JBRL Round 7 – Hartson Wins 2wd & 4wd Mod Buggy

Event: JBRL Electric Off-Road Series R7,
Date: September 17, 2011
Track: OCRC Raceway
Race Reporter: Steven Hartson

I raced this last weekend at OCRC Raceway in Huntington Beach, CA. for the 7th round out of 8 rounds in the JBRL series. I raced 4wd modified buggy and 2wd modified buggy.

I arrived at OCRC Raceway on Friday to practice for the weekend ahead. A lot of people started to show up late in the afternoon for Friday’s club race. I decided to run 1 round of qualifying before leaving to get ready for a long day of racing on Saturday.

In the first qualifier of 4wd, the track conditions were good with light water on the hooked up clay. I ended up TQ for this round by over 10 seconds. Before the second qualifier started the track looked to be grooving up enough for slicks to start working. I took a gamble and ran Gold Bar Code slicks, and this proved to be the right decision. On average, the tires were 3-4 tenths quicker. I again tq’ed the round.

In the first qualifier for 2wd, the track was a bit dry and slightly loose. I chose to run Gold Bar Codes, and took TQ by 3 seconds over Matt Castellano. By the time the second round came around, the track was dry and perfect for running slicks. I had a perfect run and went 11 seconds faster than my first run. Frank Root qualified 2nd only 3 seconds behind.

After a long day, the mains finally rolled around. In 4wd, the tone went off, and I never looked back as I took the win by half a lap over Carson Wernamont.

In 2wd, my B4.1 jumped off the start, and lead the first 2 laps until I scrubbed a pipe and allowed Root to lead for the next few laps. Chris Jarosz got by both Root and I as we both made mistakes. Jarosz lead for 3 laps until crashing and allowing me to squeeze by for the lead and never looking back. I lead the rest of the race and finished a half lap in front of Castellano in 2nd.

Cars: Associated B4.1, B44.1
Tires: JConcepts Gold Bar Codes
Body and wing: JC Finnisher, JC High Clearance Wing