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| In gearing up for the up-coming Futaba Nitro Challenge (October 26â“ 29), the XRAY team headed to Bossier City, Louisiana to HX Raceway for the Futaba Warm-up race last weekend. Tom Robertson and the rest of the HX Raceway crew ran the race both on time and in the most professional way possible. HX Raceway is a top notch facility and was the perfect place for some intense racing. The weather was hot and sunny and the track became really dusty, slick, and some what blown out. |
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| The Xray team consisting of Jason Branham, Tommy Tang, Ryan Lopez, Adam Joiner, Matthew Sistrunk and Rich Starr (team manager) spent the day working on set-ups and tire choices for the event. The race was run to the same program that the Futaba Nitro Challenge (FNC) will be run in that we ran 10 minute qualifiers and a 45 minute main, so it gave us a pretty good indication as to what tires worked well and a good idea as to the wear of the selected tires. Team drivers Jason Branham and Adam Joiner experimented with some different diff setups prior to the mains, and finally ended up with 5,000 Fr. â“ 4,000 Ctr. â“ 4,000 Rr. which performed excellently under the conditions. |
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| With our cars prepared and working well, all six Xrayâ™s were in the main. Jason Branham secured the highest qualifying position of all the Xray drivers in attendance with a 2nd place seating, followed by Adam Joiner in 3rd and Ryan Lopez in 4th. In the main, XRAY drivers Jason, Ryan, and Adam battled and switched positions for 1st through 3rd up until 10 minutes to go with Adam falling off pace a little due to some lap traffic. The final 10 minutes was left to a lot of position swapping between Ryan and Jason mainly due to pit stops. Jason finally secured 1st position during the last pit stop and held on to it to finish with Ryan 5 seconds behind in 2nd and Adam holding on to 3rd. |
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| All in all it was a good day for XRAY and we came away with some valuable experience for the event and should be ready for a good showing come late October. It was an all Xray show in the main, and hopefully we can carry this over to the main event in late October. The Xray team learned a lot about the track and the condition it will be raced, which will benefit the team come race day. The FNC will definitely be a race to watch. |
| Final results: |
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1. Jason Branham â“ XRAY XB8TQ
2. Ryan Lopez â“ XRAY XB8TQ
3. Adam Joiner â“ XRAY XB8TQ
4. Rich Starr â“ XRAY XB8TQ
5. Tommy Tang â“ XRAY XB8TQ
6. Philip Bancroft
7. Bill Shepherd
8. Keith Hamlin
9. Todd Ray
10.James Lonadier
11.Tom Robertson
12.Matt âśPuddinâť Sistrunk â“ XRAY XB8TQ
13.Matt Brown |
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