$600 raised to fight cancer at fifth annual Karsyn's Krusaders Off-Road Challenge

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By Aaron Waldron
LiveRC.com

Race report from LRT Raceway and Hobby:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/LRT-Raceway-and-Hobby/113153025392826

Event: 2015 Karsyn's Krusders Off-Road Challenge
Location: LRT Raceway - Evansdale, IA
Date: August 15th, 2015
Report by Danny Bartholomew

LRT Raceway recently hosted the 5th Annual Karsyn's Krusaders Off-Road Challenge. Racers from Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois and Missouri made their way in for the event that raises money for the Evansdale-based charity, Karsyn's Krusaders. Learn more about the charity at www.karsynskrusaders.org

Racers would fill up the heat sheets across 5 classes including Sportsman and Pro Nitro Buggy, Nitro Truggy, 1/8 Electric Buggy and 4wd Short Course Truck. LRT provided a fresh layout for the event that was very technical and demanding but combined with LRT's smooth, high bite yellow clay, provided some very close, entertaining racing across all classes. After 3 rounds of intense qualifying, the racer raffle was held and lots of very nice prizes were handed out thanks to our very generous sponsors. A huge thank you to the following companies for their donations: Race Day Hobbies, Thunder Road Hobbies, Jconcepts, Schelle Racing, Hobbico, Byron Fuels, Gone Bananas Racing Skins and LRT Raceway. 

4wd SCT

Local driver Aaron Martin dominated the day taking TQ honors and after a small bobble on lap 1, Martin would quickly recover and cruise home with the win, Michael Kerchner would bring home 2nd and Gabe Fulks rounded out the podium. 

1. Aaron Martin
2. Michael Kerchner
3. Gabe Fulks

Nitro Truggy

Thunder Road Hobbies' Kyle Bronner would pace the field in qualifying and start from the #1 spot in the 20 minute A-main. Kyle would control the early part of the race with Tekno's Jason Bloom in close pursuit, as they neared the first round of pit stops, Justin Christensen and Shane Luckey were closing in from 3rd and 4th respectively. A small mistake by Bronner would allow Bloom to slip by and take the lead. That would be all Jason Bloom needed as he crossed 9 sec ahead of Kyle Bronner in 2nd and Justin Christensen taking the final step on the podium. 

1. Jason Bloom 
2. Kyle Bronner
3. Justin Christensen

Sportsman Nitro Buggy

Joe Cox would earn the TQ honors in Sportsman Buggy. At the tone, Joe would gain a pretty sizeable lead right away with a host of other drivers fighting it out behind him. Joe would suffer an engine cut on his first pit stop but was able to recover and regain the lead but would suffer another engine flameout this time on track ending his chances at the win. The battle would then fall to Seth Freeze and 9 year old Dylan Finn. Freeze and Finn would swap the lead back and forth over the last few minutes and Dylan would take the lead on the last lap and cross the line first for the Win, Seth Freeze finishing in 2nd and Drew Christensen would rebound from a rough first half of the race for the final podium spot.

1. Dylan Finn
2. Seth Freeze
3. Drew Christensen

1/8 Electric Buggy

Xray's Danny Bartholomew would TQ all three rounds of qualifying and start from the front. Some early crashes would drop Bartholomew back in the pack and Tekno's Eric Fletcher would take command of the early part of the 10 min final with Tony Bacon and Mike Murphy in pursuit. Bartholomew found his rhythm and slowly began to reel in the front runners, passing Murphy for third and Bacon for second. As Bartholomew found himself into the 2nd spot, early leader Eric Fletcher had a couple crashes which erased a big lead as Bartholomew took over the lead with Tony Bacon and Mike Murphy also moving ahead of Fletcher. It wasn't 100% smooth sailing for Bartholomew as he had pushed hard to catch up from his bad start and on the 90 degree day he struggled to clear a couple jumps sections with a HOT motor. Tony Bacon charged really hard over the last few laps but Bartholomew had just enough to hold on for a 3 sec win, Bacon finished 2nd and Mike Murphy rounding out the podium. 

1. Danny Bartholomew
2. Tony Bacon
3. Mike Murphy

Pro Nitro Buggy

Pro Buggy is always hotly contested at the Karsyn's Race, in fact the first 4 years have yielded 4 different winners. Two drivers would have a chance to become the first 2-time winners of the event and those two would battle for the TQ spot. Danny Bartholomew would TQ round 1 with the fastest run of the day, but it was the RC8B3 of Tony Bacon that would clip Bartholomew in round 2 and 3 for the overall TQ. Tony Bacon would lead out and swap the lead with Bartholomew and Tekno's Jason Bloom a few times. Bacon would fall back a bit promoting the Triton-powered Tekno of Wisconsin's Greg Baumel to 3rd. As first pit stops exchanged, Jason Bloom took hold of a decent lead ahead of Bartholomew and Baumel. Near the half way point Bloom's tires began to give up a little and Bartholomew was able to get by for the lead and stretch out a good margin as Bloom fell back into a battle with Baumel. Disaster would strike for Bartholomew as a receiver pack failure would knock the defending race winner out of the race. Baumel would inherit the lead with Bloom in a solid 2nd and with a couple of the front runners falling out early a great battle between Kyle Bronner and Shane Luckey would keep the crowd entertained over the last 1/3 of the race. Greg Baumel would run a smooth, clean race and come home with the Win, Jason Bloom hanging on to 2nd and Shane Luckey getting the best of Bronner down the stretch to claim the final podium spot. 

1. Greg Baumel
2. Jason Bloom
3. Shane Luckey

Again a huge THANK YOU to the racers for attending and the companies for donating many nice raffle prizes. The event raised over $600 for Karsyn's Krusaders.