Hello Losi fans! This past weekend my fellow Losi teammate Billy Fischer and I competed in the 6th round of the Arizona Championship Nitro Series. The 6th stop of this crazy train was hosted by Nitro Nutz in Goodyear AZ. Years ago when there were literaly no tracks in AZ that accepted Nitro 1/8th scale buggy racing. Mike Paddock saw the need to embrace this quickly expanding section of offroad racing. And along with help from friends, built an awesome track with what might be the best dirt for offroad nitro racing. Unfortunately Mike was down and out with some health issues and we no longer had his facility to race at. Fast forward 3 years and Mike is doing great and opened his doors for a round of our series once again. Thanks Mike!
For me it was definitely a home coming and I couldn't wait to put the 2.0 vehicles to the test of the super loamy and bumpy blown out motocross style layout. This was also the debut of the 2.0 Truggy for Billy and I. Although we had some prior on- track test secions, it was our first time competing with the new offroad wepon!
The second generation truggy took the destroyed lines like they were a freeway. I literaly could do no wrong with the 2.0 in the rough stuff and was able to secure the overall TQ spot with Billy right on my heels in second, a full lap ahead of third.
In Buggy It was Billy and his 2.0 buggy that put on a clinic and took the top qualifying spot ahead of Losi team driver Chris Wheeler and myself in third.
In the intermediate buggy class it was once again Cody Rothe with the TQ.
*On a side note Cody and Billy turned in a perfect score in Buggy qualifying for the entire series. Good job guys
As the day wore on and then blended into the night the track really started to take on a life of its own. It became a war zone with no smooth lines to be found. The Buggy main was a real fight between my self, Chris Wheeler, and TQ Fischer. In the end my 2.0 buggy equipped with a smart diff was able to take me to the top after a 20 minute battle.
In the Truggy main the new truck performed awesome! Billy and I shot out to an early advantage in the end it was Fischer in the top spot. I was able to limp home my battered truggy with one body clip for third.
It has been a great series and will come down to the finals in 3 weeks where it anybody game. The points are 1.5 times more than normal and anything can happen in the long mains.
Until next time good luck and happy racing!
Thanks to Ernest Madrazo and Colin Branch for the Pictures