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| Race report by Paul Lemieux |
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The 15th annual Novak US on road championships were held on Jan 8th, 9th, and 10th at Trackside Hobbies in Milwaukee WI. The track is a permanent indoor carpet track, as always with carpet racing the track started out slick and gained bite all the way threw the weekend, by the time qualifying started the grip was very
high.
This year the touring car classes were all rubber tire with a handout Jaco Blue preglued tire. The classes were Mod TC, beginner TC, 13.5 TC, 17.5 TC, 12th scale 13.5, 12th scale Mod, World GT 13.5, Tamiya Mini, and Trans Am.
Economy issues, and weather problems kept the entries down from previous years, but with a higher than expected turnout, this years race included some of the best drivers from the US and Canada. New technologies also played a big role in this years event with the biggest issue being the speed of the "stock" classes. Scotty Ernst, doing all he could do to try and make this the best event possible had to make some tough last minute rule changes in an effort to limit technological advances that are currently on the market. These rule changes made for some really great racing in all of the "stock" classes at this years event. In the 17.5 class the rules were limited to the speed control technology from 6 months ago and this helped keep this class from blowing up in to a speed control war, in the 13.5 classes it was anything goes and the new programs really showed making the top 13.5 cars almost as fast down the straight as the open mod cars. |
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In 17.5 It was apparent from the get go that the toughest class to be in was 17.5 TC. With 55 entries, it was not only the largest class, but also the most competitive.
After the first three rounds of qualifying, there were less than 2 seconds separating the top ten drivers in the field, and after the forth round, Nick Stampfel proved that he was the man to beat laying down a near perfect run with his Xray T3 to put him on the pole for Sunday's triple A mains. After the dust had settled on Sunday, Nick eventually took the win in A2 and A3 to take the overall victory in the 17.5 TC class.
13.5 TC was the next largest class. After qualifying was finished, it was shaping up to be a battle for the ages. TQ for the class was Josh Hohnstein piloting his Xray T3, but starting on the pole in this class wasn't a guarantee that you would win. After an early bobble in A1, Josh did all he could to drive his car back to the front, but time had run out, and Brad Johnson took the win in A1. A2 was again, a very close and hard fought battle that showed that this class was going to be a battle between the top three on the grid. With Josh starting on pole, he drove a nearly flawless race to take A2 and force this one to be decided in A3. The final main saw another outstanding battle between our top three qualifiers with Brad Johnson leading almost the entire way, but with a late bobble, it was Martin Crisp who would eventually take the win in A3. After all the math was finished, it Was Josh Hohnstein and his Xray T3 taking the win with the tie breaker. |
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| In Mod it was the usual suspects with Keven Hebert showing his speed in practice turning some of the fastest laps and Myself also getting My T3 around at a good pace. In qualifying I was able to take the top spot in all 4 qualifiers with Keven Hebert qualifing second, Josh Cyrul was a bit off in qualifying but in practice before the mains Josh got his car figured out well and carried it to the mains. in A1 I took off and got a lead over Cyurl who muscled his way by Keven early on this dropped Keven way back, from their i held a couple of second lead over Josh threw the race to take the win with cyurl in second and Josh Hohnstein claiming third with his Xray T3. in A2 i took off with Keven in close pursuit and Josh in third, after a few laps i was able to pull away a bit and cruise from their, Cyrul ended up getting back to second by the end of the 5min with Hohnstein again pulling in to third by the end of the run. I decided to run A3 to test some steering positions, I shortened my ackermann post from almost full long to full short, the car was smoother and ran the same lap times, this time Cyurl had some troubles and Kevin was able to claim the two spot with Brian Jucha taking the Three spot with his XRAY. In the end I claimed the title with Cyrul in second overall and Hebert taking third. |
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Mod TC final results
1. Paul Lemieux XRAY T3
2. Josh Cyrul
3. Kevin Hebert
4. Josh Hohnstein XRAY T3
5. Martin Crisp
6. Brian Jucha XRAY T3
7. Mike nelson |
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In 12th mod Cyrul and Hebert were the guys to beat all weekend, Hebert grabbed the TQ from Cyrul in rounds three and four to get the overall TQ with Cyrul qualifing second and Eli Ezrow in third. In the finals their was some great racing between Keven and Josh in every final. My bad luck continued in to the finals by never finishing a single one. It was josh who nipped Kevin in A1 and A2 to take the title, in A2 I had a moment of brilliance for a couple of minutes with my XII link car by recording some of the fastest lap times all weekend but that was short lived as I T-Boned lap traffic and had to drop out. In the end it was Josh followed by Keven with Jason Engle having some smooth finals to grab the three spot overall.
Sportsman TC was a great class to watch, their were some real up and comers in that class, Cameron Eaves from Oklahoma took the tq spot in the class with Rich Beatty in second and other youngster Jason Hills from Madison WI in third. Jason took A1 with a impressive drive with a nother youngster Steve Eaves JR charging hard at the end in second. In A2 your TQ redemmed himself by taking the win over his brother Steve Eaves Jr again having a great finish, in A3 again cameron overcame his A1 problems to take the Title with Jason Hills having a nother strong race finishing third to claim second overall with Steve Eaves Jr rounding out the podium. all three kids did a great job! |
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17.5 TC final results
1. Nick Stampfel XRAY T3
2. Jim Peirsol
3. Dustin Layne
4. Bill Sydor
5. Steve Eaves XRAY T3
6. sarah Ernst XRAY T3
7. Brian Stanton XRAY T3
8. Q
9. John Ermer
10. Jeremy Whiting
13.5 Rubber TC final results
1. Josh Hohnstein XRAY T3
2. Brad Johnson
3. Martin Crisp
4. Brian Coch
5. Jeremy Whiting
6. Randy Bernard XRAY T3
7. Eric Schneeweis XRAY T3
8. Bill Sydor
9. Dustin Layne
10. Brian Jucha XRAY T3
12th Scale Mod final results
1. Josh Cyrul
2. kevin Hebert
3. jason Engle
4. Eli Ezrow
5. Nick Achterkirch
6. Artur Curyllo
7. Dave Arnold
8. Paul Lemieux XRAY XII
9. Dan louis
10. Aaron Bahner |
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