Mackanick’s: Round 1 of the PA Turnpike Tussle

On Febuary 1^st Kickin Dirt RC held the 1st round of the 2015 Turnpike Tussle in Somerset, PA with a fast paced off-road layout and 95+ entries. The racing would be tight all day on the clay track.

Pro-Line drivers, the father and son duo of Jason and Ethan Mackanick were in attendance running the competitive 4WD Mod SCT class with a Tekno SCT410 and their Xray XB4 4wd Modified Buggies.The short course truck was equipped with a set of MC (Front / Rear) Electrons and the EVO body.

The buggies were both equipped with 2.4″ MC compound Transistor tires on the front, 2.4 MC compound Electron tires on the rear, and the latest 1/10th Trifecta wing.

With 21 entries, the 4wd modified buggy class, was the largest class at the event on this wintry weather day. After two rounds of qualifying, Ethan would put his Xb4 buggy on the number two qualifying spot behind Team Associated driver Matt Stoltz. Jason would qualify in the number 4 position on the staggered grid just behind Ethan for the start of the tone. Three-fourths of a lap into the race, Ethan would keep the pressure on Stoltz with Jason a short chute away running in third. Stoltz would clip the pipe and Ethan would put his buggy on a mission to begin lapping the field. Disaster would strike for the young gun at the halfway point of the 8-minute final when his receiver failed and the car had to be pulled from the race. This would allow Stoltz to take the top podium spot, Chad Buckner in the number two and Jason would hang on for a last corner pass on Matt Kirby being chased by JD Blair to secure the third place position in the class.

The 4wd modified short course truck class was a Tekno dominated presence at the front of the field. In round 2 of qualifying, Jason nearly stole the TQ spot from Jeremy Mcguigan but was not able to hang on to it while trying to work through lapped traffic. The truck on the Pro-Line Electrons could not be stopped though in the main event. On the first lap, Jason would make the pass from the number 2 position and trade the top spot with JD Blair for the next few laps until about the half way point of the race. Blair would make a mistake to allow Mackanick to take over the top spot for the remaining 4-minutes and begin to pull away from the rest of the field for the number one finishing position.