Yesterday I finished up my weekend of racing at the 2014 Pay It Forward Race at A-Mains Outback Raceway in Chico California. I arrived at the track later Friday night for some practice and to also do a little club racing with some friends. With the big race the next day, the club race nearly consisted of 100 entries. Feeling confident with my cars I was able to set TQ in both of my classes that night, but decided to sit out the Main to be able to get some rest for the next day.
Qualifying:
After getting some breakfast and and signing up with a few toys, I quickly learned this race would consist of more than 160 entries and almost three heats of 4WD Buggy and stock 17.5 Short Course, the classes I would be running. With the likes of Eric Albano, Philip Atondo, Jason Moberly, and Kyle Layton I knew this would a pretty stacked field of great drivers. For the 1st round of qualifiers, Short Course was first for me, I had a fairly clean and fast run but was not able to take the TQ but was able to get the 2nd spot. For my 4WD Buggy, the class I was most excited for, felt great and I managed a 2nd for the round behind Albano missing the next lap by 2-tenths of a second! After cleaning and refreshing both of the cars, Round 2 would start. Short Course was first up for me, unfortunately I had a pretty bad start putting me into 6th place in the middle of the race, after trying to be as consistent as possible I ended up in 2nd again for the round. In 4WD I had a near perfect run without any mistakes but I still ended up in 2nd this time only 2-seconds off of the leader.
Mains:
After securing the 2nd spot on the grid for both of my classes I decided to make a rear shock change on both of my cars to a softer spring rate to handle to bumps and whoop section a little better to gain that last few tenths. After making changes the cars were much better during the warm up time. The 2WD Stock Short Course A-Main was first for me once again, on the first lap I was able to make a pass for the lead, me and Kyle Layton battled back and forth furiously for all of the 6-minutes and at one point for ten laps straight we were no longer than 5 tenths of a second apart from each other! He was able to get the better end of it by winning but I will certainly remember this race for a long time! My 4WD Main was the last race of the night with Eric Albano having to leave early I started on the pole. I knew I needed to be very consistent and fast at the same time to have a chance to win, I had a great start and was slowly pulling away from the pack but towards the last 2-minutes I made a bad mistake coming onto the straight away due to the terribly blown out jump face. 2nd place quickly caught up to me and it was a race of mistakes, luckily I raced a good last minute of the race and was able to secure the win!
Overall this was a great race for an amazing cause to help and provide families with children to have an amazing Christmas.
All of my Pro-Line Electron Tires were definitely on point and my new Tekin electronics were absolutly amazing, I never had eletronics run so fast yet so cool!
I will definitely remember this race for a long time! I also I want to say a huge thanks to my sponsors, Tekno RC, Pro-Line, Tekin, Airtronics, DE Racing, All Around RC, Reds Airbrush Designs, and Epic 1 Designs!
