Date : July 9th – 12th
Track : LCRC Raceway in Oakland Mills, PA
(My local track)
Event : 1:8 and 4WD SCT Electric Nationals
Setup : Thursday = practice and seeding / Friday = practice and 2 rounds of qualifying / Saturday = practice and 2 more rounds of qualifying / Sunday = Main Day
Classes :
4WD Short Course:
Pro-Line EVO SCT Body, M3 Hole Shot 2.0 Tires, F-11 White Wheels
1:8 E-Buggy:
Pro-Line Velocity White Wheels, M3 Hole Shots/Blockades
1:8 E-Truggy:
Pro-Line Velocity White Wheels, M3 Blockades
Thursday :
Being that this is my local I had been so excited for this event that I ended up going Tuesday night after school go help lay pipe down on the track , heading to school in the am, and again heading down Weds to hangout with some of my friends and teammates to get setup and what not . Then came the day it all began , in the morning after I finally got in my head all of the regulations for ROAR like battery voltage and width regulations. I got my cars all dialed in and I went out with them for 3-minute practice sessions. I had some setup from previous races that I had worked out for this race so I started with those, and needless to say they were working very well right off the start. My SCT was a little odd to me as I somewhat grew away from the outdoor area with my 1:8 cars so, to get it the way I wanted, I knew I would have to make some changes. But that was in the future as I wanted to make sure I seeded well. After everything went down throughout the day I ended up seeding in the A-Main with my SCT, Truggy and ended up top 15 overall in Buggy. Not to bad for all the names around me 🙂 after the day was heading fast to an end with the sun going down , we all headed back to our mini tent city and the Tekno team got down to business with working on cars and prepping them for the start of qualifying tomorrow. Needless to say we got poured on this day.
Friday :
This was the first true time I had ever raced with the (legit big dogs). So when we went up for practice rounds in the AM by heat number , the drivers in my heat were Dakotah Phend, Ryan Lutz , Ryan Maifield , Jared Tebo , etc … So this was definitely a struggle. Not the cars or anything but me getting very nervous. And throughout the morning practice sessions I struggled at staying focused. But when it came to the first round of qualifying I had gotten a couple pep talks about how well I was doing and to just keep my cool and everything else will pan out great . And it worked , when the first round came around I got my cars on the track when it was my heat number and I threw down laps and gave it my all while staying focused on my car and my car only. after driving all 3 of my classes the first round I came out in the a main overall in my SCT and my E-Truck, Just missing it in E-Buggy. After a short break and some time to recharge batteries round 2 set off in the same heat numbers as the first one. as well as the first one went I knew that as long as I stayed focused on the race I would do well so I stayed focused for round 2 got my cars ready to hit the track and this round for me was awesome! I stayed in the same position in SCT in the A-Main overall and put in a 4th place overall in e truck finishing 3/10 tenths of a second behind Jared Tebo!!!!!!!!! this was a huge confidence booster for my racing career! This gave me confidence, and helped keep my head up when things didn’t go my way because I do have the skill somewhere in me … and after the round settled I stayed in the top 15 out of 100+ E-Buggies.
Saturday :
This was the day for rounds 3 and 4 , also the last day of qualifying. same as the other days I got up really early and got to the track as soon as possible to get my stuff worked on setup wise I hit the track for practice when the track opened up and got the feel for the moist track. for the third round I had already locked in my SCT spot and E-Truck spot in the Mains, but this still was not going to keep me from pushing and doing my best . Being that I was just out of the a main in e buggy I focused on it the most for the day and made sure that I hit all my lines in my heats today with that class. I stayed about the same spot with SCT, went back a couple spots in my e truck each heat and moved up in e buggy but was STILL not enough to get into the a main with my e buggy , I finished up qualifying 6th in the a with my SCT, 10th in the A-Main with my Truggy, and 15th overall (second in the B-Main) in Buggy. All in all, It was a good day and I had gotten congratulated from fellow teammates and friends as well as family 🙂 that was the best part 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
Sunday :
Finally, the last day of the 2015 electric nationals … Main Day … first I will start off by saying that all the A-Mains were triple A-Mains, so I would be running 3 Mains with my SCT, 3 races with my Truggy and 1 B-Main race with my Buggy… so 7 races total today. The night before, one of my good friends and teammates that is from Ohio that I became very close to, Joe Bornhorst, was giving me a pep talk saying that Main day is actually won the night before because 7 races was going to be crazy being that this was my first ever ROAR National event and I had to be prepared, otherwise everything will go the opposite of how you want. So, I took this to heart, and prepared the best I could to do well for my first National Race… as the time winded down and racing was starting, this day really gave me an idea of what the community of RC can really look like.
Some of the best drivers in the world meet about 6 or so times a season and this is one of them. It is truly amazing and I love being a part of it! Not only the drivers but the companies as well; all battling for the title to be the roar national champion in 3 different classes. This day was very long and full of emotions good and bad, drivers pushing their limits as well as the cars while controlling it throughout the track on the very high bite blue groove. by the end of the day I cam out 9th overall in 4×4 mod SCT , 11th overall in electric truck and 18th in Buggy. The Buggy B-Main, I ran a mix of 2nd and 3rd the entire race until I got nervous and fell back as the buzzer went off …..
The Track :
This is my local track as most of you know, and I am at this track about once a week at the least through the summer, helping with layout changes, talking to the owners or even just to get a few miscellaneous RC related items…. and the surface is very well at runoff, that’s actually what it is built for. The first thing you will notice in one of the pictures below is that the track got rained on very heavily during seeding Thursday and the bottom part of the track was demolished. This actually helped make the track blue groove when the sun came out Friday, Saturday, andSunday and made the most grip I had ever seen in my entire “career” of racing RC cars. So bad that it went from the track that you could run the same set of tires on all weekend to a set getting cut off the wheel after a 10-minute run on them ….. but this made for a great learning curve for me as well as a super fun weekend.
Thanks :
I want to first thank all my sponsors for making things like this come true in my life , a huge thanks to daniel lewis, matt wolter, mark unrath, joe bornhorst, and all the others that take part in this awesome company of Tekno RC! you are all awesome !
A great thanks to Jessica at Pro-Line for helping get products I need as well as what I need information wise when I need it !
Derreck at Carpys for letting me make my eqiuipment looking ship shape on and off the track!
Pablo at PT Racing oils for letting me use his killer fluids, these have made my car so much more consistent and allow me to dial in every single car just how I want it 🙂 thanks man !
Last but not least Keith at RCScrews for giving me great deals on his awesome equipment. Kieth, you are my newest sponsor and i’m happy I made the choice to drive for you and represent your company ! thank you !
also, a big thanks to Dakotah Phend for letting me in on your opinions on Pro-Line products that we were using this past weekend ! very knowledgeable person !
till the next one,
