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By Aaron Waldron
LiveRC.com
Race report by Tom Erickson:
www.michstatechampseries.com
Michigan State Championship Series of 8th Scale Off-road racing
The MSCS crew set-up shop at the 710 Raceway Camp for Round#2 of the Championship Series this past Saturday June 25th, 2016. Five Championship classes had 85 entries with Nitro Buggy being the largest with 30 entries. The track layout offered a great mix of speed and skill. The most challenging was the 6 pack in front of the driver’s stand. The back straight double was a game changer for many.
Nitro Buggy Class
The 30 car field filled the track with top drivers from the region. Qualifying kicked off with no surprises as last season champ, Mike “Chedda” Legue ended the first round with the top spot. The track conditions were changing throughout the hot day giving others a shot at the top qualifying points. George “G3” Berridge stunned everyone with the win in Q2 edging out Mike by a only 1.6 seconds. In Q3 Kyle Gough just edged out Ayden Horne for the top spot mixing up the qual points with a third unique winner. With close racing in every heat, Chedda edged out Kyle, G3, and Ayden for the Top Qualifier points.
At the start of the 30 minute A main, Chedda lead the field around on lap#1 with Kyle, G3, Ayden, and 5th place starter Brian Borle trailing very close behind. Kyle capitalized on a mistake and got by Chedda as Ayden ended his run allowing Brian to jump to the 3rd position. Kyle charged hard to try to work a gap from Chedda without success. Chedda was able to edge by Kyle as the pair increased the gap on the field.
Brian was able to stay ahead of G3 in the opening half until his day finished with mechanical problems. This allowed G3 to take over the 3rd spot with Kris Norlock in 4th with a large gap to overcome. The gap steadily reduced as Kris closed within a car length passing G3 on one lap only to flip in the 6 pack giving up the spot. These two battled all the way to the last lap with 5th place Garrett Waligorski in the mix but a lap down. With half a lap to go G3 ran out of fuel leaving open track for Kris to grab the 3rd spot.
Nitro Truggy Class
In the Nitro Truggy class qualifying set the tone for the day. Mike “Chedda” Legue and Brian Borle were the only drivers to break into the 9 lap pace trading wins in qualifying. It was Brian that would grab Top Qualifying honors and points. The 30-minute main began with the whole field in starting order through most of the first lap. Chedda battle hard with Brian to take over the top spot early on but flipped through the 6 pack sending him back to 4th place thanks to quick marshaling by Dan Stebbins. R.J. Hart had moved up to 2nd place ahead of Tony Oh boy who started 3rd as Chedda pressed through them both to move in on Brian. By mid-race Chedda running a consistent race was able to get by Brian and begin to stretch his lead.
As the gap slowly increased between Chedda and Brian, Conner Stanley charged forward matching the leaders lap times passing R.J. for 3rd place. The race was far from over with Brian staying within a few seconds of Chedda and Conner closing each lap. Behind the top 3 trucks R.J was doing all he could to hold off Mike Marshall until his front end traction let go. The winner of the B-main, Matt, was able to get through to claim the 5th place position. Chedda was unstoppable. Brian slipped back into target range of Conner who closed within a second with only a few laps left. The dreaded 6 pack ended his chances flipping him over taking all the pressure off of Brian.
Electric Buggy Class
The Electric Buggy Class again had many of the region’s top drivers in attendance. Conner Stanley applied his skills to win two of the three qualifiers and secured the Top Qualifier position. Veteran Allen Horne was his only challenger. The start of the A-main was clean at first. Conner lead the pack through the infield but the 6 pack collected him again sending him all the way back to last place. Al took over the lead and never looked back.
With Conner working through the field, 3rd place qualifier Mike Ciresi was holding off Kyle Gough and Alex Watzke all battling for the 3rd spot. Alex retired from the race leaving Kyle open track to catch up to Mike. Kyle was able to get through and gap Mike to secure the 2nd position. Mike was able to hold for 3rd place as Boone and Conner Stanley closed in. The order was set on the last lap as they stood.
Electric Truggy Class
The electric Truggy class this round had participation from the dedicated eTruggy drivers of the area. It was R.J. Hart that would secure the Top Qualifier position after the first two heats. As last season champion R.J. carries the #1 on his Truggy and still demonstrating his domination. He won round#1 with Ben Belote in second. In Round#2 the start was the same with Ben behind R.J. At the start the two jumped to an early lead with Ben pressing hard to stay on pace with the champion. All of the 6 eTruggies were running at about the same consistency but not even Ben could maintain the pace that R.J. was running. Behind Ben the battle for third place was on. Dayton Miller started 3rd and held the position on the opening laps as Clay Chambers and Doug Wendling closed in. Doug and Clay both were able to get by Dayton for a few laps but Dayton regained his composure and passed them both back. Doug began to struggle on the track allowing Ken Gentz to get by and hold the final Podium position. R.J. took the win wire to wire with Ben in second a lap down. Dayton held on for third ahead of Clay in fourth. Ken had closed within 3 seconds which was not enough to overtake Clay crossing the line in fifth.
Sportsman Class/4x4 Short Course Truck
The entries for both 4x4 Short Course Truck and Sportsman Class had too few entries to run on their own again. The merged class had a strong group of 4x4 SCT drivers and two up and coming rookies. In the 4x4 Short Course Truck Class the 2015 Series Champion George “G3” Berridge commanded the track flying his Tekno R/C Short Course truck over the large jumps. Dan Stebbins did what he could to keep the racing close winning the last qualifier and securing the 2nd position on the start line. Young Logan Wendling continued to show that his skills staying close to Dan and even challenging him in the last heat. Mark Thompson was in the mix claiming the 4th spot. In the A-Main event G3 took off at the tone not looking back. Dan chased staying on the same lap with G3 the whole race but didn’t have enough to close the gap. Logan too was able to stay on the lead lap the whole race securing the 3rd place overall at the finish. Mark and Ken rounded up the podium for the class. In the Sportsman Class Nathan Gordon and Drew Wendling, both running 8th Scale Buggies, navigated the track with skills beyond their years. Nathan’s pace is starting to demonstrate that he will be ready for the Championship classes in the not so distant future.
The MSCS Crew is continuing to support and improve our program. Thanks to the crew! And a special thanks to our series sponsors; Nankin Hobbies, Dirt Burner Raceway and Hobbies, Team Associated, AKA, JConcepts, Tekin, TrakPower, and SMC. Our next event will be July 30th at TARCAR near Toledo, Ohio.
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