Last weekend was the kickoff of the opening round of the Florida RC Championships. This series consists of 6 rounds in total and the first round took place at Triple Nickel Raceway in Bartow, FL. The event was limited to 175 entries which filled up quickly and there were 10 different classes to compete in.
Practice began at 10am on Friday morning and ran till 10pm that night under the lights.
Saturday morning the track was open again for practice from 7 to 8:30am, a brief driver’s meeting at 8:45am and then qualifying began at 9am.
Two rounds of qualifying were held that day and the race used an interesting format to determine who made the finals in each class. In each qualifier a driver’s top three consecutive laps in a row counted towards their overall qualifying position in their class. So that meant even if you broke out in a qualifier, but still put down the fastest three consecutive laps in your class that day, you still could end up as the TQ.
So when qualifying was completed a total of six laps (your best three consecutive laps per qualifier) were added up to determine who would run in the main event. The top 10 drivers were locked into the A Main and two bumps from the lower mains would be added for a total of 12 cars. Each A Main for the nitro classes ran for 25 minutes and the electric classes ran a AA format with each main running for 8 minutes except for the Novice class which ran for 6 minutes.
We had several drivers in attendance so let’s check in with the team to see how they performed starting with the premiere class, Pro Nitro Buggy.
After both qualifiers were ran, and the top six laps were calculated, team driver Lee Setser would start on the pole for the 25 minute main event!
Lee would get off to a great start and lead the field for 4 laps before he fell back to 2nd place on the 5th lap. He would continue to battle with the leader and briefly regain the lead for awhile on lap 26 but would fall short of taking back the lead for good as he got caught on the line as time expired.
Winning JConcepts products:
Lee Setser (TQ)
- Green compound Kosmos
- S15 body
- F2I wing
- Bullet wheels
- Dirt-Tech inserts
In the Pro Electric Buggy class, after two rounds of qualifying teammate Julien Oliveras would set the TQ to start 1st for the AA Mains! In A1 he would lead the pack the entire time to take the wire to wire win while Lee finished in 3rd place. In A2 Julien would lead for a lap before falling back to 2nd after his teammate Lee put a pass on him coming onto the straightaway. Julien would fall back to 3rd place by lap 8 after a mistake and eventually fall out of contention after a few more mistakes and settle for 8th place. Lee would continue to hold the lead and cross the line in 1st place. Only the driver’s best A Main counted towards the overall win and since both drivers had a win it came down to a tie breaker. After that was used the win would go to Lee since his best main was about 2.5 seconds faster than Julien!
Winning JConcepts products:
Lee Setser
- Green compound Kosmos
- S15 body
- F2I wing
- Bullet wheels
- Dirt-Tech inserts
Julien Oliveras (TQ)
- Green compound Blockers
- R2 compound ReHabs
- Silencer body
- F2I wing
- Bullet wheels
- Dirt-Tech inserts
In the 40+ Electric Buggy class it was JConcepts driver Carlos Segui leading the way as he secured the pole position for the mains! In A1 he would lead the pack until 2nd place unfortunately bumped into him and he got hung up on the pipe. By the time he crossed the line he had fallen back to 8th place but would slowly climb his way back towards the front and end up 3rd overall. Teamate Carl Lebo would take the win in A1 setting up a showdown in A2. When the tone sounded Carlos got off to a good start and would lead the field for the opening 7 laps. He would fall back to 3rd place on lap 8 but was not out of contention and by lap 18 he took back the lead for good to capture A2. Carl would finish right behind him in 2nd place so we had to go to another tie breaker and Carlos was awarded the win since he was able to put in one more lap in his A2 main!
Winning JConcepts products:
Carlos Segui (TQ)
- Blue compound Stalkers
- Green compound Lil Chasers
- F2I wing
Carl Lebo
- Green and Black compound Kosmos
- Green compound Blockers
- Silencer body
In the Open Electric Truggy class Carlos would secure his 2nd TQ of the weekend! In A1 he would lead the field on the 1st lap but on lap 2 he would get tangled with the 2nd place car leading into a triple and crash into the infield. He would marshal himself back onto the track but by the time he crossed the loop he had fallen back to 7th place and eventually had to pull out of the race by lap 13. His teammate Tony Rivas would lead the charge for the team as he lead for most of the main starting on lap 4 but briefly lost the lead on lap 15 before coming back to take the win on the final lap! In A2 Carlos would lead the field again for the opening 3 laps before he made a small mistake on the infield on lap 4 which dropped him to 3rd place. That allowed Tony to take the lead and he and Carlos would battle for the win for the rest of the way. They both raced for the line and Tony narrowly defeated Carlos by 0.644 seconds! With the double win that locked Tony into 1st place for this class with Carlos finishing 3rd on the podium!
Winning JConcepts products:
Tony Rivas
- Green compound Triple Dees
- Bullet wheels
- Dirt-Tech inserts
- F2I wing
- Fin 1/8th Serrated Light-weight Wheel Nut
Carlos Segui (TQ)
- Green compound Reflex
- Finnisher body
Round 2 of this series will take place on March 20th at Mills Pond RC Speedway in Fort Lauderdale, FL.
Photo credits: Triple Nickel Raceway