TNR Arena Cross (Norco, CA)

I was able to head west for the TNR A-main Challenge and brought along my primary 3 Kyosho race vehicles. The turnout was more manageable (304 entires) than the January race and we got all of our qualifiers and longer mains in. The pro turnout was lower leaving just A-mains in each class, but I had my work cut out for me battling with the California young guns who are getting faster and faster.

I came in knowing the surface better and having better starting set-ups and a better idea what I needed to do with tires. Truggy was pretty straight forward with Mach Ones in SSLW and then Super Mini in the Main in Soft. In buggy I was primarily on Soft Mach One and when I felt I needed more steering I would do Soft Triad in the front and Mach One in the rear.

Qualifying wasn't my best results, as I was close in truggy but came up 2nd every run which actually put me 4th overall. I needed a bit more power in truggy and found it in the final qualifier by removing a 0.1 head shim in my new Alpha Black Falcon and it got me the added grunt I needed on this big track.

In ebuggy I was my most competitive with the new MP11e. I had another pair of 2's but this time it would allow me to qualify 2nd overall. In nitro buggy I was plagued with some bad quals and unfortunate mistakes which would have me starting 8th.

Come main time I felt I was going to be able to make the right tire choice and a couple small set-up changes to get the comfort I needed to battle at the top.

Nitro buggy was up first and I chose to try radioactive compound in Triumph that we were testing. They had good pace and were easy to drive and I quickly moved through the field and briefly got into 2nd. But I had an issue after that that required a tire change and I fell back to 4th on my final stop but I was able to get into 3rd on the last lap to round out the podium.

Ebuggy was next and it was nice starting from the #2 position. I followed the leader for a few corners until he made a mistake in the top left and I got into the lead. I for sure chose the right tire and compound for this run with Yellow (Soft) Triad front and Mach one in the rear. My pace was nearly a second faster than the field and I was able to sail off into the sunset in this one and take the victory.

Finally was the nitro truggy main and their were only 6 of us for the 25min affair. I ran soft Super Mini and they were super good. I had a great start and moved into first in the first two laps and then the race got called back because the computer crashed. So we had about a 10min delay and started up again. With about 2 min before we started again my pit guy noticed my tank was spewing smoke when gave throttle. Turns out my tank lid/seal had gone bad, but there wasn't enough time to fix it. So I just went with it and my engine went pretty lean, so I tried to see if I could utilize that leanness and take out a pit stop to get an advantage. Unfortunately it seems the tank was also leaking and so I ran out super early at 7 when I was planning on going over 9. Fortuantely it happened right in front of pit lane and so I only lost about 20 seconds. But this allowed the leader to get away and I would be able to come out and do my best and get back into 2nd and be about 18 seconds back in the end. It was good to have pace but unfortunate having that tank issue.

All in all a good event I now look forward to the Wonderful Weekend as my next bigger race on the calendar.