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Main Events!
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Issac decided to hold
the A Main races at the end of the day, allowing the racers in these races
more time for preparation. This was a good move, and not often seen at
tracks that cater to "hard core" racers. The Electric RS4 races
were set for five minutes, while all the Nitro and Super Nitro races were
ten minutes long, with at least one pit stop required. The Nitro RS4 A
Main was set at 15 minutes, meaning at least 2 pit stops for all the racers
in that main!
Electric RS4 B Main
The
first racers to get ready were the five racers making up the Electric
RS4 B Main. Only the top three racers would get a plaque, so it was a
tight race! Alan Rhodes was able to get the most laps with 11, with Troy
Stuart getting 10 to lock in second place. Third place went to Malon Rhodes,
who got 9 laps!
The Nitro mains went
all the way to an F Main, meaning 60 racers out of the almost 90 that
arrived were 1/10 scale Nitro racers! Texas is a major Nitro-burning state!
| Finishing
Position |
Racer |
| 1 |
Adam
Rhodes |
| 2 |
Troy
Stuart |
| 3 |
Malon
Rhodes |
| 4 |
Chad
Kuboviak |
| 5 |
Brooks
Switcher |
Nitro RS4 F Main
The
F Main of the Nitro class was actually one of our closest races, with
the top 2 finishers separated by only four seconds! This means just one
small mistake by the leader could have let 2nd place run by
for an easy lead change! Howard Rusnak was able to stay ahead of the pack
to get the win, finishing with 21 laps in 10:04 (ten minutes and four
seconds). Steve Maida was close behind with 21 laps in 10:09, and Michael
Perkins was 3rd with 21 laps in 10:19.
| Finishing
Position |
Racer |
| 1 |
Howard
Rusnak |
| 2 |
Steve
Maida |
| 3 |
Michael
Perkins |
| 4 |
Phillip
Dodd |
| 5 |
Jason
Rasco |
| 6 |
Alonso
Alonso |
| 7 |
Ernest
Lopez |
| 8 |
Harold
Rodriguez |
| 9 |
Robert
Perez |
| 10 |
Phillip
Hsu |
Nitro RS4 E Main
The
E Main was equally exciting, with many racers flaming out or needing quick
repairs by the pit men. A couple of close racing positions were actually
decided by the speed of the mechanics! John Israel pulled out a good lead
on the rest of the racers in the E Main to take the win with 22 laps in
10:22. Michael Pohoriles came in 2nd with 20 laps in 10:27,
and Kathy Baisdon of San Antonio’s HobbyTown USA stores finished 3rd
with 18 laps in 10:25. The Hail family of Houston had an impressive three
racers in the E Main, and two more members of the family finished in higher
Nitro mains as well!
| Finishing
Position |
Racer |
| 1 |
John
Israel |
| 2 |
Michael
Pohoriles |
| 3 |
Kathy
Baisdon |
| 4 |
Jimmy
Hail |
| 5 |
Ronnie
Hail |
| 6 |
Brad
Beeler |
| 7 |
Jeff
Deiterich |
| 8 |
Phillip
Reeder |
| 9 |
Ricky
Hail |
| 10 |
Jesse
Biag |
Nitro RS4 D
Main
This
race was possibly the closest race of the day, with first and second separated
by just 3 seconds at the end of 10 minutes! Vallerie Henderson held onto
the lead to get 22 laps in 10:04, while Laddel Lawrence was just 3 seconds
behind. Robert Hail (of the Houston Hail family) finished 3rd
with 22 laps in 10:22. Vallerie was one of several females at the track,
and to our knowledge the only one who raced! Come on, guys, bring your
wives and girlfriends to your races and get a radio in their hands! They
can have just as much fun as you, right? It was great to see a woman win
over all the other guys there!
| Finishing
Position |
Racer |
| 1 |
Vallerie
Henderson |
| 2 |
Laddel
Lawrence |
| 3 |
Robert
Hail |
| 4 |
Troy
Stuart |
| 5 |
Jojo
Biag |
| 6 |
James
Brandt |
| 7 |
Tim
Sheridan |
| 8 |
Michael
Patterson |
| 9 |
Clark
Baisdon |
| 10 |
Randall
Cooper |
Nitro RS4 C Main
The
C Main race of Nitro sedans wasn’t as close as the other races, but it
was great to see 8 of the 9 cars that started finish the race after 10
minutes! Normally, Nitro races have about one third to one-half of the
field drop out after a part breaks or an engine dies, so to see such a
high percentage of racers finishing was really great, especially for the
spectators that lined the track. This is much like real car racing, where
several cars will crash or break down in the middle of the race! Chris
Rokas, with his wife and baby watching, managed to cross the finish line
just a couple of seconds before the race ended, allowing him to get 25
laps in 10:24. Fred Carpenter ended the race in 2nd with 24
laps in 10:10, and Tony Cepeda got 23 laps in 10:04. All of these racers
got beautiful wooden plaques with a printed metal plate stating their
finishing positions!
| Finishing
Position |
Racer |
| 1 |
Chris
Rokas |
| 2 |
Fred
Carpenter |
| 3 |
Tony
Cepeda |
| 4 |
Tyler
Titus |
| 5 |
John
Patterson |
| 6 |
Rolando
Ovalle |
| 7 |
Jerry
Fajardo |
| 8 |
Joshua
Hail |
| 9 |
Al
Flores |
| 10 |
John
Mueller |
Nitro RS4 B Main
This
was another great race to watch, with most of the field staying on the
track and running for the whole 10 minutes. 8 out of the 10 starters crossed
the finish line, but Matt Vanglider led them all, with 26 laps in 10:24.
In second place with 25 laps in 10:05 was Ryan Gonzales, and Richard Brannon
came in 3rd with 25 laps in 10:26.
| Finishing
Position |
Racer |
| 1 |
Matt
Vanglider |
| 2 |
Ryan
Gonzalez |
| 3 |
Richard
Brannan |
| 4 |
Joe
Penrose |
| 5 |
Frank
Pena |
| 6 |
Ronnie
Duhon |
| 7 |
Miguel
Hernandez |
| 8 |
Tim
Sandelovic |
| 9 |
Daniel
Burtron |
| 10 |
Ward
Merrel |
And now for the A
Main events...
 In
the Super Nitro RS4 class, we had just one main, but plenty of
racers liked the size of the cars, and the speeds were right with the
1/10 scale Nitro car, so we expect a larger turnout the next time we race!
Pole sitter Ron Meloni put on a driving clinic with his Alfa Romeo-topped
Super Nitro RS4, and finished with 23 laps in 10:25. This pace would have
put him in the top half of any of our Nitro Mains! In second place with
14 laps in 10:20 was Frits Wolf, while first-time racer Daniel Lin got
7 laps in 7:32.
| Finishing
Position |
Racer |
| 1 |
Ron
Meloni |
| 2 |
Frits
Wolf |
| 3 |
Daniel
Lin |
| 4 |
Jimmie
McDaniel |
 The
Electric RS4 A Main was very interesting from the opening seconds,
as the running order was shaken up in the first few turns. Michael Toth
of Austin and Michael Patterson of San Antonio ended up in front after
the first lap was complete, and proceeded to take off from the rest of
the field. TQ John Duvall and 2nd
qualifier Frank McKinney wound up in the back of the field and proceeded
to work their way to the front. John's car had to be pulled because of
radio interference, a very classy move to prevent damaging or slowing
down other racers. Frank passed most of the other racers during the 5
minute race to within a couple of seconds of 2nd place, solidly
in 3rd place. However, after taking some corners too tight,
Frank's body was damaged and it started dragging on the ground and his
front right tire, slowing him considerably. This allowed 4th
place Travis Lewis to catch up for the last 2 laps of the race. On the
very last lap (about 10 seconds to go), Travis passed Frank with 4 turns
to go, but Travis went too wide in the second to last corner and let Frank
slip by for 3rd
place, less than half a second ahead of Travis! Michael Toth and Michael
Patterson were way ahead of Frank and Travis, however, and easily picked
up 1st and 2nd places. Michael Toth crossed the
finish line a few seconds before the tone sounded, so he ended up with
14 laps in 5:19. Michael Patterson was 2nd with 13 laps in
5:01, and Frank McKinney was 3rd with 13 laps in 5:05.
| Finishing
Position |
Racer |
| 1 |
Michael
Toth |
| 2 |
Michael
Patterson |
| 3 |
Frank
McKinney |
| 4 |
Travis
Lewis |
| 5 |
Scott
Elting |
| 6 |
Kevin
Mayse |
| 7 |
Mike
Sambrano |
| 8 |
Whit
Runion |
| 9 |
John
Duvall |
| 10 |
David
Garcia |
 The
Nitro RS4 A Main was set for 15 minutes, which meant 2 pit stops
for most of the contestants. This race was quite close, with the top 4
racers within a lap and a half of each other! Nitro TQ Mike Umino started
in the front, and kept the lead for the entire race, finishing just 12
seconds ahead of 2nd place Chris Barratt, both with 40 laps. There was
a small controversy over the lap times of Mike, because right after both
pit stops he flamed out and the timing loop for the transponders went
across the pit lane. Issac's rules for restarting cars required that cars
that broke or stopped running must be returned to pit lane, and some onlookers
thought that Mike got two extra laps because he restarted in the pits.
Announcer Ward Merrel had already taken out Mike's extra laps during the
race, however, and the time Mike lost while getting the car restarted
was simply made up as he turned 21 and 22 second lap times. The rest of
the field had mostly 22 to 24 second lap times, and the controversy was
easily overruled. Thanks to Ward's attentiveness to the situation,
Issac and Kent had an easy decision to make concerning the lap times,
so Mike's win stood as announced. Mike ended the race with 40 laps in
15:07, Chris Barratt in 2nd with 40 laps in 15:19, and Brandon
Courtney finished 3rd with 39 laps in 15:06.
| Finishing
Position |
Racer |
| 1 |
Mike
Umino |
| 2 |
Chris
Barratt |
| 3 |
Brandon
Courtney |
| 4 |
David
Meloni |
| 5 |
Juan
Barcelona |
| 6 |
Russel
Dugger |
| 7 |
Jackob
Ben-Ezra |
| 8 |
John
Duvall |
| 9 |
Mike
Sambrano |
| 10 |
Luis
Maldonado |
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