QUALIFYING STOCK

With a green track on the first day, traction was low and lap times reflected that. But regardless of how the track changed, one man was consistently on top of the qualifiers: Brian Sakowski was able to get his TC3 dialed in early on and adapt both his setup and driving style as traction increased and lap times dropped. Several drivers made a charge at Sakowski, from Jeff Rezman to young gun Kevin Crosswhite, but after six rounds of qualifying Sakowski would be the top dog.

REEDY SPEC 19-TURN

Most of the drivers who participated in the Stock class also entered the 19T class. Drivers were all provided with the same Reedy 19T spec motors to keep the playing field level, and the competition was intense. Brian Sakowski once again set the pace early in the event, but surprisingly his Stock time was slightly faster than his 19T time, owing to the increased difficulty level associated with the faster motor. As the weekend progressed, Sakowski, Kevin Crosswhite, and Jeff Rezman all picked up the pace and improved their times. Sakowski ended up doing the double, TQing the 19T class just as he had in Stock.

MAINS
ENDURO

Team Associated provided several RTR TC3s for product demonstrations and for spectators to try during the breaks, and these same cars were used for a one-hour endurance race. The format was pretty simple. Three 3-man teams used the cars exactly as they came out of the box, with two minor changes: the rear wings were removed to level the field (some of the cars had lost their wings during demonstrations), and the kit motors were swapped out in favor of the same handout 19Ts that the Reedy Spec 19T class would use. Other than those changes, the cars were bone stock.

To make things easy on the competitors, handout Reedy Black Pack stick packs were provided for their use, and these were charged for them on a combination of Reedy Quasar Pros and Competition Electronics Pit Bull and Turbo Chargers. A pit lane was created, and when a driver felt the pack he was using was dying, a team member would change the pack on the fly and a driver change would be made.
As you might expect, the teams were extremely close early on, with lead changes happening quite frequently. As pit stops came and went, all of the teams made their stops with few problems.

The team of Jeff Rezman, Kevin Crosswhite, and Brandon Newkirk (Team Trouble) had been running very hard and fast laps, and had managed to get a lead of two laps on the field when the handling on the car seemed to deteriorate with Crosswhite behind the wheel. On their last pit stop, Team Trouble discovered that they were, in fact, in trouble with a worn-out right rear tire. An extended pit stop to correct the problem made it possible for ABC Racing (Alex Cortez, Brian Sakowski, and Carl Ceils) to erase the deficit and take the lead. In fact, the then third running team of GFS Racing (Glen Crosswhite, Frank Derose, Stan Tarnorutskiy, and Josh Rehberg) also improved their position to take second overall, relegating Team Trouble to third. When the one-hour mark was reached, ABC Racing had completed over 250 total laps.

Steve "Sparky" Pfeifer, producer of "The World's Greatest Sports Talk Show" on AM1130 WISN, came by to participate in a Celebrity RC Race. He admitted afterwards that racing RC car is much harder than it looks.

STOCK

Much as he had in qualifying, Brian Sakowski looked like he was on a mission to win. In the first A-Main, Brian had an early wreck and needed to get by traffic to move up front. While Sakowski was in traffic, Kevin Crosswhite and Jeff Rezman battled over the top spot for a number of laps. After about two minutes though, Sakowski had worked by Rezman first, then Crosswhite to take the win in the first main.
In the second A-Main, Sakowski got off the line cleanly and never looked back, as he took the win in A2 and the overall Stock win. Crosswhite managed to finish second again, and with the third main coming, he was the favorite to win that main and take second overall. The youngster didn’t disappoint after taking the lead with a great holeshot.

19-TURN REEDY SPEC

The starts were nothing short of intense in the Reedy Spec 19- Turn class, with a similar look to the field as that of the Stock class. With Sakowski on the pole, there was a feeling that his luck may begin to run out. The field got off the line cleanly at the tone, with one car moving up from the back of the field quickly. Josh Rehberg, who only had one qualifier on the track before the mains, worked his way through the field to find himself racing with the race leaders. Just past the halfway mark, he had gotten around both Crosswhite and Rezman and was closing in on Sakowski. Sakowski, however, had amassed a sizeable enough lead to be able to hold off Rehberg and take the first A-Main.

The second main was extremely interesting, as Sakowski decided to leave his pole position and start from the back of the field. Kevin Crosswhite took the early lead, but both Sakowski and Rehberg were fast approaching. Sakowski had a harder time negotiating traffic than Rehberg did, as Josh caught Crosswhite and went to work on the leader. Crosswhite bobbled in the infield, which opened the door enough for Rehberg to get inside and take the lead. Sakowski would finally work his way up the leader board, but he ran out of time to be able to mount a challenge to Rehberg. Rehberg won the second A-Main, with Sakowski in second, forcing a third and decisive A-Main.

In the final race of the event, Sakowski returned to his TQ starting position, but Crosswhite schooled him on the start and took the early lead. Brian was able to get by for the lead when Crosswhite got crossed up with lapped traffic. Rehberg had been moving up through the field when something let loose in his drivetrain, sidelining him. Sakowski cruised on to win the third A-Main, completing the sweep of the event: TQing Stock and Reedy Spec 19T, winning both classes, and being a part of the winning Enduro Team. Kevin Crosswhite’s good runs gave him the second place trophy, with Rehberg coming home third.

WHO NEEDS A BLING-BLING CAR TO COMPETE ANYWAYS???

An interesting thing happened at the race that I thought you should know about. In the last Stock A-Main, Carl Seils crashed out and broke his car. He didn’t have any spare parts with him, and that meant that he didn’t have a car for the final 19T main…or so he thought. What we ended up doing was getting Carl set up with one of the demo RTR TC3s for his last race. The only thing he did was bolt on a set of CS27 tires: other than that and the 19T handout motor we were using, the car was 100% stock. Carl ended up having his single best run of the weekend, running as high as second at one point, and he finished third. He told me after the main that he even ran the same motor that was in the car that had just completed the one-hour Enduro. If that doesn’t speak to the quality of today’s RTRs, I don’t know what does.

Jeff Rezman and Frank Derose work on their cars between rounds. They were just two of the drivers to come up from RSJ Raceway in Illinois, and Jeff was even happier to be there after scoring a brand-new Competition Electronics Pit Bull X3.	Kevin Crosswhite drove very well all weekend long. While he didn't win, he schooled the entire field a few times on the starts.

CONCLUSION

This type of event celebrates everything that is good about our hobby. The number of new people who were exposed to the world of RC was off the charts, and they were able to see great racing both on the “big” track as well as on the RC one.

I have to thank all of our wonderful sponsors and people who helped make this event a reality: Team Reedy/Associated’s Garry Owens, Kevin from The Den R/C Raceway, Doug Hay from R/C Scoring Pro, Brad Johnson of Hurricane Motorsports, Mike Martin from Slick/Zero R/C, and many, many more. And, of course, thanks and congratulations to all the drivers who came to be a part of the first annual SummerFast. We’ll see you next year.

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