International Offroad Carpet Championship – Report

The 2019 International Offroad Carpet Championship was held at 702 RC Raceway in Las Vegas, Nevada this past weekend. The event took place back-to-back with the International Indoor Championships the week before and adding some nice obstacles converted the indoor on-road track into a challenging off-road circuit. At this year’s IOCC, it seemed to be Broc Champlin’s weekend with his 4WD car throwing down some of the only 18-lap runs of the event. In the A1 of 4WD Mod Buggy, Broc would finish a full lap ahead of his brother Blake to take the first win. It wouldn’t be so easy in the second main. As the two were slicing and dicing through traffic, Blake had to the goods to make the pass on his brother if only his brother left an opening. Excellent defensive driving would earn Broc a second win and over all win.

4WD Modified Buggy top 5:
1. Broc Champlin
2. Blake Champlin
3. Bradley Borneill
4. Joel Eaton
5. Miklos Szabados

You would think you’re suffering from de ja vu if you watched both the 4WD and 2WD Modified Buggy classes. In addition to the Champlin brothers being the front-runners in this class, throw into the mix dad, Chris Champlin and nothing was certain. Coming fresh off his win in the 40+ Mod Buggy class, Chris wasn’t going to let his boys run away with the win that easily. Broc was once again on fire with his driving and his brother Blake in his rear view mirror the whole time. On the verge of running an 18-lap run in the A1 final, Broc solidified his position in the A2 Final with actually running 18-laps for the over all win. The Champlin’s finished 1, 2 and 3 with Blake finishing in the overall third and Chris in the overall third spot.

2WD Modified Buggy top 5 results:
1. Broc Champlin
2. Blake Champlin
3. Chris Champlin
4. Joel Eaton
5. Ryan Reavis

Everyone came to watch when the Modified Truck class was up. With a field full of talent, anyone in this class was eligible for the over all win. It was a super clean start in the A1 final with TQ Kevin Bish and 2nd qualifier Brian Perry leaving the way. The two battled fiercely at time rubbing wheels and getting tangled with each other. Sometimes running in the third position is the best place to be and this is the situation Paige Barr was in. Eventually Bish and Perry would take each other opening the door to Barr. She wouldn’t look back; she would go on to cruise to the first win. The A2 final was almost a repeat of the first one. This time Perry would get miscalculate the single before the triple letting Barr thru and on the very next lap Bish and Barr would be side by side in the rumble strip section and would touch tires sending Bish into the boards. Paige would put the pedal to the metal and increase her lead waving to the crowd she would cross the finish line for the win and over all win.

Modified Truck top 5 results:
1. Paige Barr
2. Kevin Bish
3. Brian Perry
4. Raymond Melendez
5. Mark Peterson

In 40+ 2WD Modified and when it was time young guy’s class to go up, there was a factor that had been coming up in many classes this weekend; the Champlin factor. This time it was the originator of the Champlin crew, dad Chris had a hot car to match his driving skills. It felt like the momentum was set when scored the TQ position then later this momentum carried into the finals winning the first two finals to capture the overall win. He sat out the third final for the rest of the field to fight for podium spots. Paul Wynn finished in the over all second with Oscar Spratley rounding out the top three.

40+ 2WD Modified Buggy top 5 results:
1. Chris Champlin
2. Paul Wynn
3. Oscar Spratley
4. John Cravotta
5. Jeff Snavely

It was tough competition in the 4WD 13.5 Buggy class. With equal speeds down the straightaway, it would be the best driver with the best skills to be successful. With Mike Fisk starting at the top of the grid, it would take a tremendous amount of good driving to hold back the nine other hungry drivers behind him. In the A1 main, Cole Lewton would be Fisk’s biggest challenge as the two would stay with in seconds of each other during the whole final. Just to keep things exciting, the two would finish with in a second of each other with Fisk grabbing the win. In the A2-Main, Justin Myerson managed to get Fisk’s attention. Just like in the first final, Myerson stayed with in car lengths behind Fisk’s ride with at times looking like Fisk would run away with it. Not making it that easy, Justin kept the pressure on, but Fisk was able to hold him off and took the win in the second main and over all win.

4WD 13.5 Buggy top 5 results:
1. Mike Fisk
2. Justin Myerson
3. Cole Lewton
4. John Cravotta
5. Mike Katz

Because Short Course Trucks have fenders they can race side by side with their competition swapping paint and all this makes the racing a thousand times more exciting to watch. It also helps that almost every qualifying time in this class is within seconds of each other. Justin Myerson was the leader of the Short Course 13.5 pack and the A1 main proved to be an exhibition of good clean driving throughout the duration of the race. It’s always a show of talent when you can make you’re car five cars wide and make it almost impossible to get a clean pass. Well Myerson did this beautifully and was able to hold off the charging field to score the first win. Not so fast said second qualifier Eric Bresnahan. He and Myerson ran one and two and quickly broke away from the pack. It almost looked like Myerson would be able to hold his position like in the first main, but Bresnahan pulled off a brilliant pass coming off the step down section in the middle of the track and would increase his lead from there for the A2 win. It would come down to the A3 main to decide the winner. Myerson would once again show why he was TQ and A1 winner. Clean driving and holding a tight line would earn him the A3 win and over all win.

Short Course 13.5T top 5 results:
1. Justin Myerson
2. Eric Bresnahan
3. Rudy Rosales
4. Oscar Spratley
5. Steve Hanson

The Stock Buggy 17.5 class was the biggest group of the weekend and making into the A-Main is saying something. Mikey Bustamante made this look seamlessly easy placing him into the top qualifying position for the mains. In the A1 main there was only a bit of a shuffle in the top five racers of the group as the driving was super clean. A couple of bobbles and miscalculating jumps can cost you precious seconds, which is all that Bustamante needed to stretch his lead to take the A1 win. It would be a repeat in the second final with Bustamante again keeping and stretching his lead for the over all win.

Stock Buggy 17.5 top 5 results:
1. Mikey Bustamante
2. Justin Myerson
3. Chad Eubanks
4. Mike Katz
5. Doug Lariviere

Making it into the Stock Truck main was tough and the racers that were in this group truly had talent. The A1 main start proved to be one of the cleanest of the weekend and there was literally one car length to spare between everyone with Justin Myerson leading the pack. Because these cars are so wise, puling off a clean pass was difficult. At the tone of the first main, third qualifier Eric Bresnahan drag raced to the finish with only 4-hundreths of a second of each other with Myerson coming out on top. In the A2 main, almost the identical thing would happen again with Myerson finishing on top for the over all win.

Stock Truck top 5 results:
1. Justin Myerson
2. Eric Bresnahan
3. Mikey Bustamante
4. Oscar Spratley
5. Doug Lariviere

One of the big stories in the Independent Stock Buggy class was 6 year old Tucker Eaton taking the B-Main win and scoring a spot in the A-Main final. TQ was Alex Angeles and he managed to get the spot almost putting in a 15-lap run in qualifying. His excellent driving helped him win the first two finals for the overall win and sat out the third. Out of the rest of the field, two names emerged that would be battling for the two left podium spots; Connors and Rosales. Aden Rosales and Clu Connors spent the entire finals swapping positions and with each racer scoring a 4th, a 3rd , a 2nd and a 1st, it would have to go to the books to determine the overall second and third. The books would say Aden emerged as the over all second with Clu rounding out the top three.

Independent Stock Buggy top 5 results:
1. Alex Angeles
2. Aden Rosales
3. Clu Connors
4. Chad Lewton
5. Nick Hill

Source: International Offroad Carpet Championship [carpetoffroad.com]