Round Two: Jackson, Michigan

Racing

HPI Challenge USA page | Michigan Challenge Main Page | Concours Challenge pictures | Main Events | Thanks!

The first racers on the track were the Savage monster truck drivers - a late signup meant we had 11 racers in this class, a great turnout! With the help of AMBrc personal transponders all 11 trucks were on the track at the same time, making it very fun to watch as the trucks drove over the ramps, the track infield barriers and each other! At the end of qualifying it was Timm Wooley with the TQ spot.

Next up were the HPI Truck racers, a good turnout but we could have used more. These RS4 MT's, Nitro MT's, and Nitro Rushes ran around on the same track the Savage monster trucks ran on, using the same jumps. The fastest guys seemed to be the RS4 MT racers, father and son team Mike and Dominic Pellegrini. This was confirmed when Dom took the TQ spot for the main event!

The next two classes to run were the Rally classes, starting with Super Nitro Rally and Electric Rally. These classes don't have the standard qualifiers and main events - each race counts towards a point total, and the winner at the end of the weekend is the racer who has the most points.

In Super Nitro Rally, Clive Bentley pulled out a big lead with 3 wins in a row, making it just about impossible for the other racers to overtake him in points.

Electric Rally racer Josh Short took a similarly huge lead over the father and son team of Timm and Ivan Wooley, who traveled all the way from Florida to participate. Although the Rally classes seemed all sewn up, the battles still raged for second place!

The Micro racers were up next, and they were lucky enough to have a purpose-built Micro track built for them on the side of the 1/10 scale track. This meant they could practice at any time without race organizers needing to take apart the track, and it also saved much time between the Micro races and the rest of the program.

In Micro Stock, several racers were battling for the top spot and it would be hard to pick a clear winner until the final race, however Timm Wooley appeared to be the favorite. At one point Timm even drove the Concours-winning Corvette for a heat!

Micro Pro racers had to contend with Mike Collins and his well-prepped Micro, however with almost a full heat of cars on the small Micro track it would take quick reflexes and lots of restraint to make it cleanly around the lapped cars!

The Electric Sport class appeared to be dominated by Jeff Switzer all weekend long, including taking the pole position for the A Main. There were many challengers but Jeff's regimen of careful preparation and clean driving kept the chasing crowd in his dust.

In Electric Pro Mike Collins had another good set of qualifiers, taking the TQ position, however Derek Manchester and Jeff Switzer, his closest competition, were just behind, ready to leap on any opportunity to win the class!

Nitro Stock looked like it was going to be close, with Timm Wooley in good form, Timm Pennington right in there with solid driving and Justin Peters also wanting to take the win. With all the drivers and their pit crew looking forward to a 10-minute race, they all knew anything could happen during the race!

Nitro Modified featured several fast drivers, including Mike Collins, Justin Peters, Timm Wooley and other drivers. The second of our three 10-minute A Mains looked like it was going to be another good race!

The Super Nitro drivers could look forward to the third 10-minute race for the A Main final. Jason Longbrake showed really good form taking the TQ spot, while Walt Gorczowski was one of several racers intent on giving Jason a good run!

Main Page | Concours Challenge pictures | Main Events | Thanks!