Hobbytown USA
of Mequon, Wisconsin!
Main Events
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Main events started after a long lunch break on Sunday, October 1. With 45 minutes to get ready for the mains, most racers picked up some food from the nearby supermarket and prepped their cars. Several others ran their cars during the open practice.
First up were the D, C and B mains for the Electric RS4 class, then the B Main for Nitro Open and then the A mains for all the classes were run in order.
Electric RS4 D Main
A strong charge from
Derek Piaskowski couldn't get the lead from Jacki Black, at least not
when Derek had to pull off the track with a dying battery pack. Derek
rejoined the race but Jacki was running too consistently for Derek to
catch up. Dean Cory (our own "DrDiff") had ESC problems and
was on and off the track with troubles.
 |
Electric RS4 D Main | |
| Finishing Position | Name | Starting Position |
| 1 | Jacki Black | 1 |
| 2 | Derek Piaskowski | 4 |
| 3 | Nic Gilbertson | 3 |
| 4 | Robert Marzinske | 5 |
| 5 | Dean Cory | 2 |
Electric RS4 C Main
Clete Dart started out
in front but found out that's no guarantee of safety at the start, as
he was hit a couple of times in the first corner. This let George Sellon
take the lead and run with it, although Clete caught up to second place
by the second lap of the race. With George having a straightaway lead
on Clete and Clete a straightaway ahead of third place, it was an open
race to see who could get around traffic the easiest without making mistakes.
Unfortunately Clete clipped a corner too close and let Sarah Street grab
second place, although both were a lap down to George already. On the
last lap Sarah tangled up and turned in too early, which gave Clete the
easy opening into second spot. George ended up with the easy win, 2 laps
ahead of the field.
 |
Electric RS4 C Main | |
| Finishing Position | Name | Starting Position |
| 1 | George Sellon | 2 |
| 2 | Clete Dart | 1 |
| 3 | Sarah Streeter | 5 |
| 4 | Rob Black | 3 |
| 5 | Terry Piaskowski | 4 |
| 6 | Dave Bornack | 6 |
Electric RS4 B Main
After
the initial confusion of the first couple of laps, the Electric B main
was lead by Mike Bower, who had started in second spot. After just a few
laps the leaders were stretching out ahead of the field, and the battle
was on between Brad Johnson, who was the pole sitter, and Jesse Wokenhiem.
These guys were going at it for third place, and their battle would rage
through most of the race. After trading spots for several laps, Jesse
crashed and Brad found himself fighting for second between Kris Olson
and Mike Bower, who had been passed for the lead by Michael Freisleben.
Unfortunately Kris got flipped over and it was down to Mike and Brad to
contest second place. With just two corners to go Mike and Brad were going
for second place when Brad hit the collection of dots at the tight chicane
just before the finish line, and rolled over. He still ended up with third,
behind Michael in first and Mike in second.
 |
Electric RS4 B Main |  |
| Finishing Position | Name | Starting Position |
| 1 | Michael Freisleben | 4 |
| 2 | Mike Bower | 2 |
| 3 | Brad Johnson | 1 |
| 4 | Jesse Wokenheim | 3 |
| 5 | Kris Olson | 6 |
| 6 | Jon Hojnacki | 5 |
Electric RS4 A Main
John
Macintosh made the most of his pole position, running away with the lead
while Eric Scneewies and Brian Meyers were in second and third. As usual,
the first few laps were pretty rough for the rest of the racers and it
would be a few laps before things settled down and the racers had some
space between them. After several laps, John and Eric had a full straightaway
lead over Bill Kralj and Brian, who were battling closely for third. Meanwhile,
John was pulling away from Eric with every lap, while Eric was pulling
away from Bill and Brian. Just a couple of laps later, the battle for
fourth was between Bill, Derek Manchester, Marty Hageman and Myles Bible.
A freight train running around the track is the best way to describe it,
with each racer just waiting for a mistake from the racer ahead of him!
Brian was catching Eric at the halfway mark, with Bill a little behind,
waiting for an opportunity. Bill didn't have to wait long, as Brian clipped
a corner a little close and Bill was able to run up right behind Brian.
It wasn't long before Brian and Bill were in a close battle for third
place, which let Eric pull ahead again. During this whole time, John was
just cruising through traffic with a 3/4 lap lead on Eric, who was still
in second.
At the end of the race, it was clear John would have an easy win unless hit by lapped traffic (he wasn't), and Eric was a lap ahead of 3rd place, which put the battle between Bill, Brian, Derek and Marty for third spot. Bill was able to finish 2 seconds ahead of Brian at the end, even though he clipped a wall. Brian was 2 seconds ahead of Derek and Marty, who were separated by only two tenths of a second! It was a close race for the entire five minutes, and great to watch! Everyone in the A Main got a plaque for the great show.
 |
Electric RS4 A Main |  |
| Finishing Position | Name | Starting Position |
| 1 | John Macintosh | 1 |
| 2 | Eric Schneewies | 3 |
| 3 | Bill Krajl | 8 |
| 4 | Brian Meyers | 6 |
| 5 | Derek Manchester | 7 |
| 6 | Marty Hageman | 2 |
| 7 | Robert Pitts | 5 |
| 8 | Myles Bible | 9 |
| 9 | Tom Knuth | 10 |
| 10 | Mike Dibb | 4 |
Box Stock Nitro RS4 A Main
In
the ten-minute race for the Box Stock class, it was T.J. Wilcheck running
away with the lead just a couple of laps into the race. Smooth driving
counts for a lot in this class, because you can't count on extra power
over everyone else! Ryan Schmid was in second and Andrew Wiegele secured
third spot over the rest of the field. These positions were held for the
entire race, and T.J. even slowed down just a bit for the last several
laps to make sure he wouldn't break or run out of fuel. At the sound of
the final tone, it was T.J., Ryan and Andrew in the top three spots.
 |
Box Stock Nitro RS4 A Main |  |
| Finishing Position | Name | Starting Position |
| 1 | T.J. Wilcheck | 1 |
| 2 | Ryan Schmid | 3 |
| 3 | Andrew Wiegle | 6 |
| 4 | David Hood | 5 |
| 5 | Franz Michels | 4 |
| 6 | Timm Wooley | 2 |
| 7 | Ed Fisher | 7 |
Nitro Open B Main
TQ Hot Rod didn't have
the fastest car, but it was the most consistent in this race, easily lapping
the field at least twice while battles raged on around him. Smooth driving
by Hot Rod gave him the easy win, with Fred Knapp in second and Tim Platson
in third, narrowly edging out Franz Michels.
 |
Nitro Open B Main | |
| Finishing Position | Name | Starting Position |
| 1 | Hot Rod | 1 |
| 2 | Fred Knapp | 3 |
| 3 | Tim Platson | 7 |
| 4 | Franz Michels | 6 |
| 5 | David Carlisle | 2 |
| 6 | Scott Machin | 5 |
| 7 | Troy Shear | 4 |
Nitro Open A Main
After
getting banged around a little bit in the first couple of laps, TQ John
Macintosh was in second, with third place qualifier out in front. Mike
Cutwright held onto third, while T.J. Wilcheck was in fourth. The rest
of the field was bunched up and battling. T.J. was able to get past Mike
after Mike crashed, but the big story was John slipping back to third
as Myles was working through traffic. After a lap or two, John was able
to get into second spot again but Myles was already half a lap ahead.
John picked up his pace and was able to get closer to Myles but at the
halfway mark Myles had stabilized the gap between John and himself. During
the pit stops, Derek Manchester grabbed second spot away from John but
Myles held onto the lead. Derek eventually caught up to Myles and was
right behind him, but lapped traffic took its toll and knocked Derek aside.
With just a minute to go, there was no traffic between Myles and Derek, but Myles spun out right before the start/finish line, and Derek zipped by for the lead! Then Derek hit a corner too early, and Myles went by to take back his lead. Headed down the straight, it was Myles and Derek, but Derek spun out at the hairpin. Myles was given some breathing room, but as he headed off to start the last lap of the race, Derek was catching up quickly. Myles was slowed by lapped traffic, but as Derek came onto the straight he used too much throttle, spun wide and hit the outside wall on the straight, breaking the camber link and slowing him down, which let John by to take second place again! This was definitely one of the most exciting races to watch during the whole weekend.
 |
Nitro Open A Main |  |
| Finishing Position | Name | Starting Position |
| 1 | Myles Bible | 3 |
| 2 | John Macintosh | 1 |
| 3 | Derek Manchester | 2 |
| 4 | George Sellon | 4 |
| 5 | Mike Cutright | 5 |
| 6 | Timm Wooley | 7 |
| 7 | T.J. Wilcheck | 6 |
| 8 | Tom Knuth | 8 |
| 9 | Perry Duchow | 9 |
| 10 | Cambronn Motorsports | 10 |
Super Nitro Modified A Main
Although John Macintosh
was in the pole position, we knew that it didn't guarantee another win,
as we saw in the Nitro Open A Main race. After a couple of laps in the
Super Nitro A Main, however, he was solidly in the lead and pulling away
from the rest of the field. This was the last of the ten-minute mains,
though, and anything could happen. T.J. Wilcheck seemed to be gaining
on John after extracting himself from the pack, and Walt Gorczowski was
also catching up. Unfortunately for John, his streak of good luck ended
with a hit from lapped traffic that made his tuned pipe slip off his header.
The loud noise and lack of fuel pressure made him pull over into the pits,
and T.J. took the lead as John's pit people were trying to fit the hot
pipe back on. John lost two laps trying to get the pipe back on but was
out running again, trying gain ground on T.J. and Walt. Bad luck struck
again as John tapped a wall and the pipe came loose again, and at that
point he decided to call it a day and pulled the car off the track.
T.J.,
meanwhile had the lead but Walt was slowly catching up. T.J.'s luck didn't
hold up either, though, as he hit a couple of corners too early and lost
body front body clips. Walt ran by with his car as T.J. was at the side
of the track getting repaired, but Walt's car looked like it was slowing
down quite a bit. T.J. got running again but a couple of laps later had
to pull off to get repaired one more time and after that he was able to
catch Walt and pass him. During the race, it looked like he had the lead,
but after reviewing the lap timing sheets it turned out that although
Walt had passed T.J. and T.J. had passed Walt again, T.J. was out for
more laps than he had made up. An early wreck by Walt had made one of
the rear dogbones pop out so he was running on front wheel drive only,
and it turned out that Timm Wooley had taken the lead without anyone (including
himself) knowing about it! The announcements as the top 3 racers were
called out were pretty interesting, and the lap times were made available
to everyone for review. This was definitely the most interesting race
to pay attention to after the racing was done, just to find out who won.
 |
Super Nitro Modified A Main |  |
| Finishing Position | Name | Starting Position |
| 1 | Timm Wooley | 4 |
| 2 | Walt Gorczowski | 3 |
| 3 | T.J. Wilcheck | 2 |
| 4 | Peter Schlater | 6 |
| 5 | John Klepper | 8 |
| 6 | Chris Frink | 9 |
| 7 | Chris Lee | 7 |
| 8 | John Macintosh | 1 |
| 9 | Tim Pennington | 5 |
And that was the end of the day, except for the prize presentations for all the winners and plaque recipients!