The indoor champs were held over the weekend of Nov 23-25th in the ballroom of the Strongsville OH Holliday inn hotel. The "champs" is one of the worlds longest running races and a Thanksgiving tradition for well over 30 years. The track was a medium size carpet surface with wood sub floor. The XRAY team for this race was Andrew Hardman, Blake Keulen, Eric Schneeweis and Paul Lemieux.
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In Mod TC practice it was Andrew Hardman and Kevin Hebert who were fastest. After some team work with Andrew on set up, Paul switched to a front diff from a spool and made a front hex change which brought Paul on to the pace.
In 17.5tc Blake Keulen Was fast all threw practice and qualifying, Blake and his T4 was setting good pace with Dave and Brad Johnson also running strong. Eric Schneeweis also ran well in 17.5 And was looking for a Amain spot.
In 13.5 TC Andrew Hardman was setting the pace all weekend. Blake Keulen also was fast along with Jason Schreffler and Ray Darroch as the challengers. Andrew held TQ All weekend with many good runs.
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At the end of qualifying it was Andrew Hardman and Paul Lemieux put their T4's on pole position in their respective classes, Andrew in 13.5 Tc and Paul in open mod. 12 year old Blake Keulen also performed great with his T4 qualifying 2nd in both the highly competitive 13.5 TC division and the 17.5 TC division.
In the Finals it was Paul and Andrew who both converted their pole starts in to wins, Andrews win was with a very nicely driven final from the start.
The mod final was a bit more eventful as a mistake from Lemieux gave the lead to Kevin, Lemieux would eventually catch up and a similar mistake from Kevin would give the lead back to Paul with only a couple of laps remaining. The finals for Young Blake Keulen would not go as planned with some bad still but he still finished well leaving tge event with a 5th and 6th final positions in his classes and lots of experience for such a young racer in the process.
Congratulations to all the winners, and thanks to the whole "Champs" crew who put in all the effort to once again make this great race happen.
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Results:
17.5 TC
1. Dave Johnson
2. Brad Johnson
3. Bill Sydor
4. Ray Kelbanow 5. Blake Keulen - XRAY T4
6. Ron Goetter 7. Eric Schneeweis - XRAY T4
8. Brian Wynn
9. Alston Kelso
10. Mike Wise
13.5 TC
1. Andrew Hardman - XRAY T4
2. Jason Schreffler
3. Brad Johnson
4. Bill Sydor
5. Ray Darroch 6. Blake Keulen - XRAY T4
7. Brock Witmer
8. Joe Sorwell
9. Corey Groves
ModTC
1. Paul Lemieux - XRAY T4
2. KevinHebert 3. Andrew Hardman - XRAY T4
4. Andrew Knapp
5. Josh Cyrul. 6. RJ Whiteside - XRAY T4
