jneg

Josio and Fernando are using their Mugen conversions! Andy Baez is using a Serpent.

jneg

Scotty Gray finished 1st, Paolo in second and Maxy in third.

I have to give a big congratulations to my friends that also made the Final Andy Baez, Josio Gonzalez and Fernando Mendez

jneg

tonylunatic

iTrader: (45)

Heading home now

I would like to give a HUGE THANKS to Homestead RC Raceway and especially Doug for hosting and directing this Awesome event. Doug runs a very tight ship and combined with this great facility the out come will always be an event to remember!

I finally got to put faces to names and a chance to race with some of the best GTracers on this side of the world. I made so many new friends from Pureto Rico, New York, Venezuela, and Brazil. I also reconnected with some old friends I hadn't seen for a long time.

Thanks for an awesome weekend!!!

tonylunatic

iTrader: (45)

This is Marcus on Tonys pad. I was there with my Team C and there was four or five others!

Doug M

Homestead RC Raceway wants to thank all of the racers, pit people, friends and families that attended the Pan American International 1/8 GT Grand Prix. You all were a part of making this a historic and memorable event.

As a whole you were an awesome group to work with and handled the little tricks Mother Nature gave us with cool weather, rain, fog and then hot weather. This allowed us to get our entire program in without having to eliminate anything from the program.

Have a safe and pleasant trip as you travel to your homes. We look forward to seeing all of you again next year!

Doug M

Homestead RC Raceway quiere agradecer a todos los corredores, personas boxes, amigos y familiares que asistieron a la Pan American International 1/8 GT Grand Prix. Todos ustedes fueron parte de hacer de este un evento histórico y memorable.

En su conjunto que eran un grupo impresionante de trabajar y manejar la Naturaleza pequeños trucos Madre nos dio con tiempo frío, la lluvia, la niebla y el calor. Esto nos permitió conseguir nuestro programa completo en sin tener que eliminar nada del programa.

Tenga un viaje seguro y agradable de viajar a sus casas, Esperamos verlos a todos de nuevo el año que viene!

Doug M

+ YouTube Video

A great video taken by Marcelo Prigue with his RC helicopter during a practice session at Homestead RC Raceway. Awesome Marcelo, THANKS!

tonylunatic

iTrader: (45)

Lets start with the track.
Its HUGE, has a long straight, very smooth surface, and some very interesting elevation changes. This track will put all your skills and equipment to the test. But its so much FUN to drive with its speed and technicalities.

Weather: It was different all three days and made the track change every day. Friday practice was great with the track prepped, temps around mid 70s and something like 10,000 plus practice laps put down on this allowed most to find a great setup to produce some very fast laps and giving us false hope that we had the cars dialed. Saturday we arrived to a washed out surface due to an overnight shower.With all the traction and rubber washed away, everyone had to change their previous setup and do it during the qualifiers. Sunday we wake up to a heavy dense fog bringing up the moisture in the track. But mother nature did bless us with no rain and sunshine letting the track gain traction once again.

Highlites of the Mains:
We ran a Worlds Championship format, having the top 4 automatically making to the Grand Finale while the rest of us were split it to semi finals, quarter finals and Eigth finals based on qualifing times and battling it out for one of the three bump up spots. Congrates to all the bump up, this was not and easy challenge as the entire field was very close in times.

The one driver that made an outstanding impression on all of us with his superior driving skills and most impressive setup was our very own Texas driver Chris Jones aka "Black Jesus" and now known as "The IRONMAN Chris Jones".
He had a horrible Saturday during qualifying by not completing any one of the four and fighting his car at times. He showed all of us that determination and dedication with skills can lead one to succeed. He bumped up from the Eigth final to the Quarter finals to the Semi finals and winning a bump spot in the Semi to place him in his rightful spot in the Grand Finale with the the Best of the Best. By the time he made it to the Grand Finale he had driven over one and a half hours and now trying to prepare himself for the one hour Grand Finale!!

Grand Finale: THE BIG SHOW
WHAT A SHOW IT WAS!!

Scotty Gray was our TQ for the weekend showing us how the Big Dogs do it driving a Xray Conversion. The start was as clean as it could get with Best of the Best fighting for their spot, but the "The Great" World Champion Paolo M. was on FIRE!! He took the hole shot and was leading the race by the first lap!! By lap 8 "The Great" was about to start lapping the feild. The whole race was full of battles "The Great" ran into trouble on his first pit stop with a flame out cutting down his lead gap to almost most none. His next three pit stops also caused him to flame out and on the fourth trouble getting restarted. The rest of the feild had so many position changes it was hard to keep track with all the ACTION! The "IronMan" at one point in the race had made it up to the 3rd spot! But with PROs like Desoto Jr on your rear end one can only imagine the pressure. By the last 17mins and many having troubles the Grand Finale had only six remaining! During all the excitement and troubles "The Great" showed us why he is "The onlyGreat" he not only got back anyanytime he had lost but made it back to FIRST!!

More to come later if you wish.........
I have been driving back home to Texas with MantisWorx and need to rest. The excitement of the weekend was fresh on my mind.

Pit-racer

iTrader: (4)

Thanks Tony with the report! I've been chatting with chad on the race all weekend and you guys did GREAT!

howardns

thats a great video, fantastic view of track and layout

rinolino

I would like to thank the Homestead crew for an incredible event, Doug M. ran an awesome show as always. It was good to see good friends from all over the US. PR., and Brazil.

Scotty Gray did an awesome job this weekend, being his first time driving GT he was able to TQ and Win the event as only a top level driver with top level equipment does it. Nothing else to say but to thank Scotty and the rest of the Kosmic Team, DJ Apolaro, Manuel, Junior,and Jose Castellano for their hard work.
It was a hard weekend for me from the racing stand point but as a team we played our options wisely and reached our goals. Hope to see you guys in Puerto Rico with Scotty and a new addition to the team, another top level driver joins our GT crew.

Last but not least would like to thank our sponsors: ALPHA TIRES BRAZIL, BUKUPOWER CLUTCHES, KEVCO RACING, RC AMERICA, RPM HOBBIES and KOSMIC FUEL.

C@T

Would be nice if we could view the video also here in Germany.

Currently it is blocked ! Maybe by the musik used ?

scary_jerry

Mind-Boggling...............I wondered why I hadn't heard of 'Scotty' before. A 'first-timer' comes out and kicks butt..............Congratulations to all 10 in that 'podium' photo and all the lucky participants one-and-all.

That's a great aerial photo of the track.

pressure

iTrader: (3)

Hands down the best event I have ever attended.