It is another year in the R/C world and that means another time to participate in the Tamiya Championship Series(TCS – http://www.tamiya.ca). RCO club was lucky enough to hold the first race of the year at their brand new Sutton Aviation raceway!
The facility opened at 7:30am where a ton of people were anticipating a great day of racing. Their eyes feasted on a brand new track design, changed from Saturday’s open practice, that seemed very technical and extremely impressive. Grins were ear to ear without the actual car touching the track. There were racers from Guelph, Toronto, Montreal and all over Ontario and Quebec to enjoy a great day at this fantastic facility.
Practice was available until 9:45 am. Thanks to some excellent work by Mihai, our race director, the registration process and schedule were clearly laid out from the start. A short driver’s meeting also explained the TCS format and expectations. Each class would have four rounds of races. Each race is counted as points based on overall time. It would be the total of the best 3 of 4 finished results that would decide your final score and the top 6 drivers, excluding former North American champions, would be eligible to participate in the TCS Canadian finals in August for a chance to participate in the North America finals in California.
Races started at EXACTLY 10:00am.
We had 71 entries over the five Tamiya classes including F1, Mini, FF-03, GT2 and GT1. Please take a look at http://www.tamiya.ca for more information on these classes.
The nice thing about TCS is that every time that buzzer sounds you are battling with the cars in front and behind you. One of the concerns with this format is at times it is difficult to get a clean run due to the excitement however I am happy to report that any mistake that was made yesterday was followed by excellent sportsmanship of waiting for the car to be marshalled. This allowed a great amount of battles on the track for every class. We witnessed great passing, exciting door to door corners and best of all a lot of happy racers and spectators.
We were also treated to a little home made cooking. Chili, sandwiches, coffee and such were all available in the canteen. Big shout out goes to the Sutton Aviation volunteers for keeping us fed and our thirst quenched throughout the event.
The traction of the track increased throughout the day and the racing got closer and closer. The highlight was the round 4 Mini race between Jake Solt and Gordie Tam(last years Canadian Champion). Gordie had the speed however was making a few mistakes. That didn’t stop Jake from holding his line perfectly through the entire 5 minutes. In and out battle was so heated and close that spectators(never seen an R/C race were yelling and hollering at the cars. When they both crossed the line people were jumping in the air and arms were waving. What a race!
The race event ended at around 4pm and the track was quickly put away within minutes. Big prizes were handed out thanks to Tamiya Canada and Dynamic Hobbies. A special door prize was awarded to a non-racer who purchased a ticket as well as 50/50 money that was slightly over $200 to the winner. Just a reminder that the other half of the 50/50 goes towards paying for the outdoor tent covering Sutton Aviation’s beautiful 140′ x 60′ clay off-road track!
It was a very successful event and there was a ton of buzz surrounding the pits. I was even able to see a lot of old familiar faces taking a peek. Good to see you Jeff, Mark, Steve and others! Hope you come out and join us soon.
Big thanks to Tamiya Canada for wonderful prizes, Sutton Aviation for making the race possible and most of all Mihai for giving up his entire weekend making sure everything ran so smoothly!
I can’t wait to see you all at Round # 2 at Lou’s Speedway(http://www.lousspeedway.com/)5 Starlight Lane, Dorchester, Ontario February 26, 2012.. That 90′ straightaway is going to be awesome!
Zoof
-ps- Videos and pictures to be available soon. For further discussion visit the FORUM
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