Gene Hickerson report on Brazil National Championship Cup

Written on September 13, 2007 – 3:55 pm | by webmaster | 957 views

This just in direct from The Machine himself, Gene Hickerson. The winner to The Brazil National Championship Cup that was held in Fortaleza from September 7th-9th.

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My CEN teammate, Andrew Smolnik, and I flew to Brazil on Wednesday night and arrived Thursday morning after a 18 hour flight. Thursday was a free day, so we headed to the beautiful beach across the street from the hotel. All of the racers that arrived early were there. We had some drinks and lunch and then headed to the track to check it out. Asa Branca Speedway was the nicest R/C track facility I have ever been to. A perfectly groomed all grass track, awesome driver’s stand, full bar, pool, and even a night club on the premises. The place was 1st class all the way and unlike anything I have ever seen in the USA. I also have never raced on grass before, so it was going to be a challenge.

Friday:
Friday was 4 rounds of 10 minute practice heats. The 1st 2 were free, and the last 2 were on the clock to seed us for qualifying. I started with a different set-up then I normally use and it worked well. In the 1st seeding heat, I set the early TQ. But Mugen’s Kris Moore from the USA took the TQ in the last heat. Round #2 was run under the lights, so the track was much slower since the moister came up and made the grass wet and slick. no one was able to improve on our times.

Saturday:
Saturday was 5 rounds of 10 minute qualifiers, the best 3 of 5 seeding you for the semis. In round #1, Mugen’s Henrique Winik took the TQ, followed by me in 2nd, and Kris Moore in 3rd. In round #2, I put in a perfect run to take the TQ, followed by Winik. In round #3, Moore pulled out the TQ, while I took 2nd fastest. That gave me a 1st and 2 seconds, so I was guaranteed a spot in the Semi Finals. All 3 of us were equally fast, so I decided to change my set-up for the 4th and 5th rounds to find some more speed. In the 4th round, my car was much faster, but very hard to drive. Winik took the TQ, followed by Moore. I changed my set-up again for the final round. It was better, but still too hard to be consistent. Winik TQ’d again giving him the overall TQ, while Moore took 2nd and I was 3rd overall.

Sunday:
Sunday was all of the finals. 5 drivers from each Semi Final would bump to the A Final. I changed my set-up again and was ready for the A Semi Final practice. During the 10 minute practice, I was 1 second faster then I had been all week and .3 faster then the track record. I hit the set-up just right because I could put my Cen Matrix anywhere I wanted and could clear all of the double and triple jumps with ease, even with out using the berms.
I knew I had a great shot at winning the Final.

Semi Final B was up next. Kris Moore started 1st and took and easy win, followed by MARCELLO BELLO, FRANCISCO JUNIOR, JORGINHO CARVALHO, and PEDRO THIEME.

Semi Final A was next. I started 2nd behind Winik and planned on just following him to make sure I bumped with no problems. But the problems started right away. My engine went full rich right after the start. The air in Brazil changed drastically each day and I had to retune my engine for every heat. Unfortunately, I did not get my buggy to my pit man in time for him to lean it out before the start of the Semi. About 5 minutes in, I could not even make the back triple, so I came in to the pits and had my pit man (the fastest 1 man pit crew in the world) Andrew Smolnik lean my engine out.
That helped some, but 4 minutes later it went even richer. I made another early stop and had him lean it out another 2 hours. That was just enough to keep me going and I managed to still finish 2nd, 1 lap back from Winik, followed by GIANCARLO TUDISCO, HEITOR NOGUEIRA, and FRED ANDRES. Winik had the fastest time of the Semis, so he would start on the Pole. I was 2nd fastest and Moore was 3rd fastest. That made up the 10 fastest drivers in South America as we were ready to battle it out in the 1 hour long Final.

The Final:
After some major bench tuning, I leaned my engine out 5 hours on top and bottom and was ready for the warm-up. My engine was running about 20′F hotter then it normally does because of the extra drag caused by the grass.
With 1 minute left in the warm-up, they called us in to the pits and we had to shut down our engines. I noticed that Winik was not on the stand and was back in the pits. Apparently his Receiver pack caught on fire and each cell blew up in pit lane as they left to put a new one in. He called for a 10 minute grace period. it was very nerve wrecking to be ready to race for 60 minutes, and then have to wait 10 more minutes to start. Since Winik was given a grace, he would start the Final out of pit lane. That meant I would be starting on the Pole which would be huge.

For the 2nd warm-up, I was ready and at the line with 30 seconds till the start. They used IFMAR starts and counted down from 10. When they get to 4 seconds left, the pit man was supposed to put the car down and let go.
Unfortunately because of the announcer only spoke Portuguese, my pit man did not know when to release my car. As all the other cars were down and quiet, I was still in the air revving my engine. When my pit man realized the race was about to start, he dropped my buggy to the grown just before the tone sounded. Buy per IFMAR rules, you will get a 10 second penalty if your car moves at all before the tone. Since my wheels were spinning and my car was dropped, it bounced and few inches forward when it landed. When I heard the tone, I pulled the throttle and was off. I took the hole shot and started to stretch out a lead. But on the 2nd lap, I was called for a false start and was required to come in to pit lane for 10 seconds. I came in that lap and after the 10 seconds, my pit man put me back down and I was racing again.
The penalty cost me about 18 seconds, so I went from 1st to dead last and about to be lapped by Moore. It was a 60 minute Finals, so i still had 59 minutes left to make up the lost lap.

As I worked my way through the field, I got tangled up a few times and Moore got by me to put me 1 lap down. Right then I knew my chances of winning were over unless I could get back on the lead lap. I started to drive tight lines, while conserving fuel, and stopped making mistakes. I passes Moore back and started laying down very fast laps. By the 7 minute mark, I was back in the lead right before I pitted for the 1st time. I came out of the pits back in 3rd, behind Moore and Winik. The 2 Mugen drivers were pitting every 5-6 minutes, while my Matrix was able to go 7-8 minutes easily since I was conserving fuel and driving very smooth. By the 12 minute mark, I took back the lead. When I came in for fuel at the 15:30 mark for my 2nd stop, I came out of the pits still in the lead. I then crashed on the triple and dropped back to 3rd. Over the next 5 minutes, we all 3 battled for the lead.
At about the 21 minute mark, 1st and 2nd place pitted, handing me the lead back. I then stretched out a good lead and held on this time after my own pit stop. About 10 minutes later, I lapped the 3rd place Winik. About 10 minutes later, I lapped 2nd place Moore. I pressed on and with about 10 minutes left, I lapped 3rd place again and came up on 2nd place Kris Moore.
There was no need to have 2 laps over 2nd, so I went in to cruise control and started taking wider/safer lines for the rest of the race. On the last 2 laps, I rolled all of the jumps and went on to win the 2007 Brazil National Championship by 1.5 Laps over 2nd place Kris Moore, and 3 laps ahead of 3rd place Henrique Winik.

I was ecstatic, as this was my 1st National Championship win since 1997. The race was one of the best I have ever been to and I would love to go back again. I want to thank the good Lord Jesus Christ for being with me, Rafael Felicio and Francisco Junior, and my team manager, Andrew Smolnik, for all there help that week. I also want to thank all of my sponsors this year for making this trip and win possible: CEN Racing, Pro-line, Futaba, Maxy’s Pro Racing Fuel, Advantage Racing Products, Kolor concepts, KMW Racing Products, Xtreme Racing, and Machine’s R/C Hobbies.