JBRL Round 7, West Coast RC Raceway
La Mirada, CA
9/16/ 2012
By Chris Blais
JBRL Round 7 would be hosted at my Dads/brothers home track West Coast RC Raceway. I headed down to La Mirada on Friday to get some early practice in and get the hang of the track. When I arrived I was surprised to see that the track had a huge berm, cross-over and a huge triple. I wheeled up on the drivers stand to check it out and noticed the track was designed to be driven from the right/middle of the drivers stand. Unfortunatley the handicap viewing area is all the way on the left side. There were 3 jumps that I couldnt see from 4-8 feet running up to the lip. This made it tough to keep the car lined up and to judge the speed. I put in a ton of laps on the track and just did t he best I could.
I put in good qualifiers in all my classes, 4×4 buggy, Pro 4, and Expert Stock Buggy. In Pro 4 I was able to qualify 6th. I jumped all in the mix in the main event and was in 2nd place at the end of the first lap. Everyone was bashing into eachother and I was able to get past some of the carnage. Then I made a mistake over the crossover, bad timing, and was back in the carnage. Then I made it back up a few positions and had another incident going back to last place. I was able to finally recover and got a chance to drive without anyone around and made it back up to get a 6th place finish. My Truck worked great all weekend with my BCE Chassis and Tekin Pro 4 power but a few mistakes cost me big time this weekend.
The Open 4wd buggy was up next. My Tekin / Venom / Pro-Line / Coyote Hobbies sponsored Team Associated B4.1 was working good all weekend. I wasn’t the fastest driver but I was pretty consistent. With only a few mistakes in the main event I was able to take 3rd Place. This would be my first podium in Open 4wd buggy and the only one for me this race.
Expert 2wd Buggy was up right after my 4wd buggy race and I was still excited after that close finish. I had a decent run but made a few mistakes off the big triple jump costing me a lot of time. There were 4 of us going back and forth for the entire race which made it really exciting. I finished up 6th place in the A Main with my Team Associated B4.1 Factory Team buggy and Pro-Line MC Suburbs all around.
Martin Blais would finish up the weekend 4th in Sportsman 4wd Short Course and 4th in Expert Stock Short Course.
2012 JBRL Round 7 Open 4WD Buggy with Chris Blais
Open 4×4 Buggy
Carson Wernimont 2nd, Justin Lew 1st, Chris Blais 3rd
Race Results
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By Nick Blais:
Finally to my home town track, West Coast Raceway, a top notch facility from the restrooms to the great employees behind the parts counter. With only one more race to go after west coast it was great to be indoors on the perfect clay surface to race on. My setups were to stay pretty much the same as I normally race there on Friday nights. The biggest change was my Prototype Pro-Line Pro-2 truck that I received on Tuesday before this race.
I spent most of Friday and Saturday working the setup on the Pro-Line Pro-2 truck in order to run with the pros. All the testing was paying off as my lap times went down by 2 seconds a lap from Friday night. Thanks to our new sponsor Tekin and the 7.5 turn motor provided what can I say “smarter, smaller, faster”. All of my race vehicles were set up with Pro-Line Surburbs MC (clay compound), and Flo-Tek bodies for all the big jumps. My bro and I had our BCE chassis set up running our 60c Venom batteries supplying all the power to runs the flawless Tekin electronics.
Qualifying went pretty good with the track getting faster throughout the day as the track would stay watered and smooth throughout the entire race program. I had a good smooth run in the 1/8 scale putting me 4th on the starting grid. The pro 4 class I started out getting the TQ in the first qualifier, then round two I got bumped back to third for the main. In pro 2 I missed the TQ by less than 1 second in the first round, and again the second qualifier everyone was going faster and got bumped back to 5th. All and all, not too bad for a pre-qualifier mishap as I was to get some Pro-Line super glue in my eye! Now I know that sounds funny but that Pro-Line glue is no joke that stuff really sticks almost gluing my eye shut. Make sure you wear safety glasses kids!
Alright on with the racing now that I can see out of both eyes. 1/8 scale A-Main race 14. Off to a smooth start making it up to 2nd on the first lap I was going good with the guys that qualified in front of me in hot pursuit. Ended up giving up the spots and tried to stay close but with so much power it is hard to stay gentle with the trigger finger. I ended up 4th at the end of the race with the leaders a few turns ahead. It’s time for a 1/8 race car not my back yard basher gas car converted, surprisingly, my Losi is holding together after all these years.
Pro 4 A-Main race 16. Well after a ten minute main event in the 1/8 I had to go turn marshal and with my adrenalin pumping full steam already I had to race pro 4 main event with just enough time to calm down for the beating the race would dish out. Off at the start everything was going good for me, off to second place and headed for the lead I got hit from the back spinning me off the track and now was to charge from next to last to third within one lap as more crashing and slamming was going on. I got out of the mess and tried to catch second as I was to get close but then little mistakes was not letting me sneak by. Not sure what was going on in the back of the pack but it sounded like most of the field was all together. Ended up Jenson, Wolf, Blais.
Pro 2 A main race 26. Last race of the night! Started mid pack on the grid and I was off to a fast start picking up a few spots right of the bat. I really don’t want to recap the video but man does everyone forget how to drive in the main? This race was just ridiculous in how many times I had to come back from the back of the pack from getting hacked out of the race. Good thing these trucks have bumpers. Well with all the beating my truck was taking the Pro-Line Pro-2 truck took all of it, and after was still straight enough to catch up and challenging for a podium spot. I had second and third in my sights as third was to make a mistake and I was going to drive right around over the triple jump, but as he straightened up I was to hesitate for just a second and I didn’t quite make the triple jump sending myself flying. That was it for me as I was to settle for a hard earned 4th place.
All in all, fun times, good series, and great people. Best of all, the last race was over by ten and I only had a short drive home. Thanks again to all of our sponsors Pro-Line, Venom, BCE, and Tekin that make it all happen. Congrats to all the winners.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqEsaDJNn38
2012 JBRL Round 7 Pro 4 Short Course with Nick and Chris Blais
Pro 4 Short Course
Nick Blais 3rd, David Jensen 1st, Scott Wolf 3rd
