2007
401 TCC July 22, 2007
Race Report
The 4th annual
401 Touring Car Challenge was held at the RROL Home Depot track
in London, ON on Sunday July 22. Fortunately all the necessary
elements for a near perfect race came together as the weather
was a warm 27C, the last minute entries had filled the classes
even more than expected and the track preparations were
completed. In addition, the local hobby shops came through
generously with lots of door prizes and the club was raffling
off a new Xray kit.
Since there was a club points race the day before, it allowed
some of the out of towners to get some extra practice in, and
keeping the track set up overnight saved setup time the next
day.
On Sunday, after
a 2 hour practice we had the traditional group photo and held
the Concourse competition. It was a tough call to make as there
were several great looking bodies! Eventually, Suzanne Vince,
the concourse judge declared Brenno Crosara’s nicely detailed
nitro sedan painted by “Bawdy Shop Nick” to be the winner.
Ben Smith - Most Determined Racer of the Day |
Mini Qualifying:
Since there were only 10 minis entered, it was decided that they
could all be turned loose in one heat, rubbing fenders in a blur
of lexan and burning rubber, well maybe not a blur, but there
was some fender rubbing going on. The first round saw John Hoy
edging local favorite Etienne Marcoux by a scant 0.3 seconds,
followed by Kevin Hill.
After the second and third rounds however, Etienne had put more
distance between himself and the rest of the field, with the
final grid set with Etienne Marcoux capturing the TQ followed by
John Hoy, Kevin Hill, Richard Garner, Bart Garner, Allan Cox,
Ennio Carbone, Jason Hauk, Kevin Parsons, and our youngest
driver of the day rounding out the field Ben Smith.
19T Touring
Qualifying
12 cars were entered for this fast electric class and the
qualifying went off as predicted with Wayne Vince powering his
Xray T2 ‘007 ahead of the field but not with out a very strong
challenge from Lou Vanderwey and his Losi JRX-S. After 3 rounds
Wayne Vince took the TQ position followed by Lou Vanderwey.
Etienne Marcoux, Bart Garner, Con Vangalen, Kevin Hill, Richard
Garner, Ennio Carbone, Dylan Christo, Jason Hauk, Frank Munzer,
& Steve Vangalen.
Nitro Qualifying
Probably one of the strongest 1/10 nitro sedan fields in Canada
were set to do battle on the twisty RROL circuit, made even more
challenging because the sloping surface causes some turns to
drive like off-camber turns while others seem almost banked.
With the recently crowned 2007 Canadian National 1/10 Nitro
Sedan Champion Lou Vanderwey in the field, fast contenders like
Wayne Vince, Ty Grant, & James Mak along with most of the other
fastest drivers in Ontario, the quick sedans took to the track.
In the first round, Wayne Vince took the lead and was shadowed
within a few seconds by Lou followed by Ty, Brenno, & Ross. The
first 5 cars all doing 20 laps and within 13 seconds of each
other. In the second round Wayne ended up ahead of James Mak by
a mere 0.7 seconds. In the third round, Wayne was once again
ahead at the end by 0.7 seconds but this time it was Lou
attached to his bumper, who actually led most of this race. So
after three exciting and very close rounds it was Wayne Vince
taking the TQ spot followed by Lou Vanderwey, Ty Grant, James
Mak, Brenno Crosara, Ross Chiaramonte, Nick Imineo, Anthony
Giannace, Gervais Grant, Wally Edmonds, Fabio Falcione, Mitch
Medeiros, John Elliott, Tim Kwok, Lee Glick, Greg Tong, Ron
Dziuban, Edwin Wong Dustin Schnider, Gary Swayze, Pat Scialdone,
Justin Blythe, Frank Munzer, & Derek Marker
Mains:
Mini
The question was, could anyone catch Etienne and his well
prepared M03L? The answer was soon revealed when the horn went
to start the Mini A Main. Starting from the TQ position, his
blue and white Mini took off into the sweeper followed by 9
hopeful competitors. After 5 minutes while there was some
position changes in the field, 1 & 2 were locked up with Etienne
finishing 9 seconds ahead of John Hoy, and Richard a further 9
seconds behind John, followed by Kevin Hill, Bart Garner, Allan
Cox, Ennio Carbone, Kevin Parsons, Jason Hauk and Ben Smith.
Etienne took home the win and TQ award.
C Main Nitro
Some had mechanical issues, some bad luck, others just had wrung
out the most from their cars and there was no more. Either way,
the field for the 10 minute long C main was set with Ron Dziuban,
Edwin Wong, Dustin Schnider Gary Swayze, Pat Scialdone, Justin
Blythe, and Frank Munzer. Derek Marker would not take the green
due to mechanical problems, and Dustin was also a DNS. As the
green flag came up and the scream of nitro burning 2cc engines
filled the air, after 6 laps, it looked like Ron was heading for
victory but Edwin was moving up quickly after a bad start and
took over the top spot for the rest of the race. Attrition
played a big role in the outcome with only 4 cars finishing. The
final order was: Edwin, Gary, Frank, Pat, Ron, and Justin.
 B
Main 19T
Only 3 cars took the green flag for this race, Dylan Christo,
Jason Hauk and Steve Vangalen, but as the horn sounded there was
some good dicing going on. Steve came from 3rd on the grid to
take the point after lap 1 and was never really challenged to
the chequered flag. Dylan & Jason traded spots a few times over
the 5 minute race. In the end it was Steve, Dylan and Jason.
B Main Nitro
Some of the fast drivers in this 15 minute race just missed out
on making the big show and were determined to show their stuff.
The qualifying order had Gervais Grant taking the dubious BQ
spot followed by Wally Edmonds, Fabio Falcione, Mitch Medeiros
who had mechanical woes and couldn’t make the start, John
Elliott, first time driving the “small” cars, Tim Kwok, Lee
Glick, and Greg Tong. At the horn Gervais held a slim lead over
Fabio, while Wally got a bad start. By the first pit Wally had
fought his way to the top while Gervais had a flame out. John
was 2nd but would later take over P1 on pit strategy. Just past
the halfway mark Wally was out with driveline issues and John
and Gervais were trading top spot. At the chequered flag, John
had built up a 1 lap lead followed by Gervais, Fabio, Tim, Lee,
Greg, with Wally watching from the sidelines, his crew trying to
console him. Nice drive for John Elliott who just put the car
together a couple of weeks before.
A Main 19T
After the 3 qualifying rounds, it was clear that barring a
catastrophic event, it was going to be a tight battle between
top qualifier Wayne Vince and close 2nd qualifier Lou Vanderwey.
The rest of the field, Etienne Marcoux, Bart Garner, Con
Vangalen, Kevin Hill, Richard Garner and the rarely seen Ennio
Carbone would be essentially battling it out for 3rd . At the
horn, Wayne used his starting position to pull out a 1 second
lead over Lou. After a few laps Lou showed he could more than
hang with Wayne as he was not letting Wayne get a gap on him.
The rest of the field were aware of the battle going on for
first and second and let the leaders go through cleanly. Bart
had capitalized on an error by Etienne on lap 3 to gain 3rd
place and they would have an ongoing battle for 3rd right up to
the flag. Whether it was pressure from Lou being on Wayne’s rear
bumper or just a rare driving error we don’t know, but on lap
12, Wayne clipped a dome and lost 3 seconds on his roof while
Lou drove by into P1. Wayne tried to close the gap but ran out
of time and Lou made no mistakes. The final results were: Lou
Vanderwey just 0.47 seconds ahead of Wayne Vince, Bart Garner,
just 0.49 seconds ahead of Etienne, followed by Con, Richard,
Ennio and Kevin DNF with electrical an problem. What an exciting
race!
A Main Nitro
This was the crowning race for the day. The fastest nitro sedan
racers in Southern Ontario perhaps even Canada including the
newly crowned Canadian National Champion, were poised to take
the start for the grueling 20 minute A Nitro main. After 3
intense qualifying rounds, the starting grid was: Wayne Vince
taking the TQ position, followed by Lou Vandewey, Ty Grant,
James Mak, Brenno Crosara, Ross Chiaramonte, Nick Imineo, and
Anthony Giannace. As the cars were gridding for the start,
Brenno’s car flamed out and wasn’t able to restart. The rest of
the field was anxious to go so the flag came up and the race was
on, it was a clean start. A few laps in, the field had settled
down and Wayne was leading Lou, Ty, James, Anthony, Nick, and
Ross. Near the half way point, at the head of the pack, Wayne
had things in control and was building a small lead while, Lou,
Ty and James were fighting for 2nd . Nick and Ross were having
their own dogfight while Anthony had dropped out with a
mechanical issue. By the final round of pit stops, the order was
stable with Wayne holding a slim lead over James and Lou ahead
of Ty. At the flag it was Wayne by about 4 ½ seconds over James
Mak , followed 2 laps back by Lou and Ty, followed by Nick
Imineo, Ross, Anthony (DNF) and Brenno (DNS).
Is this guy holding the beautiful Ashley a tad tighter
than he should? |
After the race
the Xray draw was made. Of all the hopeful ticket holders only
one would be lucky and that honour went to Con Vangalen who
walked home with a great new car! Congratulations Con!
The awards were
handed out and thanks to John Hoy’s girlfriend Ashley, we had a
beautiful trophy girl for all the photos. Thanks Ashley!
Many thanks to
all the competitors who came out to support this race and make
it the success it was. Thanks to the sponsors who supplied door
prizes or helped out in other ways: Home Depot, Subway, Great
Canadian Hobbies, Amazing Hobbies, ByronRC, AVF Hobbies, BOB-FM,
Hooter’s, McDonalds, LondonRC, Honda House, FastCats.. A special
thanks to Wayne Vince for supplying the Xray T2-007 raffle car
kit and other door prizes. And the members of RROL, the best RC
Club in Ontario for helping out with the day’s event from setup
to teardown. Can’t wait for the 2008 race!
Webmasters Note: The above write up is from Dan
Engelbreth and while he is kind enough to thank the club members
it needs to be said that Dan pretty much did this show on his
own.
Thanks Dan for taking yourself out of the raceday to run the
show. You did a fantastic job and we all appreciate it greatly.
Thanks to Suzanne
Vince for spending the day snapping pictures and recording our
race day. They are presented below. |
