Heading in to the weekend I was very excited.  It was the 1^st really big race with my Tamiya801xT. Also we had at least three member of the TRF team attending this race also.  Ryan was heading in from California fresh off a trip to Texas and Alex and I where locals here in Ga.  “Camp Tamiya” didn’t work out the way I hoped.  The blistering wind and cold air had us all tucked away in a trailer or in a tent.  Either way we had a great time and represented The Team well. 

Practice – The track was more technical that the PNB tracks in the past.   Not a lot of huge jumps instead had a few jumps that where easy to over jump and under jump.  Timing was important.  Also had a large sweeper heading into a 200+ foot straight away into larger cork screw style sweeper (Straight jacket). This was by far my favorite part on the track ;-)… After a few laps with my 801xT…again I didn’t feel like much change was needed over my current  setup.  I did go a little lighter on my shock oil due try and calm the truggy down on some really tricky whoop section.  Other than that my 801xT felt good.  After battling the “Wall”  for several laps I finally felt good going into qualifying.

Qualifying – 1^st round was a little shaky.  It was a mixture of battling traffic and poor decision on my part.  But we where running on qual points so I knew I had 2 more rounds to make it up. 2^nd round – With the exception of 1 bobble that cost me a 12 lap run,  I knew I laid down a good time that could place me in the higher mains if I could repeat in the 3rd round.  3 round – I had a feeling that running at 3am in the morning might not produce the best of results from my driving.  And I was correct….Needless to say my timing was a little off. 

Main – With only 1 decent Qualifier on Sat., it placed me 4^th in the C-Main.  Even with a few heavy hitters in the C with me,  I was feeling good about the bump.   At the start I was able to make a move that put me directly into the second position.  After a few laps I caught the bad end of a mix up and rolled over in a turn marshal “dead zone”(spot on the track where turn marshal can’t get to that fast) …Went from 2^nd to last in 1 turn.  DOH!  After a struggle to make up ground…I finished 7^th roughly 18 seconds from the bump.  My Tamiya 801xT performed great all weekend.   Unfortunately my disappointment was in my driving performance.   Even with my poor results I received many compliments on how well my truggy looked on the track.  

This weekend was really tough.  A roller coaster of emotions for sure….I had a great time with my friends and Teammates.  Mourned the lost of a fellow racer, as well as welcome new ones to our home area.  Can’t wait til next year!

Tamiya 2010!