August 29th and 30th was Rd. 3 of the RC Pro Series South Division held at HX Raceway in Bossier City, LA. HX Raceway is a great racing facility and the HX crew did an awesome job of preparing a challenging layout to close out the South Division pointâ™s race. For the Pro class the championship was tight with three drivers having a shot to win. In buggy I was leading going into the weekend but not far behind was Kyle Skidmore and Mike Battaile. In Pro Arena truck again I was in the lead but tied with Kyle Skidmore and, with a win in the first round, Quincy Hughes still had a shot at the championship.
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In qualifying Kyle Skidmore proved he was going to be the man to beat by taking TQ for both Pro Arena Truck and Pro Buggy. I managed to TQ the first round of Pro Arena Truck but struggled to keep pace with Kyle in every round after. I did however manage to qualify 2nd overall in both classes so I would regroup before the main and I knew if I could keep Kyle close in the main then I would have a chance. Another XRAY looking good was Ryan Lopez who made the trip over from Georgia to race in our final division race. Ryan was consistent throughout qualifying and would qualify 3rd overall so XRAY had a good threat to win the main.
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In the Open Arena Truck main XRAY privateer Denver Houghton, who rushed his way back from the hospital because of illness and 103 degree fever, showed his up and coming talent by qualifying 2nd and going on to dominate the main by lapping the field to win his first big race. Denver also TQâ™ed Open buggy and had an enormous lead in the main until he ran into problems with his throttle linkage which would force him to retire from the race. Congrats to Denver and watch out for this 13 yr. old as he is proving to the South that he will be one to recon with in the future.
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In the Pro Arena Truck main Kyle made an early mistake on the first lap which allowed me to take the lead by the end of lap one. From there I drove very consistent and quickly I could see that I was putting a decent gap between 2nd and myself. About halfway into the race I was able to put the field a lap down so from there I cruised home to victory with Quincy Hughes in 2nd and Skidmore in 3rd.
In the Pro Buggy main again Kyle made an early mistake allowing me to take the lead from lap one. I managed to stretch into a comfortable lead by the first pit stop in which I had to come in earlier that panned because my motor was running rich. After I continued to extend the gap between 2nd Ryan Lopez, who was having a great battle with Quincy Hughes, and by the half way point I had the field a lap down.
The track all weekend had been slick with a loose sandy surface so I decided to stay with M3 Calibers for the main and halfway through I noticed I had made the wrong choice. I began having problems that too much traction gives you and that was traction rolling, making the car very nervous, twitchy and hard to drive. Skidmore had fought his way back from a horrible start and had passed Lopez for 2nd and was now closing in on me with time running out. I managed to keep it clean enough and stay ahead of Skidmore who was now only a few seconds behind me to take the win.
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Pro Buggy final results:
1. Jason Branham â“ XRAY XB808
2. Kyle Skidmore 3. Ryan Lopez â“ XRAY XB808
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The win in both Arena Truck and Buggy gave me the overall points lead to win the South Division Championship which will set me up nicely to make a run at the RC Pro National Championship in November in Alvarado, TX.
Thanks to RCAMERICA and XRAY for providing me with great equipment and very durable cars. I finished every main in every round for the division races and that alone gives you a better shot at finishing well.
