This past weekend was Scotty Ernst's Short Course Showdown series stop at the HobbyPlex in Omaha, NE. This is the same place the ROAR 1/10th Nationals were held in 2009, but this time there was a building built over and around the track. This facility is awesome, with pitting indoors where the on-road track is (air conditioned), and the track never being threatened by bad weather (which we had a little bit of).
I ran my 22SCT and my TEN-SCTE at this race. I was curious to see how the 22SCT would do on a track that wasn't high bite, as the only time I ran the truck prior to this weekend was at the Shootout.
2WD Short Course:
In the 2nd round, I started on the pole and got a clean start with Taylor Timmerman following close behind. We swapped the lead a few times, but Taylor was able to take the win about 2 seconds ahead of me with a 11- 5:12.179. Although our run was fairly clean, we were still 9 and 11 seconds off of Brian's 1st round time because the track got progressively drier throughout the day. Basically, unless you broke in the first race, you were going to use the time you ran in the morning. In the second race, Alex was able to go faster than me as well with an 11- 5:12.261, which put me 4th overall after 2 rounds of qualifying.
For round 3, we had a re-sort. I started 4th, with Taylor in 3rd, Alex in 2nd, and Brian in 1st. I was able to move up to 3rd on the first lap and held that position for the entire race. With no traffic playing a part, I was able to finish a few seconds back of Brian and Alex after only a few bobbles, bettering my time to an 11-5:11.755 which put me 3rd overall going into round 4 on Sunday morning.For round number 4, it would be exactly like round number 1 was. The track had the most traction we had seen all weekend, and this was the time to put a run in. I started 3rd, and moved to 2nd right behind Brian during the first lap. On the third lap with the field still close behind us, we came to the bottom of a hill and Alex drove through me on his quest for the lead, apologizing as he sped away. This put me dead last and I had try and work my way through the field to make up for the lost time. When it was all said and done, I was able to come back to 4th place, and that is where I would start the main. Alex took the TQ over Kinwald, with Taylor in 3rd. The track was fast enough for me to still better my time to a 11- 5:08.677, which is over 3 seconds faster than my clean run from the previous day. The track was the best we had seen, and the 8 times all came from this round.
The mains were 7 minutes long, and I started 4th on the grid. On the start I jumped in front of Taylor, putting me up to 3rd. On the turn just before coming onto the straight, I turned in too early and the entire field went by me before the marshal was able to get to me. This unfortunately put me back to 10th, and I had to start from scratch to try and make the best of it. I was able to work my way up to 4th place at the half way mark, and try to set my sights on third for a possible podium finish. On the very last corner of the last lap, I was able to pass the third place driver and take the final podium spot.
4wd SC:
This was the first time I had run my TEN-SCTE on a loose track, as the only places I had it before was CH and Hot Rod. I just started with my truck the way it was from the Shootout and went from there. Throughout practice, I lightened my shock oil 5wt front and rear, as well as lightened my center differential from 15k down to 5k. This just made my truck much easier to drive and felt really balanced. I was pretty happy with it, and just concentrated on tire choices from then on out.
In the first round of qualifying, I started 3rd and I was able to get to the front fairly easily. After a few mistakes, Alex was right on my tail and was able to pass me when I crashed again. I gathered everything together and was able to catch him and was right behind him when we came up to this one section that he was single-doubling and I was double-singling. Obviously this did not work out, and I cleaned him out. It took the marshal a little bit to get to his truck, but I waited and gave him the lead back (how ironic considering what was yet to come my way). Once we got back going, I was able to get around him and finish with a 12-5:18.156. Taylor was able to go a 12- 5:11.783 the race prior and another driver went about a second faster than I did in the first race of the round. This put me 3rd overall.In the second round, I started out front but I made several mistakes on lap 4 and 5 which put me pretty far back. I was able to come back and finish just behind 2nd place, but I didn't even come close to my first run time. Nobody in the top 5 bettered their round 1 times.
For round 3, we had our re-sort. I started 3rd, but got around 2nd place and began to have a really close race with Taylor. I made a few mistakes in the middle of the race and that let Taylor get pretty far ahead. I was able to close back up on him towards the end, but he was still able to take the win. Again, no top times were bettered from the first round.
For round 4, the track was great just like a little while before in the 2wd SC class. I started 3rd, moved up to 2nd on the second lap, and focused on catching Taylor. I was able to pass him when he made a mistake and never look back. I was able to go 12- 5:03.541, which was over 8 seconds faster than the previous TQ set by Taylor. Taylor ended up going finishing about 5 seconds behind me, Kinwald was 4 seconds behind him, and Alex was another 3 seconds behind Kinwald. This would be how the top four gridded up for the 7 minute main event.
At the start of the main, I was able to get a clean first couple of laps in to set the pace with Kinwald falling behind little by little in 2nd. I didn't make any mistakes and was able to cruise to the victory about 8.5 seconds ahead of Taylor with Kinwald in 3rd. My truck was really good and easy to drive. I would have just liked more steering and on-power grip, but the tires were most likely the major issue just like in 2wd.
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