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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