RACE COVERAGE: 2012 CRCRC Midwest Off-Road Championships

 

We are in Ohio in January...which means we are surrounded by R/C cars and C's and R's. That's right- we are at the CRCRC Midwest Off-Road Championships- the official kick-off to a busy 2012 R/C season!  

 

This year's event is being held at the "R/C Factory," located in Jeffersonville, Ohio. This is the second year the event has been located at the R/C Factory's permanent track- a somewhat new phenomenon for a race with a long history of temporary track set-ups. 

 

This year's event has been slightly stretched out to accommodate the mammoth amount of entries the race brings in. Qualifying has now become two full days, with a pair of rounds being run both Friday and Saturday. This should alleviate the dreaded "18-hour track day" and the subsequent urge to kill that usually comes with it.

 

Of course, you can watch it LIVE on LiveRC.com all weekend long! We have three cameras up and running and, as a 'bonus' for Bonus Lap members, we will also have a moving camera for upper mains on Sunday, and select other races. 

 

Racing kicks off tomorrow morning (Friday) at 9:00 AM EST. Saturday's racing will start at 9:30 AM EST, and the mains will begin on Sunday at 8:30 AM EST.

 

Make sure you tune in!

 

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Now- on to other things.

 

There isn't much to report from today. Controlled practice was run for a majority of the day, with a single round of timed practice run at the end of the day to seed qualifying heats. As is all the rage these days, qualifiers will be seeded using a driver's three best consecutive lap times.  

 

The track is very similar to last year's. There isn't much elevation, and it is VERY fast. Most jumps are hit at full speed, yet cars rarely get more than a couple feet off the ground. That said, the layout is fairly simple and should produce some very close racing come Sunday.

 

 

 

The Circuit. 

 

 

 

 

-Only two TLR "California Factory Dudes" are in attendance- Mike Truhe and Matt Castellano. Both are running 4WD. Truhe is running a XX4, and Castellano is running a XXX4. This is noteworthy simply because of the general, albeit purely speculative, consensus that the TLR crew will eventually show up with an all-new 4WD to match the rest of their "new-school" fleet of cars. If and when that happens remains to be seen, but one must naturally look at the Reedy Race (held in two weeks) as a possible time to unveil such a car, should it even exist (important 4WD race, track located within driving distance of TLR for maximum testing capabilities beforehand, etc.). The fact that TLR drivers continue to run 4WD, especially a 15-year-old car that isn't even on the market any more, seems like a sure sign that something is in the works. 

 

-Speaking of Truhe and the XX4, Mike has some fresh paint on his ride. Well, sort of. The body may be fresh, but the paint was sprayed seven years ago! Apparently, Mike had a new lid painted up for a XX4 he ran back then, but never used it. So, long story longer, he is running a sweet new body on his car- with his old, old paint scheme. 

 

-Most of the Associated guys are in attendance. The team still appears to be in full "shock-testing" mode. The shock bodies are still of the classic AE variety, but numerous different kinds of springs have been spotted in the pits. It will be interesting to see what they come up with for the public after the vigorous testing that has been going on.  

 

-In attendance for Kyosho are the normal electric crew- Jared Tebo, Joe Pillars, Shaun Dunlap and Zack Rogers. The highly-guarded 2WD prototype seen at the IFMAR worlds in Finland last summer is still being worked on, but not all drivers are running it. Only Jared Tebo still appears to be using some variation of it. We hear that the main difference with the car is the chassis' length and rigidity.

 

-Most drivers are using "BK Bar" type tires. While Gold and Blue JConcepts Bar Codes and MC Pro-Line Scrubs and Suburbs appear to be the most popular, there are also a wave of new AKA tires in the pits as well. We hear they are testing some new clay compound tires, as well as a new "Vektor" rear tire.

 

-Other than that, there isn't much to report from practice. We will dive into the race blog and pictures more tomorrow, so stay tuned!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Drivers preparing for the first day of qualifying 

 

 

 

Ryan Maifield holds the "hero lap" award for today, after stringing together a few ridiculous laps after a crash in R1. He went on to TQ R2.

 

 

Chazz and Paul Sinclair working hard on their X-Factory rides.  

 

 

 

Chicago's Brian "Mellow" Chmielowicz before R2 of 4WD. Yes, I had to look up the spelling on Facebook. Sorry, Mellow.

 

 

 

Lou-Dogg trying to stay warm. He made the trip from sunny California to serve as Ryan Cavalieri's mechanic, and the butt of Ryan Maifield's jokes.

 

 

 

 

-Jared Tebo seems to be running a carbon fiber chassis on his 4WD, as opposed to the normal molded tub the car comes with. 

 

-Michigan's Al Horne finished 3rd in R1 of 2WD, and 2nd in R2. A VERY good day of racing for the leader of the "Factory Tracks" gang. 

 

-Paul Sinclair is running the latest rendition of the X-Factory X7 4WD buggy. Paul designed the car himself, and it looks better and better each time out.

 

-After an exciting outing at the last major off-road race (Spektrum Off-Road Championships), the Pro-4 class seems to have lost some of its luster here in Ohio. Absent in the class are Mike Truhe, Ryan Cavalieri and Ryan Maifield- all drivers whom have run the class in the past. As I've mentioned is previous race blogs, the class offerings at modern off-road races are far too diverse to sustain long-term. Pro drivers cannot, and will not, run five classes. Eventually, something will probably "go to the wayside." Time will tell if we are seeing the beginning or the end of the Pro-4 class on a national-level. 

 

 

That's it from day one of qualifying! Stay tuned for more racing (and blogging) tomorrow!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

As racers arrived this morning they were greeted to a much different looking track than the one that was raced on the previous day. Overnight, the track was watered and appeared to be compacted. This was a welcome sight for most as the track had dried out severely and had started to develop rough spots towards the end of the day Friday. Others were heard grumbling about the possibility of slicks being used or were just worried about how the conditions would affect their setups. After the round started, any quarrels about the track work were quickly quieted and everyone seemed to like the new-found tackiness of the track.

 

The one negative of the aspect of track today was the randomly placed puddles that popped up due to water dripping from the ceiling. These puddles sucked, and were single handedly responsible for ruining many people’s runs (myself included). If a driver were to find these puddles and happen to have their car’s suspension loaded in any direction, a un-savable wipeout was the only result. Not only would you spin out, you would sit and spin in circles until the mud flew off your tires.

 

But, like always, those problems only seem to affect mortals. The top guys had no problem going way faster than they did yesterday. There seemed to be more crashing taking place by everybody, yet times were still faster. I think a lot of people got ahead of themselves with this newfound traction and tried to do too much. However, with more traction comes an increased chance of failure if you don’t choose your lines correctly. 

 

In 4WD, Jared Tebo was able to capture the top time in R3 which meant R4 would determine the overall TQ between Jared, Ryan Cavalieri, and Ryan Maifield (whom both TQed a round yesterday). In R4, Cavalieri jumped out to an early lead, but crashed and left the battle for P1 to be fought between Tebo and Maifield. Maifield prevailed.

In 2WD, Ryan Cavalieri entered today with two zeros from day one of qualifying, and, of course, was in the best position to TQ. But, Cavalieri had a less than perfect run going in R3 and decided to bring his B4.1 into the pits for a quick adjustment, thus rendering his round a throwout. In his absence, Ryan Maifield was able to take the round win, and send things into R4 with TQ still undecided. In R4, Cavalieri and Maifield ran neck-and-neck for four minutes until Maifield bobbled, which left Cavalieri able to cruise to victory and place his rig on the pole for the triple A-mains Sunday.

We headed into truck qualifying today with Tebo and Cavalieri both holding zeros from day one. Cavalieri was able to take R3, setting up a race for TQ in the final round. Tebo came out of the gate strong in R4, leading the first four minutes, but a mistake opened the door for a closely following Cavalieri to take the top spot in the round and the top spot on the grid Sunday.

In Pro-2, Maifield took the top spot in R3 which, combined with his zeros from Friday, secured the TQ position for him on main day. Tebo TQed R4.

 

 

 

Associated and the Wolf Pack: Some of the Associated guys are running the new Reedy “Wolf Pack” LiPo battery. Ryan Maifield and Brent Thielke say they chose the battery because it has slightly less power than their top-of-the-line LiPos, and is slightly heavier than the new Reedy #306 “shorty” pack. Both Thielke and Maifield said that it “felt like a good in-between” point to be at, referring to the size and weight being in between the shorty pack and the old, full-size LiPo.

 

TLR 4WD Gossip: While some TLR drivers have been taking their XX4s out of mothballs to run them again, Matt Castellano has chosen to run a XXX4 instead. Well, actually he says that TLR wants some drivers to run the XXX4 and some to run the XX4 so that they can test and compare the two at the Reedy Race. So, if that’s true, we can forget about possibly seeing a new 4WD from the TLR camp in a couple weeks at WCRC...

 

Kyosho Prototypes: It also appears that Jared Tebo is running the graphite upper plates (seen on his prototype RB-5 last summer) on his truck and SCT as well. That makes it seem like Kyosho may be a little further along than I originally thought in committing to a new chassis. Time will tell.

 

New Bulldogs: I chatted with Daniel Adams from Pro-Line today about a few things. First, he showed me the new 2012 Bulldog for the B44.1. He also said Pro-Line has a “2012 model” for the B4.1 coming soon as well. Look for those at the Reedy Race in a couple weeks.

 

Dakotah Phend News: Daniel also informed me that Dakotah Phend has recently signed on with Pro-Line, which further solidifies PL’s driver line-up for 2012. With Cody King, Adam Drake, and now Dakotah joining Ryan Cavalieri, they are bound to win at least a handful of major races this year.

 

Do the Math: X-Factory’s Paul Sinclair says that the prototype “X7” 4WD buggy they have been working on for the last year or so is “getting close to being the final design.” Sinclair said that the only thing left to test is different layouts for electronics, and that they would start making molded parts very soon. Look for a production version of the X7 some time later this year.

 

And now, photos:

 

 

TQ Ryan Cavalieri's B4.1

 

 

Midwesterner Dan Griffin has had an excellent weekend, putting his B4.1 sixth on the grid 

 

 

 

 

2012 Pro-Line B44.1 Bulldog 

 

 

Old-schooler Brian Dunbar even made an appearance

 

 

Maifield's car with the "Wolf Pack" locked and loaded; ready to brutally tear a wounded gazelle apart to feed itself...and the pack, I guess.

 

 

Truhe's ancient 4WD 

 

 

 Tebo's RT-5, Teboing

 

 

That’s it for today. Tune in tomorrow morning for the main events! Don’t forget, Bonus Lap members will get to see a moving camera for all A-mains tomorrow, so don’t miss out! 

 

 

 

 

 

After long day of racing to cap off a long week of preparations and qualifying, we are finally done!

 

There was excellent racing all day long so hopefully you got to watch on LiveRC.com! If you didn't, here are how things ended up:

 

 

2WD Modified- (L-R: Mike Truhe, Ryan Maifield, Ryan Cavalieri)

 

 

 

4WD Modified- (L-R: Jared Tebo, Ryan Maifield, Ryan Cavalieri) 

 

 

 

 

Truck Modified- (L-R: Jared Tebo, Ryan Cavalieri, Mike Truhe) 

 

 

 

 

Pro-2- (L-R: Ryan Cavalieri, Jared Tebo, Ryan Maifield) 

 

 

 

 

 Pro-4- (L-R: Brandon Rohde, Mike Sontag, Ralph Krumme)

 

 

 

 

2WD Stock- (L-R: Michael Garramone, Luke Richards, Curt Schlichter)

 

 

 

 

Stock Truck- (L-R: Austin Horne, Dustin Wagner, Dayton Miller)

 

 

 

 

1/8th Electric- (L-R: Randy Cathcart, Dave Taylor, Rick Redmin) 

 

 

 

 

That will do it for us here in Ohio! If you haven't had a chance to race at the CRCRC Midwest Off-Road Championships at any point in the last 25 years, I highly recommend doing so! It is a well run event at an excellent facility.  Don't forget, the nitro half of this event is next weekend and you can watch it right here on LiveRC.com!

 

After next weekend, our next major race is Reedy International Race of Champions which will be held the following week. This will be our first All Access Pass race, so mark your calendar!

 

Thanks for tuning in, everybody!

 

-Eric 

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