Morgan Johns

Hello All,

Yes its been awhile since the last race re-cap sometime during the middle of the summer for one of the Onroad BackAlley Trophy Races.

However todays race I found it hard not to write somthing as it really was an inspiring day. Starting off I would like to think that it was my morning weather update giving the all clear that made this day so succesful..but then I would just be kidding myself and lying to the rest of you. It is the track, track owners and crew that made it the success it was. Honestly on my drive in I was worried how many people would show up due to the weather, luckily my worries were short lived as the place was packed!!!

A serious and real testament to how amazing FastCats really is! So lets get started. The race day started off like any other with morning practice, a few broken cars, fast laps been posted and smack talk and gloating fizzing in the air and of course a few vented cells and a scared Morgan running away, as the Venter and accomplicaes laughed.

Qualifying:

2wd Buggy Stock

Mr J Lovegrove, L Glickerooney and the always famous Gino babyface Damario battled it out all day. The 2wd stock buggy class is one of the closest classes and most fun around, as all cars have roughly the same power it really is a class that improves driver skill and rewards clean consistent racing.

After all was said and done, in the heated final qualifier where all 3 top runners were on TQ pace it was anyones to grab, eventually Jay pulled out to become the well deserved TQ. Final Qualifying Results:

1) Lovegrove, Jay 19/5:08.471
2) Damario, Gino 18/5:04.119
3) Glick, Lee 18/5:06.088
4) Gomez, Nico 18/5:06.622
5) Brother Dirt 17/5:16.507
6) Newstead, Steve 16/5:04.446


2wd Buggy Open

The largest class of the day and the most competetive, qualifying through all 3 rounds was extremely tight and noone was for sure who would end up on top. Nick Bawdy Shop Imineo, Wally Wonderful Edmonds and Myself were all knocking on eachothers doors, lets not forget the others in qualifying also making a strong effort including; Anthony Giannace, Martin Petre, Alvin Yong and Steve Mostacci all consistently fast.

Nick found himself sitting on Pole(TQ) through the first 2 rounds of qualifying, although his laptimes werent the lowest he was definately the most consistent prooving that a race isnt just 1lap. Wally posted a great time in the 2nd qualifier giving Nick a scare but it all came down to the last qualifier with Nick I, Wally E and Myself all on TQ pace early in the 3rd and final round of qualifying, by the end of the 5mins I had just by seconds edged out Nick for TQ and pole. Final Qualifying Results:

1) Johns, Morgan (21/5:00.973)
2) Edmonds, Wally (21/5:03.480)
3) Imineo, Nick (21/5:05.451)
4) Giannace, Anthony (20/5:14.630)
5) Petre, Martin (19/5:04.076)
6) Yong, Alvin (19/5:05.461)
7) Mostacci, Steve (19/5:09.834)
Semine, Alexei (19/5:13.045)
9) Calistan, Richard (18/5:01.324)
10) Dziuban, Ron (18/5:09.362)
11) Paulino, Ricardo 18/5:15.295
12) Stephens, Jamie 17/5:00.017
13) Calistan, Mackenzie 17/5:03.165
14) Rogers, Jim 16/5:02.452
15) Hopcraft, Tony 16/5:04.891 2.4ghz
16) Andrade, John 16/5:06.814 2.4ghz
17) Tamaki, Richard 16/5:11.958 2.4ghz
1 Ayala, Tony 15/5:11.716 61
19) Scialdone, Pat 15/5:14.156 2.4ghz
20) Bousioutis, George 11/5:11.060

4wd Buggy Open

The qualifiers were owned by Nick Imineo and Abiye Birku. The two fought it out through all 3 qualifiers and alast in the 2nd Qualifier Nick I almost got the one and only 22lap Qualifier of the day, a truely perfect qualifier Nick did not put 1 wheel out of place the entire round. Abiye
the reigning king of 4wd buggy didnt miss the 22laps by much either the 2 were in a different league. Final Qualifying Results:

1 Imineo, Nick 21/5:01.880
2 Birku, Abiye 21/5:02.764
3 Stiliadis, George 20/5:00.012
4 Pinchin, Ryan 20/5:01.404
5 Lovegrove, Jay 20/5:02.374
6 Balzer, Carl 20/5:06.615
7 Mostacci, Steve 20/5:08.826
8 Hopcraft, Mark 20/5:11.302
9 Semine, Alexei 20/5:12.841
10 Belanger, Brian Gump 19/5:00.574
11 Chewy, John Bakker 19/5:02.430
12 Gomez, Nico 18/5:00.259

2wd Truck Open

The crowd favourite and racers choice the truck class is one of the funnest classes to run, the trucks are very easy to control and take alot of abuse. The racing was close as JB Catricala, Carl Bazer, Martin Petre, Jay Lovegrove, Leonard Schinzano and Chewy were extremely close through all 3 rounds of qualifying. The eventual TQ JB had a rough first 2 rounds of Qualifying just not finding the groove, while Leonard and Carl were really putting down some fast times. Chewy was having a rough couple qualifiers with what looked like a disgruntled chassis just not wantng to co-operate but eventually Chewy was able to tame his beast and Make the A. Final Qualifying Results:

1 Catricala, JB 20/5:04.711
2 Balzer, Carl 20/5:10.028
3 Petre, Martin 20/5:12.396
4 Lovegrove, Jay 19/5:01.016
5 Schinzano, Leonard 19/5:04.201 40.710
6 Chewy, John Bakker
7 Stewart, Nathan 19/5:15.406
8 Damario, Gino 18/5:10.526
9 Mercer, Calvin 18/5:12.379
11 Glick, Lee 17/5:01.165
12 Calistan, Richard 17/5:03.771
13 Dziuban, Ron
14 Ayala, Tony 17/5:16.380
15 Ha, John 16/5:13.550
16 Labre, Simon 16/5:15.648
17 Calistan, Mackenzie 16/5:16.918
18 Stephens, Jamie 15/5:08.093
19 Tamaki, Richard

Micro Open (1/16th - 1/24th)

A fun to watch class as the smallest cars race around the same track as there bigger brothers, these guys are a hoot to watch as they fly in scale close to 100ft and "sometimes" land on all 4wheels.

Stephanie Catricala, Lee Glick, Steve Newstead, Tony Ayala, and Simon Labre had a fun time qualifying, the trick to this class is consistency and not overdriving the car. Steve had the first 2 rounds down and came up with the early TQ, however Lee and Steph were not gonna let him run away. The final qualifier had Steph out in front by mear seconds over Lee, but then Lee kicked it up a notch, spat the garlic out of his spur and sniffed some hotpepper to wake himself up then he was gone taking TQ by over a lap. Final Qualifying:

1 Glick, Lee 14/5:14.267
2 Newstead, Steve 13/5:01.601
3 Ayala, Tony 12/5:13.867 75
4 Labre, Simon 11/5:08.865
5 Catricala, Stephanie 10/5:00.209

We had a short break after the 3rd round of qualifying to work on our cars and smack talk and of course gloat. Abiye during the break starred at his motivation hanging over his pit table(was my fast lap print out). Wally Starred at his car hoping it would tune itself. Anthony, Nick I and JB made fun of me running away from exploding batteries. Jamie worked on his trucks steering. Tony repaierd all of his broken cars, Pam Catricala and Mike Catrical were placing secret side bets on the mains. John Catricala had a quick washroom break, but even continued to give the paly by play during open practice from the washroom, I think we even saw John today sport a pair of Faux Jean Sweatpants. The Calistan father son duo, were just having way too much fun as always. George Stiliadis was glowing about his new Schumacher front tires. Chewy was GRAAAHHHHHHHHH(chebaccah sound).

Sorry if your name wasnt mentioned but unfortunately I already feel like I am loosing most of you in this so lets get to the mains....at least this time John rembered to take his mic off during his washroom break!

The Mains

To start off I will only be re-capping the A Mains as believe it or not I still got some work to finish off for Monday and I would like to sit back and enjoy the fire brewing in the fire place that I spent 20mins trying to start...yah yah yah say or think what u will, the wood was cold okay)

2wd Buggy Stock A-main

The first A main of the night and the bets were being placed on who will win on LiveRC(yes you can bet on who will win...quite fun actually) The drivers were nervous on the stand as they all knew it was going to be a close battle. The tone sounded and TQ Jay Lovegrove and Gino Babyface Damario bobbled around the first corner allowing Mr C Main Lee Glick(now A main lee) through. Lee lead and expanded his lead over the first few laps but Jay and Gino were hot on his heels. Eventually Jay and Gino Caught up to Lee and in the triple jump infront of the stand all 3 got togther allowing Nico Gomez through and as soon as Nico got through he took off and lead lap after lap. Jay Gino and Lee put on a chase and all worked togther to catch Nico who was just driving calm and consistent. Eventually brain farts occured and Lee made 1 too many bobbles, later blaiming it to old age, Jay and Gino eventually caught Nico but Nico was just too good and held both of them off to take the win. Final results:

1 Gomez, Nico 4 18 5:06.095 16.179
2 Damario, Gino 2 18 5:06.516 15.788
3 Lovegrove, Jay 1 18 5:09.362 15.761
4 Glick, Lee 3 17 5:10.531 16.310
5 Newstead, Steve 6 17 5:14.682 16.386
6 Brother Dirt 5 16 5:21.458 16.645

2wd Buggy Open A-main

The nerves started builing 2 races before the main, as the top drivers were busy looking over their cars and peaking their batteries. As the field lined up I had to keep my car moving as for some strange reason if my car sit neutral for more then 10-20secs it would get a glitch that would last until the esc was reset. John announced the 5seconds and the tone started. It was a clean start and all drivers filed throught the first couple laps like a frieght train. every driver tripled ..the triple... I slowly pulled away in the first few laps but I made a few mistakes that allowed Nick and Wally to catch back up. I soon bobbled under pressure allowing Nick and Wally through, the 3 of us continued to seperate ourselves from the rest of the pack as we all worked togther. Nick I began to develop a push and soon I was by to lasso in Wally who had begun to pull away because of the battle for second between Nick and I. Wally was really putting down some fast laps and I was barely reeling him it, both of us kept within 1.5seconds of eachother for well over 3minutes. I was able to throw down a few hot laps back to back that brought me up to Wallys tail, but his low speed cornering was far better then mine and pulled off on the wall.

The field was very gratious to Wally Nick and Myself as they moved well over when were coming through and trust me it was very much appreciated especially considering how close this race really was. John announced the time left and it was time for only one more lap, Wally and I now had a slight lead over Nick who was battling an ever worsening push. Wally went down the back straight followed closely by myself, all of a sudden Wally's car hit a little bump Mid corner and pushed his car wide, allowing me to sneak up on the inside. as I came around the corner wally had gotten back inline and we pulled up side by side going over the double, Wally's car took a weird hop off the double and ended up flipping over giving myself a clear track ahead and about a 4second lead after Wally was flipped back over. It was mine to win...or loose and as I knew the lead I had, I became very conservative and didnt jump the triple but double singled it, then slowly went over the rumbles and onto the final corner on the wall, where my conservativeness wasn't rewarded, being to conservative I actually undershot the corner and hit the coping and flipped on my top on the wall, Yes the final corner I turtled and Wally was able to pass me as I layed upside down and the wheels facing the sky. As Leonard flipped me back over I was able to salvage a second as the finish line was only 10ft from where I flipped...Ohh well thats racing and let me tell you I wasn't upset at all! It was a great race and had a blast! Final Results:

1 Edmonds, Wally 3 21 5:03.481 13.467
2 Johns, Morgan 1 21 5:04.385 13.032
3 Imineo, Nick 2 21 5:13.219 13.951
4 Giannace, Anthony 4 20 5:14.631 14.699
5 Yong, Alvin 6 19 5:05.461 14.989
6 Petre, Martin 5 18 5:06.140 15.253
7 Mostacci, Steve 7 17 5:05.697 14.497


4wd Buddy Open

Tense Tense Tense, after Nicks car had gone away from him in the 2wd buggy main, he was looking for redemption and Abiye had his game face on. George and Jay were ready aswell as all the drivers on the drivers stand looked so serious you knew this was going to be a great race.

The tone sounded and Nick and Abiye and the rest of the feiled took off in a great start, as they rounded the back sweeper starting the second lap Nick and Abiye got togther, George, Jay, Ryan and Carl all got through leaving Nick and Abiye to re-focus and catch up. Ryan and Jay pulled out ahead but Nick and Abiye were hot on there heals, nick in less then 1 lap went from 5th to 2nd as well did Abiye from 6th to 3rd, these 2 were on a rampage. Eventually Nick and Abiye worked themselves back up to first and second and the battle was on. However Nick went into overdrive and through down laps comparable to the fastest 2wd Open Buggies and pulled away from Abiye. It was a great race and Nick really showed his skill jumping the triple every lap and always landing calm cool and connected....Nicks car was dialed in and eventually ran away with the race finishing first. Final Results:

1 Imineo, Nick 1 21 5:07.569 13.383
2 Birku, Abiye 2 20 5:02.709 13.786
3 Stiliadis, George 3 20 5:10.375 14.039
4 Lovegrove, Jay 5 19 5:06.278 14.558
5 Pinchin, Ryan 4 19 5:07.222 14.298
6 Balzer, Carl 6 19 5:15.189 14.551

2wd Truck A-main

The closest race of the day and one of the most fun to watch, after the forst 3 rounds of qualifying the winner of this heat was not certain as all racers possesed the skills able to win. JB was the favourite, followed by Carl then Martin.

As the tone sounded a think all the trucks popped wheelies and were off, was a great start and very clean, JB bobbled over the tabe top allowing Carl through, however JB and Carl battled and Martin came up on top slipping through the inseide as both JB and Carl hit hard over the double.

Leonard was also able to catch up and pass JB and Carl and now the fight was on JB started laying down some great lap times and soon was back in front, but not by much, Carl, Leonard and Martin were very very close behind. The top 4 were not seperated by more then a few seconds the entire race and exchanged positions more then Michael Jackson has had plastic surgeries and lawsuits. JB began to pull a slight lead and as the time counted down it was JBs to win....or loose. John announced the time left and everyone in the main was able to make another lap. JB making his final run down the back straightaway wheelied and ended up flippin over on his top sliding down the entire staightaway. By the time the marshall was able to flip back over JBs car, Carl had wizzed by and made a clean final lap finishing first. Final Results:

1 Balzer, Carl 2 19 5:00.168 14.685
2 Catricala, JB 1 19 5:00.695 14.527
3 Schinzano, Leonard 5 19 5:01.281 14.633
4 Petre, Martin 3 19 5:06.646 14.823
5 Chewy, John Bakker 6 19 5:13.452 14.912
6 Lovegrove, Jay 4 17 5:04.853 15.426

Micro (1/16th - 1/24th) A-main

So yes the final round of the day and Lee Glick had a smirk on his face, Stephanie Catricala looked serious and Tony was looking cheeky. The tone sounded and we were off to the races. Lee plain and simply ran away with this one, just took off and never looked back, he left it up to the rest of the firld to race for second.

Tony and Simon were trying to fly there XRAY Micro Buggys over 30ft sometimes coming out the victor. Stephanie prooved that the Kyosho Mini Inferno isnt only cute but fast, and even though her car battled mechanical issues all weekend long she still put up a good fight. Steve and his Monster truck turned Monster Bettle...? Rana nice smooth race finishing Third...Final Results:

1 Glick, Lee 1 14 5:20.434 21.583
2 Labre, Simon 4 13 5:11.794 15.816
3 Newstead, Steve 2 13 5:16.409 19.577
4 Ayala, Tony 3 12 5:27.419 20.731
5 Catricala, Stephanie 5 6 2:47.905 21.635

So yes today was packed, considering the weather conditions it was suprising to see how many people made the trek out today, although for all of you reading this now...well maybe i shouldnt......ahhh what the heck, you all missed out! We all drove in with high winds no real snow fall on the road or in the air, it then began to snow throughout the day when we were inside and warm, the pow went round and round fastcats making sure the patrons had a way out when all was done. Then on my drive home I was delighted to find that all of the major routes were plowed and salted. So ;P

Notables of today were; Jamie Stevens 2wd Buggy open prooving that maybe he should have made the A-main Jamie really layed down some great laps and one of the fastest drivers getting faster, every race his skill has grown and grows even more, Jamie also won the 2wd Truck Open C-main! Ohh and dont worry there were people routing for you!!

Tony Ayala, this guy is a crowd pleaser. He will never not try the triple, or the double or the table top at full speed. He has prooven that the Associated B4 is a strong car as he has continually defied the pyshics that graphite is brittle or that alluminum bends, who would of thought one man can disproove so many theories. But seriously this guy is getting better and like Jamie each race he continues to improove..keep it up!!

Well thats all I got. I would again like to thank FastCats, the Family and the Crew that make such races possible. It was truly a great event and I am for ever indebt to your hospitality and dedication to the hobby.

Lastl, thanks to all the racers braving the weather and coming out! I am sure that all of you like me had a great time and I look forward to the next Race 6/1/08!!!!!

tooofast

iTrader: (2)

I wanted to tell you all that was some awsome racing yesterday and some rediculous snow you guys got I watched the whole race live from my front room in Ontario Oregon on rclive. Also your anouncer did an awsome job by responding to our remarks on the net and keeping us interested the whole race day excellent job. Anyway hope you all got home safe and keep up the great race coverage FastTracks.

Jeff Parker