6th Annual JConcepts Stock Nationals – Report
The 6th Annual JConcepts Stock Nationals were hosted by OCRC in Huntington Beach, California. With over 310 entries dedicated to pure stock racing from all classes and skill level ranging from Novice, Sportsman, and Expert some would argue this race is harder to win then the official ROAR Stock Nationals as it draws in more competition and also being based in southern California where the skill level is among the highest in the country. With the event selling out in a short amount of time, the JConcepts Stock Nationals has been one of the most anticipated races in the region.
The qualifying order was sorted by running four rounds of qualifying in 5-minute heat runs taking each driver’s best two of four rounds to sort for a lengthy 10-minute single A-final. The lower mains would see 7 and 6-minute finals to decide a “2-car bump up” to field a full 12-car main event. As hectic as that sounds, the huge size of OCRC made it very manageable in the stock classes.
As expected, the racing was top notch up and down the field and with the experience of the OCRC crew, the event ran smoothly and without any issues. It was a miracle comeback by Jake Thayer in the Expert Stock 2WD class as his first lap crash dropped the local star down to 6th ending all of Jackie’s chances for glory. Checking out early, was class TQ Kody Numendahl, but unfortunately, Numendahl would suffer from a few mistakes diminishing his lead and force Numendahl to go on the attack. After a poor start, Jackie would focus his efforts and get back into the mix and find himself once again battling for the lead. While on the 2nd to last lap, another mistake would drop Numendahl to 2nd and seal the win for Thayer as Thayer would pull off a huge comeback win against the odds. Numendahl would finish 2nd and sneaking into the final spot on the podium on the last few laps would be Blake Beyett.
Kody Numedahl would prove to be untouchable in the 13.5 4WD class. Not only claiming the class TQ, Kody would go on to win from tone to tone and do it in style with a 7-second margin. Finishing 2nd on the podium was Jake Thayer, also known as the OCRC shop manager, and Kyle Layton came in 3rd.
In the Stock Stadium Truck class, Blake Beyett would TQ and win. Using his pole position, Blake would build a gap from the field and check out letting the rest of the field to battle amongst themselves. Beyett would take the decisive win with Kyle Defatte taking 2nd and Andy Smolnik 3rd by a referee call to reverse the finishing order because of an unclean pass by Smolnik on the last lap.
Kyle Layton would set the TQ and go on to take the win from tone to tone in the Expert Stock Short Course class. Layton would put in a near perfect performance over 10 minutes of pushing his truck to the limits to take a well-deserved win. Arizona’s Kyle Davis would hold down 2nd with Florida’s Alan Wight finishing 3rd.
Source: JConcepts [jconcepts.net]
