This past weekend, June 1st I attended the first round of a local points series called the Northeast Super Series; also known as N.E.S.S. It’s a four round series between Wolcott Hobby and Raceway in Wolcott, CT and Barnstormers in Chester, NY. Rounds 1 and 3 will be held at Wolcott Hobby and rounds 2 and 4 are at Barnstormers. For round 1 there were 120+ entries creating great racing in every class with many fast drivers. When I arrived I quickly set up my pit and began to prep my car. The format for the day would be 2 five minute qualifiers followed by the mains. The A-main for nitro buggy would be 25 minutes. Open practice got kicked off at 9:30 am sharp and racing began at 11. The layout was the exact same as the CT State championship held there a week before. Wolcott Hobby is my home track so I had plenty of practice before hand, and I also spent the morning breaking in a new engine. My first time hitting the track would be my first qualifier.
Qualifying:
With the heats set up I was in heat number 5, which was the last nitro buggy race for the round. This gave me a slight advantage as I was able to watch the track develop every race and I also knew the time I had to beat. I went out for warm up in my heat and my car/engine felt great. As I came into pit lane to top off my engine was lacking power. My pit guys found my pressure line had broken off. They quickly replaced the line and sent me out. The run went great and I was on a new TQ pace by over 20 seconds. Near the end of the run I tried a few new lines and made some mistakes but still took down TQ. For round 2 I left my car the same and just focused on cleaning up my run. Unfortunately that didn’t work. I crashed on the third double on my first lap and was upside down for close to 10 seconds. I quickly worked my way back up to second place and was only 3 seconds down from the leader. I made a few mistakes on the last lap which dropped me back to fourth but my TQ time from round 1 held up.
Main:
For the main I made a few minor changes to make it easier to drive. Off the start I took full advantage of starting first and quickly pulled away from the field. Before the first round of pit stops I had a 10+ second lead over second place. I made a few mistakes which allowed second place Team Associated driver Alex Kosciuszek to take the lead. He led for a few minutes until he crashed and flamed out. I retook the lead and led for the remainder of the race and took the win by a lap over second place TLR driver Jay Bless, and TLR driver Stephen Plackis rounding out the podium in third.
The top 12 were:
- Kyle Rhodes-Kyosho
- Jay Bless-TLR
- Stephen Plackis-TLR
- Alex Kosciuszek-Team Associated
- Jimmy James Rivera-Kyosho
- Mark Smyka-Hot Bodies
- Lester Bastenbeck-Kyosho
- Nick Zaccaro-Hot Bodies
- John Koiva-Hot Bodies
- Kevin Mcdaniel-Mugen
- Jon Frascatore-Kyosho
- Justin Drinks-Kyosho
My Kyosho MP9 TKI3 was dialed all day on Pro-Line M3 Blockades . They showed very little wear after running them throughout qualifying and the main.
