Well the long weekend for the KO race is over.  I spent full days at the WCRCR track from Thursday through Sunday.  Going into the race, my previous setup was far too aggressive for the new track layout, so Thursday and Friday were spent searching for a new setup.  By the last round of controlled practice on Saturday morning I landed on a setup that felt really good.

Qualifying on Saturday went fairly well.  With all clean runs in both my 13.5 and Mod classes, I was able to secure a 2'nd place start in the 13.5 main, and a mid pack start in Mod.  On Sunday, we started with our 4'th and final round of qualifying, and since I was already guaranteed starts in both A-Mains I made setup changes to my car to try and improve my starting position, unfortunately they only slowed me down.

For the Modified AAA mains, I was starting in 6'th position, went out for my practice laps and the car felt great.  Did a couple practice starts, the car went perfectly straight, so I went to the line.  At the tone, I hit the throttle and my car jerks left and smacks the wall.  Finally got it back in line but it was tweaked.  At that point I was last but worked up to a 5'th place finish.  2'nd main, I went out and wanted to make sure the car would go straight from a stop, so on my warm-up lap I did several stop and go's and the car went perfectly straight every time.  Went to the grid and at the tone hit the throttle and the car jerks left again and smacks the wall.  Same outcome, I think I was able to work up to 6'th or so after another start sending me to the back of the pack.  3'rd main I went to the 6'th place grid in my warm up, hit the throttle and the car goes left.  Did a few other stop and starts and the car goes perfectly straight anywhere besides that part of the grid.  I asked to be lined up outside of the box, but because it is a large race they require me to start in the box, so at the tone I baby the throttle hoping to end up anywhere besides dead last at that start.  Sure enough the car behind me smacks me at that start, and another dead last beginning.  I finished 8'th in that class.

For the 13.5 mains I was starting 2'nd.  Got off to a great start in the 1'st main, but on the straightaway I was extremely under powered for some reason.  I had both Keven Hebert and Rick Hohward knocking at my rear bumper as I drove the closest lines I possibly could trying to hold them behind me.  It wasn't long before they were able to sneak inside me at the end of the straight and move me back.  Unfortunately for myself one of the passes had contact and spun me out.  I worked back up in a 3 person battle for 3'rd place, but without enough motor to make a move on anyone, I ended up at the back of that train for a 5'th place finish in A1.  For A2 I switched to an LRP SPX ESC, never having run the ESC before, it just felt weird compared to the KO I am used to.  Got the gearing a bit off, and had the same power issues but less luck with people making their aggressive end of the straightaway passes and finished towards the back.  For A3, we got the gearing down really well and the power was there.  Barry Baker had already wrapped up the title by this point, so I started first on the grid.  First corner I bobbled and went wide allowing both Keven and Rick to pass on the inside, and the positions didn't change much after that, finished 3'rd right behind Keven.  I ended up 4'th overall in 13.5.

This race was a huge learning experience.  I really don't run spec classes all that often, and I found that in order to run them alongside modified, you really need 2 cars because of the different ESC's needed for each class.

I'd like to thank Barry Baker for all of his help the past weekend, I was using motors and batteries that he supplied me from Team Checkpoint.  The motors felt great, and once I got the right ESC in there for 13.5 they had all the speed needed.  Also, congrats Barry on your 13.5 and Mod wins, and welcome to the RCRevealed race team!

I can't wait for the next big race at WCRCR, the race was run on schedule the entire time with excellent announcing from Charlie Suangka and Jeremy Felles.  This is also the first race I've ever seen with paid turnmarshals, none of the racers had to turnmarshal a single time.  Even better than that was the effort that the marshals put into their job, any bobble and they were right there to help, I didn't see a single one of them watching the race and missing an opportunity to help, truly a great job!  Robert from KO and Danny from WCRCR really put on a top notch race, thanks for all your efforts, they made it a great weekend for everyone.