Florida State Off-Road Series 2008 | Round 1
As always, another great report coming from our friend, Gene “The Machine” Hickerson. Enjoy his report but sadly, he did not join the 1/8 Truck aka RC Truggy class for he surely has the chance of going hat-trick on the championship points. However knowing Gene as humble person, we think he made the right decision to let others get the hands on the truggy class he won for consecutive 2 years in a row. Good for you Gene 
The 2008 Florida State Off-road Series decided to start the season early so that we will not have to race during the holidays or the hot summer months. Round #1 was held at 555 Raceway in Bartow. With 190 entries, the series continues to be one of the largest in the USA.
1/8 Truck
In truck, I decided not to race 1/8 Truck this year after winning the series championships for the last 2 years. 2nd place in the RC Pro East Series, Leon McIntosh, decided not to race truck either. That opened the door to many other fast truggy drivers to battle for the title this year. In round 1, Mike Jones set the early TQ. In round 2, no one was able to beat his rocket round TQ time.
In the A-main, Jones took the early lead, but it was Tony Pattishall who had the fastest truck in the main. Pattishall quickly worked his way up from 4th to 2nd. By the end of the 1st pit stops, Pattishall took over the lead from Jones and stretched out a big lead. Kyosho’s Ryan Eckert and Jeff Keeton worked up to 2nd and 3rd but were not able to catch Pattishall.
– 1/8 Scale Truck - A Main —
Pos Car Laps time name
1 4 43 20:25.97 Tony Pattishall Mugen
2 3 42 20:11.91 Ryan Eckert Kyosho
3 7 42 20:13.00 Jeff Keeton Mugen
4 5 42 20:26.99 Chris Shadron
5 2 42 20:28.27 JJ Turk
6 10 41 20:00.48 Aaron Sikes
7 1 41 20:09.66 Michael Jones
8 11 40 20:06.89 Steve Szykulski
9 9 40 20:19.81 Randy Deppen
10 6 40 20:31.00 John Renshaw
11 8 40 20:33.34 Glenn Napurski
12 12 35 20:31.72 Chad Olcott1/8 Expert Buggy
In buggy, I had to miss the 1st round due to work, and Xray’s Leon McIntosh missed the 1st round to attend a Football game I believe. J-Concepts’ Jason Ruona was there also but did not have his new RC8 built yet. In round 1, Team Associated’s JR Mitch took the early TQ. The top 10 was less then 10 seconds apart. CEN Racing’s newest driver, JP Tirronen, had an impressive run to qualify 8th, his 1st time ever driving the Matrix buggy. In round 2, I showed up and so did McIntosh. Ruona even decided to race with another drivers RC8. Xray’s Jim Larrimore set a fast run and just missed TQ. Ruona had a fast run to bump into the top 10, as did I with my CEN Matrix. But the man of the day was Jeff Keeton. Keeton put in a text book run and set a new TQ by 6 seconds.
The B-main was a good one. Many fast drivers were ready to battle for the 2 bump ups, including Leon McIntosh. But the break out driver and winner of the B-main was Machine’s R/C Hobbies driver, Johnny Sanchez. This was Sanchez’s 1st time ever racing 1/8 Expert Buggy with his new CEN Matrix. Sanchez lead the whole race and easily won even with a front tire coming off the rim. Michael Jones took the last bump up spot with a nice run.
The A-main event was cut to 20 minutes due to the number of entries, but it was a great race also. At the start, Keeton took the lead, followed by Mitch and Eckert. Mitch flamed out early on ending his chance at winning. Now with a commanding lead, Eckert started to catch Keeton. After a bad start, I managed to get into a groove and moved from 12th up to 5th. But just when I felt comfortable with the car, I broke a titanium CVD and dropped out. On the last few laps, 1st and 2nd were bumper to bumper. With just 2 turns left, Eckert got by Keeton, but in the next turn, Keeton tried to pass him back for the win but they tangled. Keeton got the best of it and took the win, leaving Eckert in the pipe.
– 1/8TH SCALE - A Main –
Pos Car Laps time name
1 1 43 20:26.74 Jeff Keeton Mugen
2 5 43 20:29.06 Ryan Eckert Kyosho
3 7 42 20:04.08 Jason Ruona ASC
4 8 42 20:14.12 Chris Swauger
5 12 41 20:01.89 Michael Jones Mugen
6 3 41 20:09.16 JR Mitch ASC
7 4 40 20:00.60 Jim Larrimore Xray
8 9 40 20:08.41 Michael Delay Jammin
9 11 39 20:06.08 Johnny Sanchez CEN
10 2 39 20:27.81 AJ Johnson Losi
11 10 32 15:40.51 Gene Hickerson CEN
12 6 10 4:53.20 Luis Perez Mugen
Source: Gene Hickerson of http://www.machinesrchobbies.com | http://www.fsors.com
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