The weekend of August 8th, 9th, and 10th I attended the 2nd annual Nitro X race presented by Pro-Line Racing, R/C Driver Magazine, Hobbico, and RB USA. The race took place at Wolcott Hobby and Raceway in Wolcott, CT. I would be competing in 1:8 Nitro Buggy. Friday was scheduled for practice. I spent most of the day prepping my car and ran a few times to get the layout down and shake my MP9 TKI3 down and test some Pro-Line Tires. The event pulled in close to 100 entries.
Going into Saturday the format for the day would be four 5-minute qualifiers using rocket round. In my first qualifier I got out front early and had a new TQ run going. About halfway through the run my car came to a stop at the end of the straight away. I figured my engine had flamed out but when the marshal got to the car it was still running but didn’t have throttle. After about 20-seconds my throttle began to work again. I put on a charge to try to make the best of the run but with less than a minute to go my throttle cut out again. I pulled off before suffering a runaway.
For round 2 I sat out to go through my electronics.
For round 3 I put a new throttle servo in and went out and set a new TQ.
For round four I made a few small changes to my setup and hit the track. My car felt great and I was able to reset TQ with a 9 lap 5:01 run.
Going into Sunday the schedule was to run a last chance qualifier for the racers who did not make it Saturday. I put a new set of tires on and went out for my fifth and final qualifier. My car felt great and early on I was on a 10 lap run but I made a few mistakes and dropped back to a 9 lap pace. With only a few laps remaining I cleaned up my lines and pushed as hard as possible. I snuck by the line just before the tone went off and was able to get the only 10 lap run of the weekend.
The Main was set to be 45-minutes and was later in the afternoon. I spent the day going through my car and getting it ready. The only change I made for the Main was a fresh clutch.
At the start of the main I pushed wide going into the first corner and got hit and got stuck on a pipe and dropped from first to 11th. The remainder of the first lap was tricky. I was able to avoid a few pile ups and quickly made passes and worked back to 7th. By the end of lap 5 I had retaken the lead and quickly began to pull away. For the remainder of the race I increased my lead and by the end of the 45-minutes I took the win with a 4 lap lead over second place Hot Bodies and Pro-Line driver Mark Smyka, and Kyosho privateer Carl Smart.
Overall it was a great weekend and my RB powered Kyosho MP9 TKI3 was dialed all weekend on Pro-Line Tires. The final finishing order for the A-Main was:
- Kyle Rhodes-Kyosho MP9 TKI3
- Mark Smyka-Hot Bodies
- Carl Smart-Kyosho MP9 TKI3
- John Langenfeld-TLR
- Greg Vogel-Tekno
- John Koiva-Hot Bodies
- Paul Quartuccio-Kyosho MP9 TKI3
- Larry Bromell-Kyosho MP9 TKI3
- Rob Rinaldi-TLR
- Lester Bastenbeck-Kyosho MP9 TKI3
- Alex Kosciuszek-Team Associated
- Rob Birchall-Mugen Seiki
Thank you for the continued support.
Throughout the weekend I ran on X3 Hole Shots, X3 LockDowns, and M3 Blockades. All three tires provided me with amazing traction and wear.
For the main I chose M3 Blockades and they were consistent and fast for the entire 45-minutes and still had plenty of life left at the end of the race.
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