blais Racing, JBRL Round 6 Race Report

JBRL Round 6, SDRC Raceway
San Diego, CA
7/28/ 2012

By Chris Blais:
Round 6 of the JBRL series would take place at SDRC Raceway in San Diego, CA. The SDRC group would put together an excellent track layout for us to race on. This is the largest indoor track I have ever raced on. The track was fun and their dirt was slick, especially for 2wd buggy.

We spent all day Friday at the track setting up our cars and trucks and tire testing. I ended up using MC Suburbs all around on my Pro 4 Truck, MC Suburbs on the back of my 2wd and 4wd buggy along with MC Scrubs up front.

On Saturday, I had not-so-good qualifiers this time in both buggy races. Everyone was really close on time and my smoother style wasn’t working at this track. I ended up qualifying 9th in 2wd Expert Stock buggy and 10th in 4×4 buggy. It was another story in Pro 4 where in the 2nd heat I was able to take the win and qualify 2nd behind my brother Nick who was able to TQ in Heat 1. Our Venom powered trucks were hooked up with our Pro-Line tires / bodies and new BCE Chassis. This is the best chassis I have ever driven with and it showed in our times.

In the 2wd Expert Stock Buggy main I struggled to have a clean race. It was so slick for the mains everyone was running into each other and getting frustrated. It ended up being a free for all and clean driving went out the window. My B4.1 buggy was working great but I just kept getting hung up with guys.

In the 4wd Buggy main I made a few mistakes in the beginning but got into my groove and was able to make it all the way up to 5th place. It was a great race with a lot of talented drivers. My Team Associated B44.1 Buggy was working great.

In Pro 4 I knew we were going to have a good race between, myself, Nick, Dunford & Casper. Nick led for the first lap until he made a big mistake on the double/ triple section giving me the lead. I led for a few laps until the same section bit me. I had the speed to win but two costly mistakes and a few bobbles cost me the race win. The next JBRL event will be at West Coast RC Raceway. I will be ready to capture my first Pro 4 JBRL win soon.

Thanks to Coyote Hobbies in Victorville, CA for all their support along with Pro-Line, Venom, and BCE chassis.
Martin Blais would take 6 place in Sportsman 4×4 SC with his Venom powered, Pro-Line, BCE, Losi SCTE. Martin would also finish 5th in Expert Stock SC A-main.

Pro 4 A Main at 2012 JBRL Electric Series Race 6 at San Diego Raceway

Martin Blais would finish up the weekend 5th Place in the Sportsman 4×4 SC A- main and 2nd Place in the Expert Stock SC B-Main.

Pro 4 Podium, Ryan Dunford 1st, Chris Blais 2nd, Nick Blais 3rd

Sportsman 4×4 A Main at 2012 JBRL Electric Series Race 6

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By: Nick Blais
The San Diego race came fast on the calendar and on Friday morning July 27th, my brother and I headed down to the races. My parents already had the Blais Racing pits and camp set up. We checked out the awesome track layout and started practicing. My set-up pretty much stayed the same as what I normally run, so I just wanted to get the practice time that was needed.

We decided to race Friday night just to get the Saturday jitters out. Chris and I both raced the Pro 4wd SC class and I was to run 1/8 scale also. My dad Martin ran the sportsman 4wd class as he cleaned house in every race that night. Congrats!

Me and my brother were pretty much neck and neck in qualifying but I ended up edging him out for the TQ. But when it came down to the races, Chris was to hit the sack early leaving me to lap everyone in the main event. My 1/8 scale went just about the same, lapping everyone that was on the track pulling my fastest lap time at a 21.4 which they said was a track record so far on the new layout.

Saturday morning, we all got a few batteries in and we all made the choice on running the Pro-Line Suburb MC “clay” style tires. With my 70c Venom battery and all of our new BCE chassis on, we may as well walked right up to the podium for pictures. It was nice to find out that there were only 26 qualifier heats. All the super stars were there but the race numbers were down from the last rounds. I was happy that we were going to be out of there by 10pm.

Qualifying started and the first water was right in between the two heats of pro 2 mod SC and that made it a slippery mess for everyone. That qualifier was rough and I ended up at the back of the A main. I came back to move up in round two qualifying 6th for 2wd mod SC. My Pro 4 qualifier was awesome, laying down the only 14 lap run and set the TQ for the rest of qualifying. In my 1/8 scale race, I had a pretty good run but got out of my lines a few times and ended up 4th qualifier. I came back in round two and got myself up into the #2 spot for the main.

With my good qualifying rounds down, it was time for the mains. They laid down some well needed water and the main events were off. The first 18 rounds were all B mains so from races 20-30, the Blais racing crew was going full steam ahead. My pro 2 race 20 started out good and everyone in the front of the pack started running away as Casper and I started battling for 4th. After I made my way past, I pulled away and seemed to be in my own race. I ended up 4th with nobody really around me at all. Pro 4 started race 27 smooth was the main task at hand and on lap 2, I hit the “bad spot” in the triple jump. Now back to 4th after making a few more mistakes I ended up getting smooth and found myself in a battle with Casper again. After a good clean back and forth battle for a few minutes I started to slide out and Casper came in contact with me, with him getting the bad end of that one, sorry. It ended up Ryan Dunford, Chris Blais and me. 1/8 scale Race 30 started and I doubled right off the bat and that through my rhythm off. I made the mistake of hitting the pipe in the first ten seconds of the race and after getting back to racing, I made it back to start challenging for second spot. Justin put on the afterburners and just disappeared! At the end it was David, Justin, Blais.

All in all I had a good time with great results for the Blais Racing crew! Have a good one and hope to see you all next time. Thanks again to all of our sponsors: Pro-Line, Venom, BCE chassis.