Date: 1/31/15
Event: CRCRC’s Winter Racing League 4.4
Track: Sparks Park
Race Setup: 3 rounds of heats and single 5-min A-Mains
Classes Raced: 4WD Short Course, 1:8 E-Buggy
Qualifying:
Round 1:
(4WD Short Course) after getting to the track and getting only 2 practice runs with the truck before the heats I was comfortable but was still going to use the first Qual to get a little more familiar with the track as I got 2nd in my race and 4th overall out of all the trucks while struggling trying to figure out a choice section in the middle of the track.
(1:8 E-Buggy) went the same as the truck. I only got 2 runs of practice because of the amount of entries and after struggling through my first heat and just trying to put a decent run in to get on the sheet against lap traffic I ended up 6th overall.
Pro-Line Products used For 4WD Short Course:
Pro-Line EVO Body
Pro-Line 4mm Wheel Lock Nuts
Pro-Line F-11 Wheels
Pro-Line MC Suburbs 2.0 Front and Rear
And for my 1:8 E-Buggy:
Pro-Line Wheel nuts
Pro-Line V2 Wheels
Pro-Line MC ION Front and Rear
Pro-Line Trifecta Black Wing
Round 2:
(4WD Short Course) after knowing where I was standing from round 1 and figuring out better sections to take I busted my way through the pack early and got clear track to shoot from 4th to 2nd overall winning my race!
(1:8 E-Buggy) from having a bad time in round 1 with lap traffic I was coming back for redemption to put a clean run in just like everyone else as we all bumped a few seconds faster than our last time and ended up staying the same overall in 6th place. But still in the A!!!
Round 3:
(4WD Short Course)
After getting my truck figured out and learning how I could make it jump better by swapping out springs instead of it slapping on the big triple… the person in front of me was a teammate so we had basically the same setup on our vehicles. We went out trying to steal TQ with our dialed in trucks! We did just that as both of us were 10-seconds faster than both previous rounds, going back and forth between first and second! Going back and forth with fast laps, I came out with fast lap and 1-second behind TQ in 2nd! When this happened I walked off the stand with a huge smile and got all kinds of “dude you were flying” and a million fist bumps to make my knuckles red! Along with a “good job” from teammate Ian Cameron.
(1:8 E-Buggy)
After finding out a couple things to make my Buggy handle a little better on power, I was hoping that this heat of E-Buggy would be similar if not exactly the same as the truck heat. Unfortunately, once again I got caught in some lapped traffic when I was on a super good, solid run. This ended up throwing me back another spot to put me in 7th overall in the A-Main… but my Buggy felt good so I felt confident that I could work my way through the pack early with my Buggy and place well!
The Mains:
(4WD Short Course) starting 2nd was definitely a plus in this class because I could set my sights right on first and stuck with him to look for a pass early because of the race being only 5-minutes long. 1st place never made any mistakes just as I did which was making 4 of the 5-minutes of the race very hard to make a pass! As we were 1st and 2nd the whole entire race with 30-seconds to go. My teammate rolled over on the off camber giving the spot up and getting a decent lead by the next lap! Right after the lap ended, 10-seconds to go and I roll on the off camber!!!! At that point I left the position and had to get moving!!!!!
While going through the rest of the last lap pretty much bumper to bumper and nose to tail, it ended up being a drag race down the front stretch to the finish. Right around the 90 corner at the end, we were both full tilt heading into the turn while the whole building was shaking from people cheering us on and we both blew through the finish into the wall almost going through the wall… and the boom ended in everyone yelling everything from “whoa!!!!!!!!” To “who the h.e double hockey sticks won!!!!!!! and let’s just say the second place finish was well worth it!!!! It was awesome!
(1:8 E-Buggy)
This race started bad! There was a pile up super early in the first lap at the front of the pack allowing me to jump right over 3 different spots when they were stuck upside down in the middle of a big double toward the back of the pack. When this happened I saw it forming and punched it to throw a huge whip over the pack boosting me to 4th and running the whole race in 4th place!!!! My buggy was feeling awesome! If only I could’ve got it that way earlier in the day.. but hey, 4th overall after starting 7th I’ll take any day. And that whip!!! I would have paid good money for that photo which made me smile 🙂
Overall:
4WD Short Course- 2nd
1:8 E-Buggy- 4th
Something fun:
Well the weekend started off great from getting an A on a test at college and leaving right from school to go to a friend’s house 4 hours away in Ohio.
When I got there it was VRC and feeding nemo fish ’til bedtime getting fired up for the race day the next morning.
On race day we got to ride in a boosted car, which is my dream if you didn’t know.
And during the races I got to learn so much stuff about my vehicles from other teammate Jeff Beck. It seems as if every time I go to Ohio I learn more and more and feel way more confident about making changes to my cars to get better at different tracks.
I still can’t find any pictures of that whip 🙁
Thank you Tekno RC, Pro-Line Racing, Venom / Atomik, Carpys, PT Racing Oils, and RCSCREWZ for all the help and letting me go support you all and have fun doing it with some friends!!!!
