The 2021 JConcepts Points Series kicked off this Saturday with Round 1 presented by Bee Line Trucking held at AMain Silver Dollar R/C Raceway in Chico. 24 Monster Trucks, 12 2.2 Mini Monsters and 8 Retro trucks came out for the biggest Points Series turnout so far to take on the big “S” track on a warm, and very windy day that would make for challenging track conditions.
It was apparent early on that many drivers spent the off-season adding new builds to fleets in addition to new-comers giving the series a try for the first time with drivers coming as far away as Salinas, Modesto, and Reno to compete. The variety of trucks is at a new level this season with the release of the Losi LMT as well as many custom aftermarket or personal builds in the field.
After a drivers meeting and practice, qualifying for the new season began with more riding on the passes than ever before due to the growth of the series which increases the value of points available during qualifying. In the 2.2 class, Jeremy Bunting’s “Hooligan” set the pace with a 12.36 just edging out David Heimbigner’s “Son Uva Digger” at 12.70 and Sam Elliott’s “Get-Er-Done” of 12.85. Rynne Degala debuted an LMT-based “Black Pearl” truck which finished 4th and represented the final spot that would earn a bye into Round 2 of the 12 truck bracket. Round 1 would see some wild races full of crashes, breakage, and mayhem as well as surprising upsets as Connor Anapol advanced over Zac Soares who fought steering issues and DQ’d.
In Round 2, “Hooligan” advanced over Anapol’s “Bounty Hunter”, “Black Pearl” eliminated “Outta Control” driven by Jacob Smallwood, Sam Olson would win the battle of the Sam’s knocking out the 3rd ranked “Get-Er-Done” of Sam Elliott, and Heimbigner moved on taking out Kirk Noakes’ “Old Skool”.
The unpredictable bracket continued as “Hooligan” looked to eliminate “Black Pearl” finishing the race first, however video review confirmed that Bunting did not get both front wheels up a ramp resulting in a DQ. Heimbigner’s “Son Uva Digger” put an end to Olson’s streak eliminating “Deep Blue” to set up a 4 vs. 2 seeded final. In the end, Degala would claim the first trophy of the day taking the win in racing.
We then moved on to the MT class to a field of 24 trucks with the top 8 earning byes into the next round. The top 6 spots were occupied by three people with David Heimbigner setting the fastest time of the day with “V8 Bomber” clocking in at 12.10 followed by Jeremy Bunting’s two entries “Sinistar” and “Bad Company”, Zac Soares’ entries “Prospector” and “Excaliber” and Heimbigner’s all-new “Flyin’ Hawaiian”. The remaining two byes went to a pair of Bigfoot trucks with Rynne Degala’s “Summit Bigfoot” taking 7th and last year’s series champion Wes Harriger taking 8th. Due to breakage in qualifying, the popular “Turd Wrassler” could not make the call as well as “Shadow Hunter”, giving Taylor Underhill’s “Freedom” and Rick Grant’s “First Contact” a free run into the second round.
The track was fast, but still loose from the windy conditions which led to some upsets with wild races that had trucks colliding and disqualifications assessed from missing jumps or getting too excited and leaving before the light. The trucks that advanced (or in some cases survived) from round 1 would then be matched with the top 8 trucks that received a first round bye. In round 2, all but one matchup went chalk with the higher seeded truck advancing to the next round with Sam Elliott’s 10th ranked “Ragnarok” getting the win over Degala’s 7th ranked “Summit Bigfoot” as the only upset.
In the quarter-finals, number 1 seeded Heimbigner knocked out Harriger and Soares was forced to eliminate one of his trucks as they were paired together, electing to advance his “Excaliber” truck to the semi-finals. On the bottom half of the bracket, Bunting eliminated “Flyin’ Hawaiian” and squeaked out a victory on the final jump over Elliott’s “Ragnarok” where both trucks went tumbling after the finish. Bunting chose to eliminate “Bad Company” in the semi-finals and advanced “Sinistar” to the finals.
On the other side of the bracket, “V8 Bomber” and “Excaliber” squared off with both drivers advancing farther than they did last season. Heimbigner bobbled after the first jump and ended up missing the middle jump while Soares ran a clean race to the finals to meet Bunting in a battle of SCMT Warpath 3 chassis. Both drivers were in the lanes they wanted with Soares running the longer turn first and Bunting choosing the inside lane. Both trucks were even after the big jump in the middle to the final turn when Zoares lost traction rounding the turn, bobbling enough to give Bunting the advantage and sending “Sinistar” into the winner’s circle.
Up next was the first Retro Class race. The big jumps were toned down or eliminated, but the trucks still ran an “S” track. Due to time constraints, it was limited to a single elimination bracket with 8 trucks seeded randomly. Soares’ third “Excaliber” entry made easy work of a similarly equipped JConcepts Regulator “Shotgun” to advance to the semi-finals. Elliott’s “Beast” leaf spring shafty eliminated Harriger’s “Coors Extra Gold” that needs some additional rear-steer tuning. Underhill’s other “Freedom” truck sporting a Ford Panel Van body advanced over Michael Vasquez and his “Super Clod” while Degala eliminated Heimbigner in a battle of retro “Bigfoot” trucks. In the semi-finals, “Excaliber” two-wheeled the final jump getting a DQ while “Bigfoot” took out “Freedom” setting up a clod vs. shafty final with Elliott’s “Beast” getting the victory in our first Retro class competition.
With racing in the books, it was time for freestyle! More ramps than ever were brought out to give competitors a variety of obstacles to hit. Haiyden Steinert got things going with his “Samson” setting the bar at a 14 with a short, but exciting run. Last year’s freestyle champion Connor Anapol would take the lead with a 15 with a run that featured an impressive bicycle down the front stretch which would be the high mark through the next few runs that scored in single digits from early rollovers. Soares took to the track with his “Excaliber” and got some big air and great momentum, but was hindered by steering issues left over from racing that ended his run early, but was the new leader with a 19. Elliott’s “Get-Er-Done” went big and had a good run going including a massive jump off the backflip ramp, but only filled half the clock for a score of 18.
“Hooligan” took to the track and kept a fast pace while hitting all obstacles on the track in addition to filling most of the clock and electing to end the run without a rollover deduction for a new high score of 24 with two trucks remaining. Early breakage cut short what was looking like a possible winning run by “Son Uva Digger” leaving only “Black Pearl” left to go. Unfortunately, two early rollovers led to a score of only an 11 for Degala giving Bunting the freestyle win extending his Round 1 freestyle streak to 3 years in a row. The win would also give Bunting the overall 2.2 Class win for the day scoring 47 points to start the season.
At this point, a crowd had begun to gather of oval track and 1/8 scale drivers for the evening race and they were treated to a show by the MT class freestyle competition. Haiyden Steinert got things started once again with an exciting run with his powder coated Black Market RC chassis “Over Bored” setting the bar at 16.
Not to be outdone was Rich Steinert who absolutely burned it down with his new “Escalade” LMT getting massive air, carrying wide-open speed around the track and even re-created Lee O’Donnell’s famous wheelie into front-flip and landed it! Unfortunately he only filled about a minute of his run, but scored two 10’s for momentum and tricks setting the new high mark at 23 points.
It was apparent that the LMT’s weight make these things freestyle machines as Haiyden returned with his “Monster Energy” and had a carnage filled run that included a save that must have lasted 5 seconds before breaking the front steering and ending the run plowing into the giant backflip obstacle scoring a 21. Series new-comer Brandon Stanley had an impressive debut freestyle with his “RC Propaganda” LMT as well, scoring a respectable 19.
Other notable freestyles included Sam Elliott’s “Ragnarok” scoring a 20 with one of the highest momentum scores of the day, the return of Taylor Underhill’s “Freedom” and running it into the ground, Rynne Degala’s backflip attempt turned moonshot, and Wes Harriger’s “Bigfoot” tying for the lead with a 23 after filling the full 100 seconds.
After an average run with his first entry, David Heimbigner attacked the track with his new “V8 Bomber” Warpath JZI chassis and put down the best run we have seen from him so far carrying great speed and some exciting tricks while most importantly filling the clock without a rollover, even after losing a wheel taking the lead with a 24 with two trucks remaining. Zac Soares and “Excaliber” then went out and put an early bid for the “Crash Madness” of the year award losing a number of rod ends and a drive shaft during his run but somehow still kept going until the truck wouldn’t any longer scoring a 22.
Finally, Jeremy Bunting took on the track with “Sinistar” and filled most of the clock before rolling over after a failed backflip and decided to forego the rollover deduction and finished with a score of 23 giving the win to Heimbigner. The second fastest qualifying time, racing win, and runner up in freestyle scored Bunting 71 points to start the season with the Overall Event Championship with Heimbigner and Soares close behind with 63 and 62 respectively. See the full 2021 Points Series Standings here.
With the event in the books, we were able to raffle off some great prizes courtesy of our sponsors at JConcepts and AMain Hobbies. The 2021 Points Series moves on to Rescue Community Center R/C Track on June 19th. A big thank you to Kevin Jelich and AMain Silver Dollar RC Raceway for the hospitality and keeping the track in the best shape possible despite the windy conditions. Also a big thank you to Jaime Cabrera for coming out last minute to photograph the event. You can view the entire Round 1 photo gallery here.
Make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel as we will be uploading full coverage of all classes racing and freestyle this year thanks to B.C. O’Neill and Sam Elliott donating funds on behalf of Bee Line Trucking to the series for camera equipment as well as Insano Industries who is editing all of the footage together. It’s not too late to join in the fun, we hope to see you all at the next event!
