The RC Race Barn in Jefferson City, MO is a good sized indoor off-road track literally in a barn. The track is usually hosts only 1/10 and 1/8 electric off-road and dirt oval, but for this race they opened their doors and invited the nitro guys to come and race. Some of fast guys came from all over the state, including St. Louis, Kansas City, and countless others.
On the Friday the track was open for evening practice. I was not in a big rush, since most of the track was the same as the last time I raced there with my 1/10 2wd, and 4wd buggies. So I was mainly gluing tires, helping others, and watching the moisture content of the track. I glued up some X4 IONs and X4 Holeshots, so I would be prepared if the track was run dry or wet. My first run of the day was in E-Buggy, with my IONs. The track still had good moisture in it, so my XB8e was dialed. Next was nitro, since the track was drying out and forming a slick blue groove, I opted for my X4 Holeshots. Again my car was great, ran a couple of tanks to get my tune down and to get my nitro finger working again. Before the night was done, I took my ebuggy out on X4 Holeshots just to get the feel down before qualifying.
No water was being laid down at all, so the track would get slicker as the weekend would go on. So before qualifying I made some clutch and brake adjustments on the nitro XB8 and some rear geometry changes to the XB8e to better suit the changing track.
Qualifying started very smoothly. I put in two close 3rd place runs in nitro and electric, and since it was rocket round qualifying, as the track got slicker, the first round times were the fastest. For the 2nd and 3rd rounds of qualifying I focused on getting my lines down, being smooth and consistent, and getting my buggies ready for the mains. For both mains, I stuck with the same X4 Holeshots that I practiced and qualified on, since there was little-to-no wear.
First main was nitro, which was 15mins long. In warm-up my car felt better than ever. My cars just didn’t seem to care about the slick groove that had built up. On the start I got tangled so I dropped to the back of the pack (8th to 9th). Throughout the main, I battled my way through traffic and made the pass for 3rd with 30 seconds to go. I held on to get 3rd, the first podium of the 2014 Nitro Season. My X4 Holeshots gave me excellent grip throughout the entire weekend.
Next up was my 10-min electric buggy main. This one was surprisingly hassle-free, since the qualifying times were super close. I started 3rd and stayed there the entire race. I was only a handful of corners back from 1st and 2nd, and had a comfortable lead over 4th. Everyone was turning close lap times, so the only way any ground was gained or lost, was through wrecks. I kept it clean and brought home a solid 3rd.
Thanks to all my sponsors for the 2014 season, Pro-Line, Byrons Fuel, Castle Creations, Xray, Rcamerica, Hudy, Lutz R/C, and a special thanks to Riggs designs for the awesome paint work.
Pro-Line products used:
X4 Holeshots # 9041-004
X4 IONs # 9047-004
Lightweight Velocity White wheels # 2738-04
