| Race: Points Race #13 Date: 10-23-2005 Location: Richmond, Va. Track: 360 West Shopping Center Temperature: 67°F |
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Cool temperatures and sunny skies were the norm of the day. The thirteenth race of the series promised to be a great day.
Club members started track setup early and with the usual layout (see below) being employed, practice was started.
After practice was concluded, a brief drivers meeting was held as well as a short club meeting for officer nominations.
Once that was completed qualifying order was posted and drivers started preparing their cars.
![]() Qualifying: Topping the 1/8th scale class was Mark Poore with his 4th pole in a row. In the Touring Classes, Pro saw Mike Keely take the top honors while Paul Knab earned the number one position in the Sport division. The Electric Division's pole sitter was John Laster. Tommy Ingram showed the way in Nitro Truck, while Aaron Bartlett secured his eleventh pole of the season in Monster Truck.
1/10th Touring Pro B: First on the track was the B-Main of Nitro Touring Pro. Tony Carthon headed this group at the buzzer with David Basl, Feb Caronongan, Terrance Brown, and Sean Tabor in tow. Stan Medlin and Terry Goodwin were drivers that failed to make the start. After the first few laps the cars spread out somewhat and Sean Tabor started to go on a tear. He quickly moved past David and Terrance then chased down Tony a lap later. After clearing those drivers Sean set a pace that Tony found hard to match. Terrance ran into trouble early on and never became a factor as he lost many laps in the pits. When the smoke cleared Sean would get the bump up to the A-main, Feb would make the move for second past Tony, who had late race trouble and was forced into the pits just a minute from the end relegating him to third. Terrance was fighting back hard and was rewarded with fourth followed by Dave who failed to finish. 1/8th A-Main: The 1/8th Scale Class had at the asphalt next and had one of the most thrilling battles of the day. After the LeMans start Mike Bowman quickly dispatched with second place John Laster and moved in behind Mark Poore. Within just a few laps Mike made his move and bumped Mark Back to second. Mark content with following Mike, shadowed him for several laps before both drivers had to deal with traffic. Mike moved through and around the cars of Travis Johnson, Tim Aberg, Stan Medlin, and past Kevin Randolph a few laps later. Mark wasn't as lucky and got caught up in traffic, losing considerable time. Once clear of traffic, Mark was able to quickly close the gap back up to Mike before getting caught up with another back marker causing more lost time. Once again as Mark cleared traffic he drove his machine back up behind Bowman. This time though Mark made a quick move and went back into the lead. Mike and Mark swapped the lead back and forth a few times before Mike got hung up and Mark drove off. After fuel stops Mark had moved out to a two lap lead over second and appeared to be off to another win. Then something happened. As he made the turn under the scoring bridge something came flying out of the car. I spy a dog bone. From this point on Mark went backwards. Quickly making up ground were John Laster and Terrance Brown who had been running a very respectable pace but could keep up with the leaders. When all was done, John secured the win with Terrance passing Mark for second just thirty seconds from the end. Stan was awarded fourth with a solid run followed by Mike, Tim, Kevin, and Travis. 1/10th Electric: Electric Touring saw John Laster get some competition in the form of Kevin Randolph. Kevin got the hole shot but John quickly recovered to take the lead. Joe Harler might have been a factor but his car failed sending him to the pits early. Tony Carthon gave chase but was just a tick off and couldn't keep up as his batteries started dumping early. Tommy and Angie Ingram both had excellent cars and drove well. Tommy bested her by one lap in the end as John took his ninth win of the year. Kevin followed in second, Tony in third, Tommy fourth, Angie fifth, and Joe rounded out the field. Nitro Truck: Tommy Ingram led the field under the bridge for the first lap but Joe Harler had another thing in mind. On lap three Joe decided to make the move to first and never looked back from there. Tommy meanwhile found himself with a controller full of truck that was being a little difficult to handle and had his dad, Earl Ingram, breathing down his rear tires. Ryan Warren while still getting use to his truck was making great strides toward a good competitive finish. When the time expired Joe had earned another victory with Tommy in second, Earl in third and Ryan rounded out the field. 1/10th Touring Sport: Nitro Touring Sport has become one of the most competitive classes of the event. This is an entry level class into nitro cars but most drivers at this point in the season could do just as well in the Pro class. Pole sitter Paul Knab led the field through under the bridge in full song as Craig Jones, Aaron Bartlett, Lamont Dunson, Joe Harler, and Devon Darby followed in close pursuit. Craig was the first to make his move passing Aaron and bringing Lamont with him but was soon overtaken in the straight-away as they couldn't match Aaron's acceleration. Behind them Joe had his hands full with Devon but soon could breath with a sigh of relief as Devon suffered a race ending failure and retired at six. Joe would also suffer a similar fate on lap eighteen just short of the first fuel stop. Paul suffered the next failure and retired at the thirteen minute mark. Back up front the leaders started having flame out problems and it seemed that the fastest pitman would win the race. Positions changed with each flameout and in the end Aaron would get the win followed by Lamont and Craig in that order. Paul turned in enough laps for fourth followed by Joe, Devon, and Eric Simpson who did not start. 1/10th Touring Pro A: This race was equally exciting as most of the drivers were in contention until late in the race. With the starting tone Mike Keely led the drivers off into the first corner with them jockeying for position from almost the outset. The field soon broke up into two packs. The first group consisted of Mike, Sean Tabor, John Laster, Bobby Watson, and Mike Bowman. The second group contained the drivers Darrell Hurlind, Darnell Washington, John Pritchitt, Nelly Cruz, and Tim Aberg. John was the fist driver to run into trouble right at the first fuel stop. He didn't return. The front pack continued to battle with positions swapping so often that it was hard to keep up with. With fuel stops entering into the mix the field was spread out somewhat but after a few minutes they once again were in a tight pack. Just short of the third fuel stop Nelly would fall victim to mechanical gremlins and not return. Next to have trouble was Darnell followed by Darrell just two laps later. This thinned out the rear pack and left only Tim and Bobby, who had lost touch with the front group, to do battle. Mike Bowman was next to run into trouble as his car had finally had enough a decided to pack it in for the day. Back up front Sean Tabor made the move in the closing minutes to oust Laster from the top spot as they finished Sean, John Laster, Mike Keely, Bobby, Tim, Mike Bowman, Darrell, Darnell, Nelly and John Pritchett. Nitro Monster Truck: Last up, Monster Nitro Trucks. With Cleveland Bey not starting the event Aaron Bartlett would run only two laps and secure his ninth win of the year.
With a few classes still up for grabs it will be a interesting finish to the points series. Make sure your there.
Hope to see you there. Until then, ---Mark Poore |