Josh Wheeler sweeps the Futaba/OS Nitro Challenge pro classes

The race kicked off with practice on Friday. It was very hot but the track looked good with a few tricky jumps and good traction on the grooved areas. The truggy was good from the start, I always run the same setup with only minor changes from track to track. I put in some good laps with the truggy to learn the track then put it away to focus on the buggy. The buggy was also pretty good from the start, however I did make some changes to make small improvements as the weekend went. We were mostly adjusting the shocks because of the good traction and very hot weather. We ended up plugging one of the holes to a 7 hole 1.3 piston in the rear. I thought this was a good change in the hot weather.

Saturday started qualifying and truggy was the first one up. The truggy again was really good and I TQ'ed the first and second round to secure the overall TQ. The buggy qualifying was a bit more of a challenge but ended up well. The first and second round of qualifying I had a few unlucky mistakes and ended up 3rd and 2nd for the rounds. The car was fast but the mistakes put me behind and I was playing catchup the entire race. For the 3rd round the heat dropped and the sun was almost down. The track got really good and was consistent traction throughout. I started the race with another unfortunate hang up with another driver and was again playing catchup. I fought back though out the qualifier and ended up taking the TQ on the last couple laps. The TQ in the 3rd round put me TQ overall.

After a long night of wrenching Sunday was the mains. This race is unique because of the double A mains for Truggy and Buggy. Instead of 1 long race there is 2 mains for each class 25 minutes each. There is also a Dash for Cash with the top 6 buggy drivers but starting in reverse order. The first race I had was the Dash for Cash, 7 laps with 6 drivers. . I started 6th because I was TQ and had to start at the back. When the race started I had a Great start and was in 1st by the end of lap 1. I stayed in first the remaining 6 laps for the win.

The next race was the 1st truggy A main. My truggy had been great all weekend so my confidence was high. I battled with Michael Paige for a good part of the race but ended winning both the 1st main and the 2nd main for the overall truggy win. The buggy like qualifying was a little tougher. I won the 1st main after another good battle with Michael Paige. However the 2nd buggy main had a lot of bad luck at the start. I changed tires before the second main and went too soft. The car got twitchy and hard to drive. I started the main with 3 or 4 bad crashed and was in last place. After the tires wore a little bit the car got better and I started to make a charge. I fought back the entire race and ended up 2nd behind Matt Gosch. I did however take the overall win with the 1st and 2nd in the two mains. I was very happy to have everything hold together and no race ending bad luck. The cars turned a lot of heads and the feedback has been great at the track.

 

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