Good afternoon Team its Superbowl Sunday and believe it or not I am stuffed with chips, guacamole, Blue Moon, chili and lots of veggies and dip.....as should be expected.  Well on Saturday I finally got to stretch out the legs on my 416 and  all I can say is Wow!!!!! and this is how it all went down.

Friday - After a long day of working, one of my closest friends Allen Hewitt called and said he was heading over to crash so that we could get our cars ready  to race at the highly competitive on-road track (West Coast RC Raceway) in La Mirada, Ca. What I found out during my maintenance time was that my 416 was not even close to being balanced. I only had the car for a few weeks so the maintenance time was much needed.  3 ounces later the car was at 1422 grams and fully balanced. I think I ended up hitting the sack around 1am and slept in confidence knowing that Saturday was going to be a good day!

Saturday - Racing started at 1pm and I finally got to the track at 10am for some much needed practice. I really don't get to practice that much during the week seeing that I usually work between 55-60 hours a week at my day job, so I have to take advantage of any practice opportunity I can get. Soon as I put the car on the track and went down the straight away I knew instantly the car was hooked up..... it drove like a dream and the smoother I drove it the faster it went. I needed to put down 13.0s to 13.2s lap times to be competitive but as practice went on I was doing consistent 13.0's, so I knew instantly I was in the main and I could possibly do some damage and put some people to sleep as the day progressed.

1st Qualifier - TQ'd the round! 23/5:01

2nd Qualifier -  I started out the 2nd qualifier right where I left off and was on a 24 lap run and I even managed to throw in a 12.7 lap time to help boost my confidence and I somehow found myself in a 2 way battle for the lead until I made a small mistake and lost TQ by 1 second. There was no reason for me to put my head down seeing that it was my mistake and my car was clearly faster. In addition the battle for the lead was with the local track hero who has won the last 4 meetings and has had the opportunity to practice daily at WCRC....so it really turned out to be a good day being that I was the 2nd qualifier for the main in the heavily contested 13.5 expert division.

A-Main - I knew that all I had to do was stay close and wait for an opportunity, which I did seeing that my 416 was handling quit well, I found myself braking a lot in the corners so that I wouldn't inadvertently hit the leader, I found my self racing  out of the line to make a pass and then it happened....I rode a corner just a tad bit too much and rolled it.   

Well on to next week.....but I think I opened a lot of people's eyes on Saturday! It's only gonna get better from here! Stay tuned for more updates as the year progresses!

Happy Valentine's Day and have a good week!

The Sandman!

Well Folks its 2010 and I am now a member of the prestigious Tamiya USA/TEAM TRF. What a wild ride it has been over the last 7 months and I am extremely anxious to ge the new chassis (416X) up and running. Well to be honest I ran it last weekend and did quite well, not bad for its first outing, still making small changes tho but getting closer and closer every lipo pack. I am also quit anxious to run the 801 platform in off-road, so this should be an exciting year and I look forward to representing Tamiya USA  on and off the track!

Good luck to all of you and  make it count!