Frank Root wins at JBRL Electric Rd3
Frank Root reports that the Jimmy Babcock Racing League was back in session last Sunday, and with only 2 weeks since the last round, everyone were all still in electric mode and ready to go. Hot Rod Hobbies, home of the Off-Road Shootout, hosted round 3 and with the traditional high bite blue-groove and a fresh smooth layout, the cars would be flying. The layout was one of my all-time favorites, fast and flowing, yet still technically challenging. The signature to the track was the flat out banked turn at the end of the front straight, where just about all drivers would ride the top of the bank at full throttle with smiles on their faces.
Team Losi Racing Team Drivers Ryan Dunford, Doug ‘Casper’ Nielson, Aaron Lane, Keith Whisler, and I (Frank Root) were all on hand ready enjoy the fun layout and post some top results. I was running 4wd Mod, 2wd Mod and 1/8 Electric, and after a productive day of practice on Saturday was ready to battle on Sunday.
First up was 4wd Mod, and my XXX-4 G was good from the time I arrived. The track had good bite from the first start, and after a quick time was set in heat 1, I was able to best it out by a few seconds to come out of round 1 with a new TQ. In the second round, a bit more rubber was on the track, and the pace had increased by a bit. Again, a new TQ was set in heat 1, and in heat 2 I was on a solid TQ run but had a mechanical issue retire me from the race, my error. So I was set to start 2nd on the grid. At the sound of the tone I quickly pulled up on the back door of the leader, and on the first lap after the last switch back coming on the straight, I made a pass for the lead. It was a lead I would never surrender, and would take the win by a comfortable margin. This was my 3rd A-Main win in the first 3 rounds!
The next class was up was 2wd Mod. Again, my XXX-CR was awesome, especially since I switched over to Dustin Evans setup, tons of corner speed and very easy to drive. Unfortunately, I was unable to run round 1 after I broke in warm-up (driver error…oops!). With a quick TQ set in round 1, I knew it would take a great run in round 2 to grab the TQ point away. I had a little bobble early, but they settled into a great rhythm and took the TQ spot by 1 second! In the main, my XXX-CR was awesome again, and I was able to hold off the challengers early on and cruised home late to take the A-Mains victory. This was my first 2wd A-main win this year, and helped tighten up the points battle.
I also ran Electric 1/8 Scale, and the 8ight-E 2.0 was awesome. I took the TQ in the first round with a clean run and some fast laps. The track was again faster in round 2, and some altercations with lapped traffic took me out of contention to retain the TQ, but I would still start 2nd on the grid. At the sound of the tone, I got off to a clean start, closely following the leader. After a few laps, I crashed, lost touch with the leader, but was able to maintain 2nd place, and cruise home to a strong points finish.
We had another great and fun day of racing at the JBRL. Thanks to Jimmy Babcock, his entire crew, and all the Team Losi Racing drivers and customers for a great day of racing!
Source: Losi [losi.com]
