Hartson 4WD Buggy win in Tacoma
Steven Hartson has taken the top honours in 4WD Buggy at the JConcepts Spring Indoor Nationals which was making its first visit to Tacoma R/C Raceway in Washington State. With local racers stamping their authority on Mod Buggy, in 4WD it was first time visitor Hartson who wrapped up his first buggy victory of the 2014 series thanks to a win in A3 over JR Mitch and Tyler Vik. With all three drivers in contention for the overall win going into A3, the closing race at Scott Brown’s track would see Top Qualifier Vik have contact with both his rivals, the Xray driver fairing the worst of both A3 incidents to finish third overall behind Mitch.
With Hartson and Vik coming together on the opening lap of A2, Vik coming away with the win and Hartson dropping down the field before pulling off to save tyres, in A3 the World Champion was taking no prisoners. Running behind Vik for 2/3rds of the race Hartson would make a move down the inside of Vik that would see the XB4 rolling as the two buggy touched wheels. While Vik felt he was clearly hard done by in the move, Hartson saw it as just hard racing. Finding his B44.2 a little edgy in A3, which stopped him from pushing as hard as he would have liked, the Californian driver said he still had the faster car, as highlighted by him being the only driver to do a 13-second lap in the race, and had the inside line for the corner and went for it.
Dropping to third after the incident as Mitch got through, Vik would have further woes in the race as he tried to get back passed the Team Losi Racing driver. Closing on the winner of the season opener held in St. Louis, Vik would connect with Mitch at the start of the triple as the battled over 2nd. While Mitch would go to the right of the jump losing a small amount of time, Vik would fly off to the left of the track just under the drivers stand losing 4-seconds he wouldn’t recover. Mitch said he just tried to hold his own in the race adding that Hartson was ‘on another planet’ in terns of his lap times this weekend. Admitting to having to block to keep Vik behind him overall he was happy to come out the event with second overall.
4WD Buggy A-Main Overall Result
1. Steven Hartson – Associated – 2 pts
2. JR Mitch – TLR – 4
3. Tyler Vik – Xray – 4
4. John Walentia – Associated – 6
5. JC Johnson – TLR – 7
6. Luke Smith – Associated – 8
7. Brent Thielke – Associated – 12
8. Anthony Honstain – Associated – 13
9. Tanner Denney – Associated – 14
10.Evan Margeson – Associated – 17
11.Chris Gould – X-Factory – 20
4WD Buggy A-Main Leg 3 Result
1.(2) Steven Hartson – Associated – 22/5:14.650
2.(3) JR Mitch – TLR – 21/5:04.440
3.(1) Tyler Vik – Xray – 21/5:05.820
4.(5) John Walentia – Associated – 21/5:09.031
5.(4) JC Johnson – TLR – 20/5:02.731
6.(6) Brent Thielke – Associated – 20/5:09.555
7.(8) Anthony Honstain – Associated – 20/5:10.296
8.(11)Evan Margeson – Associated – 20/5:16.479
9.(10)Tanner Denney – Associated – 17/5:12.847
10.(9) Luke Smith – Associated – 14/3:26.345
11.(7)Chris Gould – X-Factory – 13/3:27.741
4WD Buggy A-Main Leg 2 Result
1.(1) Tyler Vik – Xray – 21/5:08.131
2.(4) JC Johnson – TLR – 21/5:09.089
3.(5) John Walentia – Associated – 21/5:10.879
4.(9) Luke Smith – Associated – 21/5:11.794
5.(3) JR Mitch – TLR – 21/5:14.027
6.(8) Anthony Honstain – Associated – 20/5:02.097
7.(10)Tanner Denney – Associated – 19/5:00.378
8.(6) Brent Thielke – Associated – 19/5:02.583
9.(2) Steven Hartson – Associated – 18/4:44.931
10.(7)Chris Gould – X-Factory – 18/5:01.218
11.(11)Evan Margeson – Associated – 18/5:04.174
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