Area 52 Pacific Northwest Short Course Shootout

It was high noon at Area 52 RC Ranch Raceway in Carnation, Washington. Their first annual Pacific Northwest Short Course shootout was held on October 2nd with a total of 50 entries and sponsored by Hobbytown USA in Redmond, Radio Controlled Hobbies in Woodinville, The Driver Stand.com, Proline, JConcepts and of course Boca Bearings. The 2WD Mod class had both Sean Maybell and Justin Gilkson taking the top qualifier spot for their groups. So it came down to the 11 car main where some flawless driving brought Sean Maybell the win with his insanity motors, Associated SC10. Jon Devine with his Trinity powered SC10 pulled in second and Justin finished third.

Dale Fery made the trek from Oregon and made sure he went home a winner as he qualified 1st then finished 1st in the 2WD stock main. The race for second in the main came down to the last lap as Mark Rodrigues fumbled slightly on the table top, which allowed Joseph Teubner to catch him to finish second finished while Mark Rodrigues finished third.

The best fender to fender battle was given to the 4WD class as it made the closest finish ever at Area 52. Group 1 qualifiers were just dominated by Justin Gilkson as his fastest qualifier time was 43.3 seconds on the large 1/8th scale track. Group 2 saw Jon Devine coming in with a time of 42.6. It came down to the main where the lead between Erin Carroll who is the current Roar regional champ for region 11 and Justin Gilkson right to the wire. In a move to try to push his car over the line Justin who had a battery dump on him tried to maneuver in front of Erin who just got on the throttle and pushed right past Justin in the closest finish Area 52 has ever seen with Jon Devine not far behind in third.

Overall it was a great day of racing at Area 52. The all together A main made racing just that much more fun as everyone went home with big smiles on their faces.

Thanks to Mark Rodrigues for the report.