No big writeup as I wasn’t there today, but Ryan Weiss filled me in on a few of the details…

There was a relatively light turnout for today’s Sunday Off-Road club race, most likely due to the weather.  Rain has been the norm for the past several weeks, and although there was a bit of standing water on the track this morning our dedicated volunteers worked diligently to get things squared away.  The race program was only slightly delayed by the extra track prep work and the show got on the road by about 11:30.

The weather leading into the afternoon was chilly and windy, making for some interesting flight paths for the full-bodied SCTs.

There was good, solid, close racing in all heats and mains, and it was a day with an emphasis on fun.

There were a couple of unusual sights on the track today — it’s good to see some out-of-the-ordinary cars and trucks hit the track.  There was a Revo in the 1/8th Scale class, and Jesse Barnett pulled an old B2 off the shelf, making a strong showing considering the technological disadvantage he was up against.  Keep dusting off those old buggies!

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL RESULTS

Friday Night Off-Road Racing has finally returned to Freedom Park following a brief hiatus due to track construction, the ROAR race, and rain, rain, rain.  It was also the first night of the new short format intended to save time, and it was a good start.

We had a turnout of 64 entries, which, given the “one class per racer” limitation was larger than normal.  People came out of the woodwork to try out the new dirt and track layout, and impressions were overwhelmingly positive!

ROAR Stock 2WD SCT and 1/8 scale Combined were the big classes, with two full heats of each.  We also had our usual great turnout for the Novice class — enough to run two heats as well.

Matt Armstrong won the ROAR Stock 2WD SCT B Main with a lap on the field and then bumped up to win the A Main.  Four of the top five racers in this class, including the winner, are running Tekin ESCs, so the technology playing field was level up front, leading to some really close racing.  The top 5 all ran 11 laps with less than half a lap separating them at the end.

The 1/8 Scale Combined class was won by Jeremy Kortz with Scott Wagner close behind.  Buggies and truggies, nitro and electric, were all run together with some intense battles playing out on the new 1/8 Scale-friendly layout.

The Novice A Main was action-packed as usual.  These racers are the future of the club and there are several rising stars who will be bumping up to higher classes in the very near future.  The bulk of the field finished within a lap of each other, with Lindsey Thompson and Kyle Witt putting down clean, strong performances.

The 2WD Mod SCT class had a somewhat light turnout since it’s usually a 2nd class for several racers.  Jared Desbrow was the class of the 5-truck A Main, putting 2 laps on the field.

The 4X4 SCT class continues to grow and as more trucks hit the market this class will most likely become one of the most popular.  The Roadrunners have adopted the new ROAR 4WD SCT rules, running 2S lipos and 1/10 scale electronics.  Although this new rule set wasn’t strictly enforced at this club race since it’s so new (but will be in the future), several racers showed without a doubt that the formula works.  Jesse Granat, Greg Campion, and Karl Rolf all ran within a hair of each other in a variety of trucks with their well-tuned setups coming off the track cool.

Weather permitting, this Sunday is a regular off-road club race day so come on out and enjoy the new track!

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL RESULTS

Having rained the day before, the track had to be dried off before racing could begin, but soon a full day of 11 heats of racing began. Both 17.5 and 13.5 touring car classes were very popular with 15 entries in each class.

The Mini class was won by Johnson Tai, who seems to dominate this class every time he comes out to Camarillo to race. Johnson Tai also won the RCGT class which he had won at the last Roadrunner’s on-road race.

The Formula 1 open wheel class A main was a battle between Tom Watana and Charles Lightfoot as it had been during qualifiers, but Tom proved to be just a little bit faster and took the wins in both qualifiers and went on to win the main.

The 13.5 Touring car A main proved to be the most exciting race of the day with 4 racers battling it out for the lead. When Sean Williams car broke it still left 3 racers, Orrin Jensen, Fred Hubbard and Alan Hewitt in close contention for the lead. Though Orrin kept the lead and went on to win, Fred and Alan were never far behind. Fred and Alan both fought it out right to the finish with Alan finishing only 0.004 seconds behind Fred. Orrin Jensen also went on to win the 13.5 Touring car A main.

Bill Secara recently going from a Mini Cooper to a Touring car was unbeatable in the Novice class, winning both qualifiers and finishing a lap ahead of the rest of the field in the A main.

Click here for Complete Race Results!

After a full day of dialed Friday practice on a perfect track, the rain came and things were looking bleak for the weekend.  We covered the track with plastic sheeting as best we could and turned in hoping for the best.  On Saturday morning there was a decent amount of standing water on the track, but in a huge effort our club members and many of the other attendees vacuumed, sponged, and sopped the water from the track.  After several hours of raking, sweeping, and mud shoveling (with some occasional help from the sunshine) the track was ready to run!

Saturday’s program of 2 rounds of heats went off without a hitch and the forecast for Sunday was decent.

The Sunday morning dew made the track surface even better and it stayed good from there on out.  It was chilly and windy but the rain held off and the on-track action was hot!

As usual, ROAR Stock Short-Course Truck was by far the biggest class, with three full heats battling for a spot in the Triple A Mains.  The racing was extremely competitive and so close that a single bobble could cost several positions.  Club member Steve Rowley took the TQ over Garrett Tokuno representing our new friends at 702 RC Raceway in Las Vegas.  Garrett had the goods for the Mains however, winning A1 and A2, securing the overall victory.  Impressive performances were put down by many, including broom-meister Joe Buffalino, Matt “The Mud Whisperer” Armstrong, and Josh “The Delicious One” Barry piloting the lone Slash in the A.

The new 4×4 Mod SCT class was the second largest with 13 trucks.  Roadrunners RC Club VP and Tekin Team Driver Pete Waydo (hey, I’m writing the article so I get to do that haha) took the B Main, bumping up to the A along with John Kettles.  Once again, it was all Tokuno and Rowley in the A Main, finishing first and second respectively.  Giti Gowland inherited third after Waydo tragically retired from the spot with battery failure just two laps from the end.

The savagely powerful 1/8 Scale Electric Buggies took to the track and put on a display of big air and insane acceleration.  Brian Sullivan set the pace all weekend with the TQ and win after running 23 laps in the 10-minute A Main.  Local favorite Karl Rolf brought home second with a strong performance in the long race, and Allan Isaac took the third spot.  Roadrunners RC Club President Steve Bray fought reliability issues all weekend but was on the pace when he was on the track.  Steve’s real top performance of the weekend was in the timing tower, where as Race Director he ran a tight ship and smooth program.  Thanks, Steve!

The Novice class is always where the real excitement is with the Roadrunners RC Club, and Sunday was no different.  With a full half of the field coming from the same family you knew the action was going to be intense.  Mom Karen (aka Tink), Dad Bill, and son Connor hit the track in their fleet of SC10s representing Allen Racing.  Connor is an up-and-coming star in the Club, and will be showing us all the way before too long.  Little bro Cody is on the way up though and we will certainly see some great sibling rivalry in the near future.  Jesse Barnett and Angie Macnish battled it out for the entire race, and Jorge Parga proudly represented the soon-to-return buggy crowd in a sea of Short-Course Trucks.

We haven’t seen very many 1/10 scale buggies and trucks for a while, but a combination of our new track and this event brought them out.  The track suited them well, and they were a blast to watch, with a solid lineup of sponsored drivers putting on a display of clean, fast racing.  Watch for a resurgence of these classes at our track in the future as we all got a fresh taste of what they’re capable of.

Cody Turner took the TQ and win in Mod Buggy by just 4 seconds over Brian “McDuffle” after they ran 1-2 for most of their 14 laps.

It was McDuffle’s turn in Mod Truck as he took the win over TQ Jayson Pang and Nick Lasley with all three racers within about 10 seconds at the finish line.

Brent “Frisbee” Bisbee put his stamp on Super Stock Truck with the TQ and win, putting down a time that would have given him the win in Mod Truck.

Cody Turner was at it again in Mod 4WD Buggy, taking the TQ and win with everyone running 14 laps.

Super Stock Buggy was a big show with some incredibly close racing right down to the finish.  Zack Rogers took the lead early on from TQ Brent Bisbee, and they battled with Mike Katz over the podium spots for the entire race.  In the end, Zack crossed the line first after snagging the lead on the last lap from Bisbee, who finished just one second adrift.  Mike came through for 3rd a mere 0.1 second behind Brent.

Zack Rogers was the TQ for Super Stock 4WD Buggy, but gave it up to Josh Mitchell after leading much of the race.  Mitchell won by just over 2 seconds in another closely-fought race.

Here are the full results:

Rounds 1 & 2

Round 3

THE MAINS

Next up, the ROAR Region 12 1/10 Electric On-Road Championships on April 24-25, 2010.  Stay tuned for more info!

Even with this being a Valentine’s Day Sunday race there still were 68 entries competing in 11 races. The largest class being the Super Stock 13.5 Touring Car class. Seventeen racers competed in this class. Orrin Jensen, Oliver Clipper and Alan Hewitt all managed 23 lap in their qualifiers and went on to dominate the Super Stock 13.5 A main with the win going to Alan Hewitt, finishing just over half a second ahead of Orrin Jensen. Oliver Clipper and Orrin Jensen also won each of their qualifiers’ in the Stock 17.5 Touring Car class and Orrin Jensen took the win in the A main with second place going to Oliver Clipper.

After the first round of qualifying, 10th Scale Pan cars (World GT) were combined with 12th Scale Pan cars for an 8 car final qualifier and A main. The 12th Scale cars seemed to have a bit of advantage in terms of speed and took first and second placed in the A main with the win going to Dave Berger and second place going to Tom Watana.

Off-road racer John Kettles demonstrated his on-road driving skills in the Novice class with a first and second place finish in the qualifiers and then going on to win the Novice A Main. Jeff Veteto another off-road racer, after only managing to qualify fourth in a class of six cars, went on to take the win in the RCGT A main.

It was a battle between Steve Bray and Jeff Veteto in the Mini class with Steve managing to finish ahead of Jeff in both qualifiers and the main. And there was close racing between Tom Watana and Dave Berger in the Formula 1 A main with the lead going back and forth between them. Dave grabbed the lead back late in the race and went on to take the win.

Click here for Complete Race Results!