This past weekend Pro-Line Driver Jake Dellinger attended the R/C Pro National Finals held at Gulf Coast Raceway in Porter, Texas. With over 200 entries and National titles on the line the four day event was shaping up to be an amazing weekend with a lot of close racing.
Read on for the full report from Jake!
“I ended up on Blockade‘s my go to tire in the M4 compound!”
Thursday morning the event got kicked off with a full day of open practice, followed by Friday with controlled practice from 8 a.m to 12 p.m. At 1 p.m two rounds of qualifying would be run, with the last two qualifiers and lower mains being run on Saturday, and the rest of the mains on Sunday. Practice went well and I ended up on Blockade‘s my go to tire in the M4 compound, and decided this was the tire I was going to go with for qualifying.
Qualifying didn’t go as well as I had wanted but after four rounds I ended up with with a 5th overall in the Pro 1/8th E-buggy class, which put some added pressure on me as Team Associated and Pro-Line Racing teammate David Joor qualified 2nd and Hot Bodies Brian “Smiley” Henn with the TQ were both 2nd and 3rd behind me in National points, which meant the National title was up in the air between the three of us! In the Pro 1/8th nitro buggy class I ended up 3rd behind TQ Xray’s Jason Branham and TLR and fellow Pro-Line teammate Josh Glancy.
Sunday morning the mains would start bright and early, and my first race would be A1 the first of 3 10 minute mains in Pro 1/8th E-buggy. I started 5th on the grid and would pace the drivers and await their mistakes, by the half way point I made my way to 2nd and was catching leader David Joor. As he came into traffic he made a mistake and wrecked by the loop, I went to the inside of his wrecked car but misjudged the pipe and wrecked myself costing me time that I could not make up so I finished 3rd with Joor getting the win and Glancy 2nd.
A2 started the same way with me pacing the drivers in front but would finish much different with me getting the win this time with a mistake free run 6.5 seconds over Henn in second and Glancy 3rd.
A3 the last E-buggy Main was the decider of who would take home the win, the tone sounded and the race started like the others with me once again pacing behind, on lap 2 Joor wrecked falling all the way back to 7th and I managed to get up to 2nd and was able to follow behind Henn in the lead till about the half way point where Henn would traction roll at the end of the straight allowing me to get by for the lead and take the overall win by about 12 seconds over Joor who worked his way up from 7th followed by Glancy in 3rd. With me getting the overall win I was also able to get R/C Pro Series National Title from David Joor who has held the title for the last three years!
In the 45 minute 1/8th Nitro Buggy main I started 3rd behind Branham and Glancy I paced the pair for the first few laps but could not stay with them so I hung back in 3rd and just ran my race, at about the half way point TLR’s Mike Battaile would reel me in and we battled for what seemed like hours! After about 10 minutes of him staying no more than a foot off of my wing I carried a little too much speed into one of the high grip corners and put the car on 2 wheels but quickly corrected and got back on all fours but Battaile managed to slip by! Branham would suffer from a flame out and would put Battaile into 2nd and me in 3rd and that is where we would finish behind Glancy in 1st.
Throughout all of qualifying electric, and nitro mains I used Pro-Line Blockade’s in the M4 Compound.
Pro E-buggy Final
1.Jake Dellinger- Pro-Line M4 Blockade
2.David Joor
3.Josh Glancy- Pro-Line Hole Shots
4.Brian “Smiley” Henn
5.Jeremy Cupps
Pro E-buggy National Points
1.Jake Dellinger
2.David Joor
3.Brian “Smiley” Henn
4.Isaac Price
Pro 1/8th Nitro buggy Final
1.Josh Glancy- Pro-Line Hole Shots
2.Mike Battaile
3.Jake Dellinger- Pro-Line M4 Blockade
4.Jason Branham
5.Cade Whitenton- Pro-Line M3 Blockade
Pro 1/8th Nitro buggy Points
1.Josh Glancy
2.Jason Branham
3.Mike Battaile
4.Jake Dellinger
5.Cade Whitenton
