Saturday, June 13th Easley, SC. Home of The Hobby Connection and ERC ( Easley RC Complex ), and host of the first annual May Madness event. I know right? Date says June, and race says May…. lol. Well mother nature hasn’t been the most kind to us lately, having delayed several races in the region. This one in particular.
Not to mention she threatened to rain it out AGAIN, but with some tremendous work from the track crews the track was ready and in fantastic shape. We arrived at 9:30am to the usual maze of trailers and tents. After finding a pit spot ( Thank you Anthony Hutchinson and Richard Hutchinson for always keeping a spot empty for me. I surely would have melted otherwise ), I unloaded and decided to take a look at the track.
Wow, the track had 2 spots a ‘lil over saturated with water, and a new drain was installed but other then that no changes since the inaugural race, which was almost rained out as well.
So I charged up a pack, and slapped on my go to tire, M4 Hole Shots,
and went to give it a go. My EVO SC Body flew like a champ as the truck made all the jumps with ease and surprising grace considering the gnarly sized jumps. The truck was a tad loose in some high speed sweepers, but knew the track would come to me. I pulled off, and went back to prep for Qualifying.
Rent-A-Ride Highlight: Driver- Trent Smith.
Round 1: With my M4 Hole Shots installed , I cleaned up my Agency Z painted EVO SC, and went out for round 1. Although the field was small, it was not slow. Zak Morton is a rising name in 2WD SCT, and always keeps me on my toes ( Today would be no exception ), along with Trevor Smith, wheeling the Pro-Line PRO-2 Rent-A-Ride I knew I couldn’t relax. One mistake could be the difference between a W and a L. Rolling off last in the first round, it didn’t take me long to realize 1:
M4 Hole Shots are just too good of a Tire,
and 2, Zak and Trevor aren’t playing around lol. After the buzzer sounded, I eventually pulled out the TQ with 11 laps in 6:03.365 Zak was a close second with 11 laps in 6:07.
Round 2: With round 1 down and feeling more confident with my truck, I left my M4 Hole Shots on and went for TQ. Starting from the first spot I got a clean start and made a smooth run to reset my TQ from round 1.
Main A1: Ok here we go. 1 of 2 A-Mains. With a tight field, and track grip coming up, it was anyones race! As the buzzer goes off, we barrel down into turn one. I decide to hug the pipe and give the outside burn to zak. I get sideways and end up flipping over the first double. I lay there turtled as I watch the entire field go by. Now I had my work cut out for me. Once righted, I take off and push hard to try to make up the lost time. A few bobbles in lap traffic increase the drama as the clock is beginning to wind down and zak is still a good-bit ahead of me. With 3 minutes remaining I can see I am slowing catching him. I have settled down and began to hit my marks. with 2 minutes to go I am right behind him. I follow in his rooster tails for a lap, and a bobble with a lap car gives me just the window I need to scoot by. Zak immediately recovers and the fight continues. We are nos e to tail for a lap or so before I finally hit a double and gain a small lead that I managed to slightly expand on before the finish and the win by 1/7-seconds. shhheewww lol
Main A2: Alright So this is the last one. I do not want to replicate my error from round 1, so I had a plan to get a solid start and use the burm this time lol. After making our warm up laps, and lining up, we await for the buzzer. At the sound of the tone, we launch down into turn one. I ride the burm and sail over the double. and off into turn 2. Zak close behind, going up the hill I have managed to pull a small lead as Trevor is challenging Zak for position. I notice they get together at the end of the back stretch and I set myself in cruise mode. I knew if I didn’t wreck and kept it clean it was up to Trevor and Zak to catch me. Zak comes out on top of the start, and slowly begins to close the gap. With a minute to go Zaks truck rolls to a stop, victim of overheating allow me to cruise to the win and letting Trevor Smith snag second.
Conclusion: After the smoke settled and the points were tallied, I squeaked out the win over Zak and Trevor, who tied. The Tie Breaker was highest Qualifier which went to Zak. Great run guys! Was a Beautiful day of racing and I ha da blast racing at a GREAT facility with GREAT friends. Congratulations out to Zak Morton for a strong showing and to Trevor Smith for showing that the Pro-Line PRO-2 is a super fast and viable race truck 😀 Thanks to Robbie Burgess and Tim Smith for all the hard work to get the track ready. It was no small feat for sure. You folks always put on a great show and have an amazing place to race. I look forward to coming back as always 😀 Thank you to all my friends and family and of course, my sponsors.
The Pro-Line Tires were simply amazing all day, and the Wheels and Body are second to none.
The Pro-line PRO-2 Truck with the rear end mod and Pro-Spec Shock package is a serious contender and I highly recommend it to anyone , especially someone looking to upgrade their slash 2WD. If you don’t believe me, ask Trevor Smith 😀 or just ask to take the Rent- A – Ride for a spin and find out for yourself 🙂
Look at all that KOOLAID!!
