2010 CACTUS CLASSIC – DAY 1

R/C Evil Empire will be here all week at the 2010 Cactus Classic from warm Scottsdale, Arizona. This is the 24th annual “grand daddy of them all”.

Today started out with open practice from 9am to 6:30pm. All of the racers got into a groove, learned the layout, etc

Controversy developed regarding a set of timing double jumps. In the 4wd mod class, some of the elite racers could clear all four in “quad” form. This was a pretty risky move…not only as it relates to the potential to crash….but for the turnmarshall as well.

Here’s a pic of the jump in question:

Some felt that if they could make the jump, it was their advantage. Others felt it was a hazard to the marshals and provided lower quality racing. After debate with various racers and team managers, the jump was ruled a double/double. Any racer caught attempting to triple or quad the jump in practice was asked to pull their car off the track. Furthermore, any racer attempting to triple or quad the jump during racing would lose 1 full lap off their time!

Now back to this years layout…..

After you tackle the double/double, you are immediately faced with a steep short double followed by three roller jumps. The key to the track is getting through the doubles in a fashion that allows you to set up for doubling the first two rollers. This can be very tricky in 2wd buggy in particular if you wind up out of the groove during your setup.

The end of the straightway is tricky as well. The straight is pretty long and difficult to judge. Furthermore, 180 turns are always tough to time when you are going full speed. Add in the possibility of dust or fluff in the driving line and this is a pain……

Since practice was un-timed, no real lap times were put down today. Thursday will see tee time practice begin. We should be able to shake out the pros from pretenders at that point.

Here are a few of the sights and people we saw today.

Representing his new 2010 racing team…Hupo Honigl was in full effect with Team Durango…..all the way from Austria.

Lee Martin came all the way from the U.K. to run his all new prototype 2wd Tamiya buggy. Pitting for him was Kiyo Suzuki of Tamiya. Yes….that’s right a 2wd Tamiya buggy. Yes I did see it….and no they weren’t allowing pictures. Let’s just say it looks nice and very similar in design to the other 2wd buggies on the market. It will be interesting to see how Lee does with the car since he has only had it for two weeks.