The 2016 Summer Sizzle held in Seattle, WA went down last weekend at the beautiful new asphalt facility built by the Seattle RC Racers crew. This event was unique in that it was two separate races on each Saturday and Sunday with a different layout for each day. XRAY's Luke Pittman made the trip down from Victoria, BC to experience the hype of the amazing new track.
Touring Stock on Saturday was a solid showing for XRAY but not without a fight from Brett Sisley. Luke and Brett battled back and forth most of the day during qualifying and even into the main. With a couple position changes and some very exciting passing it was definitely the closest race of the day. In the end XRAY's Luke Pittman ended up on top of the podium with Brett only .4s behind.
1. Luke Pittman - XRAY T4
2. Brett Sisley
3. Alex Pate
4. Dick Reece
5. Ryan Welch
Touring Modified on Saturday was also a solid showing for XRAY. After qualifying second on the grid, Luke was able to overtake Korey Harbke on the 4th lap to get into the lead. Lucky for him Keith Yu was challenging hard and instead of playing catch up Korey was put on the defensive, allowing Luke to take out a lead and finish the race in the top spot. With this first day win it would put Luke in the top spot for the overall "points" for Modified in this two day event.
1. Luke Pittman - XRAY T4
2. Korey Harbke 3. Keith Yu - XRAY T4
4. Jake Danilchik
5. Brian Shook
That would be a wrap for the first day of the two day event. The layout would change and we would start all over again in the morning. The new day brought a very interesting layout with no straight and two long sweepers and a couple tricky, but fast infield sections.
Touring Stock on Sunday was another success for the XRAY T4. With the Motiv M-Code 17.5 power Luke was able to take TQ on the first and third rounds, securing the starting position on the grid with Alex Pate right behind him. Setting the pace from the get go in the main Luke was able to hold off a strong charge from Alex who finished only .5s behind. The second win gave Luke the overall 2016 Summer Sizzle TC Stock Championship.
1. Luke Pittman - XRAY T4
2. Alex Pate
3. Brett Sisley
4. Ryan Robison
5. Dick Reece
Touring Modified on Sunday brought out the best in the top modified drivers with the Saturday "upset" taking things to a whole new level. Korey was nearly untouchable, doing everything right to make sure he secured the home town win, while Jake Danilchik also excelled on this new layout. Luke was able to set some quick laps, with a fast lap of 13.177 compared to Korey's 13.110, but the layout wasn't kind to him. The long sweepers were playing havoc on his tires and as they over heated the car began to get unpredictable, causing a couple of spinouts. Luke ended up in the 4th position behind Brian Shook.
1. Korey Harbke
2. Jake Danilchik
3. Brian Shook 4. Luke Pittman - XRAY T4
5. Alex Pate
