Factory Team / Race Events

Ethan Mackanick Hangs Tough in Rnd 1 of the PA Tri-county Summer Sizzler Series

Saturday May 23rd, 2015 was the first of four rounds for the PA Tri-County Summer Sizzler series sponsored by Absolute Hobbyz and hosted at Trains and Lanes in Easton, PA. Mother nature brought on a beautiful day with plenty of sunshine and the racer turnout could not have been better. With 194 entries for the single day event, two rounds of six minute qualifying would set the positions for double A-main features in the 1/8th expert electric buggy division.  Ethan Mackanick (aka E Mack) from Shippensburg, PA would put his Pro-line equipped buggy on the number four starting spot in the A-main feature for the largest class at the event with 74 entries.  Ethans equipment for the event included his MBX7 ECO buggy, Pro-Line X3 compound Lock Down tires, a Pro-Line BullDog body accompanied by the Yellow Trifecta wing.

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The clay track surface would continue to groove up as the day progressed and had more than enough traction when time came for the feature events. At the sound of the tone in the A1 Main the there was some action with the front three buggies that would give Ethan enough of an opening to start his attack on early. The first and second place qualifiers would have speed control issues early on which would lend itself to a three way battle for the win between Mackanick, Dwayne Karlovski, and Dan Ross. The twelve year old would hold his own for the entire ten minute feature and bring home the first place position in the A1 Main. A video provided by Justin Bortz of the A1 main feature is provided below. Ethan would make the pass twice into an off camber turn to take the lead at both the 1:55 mark and 7:30 marks in the video thanks to the previous day advice from Dwayne Karlovski.

With the long day winding down. The A2 feature started at 10:30 Saturday night. Unlike the A1, Ethan struggled to maintain his composure with some rough driving happening in the final race which was about three hours past his normal bed time. Ethan pulled out of the A2 main after the first five laps. Times like this will come better as he matures. After the points were tallied up, Ethan would still come out with a 5th place overall for the day in the series.
This will be the best of three out of four rounds so, he will have room to make improvements for the next event.
Thanks to Pro-Line and LCRC Hobbies (host of the 2015 ROAR 1:8th Electric Nationals)  for their continued support in providing the best equipment to put E-Mack into the features.