This past weekend Palm Desert RC Raceway in Palm Desert, CA hosted Round 5 of the JBRL (Jimmy Babcock Racing League) 1/8 Off-Road Series.
There were 172 entries competing in 11 different classes for this most recent round. The event kicked off on Friday with practice running from 11am to 8pm that night.
Then on Saturday morning the opening round of qualifying started just after 8:30am. There were two rounds of qualifying and only a driver’s best finish would be used to determine who made the main events.
The top 10 drivers based on qualifying were locked into the A Mains. The top two finishers of the B Main would bump up into the A group for a total of 12 cars in the A Main event.
If a class had less than 12 cars then everyone made the main, and the Rookie class also used a AA format for all 10 entries. All of the nitro classes ran a 15 minute A Main while the electric classes ran for a total of 10 minutes in each main. The lower mains ran for 12 minutes in nitro and eight in electric, and both Rookie mains ran for seven minutes each.
Leading the way for the JConcepts team was JC driver Adam Drake. He competed in three different classes at this recent round of the JBRL, and he qualified 2nd in Open 1/8 Nitro Truggy, 3rd in Open 1/8 Electric Buggy and grabbed the TQ in Expert 1/8 Nitro Buggy!
Starting with truggy he would run in 2nd place for the opening 10 laps of the A Main before he took over the lead for good on lap 11! He would cross the line before the tone sounded to earn a bonus lap as he collected his first win of the weekend!
Team products used:
- 3125 – Green compound Reflex 1/8 truggy tire
- 0453 – S15 1/8 truck body
- 3369 – Mono 1/8 truggy wheels
- 2800 – F2I 1/8 buggy and truggy wing
Up next for Adam was the open e buggy main event. On the opening lap he would fall back to 4th place before jumping up to 3rd again the next lap. He would take over 2nd place on lap four before leaping to the lead on lap six. He would fall back to 2nd place on lap 10 and stay in that spot for the next 14 laps before jumping back in the lead on lap 24. It came down to a photo finish as he battled to hold onto the lead, and he would just cross the finish line ahead of second place to take the win by 0.188 seconds!
Team products used:
- 3121 – Green compound Reflex 1/8 buggy tire
- 0387 – S15 Mugen MBX-8 body
- 3357 – Mono 1/8 buggy wheels
- 2800 – F2I 1/8 buggy and truggy wing
The final race of the event was the Expert 1/8 Nitro Buggy A Main. On the opening lap Adam would find himself in 3rd place, but he quickly moved up to 2nd by lap four. On lap 9 he would take over the lead for good, and he finished the race with a comfortable 18 second lead for his 3rd W of the weekend!
Team products used:
- 3121 – Green compound Reflex 1/8 buggy tire
- 0387 – S15 Mugen MBX-8 body
- 3357 – Mono 1/8 buggy wheels
- 2998 – Razor 1/8 buggy and truggy wing
- 2584T – Mugen MBX-8 Fin Titanium Turnbuckle Set
The next round of the JBRL 1/8 Off-Road Series takes place at Hot Rod Hobbies in Saugus, CA on October 28th. Please visit jimmybabcock.com for more information.
Photo credits: JBRL