David Joor takes the 2011 RC Pro Electric National Title

Wednesday, Nov 30, 2011 at 12:00am UTC

Last week, Mike's Hobbyshop in Houston, Texas hosted the 2011 RC Pro Finals with great success. The track and pavilion were extended a few months ago in order to host this event and it definitely paid off.

I put everything I had into this event and had very high expectations, since last year I TQ'd nitro but flamed at the start, and would be defending my electric title this year. However, you know how once in a while you have those races where nothing connects, you break in back-to-back qualifiers before the buzzer goes, the track feels so good that you can't help driving like a maniac, and you're leading by a large margin with a few laps to go - and the car just stops? Yup, that was me at this race. So no matter how hard you try, things can still go wrong, even with the most experienced drivers.

I put in a few good runs in electric to get myself into the third qualifying position behind Lutz and Dellinger, so I was feeling good about a shot there. Lutz had amazing pace and I could match his average laptimes but he would have three or four laps that were around a half-second faster than his average. For the mains, the RC8.2e was amazing.

My goal was to get up to Ryan right out the gate and put in my best laps hoping that if I could stay in his sights he may make a bobble before he could get into his time warp zone. I had a great start but came up an inch short on the triple right in front of a marshal, but another car had wrecked on an earlier jump that had been forgotten so he was trying to yell at another marshal to get him while every car went by. Now in 12th and 13 seconds down from the leader I made it back up to third by 5 minutes in, and I was pleased with this because Dellinger was the only one I was in contention for the title, and I had enough lead in points to finish two positions overall below him to win. As I get lapped by Lutz, he begins to have electrical issues with his car so I got my embarrassing lap back and start charging, and find that Dellinger had lost a rear turnbuckle; so with two laps to go I took the lead!

In A2 I had a good start and got into second on the first lap, but my game plan failed again because Lutz immediately dipped into several 27-second laps, but this time our fastest laps were just .3 of a second apart, so I was feeling confident I could put pressure on in A3. Finishing second in A2 I had already won the title, so it was all or nothing.

In A3 I get a great start, move into second on the first lap and hold onto Lutz for the first three laps before I wrecked again on the triple, losing 10 seconds.

Winning the Electric National Title again, and getting a handle on the high bite, I was more than ready for the B in nitro as last qualifier. (I told you it was a rough weekend for me.) With a few minutes in I take second place and I am running right behind fellow AE driver Kyle Skidmore. I just wanted to make sure we both bump so no need to battle for the lead. About 10 minutes in, Skidmore has a bobble and I take the lead and start to stretch it out just ticking off laps, taking no chances. With four laps to go and 20 seconds in second place, my steering servo locked up. I took a tumble on the triple - which may have been the world's longest kartwheel, traveling at least 50 feet over lanes and barriers! It was so odd that I was laughing while it was happening because I swear it was gaining speed as it went kartwheeling away from all the marshals.

It was a learning experience like no other - I learned how not to cry in front of people.

Thanks to David Joor for this report.


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