Drivers traveled from all corners of Canada to compete in this years Alentus Winter Nationals. Basically a pre race to the up coming season. This race also doubled as the 1st time the XRAY XB8 buggy hit a track in the hands of the general public.
The local RC club (Clutch Nutz) headed by Del Ushenko designed and built a great indoor track. Big sick air and tight turns made for challenging driving and car set up. With a full day of practice on Friday all classes were out testing new cars and motors, trying to find that killer setup.
(click to enlarge)
Team XRAY Canada drivers, Wayne Mah, Craig Miller and Rob Sorjonen showed up with team manager Gord Barr to set up and find a good base line set up. This race also was the 1st time the 2005 team got to meet each other and share opinions and thoughts of the upcoming season.
Qualifying Saturday went well for team XRAY with both Wayne and Rob finding a set up that allowed them to put down the horse power. This resulted in both drivers achieving the only 13 lap runs of the event. With each class tightening up as the four rounds progressed. The very popular (how often do you hear that) Race Director Buddha kept things moving well and the four rounds were complete by about 10 PM.
The tightest qualifying was in the 1/8 scale buggy. With some of the best drivers in Canada the top 6 of 8 positions were separated by a mere 10 seconds. With only two drivers making 13 laps it was clear the field was going to be competitive.
1. Wayne Mah XRAY
2. Rob Sorjonen XRAY
3. Richard Mucha 4. Craig Miller XRAY
5. Dave Henry
6. Brad Davis
7. Chris Hammond
8. Navaz Walji
(click to enlarge)
The mains started off Sunday morning with the first round of Electric Truck followed by the D Main for Open Monster Truck. As anyone whoâ™s watched Monster Truck knows, there was carnage on the track. The bad boys of RC racing belched around the track and had a great time. The spectators were starting to filter in and get comfortable.
The 1/8 scale buggy "A" main was incredible. With XRAY/Panther/Collari drivers Wayne Mah, Craig Miller and Rob Sorjonen competing hard against Dave Henry (TTR) Mah served notice he was going to push. After grabbing the lead on the first lap he held with some blistering lap times. With just over 5 minutes gone it was XRAY (Mah), TTR (Henry), XRAY (Miller) separating from the field. All three drivers were averaging under 26 seconds per lap.
(click to enlarge)
On the 15th lap it looked like Wayne was going hard when he almost landed the quad. Unfortunately it was a throttle servo problem and the resulting break put him out of the race. It seemed the anticipated battle was lost. Henry drove very solidly and put more than 2 laps between him and second place Miller by about 20 minutes in.
Then it all started to change. Miller put together lap after lap slowly gaining on Henry. When the TTR had a flame-out in the pits Craig was able to get back on the same lap. Over the next 15 minutes Miller and his XB8 were able to not only put 3 laps between him and third place but also catch Henry. Now we had a race!
Never separated by more than 10 seconds both drivers continued to drive hard through traffic and exchange the lead more than once. Pit strategy came into play and with 4 minutes left Craig and Dave were both heading for home with Dave in the lead. The XRAY seemed to be faster off the jumps than the TTR and the sweeper after the main straight and after the double table-top were where most of the ground seemed to be gained.
With less than two minutes to go Craig made a pass on Henry after the whoops section and then waited. During the pass there was a slight brush that pushed the TTR sideways. Craig patiently waited for Henry to pass and then they were off and racing. It was Truly amazing sportsmanship. I personally heard Miller suggest he might have waited anyway! He just wanted to race. On the next lap Dave waited for Craig when he got jostled. At this point the class of the field were making sure it was going to be close. The tension and excitement in the room was palpable.
On the last lap both cars went over the double table and headed around the sweeper. The cars were virtually side-by-side heading onto the final straight. Heartbreakingly for the partisan crowd Millerâ™s car got a little loose and he had to back off at the top of the straight.
When the smoke cleared it was Henry edging out Miller 1.2 seconds behind. A breathtaking race. Both drivers went hard and both showed a lot of class.
(click to enlarge)
The XB8 seemed to be one of the fastest and most consistent cars on this day. The other XRAY driver in the race had electronics issues as well but was pushing very hard and pleasing the crowd with some huge air and landing the Quad a number of times. The forward bite of the XB8 made for some exciting visuals.
The final results:
1. Dave Henry 2. Craig Miller XRAY
3. Richard Mucha
4. Ryan Bakek
5. Colin Branch
6. Brad Davis 7. Rob Sorjonen XRAY
8. Chris Hammond 9. Wayne Mah XRAY
10. Navaz Walji
