This weekend was the first annual Battle on the Bullring oval race @ CRC Raceway in Rome, NY. For those that missed the announcement post, this race was a little something different from the normal race format. How?, you ask. Well, NOBODY makes the main!

Racers were divided into ladder style Semi-finals, Quarter-finals, etc based on qualifying (for the classes that had enough entries). Odds on one side, Evens on the other. Everybody has to race their way in! TQ still received an award for being the #1 qualifier, but it’s quite possible that you could have TQ’d and then not make the main! If any of you watch IFMAR or ROAR Nitro races, this is how it is done there. After watching this year’s ROAR Nitro Buggy and Truggy Nats in TX on liverc.com, the CRC crew thought it would be a pretty dialed concept for a carpet oval race. And here we are!

The weekend started on Saturday with the warmup race. The track was open for practice all afternoon and at 5pm they had a normal club race. This would be the warmup race for the actual Bullring race, a chance to get your truck dialed in during a real racing environment. I felt pretty confident going into Sunday’s main event that my vehicles would be decent. There was one moment of the night that shined above all else, watching the intense COT main. I only decided to record that last 2 minutes or so as it was unfolding.. but talk about close racing. It was like watching real NASCAR. Nobody moved an inch and stayed on the same pace all the way around the track with no room for error. Freight train coming on thru! Check it out below.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgkfELsiirw[/youtube]

So for the main event on Sunday, the doors opened at 8 and the racing started at 10:30. We did 3 rounds of qualifying and went into the mains. There were around 50 entries, which is a little disappointing to see, but oval is just picking back up after being dead for years at CRC. It’s also very early in the season, drivers like Team Soup driver Jarodd Goedel are just starting to get their stuff together for the carpet season. He dropped his brand new CRC Battle Axe 3.0 (build writeup coming soon) on the track for it’s first laps ever on Sunday, and considering that.. he finished great.

In any event, there was a decent turnout; although personally I wish it could have been better. The ladder finals would have been a lot more exciting with double the entries. There were still some upsets I think, fast guys who didn’t get to make the A-Final due to bad luck in their Semi race. Hopefully next year they can gain a much bigger crowd. We certainly think it’s great to see support from the other local tracks like Walt’s and Redneck RC with guys from there making their way out.

Classes for the 2013 Battle at the Bullring:

• TOUR Super Truck
• TOUR Stock
• COT – *This class will follow all TOUR rules with the exception that we “motor down” one wind to 17.5
• 12th Scale Truck
• 12th Scale Super Stock – *This class will follow all TOUR rules with the exception that we “motor down” one wind to 17.5
• 12th scale GTP – Same rules as road course!

So without getting too boring, for the most part CRC is running TOUR classes and rules. They “motor down” to 17.5 because the track is on the smaller size, hence the “bullring” nomenclature. A 13.5 in there would be ballistic and probably hard to handle for the average guy. They also run GTP class, which is just the 1/12 scale cars from onroad (same rules) to allow more locals to run without forcing them to buy oval specific cars to run oval. They run 21.5 motors in Blinky mode, open battery, open tire.

Below are some pics from the pits and around the track.

Dave Elen’s pit area, he was fast all weekend but had bad luck costing him what looked like could have been podium finishes. He’s running one of the famous Decker Racing pit shelves.

Jim Decker looking out at the competition.

My horrendous pit area. The Nastruck and GTP. I also picked up and built to completion a new CRC Razor 3 1/12 oval car while I waited for the races to start (build up coming soon).

The fast guys. The same 4 drivers who ran the freight train in COT on Saturday night: Nate LaFluer, Brian Wynn, Steve Pemberton, and John Firsching.

The Team Redneck pit area.

A few other random pits. Below, notice the SXT 3.0 traction compound. This is the only traction compound allowed at CRC due to it’s good grip and low odor. Something to note if you decide to make the trip to CRC sometime. SXT is required.

Mr. Jarodd Goedel’s area.

Dave Elen doing work.

Focus! Steve Pemberton (of Pemberton Raceworks) appears to be in zen with his car.

I’m pretty sure Jarodd derives his driving talent from his driver, Uncle Cletus.

My area again. Rocking the Revolectix Powerlab 6 charger.

One awesome thing about CRC is how they use a projector on the wall to show the current race scoring/heat. You can’t miss what race we’re on unless you are blind – in which case, I don’t know how you’d be racing an r/c car anyways..

Frank Calandra himself doing some of the race announcing. Seen here with his wife Nancy who is always around in support.

Jarodd trying to summon up some of that Pemberton zen before the main event. By his results, I’d say he found some!

So without further ado, here are the results of the mains. Again, we ran ladder finals for COT and Sportsman Truck. Mains were divided into Odd and Even Semi Finals. Top 3 from each Semi went on to race the A-Final at the end of the race program. Videos for the races I got are above their corresponding results.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeEf1XXgOFo[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdO2O0w1DQQ[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgLYFikOxb8[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MS67-BiSB08[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efGr-sFAhjQ[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXjYShZcuYg[/youtube]

TOUR Stock Podium – Steve Pemberton with TQ and Win, Tony Buffa 2nd, Ralph Kyle 3rd

1/12 Truck A – Nate LaFluer TQ and 1st, Mike Herbaugh 2nd, Mike Thurston 3rd

COT A-Final – Brian Wynn TQ and 1st, John Firsching 2nd, Nate LaFluer 3rd (All CRC Battle Axe 3.0’s!)

TOUR Super Truck (Sportsman Truck) A-Final – Jim Decker 1st, Mike Herbaugh 2nd, Jarodd Goedel 3rd

1/12 TOUR Stock – John Firsching TQ and 1st, Steve Pemberton 2nd, Tony Buffa 3rd

1/12 GTP – Zachary Sypolt 1st, Michael Pritchard 3rd

All the class Top Qualifiers

Overall it was a fun and exciting oval weekend at CRC. I wish there were more of these single day trophy races around the area. They aren’t as taxing on wallet and family when it’s a single day, and still usually produce a very good turnout and there’s always something about a trophy race that brings the atmosphere alive. Sure, tensions run a little higher, more is on the line.. but as long as you have good clean competition (which CRC always does) it still remains fun and entertaining.

Can’t wait until next year! See everyone around the oval circuit this winter. Hopefully all the new faces in the oval scene can make for a repeat of the upcoming CRC New Years Dash being the largest oval-only event in the country!