Flurer fantastic in 4-for-4 flogging at Palmetto Classic

0 March 25, 2015, 2:31 p.m.

By Aaron Waldron
LiveRC.com

Race report from BeachRC:

www.beachrc.com

Still in its first year of operation, the new and improved Beach Hobbies of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina hosted the 2015 Palmetto Classic this past weekend. The event spanned two days of racing on the artfully carved 6000 square feet of Carolina clay. 179 entries tested their skills against one another on the technical yet fast layout presented by the Beach Hobbies staff. The surface itself remained very consistent with tons of traction throughout the festivities requiring little more than the occasional lap with the leaf blower. This allowed the race director Myssie Hanna to move through the four action-packed rounds of qualifying on Saturday and double A-mains on Sunday with great efficiency.

Through qualifying Max Flurer declared himself the man to beat after taking the top qualifier honors in 2wd Buggy, 4wd Buggy, Stadium Truck, and 2wd Short Course Truck. He then backed up his claim on Sunday with a clean sweep on all eight of the mains.

In 2wd Buggy Max had to fend off attacks from the likes of Jconcepts driver John Michael McGinty and Team BeachRC.com’s very own Griffin Hanna. John Michael managed to slip by Flurer in A2, however became the recipient of a most unfortunate marshaling error while holding the lead thus allowing Max to claim the clean air he’d enjoyed for most of the weekend.

4wd Buggy saw much of the same with the bulk of the pressure coming from John Michael once again. The real sorry of 4wd buggy was the battle and ensuing finish to A1 as John Michael and TLR driver Frank Deiny looked to both claim the #2 spot. The very last lap of the race saw the two drivers trade positions on what seems like every turn on the track. At the final 90* left hander the two buggies were side-by-side then eventually locking wheels as they raced to the line. The race finally being decided with John Michael flipping and somersaulting across the line fractions of a second prior to Frank’s equally upset race buggy.

Frank Deiny once again provided some intensity to Max’s otherwise to be extended victory laps in both truck classes.

With stadium truck at their control Max and Team Associated’s Tim Smith clearly had a leg up on the field. Frank was able to work his way up to third in both mains after starting last on the grid due to spending the previous day’s qualifying rounds in the pits building his truck. My guess is that his pit neighbor Max Flurer might have passed on some setup tips to get his teammate up to speed without any practice time. If you plan on building a new TLR ST, I suggest you talk to Max before you get started!

A2 of the Pro 2wd SCT saw Frank able to take the lead and put a gap on Max after he made a very uncharacteristic error over the tricky single double combo while navigating his way through traffic. Max may be one of the friendliest and likeable drivers to ever hold a radio, but for 1 minute and 30 seconds every person in attendance was rooting for Frank Deiny. Unfortunately for Frank, Max responded to his moment of distress with some of his fastest laps of the weekend. Driving with vengeance, Max was able to quickly close the gap and proceed to harass Frank’s rear bumper as Frank made his TLR truck as wide as possible. Frank’s time in the spot light came to a heroic end as Max found an inside edge in Turn #1. The two TLR trucker were wheel to wheel down the stairs and entering the first off camber turn where the outside line proved to be too much for Franks truck and sent it rolling to the hands of a marshal.

Congratulations to Max on his clean sweep of the First Annual Palmetto Classic and thanks all of the racers who participated in making this a very special event. It’s events like this that make all the long week of preparation worthwhile. We look forward to racing with everyone soon. In the meantime we’ll be back at work making Beach Hobbies even better!

Pro 2WD Mod Buggy