A little over a week back now I travel to South Texas to the now World Famous Thornhill Racing Circuit. Levi Jackson was on hand to build the track and assist with his event called the Battle of the Sikest. Over 240 entries were on hand to battle it out on the covered 1/8th track and Joe and I were set yet again for another great teammate battle all weekend long.
On Thursday Joe and I put on a driver clinic for about 20 attendees. I think it went pretty well as we shared some of our knowledge and answered any questions presented as best we could. Then we took to the track to try out some of their cars and provide pointers on driving lines or set-up changes they could work on.
Friday would start regular practice and I spent most of the time running my Tekno NB48.4. I had come with a LutzRC Pro Build car that I turned into my race car. It had the kit universals and for this track I wanted a bit more support and a little more steering. A quick change for those characteristics is to go to the Tekno CVD’s . After doing that I pretty much just focused on driving and trying out a few different AKA tires. I kept my focus on Impacts which are my go to anymore and I tried both Super Soft and Super Soft Long Wear. The long wear ended up being my go to as we entered qualifying as the track had some good speed and I wanted the slightly greater support of the LW compound over the regular SS.
Qualifying would be great for me as I would take 7 of the 9 rounds overall and take the overall TQ in all 3 classes. Joe would get me in Q3 of Ebuggy and Truggy and overall we were super close all day throughout the quals. The mains were set up to be super competitive.
Ebuggy A1 was up first and it would be a double A-main format. On the first lap I would make mistakes through the tricky double double double section allowing over half the field to get by. I quickly moved back into 3rd and soon was in a couple lap battle with Dellinger. He held tight lines for a couple of laps holding me at bay but I made an inside pass on the left side of the track to get into 3rd and a few seconds behind Joe. I started to make a move to inch closer to Joe. With about 2 minutes left I was on his bumper and he stuffed a pipe right in front of me pulling me in with him. He got out better and had a 2 second lead again and he would beat me to the finish line. I told him the best thing he did that whole race was to crash! haha. So the battle was set for A2.
The next main up was truggy and I thought it would be a close one. At the start I just didn’t want to make a mistake like I did in Ebuggy. I made good on that and had a clean start and just worked some truggy magic. My Blok powered Tekno NT48.3 was dialed in and my Soft Long Wear impacts were the right choice for the now grooved up track surface. I quickly got out to a 5 second lead a few minutes in and just never let off. I continued to extend as the 30 minute final went on and in the end came away with about a 3/4 of a lap win over Joe.
Next up was the Nitro buggy 45 minute main. My NB48.4 was on point and running really really well this weekend. My Blok 21aM engine was singing and my soft long wear zips were installed for this long main event. At the tone I took off much like I did in truggy. My buggy felt great and I just started to pull away putting in a clean run. Mid race I put a lap on the field and set out on another. With about 5 minutes to go I had 2 laps on the field and in the end would finish nearly 2.5 laps up on the competition. I ran a clean 45 minute race with no real crash to speak of. I have very few runs like that in my career so it felt good to stay focused and running well the entire 45 minutes!
The final race of the day was the Ebuggy A2. This time I made sure to get through the tricky section unscathed but I still made a mistake later on. Joe got by and I thought that was the end of it. But he started making some uncharacteristic mistakes and I got by and then into a huge lead as he says he forgot how to drive for a couple minutes. This gave me all the cushion I needed to take a 10 second or so victory and thus secure the overall for the Trifecta!
I had a great time at the event and I always enjoy Levi’s track building. I always seem to do really well at his events and on his layout. (I hear he may build the Nationals layout in 2018, so looking forward to that!