USA Race Number Two: Englishtown, New Jersey!

Qualifying Heats and Main Events

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Racing started right after the Concours Challenge winner was announced, beginning with the Electric car classes. Nitro ran next, then the off-road classes of HPI Truck (featuring mostly Nitro MT's) and Electric Rally. With 24 heats, it was important to get every race started on time!

Qualifying

RS4 Electric Stock
This class showcased some of the fastest stock-class drivers we've seen, some of which came close to the fastest stock sedan time seen on the American Raceway track layout. The staff changes the actual layout of the track a few times per year, so it's possible for local racers to get faster and faster as they tune their car for each layout.

RS4 Electric Pro
American Raceway owners Doug Venner and Bill Rondeau raced in this class, along with nearly all of the local racers who normally ran stock touring cars. Fast guys like Paul Nam, Tom Lane and Frank Paulin battled it out every round for TQ spot or just trying to better their time!

RS4 Nitro Stock
This is always a class that is mostly made up of new racers and hobbyists new to the sport, but as always there were a few guys who made every round they raced into a driving exhibition! Joel Williams was on top in the TQ spot all weekend, chased by Tony Severino, Jerry Billmyer and "pimp daddy" Ray Murray.

RS4 Nitro Modified
Not too many racers competed in more than one class, so it was strange to not see names from the faster Nitro Stock racers in the top ten of the Nitro Modified class. However, it was very close racing, either way! Lots of great racers crammed the top 10 in this class, racers like Joe Martin, Roland Shao, Sal Gambone, Jr, and Nigel Chaichong.

RS4 Super Nitro Modified
More Super Nitro racers showed up than expected, always a nice thing to see! Just about any racer in the top ten could have been the overall winner, and with drivers like Rolan Shao (again), Bucky Douglas and others competing, we knew it would be tight racing a lot of fun to watch!

Mini!
As Frank promised on the HPI R/C Forum, any racers that showed up with cars that weren't on "the list" of car classes could race, as long as they had a certain number of racers. We had a few guys show up with just their Mini cars (whereas normally it's a matter of racers bringing extra cars, in addition to the cars they know they'll be racing), so we couldn't let them down - and we had a Mini class! Unfortunately, not enough racers were there to warrant all the Mini racers staying for the whole weekend, so they raced only on the first day.

Truck
Finally, we had a full heat of trucks! Ready to go and tackle the jump known only as "The Monster", all 11 truck racers had a bunch of fun trying to chase down Tom Baffer, who won every heat. Most of the truck racers used Nitro MT and Nitro MT Racer trucks, while a couple of guys used the Rush truck. With a few spare parts on hand (like the updated Rush chassis), Frank was able to help out the racers in need of new warrantied parts.

RS4 Electric Rally
One of the biggest specatator turnouts of the weekend was during the two races that featured the Rally cars on dirt! It seems that everyone who is not used to watching these cars MUST watch these touring car-size cars go over moster jumps and sandy washes! In many places around the track, spectators were packed 2 and 3 people deep. Luckily, it was a large off-road track!

The Electric Rally class was organized a little different from the other classes. Similar to a full-size Rallycross type format, each round of racing was a heads-up points race between all the racers. Each racer would get a certain number of points, determined by their finishing order in each race. The first two races were run on the off-road course, and the last two races were run on the asphalt track (with no jumps). From the beginning, Tom Baffer would lead the way, keeping up the form shown in the Truck class. Tom would win the first two rounds soundly, by one lap in the first race and three laps in the second. Scobby Horton and Ron Koscinski would each share one second place position, just behind Tom, however Ron would hold onto second with Latif Michail in third after the points were added. As with real Rally car racing, there were no throw-outs, so every race counted! Drivers couldn't depend on having their worst race deleted from the standings.

Note: normally, the Rally races would have points determined by the most laps/lowest time system among all the Rally class racers (meaning that a racer in another Rally race could go faster than you and get more points in that round), however with one heat of Rally racers the points scoring was made easy - just score all the racers in the one race that we had!

Here are the points for the first two rounds:

We'll catch up with the remaining two rounds of racing at the end of the Main Event reports for the other classes.

Main Events

The main events, as usual, were an interesting mix of runnng pitmen, splashing nitro fuel, wild first laps and anxious drivers. In the end, though, we can safely say that all the participants, whether they were racers, pit crew, family members or just spectators, had a very interesting weekend! Below we will try to account for you the races, and as always if you have anything to contribute please do so.

Now to the racing!

RS4 Electric Sport

RS4 Electric Sport - A MAIN
The Electric Sport A Main, as expected, was a close battle - every racer got 14 or 15 laps! Several racers finished within just seconds of each other, showing that this race could have gone to anyone at all. In the end, though, it was Arvin Nano with the fastest laps, leading Jason Kwok and Rick Loesch across the line when the tone sounded.

RS4 Electric Pro

RS4 Electric Pro - A MAIN
This race would prove to test the driving skill of all the racers involved, with several drivers getting knocked out in the first few laps. The first half of the race was a little ruthless, but several local touring car racers proved their worth by finishing in the top half of this A Main. With a few racers battling it out behind him, Tom Lane was able to pull farther away from the race for second, and ultimately won, with Scobby Horton and American Raceway co-owner Doug Venner just a couple of seconds apart.

RS4 Nitro Stock

RS4 Nitro Stock - A MAIN: "Flame-outs and flame-ons!"
This race turned out to be extremely interesting and quite intense to watch. TQ spot Joel Williams led the way from the start of the race, with Ray Murray battling at times for second with Tony Severino. Because this was a 10-minute race, all racers were required to have a fuel stop, and Joel's car flamed out while it was getting fueled. The spark from the glow plug igniter lit the fumes of the nitro fuel, and the car caught fire! Luckily someone was nearby with some water (which is not the best way to put out a fuel fire), but Joel's race was done - the starter box, electronics, car, body and more were almost completely melted, showing that while this is "just" a hobby, it's easy to lose a few hundred dollar's worth of equipment from a simple mistake. Meanwhile, Ray Murray inherited the lead with Joel's retirement...at least until the second to last lap, when his car flamed out! Did he come in too early for a pit stop? It didn't matter, as Tony Severino and Jerry Billmyer went by Ray's pit man to take first and second! What a race!

RS4 Nitro Modified

RS4 Nitro Modified - A MAIN
Roland Shao was the only one to make 28 laps in this race, with Joe Martin getting 27 and many of the other racers getting 26 - it shows what consistent driving can do! Nearly all the racers who started this race finished it, demonstrating what preparedness and cool driving will accomplish.

RS4 Super Nitro Modified

RS4 Super Nitro Mod - A MAIN
Here was another race that would contain a surprise ending - although Roland Shao led nearly the entire race, it was consistent driving from Matt Carone that would get him the win. Roland's car flamed out on the last lap, letting Matt drive right by Roland's pit man for the easy win. Roland was still far ahead of the other racers, giving him a solid second place finish while 5 more racers finished the 10-minute long race just a few seconds apart!

HPI Truck
Although the outcome of this race was almost set in stone before it even started, it gave all the truck racers a chance to be on the track at the same time. Tom Baffer got off to his usual big lead, eventually finishing with 14 laps, 4 more than second place Jeff Compton. Three more racers would finish with 9 laps, but in the end it wasn't about the winning or the losing - most of these truck racers never get a chance to race against other 4WD trucks! Tom's win wasn't about having more option parts than everyone, either - anyone watching the races could see that he was just a smoother driver Tom would give away his kit to a lucky racer who happened to be standing nearby, but he would keep the trophy (of course!).

Electric Rally - the final two races!
With Tom Baffer leading the points standings, it seemed like a long shot for anyone to come up and challenge him for the lead, much less take it away. Therefore, it became a battle for second, third and the remaining spots. But with plaques to give away for ALL the Rally racers, it just came down to having fun for many of the racers. Ray Murray looked fast, but he missed the first race on Saturday and had to leave before the fourth race on Sunday - otherwise he might have been battling for second! Ron, Scobby, Tom and Latif all looked strong, it would come down to the pressure of racing to determine who would walk away with the bragging rights (after Tom, of course)! Once again, Tom gave away his kit prize to a fellow racer who happened to be standing near him, showing tremendous sportsmanship and overall a great attitude - go out to win, but having fun is the main idea!

And that is how we finished the day. :) The tiebreaker between Adam's and Kevin's points total was their finishing order - Adam had 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th place finishes, while Kevin had 8th, 8th, 7th and 7th place finishes.

Main Page for this race | Concours Challenge | Thanks!

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