August 4th – 5th, 2012 I traveled to Alvin, TX for the 2012 RC Pro Texas State Series Finals. The crew at Ultimate RC had built a very fun and challenging track for the best racers in the state. With temps predicted to be in the 90s all weekend and a 40% chance of rain on Sunday, we knew it was going to be a long, but fun weekend!
PRACTICE
I got there Friday afternoon to dial in my Xray vehicles and finish breaking in some new motors. My cars were awesome from the start, and I just focused on testing tires, and fully breaking in my engines instead of making setup changes. M2 Revolver 2.0 VTR’s were the tire for truck, and M2 Revolver 2.0’s were the tire for buggy!
QUALIFYING
The qualifying format for this race was 3 rounds of 7 minute heats taking your best 2 rounds to decide your qualifying spot in the main. In the first round of truggy qualifying, I was on a top 3 run, but made a couple of small mistakes towards the end of the race and finished 4th overall for the round. In the second round, I just wanted to get a good clean run in, and I did, for a 3rd overall. In the 3rd and final round of truggy qualifying, I was just about to start my run, but my steering ackerman snapped in a corner. I really didn’t know how that happened, because I didn’t case a jump or anything, I think it was a stress fracture. So I DNFed the last round, and my 4th in the first round and 3rd in the second round set me up to start 4th in the 45 minute main on Sunday. In the first round of buggy qualifying, my XB9 was the best it has ever felt. I was on a TQ run for most of the run, but with a couple of laps to go, I made a couple of small bobbles. My run was still good enough for a 2nd overall just .1 off of Jason Branham’s TQ run. In the second round of qualifying, I was on another good run, when I crashed on a double jump, and the marshall for that section had took a broken car to pitlane, so I sat there for at least 15 seconds, and got an 8th overall for the round. In the final round of buggy qualifying, I was trying a different line on the corner jump and It didn’t work out for the first couple of laps. So I went back to the line I was used to doing and raced a fast clean run for the final 6 minutes and ended up TQing the round, only 2 seconds over Branham! Since me and Branham each had a 2nd and a TQ, we went to a tiebreaker, and I thought I had the overall TQ because I had the fastest run, but they decided to use your 3rd best round, so I was starting 2nd for the 45 minute main on Sunday!
MAINS
We decided to stay at the track on Saturday night to get my cars ready for the mains, so we could sleep in a little on Sunday. We got to the track at about 11 A.M, and right when we got there, it started pouring rain, everyone started thinking dejavu because the Finals were cut short last year because of rain, and the race was being held at the same track as last year. It rained for about 30 minutes, and the track was soaked, the Ultimate track crew worked hard to get it back to racing shape, just for it to start raining again! After the second rain shower everyone thought we were done racing, but the Ultimate crew worked hard and got the track back into racing shape! After a couple of mains, the track started looking really good, and it looked like it had more grip than it had the last time I raced on it. The truggy main was coming up and my plan was just to race a clean and consistent 45 minutes. I got a good start and settled into 4th for a while, and made my way into the lead at about the 15 minute mark. I battled with Robbie Darby for the next 15 minutes, and after about 30 minutes, I was about 5 seconds behind Robbie. I started running clean laps, and got back into the lead with about 10 minutes to go. Something happened to Robbie, and he dropped down to 3rd, so I had a big lead over second, and just took it easy for the rest of the main, and won! This was my first win in the Expert class so I was super pumped!
Truggy Results-
2. Denver Houghton
3. Mike Battaile
4. Robbie Darby
5. Ryan Mosley
In the buggy main, I got off to another good start, and was in the lead for the first couple of minutes, but made a couple of mistakes and dropped down to third. I settled into third, just a couple of seconds behind Branham and Dellinger in first and second. I started catching up to them, but made a lot of mistakes in the next couple of minutes, and fell far back of them in 3rd. I just settled into third. knowing that Branham and Dellinger were pretty far ahead of me, but with about 10 minutes left, the set crew in the rear CVD backed out, and dropped me down to 7th. I got back on the track and finished 6th. It was a bummer, but that’s racing!
Buggy Results-
1. Jason Branham
2. Jake Dellinger
3. Denver Houghton
4. David Joor
5. Thomas Wells
In the overall points for the year, I finished 2nd in truggy behind Mike Battaile, and 3rd in buggy behind Jake Dellinger and Mike Battaile. I want to congratulate Pro-Line driver Grayson Witt on a solid 4th place finish in truggy for the year!
So, overall, this weekend was a good one. I think this was one of the funnest racing weekends of my career, and I had good results, so I’m happy! I want to thank Ultimate RC for putting on a great race, and David and Susie Lovett for putting on an awesome series! I can’t wait for next year!
Till next time,
Cade “Young Gun” Whitenton
Products Used
Truggy-
Practice, Qualifying, and Main-
Buggy-
Practice- M2 Revolvers
1st Round of qualifying- M2 Snipers
2nd and 3rd rounds of qualifying- M2 Revolvers
Main- M2 Blockades
