Full event results and lap times here
RC SPORTS TRI-OVAL CHALLENGE RACE RECAP
After a week off for a big eBay store reload, RC Sports exploded back into action on March 15th. A record 44 drivers, 86 race cars, and numerous spectators packed the house for a special Tri-Oval Challenge event. The night featured prizes and plaques for Feature race winers, additional prizes for random winners, and season points awarded for both Road-Course and Oval points series. The largest classes of the night were Spec Slash with 24 (!!) entries and Supercars with 19.
12 kids entered the Mini-Stock class, and after a crazy start, defending winner Auden Palm ran out front and won the qualifier, with first-time racer Michael Schoultz just one lap behind. In the A-Main Auden classed the field though, winning the race by 7 laps. Michael Schoultz finished his strong night with another second, and Layla Riesenweber held off another first-time racer Tom Salmi Klotz by just one second to finish 3rd. Parker Hawley finished 5th, Logan Schroeder 6th, Simon Danforth-Hill 7th, Oliver Juliar 8th, Corbin Feldkamp 9th, Keali Hawley 10th, Slayden Schroeder 11th, Grant Hasse 12th (DNF).
Shane Thomas won TQ honors with a 2-lap victory in the Mini Turbo qualifier, racing his lowered Arrma Mini Granite Grom. But Mike Karl quickly surged to the lead in the feature and led the whole race to go home with the hardware. Shane held off Ben Moore for 2nd. Travis Riesenweber finished 4th, Grant Hasse 5th, Robert Hawley 6th, Colling St. Amour 7th, Tyler Nystrom 8th.
For the first time an RC Sports class had to be split into 3 heats & mains, as 24 Spec Slash racers packed the house. Grant Jilbert jumped to an early lead but a broken part ended his qualifying race early. Skyler Schroeder then took over the lead for several laps but a late issue with the car ended his race early as well. Eventually it was Keith Schroeder who survived the race and took the first Slash Heat win. In Q2, Aiden Zwiers had the early lead before Andrew Pfluger made his way to the front with the 27T test car. Andrew kept it clean through the finish to set the new qualifying lead at 53 laps. Riley Reinke and Aiden Zwiers finished 2nd and 3rd. But the Q3 group set the bar even higher, with Ben Moore taking the TQ spot with 58 laps, followed by Kyle Schroeder and Shane Thomas. In the C-Main, Tyler Nystrom held an early lead but Grant Jilbert took over halfway through and bumped up to the B. Kyle Kallies started on the pole in the B-Main and led a couple laps, but Grant Jilbert went from last to first in just 40 seconds and took a second straight victory to bump up to the A-Main!! He finished the race with a broken part, but had it fixed up for the A-Main. Unfortunately it did not hold together and he would be forced to retire early from the main event. Ben Moore led early off the Pole position, but Mike Karl made his way to the front on lap 22, before giving way to Shane Thomas. Ben seized the lead back from Shane late, but some contact with a lapped car toppled Ben from the lead with just seconds to go. Mike Karl took over the lead once again and appeared destined for a victory, but the defending oval champion ran into some tough luck on the final lap and Ben snuck back to the lead and into the winner’s circle. Shane Thomas made a late pass for 2nd and Mike had to settle for 3rd. Dean Juliar finished 4th, Andrew Pfluger took 5th with the 27T (Green motor) truck, Keith Juliar 6th, Kyle Schroeder 7th, Anatole Wiering 8th, Grant Jilbert 9th, Kyle Kallies 10th, Travis Riesenweber 11th, Aiden Zwiers 12th, Wayne Warner 13th, Keith Schroeder 14th, Collin St. Amour 15th, Dan Riesenweber 16th, Riley Reinke 17th, Tyler Nystrom 18th, Skyler Schroeder 19th, Dean Geiger 20th, John Geiger 21st, Simon 22nd, Ethan Geiger 23rd, Dalton Langley 24th.
Mini Buggy featured 7 cars for round 3. Shane Thomas led the qualifier early with his WLToys 144001 short course build, then Mike Karl took over with his Mini-B before Anatole Wiering took a turn at the front with his Reflex 14T truggy. But then Ben Moore took over the race and went on to TQ with the spec Losi Mini-B. There were 5 lead changes in the first 6 laps of the main, but then Ted Golanka took control of the race with his candy-cane colored Mini-B. Ben made a late-race push for the front but ran out of time, and Ted Golanka went home with the Mini Buggy trophy! Ben Moore finished 2nd, defending champion Kyle Schroeder took 3rd, Anatole Wiering 4th, Shane Thomas 5th, Mike Karl 6th, Tyler Nystrom 7th.
The 19-car supercar field was split into two groups. Ted Golanka, the only current Tamiya TT driver, led Q1 early but faced heavy pressure from Andrew Pfluger and his new Kyosho Fazer kit built by Ben Moore. Ted was able to hold Andrew at bay to win the first qualifier. Q2 featured defending champion Keith Juliar in a dogfight with Ben Moore. Keith led early but Ben had the lead in the back half and went on to win by just 0.980 seconds, and score the TQ spot for the A-Main. Kyle Kallies led the B-Main early but Dean Juliar made his way all the way up to the front after a slow start and earned the bump to the A-Main. Ben Moore went on to lead wire-to-wire in the A-Main as the field shuffled repeatedly behind him. In the end, Shane Thomas took 2nd and Keith Juliar rounded out the podium. Dean Juliar finished an impressive 4th out of the B-Main, Riley Reinke 5th, Randy Kempen 6th, Ted Golanka 7th, Mike Karl 8th, Ryan Boguski 9th, Andrew Pfluger 10th, Kyle Kallies 11th, Anatole Wiering 12th, Chuck Ravey 13th, Joey Baum 14th, Collin St. Amour 15th, Corbin Schroeder 16th, Kevin Lund 17th, Dan St. Amour 18th, Tyler Nystrom 19th.
The premier Super Ten class was split up into two groups as well with 15 cars in the field. Andrew Pfluger cruised to a Q1 qualifier win with his Traxxas 4×4 Rally but class champion and points leader Randy Kempen top-qualified out of Q2 after a long battle with Shane Thomas. An action-packed B-Main saw 10 lead changes but Kyle Kallies was on top at the end and earned the transfer spot. Andrew Pfluger took over the lead a few laps into the feature and ran mostly unchallenged en route to a victory. Anatole Wiering scored second, also driving a Traxxas 4×4. Shane Thomas finished 3rd, Randy Kempen 4th, Keith Juliar 5th, Kyle Kallies 6th, Kyle Schroeder 7th, Mike Karl 8th, Dean Juliar 9th, Dan St. Amour 10th, Tyler Nystrom 11th, Corbin Feldkamp 12th, Joey Baum 13th, Ted Golanka 14th, Auden Palm 15th (DNS).
THANK YOU so much to everyone who came out and raced, spectated, and enjoyed the fun! This was by far our biggest event yet and entry counts like these spell a very optimistic future for RC Sports. This was also our 1-year anniversary race – it’s incredible how far we’ve come in just one year. Please help me keep the ball rolling and keep this awesome community growing! With so many folks joining us for racing I’d like to make some facility improvements to accommodate the big crowds, so please stay tuned if you’d to volunteer and be a part of these projects! I’d like to thank Ben Moore again for running registration, and another huge thank-you to Wayne for the awesome Kyle LeDuc body for the display truck. See you March 22nd for off-road round #4!
