Sunday June, 6 2010

Well it's 4:45am and I'm sitting in the Birmingham Airport reflecting on my racing this past weekend. For the most part I'm pleased with what transpired and the event was great. So lets get down to what happened.

Event: The event was put on with the hard work of Alan Burton and his supporting cast. He has spent months on advertising for this event and preparing for it and it showed. The track was awesome, and the prizes for the sportsman drivers were unmatched. The event had over 450 entries and while it led to some long days, there was some great competition and a lot of fun to be had.

Truggy Qualifying - My 801Xt was working well all weekend. The surface was similar to what I had just run in Australia and thus I didn't have to change my set-up at all. The only mistake I made was bringing all the wrong tires. I thought it was going to be a high bite surface and very abrasive and it ended up being a bit slick. So first qualifier my Medium tires just didn't cut it. They were like iceskates but I still managed 6th overall. I went around the pits and found 2 sets of Soft Cityblocks and ended up running them in my final 2 qualifiers and the main. In the ended I ended up qualifying 5th overall, mostly just from making to many mistakes but I knew I had a good truck for the main!

Buggy Qualifying - My 801X started the event feeling pretty good and I tried different set-ups in each qualifier to try and get it better. For the most part though I made it just a little worse. I ended up qualifying 7th for the A.  In the A-main warmup we tried messing with droop and got the car to feel better. I was ready for the A!

Truck A-main - The start for me was UGLY. I had a miserable first 3-4 minutes as the tight track proved tough to pass on and I just made to many mistakes. I fell back 3/4 of a lap early and could never totally recover. I was able to work my way up to around 3rd place when I landed upside down in the center of the track on my pit lap. I was upside down a little longer than normal and flamed. I ended up loosing a lap and 20 seconds. I fought my way back and threw down the best lap times I could. My 801Xt was handing very well and I was giving it all I had. I ended up coming back and taking 5th position just 1 second behind 4th at the line.

Buggy A-main - My 801X was dialed at the start. At the tone I got knocked a bit on the first corner but fought back and with a few crashes by the lead packs I made my way up to 3rd. I then proceeded to have some good battles for 2-5 positions and I fought the best I could. I made a few mistakes during the race and fell back a bit. But at the end I was in a good battle with Kortz for 4th and I was able to take it in the end!

I thank Alan Burton for helping me to attend this great event. I look forward to attending again next year.

Next up is our US Nationals for both Buggy and Truggy!