We just completed the amazing new off-road track so of course it immediately started raining.

Although the rain may have subsided, the track is saturated and there is still a lot of standing water.

Thus, there will be no off-road racing program Sunday, 2-7-10.

PLEASE DO NOT RUN ON THE TRACK, EVEN IF IT STOPS RAINING! It wouldn’t take much to do a lot of damage to the new surface so please respect the closure and wait until things are fully dried out. We assure you it’ll be worth the wait!

We just completed the amazing new off-road track so of course it immediately started raining.

Thus, there will be no Friday Night off-road racing program tonight, 2-5-10.

PLEASE DO NOT RUN ON THE TRACK, EVEN IF IT STOPS RAINING! It wouldn’t take much to do a lot of damage to the new surface so please respect the closure and wait until things are fully dried out.  We assure you it’ll be worth the wait!

Due to the fact that our Friday Night Off-Road race programs have been running excessively late, and the potential related impacts to our club members as well as to our standing with the Park, the club has made the following changes:

The only classes we will be offering on Friday nights are:

Roar SCT

Mod SCT

4×4 SCT

1/8 combined

Our race format will be two 4 min Qualifiers with one 6 min main.

As many complaints as we knew there would be with this change, there have been many more about the Friday night program finishing in the wee hours of the morning.

There was no easy answer here.  We went through every mathematical permutation of heat and main numbers and lengths and kept coming up with programs that ran too long.  In the end it came down to either reducing the number of classes or severely reducing the amount of track time everyone gets.

There is also the bigger picture to consider.  Please read the following excerpt from our agreement with the Park:

Section 4 USE OF PREMISES
Addendum “D”
“The district authorizes the Roadrunners R/C Club to use lights on race tracks, located on the premises. The lights may be used for Roadrunner’s RC Club practice and race purposes Monday through Friday and must be turned off no later than 10pm “

We’re obviously pushing way beyond the boundaries with this, and we don’t want to lose the whole thing.

THE FULL PROGRAM WILL CONTINUE UNRESTRICTED ON OFF-ROAD SUNDAYS.

After a long week of nearly non-stop rain, our beloved SoCal sun was back for a fantastic Sunday on-road club race. Everyone came out from their hiding places to be a part of what may have been a record for a regular club race — 84 entries!

It was great to see 1/12 scale back on the rise with 9 entries. Both Dave Berger and Brandon Deshong made 40 laps at some point during the day on the fast, flowing layout. Brandon took the win in the Main after Dave dropped out with a chunked tire. This was no inherited win though, as Brandon’s 40 lap run proved he had the goods.

As ESC technology has pushed speeds faster and faster lately, the 13.5 touring cars were running like Open Mod and the burgeoning new 17.5 touring car class is faster than the 13.5s of a month ago. To drive the point home, Sean Williams’ A Main-winning pace in the 21-car 17.5 class would have put him in Third in the 16-car 13.5 class!

The F1 class continues to entertain, and Calvin’s new FIA Safety Car would make Bernd Maylander jealous! Tom Watana took the win over Dave Berger by a mere 2.5 seconds after leading all but two of the 33 laps.

Johnson Thai came up to show everyone how it’s done in Mini and RCGT, and the SCT race was a nail-biter with just 1.75 seconds separating Bill Hammond from winner Giti Gowland at the finish line.

Last, but certainly not least, we had a strong 12-car field in the novice class, thanks largely to some die-hard off-road guys coming over to give the clean side a try. It’s great to see this kind of crossover taking place and it’s the kind of thing that will only make the club stronger. Off-road regulars Jared Desbrow and John Kettles took the top two spots, with Desbrow’s 27-lap debut performance almost certainly buying him a ticket out of Novice class next time around.

The program was smooth and efficient, and despite the large turnout we were finished before 4:30!

Those who are saying that on-road is dying need to come check out our club!

Pete Waydo
Roadrunners RC Club VP

Click here for Complete Race Results!

A good number of racers showed up for Sunday’s scheduled day of racing, even though the weather looked bad and rain was expected at some time during the day.

Only one full round of qualifiers was run on the Sunday Off-Road race. The rain started to sprinkle near the end of the first round, but racing continued into round two of qualifying. Unfortunately, when the second round of qualifying began the rain started coming down hard and everything was quickly getting wet. One SCT ROAR qualifier was run and then one Novice heat as the rain poured down and the track got very muddy. Collin “Scooter” Hammond won that last race of Novice before racing was canceled for the day.

This was the last scheduled off-road race of the month and the last one before the track redesign. Our next off-road race should be on Friday night February 5th as long as the weather permits.