This past weekend was the 23rd running of the Reedy International Off-Road Race of Champions held at OCRC Raceway in Huntington Beach, CA. I have attended this race a few times and normally the format is 2WD first and then 4WD but this year they reversed the order starting with 4WD and as usual had practice for both classes before the racing started.
My XB4’17 and my XB2’17 setups were really good right from the start with the setups that we had tested the previous week, in practice my 4wd had the fastest lap and my 2WD was second fastest to Maifield by 4/100 of a second.
Running the Pro-Line Positrons Was Great!
My 4WD was really good right from the first race but as the track slowly began to get more grip I needed to make some small adjustments but it was very easy to achieve our goals in the setup. I took 3 wins in 4wd and 1 2nd, I believe I could have had more wins but I just had a bit of bad luck and made some mistakes that were my fault. I was still able to take the top spot once 4WD was done by winning the tie breaker by having the fastest run.
Once we switched to 2wd they had a practice run for 2wd, for some reason my car no longer felt balanced, it had very aggressive steering and very little grip, I am not sure if it was my tire preparation but it was like a completely different car from what I had run in the opening practice runs. I struggle with bad luck and trying to find less steering and more rear grip but we were able to work on the setup to make the car much better on the last 2 runs. I was always on pace as far as lap times but I seemed to struggle with rear grip the whole time which was definitely not the case in the previous weeks practice or in the practice runs on the first day. I was able to take 2 wins in the 2WD portion and In the end I was able to take 3rd overall which isn’t a win but being on the podium is always a good thing. It was not the finish that we had hoped for but we are excited about the new platforms and my confidence is very high with the Xray cars.
I would also like congratulate CJ Jelin on winning the Junior Final with his XB2’17.
I would like to thank all my sponsors for providing me with the best products on the market, Xray, RC America, Pro-Line, Orion, MKS, A Main, Lunsford, Avid, Stick It 1, Darkside Designs, 110% Racing.
I want to thank my family for all their love and support and I want to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, without him I wouldn’t be where I am today.
