Driver: Edwin Hartman Date(s): 5/07/2015 – 5/10-/2015
Event: 2015 Dirt LoneStar Challenge @ Thornhill Racing Circuit
Result: 40+ Electric Buggy: TQ, 1st in A1, 1st in A2, 1st Overall
40+ Nitro Truggy: TQ and 1st overall in A-Main
Event Description:
This weekend was the 2nd annual Dirt LoneStar Challenge hosted by Thornhill Racing Circuit. The event was scheduled to be from Thursday through Sunday with 4 rounds of qualifying, followed by the mains on Sunday. Due to the inclement weather on Friday night as well as the forecast for Sunday, the decision was made to finish off the program on Saturday and eventually the program was cut down to 2 qualifiers and double mains for electric.
Equipment Used:
Tekno EB48.2:
Pro-Line X2 Blockades (Qualifying and A1), Pro-Line X3 Suppressors (A2)
Tekno NT48:
Pro-Line X2 Blockades (Qualifying) Pro-Line X3 Hole Shots (Main)
Race Experience:
Going into this event, the plan was to run 40+ Nitro Buggy and 40+ Nitro Truggy. This would allow me to help out Tekno team drivers who were running the Expert and Pro classes where needed. However, during practice on Thursday, the engine in my NB48 locked up and I switched to run 40+ Electric Buggy instead, as I had my EB48.2 with me as well.
The layout for this event was brand new and very challenging. The previous layout at Thornhill was from the Nationals and was wide open and fairly flat, however, this layout was quite the opposite. This required quite a bit of time on the drivers stand during open practice on Thursday to get everything dialed in. By the end of practice, both cars felt good and I started to feel comfortable on the new layout.
Qualifying on Friday went well in both classes and I was able to run solid pace, on par with the top 8 in the Pro classes. Originally qualifying was going to be 4 rounds, and then it was brought down to 3 rounds on Friday (due to canceling the racing for Sunday) but still based on points. As a storm hit us Friday night with several inches of rain, they made the decision on Saturday to change the format to 2 rounds and make it rocket-round format, which gave me the TQ in both classes.
40+ Nitro Truggy:
First up was the 30 minute 40+ Nitro Truggy main. All weekend I had ran X2 Blockades on my Tekno NT48, but based on the conditions made a fairly last minute decision to switch to X3 Hole Shots. Looking back, I wished I had stayed with the X2 Blockades, because I struggled badly during the 30-minute Main and was not able to drive consistent fast laps without mistakes. The Tires worked in most areas, but sometimes became a bit loose in certain areas. I also experienced some weird signal loss in one certain section of the track. That section wasn’t even the furthest away from the stand and it messed with my comfort level. After fighting myself almost the whole Main, I was still able to take the victory in the 40+ Nitro Truggy class!
40+ Electric Buggy:
When they posted the Mains, they posted only a single main format for the electric classes. After we started our main, they suddenly announced that we would have a second Main at the end of the program Saturday night. This meant that the pressure went up a little bit to have to put in 2 solid Mains! I got a clean start on Pro-Line X2 Blockades and was able to open a bit of a gap over second and started clicking off laps. There was a pretty strong wind, which did throw my car around in the air a little bit, resulting in a few minor crashes, but I was able to keep it together and win the 10-minute A1.
For A2, I decided to try the new Pro-Line X3 Suppressor during warm-up, with my X2 Blockades on stand-by. I ran 2 laps during warm-up on the new tire and they felt amazing. Very responsive without being edgy, so I stuck with them to see how they would hold up for the 10-minute main. I got another clean start and started gapping the field by a few seconds, then settled into a good pace and cruised to the end without any issues. The Pro-Line Suppressor in X3 compound handled very, very well and showed barely any sign of wear at the end of the race, even though the Tekin RX8/T8 1900 combo powered by a TrakPower 6700 mAh 90C battery put a lot of power down to them in my Tekno EB48.2!
