Melton and Pace Sweep NCCS Round 3

Event: North Carolina Championship Series
Date: May 30-31, 2009
Race Report submitted by: Brandon Melton

This past weekend the North Carolina Championship Series traveled north to Valley Field Raceway near the VA state line. When everyone arrived we were delighted at the new track that had been built. The layout was challenging but flowed really well with good timing. The jump faces were perfect and the landings help up great, which provided some close and awesome racing.

In Pro Buggy, Barry Pettit was able to grab TQ using qual points with two mistake free runs while turning fast laps. A mistake by Barry in the first round allowed Chris Pace to grab first round TQ. In Round 2, Brandon Melton was on a super fast run but a late mistake allowed Pettit the round 2 TQ, with Melton 2nd. Pettit put in a solid run in round 3 to take the overall TQ position.

The main event was interesting, Pace and Pettit got out to a great start, while Melton was stuck back toward the back of the pack with some early corner pile ups. Pace would lead through the first 2 pit stops, but experienced a flame out about 20 minutes into the run. Pettit assumed the lead for the next 5 minutes until experiencing some late race electrical failures. Melton had been patiently working traffic and knew that with Pace and Pettit’s mishaps, running a smooth race would allow him to grab the win. Melton went on to win, with Pace fighting back to a 2nd place finish, passing Brian Hester in the closing stages of the race.

Brandon Melton   AE/Reedy/JConcepts
Chris Pace   AE/Reedy/JConcepts
Brian Hester  Losi/OS/Pro Line

In Truggy class it was Barry Pettit taking the overall TQ and win in convincing fashion with his new MBX6T. The top three finishers in the A Main would finish just as they qualified

Barry Pettit  Mugen/Ninja/AKA
Joey Edwards  Losi/OS/AKA
Greg Smith   Losi/Ninja/JConcepts