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| Race report by Jim Barry |
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The 2008 18th Scale Indoor Off-road Nationals were held at RC Madness in Enfield Ct. USA on March 28-30th. A record turnout was reported this year with 268 entries (approximately 40 more than last year) demonstrating that the popularity of 18th scale racing is still growing.
XRAY driver Zack Barry attended the race armed with the new M18T Pro which he would be running in 3 classes: Open 4WD, Open Buggy, and Mini Monster. He also entered 4WD Stock class running the M18T.
We arrived at the track for practice to find a track unlike any others at previous years Nationals. The jumps were HUGE! There was a wall climb that was very tricky to master and a huge quad jump that was about 4 feet high.
After spending 11 hours on Friday practicing and reworking all of our set-ups, we felt fairly confident going into the qualifiers on Saturday. The qualifiers on Saturday were long and gruelling, starting at 9:30AM and ending at 12:30 that evening, 3 rounds were run. By the end of the day, Zack had set the TQ in Stock class, he also TQ'd in the Open Buggy class (with the fastest run of all in qualifying by any racer in all classes), he qualified 2nd in Mini Monster, and 3rd in Open 4WD truck. |
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The mains were run on Sunday. We arrived at the track at 7:00AM for a little bit of last minute practice and tuning. Zack's first race was 4WD Stock Truck. Having set the TQ, he started in the first position, followed by Team Associated’s Josh Anderson. At the horn Zack took off and never looked back, holding onto the lead the entire race and winning by about a half track.
A Main 4WD Stock:
1. Zack Barry XRAY M18T
2. Josh Anderson
3. John Ballato
4. Nick Zaccaro XRAY M18T
5. Andy Castellini
6. Aaron Wilson
7. Tony Priolo XRAY M18T
8. Ron Spinelli
9. Tom Loranger XRAY M18T
10. Mike Haynes |
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Next up was the Mini-Monster A-Main. Competition in this class was fierce this year, with Team Losi’s Billy Fisher having set the TQ and starting in the first position, followed by Zack in the number 2 spot. At the horn Fisher got the holeshot and held onto first for the entire race, followed by Zack and Mark Smyka who battled back and forth for 2nd place. At the end of the race it was Fisher in 1st and Zack with 2nd.
A Main Mini Monster:
1. Billy Fischer
2. Zack Barry XRAY M18MT PRO
3. Andy Castellini
4. Joe Mason
5. Mark Smyka
6. Jeremy K
7. Nick Zaccaro
8. Tony Priolo
9. Mike Haynes
10. Tim Mohr XRAY M18MT PRO |
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The Open Buggy A-Main was next, with Zack starting in 1st, running the just-built M18T Pro (with own buggy conversion), followed by Team Associated’s Josh Anderson. At the horn Zack and Anderson were off in a tight 1−2 formation. After the first lap, Zack had increased the distance between himself and the rest of the pack by a comfortable amount. He went on to run in 1st for the entire race and took the win.
A Main Open Buggy:
1. Zack Barry XRAY M18T PRO
2. Josh Anderson
3. Andy Castellini
4. John Cravotta
5. Aaron Wilson
6. Jamie Lepley
7. Tom Loranger XRAY M18T
8. Tony Priolo
9. Brad Geck |
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Zack’s fourth and final race was Open 4wd, where he started in the 3rd position. At the horn they were off. In the first turn Zack was put head first into a pole where he sat waiting for a marshal. By the time he got back into the race, he was running in dead last. Zack slowly made up ground, working his way back up to 3rd place! As bad luck would have it, he landed wrong coming off the big jump and broke, he still managed to finish 7th overall.
Overall it was a great weekend at a great race. RC Madness does a SUPER job putting on this event. Anyone who is into 18th scale racing should really try to make it to this race . We were very pleased with the performance of the new M18T Pro, especially the buggy version that we built… that thing was absolutely AMAZING on the track! |
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