PSYCHO NITRO BLAST 10TH Anniversary: The Decimation, April 7 – 9 White Pine, Tennessee
This would be our first year attending the Psycho Nitro Blast held in White Pine, Tennessee. The night before our big trip we were both sick. Between David blowing his nose and me not being able to swallow due to my sore throat, neither one of us got any sleep. How could this be happening now? We got up the next morning and headed to work to wrap up some stuff before hitting the road. Still not feeling all that great we knew it was going to be a long ride as we had around 860 miles to drive. 2 hours in we hit severe weather. The wind was blowing extremely hard and it was hailing. We ended up driving for around 7 hours before stopping at a rest area. We climbed into our camper to get some rest and hoped to feel better the next morning. Waking up to a loud KABOOM! of thunder around 6:00AM that was our que to hit the road. After David drove for 3 hours in the rain as we got near Atlanta, GA an emergency broadcast came on the radio warning people of tornados in the area, heavy winds and rain. We couldn’t have been happier when we finally arrived at the Expo Center around 1:00PM. That’s when the rain finally stopped. Since we were one of the first people to arrive we got to choose our camp site and blocked off front row camping for our friends arriving tomorrow. After making a quick trip to Walmart to stock up our cabinets and refrigerator for the weekend, we are now able to sit back and relax until Friday.
We woke up Thursday morning to rain and wintry weather. As we looked outside we noticed the #Whites had made it here sometime early in the morning. The #Holds were coming, but it would take them several more hours due to an unexpected delay. Just an FYI….it is not a good thing to put gas in a diesel truck. That night we all bundled up and headed to Ruby Tuesdays for dinner as a Team. It was nice being all together as we knew this may be our only chance all weekend.
Waking up at 5:00AM Friday morning we were excited to finally run on the track. Practice would be open for 24 hours. I’m glad we decided to get up early because we got in several batteries without any waiting in long lines. #Bobby Moore, #Dave Leikam, #Jen Tyndall Smith and the entire track crew killed it with the track design and building it. The track was a lot of fun and had some challenges including a speed trap, the great wall, a grave yard section that you drop into that goes from clay to concrete (slippery like on ice), a 60-foot triple, dragon’s tail and the longest front straight around. After a long day of practice, we would like to thank #Christina White for the grilled chicken, vegetables, mashed potatoes and salad for dinner.
Waking up to 32 degrees Saturday morning qualifying started at 5:30AM. With 900+ entries and over 400 drivers this would be the largest race to date. It was a very long day and our last round of qualifying ended around 3:00AM Sunday morning.
The tire of choice was Pro-Line Hole Shots.
(Qualifying results below.)
David Iler – 40+ Electric Buggy
Q1 – 6/5:20.942, fast lap 51.509
Q2 – 6/5:07.572, fast lap 49.553
Q3 – 6/5:02.825, fast lap 48.988
David Iler – 1:8 Electric Truggy
Q1 – 6/5:46.312, fast lap 51.208
Q2 – 6/5:22.193, fast lap 50.514
Q3 – 6/5:10225, fast lap 49.375
Jessica Iler – 40+ Electric Buggy
Q1 – 6/5:48.087, fast lap 55.681
Q2 – 6/5:45.112, fast lap 54.880
Q3 – 6/5:46.425, fast lap 55.820
Jessica Iler – 1:8 Sportsman Truggy
Q1 – 6/5:58.899, fast lap 57.902
Q2 – 6/5:46.985, fast lap 55.976
Q3 – DNF – completed one lap before steering servo broke
Running on very minimal sleep we headed to bed to be back up to check the main sheets at 5:00AM. Here’s where we qualified…….
Jessica Iler – 1:8 Sportsman Truggy – C-Main starting 10th
Qualified 42nd out of 67
Jessica Iler – 40+ Electric Buggy – B-Main starting 12th
Qualified 28th out of 52
David Iler – 1:8 Electric Truggy – C-Main starting 12th
Qualified 44th out of 73
David Iler – 40+ Electric Buggy – A-Main starting 7th
Qualified 7th out of 52
I had a good start in my Nitro Truggy Main. In the first lap, I moved up from 10th to 4th place. We borrowed #Brett Hold’s headsets and I loved them. It was nice to be able to hear David talk to me. He kept me calm as he talked me through a couple tough spots on the track. The terrible thing was I didn’t know the headsets had died. David was trying to call me in to pit lane for fuel and I didn’t hear him. He finally yelled loud enough to get my attention. From there on every time I heard someone yelling I thought it was David and I would lose focus. In the end, I finished 7th moving up 3 spots from where I qualified.
1:8 Sportsman Truggy (C-Main) video provided by BeachRc.com
https://youtu.be/ZJgCvapCMfU?list=PLwoRPGmQpUUQFpRMxP3tufiz4Maz4dosh
It was a horrible start for me with my electric buggy. I was bounced all around and dropped all the way down to last place. After that I had put together some consistent laps without mistakes and worked my way back to finish 11th. This was one place better then I qualified. I feel that if my first lap wasn’t so bad I could have been in the top 5. To just make it to the B-Main at the largest race had beat my expectations I had.
40+ Electric Buggy (B-Main) video provided by BeachRc.com
https://youtu.be/v4mPC49c6_w?list=PLwoRPGmQpUUQFpRMxP3tufiz4Maz4dosh
Electric Truggy has grown real fast and it has become very competitive. The mains were stacked with some of the best drivers like #James Calhoun, #Julien Oliveras, #Landen Lewis, #Patrick Rossiter, #Justin Fales, #Ryan Lutz and #Joe Bornhorst just to name a few. David would be starting 12th in the C-Main. He put some good laps in and ran his fastest lap of 48.448 and his consistency rate was 92.991%. David finished 6th moving up 6 positions from where he qualified.
1:8 Electric Truggy (C-Main) video provided by BeachRc.com
https://youtu.be/SsPIzNGKhrQ?list=PLwoRPGmQpUUQFpRMxP3tufiz4Maz4dosh
I was so proud of David for making the A-Main in 40+ E-Buggy. He was starting 7th and when the buzzer rang I was cheering him on from the sideline. He got a good start and by the second lap he was in 3rd. On lap six he had some bad luck and had a very long 57.288 lap. This dropped him down to 8th. David pushed hard and had his fastest lap all weekend with a 48.339. He would finish 7th overall. This is something he should be ecstatic with.
40+ Electric Buggy (A-Main) video provided by BeachRc.com
https://youtu.be/xYpUodvAIPU?list=PLwoRPGmQpUUQFpRMxP3tufiz4Maz4dosh
Overall, we had a fun time and was glad to be able to experience the largest race so far. Where are we racing next???
A special thank you to our sponsors #Trinity, #Proline, #BocaBearing and #DERacing
– David and Jessica Iler
