2003
R/C Pro Series
West Division Round 2
Coverage by Bamidele "The JANG" Shangobunmi
In the second year of its running, the up & coming national R/C Pro Series made a much-anticipated stop at Delta R/C Raceway & Hobby in Antioch, California August 1st-3rd. R/C Pro events feature crowd-pleasing motocross-style (side by side) starts and heads-up qualifying based on a cumulative points system. Brian "Skinny" Skinner made the trip up to cover the event for Hi-Torque's R/C Car magazine, and a crew from Hardcore Racing was on hand as well. Superstar Adam Drake came up to represent Team Losi and Team Trinity, Lloyd Dawsonville drove for Team Associated, and Phillip Atondo and Nathan Lavery represented Team Orion.
Qualifying
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In 1/10th Sportsman Truck, Tyler "The Kid" Vik ran away with the top qualifying spot, with only Chad Burdick giving a strong challenge. From 3rd on down, though, the racers' final qualifying standings were separated by 1 point apiece, with Bill Slaughter heading the pack. The 1/8th Sportsman Buggy heats were very close throughout the day, with Doug Thornton narrowly grabbing the top spot, followed by Tyrone Downes and Tyler Vik. The top three were equal in cumulative laps, and separated by under 7 1/4 seconds. Don Villella qualified 4th, followed by Brian Skinner and Xander Newell. Monster Truck qualifying was dominated by Brad Bowman and Tyrone Downes driving Unlimited-class trucks, with Art Cardinali narrowly edging out Benjamin Spalding for 3rd. Leo Vik rounded out the top 5 with his Dominator/Maxx hybrid.
The 1/10th Expert Truck class had the most entries and gave spectators the most breath-holding moments with a classic Associated vs. Losi battle raging between Dawsonville & Drake heat after heat. In the end, Adam took the top spot by one point. Phillip Atondo qualified 3rd, followed by Art Lewis & Nathan Lavery. Mark George, Kevin Pitta and Jeff Stewart rounded out the guaranteed A-Mainers.
Adam Drake drove his prototype OFNA Jammin' X-1 CR (click here for an exclusive first sneak peek) to an overall win in 1/8th Expert Buggy qualifying, with Brad Bowman close behind. Mark George qualified 3rd, but actually had the fastest qualifying run of the weekend, scored in the 4th heat. Todd "Sideways" Clymens qualified 4th, followed by Kevin Pitta, Devon McDonald, Johnny Hardman and Mike Smith.
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B-Mains
First up on Sunday was the 20-lap Monster Truck B-main. At the start, Scott Rowen was the first to round turn 1, followed closely by Dale Mowery. Scott was the first to make a mistake, driving too deep into the triple and cartwheeling down the landing while Dale carefully squeezed by. Scott charged back, retaking the lead by lap 15, but the battling between the top two allowed Derek Hunter to come up from behind, eventually taking the lead as Dale & Scott got tied up. With two laps to go, there were less than 2 seconds separating 2nd & 3rd place at the line to determine the final bump-up position, while Derek stretched his lead out steadily. Dale ran into the same trouble on the triple that had befallen Scott early in the race, and he was unable to recover. Derek and Scott went to the A.
Next would be the 1/10th Expert Gas Truck B-main. The traction gods shone on John Scott and Mike Philip out of the gate and the two had a commanding lead by the time they reached the infield. Mike stumbled at the same spot three laps in a row, though, falling back to 4th place. He soon corrected his lines and made it back to 2nd by lap 12. Local racer Jeff Hendrick was very strong in 3rd place and kept Mike honest, but in the end it would be John & Mike to make the bump.
The 1/8th Expert B-main was a sight to see. Local class newcomer Kraig Terazono drove his RB-powered OFNA Hyper 7 PBS, still donning its fairly new RTR body, was driving the fastest laps until a flame-out sent him back to the pits. Re-start troubles stole away precious time while Chris Stovall and Kelly Weir stole the show. Kraig eventually did make it back out and drove his heart out, but couldn't make up the lost time.
A-Mains
(Click here to see all main event results!)
The Monster Truck A-main was a double event, featuring the ladder-chassis trucks in addition to three pan-chassis Unlimited entries, run together, but scored separately. At the first rounding of lap 1 turn 1, it was Scott R. from the B followed by Brad Bowman. By lap 10, though, Brad and fellow Unlimited driver Tyrone Downes were dominating, with Art Cardinali, Benjamin Spalding and Leo Vik battling within 4 seconds of eachother. Art C. drove smooth conservative through the corners, but had plenty of speed down the straights, taking over the lead before the halfway mark while the Unlimited trucks seemed to struggle to maintain poise with their massive power and limited suspension travel. Tyrone found his balance and stormed his way up to to first place on lap 49 before bobbling and handing the lead back to Art. Tyrone flamed out in the closing minutes and fell back three laps, but came back to finish in 3rd. Brad took the Unlimited win and 2nd overall, but Art took the hearts of cheering crowds and the win. Benjamin Spalding took 2nd in the ladder-chassis class, followed by Danny Meeks and Brian Skinner.
Paranormal activity became the order of the day when the 1/10th Sportsman Trucks hit the track for their final run. Chad Burdick and Dale Mowery got the best of the opening drag race, but young Tyler Vik soon wedged his way between them. Chad suffered an early flameout, but got restarted fairly quickly and climbed back to 2nd in no time before suffering a breakage. Danny Meeks took over the position, but soon lost his pipe and had to head back to the pits for repairs and a difficult restart. Second place seemed to be cursed. Next to try his luck? Don Villella, driving an original tub-chassis RC10GT. Would those old white nylon a-arms have enough ancient magic in them to keep ward off the evil spirits? Only time would tell! Both Chad and Danny got their trucks fixed and rejoined the race, but by then they were over a lap behind Don. Meanwhile, Tyler was simply cruising out front with five laps on the field. Just when the track ghosts were about to strike 2nd place Don V., Danny got too close and intercepted the attack, immediately suffering a flameout. After 25 minutes of running, little Tyler commanded the field from atop his blue produce crate, followed by a very nervous Don V., then Chad 2 laps back, Danny another lap back, and Bill Slaughter still another cycle behind. Chad tried to make a charge for 2nd, but broke out in the process. Had the bad luck of 2nd place turned around to protect Don? It sure seemed so until about two minutes from the end of the race. I didn't notice whether it was a flameout or breakage, but Don V.'s race ended just a smidgen early. Danny Meeks retook the cursed position and stayed out of harm's way to the finish. Bill S. finished on Don's last lap, but Don got the podium position based on his time. Tyler Vik, who had been on cruise control, hit "Coast" on the last lap, but still rolled over the line with a seven-lap lead.
There would be no more funny business once the 1/8th Sportsman Buggy class hit the track for their A-main, as I first did a thorough track cleansing with the fire hose (holy water?) and a handful of volunteers helped with the exorcism. The start of this race marked the start of the Tyler Vik & Tyrone Downes Show. These two had a battle of epic proportions with back & forth action that echoed across the land as the announcer wildly called the play by play and enthusiastic crowds ooh'd and ahh'd. After just eight minutes, 3rd place Doug Thornton was down more than a lap, with Don Villella and Xander Newell down two. Tyrone eventually suffered some spills that gave Tyler some room to breathe. Ironically, in striving to regain lost ground, Tyrone took risks that often didn't pay off, and he continued to fall back while Tyler got into a fast rhythm and Doug crept up from behind. The top 3 spots would not change for the remainder of the race.
After the heart-pounding excitement of the previous hour of sportsman mains, the 1/10th Expert Truck 'A' was a disappointment to some spectators, if only for the lack of chills & spills. The drivers were fast and drove clean, but the competition in the top 4 positions wasn't very heated. A close battle was expected between Adam Drake and Lloyd Dawsonville, but Lloyd had recurring flameout problems that put him out of the running. Phillip Atondo was strong and challenged Adam repeatedly, but couldn't seem to hook up as well coming out of the slower turns. Philip broke on his last lap at the top of the hill and appeared to be considering leaving good enough alone, but luckily his pit man hustled to implement a quick fix, as Nathan Lavery had been running less than a lap down and would have stolen 2nd place after beating the buzzer to the line.
The last race of the day was 1/8th Expert Buggy. Adam Drake went for the quick getaway off the line, but local racer Todd "Sideways" Clymens denied him the privilege and kept the pressure on lap after lap while the rest of the field quickly fell back. While negotiating lapped traffic, Adam had a flip and Todd took the lead briefly before suffering a similar fate. About 1/3rd of the way through the race, Todd's wing came partially unattached and he took a long pit stop for fuel and a fix. Todd finished a bit over 2 laps behind the factory-sponsored champ, with Brad Bowman just one lap back after a strong and consistent run. B-main winner Kelly Weir missed 4th by less than 4 seconds behind Devon McDonald to take the unofficial "hard charger" award.
Wrap-Up
What an action-packed weekend of R/C racing! Delta R/C once struggled to attract national-caliber offroad events, but the past two years have brought tremendous progress with the arrival of the Pro Series being a new high point for the local racing community. Big thanks to R/C Pro's Todd Manchester for flying out to run the program. Also big thanks to the track maintenance volunteers who worked hard and diligently all weekend to help me keep Northern California's premiere off-road track in premiere shape. Adam Drake & Phillip Atondo called the track conditions "awesome" and Todd from R/C Pro said it was absolutely one of the best-maintained facilities he's seen any of their races run at.
I look forward to covering this race again next year, same time, same channel! Be sure to check out the my photo gallery and the special guest gallery from Dave "speedydave" Van Steen.
For more information about the R/C Pro Series, visit their website at http://www.rcproseries.com/
Delta R/C Raceway & Hobby is on the web at http://www.deltarc.com/
The 2003 R/C Pro Series is co-sponsored by Team Orion, Team Losi, Fantom, Mugen Seiki, O'Donnel Racing, JAC Racing, Team Associated, B & B Software, and Xtreme R/C Cars.