A few laps w/Carlos Macias Truggy @ The 3rd Annual Labor Day Shootout, Riverfront RC, Marysville, CA - Finished 2nd - 30 min. A-Main

Carlos Macias - writing

With much anticipation this past weekend brought my favorite race of the year. the 3rd Annual Labor Day Shootout, at Riverfront RC in Marysville, CA. -  it did not disappoint.  We arrived at the track early in the afternoon on Friday to setup our camp and settled in for a weekend of racing.

Friday Afternoon- Practice

Riverfront RC is situated at E Street MX park a popular MX destination in Northern California. With all the equipment readily available to the Riverfront RC crew (Phillip Atondo & John Scott) they always come up with challenging and fun track layouts. This weekends design featured a huge double in front of the drivers stand allowing us the air out our cars at almost eye level while standing aprox. 15ft up on the drivers stand. This huge kicker was a challenge because speed and timing was crucial for nailing the down side landing and setting up for another small double then making a 90 degree left turn. The track also featured other challenging and technical sections such as "the log jam", the A-Main top deck, and rhythm sections. Practice went really well. We were all able to make some necessary adjustments to our buggy's & truggy's, getting ready for a day of qualifying.

Saturday - Qualifying

After the driver's meeting we settled in for 3 rounds of qualifying.

Driver: Carlos Macias

Sportsman Buggy - Qualified 9th in the A-Main. In the first round I broke a front inner camber tie rod, and after the repair I was never able to settle in with the buggy. Just felt very off to me. After trying a different set of tires in each run, the best I could do was 9th overall in the A-Main.

Sportsman Truggy - Qualified 3rd in the A-Main.  My truggy felt great all day however I was sitting firm in the 2nd qual spot, until a late blooming driver beat the TQ time in the last round and race of the day moving us all down one spot on the grid.

Driver: Darren Sousa

40 & Over Buggy Qualified 3rd in the A-Main. 

Sportsman Buggy - Top Qualifier - #1 in the A-Main. Darren laid down a very fast run in the first round of qualifying and his run stood on top for the rest of the day, setting him up for an excellent main event.

Sunday - Mains

Driver: Carlos Macias

Sportsman Buggy - Finished in the 10th spot. Setting to to redeem myself after a few bad qualifying runs, I got off to a fairly clean starting quickly moving my way up through pack..when I cased the landing on the big double and broke another front camber tie rod end. This would put me 10 laps down by the time we got it repaired.

Sportsman Truggy - Finished 2nd! I got off to a great start, when the two truggy's in front of me got tangled at the start. I pulled out in front and tried to pull away but the 2nd place truggy passed me shortly after my first pit. From the 7 to 20 minute mark I battle for the 2nd and 3rd positions with 2 other drivers, making for a very exciting race.  toward the later portion of the main myself and the 1st place driver checked out with more than 2 laps on the field I focused on catching the number 1 spot. Keeping tight lines and making very few mistakes I was able to get within 12 seconds of the leader but was never able to catch him, finishing in 2nd on the same lap as the leader. Overall I feel it was my best performance yet on the drivers stand. Hearing my name being called by a very exciting race announcer for nearly 30 minutes in something to get used to. 

Driver: Darren Sousa

40 & Over Buggy - In this main Darren broke a a shock end on the left rear shock which knocked him out of contention.

Sportsman Buggy - Finished 1st. Darren truly had a dominate performance throughout the entire 30 minute buggy main, and finished nearly 2 laps in front of the field.

In Conclusion

We had a great weekend! Riverfront RC always puts on a great race, we had a good turnout and overall we all very happy with our results. I should also point out fellow team driver Eric Thor (whom recently moved to the expert class) won the B main Expert Truggy event and got the transfer to the A-Main where he finished a very respectable 4th! I want to thank Darren, Eric, and Kerk for all the help this weekend.

Darren Sousa - 1st Place Sportsman Buggy

Car: TRF 801x Buggy
Engine: Novarossi P4 w/9901 Pipe
Tires: Losi Red Eclipse

Carlos Macias 2nd Place - Sportsman Truggy

Car: TRF 801XT
Engine: Alpha Plus S852 w/0801 Pipe
Tires: AKA Gridiron, Soft

Eric Thors's 801XT

Eric Thor's 801XT

Carlos Macias' 801x in Qualifying

Carlos Macias' Tamiya ready for the A-Main's

Eric Thor's Truggy Ready for the A-Main

Here's some video of Ryan's run in the Pro Truggy A-Main at the recent RC Pro Series Race, in Rescue, CA. Sorry for the Quality... I had a higher quality video ready but was unable to upload it to YouTube or Veoh...

Watch Ryan Lutz - Pro Truggy A-Main RC Pro Series in Sports  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

After not having raced for a 1 month plus (busy will family stuff) I was able to go out and get my RC fix at the RC Pro Series in Rescue, CA. 

The race was a 3-Day event with practice on Friday, 4- Rounds of Qualifying on Saturday & Main Events on Sunday.

Friday - Practice
I arrived at the track early and met teammates Ryan & Eric and setup our pit locations. Not having raced for a while I decided to focus on Buggy this race. I dusted the cob webs off my buggy and got on the track. After the first tank it was obvious that I needed to change my diff oils. first starting with the rear  I did a quick change and added 6000wt. Out for another tank the buggy felt good. I was running worn cityblock tires the whole day so I could get a feel for every setup change. I then returned to the pits and refreshed my front shock oils with 550wt at half rebound. After several tanks of run time my car was ready. I returned to the pits to do a complete diff rebuild in anticipation for the next day of Qualifying.

Saturday - Qualifying
After the drivers meeting we settled in to start the day of Qual runs. Run 1 - I tried some fresh City Block tires and the car was good but was bottoming out on jumps and wasn't clearing some of the larger gap jumps like it should. Back to the pits where Ryan helped me with some setup changes. He suggested changing my rear springs to Blue/Black and dong some shock piston mods. With his guidance I did the mods, refreshed the oil to 375 w/half rebound and changed the springs.  We also found my droop settings were way out. I corrected this, reset my ride height and changed to I-Beam tires and was ready for Qual run 2. Prepped for Qual run 2 I was on the drivers stand when my pit guy started up the car and I noticed my right front tire wasn't spinning... broken drive shaft. I headed back to the pits missing the start of my qaul run. Ryan quickly jumped on my car and replaced my drive shaft and had me back on the track 1 minute in to the run... after a lap or two I adjusted to the setup changes and settled in I was still able to make 6 laps. For Qual run 3 I didn't change a thing. I set out to put down a good run and it was good but not good enough. I finished 2nd in the line up. For the final Qaul run of the day Ryan suggested I change shock position on the rear, I also switched to some fresh Cross Brace tires. I was able to put down some good lap times and pulled of with 8 laps my best run of the day and the best overall for my class.

Sunday - Mains
With my 1st and 2nd place finishes in the Qualifying I was able to Qualify 2nd overall.. (qualifying points system). My main was the second to the last race of the day. I was prepped and ready early in the day so I was able to shoot some video of Ryan's & and Eric's mains.

After a rough start in the main I was able to re-gain the 2nd place position and had 1st place in my sights when .... Flame out... at the the end of the straight away.... after re-firing I pushed hard to re-gain my lap and was starting to pick off the competition when... another flame out occurred. And that seemed to be my struggle for the rest of the race... engine problems. At the end I was able to finish in 6th out of I believe 11 cars. 

Even with my unfortunate problems in the main it was still a great weekend. I always enjoy racing with my teammates, and I was able to shoot some pretty good video this race! I'd like to thank Tamiya, Ryan, Eric, and my pit guy Kerk.

Carlos Macias

Videos:

Ryan Lutz Buggy Qualifying Run:

Ryan Lutz Truggy Qualifying Run:

Friday May 21, 2010 - Practice

We arrived at the track at around 12:30 in the afternoon. After setting up our pit area we set out to get some track time. The track is a fairly large layout with elevation changes and a few challenging obstacles, like the "log jamb", the "windy double", the Novarossi Section, and the step down which has a blind approach where you loose your car for a split second. Overall the track has a layout that flows really well and I was excited to get back behind the wheel after a months hiatus.  Both the Buggy and Truggy did well.. Tomorrow is 3-Rounds of qualifiers.. tonight its back to the room for lots of clean up and maintenance on both the cars.

Saturday May 22, 2010 - Qualifying

Saturday morning brought the beginning of the 3-rounds of qualifying.

At the end of the 3rd round Darren Sousza qualified 2nd in he 40+ buggy class Amain. While qualifying 4th in A-Main for the Sportsman Buggy Class, and 5th in the Sportsman Truggy A-amin. Driver Carlos Macias struggled most of the day with buggy setup and qualified 1st in the Sportsman Buggy B-Main while qualifying 2nd in the Sportsman Truggy B-Main. Driver Matt Hunt Qualified in the middle of the pack in the Expert Buggy B-Main and Qualified 4th in the Expert Truggy A-Main.

The Sportsman Truggy Class was the most heavily contested class with 45+ entries. 

Sunday May 23, 2010 - Mains

Sunday morning we arrived at the track and prepped for a long day of mains. The blustery wind made things very cold in the A.M. but we rallied the troops and got thing ready for an exciting day of mains.

Driver Darren Sousa

Darren set the pace for the rest of us by Winning the 40+ Buggy Class A-Main, While taking 3rd in the Sportsman Buggy A-Main, and 5th in the Sportsman Truggy A-Main. A very successful weekend for Darren bringing home two trophies for Tamiya!

Buggy: Tamiya 801x
Tires: AKA Ibeam Soft
Engine: RB WS7
Pipe: Nova 9901

Truggy: 801xT
Tires: AKA Grid Iron Soft
Engine: Novarossi Plus4
Pipe: Nova 9901

Driver Carlos Macias

Carlos secured a transfer spot to the Sportsman Buggy A-Main by finishing 1st in the B. After transferring the A he did not fair well due to used up tires from the Bmain transfer. Carlos also secured a transfer spot the Sportsman Truggy A-Main by finishing 2nd int he B.. and manged to finish 4th overall in the Truggy A... A successful weekend for Carlos considering the A-Main transfers and over 1-1/2 hours of drive time. 

Buggy: Tamiya 801x
Tires: AKA Grid Iron Medium
Engine: Nova P5XLT
Pipe: Nova 9901

Truggy: 801xT
Tires: AKA Grid Iron Soft Bmain / AKA City/Beam Soft - Amain
Engine: Alpha Plus Orange Head Pipe: Alpha 0801

Driver Matthew Hunt

Matthew finished 4th in the Expert Buggy B-Main while securing the 8th place finish in the Expert Truggy A-Main with many fast factory sponsored pros!

Buggy: Tamiya 801x
Tires: AKA Enduro Soft
Engine: Novarossi Hotmod Plus4
Pipe: Nova 9901

Truggy: 801xT
Tires: AKA Ibeam Soft
Engine: Novarossi Hotmod Toro Nero
Pipe: Nova 9901

We would like to extend a big Thank You to the crew at Riverfront RC for putting together a great race program and as always thanks to the team of Tamiya guys for the camaraderie and team effort - Darren Sousa, Carlos Macias, Matthew Hunt, and Eric Thor!

Darren Sousa 3rd Take 3rd Place w/ the 801x (Right)

by Phil Thompson

This week I ventured out to get some more laps on the Tamiya LM chassis before next week's OFNA Spring Nationals! I tried a few things this week in hopes of improving my Tamiya rocket! Fortunately, the greatly improved my lap times at my local track!! The car handled like a dream, and I had plenty of power! I set TQ with 44 laps in 4:01 and went on to win the A-main. It was a tough main, as I had a bad start which put me a half-lap down, but I zoned in and was able to run the leader down and pass him just over 2 min into the race. from there I was able to win by a lap. I ran the fastest laps all night, setting the bar with a 5.168 sec lap in the 2nd heat. No one else was able to reach the 5.1's all night!! Thanks GFDracing, Tamiya, Kal-Gard, Answer-RC, and Ascendancy!!! I had a blast and cant wait til next weekend. The OFNA spring nats will consist of a full race program Friday night, and another full show on Saturday. The winners of the A-mains Friday night will be automatically locked in to the A-main on Saturday. After that, I'm off to Nashville two weekends in a row for the ONS series on Dirt Oval and then the RCPS TN state series on off-road the following week!!!

by Phil Thompson

This past weekend we wrapped up the 7-race winter points series.

Well mission partially accomplished.... What do I mean?

Tamiya made a definite presence throughout the entire winter series. With the Tamiya 801x buggy we dominated the top 3-point positions in the intermediate buggy class. Tamiya/GFDracing Driver Darren Sousa maintained the number 1 spot throughout the whole series, while Tamiya/GFDracing Driver Carlos Macias & Tamiya Driver Eric Thor swapped the 2nd and 3rd spot from race to race.

Going into the final race we had had all but sealed the deal with Darren sitting in 1st, Carlos in 2nd & Eric in 3rd.  With round 7 being a "double points" race we all set out for a spectacular finish but, for Carlos it wasn't to be.  We all qualified in the A-Main while Carlos qualified in 2nd just seconds behind the TQ spot.. The Tamiya cars were Dialed! Carlos got a good start and maintained the 2nd position for the first 3 laps when he had an engine flame out... Carlos continued to struggle with engine issues the entire race with 3 flame outs. In the end Carlos was able to tie for 3rd spot in overall points however the the tie breaker went to the higher qualifier (TQ), and Carlos missed the 3rd place trophy by mere seconds.... As they say That's Racing!!!

Overall it was a successful series as Tamiya now has a firm presence in Northern California.

Congratulations to Tamiya/GFDracing Driver - Darren Sousa for taking 1st place at the Delta RC, Winter Series, Antioch California. 

Final Race Configuration:

Car: Tamiya 801x
Engine: Novarossi HotMod Toro Nero
Pipe: Novarossi 9901
Tires: Proline Holeshot M3

Congratulations to Tamiya Driver - Eric Thor for taking 2nd place at the Delta RC, Winter Series, Antioch California.