Round 2 of the Texas State RC Pro Series was held at RC Head Quarters (RCHQ) in San Antonio, TX. RCHQ is an annual stop for the State Series and probably my favorite stops due to their well thought out and fun layouts.
Unfortunately rain had hit the area hard the week before canceling all of Friday practice and delaying the one day event on Saturday from an early morning start to an afternoon start time, allowing for the track to dry as much as possible.
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The track was covered with wood chips to help soak up the moisture and so with no practice, a muddy track covered with the chips, 150+ entries and qualifying being cut to only 2 rounds it was going to make for an interesting and long day. Saturday did provide with sunshine so with qualifying under way it took less time then everyone thought to dry the track and also to my surprise the track came in very well and with very good traction.
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In qualifying I managed to guess on set-up correctly and with everything working very well I managed to TQ both rounds in buggy and truggy. In electric buggy XRAY team driver Nick Vanderpool put in two solid rounds to take overall TQ for the class. Also solid in qualifying was XRAY team driver Roger Ayeres who drove solid to qualify second for the buggy main.
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In the Electric mains Nick got off to a great start winning A1 of the triple A-main format. With a 4th in A2 Nick would need to win the last main in order to take 1st overall for the class. Nick drove well and kept the race close but with a few late race crashes he would finish 3rd to take 2nd overall for the Electric buggy class. To round out the top 3 XRAY team driver Nick Lefebvre had a good day as well taking the 3rd spot on the podium for Rd. 2.
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Electric Buggy Top 3:
1. Earl Trimble 2. Nick Vanderpool XRAY XB808E
3. Nick Lefebvre XRAY XB808E
In the truck main I got off to a horrible start with an early crash and found myself in the back of the pack allowing the leaders to get away to a good lead. After I managed to clear some traffic I was able to set fast lap after fast lap and quickly I caught up to the lead pair and took the lead once again. I drove smooth for the remainder of the main to win with a comfortable lead.
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Arena Truck Final:
1. Jason Branham XRAY XT8
2. Keith Huffman
3. Jimmy Matsler 4. Denver Houghton XRAY XT8
5. Pablo Tejada 6. Nick Vanderpool XRAY XT8
7. Mark Morrow 8. Nick Lefebvre XRAY XT8
9. Nathan Vivares
10. Aaron Simmons
In the buggy main I didnâ™t want to make the same mistake I made in the truck main by crashing early. I drove smooth, began to pull away quickly and managed to take the win for Rd. 2. Roger Ayeres was battling late in the main for the second spot and a 1, 2 XRAY finish but with an unfortunate screw backing out of his caster block it forced him to leave the race.
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Buggy Final:
1. Jason Branham XRAY XB808
2. Jake Dellinger
3. Brian Henn
4. Eliott Martinez 5. Nick Lefebvre XRAY XB808
6. Tanner Hagler
7. Mike Clark 8. Denver Houghton XRAY XB808
9. Keith Huffman 10. Roger Ayres XRAY XB808
Thanks to XRAY for great support and great products. My cars worked flawlessly all day which was important due to the conditions and technical track.
