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| RC Pro Series EAST â“ Round 2 |
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The RC Pro Series has become a premiere series for top talent across the country. So the stage was set on July 27-29th for some of the best racers on the eastern seaboard of the US to go head to head. Drivers came from as far as Virginia all the way to the famous Lake Park track in Tampa, Florida. Lake Park has always been known for putting on great races and building great tracks. Well this past weekend they did just that!!!
Day 1 â“ Friday Practice
As the park opened at 7:00AM, cars and trailers poured into the park to get as much valuable track time as possible. By 10:00AM parking was 3 trailers deep all around. On the track, however, it was evident by the tight, technical layout that it was not only going to be the fastest driver that would win, but rather the most consistent driver. The surface was also very hooked up. It only took about 2 hours until the track started showing signs of a blue groove.
Day 2 â“ Saturday Qualifying
The Pro Series format is 4 rounds of qualifying taking your best 2 based on the ROAR points system with a qualifying heat resort after the 2nd round using your first 2 rounds.
In 1/8th Buggy Expert the racing was EXTREMELY tight. In round 1 I took the TQ with my Max-powered XB8EC closely followed by CENâ™s Gene Hickerson, Kyoshoâ™s Ryan Eckert, Associatedâ™s JR Mitch, Xray's Ryan Lopez, and Jamminâ™s Brandon Cutchins. Ryan Eckert took round 2 and Gene Hickerson took round 3. In the fourth and final round of qualifying there were four drivers that could possibly TQ the races so the pressure was on. Jr Mitch went of first and had unfortunate problems in his heat. In the next heat were Hickerson, Eckert, and myself. During the race we traded the lead every lap until the last lap where Hickerson took the lead and held on to it giving him the overall TQ in buggy.
1/8th Expert Qualifying Results
1- Gene Hickerson
2- Ryan Eckert
3- Leon McIntosh - XRAY XB8EC
4- JR Mitch
5- Ryan Lopez - XRAY XB8EC
6- Travis Scrambling
7- Brandon Cutchins
8- Jinson Collins
9- Kyle Sokol
10- Shane Ogden
In the 1/8th Arena Truck class the racing was just as tight. I started the race off on a low note having a DNS the first round due to a blown servo. So it was Ryan Eckert taking the TQ for the round with Brandon Cutchins in 2nd. In the Second round of qualifying I took the TQ with my XT8 setting the fastest round out of the 4. However, Ryan Eckert and his Kyosho prevailed in qualifying taking top honors for the start of the main.
1/8th Expert Arena Truck Qualifying Results
1-Ryan Eckert
2- Leon McIntosh - XRAY XT8
3- Brandon Cutchins
4- Gene Hickerson
5- Justin Cranford
6- Pete Worth
7- Anton Watson
8- Tony Pattishall
9- Joey Perez
10- Kyle Sokol |
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(click to enlarge) |
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Day 3 â“ Sunday Mains
The highly anticipated Buggy main was run around 4:00PM and due to heavy rain showers in the morning the main was cut from 45min to 30min. Also due to the rain the track had changed drastically. It went from super-grooved with high bite to muddy and slightly slick. There was a huge 35-40ft. triple in the back that we were jumping in qualifying with no problem but due to the track change it turned into a double-single combination for the main.
At the start of the buggy main the racing as very tight. We ran in a 5~7car freight train all the way up until the first round of pit stops. I was fortunate in the beginning to quickly move up into 2nd closely behind Hickerson. When he pitted I took the lead for a few laps until an unfortunate incident with lap traffic which dropped me back to 3rd and I stayed there until the end of he race when I moved up to 2nd with 6 minutes to go. My car was awesome and very capable of winning the race but some not-so-smart decisions during the race cost me quite a bit of time. Congratulations go to Gene Hickerson for driving the race that he did. He drove fast, clean and it was a well-deserved win for him.
1/8th Expert Buggy Final Results
1- Gene Hickerson
2- Leon McIntosh - XRAY XB8EC
3- Ryan Eckert
4- Jinson Collins
5- JR Mitch
6- Brandon Cutchins
7- Travis Scrambling
8- Kyle Sokol
9- Shane Ogden
10- Patrick Rossiter
11- Alan Burton
12- Ryan Lopez - XRAY XB8EC
In the Arena Truck main Ryan Eckert, Myself, and Tony âśHackusallâť Pattishall took off from the field. During the 30min race Ryan and I had swapped the lead every time the other would pit. What made the race one for the record books was the fact that for the entire 30min race Ryan and I were never more than 6 seconds apart so tensions were high. At the end I managed to keep the lead on our 2nd to last round of pit stops and hold on until the end to take the win with my XT8.
1/8th Expert Arena Truck Final Results
1- Leon McIntosh - XRAY XT8
2- Ryan Eckert
3- Tony Pattishall
4- Anton Watson
5- Kyle Sokol
6- Pete Worth
7- Gene Hickerson
8- Justin Cranford
9- Joey Perez
10- Larry Bergeron Jr |
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I would like to thank the Hurricane R/C club for putting on an awesome race. Even with all the rain they managed to get the track back into awesome shape and my hatâ™s off to them. Also want to thank all the racers who made the drive down and supported XRAY products. Also I would like to thank my sponsors XRAY, HUDY, RCAmerica, Max Power, Werks, Futaba, Novak, and Pro-Line Racing. It was an honor to race with everyone who showed up.
Leon McIntosh |
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