Castle Hobbies of San Jose, California!
Qualifying
Main
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Thanks!
The
qualifying heat races started at around noon on Saturday, March 11. Help
with the descriptions of the qualifying and Mains races was provided by
Dennis Racine of rcracing.com, and
is much appreciated! Dennis was on hand both days to talk to the racers
and track crew, plus he took a bunch of pictures of the racing action.
Check out www.rcracing.com for tons
of pictures from the weekend!
First
up was the Electric RS4 class, featuring mostly RS4 Pro 2 cars, a few
RS4 Sports and even some RS4 Rally cars! While the Box Stock Nitro RS4
class had the most newcomers racing for the first time, the Electric RS4
class racers had their share of R/C first-timers also. The drivers did
a great job of getting around each other, though! We really have to commend
Eric Vasutin of Castle Hobbies on his track layout, which was wide enough
for the beginners yet still challenging enough for the racers.
With 36 racers in the Electric RS4 class, the A through C Mains were packed with 10 cars each, with 6 drivers in the D Main. Michael Cometti, a local racer who has driven HPI sedan cars for years, was the TQ at the end of qualifying, holding onto the spot from his first run.
The
Nitro RS4 Open class was the largest
class by far, with 45 racers participating. Steve Adams, a "die-hard
HPI driver" held the TQ by a few seconds over the rest of the field,
but he knew he'd be chased hard by Wayne Lee and Simon Kau! Race announcer
Cameron Wagner, in a borrowed Nitro RS4 equipped with the old Nitro Star
12E engine, was ready to chase them all down, he was really fast!
In
Box Stock Nitro, the story of the weekend was Richard McClosky, who ran
both Box Stock Nitro and Super Nitro Open, running great with both cars.
Richard set TQ early and never looked back. With 19 racers in this class
we had a good turnout, and we expect to see more racers in this class
at future events! Many first-time racers made this event a great race
for spectators.
Speaking
of first-time racers, Box Stock racer Joe Ventimiglia helped out a bunch
of the new racers and even shared his canopy with several of them while
sharing racing tips during the whole weekend. This is the sort of support
and mentorship we love to see from racers! People like Joe are who help
new racers stay in the hobby. The spectators who were attracted by the
sounds of the Nitro racing were lined up two and three people deep around
the track! Check out the pictures to the left and right!
The
Super Nitro Open class was again TQ'd by Richard McClosky, running our
Toyota GT-One body. Actually, nearly the entire field ran the GT-One,
proving its worth as a racing body! We did see at least one Alfa Romeo
156 body on the track, however. Six Super Nitro cars on the track at once
was great to watch!