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Today was the first day of qualifying, and all drivers scheduled to run early in the round (races 1-8) faced some treacherous conditions during both rounds, but specifically in round one. The track was devastated from yesterdays' continuous rain and I hope these pictures provide some idea of how difficult these conditions were on the cars. Losi pilots Jonny Wachter (race 1), Billy Fischer and Casey Peck (race 2), Adam Drake and Todd Hodge (race 4) and Mike Truhe (race 5) were caught out by the luck of the draw. Truhe had a good top-10 run in round 2 after a throwout in round 1. Fischer, Wachter and Drake each struggled during both their runs. Yannick Aigoin (FR) was second qualifier behind Ryan Cavalieri in round one and coupled with solid second round effort will end up in the top 10 after the two rounds run today. Martin Bayer (CZ) was also solid in both of his runs. 13 year old Losi driver Derek Weatherhold also had a solid top-20 run in round two. It was truly amazing to see cars start their run at 7.5 lbs and end up weighing more than 12 lbs after their turn in the mud. Tomorrow's weather promises to be better and the track will only get faster as the week wears on. A unique format is used at the Worlds and no drivers transfer directly into the A-final after qualifying. Everyone must run in a semi and bump their way into the A. Therefore, qualifying is a race for the top 25 places who get to sit out Saturday's lower semi's and transfer directly into Sunday's 1/2-semis. The beauty of this format is that even the last place qualifier has the opportunity to bump his way all the way up and into the A final event! I'll have additional details after rounds 3 and 4 tomorrow.Bill
