This past weekend Rd. 2 of the Texas Nitro Invitational Series was held in Victoria, TX. This is the only race held at this track during the year so itâ™s always a special place for us Texans to come and race due to the fast, high-bite, blue groove surface in which we do not see at any of our many race tracks in Texas. Victoria Raceway always brings close fast competitive racing and this year was no exception.
Team Xray drivers included:
Jason Branham
Jimmy Matsler
Roger Ayers
Dave Manglesdorf
Jake Dellinger
Tannler Hagler
(click to enlarge)
Qualifying:
Qualifying is always supper close in Victoria because its as close as we âśoff-roadersâť come to racing on a on-road type surface and if you make any mistakes on this fast paced surface you can loose valuable time.
(click to enlarge)
Buggy:
Jason Branham quickly set the time to beat by leading off the first round with the only 13 lap run and would even better his qualifying time in the 2nd round with another but faster 13 lap run. In this series we run a Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ) on Sunday morning and with the rocket round format you knew it was going to be a super fast round. With out a doubt team driver Jimmy Matsler was quickly off to a new TQ run but would just fall short due to a late mistake and would qualify second with Jason who held on to TQ honors and Xray would take the top two qualifying spots over the field.
(click to enlarge)
Truggy:
Saturday qualifying belonged to team driver Jimmy Matsler again turning in the only 13 lap qualifying run of the day but like I said with the LCQ coming up on Sunday Jimmy could not hold off the TQ run by Steven Dogget who just clipped Jimmyâ™s time to take TQ honors for the main.
(click to enlarge)
Mains:
Buggy:
Top Qualifier Jason Branham would lay down some smooth fast and consistent lap times to stretch his lead taking the win from beginning to finish winning the 2nd round of the Invite Series and taking a comfortable lead in the series also with a win at the first round as well. Team driver Jimmy Matsler would fight past some early problems to come back for a solid and well deserved 3rd place finish.
Buggy Finial:
1. Jason Branham XRAY XB808
2. Mike Battaile 3. Jimmy Matsler XRAY XB8 EC
4. Steven Dogget 5. Jake Dellinger XRAY XB8 EC
6. Tol Thomas 7. Roger Ayers XRAY XB8 EC
8. Tannler Hagler XRAY XB8 EC
9. Dave Manglesdorf XRAY XB8 EC
10. Smiley Henn
(click to enlarge)
Expert Arena Truck:
This was definitely the main of the day between TQ Steven Dogget and Jimmy Matsler. Steven Dogget piloting his Losi 8T got off to a smooth and fast pace stretching a nice gap between him and the field. Jimmy Matsler with some early wrecks and a flame out during a pit stop finally settled down and soon put the heat on Steven Dogget who was now making some costly mistakes of his own. Jimmy and Steven swapped leads a few times in the closing minutes but it would Jimmy would prove to be too much for Steven to keep up with and would take the out right win thus improving his lead in the point series as well. Dave Manglesdorf would hold on to 3rd putting two XT8â™s on the podium.
Arena Truck Final:
1. Jimmy Matsler XRAY XT8
2. Steven Dogget 3. Dave Manglesdorf XRAY XT8
4. T-Mizzle
5. Chris Allison 6. Jake Dellinger XRAY XT8
7. Thomas Wells XRAY XT8
8. Tol Thomas
9. Mark Morrow
10. Mike Battaile
