Thunder Alley hosted their Summer Sizzler race which featured three rounds of qualifying and double A-Mains on June 25th & 26th.
My entire family participated in the 2-day trophy race with my wife and 7 year old son racing in the Novice division while I raced two classes, 4wd Short Course and E-Buggy.
I used Pro-Line Calibers for the first two rounds. After a nice groove was developed, I switched over to Blockades for the final round of qualifying and the Mains. I continue to run the Pro-Line EVO Body on my 4wd Short Course Truck along with F-11 Wheels
After some tight racing throughout the qualifiers, I entered Sunday’s double A-mains sitting 3rd in 4wd SCT and 6th in E-Buggy.
The first 4wd SCT A-Main put me behind the 8-ball as an unfortunate tangle on the last lap dropped me to 4th and off the podium completely.
I needed a very strong finish in the second A-Main, if I wanted to land on the podium. Regardless of the final standings, I also wanted to finish the race off on a positive note with a clean run. I decided to just relax and have fun which seemed to work out pretty well. I was able to get a clean start and create some breathing room from the pack after a couple laps. After a bobble by the first place truck midway through the race, I was able to slide into the top spot. The second and third place trucks had a couple dust ups which slowed them both down and allowed me to further the gap between our trucks. I was able to keep the truck on all four wheels and kept everything clean for the remainder of the race and cruised to a 1st place finish in the second A-Main. My combined finishes put me on the podium and 2nd overall for the 4wd SCT division.
The competition in the E-Buggy division was very stout as it was a mixture of pro and sportsman racers. I bounced around in the top half of the division throughout qualifiers and wound up qualifying 6th overall heading in the final day. Sunday’s mains were a carbon copy of the previous day’s racing where I found myself in a tight battle with 4-5 other buggies. I was very happy as I was able to race to a top 5 finish coming in 5th overall in the E-Buggy division.
As for the rest of my family, they enjoyed the challenges of navigating the large outdoor track and returned home happy with 2nd and 4th place plaques.
I would like to thank the following companies for allowing me to represent them: HB Racing, Pro-Line, Maclan, Venom, Boca Bearings, BoomRC, Xpert and the local hobby shop in Raleigh, NC Bullit RC Hobbies.
