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The RACING was HOT - the Weather was NOT! [Encino CA]  This Saturdays trip back to the Encino Velodrome saw a light turnout of racers, but drew some of THE fastest cars. Gary Hamilton showed a strong hand, running a NEW track record time in the Expert 21.5 class, but it was a short lived record as it was beaten by none other than "The FASTEST MAN in R/C Racing"  Nic Case. Although Case set a record  in the 2nd round of qualifying, his time was disallowed when his car failed to pass post race inspection.  This caused Nic to have to make a couple changes to his ride (which hadn't been touched since the Allstar weekend) and these changes paid off when Case re-set the record again, going EVEN FASTER. Nic's Qualifying Run  29/5:04.89  -- 21.5 EXPERT - A  Main -- 1   3  29/5:04.69 Nic Case              2   2  29/5:07.91 Gary Hamilton 3   7  29/5:09.61 Larry Ruby 4   6  28/5:02.43 Scot Petitclerc 5   4  28/5:06.34 Joe Blackburn In the 'Sportsman' 21.5 class, it was team mates Brian Bond and Arnold Brittain that was showing the 14 car field how to FLY.   These two did their homework and the results were evident. Bond would grab the TQ, running the ONLY 29 lap run in the Sportsman division (29/5:10.60) , but it would be his team mate Arnold who would grab the main event win.  -- 21.5 SPORTSMAN - A  Main -- 1   3  27/5:07.60 Arnold Brittain 2   7  27/5:07.83 Brian Bond 3   9  27/5:10.10 Art Hernandez 4   1  26/5:04.66 Brad Muther 5   8  26/5:07.54 Sean Woodside   Nastruck saw the FLYING Paintball of Keith Brown set the qualifying pace.  Brown was clocked running lap times in the 10.1 second race, which I believe was a first for the truck class. John Miles was trying to give Brown a run for his money grabbing the holeshot in the main, but Keith was able to muscle his way by to take the lead, and WIN the "A" Main. Keith's TQ Time  28/5:06.80  -- NASTRUCK - A  Main -- 1   2  28/5:08.07 Keith Brown 2   1  28/5:10.57 John Miles 3   4  27/5:07.86 Scot Petitclerc 4   3  26/5:02.03 Tom Kendall 5   5  24/5:02.46 Brad Muther Also on hand Saturday for the first time in over a year was the 10.5/LIPO (Stupid Fast Mod) class.  (7) racers put a spare car together to challenge the track with some SPEED.  Richard Tompkins set the pace running a blistering 34/5:02.74 with lap times in the 8 1/2 second range.  Hopefully the destruction in this class doesn't scare anyone away, it was fun watching the speeds.  -- 10.5 MOD - Velo - A  Main -- 1   1  34/5:02.74 Richard Tompkins   2   7  32/5:00.46 Kevin Kilber   3   3  31/5:02.69 Frank Valentino 4   6  28/5:04.38 Bryan Myers   5   4  20/4:00.50 Donn Natale   Lastly, Nic Case in his quest to continue to be the WORLDS Fastest R/C Driver ran some laps with his INSANE SPEED RUN Car.  His quickest 2 laps were 7.20 seconds (78.267 MPH)* 6.58 seconds (85.641 MPH)* *Speed Calculations based on the track length measured at 826.5 feet. Encino Velodrome 17301 Oxnard St.  Encino, CA. 91416   Saturday @ LINDSAY! The RUG got laid down on Friday and over 25 racers made the trip to Lindsay to go round and round on the carpet! The SPORTSMAN 21.5 class saw 19 entries with ART HERNANDEZ setting the pace in qualifying running a 76/5:03.12.  Art's time was faster than the TQ at the last race that was also held in the Steve Garvey Jr. High School Gym. The EXPERT 21.5 class took a huge hit in the entries with Gary Hamilton, Jason Hastings, Larry Ruby, Buck VanPatten, and Erik Steenhoven , along with a couple others all having prior committments.  That didn't stop KCRacing's KEN COLLINS from setting the TQ pace however.   Collins would set a time of 76/5:01.95. In NASTRUCK, Scot Petitclerc would again be the quick truck.  Scot was able to run a blistering 75/5:03.60.  Just for fun, we also brought out a few VTA (Vintage Trans/Am) cars.  These are 4wd Touring cars, running the HPI Vintage tires, and Vintage Camaro, Mustang, Cuda bodies.  Thanks to TOM KENDALL for providing a spare car for our TECH MAN - Joseph got to drive in his first R/C race and had a smile on his face, from ear to ear!!   A huge thanks goes out to Clint @ the McDermont Center and his crew who set the track up on Friday, and to everyone who helped tear down after the races. John B and Joseph - thank you for making the trip from VEGAS (hope you had a good time @ SeaWorld) Congratulations to ALL the TQ's and WINNERS on Saturday. 21.5 Sportsman TQ  - Art Hernandez A Main Winner - Brian Bond B Main Winner - Bryan Myers C Main Winner - Ron Burgess NASTRUCK TQ - Scot Petitclerc A Main Winner - Scot Petitclerc 21.5 Expert TQ - Ken Collins A Main Winner - Scot Petitclerc V T/A TQ - Tom Kendall A Main Winner - Tom Kendall For Complete Results - Click here - or go to the RESULTS page.   The 3rd Annual ALLSTAR SHOOTOUT Congratulations to Jason Hastings - the Allstar Shootout Winner and Survivor! More info at www.allstar-shootout.com   The INSANE SPEED RUN at the Allstar Shootout Thank you to Nic Case and Danny Quinn for adding some SPEED excitment to the Allstar Shootout weekend...        Collins TQ's & WINS Pro 21.5 Race Re-Cap   (Lindsay CA) - In what may be his FIRST SWT event win, Bakersfield's Kenny Collins (KCRacing) did battle against the field Sunday at the Carpet race in Lindsay CA. fielding the events only NEW Hyperdrive Pro4 chassis. The Pro 21.5 class has seen a move to KSG's new "G3" by many racers, including several long time Hyperdrive racers, along with Scot Petitclerc's lone 2k9 Stryker chassis ride.  The battle for TQ would play out between Petitclerc and Collins, and Kenny would get the HobbyTalk TQ pin with his run in the final round. In the main, Petitclerc gave it everything he had trying to catch the Pro4 of Collins, working his way around the always FAST Erik Steenhoven, the front running  G3.  Collins meanwhile ran a near flawless race, leading from the tone taking his FIRST Victory of the young 2009 SWT season.  Scot would finish 2nd with Steenhoven taking 3rd spot in a close finish.   1     77/5:01.33 Ken Collins   - Hyperdrive   Pro4      2     77/5:01.83 Scot Petitclerc   - 2k9 Stryker     3     77/5:03.24 Erik Steenhoven   - KSG G3   Larry Ruby and Gary Hamilton would round out the Top 5 finishing one lap off the pace.   4     76/5:01.20 Larry Ruby   - KSG G3       5     76/5:03.48 Gary Hamilton  - KSG G3 With the final 3 positions all finishing 2 laps back.   6     75/5:00.15 Uncle Buck   - KSG G3         7     75/5:02.28 Eric Brust      - unknown        8     75/5:03.79 Bryan Blaser    - KSG G3      Myers WINS 21.5 Sportman "A" Tony Gammel TQ's   (Lindsay CA) -  Tony Gammel showed the way in qualifying for the Sportsman 21.5 class, but Bryan Myers showed he wasn't giving up the fight running some of the classes quickest laps and only missing the TQ spot by a small margin after coming from the rear of the field.   1     74/ 5:02.70  Tony Gammel         2     74/ 5:03.77  Bryan Myers The duo blasted off the line at the tone in the main event, with Gammel grabbing a .33 second lead over Myers on the start (2.60 vs 2.93 first lap time), but Myers quickly closed the gap running right on Tony's tail the first 45 laps.  On lap 46 Gammel would make his only mistake, getting the car loose of the 2nd turn and Myers was there to take advantage of that bobble and grabbed the lead. Tony running a 2k8 Stryker tried to run down Myers, in his first drive in his new Stryker, but Myers made no mistakes and held his lead. Myers held on for the WIN running a full lap faster than TQ time, and Gammel also picked up the extra lap hanging on to the 2nd spot, with Art Hernandez finishing 3rd.   1     75/5:03.02 Bryan Myers  - Stryker          2     75/5:03.85 Tony Gammel  - Stryker         3     74/5:02.57 Art Hernandez   - unknown      Dave Barber would finish in the 4th spot with Chad Lantz and Randy Smith (B Main Winner) in the 5th and 6th position.   4     73/5:00.23 Dave Barber             5     73/5:01.52 Chad Lantz               6     70/5:01.05 Randy Smith           --- DQ ---     Frank Valentino I      --- DQ ---     Keith Brown         Keith Brown and Frank Valentino would be DQ'd before the start of the race due to excessive battery voltage numbers.  But a special DQ main was run for these two  - to let them see what they had in the car without sending them home w/o a MAIN EVENT run. 21.5 DQ's -  Main --     1    74/5:00.24 Frank Valentino I        2    73/5:03.76 Keith Brown                       Back to the RUG - Carpet Oval Lindsay CA Sunday March 22nd (Lindsay CA) - The stress and wondering about where and if we'd be able to race this past weekend took a turn for the GOOD on Friday morning.  We got news we'd be able to hold our event in a BRAND NEW Jr. High School gym in Lindsay, after scheduling conflicts made it impossible to keep our scheduled date at the McDermont Field House. Thanks to McDermont's Clint and Freddie for getting us into the Steve Garvey Jr. High - this facility worked out PERFECT. Sundays race saw over 50 entries make up the classes, with the premier class again being the 21.5/LIPO class  (NOVAK SS 21.5 Pro Motors - ORION 3200 & 3400 LIPO Batteries) Qualifying got underway a little before 11:00 a.m. with 3 rounds and Main events.  Resorts are performed after the 2nd round, grouping the cars together based on the performance to that point. Once qualifying is over, the mains are setup.  The top (7) qualifiers go straight to the "A" Main, with lower mains bumping up it's winner to the next level, for the (8) car "A" Main event. Sundays TOP QUALIFIERS (TQ's) went to TONY GAMMEL - 21.5/LIPO - Sportsman KEN COLLINS - 21.5/LIPO - Pro SCOT PETITCLERC - NASTRUCK/17.5 KEN COLLINS - 17.5/LIPO JIM BISHOP - Oval Touring Note: Congrats to Rookie Racer Aaron Hynds on improving his driving ability Each and Every run!  RESULTS     Blackburn DESTROYS Track Record Encino Velodrome Saturday Feb. 21st (Encino CA) - San Jose racer Joe Blackburn was seen ripping up the track early in the morning practice sessions and nobody could believe the times.  When qualifying came around Blackburn got tangled on the first lap of his first heat, costing him 2 laps on the field.  Once that car got pointed in the right direction Blackburn showed his hand as he laid the power down and ripped off a 9.97 second lap followed by a 10.04.  In the 2nd round the track record would fall.   28/5:02.10 was the mark set at a previous event by "Uncle Buck" Buck VanPatten.  Blackburn would run a 28/5:01.14, averaging 51.98 miles per hour.  Arnold Brittain had come close to beating the record with his 28/5:02.79 but he faded away late in the run. In round 3, the heats were resorted and Brittain and Blackburn would start side by side on the front row.  As the duo charged off the line it was Arnold with the advantage pulling a holeshot over Blackburn and leading the first lap.  Joe didn't waste anytime running the leader down and moving to the front,running the fastest laps seen to date in the 21.5/LIPO class.  When the finishing tone sounded it was another NEW Track Record...but this time it was a 29/5:08.17 running the classes FIRST 29 lap run. Blackburn's incredible day wasn't done...with 13 cars making up the "Expert" version of the 21.5 class, ALL the cars would start the main....and when the start tone sounded it was VanPatten with the holeshot  with a 12.83 second lap, but once again Blackburn proved to be too strong and made his way to the front, again running just the 2nd ever 29 lap run giving Joe that long awaited  and hard fought VELO Win. Results Race# 4 -- 21.5 Stock Expert - A Main -- Pos Car Laps time name id avg.mph 1 4 29 5:10.39 Joe Blackburn 6 52.24 2 5 28 5:01.54 Nic Case 26 51.91 3 6 28 5:02.16 Uncle Buck 7 51.81 4 2 28 5:04.70 Larry Ruby 39 51.38 5 9 28 5:06.97 Ken Collins 34 51.00 6 3 28 5:07.44 Arnold Brittain 35 50.92 7 8 28 5:09.18 Eric Brust 36 50.63 8 11 27 5:03.01 Bryan Myers 1 49.82 9 12 27 5:10.75 Steve Jacquez 28 48.58 10 7 26 5:06.17 Brian Bond 37 47.48 11 13 24 5:09.19 Tim Smith 18 43.40 12 1 15 2:44.37 John Miles 16 51.02 13 10 3 0:35.49 Brett Patti 22 47.26 Natale Dominates Nastruck (Encino CA)  Donn Natale was on a quest to shake up the Nastruck class Saturday on the VELO as he went on to break the qualifying record with a 27/5:03.32 and setting laps times in the 10.3's and 10'4. (10.36 fast lap) In the main, the top 6 trucks were seperated by just .4 seconds at the completion of lap one.  Natale however, checked out and ran away from the field.  A late race incident cost Donn several seconds and a shot at a 28 lap run but he held on to take the win in what ended up being a pretty close finish. Results Race# 3 -- NASTRUCK - A Main -- Pos Car Laps time name id avg.mph 1 3 27 5:06.75 Donn Natale 30 49.21 2 2 27 5:07.51 Keith Brown 11 49.09 3 4 27 5:08.60 John Miles 17 48.92 4 6 26 5:08.80 Tom Kendall 13 47.07 5 9 25 5:05.06 Brad Muther 15 45.82 6 5 24 5:05.96 Kevin Kilber 24 43.86 7 7 23 4:39.19 Odie 8 46.06 8 11 21 5:11.67 Lee Patton 38 37.67 9 8 14 3:04.92 TJ Kendall 12 42.33 -- 10 --- DNS --- Dennis Brown 19 -- 1 --- DNS --- Mike Plant 20   Sportsman 21.5 to Valentino (Encino CA)  After being requested by the racers, it was decided to split the 21.5 group into two, allowing the Sportsman and the Expert guys to run their own races.   This was an almost expected move after the announcement that the ALLSTAR SHOOTOUT would be a 21.5 event in April, thus the fast EXPERT racing sliding down from 17.5. Frank Valentino would finally shed the monkey that had been on his back at the velodrome for a long time but running the only 28 lap run in the sportsman group. The 15 car field  saw the rest of the top 10 qualifiers run 27 lap runs. 21.5 Stock Sportsman - A Main Qualifiers Qual Qual time name 1 28/5:08.73 Frank Valentino 2 27/5:02.42 Richard Tompkins 3 27/5:03.37 "Papa" Lou Maldonado 4 27/5:04.44 Donn Natale 5 27/5:04.55 Brad Muther 6 27/5:05.70 Danny "Mighty16x" Quinn 7 27/5:07.12 Keith Brown 8 27/5:07.86 Doug "Odie" Morrow 9 27/5:08.43 "Shaky" Dave Werner and the final main starter would be Tim Twyman who bumped up after taking the  "B" Main win over Joe Myers. In the main, Valentino's luck would again hold out as he backed up his 28 lap qualifying run, with another 28 lapper....not having quite the same type of luck, "Papa Lou" Maldonado strayed down into dangerous territory two laps in a row, running down on the apron on the front straight.  The second time this happened Lou slammed into a safety cone that was marking a hole on the infield, cutting his main event short and destroying his car. Results 21.5 Stock Sportsman - A Main -- Pos Car Laps time name id avg.mph 1 1 28 5:09.94 Frank Valentino 31 50.51 2 6 27 5:04.51 Brad Muther 14 49.57 3 2 27 5:06.12 Donn Natale 29 49.31 4 3 27 5:09.58 Richard Tompkins 33 48.76 5 9 26 5:02.15 Dave Werner 5 48.11 6 5 26 5:03.81 Danny Quinn 27 47.85 7 0 25 5:06.90 Tim Twyman 40 45.54 8 7 22 5:00.90 Keith Brown 10 40.88 9 8 13 3:01.19 Odie 9 40.11 10 4 6 1:08.51 Lou Maldonado 3 48.96 All in all it was nearly a perfect day of racing, and a great start to the '09 season.  We saw the return of TWO long time racers - Tim Smith and Lee Patton, and Dirt Oval ACE Danny Quinn making his first appearance on the velodrome. <Complete Velo Results> ...a little too much SQUAT and BUCKLE! Race #2 - ON the RUG Sunday MARCH 22nd The 'TOUR' returns to LINDSAY's MeDermont Field House on SUNDAY March 22nd.         A Few Photos from '07 and '08     WOW ! - The 'drome   2009 Schedule (Coming Soon) **Please Note Changes in YELLOW 1) February 21, 2009 - ENCINO VELODROME 2) March 22nd - (SUNDAY)  Lindsay @ the Steve Garvey Gym  April 25-26 - **ALLSTAR SHOOTOUT** (non-points) 3) May 16 (Saturday) Lindsay @ the Steve Garvey Gym 4) June 13 (Saturday) Encino Velo 5) July 11 (Saturday) Lindsay**  CONFIRMED!~  6) Aug 15 - Encino Velo 7) Sept 19 (Saturday) Lindsay ** Not yet confirmed 8) Oct 17 - Encino Velo 9) Nov 14 (Saturday) Lindsay ** Not yet confirmed 10) Dec 12 - WINTERFEST 09  - Encino Velodrome ** unconfirmed LINDSAY dates may not be confirmed more than 30 days in advance due to other possible event scheduling @ this facility.

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