The annual Top Gun Challenge is hosted every year at Nor Cal Hobbies in Union City, CA, home of the Reedy Race of Champions and multiple ROAR National Championships. With an on-site hobby shop, indoor pitting and a fantastic curbed asphalt track, Nor Cal has one of the best facilities in the country. The buzz surrounding this race was that the winner of the modified class would receive an automatic entry to the Invitational class at next year's Reedy Race. This drew in all the local fast guys and some out-of-towners. The race used the love-it-or-hate-it Reedy head's up format, so you needed both speed and consistency if you wanted a shot at winning.
My TCX felt really good in practice with all the new option parts. I ran a completely new set up from what I normally run, and I was happy that it was good from the beginning. I got some good runs in the first day, and started off with three wins. Rick Hohwart had some tough luck in the opening rounds, but had plenty of speed to win the event. The 4th round was in the evening, where I had a poor start and Rick took a holeshot and never looked back to set the fastest overall time of the event, a crucial piece for tie-breaker in the Reedy format. Sunday had some critical races, as me and Rick were both still capable of getting 6 wins. In the 6th round, I started first and after the first turn, Rick was on my butt in second. After a great run by Rick and a lot of blocking by me, I won by three tenths, giving Rick a 2nd for the round and denying him 6 wins. In the 7th round, I got my sixth win, clinching the overall and not needing to race the 8th round. My HB TCX was great all weekend, and I didn't have to change anything on my set-up after racing started. I want to thank James Arluck, Hiro Kasuya, and my sponsors HB-HPI, Speed Passion, Protek RC, Airtronics, A-Main Hobbies and Upgrade RC for all the support and great products. Many thanks to Tina Ong for the great action photos!
