Welcome to the home of the South-West Tour "Championship R/C Racing Series"

SUNDAY July 27th - We'll be making our FIRST trip to the NEW facility in LINDSAY (Near Visalia)

NOTE: Bring a HAND TRUCK or Cart. Parking is on the street, and you'll have to WALK your equipment into the building, up a ramp.

Racer's Haven "Under the Lights"

Roughly 30 entries made up the NIGHT RACE at the Racer's Haven event...and once the SUN dropped the cars got FAST.

Paul Cathey was the class of the field in 21.5, running 72 laps. Cathey would make one mistake in the main however, and Steve Taffert would get the win.

Tony Gammel joined with the NASTRUCK guys running a borrowed truck from Papa Lou Maldonado. Tony would grab the TQ point, and take the main win with the points guys scrambling for positions behind. John Miles would grab 2nd, and points leader Brad Muther would finish 3rd.

In 17.5 Erik Steenhoven, Gary Hamilton, Kenny Collins and Scot Petitclerc were all running fast. KC had the early TQ, but Steenhoven would take it from him. In the main Hamilton would get the victory and set a NEW Fast Time as well. Gary ran 77 laps. <RESULTS>

Wow - What a race!
The 2008 **ALLSTAR SHOOTOUT ** Weekend & Race #4

Saturday's race at the ENCINO VELODROME Bicycle track was the setting for series race 4 on the '08 season. With temperatures tipping the 100 degree mark, it was hot both on and off the track.

Jerry Purser went 2 for 2 on the VELO in the 21.5 class winning the main event by 2 full laps over A-Main Tires "Papa Lou" Maldonado. Currently class points leader Bryan Myers would finish in the 3rd spot after tangling with first time velo racer Dennis Hashin. John Miles would finish 4th with Hashin rounding out the top 5.

17.5 had a huge turnout today with drivers preparing for Sunday's SHOOTOUT where Jason Hastings would set the qualifying pace. Hastings ran the ONLY 31 lap run in qualifying setting an 'unofficial' track record and becoming the FIRST driver to hit the 31 lap mark. (Jason Hastings 31/5:09.47)

Points leader Larry Ruby didn't have as good of luck qualifying, running just 29 laps (with a car that thermalled) in 4:50.56 seconds. This would put Ruby on the POLE for the 'B' main with Scot Petitclerc sitting outside front row.

The SWTour format for 10 car main events is to qualify the top 8, and transfer 1st and 2nd place from the 'B' main. Ruby and Carlton Duty would end up filling those transfer spots starting at the rear of the 'A' main field.

In the main it was Jason Hastings who grabbed the holeshot with Brian Bond right on his rear deck, Hastings found trouble on the 2nd lap and Bond went to the front.but the hard charging Larry Ruby was making his way from the rear of the field to the front. Ruby went on to WIN Saturday's main event, stretching his points lead and setting things up for the **ALLSTAR SHOOTOUT** the next day. (Larry became the 2nd car to run 31 laps going 31/5:09.38)

NASTRUCK, the truck guys struggled with loose conditions in the heat with no wings, this seemed to slow the pace in qualifying by over 2 full laps. Kevin Kilber would take the TQ point running 25/5:06.54 over Donn Natale.

Kilber would cross the scoring line first on lap one, but Brad Muther and Natale came across virtually side by side for 2nd/3rd. The duo made their way around Kilber and continued to battle for the lead for the next few laps, but it was Muther who prevailed and Natale who earned a DNF. Brad took the win over Doug 'Odie' Morrow who would end up finishing 2nd. TJ Kendall would come home 3rd with TOM Kendall 4th and Bryan Myers rounding out the top 5.

...more to come

Metro - April 19th, race 3

We had a really nice, fairly laid back day of racing at Don's METRO R/C SPEEDWAY for race #3.

With many, many thanks to LOU MALDONADO for taking care of the track prep, and to Larry McCaa for opening the track on Friday to give Lou access to the track.

The turnout was pretty light, as we only ended up running 2 classes. However, both those classes were full of good competition. The 21.5 class and the NASTRUCK class both had full fields, and the truck class had a "B" main.

Dave Barber would take TQ honors in the 21.5 class, while Bryan Myers would grab the bonus point in NASTRUCK. In the mains it was Larry Ruby getting out front, Bryan Myers ran 2nd for much of the race but he was down on speed...Myers would end up giving up a few spots, Tim Twyman would take over the #2 spot. In NASTRUCK, 2007 Champion Brad Muther grabbed the lead and held off John Miles and Myers for the win. [RESULTS]

METRO R/C SPEEDWAY
3805 Chester Ave
Bakersfield, Ca 93301

Race 2 - Racer's Haven

The 'TOUR' made it's first visit to Racer's Haven Raceway in a couple years the weekend of March 15th. under a threat the mother nature was going to drop some rain on the racing action.

Over 40 entrants filled up the 1/2 dozen classes with the NEW 21.5 Brushless class being the largest. Both the 17.5 class and the NASTRUCK class had a good number of entries as well. [RESULTS]

ALLSTAR-SHOOTOUT '08

WOW ! - The 'drome

I can't believe we're already almost 2 full months into 2008, but we are and the NEW Season is upon us.

We kicked off the '08 "Tour" at the Encino Velodrome last weekend (Feb. 16th) to some of the best February weather we've seen in So. Cal. in years.

The NEW B/L - LIPO classes pretty much went off without a hitch, the cars were fast, the racing was clean, close and exciting, and most of the racers found the day pretty relaxing and had lots of time to actually work on their cars. (A few of them needed it, due to some horrific crashes)

We saw the NEW 21.5 class run 28 laps for a brand new track record. Jerry Purser was the class of the field, setting TQ and winning the main event for his first ever SWT win. (Congrats Jerry). Uncle Buck (the VELO King of STOCK) got his ride dialed in by the end of the day to finish 2nd, and become only the 3rd car to run 28 laps in the new class. (Randy "BigBoysToys" Smith also ran 28 laps in qualifying)

The 17.5 class saw some of the closest racing in the middle of the pack I've ever seen on the velo. In one heat race, 5 cars were side by side, and nose to tail for nearly a dozen laps. Several guys were FAST as LIGHTNING, including Arnold Brittain, Brett Patti, Larry Ruby, Erik Steenhoven, Jason Hastings, Scot Petitclerc, David Mayhew who all went 30 laps in qualifying.

The main belonged to Larry Ruby though - who with his 11.84 second HOLE SHOT drove away from the field at the line, and was never challenged for the lead. (Awesome run Mr. Ruby)

The NEW motor/battery combo for the NASTRUCK class proved to be a challenge for several drivers. With most just getting a handle on the 10.5/4cell package, the new 17.5/LIPO deal would take some new calculating. Brad Muther ran the strongest most of the day, but it was Donn Natale getting things figured out and taking the TQ points today.

Natale, who kept working on his truck, took advantage of the 4th qualifier to become the first truck to run 27 laps and set a NEW truck record, putting him on the pole for the main event.

In the main, it was Muther with the hole shot, but he was quickly gobbled up by the quicker Natale who was the only truck running lap times in the 10 second range. The finish had Natale running another quicker 27 lap run, Muther would go 26, and the rest of the field was back in the 25 lap range.
(Congrats Donn on the Win, TQ and Record)

Our other 2 classe this weekend were pretty small. One of them was a very SLOW class - and the other was FAST!

Our 'Break-Out' class was setup to run 13.0 second lap times and 23 laps total. This was a test of dicipline to try not to pull the throttle and go too quickly. All 3 drivers found themselves breaking out and being docked laps, but Tony Staples pretty much nailed it in the main. This class can run pretty much ANY equipment, no 'special' velodrome car is needed...you just have to adjust your car/gear/radio to run the perfect 13.0 second lap times.

MODIFIED - can you say "Holy Cow" these guys are FAST! With just 4 guys running Mod this weekend (10.5/LIPO) the track was 'on fire'.

In the first qualifier, it looked like a bunch of rookies on the track. The cars were all over the place, but very quick. By the end of the day, everyone got the bugs worked out and had their cars dialed and flying. with Nic Case running a lap in the 8.33 second range. (That's just over 67 MPH). Case would set the TQ pace over Richard Tompkins by just over a second, with both cars turning in 33 lap runs. Tompkins found his way to the front in the main when Case's car appeared to shut down about 8 laps before the end of the race. Richard who was still running strong turned in the first 34 lap run to set another new track record for the weekend. (Congrats Richard)
[RESULTS]

Special ANNOUNCEMENT -

A Huge THANK YOU to Team ORION and Team NOVAK for their support this season.

Each of this years ('07) Champions received a BRAND NEW ORION 3200 LiPo Battery and a BRAND NEW NOVAK Brushless Motor along with their Championship Trophy.

TEAM ORION www.teamorion.com
TEAM NOVAK www.teamnovak.com

2008 Schedule

1) February 16 (SATURDAY) Encino Velodrome

2) March 15 (SATURDAY) Racers Haven

3) April 19 (SATURDAY) Metro R/C Speedway - Bakersfield

4) May 17-18 (2 Days) Encino Velodrome - Encino *Allstar Shootout*

5) June 21 - (Saturday NIGHT) Racers Haven

6) July 27 - (SUNDAY) McDermont Field House, LINDSAY CA (Carpet)

7) Aug. 9 (SATURDAY) Encino Velodrome

8) Sept. 20 - (SATURDAY) Metro R/C Speedway - Bakersfield

9) Oct. 11 (SATURDAY) Encino Velodrome - Encino

10) Nov. 15 (SATURDAY) McDermont Field House, LINDSAY CA (Carpet)

11) Dec. 13 (SATURDAY) Encino Velodrome - Encino (Non points - WINTERFEST)