The second half of our Double Header weekend could easily be summed up in two words: "Jesse Bean". Throughout the heats, and again in the Main, Jesse lead from the first lap to the last; and it was only a question of how many times he would lap second place.
In the heat races, Leighton Fuller, Clint Withrow and John Pritchett had all looked fast at times; but they were all fighting various woes, and couldn't string together the laps to challenge Jesse. Leighton couldn't seem to run a full race without blowing either a front or rear diff. Clint could run fast laps; but kept losing the handle on his Losi. Inconsistent handling also gave John Pritchett trouble throughout the evening. All three seemed to spend a lot of time working on their cars between races; but couldn't find the right combination.
During the qualifying heats, Jesse had been knocking on the door of MArk Unrath's lap record of 33 laps in 5:00 and change; set two months ago in the JACO/SMC Snowflake Classic Race. When the Stock TC A Main rolled around, Jesse pulled out all the stops. His new X-Ray T2 had been on rails all night. He bolted in his best, brand new, Eric Anderson CO27 Stock Motor, and taped down a new set of SMC 3800's. He slipped on a pair of the new JACO wraps, and dragged out his newest trick; a CRAZY RC Motor Freezer. With the latest in RC racing technology at his disposal, every one was expecting a fast pace; and Jesse didn't disappoint.
When the flag dropped, Jesse simply disappeared into the distance. Leighton, Clint and John had all done some hard work on their cars; but it simply didn't seem to matter. John parked with a broken car after 11 laps. Clint could run some fast times; but couldn't seemed to put more than two laps together before the looseness of his Losi caught up with him, putting him off line and off the pace. Leighton had finally gotten two diffs that would hang together, but he simply couldn't match Jesse's pace. When the flag dropped, all of Jesse's new tricks resulted in a blazing new record of 35 laps in 5:09:14!
In the novice class, Wayne Fuller ran hard, but inconsistent handling put him into the rails often enough to let Ernie Padgette slip past for the win.
Thanks to the boys from Richmond for making this a fun weekend. Several new faces showed up; some new racers purchased cars; and things look promising for a big road course race toward the end of April. Thanks; Ernie P.
