Super Cup Round 4 Race Report – Series Finale

Event: Super Cup / Outlaw Cup round 4 ; Location: Coral Springs, Florida ; Date: July 25-26, 2009
Classes: Electric / Nitro ; Race Reporter: Jason Ruona

It’s Coral Springs time again and we were excited to make the trip to one of our favorite electric tracks in Florida.  It’s really hard to choose a favorite track in Florida but this track reminds me the most of the 90’s style electric tracks at Lake Park.  Coral Springs follows ROAR rules and even asks for your ROAR membership during registration.  They run a clean organized operation and it’s always a pleasure racing with that group.

The 3 1/2 hour drive is a little rough but we’ve made the trip so many times now the Ford’s might actually auto pilot the way down but I can’t find that button on the dash.  We stopped at the FT Pierce stop and fueled up and I got one of those ice-cream chipwich snacks.  These things should be illegal they are so good.  I wanted ice-cream of the future but settled for a cookie of the future.  I wonder if the cookie monster has ever tried the ice-cream cookies? If he did that might change the whole program.

Arriving to the track it had suffered some rain damage but everyone was practicing and having a good time of it.  Paul and I quickly setup shop and started wrenching.   Paul was putting the final touches on his T4 and was mounting his Hi-Flow body.  White with white stripes we call it.   Paul was also testing out some new rear T4 wheels that we should be releasing in the August / September releases.  These new Rulux T4 rear wheels are for using a standard rear axle.

I spent most of my time installing the radio gear for my new M11X radio. 2.4 GHz here I come!  I’m finally making the switch and it just feels weird not having an antenna on my radio.  As I told everyone I have a built-in excuse if I don’t perform. 🙂

I decided to sit out 4wd because I was sitting in a good position points wise and didn’t need to run to win the overall.

I was in a point’s battle with Ryan Eckert in the 2wd class but Ryan is on vacation and was unable to attend.  So I would like to thank Ryan personally for the gift this time around. 🙂   I wasn’t really happy with my previous 2 results in 2wd at rounds 2 and 3.  I was driving a little wild at Lake Park and just blew out at Outtacontrol so I was looking to establish my pace once again.

2wd is just so fun at Coral Springs because of the traction and layouts.  I highly recommend 2wd at Coral Springs.

Paul hit the track for some practice while I tried to figure out my radio install work and bind my radio.  I’ve never “binded” before so that was a new experience.  Very 2000 and late!

It isn’t fun wiring up an RC car when you’re really picky about the way it looks.  I think I starred at my 4wd longer than worked on it because the wiring was jamming me up so bad.  It looks pretty good now but I’m still not completely happy with it.  Ugh, they are just wires right?

I walked out to the track to con JP into a few laps with his buggy.  I started driving it and the trim was off.  Now I’m trying to adjust the trim on a Futaba and I don’t know what I’m doing.   JP unlocks it and I made some changes.  I’m happy now! 🙂

Paul was running some hot laps with his B4 and I went back to the trailer for a little A/C action.  The track crew started track maintenance and added a few obstacles.  I’m never wild about single jumps but it was also a challenge so I was up for it.

Paul and I finished up our wrenching and walked outside to find we were the last ones at the track.   2 guys that spend the entire day working and talking about R/C were still at the track getting it done.  After all these years apparently there is still some passion left? 😉

The LaQuinta was calling our name so we checked in and got ready for dinner.   Long Horn is one of our Coral Springs favorites so we dined with them.  Is a Shirley Temple a girls or kids drink?  I really like them but I’m looking for a new name so I can at least get some adult credibility.  Red Dog? Seven in Red?  I think I’m going to cultivate one of these 2 new names and see how it goes.  Perhaps add it to a Wikipedia page?

We thought about Sharky’s for later but decided to post some photos online and call it a night.  Did guy see how nice the track and surrounding area looked in the photos?  Dialed!

We were trying to get an early start because of rain concerns so we set the alarm for 6:00am. 🙁

We arrived at track early and we weren’t the first ones to arrive.  Super Cup director Bobby Phillips was setup and getting entries entered. 100% committed!

Paul and I got the 2wd’s ready and hit the track for practice.  It was my first run with the new M11x and no antenna.  Weird!  The Groovy fronts and Double Dees rears felt good but I was feeling Goose Bumps coming on with potential weather concerns.   For the first round I put on the Double Dee fronts we made for this track about a year ago and I borrowed a set of Goose Bumps from Paul for the rear.  I didn’t notice at first but I think he gave me the more worn out set.

First qualifier went off at roughly 9:30 and we were pressing the program because we wanted to finish the day before the rains hit.   The first round seems to take the longest as all the transponder check-in takes forever now.  I don’t remember checking in back in the day for racing.  We actually didn’t take warm-up laps either.  I’m blaming an overall longer race program on Brian Kinwald.  He was the first person I saw warm-up before qualifiers in southern California and now we spend almost as much time warming up and checking in than we do qualifying.  Thanks BK! J

Paul and I were in race 3 so we had our cars ready to go and starting “checking in”.  Track was wet and loamy and looked a lot like the old days.  Everyone loved it!  The track had traction the tires were not wearing and the cars came off the track dirty and they looked like off-road vehicles.  Pretty cool actually.  The hardest part about trying to keep a wet or watered track is the longer it stays wet the bumpier the surface becomes and the less control everyone has.   Ideally to keep the track wet you would have to groom the track every couple races.  Again, this adds time to the program and depending on the turnout there just isn’t room for this much track work.  Blue groove is the answer to shorter more consistent race programs but unfortunately is not as much like off-road and the tires wear faster.

Paul and I started the qualifier pretty quick and made the way through traffic.  Bobby was calling me on a 14 lap pace for the majority of the race.  My buggy felt good but I had a little under steer in some of the sweeping corners and it was a little loose coming on the front straight away.  I needed it to “square up” as the experts say.   I made a mistake on the left side double and needed to be marshaled.  I finished with 13 laps 6:01 and Paul finished with 13 laps 6:04.   Pretty quick first round.

Paul was up with his T4 and he was running Goose Bumps on the rear and Double Dee’s on the front.  It looked cool with that combination and it was pretty dialed on the track.  The new wheels were working flawlessly and Paul was running with a truck for the first time in about 8 or 9 years.  His last truck was a T3!

I ran out to the track to take some photos and watch some racing.  The Short Course guys were beating and banging as usual and JP, Bart Collins and Sean Kersten were the front runners in the stock Slash class.  JP was sporting the Truth body with his custom paint job.  Pretty impressive looking!

4wd modified looked to be the funnest class on the track as Sean Kersten, Roly Cusine and Mike Barone looked to be quickest.  We will see what happens come the main events.

Stock truck and stock buggy was a battle between Dave Bowser, Tim Kowal and Jeff Lynn.  We are anticipating a good race here so we will see how the mains turn out.

Short Course open was the last class of the day and I just had to drive one after watching Tim Kowal’s truck.  With the Oakley inspired paint job and Goose Bumps the truck was on rails.   My first impressions were this is the perfect track for this truck and 2 the tire combination was the secret to the truck feeling so good.  Everybody that drove Tim’s truck wanted a short course truck.  Of course I was still looking for more power! J

We had a short rain delay and now the track was even wetter than round 1.  I was going for the 14 laps but the track was developing some holes and bumps so it wasn’t as easy to get down into that time bracket.  I finished with 13 – 6:00.

Paul decided to not run the 2nd round of truck because of the threatening weather conditions.   Mike Barone put down a nice TQ run in mod truck and Paul slid to 2nd.

Mains –

Looking around everyone was getting ready for the mains.  I decided to go back to Double Dee’s for the main in 2wd and Paul was running the Goose Bumps.   The start seemed clean and Paul and I broke away from the pack.  I held a 2-3 second lead for the majority of the race and stretched it slightly toward the end.  I didn’t make any mistakes during the race and I don’t think Paul and had major problems either so it was pretty intense high concentration main.   I think the Double Dee’s were a little better on my car than the worn Goose Bumps I had run earlier but either way the lap times seemed pretty close.   The buggies were dirty afterwards but it was a lot of fun.

The stock truck and buggy A-mains were very close.  Stock truck was the best race of the day with the last laps coming down between Tim Kowal and Dave Bowser.  Dave took the lead briefly but Tim got around him and was leading the last lap.   I was also shooting photos and happened to get the “photo finish” photo just as they crossed the finish line.  Tim took the win with Dave in 2nd and David Dominguez in 3rd.   The buggy main was a Dave Bowser and Roly Cusine show the entire race.  A small mistake toward the end put Roly a little behind on the last lap and Dave took a well deserved win.   Roly almost looks more of an off-road racer now than on-road.  Maybe he has made the official jump?  Tim used Double Dee fronts and Goose Bumps rears on his T4 while Bowser ran Goose Bumps all the way around.   Goose Bumps all the way around is maximum steering on the loamy track.

The Slash Short Course main appeared to be a blast.  JP Tirronen, Bart Collins, Scott Delfino and Sean Kersten again had all the moves and battled the whole time.   In the end JP made some driving clinic moves and muscled his way past Scott and Bart for the victory.  The top 3 were separated by 2 seconds.   The trucks looked good on the loamy wet track.   These are all stock Slashes so no products to report on here other than different bodies.  JP won with the Truth body so it was obviously the fastest! J

4wd modified was a race between Roly Cusine and Bart Collins.  The track was really wet but everyone seems to enjoy the racing and the close battle at the top.  Roly won by about 6 seconds over Bart Collins who had 3 seconds on Armando Ledesma.    It looked like Roly chose the Goose Bumps all the way around for the main and they looked great.

In Modified truck Paul had some issues at the start of the race with his truck which either had a speed control or sensor wire problem.   Tim Kowal who just won stock truck offered his truck to Paul to race in the modified A-main.   Paul took him up on the offer and started the main right behind TQ Mike Barone.    Mike Barone held a nice lead early as Paul adjusted to Tim’s truck and radio.  Bobby Phillips took advantage of a mistake by Paul and pulled right behind leader Mike.    Mike made a mistake which cost him a lot of time due to a marshal being out of position.   Bobby took the lead with Paul now in second.      As the 6 minute race wore on Paul began pecking away at Bobby’s lead but would lose a little ground on the straight away because of the 13.5 horsepower as opposed to Bobby’s 7.5 power.    Bobby and Paul touched wheels and Paul went for the pass and made it stick with out a minute to go.   Tim was cheering his truck on the sidelines hoping the truck would have enough battery to finish 2 races.    Bobby got hung up with a back marker on the 2^nd to last lap giving Paul and even bigger lead on the way to victory.   Tims truck completed a stock and modified sweep of the weekend.   Double Dee fronts and Goose Bump rear tires were the hot ticket!

One race to go and we could put round 4 in the books.   Modified short course and TQ Dan Borkowicz took off in the lead but Tim Kowal and Scott Delfino were hot on the heels.  Scott appeared to have motored up quite a bit and had the advantage on power.  Dan and Tim appeared equal but couldn’t exactly compete with Scott and his high powered Slash.   Scott took a well deserved win with Dan 2^nd and Tim 3^rd.

Final point’s standings should be tabulated and posted on www.rcsignup.com and JConcepts events website within the next several days.   Keep checking back on www.jconceptsracing.com , www.jconceptsevents.com and www.rcsignup.com for more information on the next Super Cup session starting in August.  Stay tuned!