JBRL Round #1 at Thunder Alley in Beaumont, CA

Saturday: This past weekend was the start of the 2009 JBRL Gas Offroad Series. To my surprise the race was enormous. Dynomite and I met up with Losi Team Manager Kevin Gahan and team drivers Jerry Blodgett to get some good practice for Sunday's racing and I am glad we did. There were racers from all over the western states in attendance for the event. Racers from Las Vegas, Northern California, Arizona, and even Canada were all dialing in their cars for Sundays racing. After a few practice runs on the track we were confident in our setups and we went back home to prepare to Sunday.

Sunday: Once racing started it was announced there were 342 entries for the one day event. WOW!! Unfortunately due to the large turn out we were limited to one qualifer and then everyone was seated into their 10 minute main event. I was able to pull off TQ in Electric Buggy with my new Team Losi Racing 8IGHT-E 2.o by 10 seconds. In Pro Gas Buggy, I qualified 11th just missing the main event but with oppurtunity to bump in. During the B-Main, I had a great race with Kyosho's Mike Morales just edging him out to make the Pro Buggy Main in the 13th position. For the main event in electric I went on to win the 10 minute race by a large margin. I was a little concerned about run time however after the race I recharged my battery to find out I only used 3000mAh of its 5000mAh capacity. I geared my Xcelorin 1700KV 45/15 for the Thunder Alley track and it provided excellent power everywhere. In the Pro Gas Buggy main I was happy to join my team mates Mike Truhe, Kyle Johnson, Clint Wachter and Matt Castellano giving Team Losi Racing 5 of the 13 positions. Mike ended up 4th, Wachter 8th, Johnson 9th, Castellano 11th and I was 12th. Dynomite snagged the win in the Intermediate 1.8th Buggy class with his 8IGHT 2.0 edging out fellow team mate Don Vinkenmulder by a few seconds.

Congratulations to all the winners at round one and I am looking forward to round 2 at ARC in Temecula, CA.