‘Fall Indoor Nationals’ Q2 Update
The second round of qualifying for the ‘Fall Indoor Nationals’ at RC Excitement was a repeat of Q1 in terms of the pace setters with Steve Hartson once again topping 4WD Buggy while Dustin Evans repeated his opening 2WD Buggy performance with another convincing TQ run that secures them both pole position for their respective A-Mains.
Team Associated’s Hartson, who has already sewn up overall 4WD Buggy honours in the five round JConcepts National Indoor Series, took Q2 with a time of 20/5:05.602 with the similar B44.1 of Gunnar Rieck second fastest just 2-seconds adrift of the Californian. A slightly slower time than his morning run, Hartson said the track was less consistent second time round with a number of ruts developing something that is to be expected due to the massive record entry the event has attracted. The winner of 4WD Buggy at the three preceding rounds in the series said he is not planning to change anything on his buggy for tomorrow morning’s third & final qualifier but with the weather expected to be considerably colder tomorrow he will wait and see if this has any effect on the track conditions.
Rebuilding his diffs for Q2, 14-year-old Gunner said this helped improve the buggy but the main reason for his strong performance second time round was that he put in a clean 5-minutes of driving. Unfortunately having posted the 3rd fastest time in the first 2WD Buggy qualifier the Pennsylvania driver wasn’t able to replicate his 4WD buggy performance making a number of mistake which eventually lead him to pop a rear ball cup. Starting the heat with a strong pace he said his B4.1 was really good but the driver ‘lost my head’.
Having crashed three times in Q1, Andrew Castellini produced a clean second run to set the third fastest time in 4WD Buggy. Switching from green to blue compound JConcepts Bar Codes on the rear of his Associated he said it was a big improvement and he was very pleased, with his time was just 2.6 seconds off Harston’s pace. Asked if he planned to make any changes for the morning’s final qualifier he said he may revert back to a green rear which he said from testing has proved better when there is moisture in the track. Having had a terrible first 2WD Buggy qualifier due to being in a bad heat which leaves him in the 3rd highest of the heats, Castellini did a good job in Q2 to set the fourth fastest time. Also changing to a blue rear tyre on his B4.1 along with a stiffer front spring he said this made the buggy more stable and he was able to run a strong heat.
The star of the first 2WD Buggy qualifier, Alex Kosciuszek has now also found his impressive form in 4WD Buggy as he set the fourth fastest time. Changing to a stiffer rear spring on his B44.1, the 13-year-old said despite the rougher track conditions in Q2 he felt a lot more comfortable with the buggy and this allowed him to improve his driving a lot. In 2WD he repeated his Q1 performance with another Top 3 time just behind Evans and Harston. Elsewhere in 4WD Buggy Mike Gay was unable to repeat his P2 run in Q1 after he changed from green rear Bar Codes to Blue which he said made his buggy ‘super aggressive’. JConcepts boss Jason Ruona, who was third fastest in the opening qualifier, couldn’t repeat the run as he lost almost 4-seconds when on his opening lap he caught a rut and rolled over his B44.1.
Once again dominating the 2WD class, Team Losi Racing’s Evans set a new faster time in 2WD Buggy and looks set to easily defend his title along with those we won last year in Stadium truck and Short Course. Missing a 20 lap run by just .377 of a second, Evans said he opted to stick with running used tyres on his TLR22 but with the TQ wrapped up he will try a brand new set in Q3 to see how they work with a view to helping him decide his tyre choice for the single A-main here at the Massachusetts event. A massive 10-seconds off Evans’ pace Hartson said his run to the second fastest 2WD buggy time in Q2 was full of mistakes as he struggled a little with the looser more rutted conditions.
In 4WD Short Course Matt Olson put in a blistering run lapping the entire field with his MIP converted Losi. His main rival Hartson switched to the same tyres as the Clash Champion but said the JConcepts Pressure Points did not suit his Associated like they do the MIP and such is Olson’s advantage, tomorrow’s race is going to be a battle for second for which he plans to revert back to Bar Codes on his SC10 4X4.
View our event photo gallery here.