Double victory for Hickerson, truck title for Gonzales at fourth annual Big Bend Shootout

0 Dec. 14, 2016, 2:50 p.m.

By Aaron Waldron
LiveRC.com

Race report from SOAR Racing USA:
www.soarracing.com

Capital City Raceway in Tallahassee Florida held their 4th Annual Big Bend Shootout last weekend. SOAR Racing USA's Gene Hickerson would sweep the nitro buggy classes with the SOAR 998 TD1.

Hickerson took TQ and the win in the 30 minute 40+ Open Buggy A-main. Kawri Brown finished 2nd and SOAR Racing's Joey Perez finished 3rd with his first race with the SOAR 998 TD1 buggy, while Brian Looper finished 4th also with the SOAR 998 TD1.

Gene Hickerson - SOAR/James - TQ
Kawri Brown - Mugen/Proline
Joey Perez - SOAR/James
Brian Looper - SOAR/AKA

Next up was the expert nitro truggy A-main. Graham Gonzales ran away with the race. Hickerson finished 2nd with the protoype SOAR 998 TD1 truggy and Kenny Morris Jr brought home 3rd.

Graham Gonzales - Losi/Proline - TQ
Gene Hickerson - SOAR/James
Kenny Morris Jr - Losi/AKA
Kawri Brown - Mugen/Proline

The final nitro main and the most exciting race of the weekend was the pro buggy main. Hickerson got a bad start and was close to being lapped by the 1st place car of Julien Oliveras.

But thanks to 10 minute fuel runs with the new SOAR TRS-21 Tuned engine, Hickerson was able to close the gap to 5 seconds after the rest of the field pitted at the 22:30 mark. The final 3 minutes saw a great battle between Oliveras and Hickerson with Hickerson coming away with the win for SOAR Racing in the end. Gonzales finished 3rd and SOAR's Joey Perez finished a strong 4th. The SOAR Racing USA team all had great results this past weekend.