The RC Pro Texas State Championship was held at N-Control Raceway in Austin, TX October 16-17. The RC Pro Texas State Series consists of 4 accumulating points building races including the final race to determine the State Champion for each class. The N-Control crew put together a first class, technical and fun lay out which really brought the field together for some good close racing.
During the 3 days I was there I saw all kinds of different conditions from a wet high bite track, dry slick track, 20+ degrees temperature differences from morning, day and night, smooth track and rough track conditions. So keeping up with changes in tires, shock oil and set-ups became a chore but it really showed your speed against the field if you got it right.
In the Open Buggy and Truck division it was all about Cade âśYoung Gunâť Whitenton who came with a purpose and even though his mains didnâ™t go over the way he wanted Cade was able to seal the points lead in Open Buggy to take the Championship with his 808 and narrowly missed doubling up by taking 2nd in the Open Truck Championship with his XT8. Good job Cade!!
My XT8 and 808 were working great all weekend and even though qualifying 5th in buggy and 2nd in truck I was very confident going into the mains. In qualifying we ran 10 minute qualifiers which were cool because it gave me a chance to work on fuel mileage so I tried to go the whole 10 minutes but I just fell short in my first two runs of buggy and truck. Just to get a spot in the main for both I pitted in my last qualifiers and TQâ™ed the truck round and finished 2nd in my buggy round.
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In the truck main I was able to get out front quickly and would lead all the way until the last 5 minutes when I had a hard crash causing my steering to lock up causing me to have to come off the track to get it fixed. By the time I got back on the track I was a lap down and had to just settle for 2nd.
In the buggy main again I was able to get out front quickly and lead past the half way point until I ran into some drive train issues causing me to retire from the race.
Even though the mains didnâ™t go so well I was able to come away with both the Expert Buggy and Truggy State Championships, so I was happy with this.
Thanks to XRAY for all their support and their hard work to give me the best equipment to race!
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Arena Truck final results:
1. Jason Branham - XRAY XT8
2. Denver Houghton 3. Keith Huffman - XRAY XT8
4. Derek Keeling
5. Mike Pryor
