The 2018 season has gotten underway with my first trip to the January Jam at Flowood R/C in Flowood, Mississippi. At this event I decided to run 3 buggy classes for the first time as I wanted to help promote the new Tekno EB410 as well as my 1/8th buggies. This meant my Truggy had to sit this one out, but it will be back again in a week and a half for the SIC. The layout this year was a lot of fun and it kept you busy with really no time to relax. Lots of lefts and rights made it hard to pass but it kept you on your toes and it was a lot of fun I thought.Â
For most of the event I was using Clay typo’s in my 1/8th buggies and Clay Chainlink / X-Link in my 1/10th buggy. These tires were great and had lots of grip so long as I could stay in the groove. Knowing they wouldn’t last my Nitro final however I decided to try clay chainlinks in Q3 of Nitro buggy. They weren’t as good with the taller pin compared to the typo’s though. During qualifying I would take the overall TQ in all 3 classes on Saturday which was a nice birthday present for me. Now I had a decision to make for main day and what tires I would be running in Nitro buggy.
I had limited supply of Clay typo’s and I had to make them last and hopefully win the first two A-mains in E-buggy else I didn’t know what I would run in A3. I had a great first run in A1 taking a big win. In A2 though on my lower treaded tires were making my car a bit hard to drive and I made a couple mistakes and Jake got by me. I would catch him and a couple times he stuffed the pipe right in front of me and I would get the worst of it. Other times I caught up only to crash on my own. On the second to last lap though Jake got caught in an upside down car and flipped over, as I came through the section I got flipped over by the marshalls foot but he marshaled me first and I came away with the win. Not the way I would have wanted it to happen but that’s racing as they say. So with the A1 and A2 wins I was able to win the overall in E-buggy. I decided to run A3 to test tires for the Nitro buggy main. I put on Super Soft Long Wear impacts, which are my go to tires anymore. They felt good and my laptimes were still good so I mounted up a fresh set for the 30 minute Nitro buggy main to finish out the day.Â
In the 1/10th buggy class I would have a commanding victory in A1 but in A2 I hit some marbles and broke a tie-rod in warmup. I didn’t have enough time to get back on the track so I got my car prepared for A3. In A3 I had another solid run taking the win and the overall in 1/10th 4wd Mod. I ran Clay Chainlink in front and Clay X-Link in the rear.
The last race of the day was the Nitro buggy 30 minute final. I chose to run the AKA Super Soft long wear double downs as I was out of impacts it seemed. They felt great though on the grooved track and my car was on rails. I got out to a quick lead and just pulled away from the field. My car was pivoting amazingly through the corners and everything was working great. I got a 1 lap lead before the 10 minute mark and was able to bring it home with a 3 lap margin of victory by the end of the run.
Overall I had a great time at the January Jam. It’s always good to see my friends in Flowood and have a good time racing. I got my 2018 off to a strong start and looking to keep the momentum going as I had to Alabama in a week + for the SIC event!
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