Central New York  R/C Racers traveled to Harrisburg, PA for the annual Motorama Expo at the Farm Show Complex. There were over 700 entries from around the country at this year’s event looking to get noticed, or to add to their already shiny resume. CNY was well represented at this year’s race with the likes of Dave Compton, Dan Holcomb, Jarodd Goedel, Lewis Brown, and RC Soup’s Kevin Crandall and Matt Peterson.  Frank and Mark Calandra from CRC Raceway in Rome, NY also made the journey to Motorama looking to compete in some good off-road racing.

Frank and Mark Calandra

Early Friday morning all of the competitors started filing in, setting up their tables and pit areas for the weekend’s race program. Friday’s events started with controlled practice for all classes on both the 1/8th scale track as well as the 1/10th scale clay track. Practice rounds seeded the heats for Saturday, they took the best 3 consecutive laps completed. The Calandra Brothers fared pretty good getting put in the A-B main heats. Frank in 4×4 Mod SC and Mark in the 2 wheel Mod SC class. Compton & Holcomb were seated mid pack in both 2 wheel Mod SC and 4×4 Mod SC classes. Team Soup also had respectable runs placing them in the upper third of Saturday’s qualifying events. They were running Stock SC class.

Early Saturday morning the doors opened for the competitors to begin their long day of qualifying. On the 1/8th scale track there were 3 rounds with 38 races per round. At the same time next door at the 1/10th scale track over twenty heat races were being run with  three rounds each.

All of the racers were scrambling to find the correct tire combo for the days events. JConcepts had a booth setup on site and they were busy all weekend helping everybody make the right tire selection for both tracks. The clay track started out with guys running almost slicks, and as the weekend went on they ended up running (Barcodes) from JConcepts. Over at the 1/8th scale track we saw all kinds of tires and foams being tried on the Short Course Trucks. The track began blowing out developing some significant holes in the corners, making it hard to race wheel to wheel without contact.

After the first two rounds everybody was pretty much locked into their mains for Sunday. Mark Calandra put himself into the A-main in 2 wheel Mod SC with his brother Frank  looking good in both 2 wheel Stock SC, as well as 4×4 Mod SC starting in the B-main for both.

Matt Peterson found himself in the D-main for stock 2 wheel SC with teammate Crandall locked in the F-main. Each one had a good showing so far at their first Motorama.  Jarrodd Goedel had a good day putting his 2 wheel SC truck solidly into the A-main. Canalside Racing teammate Lewis Brown was in the R-main in 4wd Mod SC.

Jarodd Goedel

After a long day at the races Saturday, the racers went back to their hotel rooms to try and get a few hours of shut-eye before they had to go back and do it all over again on Sunday. The doors opened at 7:30 Sunday morning with the days schedule full of mains on both tracks. The 1/8th track had 58 feature events to run and the 1/10th scale track would be running 27 mains to finish off this year’s Motorama. Dave Compton had a great run in his K- main for 4×4 mod class. Dave worked his way up to the second spot putting him in the bump spot to move into the J- main. Then in the J-main Compton raced his (CRC, Hobbywing, Silentshots Photography and Dumpers Speedshop sponsored Losi) up to third just one spot from bumping up again. Dave was happy with his performance over all in 4×4 Mod. Compton ended up with a strong run in 2 wheel Mod as well with a 8th place finish in the D-main. Holcomb also had a good day in both his feature races ending up 4th in the L-main 4×4 and 5th in 2 wheel Mod E-main.

Dan Holcomb

Frank Calandra had a great 4×4 Mod B-main finishing second after leading most of the race until he went off course  dropping back to the second spot which was good enough to put him into the ever popular A-main. This weekend was Franks first attempt at racing 4×4 Mod. Calandra started the A-main in the rear looking to get to the front in a hurry before the leader ran away and hid. Frank’s luck ran out when the traffic in the back was too hard to get through giving him a top ten finish, ending his 2012 Motorama. Frank also finished 9th in the B-main for 2 wheel Mod SC and 6th in the D-Main for 1/8th scale E-Buggy.

Frank Calandra leading the field through the holes in the track

Mark Calandra wheeled his (CRC, Losi) SC truck to a 10th place finish in the 2 wheel Mod A-main. Mark also ran his 1/8th scale buggy to a 5th place finish in the B-main.

The upstate Boys had a good showing in PA at this years Motorama. Each one of them said that they will return in 2013 to compete again and look to improve on this year’s finishes.

See full Motorama 2012 results