www.johnnyboy.ca - Almost Live Race Coverage: Day 4 - Final Round of Qualifying and the Mains!

So we only ran 3 qualifiers for Mod yesterday and are running the last round now. Track was pretty much left alone. Watered only in spots that needed to be fixed and then swept. I think all the big names are on slightly worn Pink BK Bars on the rear and Pink Taper pins on the front (worn Losi 7202 ribs for 2wd).

I personally have struggled with my 2wd (the 4wd was only ok). I like the track, just wish the traction was like last year. Thank god Steve picked up some BK Bars in our tire order! Qualifying here is tough. Lots of bumping and grinding out there. I couldn't put together 2 good runs. In 4wd I finally had the car hooked up and broke a stupid part in the last qualifier :( Oh well, I will keep coming back till I get a result I am happy with! HAHA.

Tebo and Cavaleri are just on another level out here. They seemed to check out every time and lay down crazy lap times. In 4wd they both turned 20.0 laps fast laps (nobody broke into the 19's). that was crazy fast. I was happy getting low 23's. These two were REALLY close in qualifying. Tebo ended up TQ in 4wd with Cav in 2nd, Cav was TQ in 2wd and Truck with Tebo in 2nd for both. It's cool to see a manufacturer battle again out there instead of the A/E show as of late. The mains were gonna be good!

4WD Modified A Mains: A1
The "Theilke Incident" right at the end...You can see the frustration of both Cavaleri and Theilke at the end of the video. Tebo: 1, Cavaleri: 0

Right after the race, I hear a big "SLAM", turned around and saw Brent caught up in the moment. Could have been a pivotal mistake as Jared Tebo went on to take the 4wd Modified Class and stop a repeat sweep of the event for Ryan Cavaleri.

A2

Cavaleri makes a questionable pass at 1:10 and Tebo goes deep into the pipes. Battles back but Cavaleri takes the win. Tebo: 1, Cavaleri: 1 It's gonna go to A3 to decide the winner.

A3

I had to go home as I have a real job to go to on Monday morning and we had a 6 hour drive home (7 hours with all the damn snow in PA). I will try and steal it from someone and post it (thanks Rodney B!).

2wd Modified A Mains:

A1

A2

A3

Random Thoughts:

- I blew out into the....uhhhhhhg..."E" Main in 2wd (which I won) and the "D" Main in 4wd (where I came from being punted into last to 2nd and gaining till I broke). Just couldn't get 2 good runs in to qualify better. I like rocket round style! I think bottom of the B or top of the C's were obtainable if I could get my act together. We'll see next year.
- It was cool being Tebo's pit man for some of the mains. Gave me a good chance to check out his cars up close. There are some subtle tweaks that he has done to them to eek out every ounce of performance.
- The new Kyosho Truck looks really good. Tebo was looking for a little more bite in the rear. I had some of the Kyosho 0.5 degree rear hubs that we tried (some of the A/E guys were running the Rayspeed 0.5 degree hubs there). He tried them in Truck A1 but said it made the car worse....haha, sorry!
- Cavaleri can see a 1/2 foot wide opening opportunity coming up and dive right in. I saw him do that a fair amount over the weekend. Reactions of a cat that kid....
- The chip truck out back made a mean Philly steak and cheese
- I didn't even know 6XL shirts existed...
- This Blog gets around. About 3500 hits over the weekend. People kept coming up to me and saying "your the dude with the Blog right?"
- I wanted to do interviews etc, but it was hard when I was trying to get my cars right.
- I think it is tradition now for Kinwald to drive a 3 wheeled car around in the mains and do a big ass jump
- Everyone was fairly chill there. Good group of people in the hobby
- Mike Ciresi is funny. I thought he had a secret set up on his RB5. Turns out he just had the steering rack on backwards by accident....lol. Work pretty good though.
- Can you believe Brian Dunbar? Never has driven a B4 before (B4 before...funny), never used DSM radio before, never used brushless or lipo, hasn't raced electric off road in 5-6 years and just misses the A Main (he was BQ). That my friends is skills. Cool dude to boot. I loved the old skool wheel dots he ran on his 2wd!
- Joe Pillars is the man as well. Busy looking after all the Kyosho and Orion guys and still makes the show and does well.
- Jesse Robbers drove great and while quiet was pretty cool (they were behind us in the pits). If he could just get more consistant out there he would be right in the mix. Too bad the new D2 didn't get to run much (it was benched after the first day of practice).
- Ty Tessman is another quick little dude. He made up for the rest of the Canadian lack of talent (us Ontario guys) by throwing it down out there.
- I convinced Dakotah's mom to make cupcakes for the Big Kahuna race next month as there was an uproar on LiveRC chat that there were not going to be cupcakes...
- She also heard that people were talking about her butt on LiveRC (I guess she was standing in front of one of the cameras...haha
- The ShamWOW makes a good pit mat.
- Customs were a breeze this time (I am sure it was because I didn't have Chet in the car). The lady didn't look like she wanted anything to do with a bunch of grown men coming back from a toy car race...LOL...she waived us through pretty quick.
- Got home at midnight. The Red Bull's got me through the whole 7 hour driving stint.
- Damn the person who set the fire alarm off at the hotel at 5 AM.
- Breakfast at the Hotel was great....stole a bunch of it for snacks too at the track.
- Someone spilled the tire bucket again at the end of the day on Sunday...

Jayism's:

- Jay came off the stand dripping sweat, even his grip on his transmitter was wet. He was a little nervous out there...haha
- Jay (and Steve) found that a beer helped his driving on the track
- Jay will be back next year
- Jay never did rebuild his diff

Jay and Steve go to White Castle

Eye up the 30 burger deal...but the service was so slow we left....

Old pic I found on my iPhone from our local track...haha

Tebo's Lazer FS 4wd Set Up

Tebo's Ultima RB5 Set Up

The new A/E LiPo Set up.

Some Pics and Short Vids:

Tebo checking my car out and asking for set up help...HAHA...kidding. He was just making sure my car was set up ok. Thanks!

Tebo's Lazer FS with TC outdrives

Tebo's RB5 with modded axles

Fantom Racing father son duo Chet and Fred Kelsey. Chet made the show in 2wd stock and I think the C mains in mod. Fred had some bad ass luck in the mains. Snapped a front arm on his B4 in the warm up lap, then some dude who shouldn't have even been on the track at the time was driving the wrong way with his truck on the track, took out the front shock on Fred's B44 on the warm up lap.

Kinwald's X6

The now annual Kinwald 3 wheeler...

Teching in Tebo

Pressure is on me to make sure Tebo's body is on right. I had to reassure him the tab was pushed in ;)

Tessman getting Cody King teched

Strawberry Pop Tarts were the snack of choice for me. Maybe I'll fill into the 6XL shirt after all?

Tebo's RT5...nice

Cody King's pit

Big ass ceiling fans. They shut the ones over the track off as they were drying the track out too quickly!

Not a slicks track this year. The locals were saying it was more like their club track's surface.

So they asked on the sign up sheet what size shirt you wanted. I chose Medium. I went to get one and they were all gone. I figured I'd grab the biggest one they had. This turns out to be 6XL (or as the guy there told me "tent size"). There were about 10 of them in the pile. What I want to know is, who checks off 6XL and then proceeds to take a Medium sized shirt? That is an optimistic New Years resolution..

Some pics stolen from Brent Theilke

Cool shot showing the varying degrees of pin used throughout the weekend. Start with slicks when wet and then as the track dries out you work your way over to full pin

Tebo on the Hot Bodies drill press tweaking the tires. This was the best way of doing it for sure!

Cody wishing he was over there with Tebo...lol

Ryan kicking it the old skool way.

More stolen pics from Rodney (who had a much better camera than me)
His gallery at: http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/7106483_cNf4f#P-1-16