The father and son team of Jason and Ethan Mackanick were able to put their Pro-Line equipped Buggies and Truggies onto the podium at Mushroom Bowl RC in Kennet Square, PA for round 3 of ROAR Region 2 Mid-Atlantic outdoor series. The event was well attended with around 97 entries. Ethan ran the 1:8 Nitro Buggy and 1:8th Nitro truggy classes for the event. Ethan’s equipment for the event included his Mugen MBX7R Nitro Buggy, Pro-Line M3 compound LockDown Tires with an O.S. Speed B2101 nitro engine.He also entered the 1:8th Nitro Truggy class for the first time with a Mugen MBX7t, Pro-Line M3 Blockade Tires and powered by an O.S. Speed Spec II nitro engine. Jason, his father, entered into the 1:8 E-Truggy division with a Tekno ET48 powered by Tekin Electronics RX8 Gen2 electronic speed control paired up to a Tekin T8 2000 electric motor and Pro-Line M3 compound Suppressors.
I would also try out the Pro-Line Blockade on the Truggy for the first two rounds of qualifying. The loamy surface at the start of the event which lead to large ruts and pot hole type craters after getting run in. The 1st A-Main of the double A-Main features for electric truck I decided to switch to the Suppressors on the Truggy which seemed to handle the rutted/rough conditions better. Ethan (aka E Mack) would put his Pro-Line equipped buggy on the number six starting spot in the 30-minute A-Main feature after two solid qualifying runs. Ethan would also put his Nitro Truggy on the 3rd place qualifying position for the 30-minute A-Main feature. I would also qualify the on the 3rd place starting spot for electric truck double A-Main features.
The electric truck class was up first in the features. On the start, I was able to get around CJ Heitz and JT Steele to pull away with a 17-second lead for the win the A1 feature. Ethan was up next in the nitro buggy class. Ethan would put in a solid performance and battle with Horizon Hobbies, Jason Schreffler for the number 2 spot until the mid point of the race. After the tough battle, Ethan would maintain a solid 3rd place until the end of the main. Running back to back nitro classes, Ethan would stay on the drivers stand for the next 30 minutes for the Nitro Truggy main event. Starting 3rd in this race, the top three drivers would exchange the battle for the top spot for the first ten minutes into the main. Ethan and Tyler Cook would exchange the lead position over several laps during the middle of the race. Team Losi’s top qualifier for the class, Dan Ross would come back and take over the lead at the half way point and move on to the win. Ethan would maintain the number two position for the rest of race. The final race for us would be the A2 Main of the Electric Truck. Steele, Heitz and myself would exchange positions for the top spot several times through the race. A tight race lane would not allow passing to be easy. Steele would come out on top in the second main and I would finish in the number two spot followed by Heitz in the three for the second main. This lead to a tie breaker between myself and Steele for the overall number one position. After the photos were taken, we reviewed the results and realized that Steele’s truck stopped counting in the middle of the race and it had to be hand scored. The resulting end time of hand scoring still only showed when his vehicle stopped counting and not the actual finishing time of the race. Hence, the computer calculated the overall results based on a finishing time that was about three minutes early than what it actually was. This would give me the overall win and ensure the correct number of points would be awarded in the series results.
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.
