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Published on Thursday, 05 November 2009 21:34

Written by Blake Bell

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Hey IROCCers,

Last week, while many of you were racing at the B&G Club on Halloween night, I was racing on a different roll of ozite.  For the second year in a row I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the "Halloween Classic" R/C race in Cleveland Ohio.  Due to work obligations in Eastern USA, I had a free flight, and I was able to incorporate the race into my itinerary.

Last year, the Halloween Classic was held at Cleveland's local carpet facility: The Gate.  Here is my writeup from last year's race:
http://www.irocc.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=37:cleveland-halloween-classic-2008-race-report&catid=3:news&Itemid=18

New Location
Unfortunately the Gate had a flood shortly after last year's race, and so the entire facility was shutdown.  The racers of Cleveland are very hardcore and have since built a new Gate2 location in Cleveland, but no one was sure that it would be completed in time for this year's Classic.  And so, the organizers decided to move the race to a local hotel, and run the race in the ballroom.

Friday Practice
One of my flights ended up cancelled due to the plane leaking water in a heavy rain in Chicago, and so the result was that I didn't get to the track in Cleveland until mid-day on Friday, rather than Thursday evening.  This meant that I missed half a day of practice, and so I elected to relax and wait for the "late arrival" practice that runs between 8PM and 10PM.  This practice session is reserved for late arrivals that have not run any practice runs during the main practice session.

I was running in 12th Scale Stock (17.5) and 12th Scale Pro (10.5).  My stock car felt decent during practice, although the track was very bumpy so I had to soften things up and get used to the bumps.  My 10.5 car was ballistically fast, and hard to drive.

I got a phone call from Frank and Myles from CRC letting me know that they would not arrive until midnight.  Some sad news within the CRC family had slowed them down, and also prevented some of the other usual CRC faces from attending the race.  When Frank and Myles arrived at midnight, the race director allowed them to setup their pits, but they were way behind the eight-ball having missed the entire practice day.

Paul "Chicky" Ciccarello.  The main organizer of this race.

Saturday
Cleveland is 12th Scale territory, and once again this year, the 12th Scale entries were dominant.  12th Stock was the largest class with about 40 entries, and 12th Pro was next with about 35 entries.  WorldGT (Pro10 at 200mm, 1s LiPo, 13.5 motors, and sports car bodies) was quite popular with about 25 entries.  Touring Car classes were split up between rubber and foam with rubber being more popular by far.  Rubber 13.5 was the most popular TC class with just under 30 entries.  In total the race had about 190 entries, down from last year's record setting 250 entries.

Saturday saw one round of practice, and then three rounds of Qualifying.  I felt decent with my 12th Stock car, but I knew I was off the pace by a fair bit as they were announcing laps and projecting RC-Scoring-Pro onto the wall with a projector.  After the first round of qualifying was over, I was about 18th or so in Stock 12th, and very near the bottom in Pro 12th.  I ended up making my car much more aggressive with softer front springs, more aggressive front tires, and a stiffer center spring.  After round two of qualifying I was about 15th in Stock and still near the bottom in Pro.  I improved again in Round 3, but at 12th or so, I was still not in the A-Main.  There was one final round of qualifying on Sunday morning.

Back room for tire truing

Sunday
After staying up way too late on Saturday, and painting up a new body (CRC BlackArt), I was ready for the final round of qualifying on Sunday morning.  It was a really good qualifier for me, and probably my best ever road-trip 8-min run.  I was slowish at the start but then got in a serious groove and soon they were calling my name at the top of leaderboard.  Myself, and two other guys were jumping around between 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, and I knew I had to edge them out to have the best chance at a top 10 qualifying position.  I buckled down, ran some really good laps, and finished the race in 1st.  I was running in the B-qualifier, so there was another group of guys to go, in the A-group.  I had done the math already though, and unless the entire A-group beat my pace, and I would slip into the bottom of the A-main.  After the A-group was done, they printed the final qualifying standings and I was 8th overall, safely in the A.  My 10.5 car did not fair as well, and I was in the C-Main for Pro12th.  For any old school RC Car Action readers, I was joined in the C-Main by 1990 Mod 12th World Champion Chris Doseck who was not having a great event....

Mains
My Pro12th main was fairly forgettable, although I did finish 4th after battling for much of the race with Vicky Carruba.  We were very closely matched, but I don't think she was having a great weekend either.

My Stock main was easily my best road-trip race ever (and no, I didn't win).  Starting from 8th I ran nice and clean, and turned my best laps of the event.  Everyone was fast, but little battles near the front slowed them down a bit and I ended up moving up through the field.  I moved up to 5th place, and was working hard to catch Jim Piersol in 4th, but the race ended and I settled for 5th.  I was pretty happy with my performance as I turned laps that were on par with the winner, and I was only 4 seconds behind 2nd place, 3 seconds behind 3rd, and 1 second behind 4th.  The winner was super fast all weekend, and he was about 9 seconds ahead of me.

Chris Goetz.  Another of the main organizers, and well spoken guy who
has a real handle on the R/C hobby and what it takes to keep it strong.

Pro12 A-Main
The big show of the weekend was also the final race of the weekend: the Pro 12th Scale A-Main.  This race featured serious talent, and the battle that ensued for the lead, between three or four cars, was one of the best races I've ever seen.  Here it is in streaming format:
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/2472543

CRC driver Aaron Buran would take the win with a GenXL, and young French Canadian driver Kevin Hebert (Associated) would finish a half second back.  The top three or four cars battled for several minutes with near flawless driving; it was very cool.  I ran into Kevin Hebert in the airport the next morning and got to chat with him for a bit.  A very cool kid, with some serious skills; representing Canada's talent very well.

CRC and the GenXL
Frank was pumped because his cars won every race they possibly could have.  GenXL cars won both 12th Scale classes and a GenX10 won the WorldGT class as well.  CRC is looking very strong at the moment, with likely the best car available at easily the best price point available.  Frank offers the best support in the business as well.  Every time I've seen him at a race, he's surrounded by a group of racers wanting to ask him questions about setup, and what his future plans are for his cars.  The poor guy gets precious little time to work on his own cars, but he still managed to put his 12th car in the Pro12 main, and his WGT car in the WGT A-Main.

Frank, helping out another racer as usual.  Frank probably doesn't find the picture
very flattering, but if you look closely you can see a certain red head in the background.
 
 

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