It's Monday morning February 15th and final preparations are underway for the true annual kickoff to the R/C Season. The Dirt Nitro Challenge is upon us! Rumors are circulating that this track is going to be technical. My local spies say there are something like 35 jumps on the track and there is no flat straight away! :-0 My personal hopes are that it is a little more 'race worthy' than last years rendition, which just had to many jumps to really be able to 'race'!

I will be in my garage all day today putting finishing touches on my Tamiya 801X and 80Xt. I've worked long hours on the rebuilding of them for the next 4 weeks of traveling and I'm confident that this is going to be a great week upcoming! :-D I've also had the pressure put on me by Neo-Buggy and Meen V.  Meen V just won the Worlds warmup with the Alpha Plus engines that I have begun to race this year. So now it is my turn to put up the results on American Soil to prove that not only can a top of the line engine be had for under $210, but also that it can win races all over the world! I am excited by the challenge and I know my results will be watched closely! I'm just ready to prove to everyone that Alpha Plus engines are the real deal and also that my Tamiya vehicles are ready to kick some serious butt in 2010! Check back all week for updates from the 2010 Dirt Nitro Challenge!

Tuesday Feb 16th,

     Today I arrived at the track.......This might be the most amazing track I have ever seen! ;-)

Thursday Feb 18th,

     Well Truggy qualifying is over and unfortunately I'm walking away a bit disappointed. The track, as amazing as it is, also has it's challenges. Namely the 12 pack or (dirty dozen as it is affectionately known) on the first lane.  I struggled all day in my 3 qualifiers with finding a good set-up to put me through the 12 pack smoother. I was able to get the set-up to feel better everywhere on the track round after round but still just haven't nailed that perfect set-up for the jumping section. So unfortunately i've qualified 16th or 4th in the B. But B4 I get too down I realize that this will be the best thing for me. Because It will allow me to get more comfortable on this track and get my timing down on the 12 pack and get me ready for the A-main after I bump up! So all is not lost and I am vowing to put my 801Xt in the top 5 at least when all is said and done. (It's fast enough right now on 90% of the track, just have to figure out that last 10%). Friday is Buggy qualifying. Looking forward to some better qualifying results!

Friday February 19th

     Buggy qualifying is in the books and regretfully results are much the same as the truck for me. I have just struggled on this track to get a good set-up and drive clean. It's a demanding track and I just haven't put forth my best performances. On a bright note my final round the car felt much better and I think I am going to dominate the B-mains. I have all the confidence in the world that the B-mains are going to make me that much stronger in the A-mains! :-D

Sunday February 20th (early A.M.)

     Well yesterday was Truggy mains. We fought off an onslaught of rain and Joey and his family did a great job getting the track back race-able again. I was in the B-main and hoping to make the bump into the A-main. Unfortunately it wasn't to be. I had a good start and took the lead a lap into the B-main but quickly relinquished it on a crash on an easy jump. I was in second just inches in front of third when in a corner I was taken out and fell back to fourth. I made a couple mistake laps through the Dirty dozen and soon found myself in 5th. The race was half over and it was do or die. I started running some cleaner laps and caught up to 4th and took back the position. Now my sights were set on 3rd. I was about 10 seconds back with 5 minutes to go. I started to lay down my most consistent laps of the race and with 1 minute to go was withing 10 feet of 2nd and 3rd. While 3rd was straddling a pipe and had the marshals attention I rolled over in the deep whoops with the marshal looking the other way. The window of opportunity closed just like that and my hopes were dashed. I had to settle for 4th and the disappointment that went along with it.  The thing is there were some positive things to take out of the weekend and we learned a lot more about the 801Xt and I feel like it's just going to help as the year progresses!

     Today is the buggy mains and again I'm qualified 6th in the b-main. Hopefully we are able to get to race. It rained hard last night and now the sun is coming out but there is a 30% chance of rain from 2pm - the rest of the evening so hopefully someone can do a rain dance and they are able to get the track ready and we can race!

Sunday PM:

     Just not my weekend...Went out for the B-main in buggy. Right off the start I had my pressure line break! I was basically out of contention right away. It was an unfortunate situation. I spent my remaining time helping out Live R/C and controlling camera two during the  Pro A-main. I'm ready for my next race now. Need some redemption! I'm off to Texas for the IceBreaker at Indy R/C on Thursday! Looking forward to it.