This past Sunday was the 4th Annual (2013) March Meltdown trophy race at CRC Raceway in Rome, NY. It was my 3rd one (only missed the 1st), and as usual it’s always a good time at CRC Raceway. They run carpet indoor offroad from Jan/Feb-April after their carpet road course season. They change the layout often to keep it fresh for the racers. The wall ride and over/under was back this year. I love that thing.

I’m not a huge fan of indoor carpet offroad racing, but it’s fun when I do get to do it. One thing you never have to worry about is traction, there’s always plenty of it. My truck felt ballistic in practice. I haven’t run my 2wd Short Course on carpet since probably the last CRC Meltdown. I forgot how fast paced it was! Totally brought a smile to my face when I got on the track again. I’m looking forward to the next time I go up to CRC (which is probably for the CRC 1000 at the end of the month).

So anyways, onto more of the event details. CRC’s normal fast guys were in the house (Frank and Mark Calandra, Johnny Whopper, Tom Firsching, and the rest of the regulars), so there was plenty of stiff competition. I remember someone telling me once that going to a CRC club race is like going to a regional or national race, it’s nuts how fast these guys are. Friendly bunch too, never ones to shrug off a question from a newcomer.

They ran Sportsman class (kids and newcomers), Pro-Lite SC (intermediate 17.5), Pro2 (expert 13.5), and 2wd Buggy. They also ran Stadium class. No 4wd SC this year. The track really isn’t big enough for those power houses. There was a pretty good turnout with I believe 83 entries across all classes. Every class but Stadium went to C Main.

Having been sick since Motorama, I never even looked at my truck before this race. I basically pulled it out of my Dialed Short Course bag, swapped tires and threw it on the track. Since Motorama was 17.5 for Stock class, and CRC’s Pro2 class is 13.5, I opted to run Pro-Lite class, which is more intermediate (where I probably belong anyways) and it’s also 17.5. I had a good time, I didn’t do spectacular.. I started and finished 2nd in the B Main. I picked up speed every round, but couldn’t quite find the sweet spot in gearing/timing in time for the mains.

Here’s the infamous Wall Ride.

CRC runs LiveRC for all their races. Indoors they have it going on a projector against the wall, which is awesome, and an easy (visible) way to know which race we’re on.

Being a small track, they don’t need a huge drivers stand. It’s not much, but it works.

Another shot of the track.

This is what Jarodd’s face looked like when I told him he was going to run the Atomik V2MR Buggy at the Meltdown (build up being posted soon). He’s only had one race on it (Motorama) and that was also the only time he’s ever raced a 2wd buggy. I think he was a little scared haha. He got through it though, making a very impressive showing with the buggy, putting it 6th in the A Main (even making the A was awesome). Watch for the Orange buggy in the video below to watch the whole race. Good job Jarodd! Not bad for your first time with the buggy on carpet!

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYLP4WoWCsA[/youtube]

Race results are on Page 2.