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Gene The Machine Hickerson on RC Pro East Series final round at Phil Hurd Raceway

Thursday, October 4th, 2007 | 272 views

Gene “The Machine” Hickerson report on the final of 2007 RC Pro East Series that was held at Phil Hurd Raceway.

RC Pro East Series champions picture

The 3rd and final round of the 2007 RC Pro East Series was held last weekend in Savannah Georgia at Phil Hurd Raceway. It was a good turnout of about 140 entries as the best of the East battle for the title of RC Pro East Champion. The track was a good combination of fast sections and really slow sections with tons of small double jumps and 1 huge double jump in the middle. There was no place to make up any time on the layout, but many places where you could easily loose time; so the racing was very close as everyone had about the same lap times.

1/8 Expert Arena Truck qualifying:

Going into this final round, the battle was between Xray’s Leon McIntosh and myself as we both had a win in a previous round. In round 1, I put my CEN Matrix Tr Arena on the pole, while McIntosh took 2nd. In round 2, McIntosh put his XB8T on the pole. In round 3, Xray’s Chris Crews took the TQ. In round 4, the overall TQ was still up for grabs, but it was Jammin’s Brandon Cutchins CRT that won the round. That gave Leon the TQ, followed by Brandon and myself in 3rd. The 5 bonus points for TQ gave Leon the edge going into the A-main.

1/8 Arena Truck A-main:

The A-main was a grueling 45 minutes. Bad luck struck right from the start as McIntosh had his engine come loose and missed the start and had to start 1 lap back. At the start, I passed for the lead but then was hit from behind half way through the 1st lap, giving Crews the lead. I worked my way back through the pack into 2nd and set sites on the leader. All I had to do to guarantee the Championship was to finish ahead of Leon, so I took it easy.

At about the 12 minute mark, my brakes went out right as I caught Crews. On my 2nd pit stop, I adjusted the brakes on my Futaba radio but I still had no brakes. As I started to drop back, Cutchins and OCM’s Alan Burton got by for 2nd and 3rd. Then my steering started to get slow. I then realized that it was my receiver pack that was dying. I yelled to my pit man to get another RX pack ready for my next stop. Soon after, my battery was almost dead and I had to pit early to change it. I rejoined the race 4 laps down and in 8th place. Meanwhile Chris Crews had stretched out a big lead and McIntosh was in 5th and moving up. As the hard packed track started to claim its victims, Leon and I continued to move up. Near the end, McIntosh moved into 3rd place while I was up to 4th place 1 lap back. That was how we finished with Crews taking the win and Cutchins taking 2nd. I thought I had lost the Championship by 1 spot since Leon had a 1st and a 3rd, and I had a 1st, 4th, and a 5th. But after the points were tallied up including bonus points for most laps lead, I was the Champion by only 1 point over McIntosh. Crews finished 3rd overall.

RC Pro East 1/8 Expert Arena Truck Final Standings:

1. Gene Hickerson CEN/Maxy’s
2. Leon McIntosh Xray/Werks
3. Chris Crews Xray/Rocket Science

1/8 Expert Buggy qualifying:

In Buggy, it was a battle between Leon McIntosh and myself again. McIntosh had a 1st and a 2nd, while I had a 1st and a 7th. In round 1, Kyosho’s Robin Nelson took the TQ. In round 2, Chris Crews took the TQ. In round 3 and 4, it was Team Associated’s JR Mitch who put his new RC8 into the TQ and overall TQ position. McIntosh had bad luck and was 1st in the B-main. I had not much better luck, qualifying 10th in the A-main, but my buggy was good and ready for the main event. In the B-main, Leon was way in the lead when his engine flamed out, ending his day. He would have to watch the A-main from the sidelines to see if I over took him in the points chase.

1/8 Expert Buggy A-main:

In the 45 minute A-main, Mitch got a clean start and started to pull away. I worked my way up to 4th place very quickly as there was a lot of hacking going on in the pack. Just as quick as I moved up, I was taken out 3 times and dropped back to dead last in 12th place. Soon after, Mitch came up on me and lapped me. By now, the field was spread out some and I was able to get by slower traffic without being taken out much easier. As I worked my way back through the pack, Mitch flamed out and lost his huge lead. He later dropped out with a mechanical problem to end his day. That gave the lead to Robin Nelson. On lap 56, I moved into 3rd and started to run down the leaders. On lap 61, local Patrick Rossiter took over the lead from Nelson. With less then 5 minutes to go, I caught Nelson and was just 16 seconds behind Rossiter. I was going to take my time as I tried to pass Nelson because all I needed to do to win the Championship was finish 2nd. But just then, the high winds caught my buggy over the huge double jump and when it landed, it snapped rolled and broke a steering screw off in the knuckle.

That ended my day and my chance at the title. Chris Crews moved to 3rd and that was how they finished. That gave McIntosh the overall Championship, followed by Nelson, and myself.

RC Pro East 1/8 Expert Buggy Final Standings:

1. Leon McIntosh Xray/Werks
2. Robin Nelson Kyosho/Sidewinder
3. Gene Hickerson CEN/Maxy’s

Your Bonus shot here: Lady RC Driver??

Lady driver at RC Pro East Series picture

More info @:

http://www.machinesrchobbies.com
Phil Hurd Raceway.com final result in PDF

Congratulation to our friend, Gene Hickerson and also Leon Mcintosh for their respective podium finish. :nod:

Posted in CEN, Gene Hickerson, Leon McIntosh, Matrix, Matrix TR, Phil Hurd Raceway, RC Pro East Series, RC Pro Series, Werks, Xray | No Comments »

Team CEN Racing wins again on buggy class! RC Pro East Series Round 2

Tuesday, July 31st, 2007 | 295 views

CEN logo

We have just received this great reporting on the recent RC Pro East Series Round #2. Our report came direct from the man who conquered the 1/8 Expert Buggy Class himself, CEN’s Gene ‘the machine’ Hickerson. Here is his report without editing.

CEN Team picture

Round 2 of the RC Pro East Series was held last weekend at Lake Park in Tampa Florida. Drivers came down to sunny FL from as far as North Carolina to compete for the East Coat RC Pro Championship. There was around 145 entries even with a 60% chance of rain. Friday was open practice on the fast and technical layout. JR Mitch was spotted driving his Team Associated RC8 for the 1st time since the ROAR Nationals last month. I drove really bad at the Nationals, as 63rd was by far the worst I have ever done at a National race in my 21 year racing career, so I was thinking about making changes to my car to find some extra speed to get back on pace. Lake Park is only 1.5 hours from my house, so I am very familiar with the track. I am currently looking for a new engine sponsor, so I bought an OS Speed .21 for my buggy.

I only practiced 1 tank with my buggy and once again, it was dialed right when it hit the track. There was nothing that I could possibly want my CEN Matrix buggy to do better, so I left the set-up the same and spent the rest of the day working on my Truggy.

1/8 Pro Arena Truck

Saturday was scheduled for 4 rounds of qualifying. In round 1 of 1/8 Pro Truck, Ryan Eckert put his ST-R in TQ with a fast run, followed by Jammin’s Brandon Cutchins and myself in 3rd. I drove the best I could, but I was off pace because I was lacking the engine power I normally have. Since I do not have any engines right now, I had to borrow a .21 engine to use in my Matrix TR Arena for the weekend. It ran well but did not have the bottom end of a
.28 to clear the triple jumps. In round 2, Leon McIntosh put his XB8T into TQ position, followed by Eckert and myself in 3rd. In round 3, I popped a rod end and pulled my truck off having already qualified for the A-main.
Eckert took the TQ again. In round 4, Eckert TQ’d again, while my engine flamed out early in the heat. That put Eckert in 1st, followed by McIntosh, Cutchins and myself in 4th.

Sunday was the Main events. In the A-Main event, Eckert and McIntosh pulled away from the field with Tony Pattishall in 3rd. I was involved in the 1st lap pile up and dropped way back. I worked my way through the field slowly until I caught Pattishall, but then I crashed on the triple jump and popped a steering ball end which took 2 laps to fix. That dropped me back to 11th.

Meanwhile, Eckert and McIntosh had a great battle for the lead, only seconds apart for most of the 30 minute race. With less then 30 seconds left, Eckert moved to the inside down the straight to try a pass on McIntosh, but ran out of fuel. That gave McIntosh the win, followed by Eckert and Pattishall in 3rd.

1/8 Expert Arena Truck A-Main

1. Leon McIntosh Xray/Max
2. Ryan Eckert Kyo/OS
3. Tony Pattishall Mugen/RB Mods
4. Anton Watson
5. Kyle Sokol Cen/Maxy
6. Pete Worth
7. Gene Hickerson CEN/Maxy
8. Justin Cranford CEN
9. Joey Perez CEN
10.Larry Bergeron JR
11.Brandon Cutchins
12.Tony Brown CEN

1/8 Pro Buggy

In round 1 of 1/8 Pro Buggy, the rain started right before the 2nd heat started. Per RC Pro Series rules, the track must be in a similar condition for every heat, so heat #1 was rerun in the mud as soon as it stopped raining. Kyosho’s Ryan “Showtime” Eckert set the TQ by 3 seconds over JR Mitch and myself just .1 second behind Mitch. In round 2, Xray’s Leon “Neon”
McIntosh took the TQ, followed by my CEN Matrix and Eckert’s 777. JR Mitch broke his RC8 and thought he might be done for the weekend since spare parts are limited on the proto type ASC buggy. In round 3, I finally put in a clean run with only 1 crash and set a new TQ by 8 seconds over Eckert and Mitch. Round 4 was a shoot out between the 4 fastest guys in FL as we all still had a shot at the overall TQ. Mitch was up 1st and was on a quick pace, but ran out of fuel, probably from a cracked fuel tank. Eckert, McIntosh, and myself were in the final heat of the day after the reshuffle.

Eckert and McIntosh both crashed early in the run, so I took an easy TQ with the only 11 lap run of the round. That gave me the overall TQ with 0 points, followed by Eckert & McIntosh in 2nd & 3rd.

On Sunday. the track was blue groove again even with the light rain on Saturday, but around 11:00am, the rains came again. This time it rained hard for about 1 hour, flooding the track. Soon after, the sun came back out and with the help of the Hurricane R/C Club track crew, we were back racing on the wet & muddy track. The rain continued on and off during the rest of the mains. At the start, I took the hole shot but cased the small triple and allowed McIntosh and Mitch to get by. Mitch moved to 1st after some contact with McIntosh, allowing me back into 2nd. Myself and Mitch soon pulled away from the rest of the pack, with less then 5 seconds between us for the next 25 minutes. We swapped back and forth for the lead many times, including contact several times, unlike the close clean racing I had with Eckert and McIntosh in all 4 rounds of qualifying. With about 5 minutes to go, Mitch flamed out handing me almost a full lap lead over the field. Mitch got his
RC8 back going but had mechanical failure again with 2 minutes left to end his race. I went into cruise control and took the win by about 25 seconds over McIntosh in 2nd, and Eckert 1 lap back in 3rd.

1/8 Expert Buggy

1. Gene Hickerson CEN/Maxy
2. Leon McIntosh Xray/Max
3. Ryan Eckert Kyo/OS
4. Jinson Collins
5. JR Mitch
6. Brandon Cutchins
7. Travis Scrambling CEN/Maxy
8. Kyle Sokol CEN/Maxy
9. Shane Ogden
10. Patrick Rossiter
11. Alan Burton
12. Ryan Lopez

All in all, it was another great weekend for Team CEN Racing with another TQ and win, with 5 Matrix TR Arenas and 3 Matrix Pros in the A-mains. I would also like to thank all of my sponsors for their support this year: CEN Racing, Machine’s R/C Hobbies, Pro-line, Futaba, Maxy’s Fuel, KMW Racing, Kolor Koncepts, and Advantage Racing Products.