After Mugen Challenge last weekend, we made the trip up to Bego’s RC Raceway for the annual Quebec Classic put on by Jerome Tregnier. The race grabbed nearly 250 entries and the track was challenging and very high bite. I only ran Nitro Buggy and no Truck this weekend, mainly to practice for Worlds. Race report is below.
Mugen MBX7R Buggies equipped with Pro-Line X3 Fugitive Lites
Before qualifying I decided to go on Pro-Line X3 Fugitives on my Mugen MBX7R. Reason being is due to the abrasive track conditions and high grip we were actually looking to loosen up the car a bit especially entering corners so we felt that this was the best choice for the conditions. In Pro Buggy I was off to a terrific start being able to take TQ in Q1 with Mark behind me. Going into Q2 the track grip was ever increasing and becoming more difficult to keep it on it’s wheels. However myself and Mark had a great battle right to the end of the day and matching lap times throughout the run. In the end Mark would take Q2 by 1 second. In Q3 Mark would wrap it up and take the overall TQ with myself starting 2nd.
In the Main there was a lot of talent including our Canadians Abiye Birku, Eric Deschenes, David Lecuyer and more along with U.S.A talent Paul Ciccarello, Aaron Kothman. The 30-minute final got underway and Mark in the 1st lap was tagged and pushed to the back. Abiye Birku would inherit the lead with myself close behind. As I was trying to make the pass Abiye would have a flame-out moving him down the leader boards as he would try to climb his way back up. I was driving a comfortable pace up front with Sam Langer taking 2nd now which by the way was running a terrific pace, although he stripped a servo horn so he was out. 10-minutes in Mark was making up time and after the 1st pit stop I made a mistake coming out and he got by for the lead. I was able to close in again within 5 seconds but then I ran into a flame-out at the back of the track so it moved me down to 4th. I got started back up and charged to try and get back on the podium. Odd enough though that when I got back out there the last 10-15 minutes I felt like I had little to no brakes due to a unknown cause. However, Paul had now taken 2nd in the Serpent and Aaron in 3rd with the TLR. As I was trying to close in on Aaron he also had a flame-out moving him back to 4th and I took over 3rd.
In the end I ran out of time to try and get Paul for 2nd but no excuse as he ran a terrific race and was strong in 2nd. Mark Sousa though would take the win, myself in 3rd both with Mugen MBX7R buggies equipped on Pro-Line X3 Fugitive Lites and Paul would take 2nd. I was very happy with setup all weekend just come Main time I struggled a bit was pleased to see Mark pick up the win and my car was very strong in the Main and the new Fugitive Lites provided a long lasting tire with strong initial cornering and a lot of forward bite exiting the turns.
