Hello RC Soup racing fans. Here is our recap of the 4th Annual Northeast Nationals at Buddy Boys RC in South New Berlin, NY.

Sunday March 30, 2014 was the day of the 4^th Annual Buddy Boys RC Northeast Nationals RC Racing Event.

We had a great turnout even with a sketchy weather forecast. Mother Nature just refuses to let spring arrive!

First and foremost, I would like to extend a big thank you to everyone that came out and raced with us on Sunday. It was great having you there and we hope you had a good time. We know we did.

We also want to extend a huge thank you to our 4^th Annual Northeast National race sponsors for all of the great door/raffle prizes that were given out throughout the day (these are in alphabetical order):

Ambit Energy:www.catskillenergy.com

Buddy Boys RC:https://www.facebook.com/pages/Buddyboys-RC-Racing/135685759850286

CRC (Calandra Racing Concepts):www.teamcrc.com

Gary’s Precision Graphics:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Garys-Precision-Graphix/135010519903873

I-Lap Racing Timing Systems:http://www.rclapcounter.com/

John’s BSR Racing Tires:www.johnsbsrracing.com/

Pemberton Raceworks:http://www.pembertonraceworks.com/

Powerpush Batteries:www.powerpushbatteries.com

RJ Speed:www.rjspeed.com

Serendipity Expressions Ink

Team Decker Racing

We ran 12 classes of cars at this year’s event:

• ProLite 2WD SCT (2wd Short Course trucks-novice)
• Pro2 2WD SCT (2wd Short Course trucks-advanced)
• Small Block Truck (stadium trucks)
• Losi Mini EDM-Open class
• RJ Speed Legends
• 21.5 Spec Nastruck
• 1/12 Super Truck
• TOUR Super Truck
• TOUR 13.5 spec COT
• 1/10 EDM (Eastern Dirt Modified)

We ran a typical 3 round race event which is typical of 1 day RC racing event and club racing.

This was 2 rounds of qualifying w/ a re-sort after round 1 and then Main’s for each class in round 3.

RACING RESULTS: (official results at end of this post)

ProLite:

TQ and eventual A Main winner Mike O Brien Jr showed the way all day long. His truck was hooked up and very quick all day long. He pulled away in the 75 lap main event and finished a full 7 laps ahead of 2^nd place Don McAdams. Congratulations Mike, you did a great job! I’ll also add Buddy Boys season points champion, Don McAdam’s, had a great run with his stock Traxxas Slash, and even more important in only his first season of RC racing at Buddy Boys. Nice job Don. Looking forward to seeing how you do this fall.

Pro2:

Like son like father, our TQ and eventual Pro2 A Main winner was Mike O Brien Sr. He showed the way all day long with his sweet looking blue and white Pro2 truck. Nice driving Mike and congratulations on your A Main win. He and Jim Furgeson had a great battle right down to the last few laps with Jim falling back by one lap at the end. Buddy Boys regular Mark Moon also had a solid 3^rd place finish out of a stout lineup of racers.

Losi Mini-EDM-Open Class:

The Southern Tier guys put on a good show in our Losi Mini-EDM-open A Main. Jim Furgeson and Brad Weaver had a great battle for 70 laps with multiple passes with Jim grabbing the win by 1.9 seconds over Brad. Nice racing guys. It is unfortunate that Horizon/Losi pulled the plug on the mini kits. They really are a lot of fun to race and fun to watch. Nice racing guys and congratulations to Jim Furgeson on his A Main win.

Small Block Truck:

We had a surprisingly light lineup of our small block trucks this year. I think the bad weather forecast kept some of our small block truck guys from making the trip over the hills. In the A Main final Buddy Boys RC regular Dylan Thomsen grabbed the 100 lap win over Al White by 9 laps. Congratulations to Dylan for his A Main win in only his first season in RC racing.

RJ Speed Legends:

The Legends class had a nice revitalization for 2013-2014 racing season. It is the 20 year anniversary for these great kits from RJ Speed and I think many RC racing folks realized just how much fun they really are, me included. We had a solid field of 15 cars this year.

-The B Main was by non other than our own Magee Sarpriacone with his Elwood Racing Legend rent-A ride. He, Rick Smith, Bill Marshall (of Marshall’s Hilltop Hobbies fame), Mike Magnusson and Doug Turtura had a wild battle for almost the entire race with multiple passes. In the end Magee reached 100 laps 2 laps faster than Rick and grabbed the B Main win. Nice driving Magee, a well deserved win.

-The A Main was also a wild one with 7 cars taking the green. For much of the 100 lap A Main it was TJ Oheren leading the way with Dave Elen staying right with him right down to the last lap. TJ grabbed the A Main win by 3 seconds over Dave. I might add, Dave, in his first ever race with a Legend car (mine) and was prepped my Mr Legend Rick Elwood did an outstanding job. Buddy Boys RC season perennial points champion Mike Herbaugh came in with a solid 3^rd place just 2 laps back. Nice racing guys, it was fun to watch. I had bad luck and lost a front wheel on the opening lap and was a spectator for the remainder of the race. I did enjoy watching the race though, you guys mixed it up for 100 laps.

21.5 Spec Nastruck:

This class is a recent addition to the Buddy Boys club lineup and saw some of the closest and cleanest racing of all classes of racing. It is basically the same TOUR rules for Supertruck EXCEPT it has to be a 21.5 motor instead of a 17.5 and a fixed gear ratio. We had 7 trucks for today’s A Main event. Gary Courtright was TQ and showed the way for all 100 laps but he was getting some serious pressure from Mike Magnusson and Ned Van as the laps wound down. Gary did not blink though and grabbed the win, just a mere 1.3 seconds ahead of Mike Magnusson and 1.6 seconds ahead of Ned Van. Congratulations Gary, a well deserved win in a closely contested race.

1/12 Super Truck:

This class was started up this year, primarily in upstate NY. It is basically a 1/12 scale pan car chassis with a scale Nastruck body with 17.5 blinky power and WGT spec tires. These cars are very quick and fun to watch. In our A Main event we saw Team CRC hotshoe Nate Lafluer and Buddy Boys regular Mike Herbaugh put on a good show for 100 solid laps with Nate grabbing the win with his potent CRC Razor 3 1/12 Supertruck by .6 seconds over Mike. Mike was wheeling his always fast Pemberton Raceworks SJ12 chassis. Nice racing guys, you put on a great show.

TOUR Supertruck:

We had a solid field of 20 Supertrucks this year with racing thru the A, B and C Mains.

-In the C Main event, Buddy Boys regular Mark Moon came away with the 100 lap win over 2^nd place John Scriber. Nice racing Mark, congratulations on the win.

-The B Main was a very close race for all 7 trucks with Marshall’s hotshoe TJ O’heren grabbing the 100 lap win by 2 laps over Magee and Doug Turtura. Team CRC member Rob Barone and Dick Decker finished in 4^th and 5^th only 3 laps back. Unfortunately my bad luck continued and I had to pull my Pemberton SJ10 Chief in mid race after an incident broke my steering. It sure was a great time racing though, with many laps of green flag clean racing. Congratulations to TJ for the B Main win.

-In the A Main event, we saw some of the fastest guys in the Northeast lined up to take the green. TQ and eventual A Main winner Mike O’Brien showed the way with his potent CRC Battle Axe 3.0 Supertruck. Mike Herbaugh qualified  with an impressive outside pole in the A Main with his Pemberton Raceworks RP4. There was some fantastic clean side by side and nose to tail racing for 100 laps. Dave Peek’s RP4 was awful fast as was JR James in his PRW car. In the end, it was once again CRC hotshoe Nate Lafluer racing his way from 4^th to put the pressure on Mike as the laps wound down. Mike grabbed the win by exactly .5 seconds over Nate at the checker. Now that was almost a photo finish! Mike Herbaugh ended up a solid 3^rd place with Dave Peek and JR in 4^th and 5^th respectively. Thank you guys for putting on a great show.

1/10 EDM (Eastern Dirt Modified):

For our 1/10 EDM A Main event we had 7 entries with representation from locals, the guys from the Southern Tier, guys from the Syracuse area and a couple fast guys from the Albany area. Al Webber grabbed TQ and had the pole to start the event but we saw Dave Peek with his ultra fast Pemberton SJ10MV EDM grabbing the lead and setting sail for the win. Al finished a solid 2^nd with Albany native Ned Van grabbing 3^rd. I’ll also add both Dave and Al laid down some ultra fast laps on our track, with identical fast laps of 3.187. Now that is hauling the mail! Congratulations to Dave for his A Main win.

TOUR 13.5 spec COT:

We had a total of 10 entries in our final class for this event with representation from guys all over central New York and Northern PA.

In the B Main, yours truly managed to grab the 100 lap win with my “new to me” CRC Battle Axe 3.0 over 2^nd place John Scriber and my brother Dick Decker grabbing 3^rd. He unfortunately inherited some of my bad luck early in the race and lost his gear mesh effectively ending his race early. After seeing this photo I’ve decided to start eating salad.

In the A Main Event, we had some of the fastest guys in the Northeast lined up to put on a great show. Pemberton Raceworks own Steve Pemberton grabbed the TQ spot with legendary CRC hotshoe John (JohnnyWhopper) Firsching grabbing the outside pole. As the race got started there was an early tangle that put Al Webber out early and got 3^rd place qualifier Dave Elen down several laps. Once things got sorted out the race was on though, with Steve Pemberton leading the way and laying down some very fast laps with John following very close behind. As the 100 lap checkers creeped closer John began reeling Steve in a little bit each lap. His CRC Battle Axe 3.0 was gaining by a half tenth each lap in the last 30 laps or so. There was a bit of a tangle around lap 90 and John snuck by Steve to grab the lead and the eventual win. Steve’s PRW RP4 was extremely stout all day, and was consistently laying down fast laps in the 3.125-3.130 range but John gets the new fast lap record with a  blistering 3.063 fast lap. Talk about hauling the mail. In fact, all of the drivers in this race had fast laps of 3.125 or better. Unbelievable racing guys, it surely was a great race to watch. Congratulations to John Firsching for the A Main win and to Steve Pemberton for taking 2^nd and a Marshall’s hotshoe Andy Johannes for grabbing a solid 3^rd place finish coming up from the 7^th starting spot.

Some side notes from the days racing action:

Magee and his group of helpers had the track in excellent shape. Flat and smooth. The grip came up fast and was extra fast by the end of the day. Thank you Magee for all of your hard work. For this event and for bringing us the opportunity to race every Sunday in the fall and winter months. I can say for everyone that comes out and races there, we really do appreciate it.

We’d like to give a shout out and thank you to Steve Pemberton, Dylan, Keona and Gary Courtright for doing a great job of calling the races for this race and all year long. You keep it interesting and fun.

A big thank you to the folks from all over central NY (Binghamton, Syracuse, Albany) and Northern PA for making the trek to race with us in spite of a bad forecast. That drive home sure was interesting.

Rick Elwood had 4 of his Legend cars in action on Sunday. Rick himself made the A Main and finished 6^th. I qualified 6^th but finished 7^th due to lap 1 crash. Magee won the B main and Mike Magnusson brought home a 4^th place in the B Main. If anyone needs some tips on how to make a Legend car fast, go see Rick!

In honor of the 20^th Anniversary of the RJ Speed Legend kit being in production, Decker Racing (OK, it’s just my brother and myself) split the cost of a brand new Legend kit and had the A Main Legend winner (TJ O’Heren) pull a ticket for a special raffle for the new kit. Mike O Brien Jr was the lucky winner. Mike and his father race at Marshall’s Hilltop Hobbies in Honesdale, PA. We are sure Mike Jr will be a force to be reckoned with next season with that Legend.

Lastly, this is just something I feel needs to be said and this goes out to everyone that is in this wonderful, goofy hobby:

If it wasn’t for our sponsors, manufacturers, hobby shops and track owners NONE of us would have a place to race weekly and special events like this one. Please visit our sponsor’s websites or stop by their shop or store locations if you are close by. Buy from them as much as you can. Shop locally. We all need to support these folks. Support the manufacturers. Support your local hobby shops. Support your local tracks.

It is healthy for our hobby and will always help provide us a place to race our toy cars.

All in all the 4^th Annual Northeast Nationals was a big success. We certainly enjoyed having everyone there and we hope everyone had a great time participating and watching some great racing.

See you next year at the 5^th Annual Northeast Nationals!

Cheers

Jim

Team RC Soup

OFFICIAL 4TH ANNUAL NORTHEAST NATIONALS RESULTS