Payne dominates 1:12 at NYGP as Isaacs defends TC title

Excelerate RC’s Ollie Payne has dominated the 1:12 action at the MonTech New York Grand Prix, the British visitor taking the Modified win as well as successfully defending the 1:12 Super Stock title he won last year.  While missing out on a podium in 1:12, defending double NYGP Champion Sam Isaacs would retain his Modified Touring car title leading an Awesomatix 1-2 from team-mate Kemp Anderson with Xray’s 2024 NYGP Champion Keven Hebert completing the podium.  In 1:12, the Canadian would take his X12 prototype to second place behind Payne after a race long battle with Anderson, the 2024 Champion unable to find a way passed around the 360v2 RC Raceway track.  After a early spin in the single Main, while running second, Isaacs would claw his way back to the join the podium battle but came up short by 3/10ths of a second and crossed the line P4.  The man responsible for putting on the NYGP, 2026 marking the 8th edition of the annual New Rochelle located race, Donny Lia would complete the Top 5 on his Cerberus Racing debut.

‘I couldn’t really have changed anything, maybe Q2 of Mod, but other than that everything was perfect’, was Payne’s reaction to his double win weekend.  On his Mod final he explained, ‘I tried to make the car a little safer again this morning so went for a slightly longer additive time and just took out a little front additive just to make the car a little easier up front.  It seemed to help me a lot cause I was able to push right from the beginning.’  He added, ‘It’s kind of the been the whole thing of the weekend, making the car easier and easier to drive.  Like I said yesterday, the morning conditions kind of benefit me a little bit more so just ran with that.’  Asked at which point he was able to switch to cruise mode having established an early lead, he said, ‘About 3-minutes in.  When Sam tapped out and I had that gap to those guys behind I just settled down.  The last thing you want to do is catch groups of people trying to race so I just kind of kept it in the middle and stayed were I was.’  Also starting from the TQ in Super Stock, on that final, which he won from team-mate & fellow countryman Morgan Williams, he said, ‘that was pretty much the same thing.  The car was really good again and I kind of just kept to myself at the end and backed off cause there were guys racing ahead of me.’

Giving a run down of his race to 2nd in 1:12, Hebert said, ‘I got off to a pretty good start and then when Sam made his mistake I just kind of drove defensive for the last 7-minutes.’  He continued, ‘It was a pretty good battle but I have raced with Kemp so much I felt super comfortable with him behind me, so I just drove a clean race and drove very good til the end of the race and got second.  I was under a lot of pressure but it was a good race.’  On his Touring Car final, the Quebec driver said, ‘Once again I drove a clean race, I just didn’t have the pace to challenge up front, so I finished a second back from Kemp and another second back from Sam.’  He added, ‘Not much I could do, I drove perfect but just didn’t have quite the pace and the steering to keep up with them but it wasn’t too far just not enough.’  A double podium weekend on his return to the NYGP after missing last year, he said, ‘It was a good weekend.  It’s a good start with the 1:12 and we’ll try to get a little better for Indoor Champs now.’

On his 1:12 podium finish, Anderson said, ‘The car felt better than it did in qualifying, a lot easier to drive.  I was just behind Keven and he didn’t make any mistakes so I didn’t have a way by.  It was a good race, nose to tail for 7-minutes’.  On his Touring Car final, the 24-year-old said, ‘TC was also really good. I took a little bit of rear toe out cause I heard the track had a little more grip so got a little steering that way.  I was able to stay within reasonable distance to Sam but drove around in second, was there is case anything happened.’

On his Touring Car winning performance, Isaacs said, ‘It was a good start, the car had a little bit less steering but it made for a safe main.  I didn’t have much of a gap on Kemp.  His car was great and he was driving great so I really had to keep it clean and couldn’t afford any mistakes and luckily I was able to do that.’  Asked if traffic was his biggest concern over the 5-minutes, the 32-year-old replied, ‘there were a few cars here and there that I think were racing each other so of course it makes it tough but it actually worked out pretty well.  You never know so you have sometimes got to navigate your way through other cars.’  On his 1:12 final, winning the final last year ahead of Lia and Anderson, the Maryland driver explained, ‘honestly my 1:12 scale felt pretty decent but I got two wheels on the far left side curbing and it just spun around.  I tried to claw my way back up to the nice race going on between Keven and Kemp but I wasn’t quite able to do it at the end, but it was a fun race none the less.’  Summing up his weekend Isaacs said, ‘defending one title is not too bad, I did what I could and I need to come back a little stronger in 1:12.  The field is improving, Ollie was great this week and it was a well deserved win.  I’ll try to have something for him next year.’

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