This past weekend was the official kickoff to our outdoor season up here in Canada at Niagara Offroad RC located in Welland about 20min from Niagara Falls. It was great to see that all I lost from the end of last year's outdoor season was my tan as all 3 of the cars that I ran were dialed come the end of a rain-shortened friday practice. Maybe its the onroad in me but I love the feel of a damp, high grip track as overcat skies all day Saturday kept the track in perfect condition for me to show what my cars can really do in the qual points format.

In truggy, my weekend started off well, but I just couldn't get my truck to rotate enough on the super tight layout. I qualified 3rd after rounds 1 and 2, 4th after round 3 and a brutal 9th after the final round. Once the points were tallied I had a 4th place starting position in the main and nervous as to what the weather would be like on Sunday. Come Sunday morning it was clear skies and temperatures in the 20's (mid-low 80's) as the track was showing signs of really drying out. Once practice was over, the track was starting to become very blown out, and got worse and worse as the races went on. When the main rolled around, it was over pretty much as quickly as it began. I ran 3 laps and had a bad landing resulting in a broken front knuckle. A disappointing end to the weekend for my truck.

In nitro buggy I qualified well taking 2nd place to Losi driver George Stilliadis in every single round of qualifying. As I went faster, he seemed to pickup the same amount of time I did every round no matter what changes I made. I knew I had a chance to beat him in the main as he was only getting me by about 5 sec in each round, and our fastest laps were very close. When the A main rolled around, I was puzzled as to how I should attack the ever-changing, super blown out track. When the main started, the weather started to become very windy and caused mayhem over one of the big air jump! You lost too much time if you decided to roll it every lap, so I thought I'd be heroic and only jump it when I didn't feel a big gust of wind. My idea was working brilliantly as I was running in 2nd (as George was doing the same thing) until I slowly began loosing rear drive - my rear ring gear was slowly stripping! A few laps later spelled the end of my day as it became impossible to make the jumps with just front wheel drive. Another disappointment for my already not-so-awesome sunday.

I ran the prototype 801x-e at the event as well and was super excited to see what it could do outdoors. Just as I suspected, in qualifying on saturday the car was virtually untouchable. Nobody could get within 1sec of my fastest lap, and I was easily 10sec ahead of the field in each race. When sunday rolled around, the script was much different. The dry, blown out track meant that I had to actively change my setup to keep up with the more experienced offroad drivers who have likely seen these drastic changes before. Kyosho America driver John Summach was the only one who's car looked as dialed as mine going around the track, and on Sunday he had his car dialed! It through me off in the first of the triple A mains as he drove right around me and off into the sunset. I later broke in that race but honestly had no chance in catching him - my work was cut out for me as I was not so invincible anymore! In A2 I got my car working much better and we had a great race the entire 10min and were never separated by more than a few seconds, trading the lead a few times throughout the race. On the last lap, I had to dig deep and find a way to pass him as I was all over him, knowing his years of offroad experience likely wouldn't translate to a bobble. I dove inside him on a tight left turn and completed the pass over a set of doubles and took the win in A2! In A3, the race was tight again, and my buggy worked well. Still not as perfect as on Saturday but it drove off the corners really well and was very predictable. I didn't make a single error the entire race and was able to take the win, the first for the new 801x-e!
My next event will be a club race this weekend, followed by the 2nd round of the RC Pro Series in Kingsville, Ontario...which is about 4hours from Toronto!