|
(click to enlarge) |
|
| Race report by Dan Hamann |
|
The Minnesota State On-Road Championships, held in Duluth, MN occurred over the weekend of March 24th to 26th. Hosted by the Lake Superior R/C Car Club, the race is unique in that it takes place at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center as a compliment to the Motorhead Madness car show; this race is therefore an excellent promotion of R/C racing to a automotive focused audience. The racing format would be four rounds of qualifiers in a qual point format, followed by single mains.
|
|
|
RCAmerica/Team Xray representatives Dan Hamann and Jason Cheng were present for parts and customer support, and between the two were running both the 17.5 TC and 13.5 1/12th scale classes. Additional classes were
17.5 1/12th, (21.5) 12th, USGT, USVTA, MMR VTA, World GT, World GTR, Spec Truck and Novice. The 48' by 95' layout was fast and flowing, taking place on CRC Fasttrak II "black" carpet. The format for the weekend was open practice and 2 minute seeding practice rounds followed by one round of qualifying on Friday, 2 and a half rounds of qualifiers on Saturday, with the remaining half qualifier and single mains taking place on Sunday.
|
|
(click to enlarge) |
|
|
|
The qual point format rewarded consistent results, with the best 2 out of 4 rounds counting towards qualifying position for the mains. In 17.5 TC, Bill Sydor, Dan Hamann and Rob Love battled for the top qualifying spot over 4 rounds. Bill Sydor managed to capture the Top Qualifying Spot, narrowly edging out Dan Hamann's XRAY T4'17 with Rob Love immediately in tow.
In 13.5 1/12th Scale, the local duo of John Wiita and Kevin Van Ert were split by Troy Gubbins for the top 3 qualifying positions, with Jason Cheng claiming the 6th qualifier position with his XRAY X12'17 and Dan Hamann taking the 8th qualifying position in the A-Main after a rough set of qualifiers, also utilizing his XRAY X12'17.
|
|
|
In the 17.5 TC A-Main, Dan Hamann was able to jump past the Awesomatix of Bill Sydor in the second corner and maintain a consistent pace over the 6 minute encounter to take the win with his Motiv powered XRAY T4'17, with Sydor finishing 2nd and Jeff Will putting in a tremendous drive to take 3rd on the podium from the B-main transfer spot.
|
|
|
In the 13.5 1/12th A-Main, Dan Hamann was able to sneak his way through traffic, moving from the 8th position to 3rd by the 17th lap, while maintaining a consistent pace to 4th. However, a body drag issue would demote an otherwise clean drive, finishing at the end of the 8 minute encounter in 6th.
Xray privateers also had excellent finishes throughout the weekend, with Jared Mowery and Rick Pfeilsticker filling the second and 3rd podium spots in USGT, JR Hamilton taking the USVTA class with Mike Mowery in 2nd, all utilizing XRAY T4's.
A huge thank you to the LSRCC club for hosting an excellent event, helping to promote RC racing to a new and captive audience.
|
|
(click to enlarge) |
|
|
(click to enlarge) |
|
|
