| Race report by Rick Endler |
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| King City, Ontario, Canada, Home of the Sprucewood Invitational was the season ender for 2005 and the final of the Great Lakes Off Road Championship Series (GLORCS) in Eastern Canada. A sister series to the WCROCS Series from the West coast of Canada. |
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What makes this race so exciting is the track is created from scratch every year by Dave Maclean, a master track builder with motocross experience and the host of the 6th annual Sprucewood invitational. Several race teams attended included XRAY Canada, Thunder Tiger Canada and SVM Crono.
XRAY Canada drivers Rick Endler and Jason Green attended the race. |
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| Friday was the 1st day, we arrived at the track right as the gates opened. After setting up our pit area for the weekend we had a chance to check out the newly build track. The track was very smooth other than a few rocks witch were picked up as the practice went on by the wonderful track crew and a couple ladies from Ottawa, Manon and Carie-Lynn who did a great job! By the time practice was done all the XRAY's in attendance were dialed in for the saturday start of qualifying. |
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| Saturday, after morning practice the team quickly decided our tires to use for the 1st round, we ended up on our trusted Panther Step pin. The qualifying started a little late with some computer delays. I myself had some minor issues that held me back from getting a clean qualifying run but Jason Green (my teammate) threw in a great run sending him to mid pack in the A-main. As the heats went on the rain began with no chance to finish the last three heats of qualifying ending our day with only one qualifier in the books. With 116 entries it made time our worst enemy. |
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| Sunday we awoke to clear sky's and a track that faired pretty good considering the heavy rain from the night before. The rough track made getting a clean run in the last qualifier very hard to do. I ended up in the semi final and had to bump my way into the "A" with the win. |
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| Sitting in tenth spot in the "A" and now with light fading to dark the race had to be won quickly so it was all or nothing for me having to go through the 9 best drivers on this side of Canada. The flag dropped my pit guy Darryl Denny gave me the perfect launch to get set up for the 1st corner, instead of hugging the first corner i drove into the berm for a whip. |
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With a few cars tangling on the table top and a couple cars on top tangled I flew past most of the field in the air ending up in third after the 2nd corner. Myself and Dan Black (a local hot shoe out of New York ) swapped spots in 2nd and 3rd this left Dave Henry in the lead after the opening lap. The second lap started with a swap between Dan Black and Dave Henry with me in third after going for big air once again over the table top I ended up going over Dan and right on Dave's bumper after a few corners I worked a pass on Dave and pretty much led for the rest of the race bringing home the win for Team XRAY Canada.
In the main the track changed from dusty and rutted to damp and rutted and bumpy which the very stable XRAY XB8 felt at home. With a few minor adjustments to my set-up, I felt the car went through the bumps perfect and was easy to drive fast through the ruff stuff. Thanks to XRAY for designing a perfect car. My Werks Collari B7 engine with the new Werks Fuel was a perfect combo providing all the power I needed to win in Sprucewood.
I would like to thank everyone that made this race happen,my pit guys were very fast and the drop at the start couldn't have been better thanks to fellow XRAY drivers Darko Varga and Darryl Denny. Thanks to the track owner, racers everyone, it was our pleasure to be there. |
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Special thanks to Korgae of CanWest R/C XRAY Canada for the ongoing support, motivation and believing in me all year long.. I am sending the Sprucewood Trophy to sit on your desk... you deserve it! I would like to thank all my sponsors for the continued support. Can West R/C, XRAY Canada, XRAY/HUDY, R/C America, Werks Racing Collari, Action Hobbies Kingsville and Panther Racing.
Sprucewood 2005/ GLORCS Final
A Main 1/8th Buggy
1. Endler, Rick XRAY XB8
2. Black, Dan
3. Beaule, Jeff
4. Parent, Joe
5. Henry, Dave
6. Mckay, Ryan
7. Mcneil, Jamie
8. Green, Jason XRAY XB8
9. Pimentel, John
"Pictures provided by Chicken Man" |
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