The Fall Series Is Over

Yesterday was the last race of the Fall Series. Luckily we did not get rained out this week. The day itself was not too bad. The wind picked up in the middle of the day and blew a lot of things around, including trucks, but no rain and a little sun every now and then. The track needed some work in the morning. The banked turn, and the turn before the double, were flooded entirely. We dug out some drainage channels to clear the water, and did some small repairs to holes in the track as usual. It was looking pretty bleak when I showed up, only Scott and Tadd were there. Usually Pete and Herb are the first ones to the track, but not this week. The rest of the usual racers showed up one by one, and practicing started once the track was mostly dried.

Matt C. showed up with the RC8, which has been converted to electric (Castle Creations Mamba Monster), as well as a flashy new body. He did the paint himself and it looks great going around the track. The new conversion looked like it worked great for Matt, and he actually gets to finish the races now. In the 1/8 Buggy main, Matt and Dan battled it out for first the whole race. It was definitely a great race to watch. While Dan and Matt kept swapping places for first and second, Mike F. and Kendra were flip flopping in third and fourth. In the last lap of the race, Matt had an accident on the triple, which let Dan slip by into first. Matt almost caught a saving grace when Dan flipped coming down the front? straightaway, but managed to keep the lead across the loop. The end time was Dan with a 5:01.56, and Matt with a 5:02.13. Just over half a second between first and second place. It looks like now that Matt has the electric conversion, there will be more pressure on the top guys next season.

CORR, Stock, or Slash, whatever you want to call it, had another decent turnout this week. Someone showed up with a new HPI Blitz, driven by Mark. I am not sure if anyone else at the track has seen one yet. I know I haven’t, so I was interested in seeing how it did on our track. The Blitz looked very solid on the track. I am sure that was in part due to the driver, but the truck looked like it had grip where it needed, and was still able to slide through some of the turns. It looks like a good truck for the CORR class. I don’t think it has any major changes to make it too much for a Slash to compete with. Mark took second in the main with the Blitz, Frank took first and Tadd took third. The final points for the top three are Rob with 112, Scott with 107, and Collin with 102.

Truck open was the biggest class of the day, with 9 racers (8 electric, 1 nitro). No real surprises there. The day seemed to go pretty smooth for everyone. In the A main, the final was Eric in first, Jay in second and Mike in third. Final points in that class were Mike F. in first with 109, Jay in second with 106, and Tadd in third with 84.

Truggy was a smaller class this week, with only 3 racers. I thought that was one of the bigger classes, but maybe I am wrong. Mike M.,  Bobby and Dan were the only three on the track for the day, but they are all great drivers and they have some close battles. The main almost didn’t start. Mike M. had some trouble getting the truggy started, and while waiting, Dan’s truggy flamed out. After a bit of a delay, they got the race going though, and it was a good one. In the end, Dan did have some trouble in the race and ended up far behind Mike. With a comfortable lead, Mike decided to have some fun on the track and pulled off a back flip on the triple, once, with two other close attempts.

As always, we save the best for last; Electric Monster. This was the smallest class of the day, with two racers; me and Matt S. Herb couldn’t race because it was Halloween, and for some silly reason kids come before racing. Jay had an unfortunate situation with his E-Revo in the form of a LiPO explosion in the truck. The damage was severe. The majority of the truck will be trash. You can see a pic on the 106 Race Park forums. Another reminder that LiPO’s are great for your truck, but can be extremely dangerous. The heats went really well for me. All three were nine laps and pretty close in time (5:09, 5:04, 5:02). I almost made a 10th lap in the 3rd heat, but a mistake on the table top put me into the conduit in the last lap, and I lost it. Matt S. also had a good day, although he did lose time in the second heat due to a loose bullet connector on one of the batteries. I managed to take the TQ, a first for me. The main was really great. I started in first, but Matt got around me right away. I did catch up to him and pass him in a turn later on. I kept the first position for the rest of the race and finished with a 10 lap, 5:29 run. I think that’s my best race ever now. I also got a couple low laps, 30.1 and 30.4, also a new best for me. Matt finished with a 9 lap, 5:08 run. The final points for the top three are Jay in first with 120, me in second with 114, and Matt S. in third with 103.

So,. I got it together and got myself a trophy for my first year racing. I think I’ve done around 20 races total, and I am surprised I got the hang of it so quickly. I owe a lot to the guys at the track for helping me out with driving and tuning tips. I started out being the guy at the back of the pack, the one everyone is waiting on to finish the race. Now I am in a place where I can keep up with the veterans on the track. The downside is that we have one more race next week, a fun race, and then nothing until the spring. I plan on going down to the indoor track at RC Excitement once or twice a month to make sure I don’t forget how to drive. I also hear the track there is different, so it’ll be a nice change to drive there. I’m going to order some new tires soon for the truck, probably Hole Shots. The track there is clay, so the calibers will be too much, from what I have been hearing.

Congratulations to all the trophy winners, and I hope to see everyone next week at the fun race. Thanks to Scott for helping me get the pics today with the buggy and monster classes.