Just got home from my first US Champs. Interesting race - have never been to an event that had that many drivers. All-in-all aside from some week-long bad luck, had the following positive experiences:
- Jilles Groskamp: one word - CLASS!!! For a top-driver to wake-up as early as he did and race his main with the small group as he did was AWESOME. This guy had some really bad-luck in 19T all weekend, but sucked-it-up and went out to race his main never-the-less. Knowing that he was racing with some drivers that may never get the chance to run with him - and being very courteous about it... Jilles has earned several new fans. The hobby needs more racers like Jilles.... unlike some of the other racers that decided that if they didn't make the A or B main, they were not going to show-up ... I sure hope their sponsors are proud of them
- Paul Lemieux: not only one of the most gifted drivers in the hobby, one of the nicest. One of our local racers made an error in soldering his motor on backwards and only found out right before his qualifier .... the first guy to lend a hand was Paul Lemieux. Another great spokesperson for the hobby. This guy truly deserves all the success that he gets on the track.
- Watching some of the best drivers in the world race live was an experience in itself. To see how close these guys are in hitting their marks time-after-time shows the skill that they have in wheeling RC cars around an unforgiving track.
The US Champs was an experience and I am glad that I made the trip out to Cleveland (well really Independence) to see it first hand.