RCX, Pomona - Day 1
April 19th, 2008
April 19th, 2008 was the first of two days at RCX for the HPI Drift Challenge. This weekend was sure to be a fun weekend, as well as a busy one. 34 RC Drifters ranging from NorCal, SoCal, and even as far as Hawaii, came to battle it out in Pomona.
Day 1
The day started out early as usual with pit set up and such. There were a number of things that were to be ran differently with this competition. One would be that it was a 2 day cumulative event, and 2, the qualifying would be a bracket style as apposed to the normal single driver style.
At first this style would seem as if it would be a bit too sketchy, but it worked out really good. Qualifying was more exciting than just watching a single car run, which was better for the audience that only had a few moments to watch, this in turn had many of them staying to watch a large portion of the event. James of RC Driftclub and HPI did a good job with this, so kudos!
HPI took the liberty of taking individual photos of each driver and their car which I thought was a really cool extra. These would eventually be used on the official HPI website which was even better!
After this, we all gathered on the track for a quick drivers meeting running down the list of rules and such, just like any other event. Thereafter, we all took a group picture followed by the concours competition. There were a lot of great looking RC bodies being put out for this event, so there was sure to be some eye candy. The judges had chosen the top 3, consisting of Ryan Degala with his R35 inspired 350 Z, Alfonso Jay Williams with his Subaru Impreza along with a motor, and myself with a replica of Tanner Foust's 2008 AEM/ Rockstar 350Z. In the end, it was Alfonso taking 1st, myself taking 2nd, and Ryan taking 3rd.
Now, it was time for the qualifying Battle Bracket 1. My first battle was against Ian Fadrigon. Since this battle was the first for the day, my head was pretty clear. I got a good amount of practice in the morning so I was pretty warmed up. Also, since this was sort of a qualifying round that counted only towards the next round I was pretty relaxed and concentrated on just having fun, and not putting too much pressure on myself. Anyway, it was pretty cool getting to drive against one of the Team Redline NorCal guys. We both kept it fun and clean during the battles and I ended up advancing because I managed to put a little pressure while following. My next opponent would be Mac Cruz.
I love going against my teammates because there's a real good sense of sportsman ship between all of us. Even though only one of us gets to advance at the time, we all wish the best for each other. Mac, what can I say, he's pretty gifted and a very talented driver, so it wasn't going to be anything but tough to advance. Mac and I often practice tandems a whole lot whenever we practice, so we're pretty familiar with each others driving style. We both kept it clean and just tried to give the crowd a show with some close tandems! We got the crowd going for a bit. But someone had to go on, and I ended up advancing to the next round, might have been luck, haha. Next was the best 8 round. I was going against Wes Handy. Wes is one crazy driver because he manages to pull off some sick runs with using an almost stock HPI E10 with a 27 turn brush motor. He trips me out with that and is also really good, hats off to him. 
But one person could only move on so I was going to get to move on. My next opponent in the best 4 round was Drift Nutz member, Ken Elslava. Ken Ken is a really overall cool guy and is another fun driver to go against. He'll always give you a run for your money and he did this round. We kept it clean and battled tight, but I was going to get to go on the the finals! Not bad for the first part of the day! This time I had to go against Brian Lemi. I never really drove against Brian, but I've watched a couple of his battles in the past, he's pretty good. With that said, it was no surprise that we went one more time, but in the end, I came out with the win. It was a pretty good morning so far.
With pulling off the win for the first bracket, the winner of the first bracket was up to go against HPI employee and driver extraordinaire Thad Garner in a super battle! This was probably the craziest tandeming i've ever done period. The crowds absolutely loved it and we seriously kept it waaaay close. It was so fun! Literally, pretty much everyone was yelling with excitement, including my self, well, inside at least while driving. But it was too crazy!
It was time for lunch along with the Time Attack qualifying round! It was actually really really fun. The track conditions with pretty good for time attack as it started to get warmer from a gloomy cold morning. With the sun finally shining, drivers put on a good show for this portion! It was amazing to see how many spectators we got during this time. To give you an idea, we actually had 2 separate tracks (one competition course and one practice course) right next to each other. The crowd we had throughout the day for the most part was lined up along the competition track. For time attack, people actually filled up along both tracks with multiple rows of people. It was pretty cool!
The crowd loved this portion as well as the drivers, because drivers consistently kept getting better and faster times. Out of the whole grid, my teammate Eric Tubig was driving super fast that day and he was the guy to beat. I managed to be a couple of milliseconds faster, and pulled of the top qualifying position! It was pretty on edge and exciting!
Bracket 2 was a pretty short bracket for me. First I went against Timothy Truong who I've never drove against. Due to some spinouts in his first lap, I managed to keep it clean and move on. Next I was going to go against John Ramos, another member of Drift Nutz. It always fun and relaxing battling against people that are really chill, because I don't really care who wins, as long as we have fun, and John being one of them, it was pretty cool. We both kept in pretty clean again, but with a slight advantage, I was able to pull off an advancement to the best 8.
This round was where my streak ended for the morning. Battling against Nick Viglionzoni was pretty interesting. After a clean lap by both of us, I was to chase next. On the second to last turn when trying to close up on him, I ended up hitting him on the transition. Not really sure what happened, wether he had an motor/ esc cut out issue or something, but (at the time) it might have been seen as a brake check. We both were maintaining the same speed and line, but somewhere he slowed down a pretty good amount, pretty quick. With that hit he was able to move on. I wasn't mad at all and I didn't scream out "Brake Check!". I just took what I was dealt and accepted it. We shook hands and being the good sportsman that he is, Nick came up to me later that day and explained that he didn't intentionally brake check me, and that in order to transition, he had to slow down pretty quickly in order to make the transition. That's pretty understandable as the point of the chase car is to follow the lead car's line along with speed and angle. All was good and we were totally cool (not that we weren't before), but it was nice of him to come up to me and make sure that all was good. He actually went on the win the bracket, so good job Nick!
More to come for Day 2 soon! Stay tuned!
April 19th, 2008 was the first of two days at RCX for the HPI Drift Challenge. This weekend was sure to be a fun weekend, as well as a busy one. 34 RC Drifters ranging from NorCal, SoCal, and even as far as Hawaii, came to battle it out in Pomona.
Day 1
The day started out early as usual with pit set up and such. There were a number of things that were to be ran differently with this competition. One would be that it was a 2 day cumulative event, and 2, the qualifying would be a bracket style as apposed to the normal single driver style.
At first this style would seem as if it would be a bit too sketchy, but it worked out really good. Qualifying was more exciting than just watching a single car run, which was better for the audience that only had a few moments to watch, this in turn had many of them staying to watch a large portion of the event. James of RC Driftclub and HPI did a good job with this, so kudos!HPI took the liberty of taking individual photos of each driver and their car which I thought was a really cool extra. These would eventually be used on the official HPI website which was even better!
After this, we all gathered on the track for a quick drivers meeting running down the list of rules and such, just like any other event. Thereafter, we all took a group picture followed by the concours competition. There were a lot of great looking RC bodies being put out for this event, so there was sure to be some eye candy. The judges had chosen the top 3, consisting of Ryan Degala with his R35 inspired 350 Z, Alfonso Jay Williams with his Subaru Impreza along with a motor, and myself with a replica of Tanner Foust's 2008 AEM/ Rockstar 350Z. In the end, it was Alfonso taking 1st, myself taking 2nd, and Ryan taking 3rd.
Now, it was time for the qualifying Battle Bracket 1. My first battle was against Ian Fadrigon. Since this battle was the first for the day, my head was pretty clear. I got a good amount of practice in the morning so I was pretty warmed up. Also, since this was sort of a qualifying round that counted only towards the next round I was pretty relaxed and concentrated on just having fun, and not putting too much pressure on myself. Anyway, it was pretty cool getting to drive against one of the Team Redline NorCal guys. We both kept it fun and clean during the battles and I ended up advancing because I managed to put a little pressure while following. My next opponent would be Mac Cruz.
I love going against my teammates because there's a real good sense of sportsman ship between all of us. Even though only one of us gets to advance at the time, we all wish the best for each other. Mac, what can I say, he's pretty gifted and a very talented driver, so it wasn't going to be anything but tough to advance. Mac and I often practice tandems a whole lot whenever we practice, so we're pretty familiar with each others driving style. We both kept it clean and just tried to give the crowd a show with some close tandems! We got the crowd going for a bit. But someone had to go on, and I ended up advancing to the next round, might have been luck, haha. Next was the best 8 round. I was going against Wes Handy. Wes is one crazy driver because he manages to pull off some sick runs with using an almost stock HPI E10 with a 27 turn brush motor. He trips me out with that and is also really good, hats off to him. 
But one person could only move on so I was going to get to move on. My next opponent in the best 4 round was Drift Nutz member, Ken Elslava. Ken Ken is a really overall cool guy and is another fun driver to go against. He'll always give you a run for your money and he did this round. We kept it clean and battled tight, but I was going to get to go on the the finals! Not bad for the first part of the day! This time I had to go against Brian Lemi. I never really drove against Brian, but I've watched a couple of his battles in the past, he's pretty good. With that said, it was no surprise that we went one more time, but in the end, I came out with the win. It was a pretty good morning so far.
With pulling off the win for the first bracket, the winner of the first bracket was up to go against HPI employee and driver extraordinaire Thad Garner in a super battle! This was probably the craziest tandeming i've ever done period. The crowds absolutely loved it and we seriously kept it waaaay close. It was so fun! Literally, pretty much everyone was yelling with excitement, including my self, well, inside at least while driving. But it was too crazy!
It was time for lunch along with the Time Attack qualifying round! It was actually really really fun. The track conditions with pretty good for time attack as it started to get warmer from a gloomy cold morning. With the sun finally shining, drivers put on a good show for this portion! It was amazing to see how many spectators we got during this time. To give you an idea, we actually had 2 separate tracks (one competition course and one practice course) right next to each other. The crowd we had throughout the day for the most part was lined up along the competition track. For time attack, people actually filled up along both tracks with multiple rows of people. It was pretty cool!
The crowd loved this portion as well as the drivers, because drivers consistently kept getting better and faster times. Out of the whole grid, my teammate Eric Tubig was driving super fast that day and he was the guy to beat. I managed to be a couple of milliseconds faster, and pulled of the top qualifying position! It was pretty on edge and exciting! Bracket 2 was a pretty short bracket for me. First I went against Timothy Truong who I've never drove against. Due to some spinouts in his first lap, I managed to keep it clean and move on. Next I was going to go against John Ramos, another member of Drift Nutz. It always fun and relaxing battling against people that are really chill, because I don't really care who wins, as long as we have fun, and John being one of them, it was pretty cool. We both kept in pretty clean again, but with a slight advantage, I was able to pull off an advancement to the best 8.
This round was where my streak ended for the morning. Battling against Nick Viglionzoni was pretty interesting. After a clean lap by both of us, I was to chase next. On the second to last turn when trying to close up on him, I ended up hitting him on the transition. Not really sure what happened, wether he had an motor/ esc cut out issue or something, but (at the time) it might have been seen as a brake check. We both were maintaining the same speed and line, but somewhere he slowed down a pretty good amount, pretty quick. With that hit he was able to move on. I wasn't mad at all and I didn't scream out "Brake Check!". I just took what I was dealt and accepted it. We shook hands and being the good sportsman that he is, Nick came up to me later that day and explained that he didn't intentionally brake check me, and that in order to transition, he had to slow down pretty quickly in order to make the transition. That's pretty understandable as the point of the chase car is to follow the lead car's line along with speed and angle. All was good and we were totally cool (not that we weren't before), but it was nice of him to come up to me and make sure that all was good. He actually went on the win the bracket, so good job Nick!
More to come for Day 2 soon! Stay tuned!
posted by marq at
1:44 AM
1 Comments:
Great write up Marc...thanks for sharing and once again congrats!
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