May 26-27 the XRAY team consisting of Jason Branham and Ryan Lopez attended the CEN Nitro Invasion at Hobbies Xtreme Raceway in Bossier City, LA. The HX race crew put on a great race for drivers traveling from all over the country. The facilities at HX raceway are second to none and made for some close competitive racing.
After practice on Friday Jason and Ryan ended up running simaliar set-ups on thier XB8 EC's but both looked to be set-up well and were ready for qualifing to begin. Jason was also racing the new XRAY XT8 in the Pro truggy class. Jason's XT8 really worked well during practice and clearly was setting some of the faster lap times of the truggies there.
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Round 1 of qualifing saw Jason taking TQ in 1/8 buggy over CEN's Andrew Smolnick and Losi's Qunicy Hughes. Ryan rounded out the top 5 with a solid first round and also Jason finished 5th for the round in Truggy.
Round 2 saw Jason again taking TQ honors in 1/8 buggy and also in truggy. Jason set a 12 lap pace in buggywhich would be the only 12 lap run of the entire weekend. Ryan Lopez also set a good 2nd round pace to earn him 5th overall for the round and sead him comfortably in the main.
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Round 3 saw a resort of the heats and would pair all the faster frivers in the same heat. With gate starts being used it was going to be a fight to get to the first corner in order to get a clean run in. Jason again TQ'ed both 1/8 buggy and truggy for the round which earned him TQ for both classes for the event.
In the truggy main Jason crased on the first lap which let CEN's Andrew Smolnick lead for the first few laps. Jason then caught and past Andrew and continued to strecth his lead by a lap over the field. With trucks dropping out of the race only 5 trucks remained on the track by the end of the 45 minute main. Jason with the XT8 ended up winning the Pro Truggy class by 5 laps over the field.
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The final race of the weekend ended with the Pro buggy Final. Jason Branham lead from wire to wire never giving up the lead for the 45 minute main. CEN's Andrew Smolnick tried to close the gapa couple of times but could not keep it clean enough making to many mistakes to catch Jason. Ryan Lopez was having motor issues which caused him to flame out twice during the final to finish in 8th position overall.
Thank you to XRAY, Hudy and RC America for all thier support in supplying me with what I need to do my best.
