The 2nd round of the NCT was held in Spokane, Washington over Memorial Day weekend. The oldest RC race in the northwest and traditionally the largest lived up to itsâ™ reputation with 255 entries.
Given personal circumstances and my upcoming move into the Unlimited Monster Truck class I was focusing solely on 1/8th scale buggy for this race.
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Qualifying didnâ™t go as well as I had hoped. Gitters, overdriving and lap traffic kept the TQ away from me. The XRAY was VERY good with just a couple of changes from the Texas national set-up were all that were required. And, although the breaks didnâ™t go my way in Qualifying, the car was WAY better than I qualified.
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For the 2nd NCT race in a row I was going into the main knowing that I was held back in qualifying, we were going to the front and I was the one to beat.
Starting 5th, I snaked my way into 2nd by the 3rd lap. I chased down Marcus Neuspeed (Kyosho), the leader, and passed for the lead just before my first fuel stop (7min in).
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After fuel, I again found myself in 2nd as Keith Hadley (Mugen), the new leader; short pitted and passed me while I was in the pits. Knowing that I was leading before pitting, I knew I had the advantage on pits right off the bat. I kept my head down and concentration up and just reeled off laps trying to keep the pace untouchable for everyone else.
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Closing in a large group of cars battling with one another and generally slowing everyone down, I decided to make my second fuel stop (12min in) and keep the track ahead of me clear. I had already passed Hadley on the track and opened up a large cushion. I pulled it into the pits and my pit crew of Corey Ecalbarger and Jeremy Friesz had me in and out in 5 seconds.
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As I came back onto the track Hadley had been caught in the mob of traffic I stayed clear of and I maintained a 7 second lead. Again, back to fast, clean laps as 2nd place Hadley and I had at least 1 lap on the rest of the field. The XB8 was SO easy to drive fast and consistent, it was no big thing to build up time on Hadley and when he made his 3rd pit stop I passed him and had a lap on the field.
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At my 3rd fuel stop (18min in) the fastest pit crew in the northwest got me in and out in 4 seconds and I maintained the lap plus lead. At this point with such a huge lead on 2nd place all I wanted was clean laps and didnâ™t really care if they were fast or not.
At my final fuel stop (24min in) my crew made sure I was full, as I was in and out maintaining a lap and a half lead on Hadley in 2nd.
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My biggest scare was leaving pit road as I miss judged a pipe on exit and slammed the right front wheel/a-arm assembly into it hard. Whamâ¦the car rebounded and flipped over in the straightaway. I hit that pipe ultra hard and square on with the right front wheel. The turn marshal flipped it over and I motored away with everything XRAY in tact. I couldnâ™t wait for the finish tone to sound, as it seemed like it went fast up until the last fuel stop but deathly slow over the last 6 minutes. I cruised the XB8 home to the win in style.
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1. Mike Dana - XRAY
2. Keith Hadley - Mugen
3. Ray Villeneuve - Kyosho
4. Mike Phillips - Kyosho
5. Tony Newland - TTR
6. Taylor Peterson - TTR
7. Marcus Neuspeed - Kyosho 8. Doy Shultz - XRAY
9. Rick McCrery - TTR
10. Ken Peterson - Kyosho
Setup of Mike Dana is available in the on-line set-up sheet database on www.teamxray.com/xforum.
