The Top Gun Challenge took place over the weekend of August 15th and 16th. R/C Evil Empire was on hand for the first ever 2 day on-road event at Nor Cal Hobbies!
The Event
Taking a cue from the popular Tom Cruise film, the event provided many 80’s moments ranging from the complementary sunglasses to the 1st place award flight helmets. Race sponsorship was provided by T.O.P. Racing, Tekin, Prime Fuel, and Solaris Tires. An entry count of around 120 resulted in some of the toughest racing Northern California has seen. The event was a combined electric and gas On-Road event. Many of the popular classes in on-road were offered including: Mod Touring Car, 13.5 Touring Car, 17.5 Touring Car, Tamiya F1, Mini, World GT, and Nitro Sedan.
Format
The format for all classes except Mod & 13.5 touring were done in a normal 4 round qualifying and A-Mains format. All of the aforementioned non 13.5/Mod classes used a triple A-Main format with the exception of the Nitro sedan class. A single 30 minute main was used for this class. The 13.5 & Mod touring classes were run in a “heads up” Top Gun format. Racers in each of these classes were randomly thrown into heats. Starting position and competition varied. Each entrant ran 7 individual races. A win in any race would result in “0 points”, 2nd was “1 point”, 3rd was “2 points” , and so on…Each racer was allotted 1 throwout race result. The racer with the lowest point total over 6 races would be crowed the “Top Gun”. Tiebreakers were handled by the best single run time.. The format made each run’s position count toward total points. Racers were forced to jockey for position in each and every run. We saw some very close racing.
The Track and Tires
The Nor Cal facility featured a all new track design. It featured a variety of Euro style chicane sections, a tricky “S” turn, and two tough 180’s. The bite was high most of the time. At times, the track became “fly paper” sticky. All touring car classes were run under Solaris control tires. The tires provided sufficient traction and decent wear.
The wicked "S" turn pictured above
Start/Finish
180 switchbacks
The ever so dangerous Dragon's Back
Prizes
As with the previous Nor-Cal Challenge Off-Road event, an unconventional approach was taken in respect to the 1st place prizes. In true Top Gun motif, a custom flight helmet was awarded to all class winners. Racers finishing 2nd through 3rd place received a ribbon/trophy combination.
Tamiya F-1 Class:
The Tamiya F-1 Class was one of the most contested classes of the weekend. The last round of qualifying provided an interesting scene. F-1 veteran Albert Langarica took the TQ in Round 4 of qualifying by the slim margin of just 1 second. Who was 2nd? None other than Tyler Vik aka “The Kid”. Mr. Vik had his work cut out for him the entire weekend…as this was his first time racing F-1. Going into A-1 we all knew this would be a showdown. Langarica had the lead for nearly the entire race but Vik hunted him down going into the final lap. A glorious pass was made coming through the lap timing system and Vik was able to get by for 1st. A-2 was a cakewalk as Langarica was able to win by a wide margin over Vik in 3rd. This set up the all important decisive A-3 final. The start began with a mistake by the TQ Langarica. Going a bit wide in turn 1 resulted in a pileup. Being “Johnny On The Spot”, Vik would capitalize on this mistake and run away with the A-3 win and the F1 Top Gun Title! Langarica managed to work his way up to 2nd place ant took 2nd overall. 3rd place overall and honorable mention goes to Dan Tanis of Ripon Speedway.
Vik (red car) makes the decisive pass on Langarica (white car) in A-1
Left to right (Tanis-3rd) / (Vik-1st) / (Langarica - TQ and 2nd)
World GT
The World GT A Mains #1 and 2 were both won in decisive fashion by Derick Stephenson. The true battle was for 2nd and 3rd. Jim Walls and Steve Ashby were tied as they each had a 2nd and 3rd place finish heading into the A-3 final. Steve Ashby would blew out resulting in a great finish between Jim Walls and Ruben Benitez. The final results after all three mains were run ended up with Stephenson, Walls, Ashby in first, second and third respectively.
Left to right Ashby (3rd) / Stephanson (1st) / Walls (2nd)
Nitro Sedan
The Nitro Sedan class proved to be a battle of attrition for all entrants. As the 30 minute main developed, there were 2 racers that were head and shoulders above the rest…. TQ Eric Vasutin and his Kyosho teammate Jeff Blackburn. Vasutin developed a dominant lead over Blackburn by the 20 minute mark. At one point the lead over Blackburn stretched to 2 laps. With just 7 minutes left, a Vasutin crash resulted in a engine flame out. Blackburn was able to capitalize on this as Vasutin’s pit men rushed to re-start the vehicle. Blackburn got by Just as the Vasutin’s car was released out of pit lane. This resulted in a short battle until a Blackburn crashed him to relinquished the lead. Vasutin never looked back and cruised on to the checkered flag. Blackburn would finish in 2nd with Jerome Ramos in 3rd.
Jeff Blackburn (red car) was a hunted man in the last few minutes
Left to right (Ramos-3rd) / Vasutin (1st) / Blackburn (2nd)
17.5 Touring
The 17.5 Touring class provided some great races. This was clearly demonstrated in A-1 when less than .5 seconds separated 1st place finisher Ken Brumblay and 2nd place James Davenport. The A-2 finish was a bit more decisive as Brumblay won by a few seconds over 2nd place Dominic Garza. With A-1 and A-2 wins, Brumblay won the overall 1st place Title. The battle for 2nd was still up for grabs going into A-3 and James Davenport had a killer run to seal the 2nd place overall. Garza would finish 3rd overall
Left to Right - (Davenport-2nd) / (Brumblay-1st) / (Garza - 3rd)
Mini
The Mini class is always popular at NorCal Hobbies. This made for some intense battles. The A-1 results came up aces for Ken Brumblay. His A-1 victory put him in great position to win the overall. However it was not to be…..as Leo Zhao rallied back from 4th after A-1 to take both the A-2 and A-3 finals. The overall champ Zhao would enjoy Tom Cruise glory on this day. Chris Dodson and Ken Brumblay would finish 2nd and 3rd respectively.
Left to Right - (Dodson-2nd) / (Zhao - 1st) / (Brumblay - 3rd)
13.5 Touring
The 13.5 class provided some of the most exciting races of the weekend. Roughly 30 entrants competed for the overall “Top Gun” Maverick prize. As previously mentioned, the format of this class was 7 heads up races over two days. On day one, 3 races were completed. Day 2 saw 4 highly contested rounds. Here’s a review of the happenings.
Round 1
Round 1 started off with a bang for Eric “Mini Mod” Albano. A decisive lead off race win put him in the drivers seat with a “0″. His time of 21 laps in 6:08 was not only the fastest time in round 1, but one of the fastest of the weekend. Jeff Hastings and Kevin Woods would follow suit with big wins in their individual races as well.
Mini Mod in Tom Cruise control
Round 2
George Lin followed up a slow start in round 1 with a win. Eric “Mini Mod” Albano and Jeff Hastings would follow with wins as well. Kevin Woods finished with a 2nd place in his heat. At this point the battle for the overall was between Albano, Hastings, and Woods.
George Lin
Round 3
Round 3 proved to be a coming out party for Leo Zhao. He would manage to pull out a “W” in the lead off race of round 3. This threw Zhao into the mix for the overall. Although it was a great run for Leo, his time of 21 laps in 6:13 didn’t hold a candle to the wins provided by Kevin Woods and George Lin in round 3 running 21 laps in 6:06 and 6:05 respectively. These proved to be the best 2 13.5 runs of day 1.
Round 4
Day 2 started off right where round 3 left off. Again, Zhao, Woods, and Lin picked up W’s. The leadoff race of round 4 provided the most drama with a serious comeback from Eric “Mini Mod” Albano. This race included a slow start and subsequent comeback. In the end, George Lin squeaked out a win by less than 1 second.
Kevin Woods
Round 5
This round provided a serious statement from Eric “Mini Mod” Albano. His winning run of 21 laps in 6:03 was blazing fast. The run produced a fast lap of 17.3. There were many racers in Mod Touring that had difficulties hitting this time. It was also the single fastest 13.5 run of the entire weekend. Also, this run featured a heads up battle between Kevin Woods and Albano. In this format, any win over your direct competitor was a huge edge. In other action, both Leo Zhao and Jeff Hastings won their respective races.
Round 6
Round 6 threw the entire weekend’s results into total disarray. The leadoff heat featured 3 of the top 5 racers in the same heat. George Lin, Eric Albano, and Kevin Woods lined up for what we believed would be a battle to rival the Imperial Forces/Dark Side battle of the original Star Wars. However, it was not to be. Both Woods and Albano would blow out. This would give George Lin the easy street victory. The win set up George for the overall title going into round 7. Winning their first races of the weekend, Kevin Gowens and Derek Stephensan found their way to victory lane. Jeff Hastings finished strong with a 2nd place finish as well.
Round 7
Going into round 7, tensions were high. Drama was in the air….the final round……The DANGER ZONE!
There were 3 drivers in contention. After throwouts were taken into account, George Lin, Eric Albano, and Kevin Woods all had 2 points. Eric Albano had the best overall 6 minute lap time. With lap time being the 1st tiebreaker, Albano found himself in the best position to win. All three competitors would race in separate heats.
Round 7 lineup
A close win in the lead-off race by George Lin threw down the gauntlet for Woods and Albano. It was a close victory over On-Road Rookie Austin Blair by just 1 second. Lin’s victory capped off his 5th win in 7 races! A truly awesome accomplishment. The finish threw the crowd into a frenzy. Could George Lin hang on? Could it be? Next up would be Eric Albano. A bad start from Eric put him far behind leader Juan Aveytia and Doug Lemmons. It was a tough bounce of the ball for Albano. A 3rd place finish was his undoing. The 2 points earned from the debacle would put him into an unrecoverable flat spin. No court marshall needed. The overall title was simply not his for the taking. In the very next heat, Kevin Woods went on to finish a close 2nd place behind Kevin Gowens. The tough luck, 1 point Woods finish allowed George Lin to take the overall title! This finish was good enough to allow Woods to parachute over Eric Albano for 2nd place overall. Eric “Mini Mod” Albano would round out the overall podium in the third spot. Honorable mentions go out to Kevin Gowens and Leo Zhao with their 4th and 5th place overall results.
Left to right - Woods (2nd) / Lin (1st) / Albano (3rd)
Modified Touring
Mod Touring featured some of the better drivers in the nation competing for the Top Gun Challenge. Out of the field of 17 challengers, five were also contestants in the 2009 Reedy Race of Champions Mod Touring Invitational Class. These guys had the kind of battle-tested, first hand dogfighting experience that can only be gained from participating in such a challenging race format. All racers were randomly separated into 2 separate heats for the 7 round/2 day marathon.
Round 1
The opening race began with a Scott Kimbrow victory. A nice battle ensued for 2nd/3rd between Jason Moberly, Kevin Jelich, and Aaron Biner aka Lord Vader aka Yours Truly. The next heat saw a cakewalk victory from Tyler Vik. He managed to lap the entire field, destroy all bogeys, AND make a flyby on the control tower.
Tyler Vik and his swagger
Round 2
Round 2 began with a victory from NorCal Hobbies Co-Owner Kevin Jelich. The heat was stacked with what amounted to the cream of the crop. Only a 9 second gap separated the entire field. This was truly amazing considering the speeds of the cars and normal Mod TC blowout rate. The race featured an incredible dogfight; It was probably the most contested race of the entire weekend. It truly showed the best of the best in modified.
The 2nd heat of round 2 provided little drama. Many of the cars dropped out due to mechanical problems,etc. Jason Smith was able to take the victory.
Kevin Jelich
Round 3
The leadoff heat started strong for Jason Moberley. The Team Associated driver would pilot his TC5 to victory by the slim margin of 1.2 seconds over Tyler Vik. Scott Kimbrow would follow behind in 3rd. The 2nd heat of the round was also tightly contested. A nice battle developed between EJ Evans and Kevin Jelich. Nor Cal’s finest were shooting down some quick laps that included a race weekend best of 16.2 by Jelich! In the end, Jelich sealed the deal for 1st. EJ Evans would follow in 2nd. Day one would see Kevin Jelich and Jason Moberley on top the leader board with just 2 points before throwouts.
Jason Moberley's AE TC5
Round 4
The first round of day two started off with a great battle between Tyler Vik and TOP’s EJ Evans. Vik would come out on top with EJ Evans in a close 2nd. Jason Moberley would start off his day with a 3rd place finish. This would be his worst finish of the 4 completed rounds. The 2nd heat of the day provided a Merry Christmas moment for the 2nd and 3rd place cars. Team TOP’s Scott Kimbrow had the lead with just 20 seconds remaining. A fatal crash ensued when attempting to pass a back-marker. This would leave Kevin Jelich to take the 1st place victory. Aaron Biner would finish in a strong 2nd place position. Martin Mejia would pick up 3rd.
Martin Mejia
Round 5
Round 5 began strong with another epic battle. Aaron Biner would take the early lead followed by Jason Moberly, Tyler Vik, Kevin Jelich, Jesse Stark, and Eric Albano. During the freight train, a rough driving stop-and-go penalty was called on Tyler Vik. While this was going on, a blocking clinic was being put on by Aaron Biner (ME). Moberly spent much of the time trying to get target lock on Biner and make the pass, but was so far not having success. This of course slowed the racing pace down and allowed Kevin Jelich to catch up to the pack after a earlier mishap. Around the 4 minute mark, Moberley was able to make his move, but Biner and Jelich were still hot on his tail. Meanwhile, Tyler Vik was inching closer. All three drivers hit full afterburner with less than 40 seconds left. A aggressive attempted pass by Aaron Biner knocked Kevin Jelich off the line. This allowed Jason Moberly to gap the competition a bit. Biner waited and allowed Jelich to regain his position. Tyler Vik would now make his way into the fray going into the last lap. A last turn pass would allow Vik to take a strong 2nd with Biner in 3rd for the round.
The 2nd heat saw very little drama as EJ Evans would take the easy win with Martin Mejia in 2nd. Lex Tyler would follow up in 3rd.
TOP's EJ Evans
Round 6
Round 6 started off with a solid victory by Kevin Jelich. Jason Moberley would follow in 2nd. Tyler Vik would suffer with a bad luck run that resulted in a 3rd place finish. The 2nd heat began with yet another blocking clinic that involved Aaron Biner aka Darth Vader. Except this time, it would be Biner that was on the “blocked” end by Jesse Stark(s). Martin Mejia made a hellva showing in this race as well. Eventually, Biner would pass Stark(s) when his car became loose through the “Dragon’s Back” section of the track. It was a glorious pass for the much maligned Vader. As Stark(s) made the mistake, Vader (Biner) used his Evil Jedi Knight powers to successfully make the pass at high speeds. The finish resulted in a Biner/Stark(s)/Mejia 1-2-3. They were separated by less than 2 seconds.
Round 6 lineup
Round 7
Going into Round 3, a total of 3 racers had a chance at the overall. Kevin Jelich, Tyler Vik, and Jason Moberley all had a chance. Counting throwouts, Kevin Jelich was in the driver’s seat with just 2 points. Jason Moberley had 3 points. Tyler Vik would follow with 4 points. The first heat featured a less than stacked heat as all competitors would not be a factor in the overall title. The heat was won by Aaron Biner after mechanical failures and mishaps hampered Sean Williams and Eric Albano. The final heat of the weekend would decide everything. The heat featured the top competition including Tyler Vik, Kevin Jelich, EJ Evans, Lex Tyler, and Jason Moberley. The start resulted in EJ Evans taking the lead with Alex Kunz and Kevin Jelich in tow. Tyler Vik would get knocked back to 5th after a mishap. Eventually, EJ Evans and Kevin Jelich would gap the field a bit. Tyler Vik managed to work his way up the leader board as the race ensued. Lex Tyler and Alex Kunz eventually gave way for “The Kid”. Crucial driving mistakes by EJ Evans and Kevin Jelich set up a opportunity for Vik to take the lead. The round win was taken by Tyler Vik with Kevin Jelich in 2nd and EJ Evans in 3rd. The 2nd place finish resulted in 3 total points for Jelich. This was enough to seal the overall Top Gun Championship! Tyler Vik and Jason Moberley tied points-wise for 2nd as they both finished with 4 points. The tiebreaker decided in favor of Vik (2nd place) and Moberley (3rd place). Honorable mention goes to Aaron Biner (4th) and EJ Evans (5th).
Vik vs. Evans in round 7
Jelich and Evans battle it out with Tyler Vik in tow
Left to Right - Moberley (3rd) / Jelich (1st) / Vik (2nd)
All class winners
Analysis
Overall it was a super competitive weekend of On-Road racing by the bay. We saw a ton of highly skilled passes as well as pressure filled moments. The race provided a chance for some of California’s best to get together in a epic throwdown. R/C Evil Empire was proud to cover the event. We would like to thank TOP and Tekin for their support through the entire event. Also, many thanks go to the race management team of Ruben Benitez, Tim Copp, and John Hicks. All three worked very hard to handle the tough format that ensues with lots of heads up racing.
A complete album of my pictures can be seen here. There’s a serious gem of a picture in that lot….see if you can pick it out. Here’s a hint….”Ice Cream”.
Randomness….
Ethan Erchinger was the rookie of the year in 13.5 Touring
Joe Albano was worked up the entire weekend
Eric Vasutin had a fun time Saturday night
Blake Cannon of 707 Paint was on hand
I was given the award for most humble racer....which I accepted....
BEST 80′S TOP GUN POSE…..HOW DO YOU WEAR YOUR SHADES?
Tyler Vik
Sean Williams
George Lin
Jeff Hastings
Kevin Woods aka Lenny Kravitz
Scott Kimbrow
Jason Moberley
Zac Wheatcroft
Jesse Stark(s)...the diff master
George Ho
Leo Zhao aka Hara's #1 fan
Gary O....Da Badass
