Last weekend Pro-Line‘s Cody King drove out to Palm Desert RC Raceway for a tune up before the A Main Hobbies Worlds Warm-up. The goal here was to get some wheel time and break in some engines, but in the process, he won Round 7 of the JBRL. The weather was great, and it’s always fun to race at Palm Desert RC Raceway. It was a nice surprise when we arrived to find a fresh, professionally built layout from Levi Jackson at Sik Track Designs.
To be honest, nothing too exciting happened during the expert buggy final. Cody kept it boring this time as he started from the TQ position and immediately stretched out his lead. He basically lead from wire to wire, and in the end lapped the field. There was a battle for 2nd place mid way through the final between Jacob Hass and Ricky Racer, but after a less than smooth fuel stop from Racer, Haas would get the advantage and end up putting a lap on Ricky Racer. Meanwhile, Jesse Robinson would make up some time and have a shot at the 3rd spot, but then fall back 9 seconds behind Racer, with Shaun Kirkman close behind Robinson in 5th.
Expert Buggy Results:
| Driver | Pos | Q | Laps | Time | Fast Lap | Chassis |
| King, Cody, Pro-Line | 1 | 1 | 69 | 25:02.382 | 20.667 | Kyosho |
| Haas, Jacob | 2 | 8 | 68 | 25:05.110 | 20.841 | TLR |
| Racer, Ricky | 3 | 3 | 67 | 25:07.619 | 20.932 | Kyosho |
| Robinson, Jessie | 4 | 2 | 67 | 25:16.774 | 21.495 | AE |
| Kirkman, Shaun | 5 | 9 | 67 | 25:18.255 | 21.268 | Z Car |
| Smith, Cody | 6 | 7 | 65 | 25:12.563 | 21.321 | TLR |
| Elliott, Mason | 7 | 5 | 65 | 25:14.179 | 20.741 | TLR |
| Howarth, Anthony | 8 | 6 | 35 | 13:53.034 | 21.425 | Kyosho |
| Guest, Jeff | 9 | 4 | 24 | 9:21.959 | 21.681 | AE |
Cody’s Kyosho team mate, Sean Gaffney, would lead the entire Intermediate final, but a mishap with the fuel tank lid caused some fuel to leak out. This caused him to run out of fuel with two laps to go, and Sean would surrender the lead to Kellen Freeman. In the end it was Freeman in the first spot, with Gaffney second, and Andy Carrillo rounding out the podium in third.
It was a great day with some good racing. Thanks very much to Cris Marrale and Palm Desert RC Raceway for a fun event, and of course Jimmy Babcock and the JBRL crew for the hard work making it happen.
Here are some photos:
Source: CodyKingRC.com
