Race Report March 9, 2015
Colton Kiefer

The 2015 Chitown Shootout is in the books. What a great event with over 300 entries. I showed up at the track on Thursday for practice to find a very open and yet challenging track. The Leisure Hours Crew did an amazing job with the layout for this year’s Chitown Shootout. I decided I was going to run 4 classes this year, Expert Stock Buggy, 2WD Mod Buggy, 4WD Mod Buggy, and 1:8 E-Buggy.

This year’s race was setup as a 4 day event. Thursday and Friday morning were practice. 2 Qualifiers on Friday and 2 on Saturday with the Mains all on Sunday. They also had the Dash for Cash races setup for Saturday night with the 3 biggest classes competing. These classes would end up being Expert Stock, 2WD Mod Buggy, and 4WD Mod Buggy. They also were having the enduro race in Saturday night using 2WD Mod Buggies.

During practice I made changes to both my setup and gearing in Stock and Mod 2WD because the track was more wide open and flowing than my previous visit to this track.

I ran in new sets of Pro-Line Electrons on all my vehicles to be ready for the qualifiers.

In 2WD Mod I could not keep the rear end of my Buggy planted to the ground. It seemed to just skip over the bumps. I ended up adjusting my shock oil and spring to gain traction.

On to qualifying, first up was Expert Stock Buggy. I started out the day on a great run with only one mistake, catching the tube at the end of the straight. With that mistake I would end up with a 3 for round 1. I ran an excellent round 2 but could only get a 4 for the round. I decided to play with the gearing to get some more rip out of the car. This definitely helped but I could only get 2 more 4’s in round 3 and 4. I would end up 4th overall on the grid for the Mains on Sunday.

2WD Mod is one of the toughest classes to race and it has been one of my demons for some time. I started out with my normal setup from my local track. This gave me a good starting point for the weekend. After the changes that I made in practice, I felt my car was better for the track conditions. I started out the day with a not so good run. I struggled with timing on the big triple in the middle of the track. So in round 2 I turned my EPA down to help me drive more consistent, this would help as I ended with a 12 for the round. This was the best run I have had with 2wd mod at this track ever. After the resort on Friday night, I ended up in the middle of B Qualifying. On Saturday, I had a decent run in round 3 but had some bad luck in round 4. I ended up 2nd in the C-Main.

4WD Mod was the second biggest class at the event. My car is always really good on this track and I always seem to overdrive because of the awesome traction here. I started out with a clean run that gave me a 10 for round 1. In round 2 I just made to many mistakes that put me somewhere around 20th. I ended up 6th in B Qualifying after the resort. On Saturday, I broke the car in round 3. In round 4, I needed a great run to be in a position to make the main. I ended up with a 7 for the round. It was not good enough for the A, so I ended up 4th in the B-Main.

In 1:8 E-Buggy, I started out with a bulls eye on my back. I have won the past 2 years at this race. I did not make any changes to my car after practice other than new Tires. I started out with a 2 for round 1 and 2. On Saturday, I started to have problems getting through traffic. I did not have any good runs in round 3 and 4. I would still end up 2nd on the grid for the A-Main.

On to the mains. First up for me would be the C-Main of 2WD Mod. I started out 2nd on the grid. 1st and 2nd pulled away from the rest of the pack of cars. I was in 2nd but started to struggle with traction half way through the main. The pack came back up to me but I would end up finishing in 2nd and bumping into the B-Main.

Next up was the B-Main of 4WD Mod Buggy. I started 4th on the grid. The first couple of laps it was 1, 2, 3, 4 freight training around the track. I worked my way up to 3rd behind Al Horne. We battled for a couple of laps until Al’s car broke on the triple. I eased back and ran a clean rest of the race to make the bump to the A Main.

The 2WD B-Main was up 2 races after the 4WD B-Main. In the 2WD B-Main I had to change tires. The traction was so high and the track was getting abrasive I ended up eating up my tires in the C. This would provide no help for me in the B. I started out good making it up to 8th, but a crash and then another and then another would not help. I ended up 10th overall. This was the best I have ever done at a big race in 2WD Mod.

The first A-Main was Expert Stock Buggy. I started 4th on the grid. At the start I worked my way up to 3rd, but by this time the traction was really high and rolled the car over a couple of time which put me back in to 6th or 7th. I spent the rest of the race working through the pack to end up 5th at the end. My Buggy was great but just drove to aggressive for the track conditions.

The next A-Main was 4WD Mod. With the bump I would start 12th on the grid. I spent the entire race working through the pack of cars. I made a couple of mistakes that put me back in the pack. I ended up 8th overall. Not too bad considering the competition at this race.

The last race of the day was 1:8 E-Buggy. I started 2nd on the grid. At the start I got hit from behind by the 3rd place car out of control over the triple. This put me in last place. I worked my way back up into the race, but traffic was not kind. At the end I finished out in 5th place.

The race was awesome, the track was great and consistent. It is always nice to hang with the great people at this track.

The track at this race has always been really good during practice, but as the track dries out it gets really loose. This year the traction was high all weekend. I decided to try some different traction compound this weekend to help with the dry track. With the help of a couple of locals I decided to give the yellow Liquid Wrench a try. Most of the locals have been running it for a while, so I tried it. It was the best stuff that I have found to work on Pro-Line Tires at this track.

I would like to all my sponsors for their support.

Serpent America
Desoto Racing
Pro-Line Racing
Fantom Racing
Trakpower
Odonnell Speed Fuel
Hobbico
Futaba