Race Day Highlights: June 1, 2008

First off I would just like to extend a thank you to Gus for having the track in such great shape after all the rain we had earlier in the week. It held together pretty well and the concrete corners were a big plus as well! Also, I would like extend a thank you to Drew for keeping the show running promptly and keeping everyone informed through out the day.

As the day went on and the track dried out the lap times got faster and faster. As the heats were finishing up and the A-mains were getting underway some good racing started to develop.Two classes in particular had some intense racing going on, Pro-Truck and Pro-Buggy.

In the Pro-Truck class everyone got off to a pretty clean start with Bryan Hester out front with Derick Martin nipping at his heels and Monti Pope not far behind. A few laps went down with the Derick doing all he could to keep Hester from checking out. However, Alex Birmingham's prediction came true when Martin's left rear ball cup decided to break. Derick went off the track for a bit in an attempt to get his truck fixed however his chances of a win were gone.

Monti moved up the 2nd and began his chase to catch Hester but by this point Hester had checked out! A few minutes went by with some close battling going on for the 3rd 4th and 5th positions. Derick had made his way back to the race track with his left rear wheel looking like it had about 5 degrees of positive camber! However it was long after this that the leader and current points leader, Hester had a ball cup break as well. If I am not mistaken it was a problem similar to Derick's! Monti moved up to take the lead with Gus, John and few others not too far behind.

Some more close racing until Johns chassis broke in half after landing the double on the back side of the track! Again everyone moves up and the battle continues. Derick continued to have problems through out the race but wouldn't give up that easy. Hester had made his way back out to the track as well and he was trying to do all he could to make his laps back up as well. Monti held his lead and managed to keep his Losi together till the end. Gus remained in second place and Tim Hepler found himself in a battle for 3rd. This one came right down to the last turn! Tim was able to hold his 3rd spot however it was close one.

(Inserting a plug for Tim) "It was Novak Motors, 1-2-3 for the day!"

Pro-Buggy was amazing. Atsushi Hara from Hot Bodies came to run their new D8 buggy against our local hero's. Hara was TQ with Travis Phillips 2nd and Brandon Melton 3rd. The start was clean, as expected from these guys and Hara began to check out. Alex Birmingham had motor issues within the first 5 minutes, however I believe he was happy he just got in the A-main!

Within the first 10 minutes Hara had lapped half the field and was continuing to turn 32 and 31 second laps! Brandon Melton was doing all he could to hold off Hara from lapping him and I must say he did an amazing job doing so. He was able to hold the Hot Bodies Pro off for several laps but eventually Hara snuck around Brandon, however Melton was doing all he could to keep him in his sights. It was impressive to watch this unfold. However something odd started happening to the Futaba FSST systems and most of the drivers using these systems began have glitches and put most of them on the trailer. I believe Jim Atkins feel victim to this as did Brandon Melton. However his was a bit more severe seeing as how truck lost signal down the front stretch, hit the berm and he cleared the safety fence and hit someone trailer! Sad ending for an amazing run by Melton.

However, Hara didn't seem to have issues as he set a record setting lab at 30.930 seconds and continued to lap the field. Hara took the race with 55 laps and Chris Pace finished 2nd with 53 laps and Travis Phillips took 3rd with with 52 laps. 4th was Chad Phillips with 52 laps and Robin Nelson finishing 5th and qualifying 13th turning 51 laps. Greg Woods took 6th with 51 laps, Jason Smith finished 7th with 50 and Robbie Saxon in 8th with 48 laps.

It was great day of racing, I had a great time and I hope you all did as well!See yall at the next round!

-bryan