Race Report:Mendocino Raceway (Ukiah, CA) Season Opener

After a recent couple weeks of foul weather, Mother Nature finally let us have two glorious days of sunshine up here in Northern CA!

Article by Joe Nolasco

This past Sunday (Feb. 28) Mendocino Raceway in Ukiah, CA. hosted their 2010 Season Opener. The race was well attended, with around 40 entries. Not bad at all considering this is the newest facility in the Northern CA. area.

Classes included on this day were: 1/8 Nitro Buggy, 1/8 Nitro Truggy, 1/8 Electric Buggy, Short Course Stock, Short Course Open and Short Course 4×4. The SC classes were divided into beginner and expert classes.

The track:

John and Rick of Mendocino Raceway have put a ton of work into the track since the last event! Racers were pleasantly suprised by a brand new raised pit lane in front of the drivers stand!

Also lurking in the center of the track was this large table top complete with very professional looking sideplates:

This table top would become instrumental in my plan to “Clobber” Blake Cannon’s Hot Bodies D8T with my new Losi 8IGHT-T 2.0.

Before the race day got started we also used this tabletop for a little photoshoot as we had some new hardware to unveil!

My new Orion .21 MTE Powered Losi 8IGHT-T 2.0

Blake’s Orion .21 MTE Powered Hot Bodies D8T

Korey’s New Tekin RX8 Powered Losi EIGHT 2.0 electric ride

Racing:

Racing started around 11am or so. This gave everyone tons of practice time! Blake and I both easily got over 2 tanks on each vehicle in practice, and still had time to help out our other friends with engine tuning, etc.

Blake and Korey ran 1/8 E Buggy as well. Here’s a shot of Blake’s Ve8 (Pronounced VeeEight) getting some air on the triple:

Here’s a shot of Blake’s Ve8 in the pits. We tested 2 things on his car. 1.VP-Pro Tires and 2.Venom’s new 40c 5000mah 7.4 LiPos. Both worked out very well!

Nothing super special to report in qualifying other than who tq’ed:

In 1/8 Nitro Truggy it was yours truely (Joe Nolasco) taking TQ with a 12/5:04.464

1/8 Nitro Buggy was also TQ’ed by me with a 12/5:09.351

1/8 Electric Buggy was topped by Blake Cannon with a 12/5:11.444

Short Course Stock Beginner TQ was London Austin with an 8/4:54.232

Short Course Open Beginner TQ was Dennis Cannon 9/4:56.248

In Short Course Open Expert TQ was taken by Ben Kobetz with a 10/5:15.772

Short Course 4×4 was bested by Wes Marshall with a 10/5:10.608

Mains

The first Main up was 1/8 Nitro Truggy. This field consisted of 5 trucks on this day….all of which were bought through RPP Hobby! The 20 minute main turned out to be an epic battle royale between the Hot Bodies D8T of Blake Cannon and my Losi 8IGHT-T 2.0. There were at least 5 lead changes and since we were running the exact same engine, any potential pit stop advantage was thrown right out the window. This one came down to the very end with Blake making a very nice pass through the triples with 2 laps to go. I knew I only had one more shot at Blake with 1 to go so I stuffed my truck between Blake’s and the inner track pipe coming onto the front stretch. The trucks were dead even going down the straight away with my truck to the inside and Blake’s on the outside. I of course overcooked the straight away and almost spun the truck out in the 90 degree left at the end. This caused Blake to swing wide and then we both wrecked on the triple after an inflight collision. We both started rolling at about the same time after the wreck with me somehow in the lead. After this, I was able to hold it together for the last 3/4 of a lap to take the win!

1/8 Nitro Truggy Finishing Order:

Joe Nolasco 47/20:14.527

Blake Cannon 47/20:15.222

Alden Johnson 42/20:17.573

Wes Marshall 41/20:10.837

Justin Lawson 31/20:16.604

The rest of the mains were a blur for me as I was really, really tired….not enough sleep. So I’m going to take the easy route and just list the rest of the results!

Short Course Stock Beginner:

London Austin 7/4:57.215

Matthew Laberdie 6/4:51.406

Ariel Laberdie 5/506.505

Short Course Open Beginner

Dennis Cannon 8/5:14.904

Bob Franzen 8/5:15.943

Beau Franzen 8/5:16.903

Short Course Open Expert

Ron Williams 11/5:23.206

Alden Johnson 10/5:00.056

Dave Krider 9/5:507.081

Korey Williams 9/5:26.181

Ben Kobetz 9/5:30.228

Arthur Knight 8/5:20.571

Wes Marshall 6/2:53.372

Steven Carter 5/3:337.637

1/8 Nitro Buggy

Joe Nolasco 45/20:14.606

Alden Johnson 42/20:02.565

James Spears 40/20:01.780

Wes Marshall 40/20:17.710

Ben Kobetz 40/20:30.061

Arthur Knight 32/18:49.858

Korey Williams 22/10:27.974

Blake Cannon 19/12:07.386

1/8 Electric Buggy