2021 United States Xray Challenge Race Report

Press Release From Team Xray:
www.teamxray.com

Race report by Paul Ciccarello

This weekend was the 1st Annual XRAY Challenge at Brown’s Hobbyshop and Raceway in Irondale Ohio. The track has been there for 17years and always had a really good local following with club races every week above 75 entries. We didn’t know what to expect this race being their first big race but we were able to get 290 entries! The program ran perfect with Jared Bardin in control of the race directing. Jeff and Shawn Brown and BJ built a great layout, fun for everyone but still challenging.

Friday we were able to setup our pits and get some track time. We tested some tires and changed some shock oil to find the perfect combo.

In qualifying I was able to go 5 for 6 in Tqs for the 3 classes I raced only getting bested by Ryan Lutz in the last round of Ebuggy keeping me second overall. I was able to TQ plus 40 ebuggy and Etruggy. I hadn’t ran Etruggy in a bunch of years but since the new XT8E ’22 came out I thought I’d give it another shot and it handled great! Tristan Beiter was able to TQ the Nitro truggy class with his XT8 nitro.

First up was the Etruggy main, I got off to a good start but then made and few mistakes and Ty Payne made the pass and took off with the win with me finishing second, Phil Carey 3rd and Jim Billingsley 4th. Xray XT8E finishing 2 3 4.

Etruggy results:

1. Ty Payne - Tekno
2. (TQ) Paul Ciccarello - XRAY XT8E
3. Phil Carey - XRAY XT8E

Nitro truggy saw Tristan check out from the tone and take the win and Will Walker 3rd.

Nitro Truggy results:

1. (TQ)Tristan Beiter - XRAY XT8/FX
2. Andrew Grunkmyer Kyosho/OS
3. Will Walker - XRAY XT8

Next up was plus 40 Ebuggy. I got a great start right away and pushed the pace the first few laps to break away then ran clean the rest of the race to take the win! Mike Ellis Finished 4th, Phil Carey 5th.

Ebuggy 40 plus results:

1. TQ Paul Ciccarello - XRAY XB8E
2. Aaron Buran HB
3. Rod Schuman AE/Reedy

The last race of the day for me was the ebuggy race. I made a mistake on the first lap and fell back a bit. Then got into third for most of the race until Gaven Gibler caught me and made the pass. He would finish 3rd, myself 4th and Adam Johnson 5th.

Ebuggy results:

1. Ryan Lutz - WRC
2. Joe Bornhorst - Tekno
3. Gaven Gibler - XRAY XB8E

The last race of the night was Nitro buggy. I didn’t run this class this weekend but was able to help out the team. The beginning was pretty exciting with Tristan, Gaven and Adam all fighting for second place keeping pace with Ryan until they made some errors. Tristan was able to take home 2nd and Adam 3rd.

We plan to hold the race again next year the same weekend and same track only next time it will be a 2 day race instead of 1.

Nitro buggy results:

1. Ryan Lutz - WRC
2. Tristan Beiter - XRAY XB8/FX
3. Adam Johnson - XRAY XB8