R/C Madness of Enfield, Connecticut
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Concours | Qualifying
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The qualifying heat races started at around noon on Sunday, July 9.
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!
Because Steve and Frank were very busy checking the cars after each race, they weren't able to get the race details from all the main events, so we'll provide as much action as we can for the A Main of each class, along with any pictures that we took.
The first three rounds of the Rally Challenge were run on the dirt of the R/C Madness off-road track. After the first two races, Joe Gallant was in a very comfortable lead with two first-place finishes. The other racers kept swapping spots behind him so no single racer could really challenge Joe for the lead. Even though the third race was a victory for Joe's buddy Keyd Wilks, Joe still got second to maintain a solid lead by more than ten points. Joe was happy to have the points lead, but was worried about Sunday's racing on the asphalt. But any points are good points in a points championship, so Joe took them and ran!
| RS4 Rally Challenge - Points after 3 rounds | |||||
| Name | Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Total Day 1 | |
| 1 | Joe Gallant | 15 | 15 | 13 | 43 |
| 2 | Keyd Wilks | 6 | 13 | 15 | 34 |
| 3 | John Chouinard | 9 | 11 | 11 | 31 |
| 4 | Dick Pearson | 13 | 6 | 9 | 28 |
| 5 | Shane Potemski | 11 | 7 | 6 | 24 |
| 6 | Everett Nievera | 5 | 9 | 2 | 16 |
| 7 | Roy Koch | 7 | 5 | 4 | 16 |
| 8 | Nick Bader | 4 | 3 | 7 | 14 |
| 9 | Brian Sullivan | 2 | 2 | 5 | 9 |
| 10 | Del Gonzalez | 3 | 4 | 1 | 8 |
| 11 | Steve Theiss | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 |
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Electric RS4 Stock D Main |
| Finishing Position | Name |
| 1 | Sean Norgaard |
| 2 | Dam Ng |
| 3 | Joe Gallant Jr |
| 4 | Lisa Koprowski |
| 5 | Michael Kirchner |
| 6 | Eric Rivera |
| 7 | Ian Schwarz |
| 8 | Hector A. Quinonez |
| Electric RS4 Stock C Main | |
| Finishing Position | Name |
| 1 | Alan Mok |
| 2 | Keyd J. Wilks |
| 3 | Erik Matthew |
| 4 | Kevin McNeil |
| 5 | Michael Baumann |
| 6 | Nelson Lee |
| 7 | Robert Truesdell |
| 8 | Jason McCoubrey |
| 9 | Oscar Romero |
| 10 | Joe Hyatt |
 |
Electric RS4 Stock B Main |
| Finishing Position | Name |
| 1 | Scott Jakes |
| 2 | Paul Ethier |
| 3 | Nick Zaccaro |
| 4 | Rick Neipp |
| 5 | Jack Matthew |
| 6 | Joe Mason |
| 7 | Carissa Figelski |
| 8 | Carl Edwards |
| 9 | Jeff Flanigan |
| 10 | Jim Franz Sr |
In the TQ spot was Jayson Livingstone, who after the first 2 laps had a full straightaway lead on the rest of the pack. Ashton Brinson was in a solid second, heading off 3rd and 4th place racers Gary Acey and Josh Lerner. With a couple of minutes left in the race, Gary passed Ashton to take second, and set his sights on Jayson, who was still in the lead. We're not sure what happened, but somehow Gary managed to catch up to Jayson and take the lead! Jayson tried to fight back but was losing power and had to settle for second. Great race, guys!
 |
 Electric
RS4 Stock A Main |
| Finishing Position | Name |
| 1 | Gary Acey |
| 2 | Jayson Livingstone |
| 3 | Ashton Brinson |
| 4 | Mark Smyka |
| 5 | Bill Hamlin |
| 6 | Jimmy Franz |
| 7 | Josh Lerner |
| 8 | Chuck Peufield |
| 9 | Bob Canorro |
| 10 | Jeff Dayger |
| Box Stock Nitro RS4 C Main | |
| Finishing Position | Name |
| 1 | Juan R. Lugo |
| 2 | Miguel Daumont |
| 3 | Jason Snyder |
| 4 | Steve Rockefeller |
| 5 | Brandon Jimene |
| 6 | James Asta |
| 7 | Raul Cumba |
| 8 | Ismael Velez |
 |
Box Stock Nitro RS4 B Main |
| Finishing Position | Name |
| 1 | Joe Gallant Jr |
| 2 | Randy Garstka |
| 3 | Lewis Dighello |
| 4 | Mannel Acenedo |
| 5 | Christopher Mendoza |
| 6 | Bill Papp |
| 7 | Tyler Swartz |
| 8 | Anderson Prince |
| 9 | Nestor A. Mendoza |
| 10 | JJ Petzold |
The A Main events for our Nitro classes were 10 minutes long, with one pit stop required, which made for an interesting set of races! At the halfway point, Harry White, the Box Stock TQ, was in the lead, with Steve Silva and Sean Norgaard close behind. At the one minute left tone, Harry was still about 8 seconds ahead of the other cars, until he made a mistake and flipped his car! Luckily he crashed near the pit area and his pit man was able to restart the engine. At the same time, however, Steve Silva was able to capitalize and take over the first spot by about 3 seconds. With 30 seconds to go, Harry was catching up to Steve, who was slowed down by lapped traffic. Harry tried a bit too hard, though, and crashed again to finish 11 seconds behind to take second. What a tense race to watch!
 |
Box Stock Nitro RS4 A Main |
| Finishing Position | Name |
| 1 | Steve Silva |
| 2 | Harry White |
| 3 | Sean Norgaard |
| 4 | Rick Birk |
| 5 | Trevor Swartz |
| 6 | Ronald Depoto |
| 7 | Tom Papa |
| 8 | Brian Bertrand |
| 9 | Mark Carroll |
| 10 | Joe Gallant |
| Super Nitro RS4 Open B Main | |
| Finishing Position | Name |
| 1 | Mark Kirchner |
| 2 | John Lewis |
| 3 | James Bishop |
| 4 | Darren Lighth |
| 5 | Michael George |
| 6 | Jim Norris |
| 7 | Dwayne |
| 8 | Erwin Hicks |
| 9 | Raymond Powell |
The Super Nitro RS4 Open A Main was dominated by Ken Tuttle, who was able to put almost 2 full laps on the entire field before the 10 minute race had expired. Harry White put on a determined effort to catch Ken, and was exactly one lap ahead of Richard Wechter, who took third when the finish tone sounded.
 |
Super Nitro RS4 Open A Main |
| Finishing Position | Name |
| 1 | Ken Tuttle |
| 2 | Harry White |
| 3 | Richard Wechter |
| 4 | Jamie Raynor |
| 5 | Tyronne Milton |
| 6 | Reuben Williams |
| 7 | Tommy Rivera |
| 8 | Todd Marshall |
| 9 | Walter Jackson |
| 10 | Shane Potemski |
| Nitro RS4 Open D Main | |
| Finishing Position | Name |
| 1 | Wilson DeJesus |
| 2 | Daniel Cruz |
| 3 | Darren Lighth |
| 4 | Joseph Randazzo |
| 5 | Derrick Mickens |
| 6 | Christina Morales |
| 7 | Joe LoDuca |
| 8 | Vito Intravaia |
| 9 | Jose Jimenez |
| 10 | Frank Alog |
| Nitro RS4 Open C Main | |
| Finishing Position | Name |
| 1 | Oscar Romero |
| 2 | Christopher Colon |
| 3 | Jeremy Oster |
| 4 | Peter Sullivan |
| 5 | Nelson Terra |
| 6 | James Bishop |
| 7 | Tyronne Milton |
| 8 | Anderson Prince |
| 9 | Andrew Parrish |
| 10 | Gio PietroBuono |
| Nitro RS4 Open B Main | |
| Finishing Position | Name |
| 1 | Paul Robert |
| 2 | Tom Papa |
| 3 | Peter Raczek |
| 4 | Carlos Reyes |
| 5 | Sean Norgaard |
| 6 | Reuben Williams |
| 7 | Robert J. Truesdell |
| 8 | Saradej Buranapham |
| 9 | Sin Leung |
| 10 | Matt Porier |
We don't want to say that Mike McMahon put on a driving clinic for the Nitro RS4 Open A Main, but without Bruce Carbone to challenge him (Bruce flamed out with 7 minutes left in the race), Mike was able to put almost 2 laps on the whole field. The really amazing thing is that Mike won with a nearly stock Nitro RS4 2! It had our plastic tuned pipe, option heat sink head and option 2-needle carb on the 15FE engine, but otherwise it was a stock kit! His orange Dodge Stratus was labeled "Pimpenstein" and had some interesting hand-drawn marker drawings on the roof and hood. Hopefully they didn't get washed away by the fuel during pitstops.
 |
Nitro RS4 Open A Main |
| Finishing Position | Name |
| 1 | Mike McMahon |
| 2 | Richard Wechter |
| 3 | Pedro Cruz |
| 4 | Everett Nievera |
| 5 | John Firsching |
| 6 | Kenneth Juen |
| 7 | Gary Acey |
| 8 | Frank Daniele |
| 9 | Bruce Carbone |
| 10 | Erik Matthew |
The final three rounds of the Rally Challenge proved to be very tense for Joe Gallant, who had come into the second day of racing with a comfortable lead. However, he admitted he wasn't the fastest of the group on the asphalt, so it remained to be seen whether he would be able to weather the storm of the other racers. In the first on-road race Sunday morning, his wheel came off. In the second, he crashed and was crashed into quite a bit. By the third race, Joe's buddy Keyd Wilks (who had won the second on-road race) was challenging hard for the lead! It would literally come down to the final race to see who would walk away with the first place trophy and the HPI car kit!
In the final race of the day and of the Rally Challenge, Keyd was hit hard in the first corner and chicanes immediately after the straight, and was never able to recover. All Joe had to do was finish ahead of Keyd to win, and luckily he was able to take home the win and a new HPI kit with accompanying trophy! This was definitely a great series to keep track of. As soon as the points from each round were posted, all the Rally racers crowded around the board to see where they stood. Everyone still had a great time, though, no matter who won!
 |
RS4 Rally Challenge - Final Points after 6 rounds | ||||||
| Final Pos | Name | Total Day 1 | Rnd 4 | Rnd 5 | Rnd 6 | Total Day 2 | Total |
| 1 | Joe Gallant | 43 | 1 | 6 | 11 | 18 | 61 |
| 2 | Keyd J. Wilks | 34 | 7 | 15 | 3 | 25 | 59 |
| 3 | Dick Pearson | 28 | 6 | 11 | 13 | 30 | 58 |
| 4 | Nick Bader | 14 | 13 | 9 | 15 | 37 | 51 |
| 4 | John Chouinard | 31 | 9 | 5 | 6 | 20 | 51 |
| 6 | Shane Potemski | 24 | 11 | 7 | 7 | 25 | 49 |
| 7 | Brian Sullivan | 9 | 15 | 13 | 9 | 37 | 46 |
| 8 | Roy Koch | 16 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 13 | 29 |
| 9 | Everett Nievera | 16 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 12 | 28 |
| 10 | Del Gonzalez | 8 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 14 |
| 11 | Steve Theiss | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 10 |