Event: LCRC Season Opener
Track: LCRC Raceway
Location: Oakland Mills, PA
Date: 4/11/15

Race Setup: 2 rounds of qualifying with single 10-minute A-Mains
Side Note: I only live about 15-minutes away from this track, LCRC is my local outdoor track and have every Tuesday weather permitting to practice so I got 1 solid practice day in before this race and plan to have many more to get my cars perfect for me.

Classes Raced:
1:8 E-Buggy with Pro-Line M4 Blockades
1:8 E-Truggy with Pro-Line M3 Hole Shots

Qualifying:
[Round1]
(E-Truggy) after getting to the track early in the AM and getting set up. My first race would be with my Truggy. When it came to my heat we went out and got some warm up laps and my truck felt very good. As the race started and we were going around the track, being that I started toward the rear I tried to put as much time between the driver in front of me and the driver behind me to ensure everyone a smooth run. After a minute in my plan was working and everything was going smoothly. The announcer said that my pace was not to far off of the leader, so I started to apply some pressure. Just as I started getting closer and closer, I got closer to lap traffic, right after I crossed the loop for my fastest lap of the heat I got tied up with a lapped driver… I lifted coming into a high speed corner, as he was going slower than I, he was swerving across the track to avoid me, ending up swerving into the fast line clipping my tire and flipping my truck, I was upset but did not let it get to me and I fell back about 10 seconds due to marshals not being able to get to me. I ran the rest of the race strong, ending up second overall after round 1.
(E-Buggy) From having the practice day the week before, this class felt the best to me and I was very confident with it coming into this race. After getting some warm up laps and getting settled in the grove, the race stared and quickly. I began throwing down some burners. I went from 2nd the first minute, to fighting a battle for 1st. The battle for 1st went on for most of the race, back and forth until, with about a minute to go, I hit a step-up jump, landing a little more on my side and traction rolling costing me a second dropping me the 3rd to end the race. I knew it was going to be a fun day though so I kept my head high.

[Round 2]
(E-Truggy) this race was going to secure my spot in the A-Main. So being that I knew I had the speed my idea was to drive the way I do and have fun with it. So with some warm up laps, the race started and I started setting a groove up behind the leader that had out-qualified me the first round. Right away I started finding out that he was actually driving the same way that I was, smooth and not aggressive. So we literally went THE WHOLE RACE bumper to bumper. Toward the end of the race we both put on a quick dash and he got through some lap drivers a tad faster which ended up costing me the TQ spot. After this I knew I would be starting 2nd in the A-Main.
(E-Buggy) This heat was being looked forward to for most of the day because after each race the track was getting faster and this was the last heat race of the round. Unfortunately, I had a wire come unsoldered from my ESC 5-seconds into the race… Needless to say I just started into the whole soldering thing and figured I would try it myself and this is what I got… I asked the track owner that I know well and he ended up helping me for the main later. This DNF would make me start 9th in the A-Main.
The Mains:
(E-Truggy) This would be the second A-Main of the night, right after sundown. As the lights warmed up and some life came to the track, we threw our beasts out for battle… Got them on the grid… And got down to business… As the tone went off the battle for first between me and Anthony Mazzara quickly shaped and we started to pull away from the field. What was going through my mind was winning because I have been racing with Anthony for quite some time now and have yet to beat him. I had the skill and speed to do so in this race, so quickly I put it in my head that I wanted to stick with him. So for the first half of the race, I sat back watching his every move as we were blocking. Through corners I was faster and taking advantage of it but in the corners he could get through faster. I picked out a certain jump where I could throw the car in sideways for the next corner better. The time was running out and I was running on his tail for quite some time now and as I did that I had to check up coming off the step up to avoid taking him out as that lap he did better at pitching the car sideways. Before the next lap up until we got the jump again, I was going through Daytona a bowl turn. I clipped a lap driver in the front tire with my rear spinning me in a circle. Quickly I recovered but let him get by and did not have enough time. I ended up 2nd overall. Overall this race was fun and the video I will link shows that. This was a very large confidence booster as now I showed everyone that I can run better 🙂
(E-Buggy) Now that I got me some fresh solder on my electronics I was ready for some racing! Not that high on the grid but still in the A. I was starting 9th and I just wanted to get through the field and back up toward the front. As quickly as the race started I started picking people off lap after lap clean. The higher I got up through the pack the longer it took me to make passes towards the front of the pack. Once I hit 5th place, there was only about 4-minutes left. I kept pushing, my buggy was on rails, it was performing so well that my times were fast enough to be in 1st! As I got through into 4th I came up on 3rd place of Alex Miller, a very fast Associated driver. He was putting up a fight to keep that last podium spot. The announcer immediately noticed who we were and started commentating on us saying after a few laps of nose to tail battling that we were synchronous and that our cars looked controlled from the same controller, haha. Later on, a few laps later, I made a quick pass on the inside of a turn when he was not expecting it and got into 3rd with about a minute to go. I would then run the minute down with not enough time to reel in the leaders.
So Truggy, 2nd and Buggy, 3rd. All in all for the first outdoor race of the season, I have now showed myself and the people I run with normally that over the winter I have gotten some more experience and am ready for some good racing. Along with this, I am figuring a lot out for the nationals being that they are 15-minutes from me this year 🙂

Thanks to all my sponsors Tekno RC, Pro-Line Racing, Carpys, PT Racing Oils, and RCSCREWZ. I am looking forward to having some good finished for all of you!

Thanks,
Devin Chesney