Kyle Rhodes ran off with the Nitro X win

Kyle Rhodes & Kyosho Win @ 2nd Annual Nitro X!

This past weekend August 8th, 9th, and 10th I attended the 2nd annual Nitro X race presented by Proline Racing, R/C Driver Magazine, Hobbico, and RB USA. The race took place at Wolcott Hobby and Raceway in Wolcott CT. I would be competing in 1/8th nitro buggy. Friday was scheduled for practice. I spent most of the day prepping my car and ran a few times to get the layout down and shake my MP9 TKI3 down. The event pulled in close to 100 entries.

Going into Saturday the format for the day would be four five minute qualifiers using rocket round. In my first qualifier I got out front early and had a new TQ run going. About halfway through the run my car came to a stop at the end of the straight away. I figured my engine had flamed out but when the marshal got to the car it was still running but didn’t have throttle. After about 20 seconds my throttle began to work again. I put on a charge to try to make the best of the run but with less then a minute to go my throttle cut out again. I pulled off before suffering a runaway. For round 2 I sat out to go through my electronics. For round 3 I put a new throttle servo in and went out and set a new TQ. For round four I made a few small changes to my setup and hit the track. My car felt great and I was able to reset TQ with a 9 lap 5:01 run. Going into Sunday the schedule was to run a last chance qualifier for the racers who did not make it Saturday. I put a new set of tires on and went out for my fifth and final qualifier. My car felt great and early on I was on a 10 lap run but I made a few mistakes and dropped back to a 9 lap pace. With only a few laps remaining I cleaned up my lines and pushed as hard as possible. I snuck by the line just before the tone went off and was able to get the only 10 lap run of the weekend.

The main was set to be 45 minutes and was later in the afternoon. I spent the day going through my car and getting it ready. The only change I made for the main was a fresh clutch. At the start of the main I pushed wide going into the first corner and got hit and got stuck on a pipe and dropped from first to 11th. The remainder of the first lap was tricky. I was able to avoid a few pile ups and quickly made passes and worked back to 7th. By the end of lap 5 I had retaken the lead quickly began to pull away. For the remainder of the race I increased my lead and by the end of the 45 minutes I took the win with a 4 lap lead over second place Hot Bodies driver Mark Smyka, and Kyosho privateer Carl Smart. Overall it was a great weekend and my RB powered Kyosho MP9 TKI3 was dialed all weekend.

 

 

 

The final finishing order for the A main was:

1. Kyle Rhodes-Kyosho MP9 TKI3

2. Mark Smyka-Hot Bodies

3. Carl Smart-Kyosho MP9 TKI3

4. John Langenfeld-TLR

5. Greg Vogel-Tekno

6. John Koiva-Hot Bodies

7. Paul Quartuccio-Kyosho MP9 TKI3

8. Larry Bromell-Kyosho MP9 TKI3

9. Rob Rinaldi-TLR

10. Lester Bastenbeck-Kyosho MP9 TKI3

11. Alex Kosciuszek-Team Associated

12. Rob Birchall-Mugen Seiki