A fellow Pro-Line Teammate Chad Segner invited me out to his home track for a double header race weekend.
Willow Farm RC Raceway is located in Marion Center, PA on the Willow Farm Campground. It’s nestled deep in western Pennsylvania and a bit off the beaten track but well worth the drive. Everyone at this track was friendly and helpful and I’d recommend everyone in the area check it out.
The track surface is a loose dirt which is what off-road really should be. It did groove up nicely by the Mains and we did notice some decent traction.
I arrived Friday evening and got my pit all set up. The track crew were already busy working on prepping for the early morning start to racing.
I got my pit area set up along with my tent for the weekend.
Saturday was the second race in the 3 part Dirt Road Stampede series. Overall I believe there were 88 total entries for the day and I decided it’d be fun to try 3 classes (2WD Stock Buggy, 2WD Mod SCT, and 4WD Mod Buggy).
In 2WD Stock Buggy I was racing my son’s TLR 22 set up in mid motor with Pro-Line Hole Shot M4s on the rear, Pro-Line Ribs up front, powered by a Speedpassion 17.5 system and a GensAce 4200mah shorty battery. There were only 6 drivers entered in this class along with Jim Chase whom I’m told has never lost a 2WD Stock Buggy race at this track.
In 4WD Mod Buggy I was racing my TLR 22-4 with Pro-Line Hole Shot M3‘s all around and powered by Viper VTrax10R ESC + Viper 6.5t BE motor and a GensAce 4200mah shorty battery. There were 7 drivers entered in the class. This is the first time I’ve driven this Buggy in well over a month and running on an older backup system because I burned up my ESC a few days before.
In 2WD Mod SCT I was racing my Pro-Line PRO-2 Mid Motor with Pro-Line Hole Shot M3s on rear and Pro-Line Hole Shot M4s up front and powered by Viper VTX10-BE esc + Viper 8.5t BE motor, and a GensAce 4200mah shorty battery.
After two rough rounds of qualifying in 2WD Mod SCT I was set to start 8th in the A-Main where I would only advance one place to finish 7th.
Surprisingly I managed to qualify 2nd with my son’s 2WD Stock Buggy in the A-Main and held the lead for most of the race only giving it up on the second to last lap.
Overall it was a fun day of racing and met some great guys. After a full day of running on this track and another full day of racing the next day I knew what changes I had to make. I decided to go a step softer on my suspension and it paid off.
Sunday was the 4th race in a 5 part series of the Tri-State RC Off-Road Championship Series race. They didn’t have a stock buggy class and I decided to bench my TLR 22-4 due to the electrical issues so I only raced in the 2WD Mod SCT class. I believe the turnout for the day was around 41 and only 8 in 2WD Mod SCT however many of the fast guys from the day before stuck around for the Sunday race.
From the get go the setup changes I made were noticeably better. After two rounds of qualifying I was sitting in 5th position in the A-Main against many of the same drivers from the day before.
The PRO-2 felt great and I managed to finish in 3rd place for the day.
I would like to thank my sponsors Pro-Line Racing, Maclan Racing (formerly Viper RC), Xpert RC, Boca Bearings, and Gens Ace.
