RCAMERICA and Xray had a great weekend at the first round of the south RC Pro Series. Not only were there five XB8's in the main but 1st, 2nd, and 3rd were taken with the Xray flag. Qualifying was brutal, the track was very small and most people were hunting for traction on the smooth surface. Even though the track began to show signs of grooving with black marks everywhere, there were no cars out there generating the desired traction. On top of that the track had a lot of 180's and when mixed with lower traction it is a recipe for disaster.
The starting gate was the most crucial part in qualifying because the gate lead to one sweeping turn and then into two quick 180's. If you didn't get through the mess you weren't going to get in a good qualifying position. In round 1 Michael Harrison took the first TQ, but it wasn't going to stay, TQ change every round. Typically RC Pro is 2 out of 4 for qualifying but due to some unseen computer issues, the event was turned into 3 rounds with rocket round. As everyone knows, in the RC Pro Series TQ gets an extra 5 points so it was a fought after position. In round two I took over the TQ spot but just over a second but in round 3 Kyle Skidmore put a great run to take the final TQ by running 2 seconds faster then the previous set TQ.
Main day was looking good and things were going as planned. Michael Patterson with his XB8 was on fire in the lower mains. He did not get good qualifying in the day before and being that he comes from an on-road background he is still adjusting to the brutal racing that takes place in off-road. He won both the C and the B to bump into the A main.
The Amain was getting underway and all the XB8's were looking strong (all 5 of them!). When the gate was dropped I had a flawless start and got away from the pack and Frosty got jammed into a pipe. About 4 minutes into it I saw Frosty get into the 2nd place position which was a difficult task to pull off because everyone was running in a pack. At about 9 minutes into the main my throttle servo broke so I got to watch most the main. Right before my servo broke, Kyle's steering servo broke which put him out as well. From this point on Frosty with his XB8 just ran away with the event with consistency and fast laps. Jared Bockholt was running in the middle of the pack for most of the race and then with out 4 minutes left in the 45 minute main decided he wasn't pleased with that and in two laps moved up to 2nd place where he would stay. Then you had the bump master Michael Patterson who appeared to always be defending his 3rd place finish but towards the end of the race he put the track on fire with his on-road skills and finished third with a comfortable lead over 4th.
The XB8's were so good in the main and what was neat was that the majority of drivers were going different routes on setup. I noticed that Patterson was running the white springs and no front swaybar, Frosty was running the same thing he always does which is real close to my standard setup, and I was trying a completely different setup then I typically do.
Congratulations to Xray for producing such dominate buggy in our region and hopefully we will see this success progress to the national level shortly. Congrats to all the winners at the RC Pro Series and Carlton for dealing with pressures that were not scheduled.
1. Frosty St. Clair - XRAY XB8
2. Jared Bockholt - XRAY XB8
3. Michael Patterson - XRAY XB8
4. Michael Harrison
5. Chris Symons
6. Mike Battaile
7. Jake Koetting 8. Mike Sauer - XRAY XB8
9. David Joor - XRAY XB8
10. Kyle Skidmore - TQ
