Wheeler walks away with Futaba Challenge double

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7/29/2014
By LiveRC Staff

XRAY XB8 & XT9 win at Futaba Challenge in St. Louis

This past weekend was the OS/Futaba Challenge in St. Louis, MO. The track was built by The Dirt Racing with lots of jumps with some nice flowing sections for good racing. The racing format was best 2 out of 3 qualifiers with 2- 20 min main events for both pro buggy and truggy. There would also be a dash for cash with the top 6 qualifiers starting in inverted order. 

Both the buggy and truggy were good in practice and only required minimal changes in shock oil for the weather. Truggy qualifying went very well, I ran on soft tires and managed to TQ the first two rounds and take the overall TQ. Buggy was going to be tough with top names like Jared Tebo, Ryan Lutz and Taylor James. The first round went well but a mistake would cost me the overall TQ to Taylor James. The 2nd and 3rd rounds went much better and I TQ’ed both rounds with the car feeling really good. I was running soft impacts for most of thew weekend and they felt great and made car easy to drive.

Sunday was main day and the weather was very hot! The track was run dry and started to get some good sized holes in the corners. The first truggy main I chose the wrong tire and was a little thin on shock oil, this caused me to be a little off pace from Lutz.  The second truggy race went very well, I got the lead early and never looked back. My truck was much better from the changes and with Lutz having servo issues it gave me the win. The buggy class was going to be a good race because the holes in the corners were getting pretty big and the consistent line without crashing was the key to success. The first buggy main I had some struggles at the beginning and but put on a hard charge towards Tebo about midway through the race. I caught Tebo and a good battle was shaping up, unfortunately Tebo had a from arm break and put him out of the race. For the 2nd half of the race I tried to put consistent laps and cruise to victory. The 2nd main was much more of a battle. From the start I lead the race but had Tebo and Lutz a few seconds behind. I drove as smooth as possible and was able to keep my XRAY out front for the 20 min main and get the overall win.

Overall 1/8 Pro Buggy Final Results:

1. Josh Wheeler – XRAY XB8
2. Taylor James
3. Ryan Lutz
4. Matt Gosch
5. Jared Tebo
6. Colton Kiefer
7. Justin Wheeler
8. Taylor Timmerman
9. Nate Jaskot
10. Dylan Gerard
11. David Green
12. Nick Gibson

Pro Arena Truck Final Results:

1. Josh Wheeler - XRAY XT9
2. Dylan Gerard
3. Tony Bacon
4. Ryan Lutz
5. Jimmy Vanderhaar
6. Dillon Caldwell
7. Brad Shearer
8. Britten Curry
9. Greg Baumel
10. Michael Paige
11. Justin Wheeler
12. Colton Kiefer

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