The 1/8th E buggies took to the track first. Rick Redmin jumped out to an early lead which he held throughout the opening heat. The next heat up was the first heat of 2wd stock SCT. Team Soup was represented in this heat by Jim Decker, and myself. The hot August sun had already started to dry out the track, and traction was at a premium. This would be a recurring theme throughout the day. I wound up on top of the heat, holding TQ for all of about 10 minutes, and then the fast guys got on the track.

Team Soup driver’s Cruz Zachary and Jarodd Goedel ran together in the second heat of 2wd stock SCT, ultimately landing 2nd and 3rd respectively behind the always fast Brian Bush, who would set the first round TQ. Next up was the hotly contested 4WD SCT. John “Whopper” Firsching would set the pace for the weekend early, laying down a very fast time right out of the gate. Team RC Engineering’s own Mark Smyka was hot on his heels, but Whopper would stay out front, taking TQ for round 1.

There were only 4 entries for 2wd 1/10 buggy, one being Team Soup and our review car for the weekend, the bone stock Arrma ADX-10. We knew we weren’t even close to as fast as the other guys, but this was the perfect opportunity for us to test the buggy. Rick Redmin would once again take his buggy to the top spot, earning TQ honors for round 1. Due to the small number of cars in that class, they were run at the same time as the Stock SCB class. Round 1 of SCB would see Soup’s own Cruz Zachary jump out to the top spot early.

The last class of the round was 2wd open SCT.  This class would once again show John “Whopper” Firsching laying down some very fast laps, earning TQ in his second class of the day.

On to Round 2. With the points based qualifying, TQ is reset every round. As the round progressed it became evident that drivers had started to find setups that really worked. A new best time was set in 1/8 E Buggy, when Carl Doran would edge out Rick Redmin by less than 2 seconds. The second class came up, and the second top time was toppled, as Team Soup driver Jarodd Goedel would beat the round 1 TQ time by just six tenths of a second. In 4wd SCT, Whopper couldn’t match his first round TQ time, but neither could anyone else. Whopper did establish the fastest time in Round 2, just not as fast as round 1. In both buggy classes, the 1st round TQ time was beaten, but by the same drivers that ran such a great run in round 1. Rick Redmin beat his own time in 1/10 open buggy, and Cruz Zachary reset his own time in Stock SCB. In 2wd Open SCT, Mark “Rambo” Calandra would have the fastest time of Round 2.

One more round was run on Saturday. After round 2, the heat boards were reset, with the re-sort being based on your qualifying times from the first two heats. As the sun started to set, and CRC turned on the lights, the track gained a lot of grip. Rick Redmin would once again TQ 1/8th buggy, this time running 13 laps, the most laps of any car, in any class, for the entire day. Mark Calandra would set the new pace for 2wd Stock SCT. Whopper topped his best time of the day in 4wd SCT, and Kevin McNerney would pull off the upset in 2wd buggy. Nate Lafleur topped Cruz Zachary by just a few seconds in Stock SCB, and Whopper once again was on top of the 2wd open SCT class.

Practice opened at sunrise Sunday morning, with a few early birds out on the track trying to find those last few tenths.

The 4th and final round of qualifying heats kicked off right around 9am. The track was watered, but the grip just wasn’t what it was for the night time runs of round 3. When all 4 qualifying heats were in the books, TQ Winners for the event were announced.

The Top Qualifiers were

1/8 E Buggy  + 1/10 2wd Open Buggy- Rick Redmin

Stock Short Course Buggy – RC Soup’s own Cruz Zachary

Stock 2wd SCT – Team Soup driver Jarodd Goedel

2wd Open SCT + 4wd Open SCT- John “Whopper” Firsching

All of the TQ’s received a plaque from CRC Raceway, and a RC Souper TQ award from RC Soup, which was a gift certificate to CRC Raceway.