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| Race Report by Paul Lemieux |
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| The 5th annual IIC was held last week at the Riviera Hotel and Casino located at the heart of the famous Las Vegas strip. Every year the event draws competition from many different countries and this year was no different. There were almost 350 entries this year and everyone was looking forward to seeing how the new Single Cell LiPo rule was going to work in all the pancar classes. |
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The track was a temporary set-up in the grand ballroom of the Rivera. Scotty Ernst and an extensive crew set up the carpet track with a perfectly-crafted, smooth-as-a-pool-table wood subfloor which is constructed each year and discarded at the end of the event. The atmosphere at the event was as always huge. Live RC was on hand broadcasting the event minute-by-minute to the rest of the world, and a temporary full line hobby shop was in the ballroom to supply racers with all their needs.
For Team XRAY it was Drew Ellis and I who were on hand with a handful of other XRAY drivers to help racers and compete ourselves. |
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Practice:
Practice started on Tuesday with two controlled rounds of practice. Due to the brand new track, the groove built up quickly and was a totally pure groove that formed and kept getting darker and darker. In the controlled practice rounds the front runners definitely showed up. In Mod TC I was pretty fast right away, setting the fastest laps along with Juho Levanen, Naoto from Japan and Rick Howart. In 13.5 Foam it was Drew Ellis and Eric Anderson who showed up as the two to beat. |
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Qualifying:
Timed qualifiers started Thursday morning and the guys to beat in practice were all right there. In Mod Rubber TC it was myself with my XRAY T2â™009 who TQed the first and second rounds; my time from round two would be enough to hold the TQ position ahead of Juho Levanen (Finland) and Ronald Volker (Germany) who qualified third on the grid. Other notable classes were 13.5 12th scale with Pete D'Agnolo TQing, Brian Wynn in Pro World GT, and Kevin Hebert in 13.5 Rubber, and rounding it out was Drew Ellis with his XRAY T2â™009 who TQed the 13.5 Foam class.
Qualifying results:
Mod Rubber TC
1 LeMieux, Paul XRAY T2â™009
2 Levanen, Juho
3 Volker, Ronald
4 Moore, Andy
5 Baker, Barry
6 Hohwart, Rick
7 Herbert, Keven
8 Matsuzaki, Hayato
9 Blackstock, Mike
10 Matsukura, Naoto
13.5 Rubber tire TC
1 Herbert, Keven
2 Baker, Barry
3 Johnson, Brad
4 Moore, Andy
5 Hohnstein, Josh
6 Knudtson, Kody XRAY T2â™009
7 Ellis, Drew XRAY T2â™009
8 Aveytia, Juan
9 Haynes, Mike
13.5 Foam TC
1 Ellis, Drew XRAY T2â™009
2 Anderson, Eric XRAY T2â™009
3 St.Cyr, Richard XRAY T2â™009
4 Fairtra ce, Larry
5 Ehrlich, Dave
6 McNichols, Steve XRAY T2â™009
7 Lion, Wes XRAY T2â™009
8 Dienes, Goop
9 Christian, Odus |
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Mains:
I watched some of the finals and raced in one but I did not watch all of them.
However, here is what I sawâ¦
Mod TC:
I got the holeshot with Juho in tow. A big wreck hit the middle of the pack busted up the field and I'm pretty sure Andy Moore got a good start and quickly moved into 2nd after a small bobble from Juho. From there I was able to pull away a bit but I gave it all up as I made a rough move in traffic and collided with a lapped car. From there it was myself, Andy Moore and Juho on the same straight. Joho continued to try and get by Andy which slowed the two of them and I pulled away again. After that I cruised home, not totally sure what happened in the end but Japanese champ Naoto worked his way all the way up to finish 2nd as their sounded to be some bumping between the three at the end of the race. In the end it was myself, Naoto (2nd) and Joho (3rd). |
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Final results
1 LeMieux, Paul XRAY T2â™009
2 Matsukura, Naoto
3 Moore, Andy
4 Levanen, Juho
5 Hohwart, Rick
6 Herbert, Keven
7 Baker, Barry
8 Blackstock, Mike
9 Matsuzaki, Hayato
10 Volker, Ronald |
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13.5 Rubber:
TQ Kevin Hebert got a good start with Barry Baker in tow. The two of them were freight-training up front and I think Brad Johnson in was in 3rd for a bit but it was not long until Brad was a casualty of some rough racing and dropped back. Kevin was keeping it smooth in front and Baker made a small mistake that caused his car to handle ill. After that it was all Kevin as the battle for 2nd was on between Josh Hohnstein and Andy Moore. Josh held off Andy until the remaining laps when Andy was unlucky and would have to settle for 3rd. |
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Final results
1 Herbert, Keven
2 Hohnstein, Josh
3 Haynes, Mike
4 Knudtson, Kody XRAY T2â™009
5 Moore, Andy
6 Aveytia, Juan
7 Johnson, Brad
8 Weiss, Steve
9 Ellis, Drew XRAY T2â™009
10 Baker, Barry |
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13.5 Foam TC final results:
1 Ellis, Drew XRAY T2â™009
2 Anderson, Eric XRAY T2â™009
3 Fairtrace, Larry
4 Dienes, Goop
5 Lion, Wes XRAY T2â™009
6 St.Cyr, Richard XRAY T2â™009
7 Ehrlich, Dave
8 Dirla, Robert
9 Christian, Odus
10 McNichols, Steve XRAY T2â™009
The event was awesome as usual. I would like to thank the organizers, the sponsors of the event and everyone who showed up.
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Sportsman World GT Class final results:
1 Kyle Bergstrom
2 Kenny Lambert
3 Tim Copp XRAY X10
4 Mario Ficco
5 George Lin |
| More pictures by www.rc50.com |
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