Event: Battle in the Desert
Track: Competition Hobbies
Date: May 20, 2012
Race Reporter: Richard Lake
The 1st round for the 2nd Annual Battle in the Desert Off-road Championship Series was hosted by Competition Hobbies. This six race series alternates between Competition Hobbies and Scottsdale RC Speedway. The series runs through August 4th. With just over 95 entries for the opening round the racing was going to be awesome. Added at the last minute was the Sportsman Short Course division. So with classes starting with Novice to Sportsman to Expert, there were certainly enough offerings to get your race going.
Qualifying opened straight up at 12:00 Noon with the Novice division. Leading off the charge was Ian Moller with his SC10FT. In the Sportmans Short Course division Jake Yubeta was the man everyone was hunting down. In Sportsman stock buggy Chris Wamsley showed he had the lines down consistently. Moving into the Expert division Humpty Helms eeeked out Richard Lake by 4/100ths of a second for the TQ in buggy. In Expert Short Course it was Brandon Fox leading the way. Stadium Truck had Jan Moller taking the honours of TQ. In the 2wd Modified division Brian Kinwald showed why he is consistently the man to beat. Short Course 4wd was again Bradon Fox taking the TQ. 4wd modified saw the Tamiya Factory driver Mac Mitchell take the TQ honor. With 16 heats of qualifying per round in the books it was main time….
In the Novice class Ian Moller and Travis Mattix had the battle of the day swapping positions at least 8-10 times throughout the race. In the end Ian prevailed and took home the win in the Novice class.
Ian Moller 1st, Travis Mattix 2nd, Javier Olmo 3rd, Andy Pitstick 4th and Tamra Beaver 5th
In the Stadium truck class we started the day with 5 entries. At the start of the race Jan Moller took an early lead, but had some issues with the step on/step off. This allowed Joe Capps to take the lead and never look back.
Joe Capps 1st, Bert Jones 2nd, Jan Moller 3rd, Darrell Forrest 4th and Brian Davis 5th.
Sportman Stock Buggy Chris Wamsley took off to a decent lead and stretched it over the full 10 minutes, putting a lap on older brother Brandon in second. Tight battle between Nathan Chase and Brandon Wamsley at the ½ way mark then trouble hit Nathan and he had to retire back the 4th spot. Sean Geerdes bumped from the B final to finish in the 5th spot.
Chris Wamsley 1st, Brandon Wamsley 2nd, Jake Yubeta 3rd, Nathan Chase 4th, Sean Geerdes 5th.
Sportsman Stock Short Course, TQ Jake Yubeta shot out at the start and was gone. Taylor Spencer and Ashe Deering had a great battle in the pack for 2nd and 3rd.
Jake Yubeta 1st, Taylor Spencer 2nd, Ashe Deering 3rd, Sean Geerdes 4th, Nick Markolis 5th.
Exp Stk Buggy Tq Humpty Helms took off like a rocket with the field in tow. Half way thru the race Helms still in the lead, Lake in 2nd, Stocum in 3rd. As the time wound down, Stocum gets by Lake and finishes less than a second back with Lake another 4 back.
Helms 1st, Stocum 2nd, Lake 3rd, Russell 4th, Stanger 5th.
2wd Modified, Brian Kinwald leads out from Tq, Charles Hicks and Sean Bray get together over the step on/step off. Richard Lake moves into second with Tanner Denny, Hicks and Bray following. All drivers dipping into the low 20 second range even some doing 19’s. Awesome driving from everyone.
Kinwald 1st, Lake 2nd, Hicks 3rd, Bray 4th, Denney 5th.
Exp Stock Short Course TQ Brandon Fox jumped off the line to take the lead early on in the race. Humpty and Pedersoli battled for position, allowing Mike Beaver to get away in 2nd. Half way into the race Helms starts closing the gap on Beaver. At the 8 minute mark Helms makes his way past Beaver for the 2nd spot.
Fox 1st, Helms 2nd, Beaver 3rd, Pedersoli 4th, Nick Beaver 5th.
Short Course 4wd TQ Brandon Fox leads out early on, Justin Miller follows in 2nd. Stanger, Beaver and Johnson locked into battle for the 3rd spot. Final ended with Fox cruising to a 7 second lead over Miller.
Fox 1st, Miller 2nd, Stanger 3rd, Beaver 4th, Johnson 5th
4wd Open, TQ Mac Mitchell leads out over Stanger, gets sideways coming onto the straight and Stanger is able to move inside. Both battle for about 3 laps, then Stanger starts clicking off the laps finishing a lap up on the field. Mitchell and Johnson battle it out for 2nd with Mitchell finishing 5 seconds up on Johnson.
Stanger 1st, Mitchell 2nd, Johnson 3rd, Wells 4th, Ficke 5th.
