Our dear friend and LiveRC guest announcer, Charlie Suangka, was amongst the action at this years 2013 Pro-Line Cactus Classic. Suangka and his dinosaur, Godzilla, roamed the racetrack offering Novak users and team drivers technical support, as well as being the official Team Novak event cheerleader. Apparently his cheerleading skills have quite an impact, as Team Novak walked away with some impressive results from this year's event.
Charlie put together his own race report from the event, highlighting some of the Novak accomplishments!
2013 marked the 27th annual running of the legendary Pro-Line Cactus Classic, which was hosted at the world famous Scottsdale RC Speedway in Arizona. Recently acquired by Hobbytown USA, manager Adam Crippen has for two years in a row now, helped a great race thrive and continue a longstanding tradition of American off-road racing heritage. A full blown manufacturers midway, on-site food, and a fully stocked hobby shop greeted racers. Hobbytown even hired the international announcing man of mystery, Mr. Scotty Ernst, as the race director. Another great year of the Cactus Classic is in the books, so lets take a quick look at how the Novak Team did!
All of the Spec Class A-main events were 10 full minutes in length. Double the time of the qualifiers. Racers struggled to decide if gearing changes, motor timing changes, or no changes were needed.
2WD Buggy 17.5 - Stock Buggy. Typically the most hotly contested class at any major off-road event, the racing was extremely close. Novak's Arizona man of magic, "Hobby Bobby" Jeff Helms, wound up 9th behind fellow Novak-powered driver, Randy Locken, in 8th, and highest-finishing Novak man, Nathan Chase, in 6th.
Stadium Truck 17.5 - Stock Truck. Another classic class returns and is gaining ground in the entry count competition. This year Truck looked like a solid field, but many of the competitors were hoping for the return of the "Old Dude Truck" class! The "Old Dude" grand master himself, Mr. Bill Koch, was able to take his Novak-powered ride to 3rd - grabbing a podium spot for his week in the sun! Our hats off and "thanks" to Korey Ferguson from Florida. He's made the switch to Novak power and loving it. Korey worked his way into the A-final and finished 8th. Nice work, sir!
Short Course Buggy - also known as the Alex Krieg Show. While Alex may not have had a Novak ESC, he did use his dad's loaner 17.5 Ballistic to TQ and win the SCB division handily. Nice drive, Alex! Arizona local, Kyle Ash, was able to put his SCB 3rd on the grid, but would be doled a dose of the "wheel" and found himself 5th when the race was completed.
17.5 SCT - The Novak crew got skunked in this class, we'll be back with a vengeance next year. :)
17.5 Truck - Pro Stock 13.5 Stadium Truck. Nathan Chase was on rails through qualifying. Working his way to the front, but with just a few minutes left, something “let go" and the truck came to a stop, putting him 8th overall. Tough break, sir. Florida racer, and always fast, Zack Genova, qualified just behind Nathan in 4th, but was not able to improve. The "racing deals" just accumulated and Zack ran out of time finishing 6th.
13.5 SCT - Pro Stock SCT. In Spec class, only eight drivers "qualify" into the main. The remaining two spots are "bump ups" from lower mains. The top two from the B-final earn the 9th and 10th spots on the grid. Nathan Chase missed the A-final, but did "squeak" into the main via the bump up. With a cool collected race, and some massive encouragement from the side lines, Mr. Chase worked from 10th on the grid to the PODIUM! Nice work, Nate! Another great A-main for Kyle Ash found him in the 5th spot. In a field of "factory" spec racers, it was great to see the youngsters battle the pros and show them a thing or two!
13.5 2WD Buggy - Pro Stock 13.5 Buggy - Ringers. Lots of ringers were entered into the 13.5 Pro Stock Buggy Class, but one youngster drove cleaner, smarter and plain out faster than any of these "industry pros." Spencer Rivkin, who can't be more then 14 years old, put on a clinic in the Pro Stock Main. Spencer was fast all week, and with the guidance of Hobby Bobby himself, and the other Arizona fast guys, Spencer calmly ran his 10-minute race, and WON! Congrats, SPENCER! Nice Work. Nathan Chase, making his 4th A-main, found his buggy having some technical difficulties and would finish 9th.
Modified. Novak's modified team was very strong and had great presence in the finals.
Modified SCT. Arizona local, Chris "18" Wheeler, had his TLR 22SCT on point, and used his Pulse with Ballistic 6.5 to earn 6th spot after the triple A-mains were completed.
Modified Stadium Truck was the debut A-main return for Mike Truhe, with Novak Power finishing 7th overall.Novak is very pleased to have Mike back on the team and look forward to lots more A-mains! Billy Fischer, with some last minute (2nd A-main) changes to his truck, would claim 5th overall. Billy built a completely new truck for A-mains 2 and 3, converting his TLR 22T from rear to mid-motor with no practice!
4x4 SCT was the Billy Fischer Show in qualifying. He ran fastest laps and fastest times; TQ'd round 2 of qualifying and started out front. He had the truck to beat, was fastest down the straightaway, and this was home track. But the “TQ Jinx” was in full effect. The sun must have strengthened it. Billy got away clean in all the A-finals to lead the early laps, but the Jinx was too strong and dropped him down the running order. Billy still earned a well-deserved 2nd place finish and got to put on some fantastic displays of Pulse/Ballistic power down the straight. Passing factory racers down the straightaway always makes you smile - even if you don't win. :) Fellow TLR teammates, Trevor Clement and Charles Hicks, also had great weekends and worked their way into the A-finals finishing 7th and 10th, respectively. Nice work, guys.
For tons of great Cactus Classic photos courtesy of Mr. Suangka, visit
Team Novak's Facebook page!
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