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The qualifying heat races started at around noon on Sunday, April 30. 

Starting with the Electric RS4 class, we then progressed to the Box Stock RS4 class, Nitro RS4 Open and finished up with the Super Nitro RS4 Open class. Let's get to the racing action!

In the first corner of the Electric RS4 C Main, a few cars went a bit wide but no major damage was caused. Halfway through the first lap the two cars in the lead tangled up and let 3rd place get by, so at the end of that lap it was Bobby Llantin III in the lead! Bobby got stuck on one of the pipes, though, and Nicholas Trapp took the lead, with Bobby right behind. Troy Marshall was then in third with Ed just behind. During most of the rest of the race, it was Ed and Troy battling with Nicholas and Bobby duking it out also. Late in the race a backmarker took out Nicholas, who was in the lead, and this let Troy get by. Troy eventually lapped the whole field, not once but twice!

Electric RS4 Stock C Main
Finishing Position Name
1 Troy Marshall
2 Bobby Llantin III
3 Ed Jones
4 Scott Clark
5 Pedro Ramirez
6 Nicholas Trapp

 

In the Electric RS4 B Main, the first turn was a little wild, but after the first lap it was Sean Mara in the lead with Chris Draughon and Chris Hazel following. After the first lap Sean had a very solid lead, though, and after the second lap he was ahead by a full straightaway! Meanwhile, Ian Hew, Alex Smith, and both Chris's were battling for second spot. Later in the race, a backmarker took out Sean, but he was lapping the field already. With two minutes to go, the order was Sean, Ian, Alex and Joel, but with 30 seconds to go Joel had to pull off. On the last lap something happened to Sean's car, letting Alex and Ian by to get one last lap right before the tone sounded to end the race. Ian ended up just three seconds behind Alex, who took the win!

Electric RS4 Stock B Main
Finishing Position Name
1 Alex Smith
2 Ian Hew
3 Sean Mara
4 John Anderson
5 Christopher Fowler
6 Chris Hazel
7 Kirk Jones
8 Joel Sanabria
9 Chris Draughon
10 Frank Pellegrino

 

The A Main for the Electric RS4 class got off to a pretty clean start, with TQ Scott Boggs taking a good lead after the first lap. Chris Jeffries was in second, trying to make up time on Scott, but finding it pretty hard to cut the racing line too close. After the first minute it was Scott Boggs, Chris and Izzy Santiago in the top three spots, and it was basically a tight race! 

Scott and Chris were solidly in the lead, but Chris still wasn't making up any time on Scott. Izzy, on the other hand, had a couple of other racers to contend with until something went wrong with his car about 2 minutes into the race and he had to pull off. Later in the race, both first and second were taken out by backmarkers in separate incidents, but neither lost too much time. 

 

With less than a minute to go, Scott Kovalik made a clean pass in the final chicane for 3rd, and 1st place Scott Boggs passed him about a lap later. The race finished with Scott Boggs in the lead, Chris in second and Scott Kovalik in third.

Electric RS4 Stock A Main
Finishing Position Name
1 G. Scott Boggs
2 Chris Jeffries
3 Scott Kovalik
4 Paul Demeza
5 Danny Baez
6 Roberto Llantin
7 Patrick Linkenheimer
8 Stephan Wyckoff
9 Joe Ponce
10 Izzy Santiago

Next up were the Box Stock Nitro RS4 racers. There were originally several racers in the C Main, but one racer decided to concentrate on his Nitro RS4 Open class car and a couple other racers couldn't make it to race the second day. We decided to run the main event anyway, and give the racers the same 10 minute race everyone else in the Nitro classes got! Carlos Assaf ended up with the win, with 35 laps to Chris Conley's 27 laps. Both cars ran for nearly all 10 minutes, although Carlos was out for a lap or two while field repairs had to be made.

Box Stock Nitro RS4 C Main
Finishing Position Name
1 Carlos Assaf
2 Chris Conley

 

The Box Stock Nitro RS4 B Main got off to a clean start, with Charles Vest in the early lead. Bryan Wansley, Trevor Swartz and Dustino Baugh occupied 2nd through 4th all the way up to the halfway mark, until Trevor had some linkage problems after a crash with another car. Unfortunately this knocked him out of the race and he wasn't able to get repaired, but this moved Dustino into 3rd spot. 

There were no changes of position in the top three spots for the rest of the race, and the it finished with Charles in first, Bryan in second and Dustino in third. Charles and Bryan held first and second for the entire race! That's pretty hard to do in a ten minute race with pit stops!

Box Stock Nitro RS4 B Main
Finishing Position Name
1 Charles J. Vest
2 Bryan Wansley
3 Dustino Baugh
4 Carlos Iglesias
5 Chris Kolitz
6 Matt Ryan
7 Alberto E. Casasus
8 Scott Clark
9 Marc Fortune
10 Trevor Swartz

 

Our A Main for the Box Stock Nitro was as exciting as the qualifying order promised! After a clean start, David Franklin was in the lead, taking the top spot from John Wong, who was TQ. As they battled back and forth, Ian Hew was in third, with Ken Higby close behind. After a few laps, John Wong took the lead again and started lapping the field. With four minutes gone in the race, it was John, Ken and Ian in the top three spots. A minute later, Ian was in second with Ken in third. With six minutes down in the race, Henry Hernandez was in second, bumping Ian to third and Ken to fourth. 

During a pit stop, John had to have a shock put back on his car, and he lost the lead to Henry, then Ian and Ken zipped by in second and third! John started back on the track after having to restart his car, and started pouring on the driving skill from nearly a lap down. With John coming up fast, Henry was taken out by lapped traffic and John swung by for the lead! This battle went three ways, with Henry, John and Ken swapping the lead a few times as the minutes counted down. On the last lap, Ken ran out of fuel as John and Henry tangled at the end of the straight, but Henry got straightened out first and crossed the finish line for first place! John finished in second, with Ken in third and Ian in fourth. 

Box Stock Nitro RS4 A Main
Finishing Position Name
1 Henry Hernandez
2 John Wong
3 Ken Higby
4 Ian Hew
5 Matt Keenan
6 Robert Trinchitella
7 John Anderson
8 David Franklin
9 Tim Grady
10 Jayson Nazario

Because we only had two drivers in the Nitro RS4 Open D Main, we asked the drivers if they wouldn't mind collecting their plaques in the order they qualified. Being generous racers and in the spirit of the weekend, both Brannon Long and Steve Clark agreed to forgo their race. Thanks, guys! They helped save us about 15 minutes at the end of the day. 

Nitro RS4 Open D Main
Finishing Position Name
1 Brannon Long
2 Steve Clark

 

Our Nitro RS4 Open C Main had a clean first turn, which is sometimes a rarity at most R/C racing events. Chris Fowler was the early leader, with Shawn Adkins and Bobby Curry close behind. With three minutes gone in the race, it was still Chris, Shawn and Bobby, but after four more minutes of racing there were only four cars left still running! Chris had some engine problems, letting Shawn and Bobby get by for the first two spots and Curtis Hamlin in third, which is how the race finished.

Nitro RS4 Open C Main
Finishing Position Name
1 Shawn Adkins
2 Bobby Curry
3 Curtis D. Hamlin
4 Christopher Fowler
5 Shawn Duvall
6 Philip Smith
7 Tim Caporal
8 Danny McLeod
9 Mark Gruber
10 Michael Cobb

 

Our Nitro RS4 Open B Main featured a crazy first corner, with cars sideways and backwards everywhere! The first half of a lap featured up to 5 cars trying to get through corners at once, but after a minute of racing had passed the order had sorted out with Anthony Olivieri in front, followed by Jason Dembroski and Sebastia Echenique in second and third. Two minutes later the order was Carlos Feliciano in the lead, Danny Pernas in second, and Jason in third. 

At the halfway point, just before most racers made their pit stop, Carlos was still in the lead, with Jason in second and Kenny Martin in third. With just a minute to go, Gary Severo had moved in to third, but at the end of the race Kenny had taken his spot back and the race finished with Carlos, Jason and Kenny in the top three spots.

Nitro RS4 Open B Main
Finishing Position Name
1 Carlos Feliciano
2 Jason Dembroski
3 Kenny Martin
4 Anthony Olivieri
5 Gary Severo
6 Jeffrey Will
7 Danny Pernas
8 Dustin C. Yates
9 Scott Kaiser
10 Sebastia Echenique

 

The Nitro RS4 Open A Main had plenty of interesting moments as well! Like all A Mains, this one featured the 10 fastest drivers in the class, which promised good clean driving and good pit strategy! In the first corner, John Wong, the top qualifier, got a late start and was passed by a few cars at the tone. After the first lap it was Joe Chin in the lead, Jabo Morgan in second and Jason Nazario in third, but John was already working his way up through the field. By the halfway point he was in second, and soon was battling with Jabo Morgan, who was by that time in the lead. It was left to Tom Keele, Shawn Segura and Roberto Llantin to fight it out for second. Joe Chin, however, came back from a temporary setback and passed Jabo for second with four minutes left. By then it was John, Joe and Jabo in the top three spots, which is how the race finished.

Nitro RS4 Open A Main
Finishing Position Name
1 John Wong
2 Joe Chin
3 Jabo Morgan
4 Tom Keele
5 Chris Sweeney
6 Jason Nazario
7 Curtis C. Hamlin
8 Shawn Segura
9 Roberto Llantin
10 G. Scott Boggs

Next up were the Super Nitro's, and while we had hoped to see more racers in this class we only had four racers. Bob Kolitz and Jeremy were close together for most of the race, but Bob eventually lapped Jeremy for the win, taking home a new HPI kit and huge trophy!

Super Nitro RS4 Open A Main
Finishing Position Name
1 Bob Kolitz
2 Jeremy Kanski
3 Dave Bryant
4 Tim Grady

Please read our "Thank You" page!