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Superior Hobbies of Casselberry,
Florida
Main
Events!
Main
HPI Challenge USA Page
Main
Page | Concours
| Qualifying |
Thanks!
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!
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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!
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