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News  Racing
XT8E on podium at Thornhill Championship, US |
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(click to enlarge) |
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| Race report by Daniel Grobe |
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Thornhill championship weekend brought almost 100 entries from all over texas. Houston, Dallas, San Antonio all came to race. I ran the Etruggy class which was the biggest class at the track with almost 30 trucks. The new aluminum updates on the truck are so worth it. This is my first race with the updated front end and the steering is so good.
During practice, took a few sessions to get the rear end locked back in, with all the additional steering from the front, the rear felt loose. made a wheel base change, swaybar change in the rear, and a swaybar change in the front. Knowing the grip would go up, i was happy with my truck.
In Q1, i was signed up and in a very slow heat. I was able to put down an early TQ, but with the group i know my time would be close due to some slow laps with lapped traffic. I ended up 3rd overall.
In Q2, again, trouble with traffic dropping my lap times upwards of 2 seconds a lap, i struggled again, improved my time, but not enough. Still in 3rd, only 4 seconds off TQ.
Q3, after a resort, i was in the faster group. I again improved my time, but a early crash would put me behind on the clock, and behind some descently fast trucks, and would battle with them, basically slowing me down. Track was faster, but alot of others were faster as well, dropping me to 6th overall.
Double A mains to come, and in A1, i got a rough start, getting passed by teammate Nick Vanderpool on the start, dropping a spot, there would be a big pile up in the off camber corner, where i would gain 3 spots into 4th. mistakes by 2nd and 3rd, i would move into 2nd. Tight race with another Xray truck, but i would go on to finish 2nd in that main.
In A2, i got a much better start, moving to 3rd after the 2nd turn. good train of trucks, i made a mistake going down the straight into a left hand sweeper, i would get up on right side wheels, and couldnt quite save it. ended up off the track, and dropped to 5th. where i would stay. pushing the truck, and really tryin to make up time, i had a late chance for 4th, but couldnt quite make the move. a 2nd and a 5th, put me in 3rd overall. we had 4 Xray trucks in the top 6. 3 in the top 4, 2 on the podium
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| 1/8 Electric truggy results : |
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1. Brad Ripple
2. Ron Simpson - XRAY XT8E
3. Daniel Grobe - XRAY XT8E
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