Well after rolling out of bed at 3PM I've pretty much done nothing but think warm nitro pit thoughts of yesterday. I rolled in at about 9:15AM and the place just looked tight! Mike had worked his butt off, painting everything you could see and it really cleaned the place up. Lot's of room now for some sweet painted logos. Maybe Joey will bring his paint brush when he comes out in January! So for the first hour yesterday all I kept saying was, "This place is unbelievable", now remember I've been there about 100 times in the past 2 months! From the quarter minus in the pit areas to the monitor mounted in the wall under the timers tower, the place was ready!

Right about time that entries were under way, the show was about to begin. Every R/C track needs certain items to have a successfull opening day. For instance, you really should have Traffic safety cones on hand to identify marshalling areas. Another must have item would be a helicopter, so that your past state champions could go for a scenic ride over the Speedworld complex. Thanks to Ross, some of us lucky ones also got the experience of a lifetime! For the first 15 seconds I thought I was going to die. Then I was ok for the majority of the flight, then again I thought there was a good chance I could fall out of the sky during landing. When we were coming in, about 100 feet up, I saw all of the cars running practice on the track! That was way cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

With signups done and heats printed out, we were ready to tackle the task of running 115 racers through 20 qualifier races and another 9 mains! Can't believe I just typed that! We had 115 entries in the opening day or the R/C Pro Arizona Super Series and that's 30 more than our biggest day at Hobby Action. With no organized racing in this town for 5 months I don't know how we built numbers but we did!

Before I go into qualifying, let me take you for a lap on this 1180' track. Track is 200' right to left and 125' front to back. Over the past 14 months we've asked for feedback from everyone on everything from ideal track dimensions to height of drivers stand. We hoped to build the perfect Nitro R/C facility and as such we tried not to forget a single thing. For instance, who likes to feel a .21 motor vibrate the screws out of your buggy because the pit wall is concrete or even wood? So we put 2x6's on top of pit wall, then ran two rows of rubber hose down the board, to absorb the vibration. Of course the hose was mounted so that you can see the Goodyear logo; no need to purchase hose and bury the logo right. lol I'll try to hit on a few of the track amenities: Covered drivers stand, 40' long with double back ramp to lower the incline angle. Wheel chair drivers positioned perfectly in middle, safety bar for when not in use. Timers tower with all the comforts of home. 70 volt line PA system, 12 speakers, only 6 in use up to this point. Watering system with 17 sprinkler heads and 10 hose bibs. 4' wide pit lane, double counter attached to the drivers stand for staging and vehicle start up. 21 1000 watt light fixtures on 4 poles. Limitless room for rv parking as well as racer and spectator parking. 21 pit tables, (some for standing and some for sitting), with more to come before the Nitro Challenge!. Functional traffic light for down and quiet starts, (Thanks Frenchy and Casey). Computer monitor under the timers tower so that pit people can check the real time race status just like what the race director sees! Track air compressor, beautiful views, helicopter rides.............am I missing anything? Oh yea, 3 water trucks, bulldozer, gannon tractor, DITCH WITCH, Boom truck (all provided by Speedworld) THank you Speedworld!!!!!!!!!

Take a look at a track picture and follow along. Loop is right in front of the timers tower. Left to right over two big rollers that tend to make even a 4 wheel drive vehicle wheelie. Gain elevation at end of front straight and hit breaks for a 180 degree turn, over a small roller before the big front side double. The key here is not going so fast over the roller that you get too much air, or you won't have enough set up time for the double. After the big double you either cartwheel 14 times like Dominick ;-), or turn right and step up onto an elevated table top. The table has a lip so you don't want to hit that with too much speed or you'll flat land in the middle of the next right hand turn. Left to right on the short shute into a medium sweeper to the right with an elevated end to it, back through a s or chicane section and a small sweeper to the roller section. Three jumps in a row here and they make you think. The first is a roller that is easy, but it's so easy that you could hit the next one too fast, The second one has very steep edges to in and it's difficult to downside perfectly and keep the car stable, now the third is an easy roller again and make you want to pull throttle up to the next rhythm section on the far right side of the track. This section can be either a double double with little throttle, a tripple single, or a full out quad. The really cool thing about this next corner is that the whole berm is elevated so that you jump up onto the turn! How sweet is that? Now right to left down the 185' straight into another big berm turn. The lane width here is 20' so there's plenty of room to manuver and find that perfect line. Some were going tight, some mid, and some used the high bank to slingshot themselves over the huge 40' table top. It tapers gradually so no matter how far you want to fly you'll have a soft landing. Now you're at the front left side of the track and you hand another 180 degree turn to the largest rhythm section on the track, a big double tripple that covers probably 70 feet with some big air over the tripple. Now once you get past that section its a flat roadcourse feel right up to a kink where the whoop section starts it's a washboard but one for like um.....King kong or that big guy who owned Babe the blue ox........... These things will hit you hard if you take em too fast. Only saw one person sucessfully jump the section into a loooooonnnnnggg double and he ended up off the track when he did it. Nice show Paul! So if you're the leader and you have a 4 second lead coming down to the finish line you probably go slow so that you don't wreck, then you feel the heat because the guy in second has nothing to loose so he starts into the section a bit faster trying to catch you. He's coming up within 5 feet of you as you just donkey kick all over the place and it's a crap shoot if he goes wing over nose or does a complete summersault lands on his wheels and beats you by 2 tenths of a second> So yes you could say I like the layout!

Let's start with the biggest class of the day, Sportsman Buggy. There were over 40 entries in sportsman buggy when the day began and even as I saw that number for the first time, all I could think of was all the races I've run where 20 total entries for the day was a damn good day! This class was running not only for valuable series points but for an additional prize as well. Nomadio, without us asking them, offered the winner of sportsman buggy on day one of the series their choice of a brand new sensor or react radio! Maybe that's why we had 40 + entries. lol One of the great things about yesterday was seeing faces that raced with us years ago, but that we haven't seen for awhile. Guys like, Boe Bergeson, Tom Calo, Mike Van Osten, Mike Myers, Jesse Dunham, Brian Cowherd, and Mike Rabenow just to name a few. It feels so awesome to give guys like that a place to race again! In round one it was the Mike and Mike show as Mike VanOsten and Mike Hoffman went first and second quick in the IFMAR style qualifying format. In round 2 Boe Burgeson was on a real quick pace but fell off late and couldn't grab that tq from Mike Van Osten. Check out race 5 in round 2: Brian Cowherd threw down with his Losi eight but ended up one 100th of a second out of the tq spot. That's close! So Mike Van Osten took honors of tq and the bonus points into the A main. C Main During introductions I picked out two drivers to watch and they eventually did take the bump ups to the B main with the first place finish going to Michael Noto and 2nd to Greg Cochran. Some names to look out for in the future from this main,! 15 car field in the sportsman b main with all drivers looking for those 2 transfer positions. Within 20 seconds of the start tone, Tanner Stees or Tan Man put his Jammin ride in first place and never looked back. He won going away and was the only driver to go 12 laps in the B main. Our two bumps from the C main were again right together on the track for this one and it came down to the last laps. Cochran was in the 2nd position for most the race but Noto kept running at him and falling back. Greg did get that 2nd place finish and the transfer to the A main but the battle getting there was worth the price of admission (If there was admission). A Main Our TQ went out early in this one and quickly it was the Brett Crane Nomadio machine, who took the lead and held it for the entire race. In one of the best battles of the night, Brian Cowherd was right on the wing of Brett for much of the race but just didn't have enough to get by for good. One of the top three surprises of the day for me was the guy who finished 3rd, Gabe Boudoin from Tucson. I don't know what they're putting in the drinking water down there but it's breeding some good fricking drivers! Gabe was solid all day and when you figure in the fact that he's never driven a big track like the Nitro Pit, it's exciting to think about his skill 2 months from now! T. Ford and Mike Hoffman rounded out the top five but look through the entire field and you'll see familliar names! Great job Sportsman Buggy Drivers! Loved watching you guys tear it up and congratulations to Brett on the win and New Nomadio radio!

One more class recap before I head off to bed. Meeting the fence guy early tomorrow and any of you that know me well, know I'm not a morning person.

Let's talk pro caliber drivers, Expert 1/8th scale Buggy This class was a real treat to watch as 80% of this class is real professionals on and off the track. They make driving look so easy that people new to R/C who stop by to watch think, "Hey, that doesn't look too hard". Round one saw www.racefactorindustries.com owner Russell Jones, put his brand new GO powered xray buggy in the #1 slot with a 8 lap 6 minute 36 second performance. Did I mention that Losi took the top three spots in Sportsman buggy? Well I just did! Anyway, It was Russell, Trevor Clement, Luke Jonas, and Casey Peck going 8 laps in round one. In round 2, Ryan Maifield, Toby RObinson, Billy Fischer (Hit the track cold), Josh Nelson, and Ricky Gaynor joined the 8 lapper club. Current National Champion and AZ Point series expert buggy champion Ryan Maifield took tq with a blistering 8 laps in just 6 minutes and 22 seconds. The expert class had some multi state flavor with lots of guys coming from other states to race, as well as racers from all across Arizona. Was good to see Troy Sears again! Thanks to Dylan and Donnie Rodriguez, Toby Robinson, Jason Ayers and anyone else that made the trip! In the B main a couple guys came from back of the pack (19th and 20th in qualifying), to grab the two transfer positions. Dylan Rodriguez and Mac Mitchell ran clean and up through the field early and held onto those spots to transfer into the A Main. Quite a list of top notch drivers in that A main and it proved to be a driving clinic. Maifield got shuffled back early to 6th but made his was back to the lead by lap 7. It was a unbelievable battle between the two losi eight's and Maifields Jammin X1CR, with Maifield, Peck, and Fischer right together on the track. Several laps later, Maifield ran out of fuel after the big table top with a 25 second lead. Maifield's troubles put him back to 5th place and he was only able to recover 1 spot up for a 4th place finish. At this point when Ryan was off the track, Casey Peck just put it out front and drove like the guy he normally pits with at those big out of state races, (Now in state as well ) You might know him, he's got a gas truck named after him........ Casey put so much effort into wiring this place up with electricity, it was truley a great thing to watch him drive the rest of the race in dominating fashion. Casey ended up taking the win by one lap on the field! No small task when a lap is 50 seconds and 1/4 of a mile in length. In one of the best battle of the day, Local hero Billy Fischer and his Tucson counterpart Rickey Gaynor went lap after lap at each other until one mistake finally gave the 2nd position to Ricky with Billy ending up 3rd. So make that Losi one two three in this one and Tucson, Tucson, Phoenix! Some Vegas boys got in on the action as well, with Toby Robinson and Dylan Rodriguez finishing 5th and 7th around Russell Jones in 6th. Congratulations to all who took on the huge task of running expert buggy. Even the B main guys were lights out, in this class!

Well, I'm out for now. If anyone wants to recap some of the other classes before I have time tomorrow, go ahead. Until then, thank you for all the positive coments in person, on line, or by email. Reading Jack Greenleafs post really got me. In 20 years I want to be right here at the Nitro Pit with some of the same people who raced yesterday, sitting around the (Sidewinder) fire pit talking about when we had our first official race day at the Pit. I appreciate you guys and girls taking the time to post your stories, and feelings. Believe me, I'm keeping all these comments you make filed away on cd, so 20 years from now I can go back and say, "We've still got it". As long as we're still making more friends than enemies, I'll be out there cheering you on from The White House Name that James Bond Movie......

I can really feel it out there on race day, something special going on right now and it's so cool to be a part of it.