January Jam 2017 @ Flowood RC

This year I will be writing a little different by including my teammate Joe Bornhorst in a lot of my recaps. Joe and I have put a wager on our season and I’ll explain that at the bottom of this post. First let’s recap the just concluded January Jam held in the icy state of Mississippi. With temps dipping below freezing and a super rare winter blast making roads and parking lots a sheet of ice, we were glad our racing was indoors. I was also glad salt trucks don’t exist in Mississippi as I got to practice my ebrake donuts in some empty parking lots in the rental car which was fun!

On to the racing which started with practice on Friday. We were running our standard 3 cars, being the Nitro buggy and truggy, as well as Ebuggy, with the new EB48.4. We spent the day dialing in our cars and figuring out the tire situation as the track was a bit slicker than usual being a totally fresh layout. All said and done we felt good at the end of the day and headed out to Habachi for dinner to celebrate my birthday. However seems they really don’t like to drive in snow and ice and nearly all businesses were closed. Only thing we found open was a Mexican restaurant, so I got to wear a sombrero and throw some whipped cream at Joe as my birthday dinner. Not my first choice but better than nothing.

Qualifying day was up next and we were told we could only double into the front option lane instead of doing the 5-2 we had been practicing. So for the nitro classes we had to learn to double triple double, and in Ebuggy we would double quint out. Joe and I were battling the entire time for TQ honors for the event. I would take the first two rounds of Ebuggy to secure the TQ. In Nitro Joe would take Q1 of truggy as I came back and got Nitro buggy. In Q2 we switched places in those classes thus setting up a Q3 battle for TQ. It didn’t end up being much of a battle though as I would make early mistakes in both, and Joe put in solid runs to take the TQ in the Nitro classes.

On main day we had a double A on tap for Ebuggy and 30min mains for Nitros. In Ebuggy we would battle for the first couple laps with Joe getting by as I got in the loose stuff out of the groove. He led as I tailed right behind until we caught traffic and he got gobbled up, and I found the clean way around and into a commanding lead. In the end stretching out to a 20 second or so victory. In A2 we again had a close first couple laps until I made a mistake trying to run together putting me upside down and into 10th or so. I quickly moved back into 2nd but a good number of seconds back. We stayed clean until the final minutes when Joe had some mistakes and I caught right up to his backside but missed the loop for the last lap by .1 tenth. However with combined laps and times I took the overall victory.

Nitro truggy was next and I wish I could say it was a battle, but it really wasn’t. Joe put on a clinic and I just didn’t have the comfort I’m used to feeling and he ended up with a lap victory as I came in 2nd. My positive for the race was doing 10 minute pit stops, and only taking about 110cc on each of them! Pretty awesome and I can’t wait to hit the next race!

Nitro buggy was the final race of the day and the most entertaining. We again got off to a close start swapping the lead a couple times before I again made a bigger mistake. I then had a terrible lap with 3 crashes as the track was developing some character with some bumps as well as some dust. My AKA Clay Typos were awesome in the groove but in the dust I had to be careful. Joe got out to a 10 second plus lead halfway through and I really thought he had it in the bag. But nearing the final 5 minutes he made some mistakes as his tires were making it hard for him to drive and I was able to catch up and put in a pass. I could feel something going out in my steering and was just praying it would stay together to finish the race, and fortunately with Joe pushing hard behind me he made another bobble or two giving me the cushion I needed to bring home the bacon.

So overall another Tekno sweep. I was able to come away with TQ and Win in Ebuggy as well as Victory in Nitro buggy and 2nd in Truggy.

Now on to the competition Joe and I have bet on. We bet each other $100 on whoever has the better season result total. Points will be calculated on events we attend together. Finishing position is worth that amount of points and TQ is -1 point. So for this event we are tied with 3 points each. I will keep track at the bottom of each blog post much like I did with the Tekno tally in the past.

Next up for us is the Southern Indoor Championships in 2 weeks! Looking to defend my sweep of the event!

Teammate Showdown:

Ryan: 3

Joe: 3