This past weekend at the 2016 CRCRC Midwest Nitro Championships involved a stacked field with challenging track conditions throughout the weekend.  The high grip and black groove made it fun but tough at times was a challenge.

So in Pro Buggy it was since Mugen Challenge last year August that we had run 1:8 scale off-road, so it made it tough to adapt right away.  In qualifying I had my Mugen Seiki MBX7R working well with P-L M4 Hole Shots which gave me the best feel and felt more consistent then when I had tried the P-L M4 Electrons in practice.  I had struggled a bit though to find a setup I was comfortable on so I qualified 7th for the 45-minute Main.

When Sunday rolled around my dad mounted up some P-L M4 LockDowns which I tried in the A-Main warm-up and they had tons of grip which was good because Sunday was so cold.  With this I was prepared and ready to move up the pack quickly with Tekno’s Joe Bornhorst on pole and my brother Mark Sousa starting 2nd.  The Main got underway and I caught the tube early in the race.  I charged all the way back up to 4th but just could not get it done to catch 3rd place and Mugen teammate Ralph Krumme who ran a great race.  In the end I took a 4th and gained some valuable knowledge with our new motors and equipment to help me going into our next race.  Mark put on a great performance on his Mugen Seiki MBX7R which he also ran P-L M4 LockDowns and took home a 2nd.  Although I struggled all weekend with my driving and feeling comfortable we took some positives away from it and just moving on.

Along came Pro Truck and I was able to put my Mugen Seiki MBX7TR on P-L M3 Hole Shots into a good qualifying spot in 2nd after finding a comfortable setup in Q3.  In the 45-minute Main I would start behind Joe Bornhorst.  I decided to run the P-L M3 Hole Shots again and they took some laps to warm up but once they did it was hooked up and provided great traction on the cold surface.  I got off to a decent start but made a early mistake which pushed me back to 4th.  Once I was able to find my rhythm again I made two passes quickly to jump up to 2nd.  From there I found a comfortable pace and just brought home a 2nd place with Joe taking the win.

In the end all of our equipment worked perfectly and we were really pleased with our new package including the OS Engines and as always the Pro-Line tires were hooked up and gave me a huge advantage to finish near the front along with new PL driver Joe Bornhorst who was able to win all three mains.  Pretty good way to start off 2016 and can’t wait till the next one.

Sincerely,