After five rounds of a har- fought season, it all came down to Round 6 held at the Rescue Community Center RC Track to decide who would make the podium and be the 2022 JConcepts Points Series Champions. A Vegas-style J-hook track complete with a chicane to navigate through prior to the straightaway would be the race course layout for all three classes.
In the Nor Cal Performance Diesel 2.2 Mini Monster Class, Jeremy Bunting would set fastest time in qualifying with the only sub-5 second pass of the day: a 4.84 putting the “Crash Test Dummy” in the top qualifier position. Zac Soares and “Prospector” would be the second fastest qualifier and joined David Heimbigner’s “Flyin Hawaiian” and Jacob Smallwood’s “Max D” getting byes into Round 2. Sam Elliott came into the final round with both of his trucks in second and third place, but had the misfortune of both trucks being paired together in the first round and “Get Er Done” eliminating “Hell Raiser”. The top 8 trucks would all make it to the quarter finals. Bunting would start things off ending the day for Ryan Isbell and “Zombie”. Brian Romo would get the upset knocking out Smallwood with his 5th-seeded “Hater Maker” and then 6 seed Elliott would eliminate Heimbigner to move onto the semis. Soares would also have both of his trucks matched up and “Prospector” would advance to the final four.
In the semis, Bunting would get the better of Romo and Soares would help his cause to move up in the standings eliminating Elliott setting up a 1 vs. 2 final round between two racers who had won four out of the five racing brackets in the class. In the end, Bunting would make the better turn and send “Crash Test Dummy” to the winner’s circle locking up the Points Series Championship.
Next up was the Bee Line Trucking 2.6 Monster Truck Class with not only a tight points battle for the podium positions, but a cash payout on the line. 2020 2.6 Class Champion Wes Harriger was a long-shot to move into a podium position, but he was not going to phone in the final race of the season and put both of his trucks in the top 5 with his “Bigfoot” getting the pole position in qualifying. Soares came into Round 6 just 9 points out of first and would cut the lead down coming in 2nd while Heimbigner and Elliott struggled with mechanical issues with their series-leading trucks. Due to the 25 truck field, the top 7 would receive byes into the second round which included both of Harriger’s entries, “Excaliber” for Soares, Elliott’s “Ragnarok, both of Bunting’s trucks, and Heimbigner’s “Flyin’ Hawaiian”. Little did anyone know the chaos that would be in store. While the first round of racing went mostly as expected with the higher seeds winning, Isbell would advance from the 18th seed over Soares taking out “Prospector” in the first round with his Halloween-themed “Grave Digger”.
Kirk Noakes has been steadily improving all season with his Losi LMT race trucks becoming more consistent in racing along with gaining confidence. After advancing both trucks into the second round, he would deliver two huge upsets, first taking out Elliott’s “Saigon Shaker” who came into the event in the points lead, and then followed that up eliminating Bunting’s 4th seeded “Titan” setting up back to back matchups with Wes Harriger in the quarter finals. Both of Heimbigner’s trucks would advance along with Bunting’s “Bad Company” and Soares would get his revenge eliminating Isbell’s pumpkin “Grave Digger”.
The quarter-finals continued to deliver unpredictable racing as Noakes and his “Rebel Racer” were not done yet knocking out the top-seeded “Bigfoot”. Noakes and Harriger then raced their other two entries, this time with Harriger’s “Taurus” moving on setting up a battle in the semi finals. Meanwhile, on the bottom half of the bracket, Heimbigner would get a break after spinning out in the turn when it was determined Bunting did not get the front wheels up the ramp after hitting a lane barrier that got “Bad Company” airborne prior to the race ramp. He did not have the same luck with his “Flyin’ Hawaiian” entry as Soares moved onto the final four with “Excaliber”.
Once again, it would be Harriger vs. Noakes and Heimbigner vs. Soares to move onto the finals. Noakes’ big day would come to an end as Harriger stayed in his favorite lane and sent “Taurus” to the finals where he would face the winner of “Excaliber” and “Son Uva Digger” with major points implications on the line. Soares would continue to help his cause on the day running in his desired lane and hitting his marks on the turn to meet Harriger in the finals. Soares would take advantage of his higher qualifying position and put Harriger in the blue lane after running in the yellow lane all day. On green, both trucks were even into the turn where Harriger executed arguably the smoothest turn of the day while Soares had a slight bobble sending “Taurus” to victory lane.
It was then time to wrap up the first season of the Black Market RC Retro Class. Bunting came into the final event with an 11-point lead over Soares and would gain some ground setting the fastest lap in qualifying with “Shotgun”. Elliott would get the second fastest time of the day followed by Heimbigner and Soares with “Excaliber”. With 9 trucks in the field, the top 7 would advance to the quarter finals while the bottom two trucks would race to see who would face Bunting. As luck would have it, we would get another battle between Noakes and Harriger who suffered a dead battery in qualifying and came in last after barely completing one qualifying pass. Harriger and the “Coors Extra Gold” would get the best of Noakes and move on and get a big win over Bunting in a photo finish to start the second round of racing. Smallwood then had his best racing pass of the day and his “Hawaiian Punch” took out “Excaliber” to move into the semi finals. On the bottom half of the bracket, in a battle of “Bigfoot” trucks, Heimbigner would defeat Isbell’s “Bigfoot Cruiser”. He would go on to meet “Beast” as Elliott eliminated “Samson” after Soares pulled a spectacular power wheelie for nearly half the track off the line.
Coming off the 2.6 bracket win, Harriger was looking to be the first racer to make it from the last place qualifier to winning the racing bracket and would get his shot after taking out Smallwood’s “Hawaiian Punch” after Smallwood went wide in the turn into the lane barricade. The “Beast” and “Bigfoot II” race was a classic as both trucks were dead even into the turn, but Heimbigner was able to straighten out first while Elliott went deep and had to correct the truck to hit the final jump. This set up a final between a three-time runner up and the 9th seed looking to pull off the ultimate upset. Again, both trucks would be even to the crucial final turn where Heimbigner carried a ton of speed and hiked up onto two wheels but pitched the truck just right to go straight to the jump while Harriger had to check up and Heimbigner would get his first Retro Class racing win of the season.
With the final race concluded, the scores were tallied up and Bunting would take the Points Series Championship with three wins on the year followed by Soares in second and Heimbigner in third.
It was now time for freestyle in the 2.2 and 2.6 classes to determine who would take the overall wins for both Round 6 and the Points Series. With second and third place on the season still up for grabs in the 2.2 Class, the drivers went hard knowing there was a full off-season to repair trucks. After a disappointing qualifying and subsequent first round elimination, Elliott would set the early high mark of 19 with “Hell Raiser” as the second truck out. The treacherous course and possibly nerves led to a lot of early rollovers and breakage as the score would stand until Heimbigner put on a show with a run that filled most of the clock and was full of big air and wheelies that got a 24 from the judges which would be enough to take the win and move him into second place in the standings. Soares would have a disappointing run, however the 11 points scored along with the points accumulated from qualifying and racing were enough to push him into the final podium spot beating out Elliott by one point. With the fast qualifying time, racing win, and a solid freestyle run, Bunting would end up as the Overall Event Champion for Round 6 winning back-to-back class titles.
Finally, it was time to burn it down in the 2.6 Monster Truck Class. After a season of fighting the truck and some struggles, Ray Johnson would put on the best freestyle run he has had to date filling the clock without a rollover putting “Toxic Peach” in the lead and would end up tied for 5th place on the day with his grandson Ryler Powell who also had a 17 point run capping off the year with his “Shadow Hunter”. The tie for first would not be broken until Elliott and “Ragnarok” would nearly fill the clock and score a 21 to take the lead. Harriger would then tie for the lead with “Bigfoot” without a rollover. With room on top and a big day in racing, Soares looked to capitalize and put together the run of the day with “Excaliber” nearly filling the clock without a rollover and setting a new high score of 23 with only Harriger’s other entry left. Harriger would make sure the last run of the year was memorable with an incredible leap that ended up off the course and on the U4 rock racing course. While it was incredible, the leap out of bounds counted as a rollover and did some damage but Wes would run “Taurus” into the ground filling the clock and scoring 19.
At the beginning of the season, Bee Line Trucking agreed to match the Podium Pot contributed by racers for a total of $900 to be paid out for the podium. When the dust settled, Soares would get the Overall Event Championship and the big win would propel him and his “Excaliber” to first place for the season and $450. Elliott would end up in second place with “Saigon Shaker” taking home $250 and Heimbigner finished up in third place with “Son Uva Digger” getting $200.
In addition to the podiums of all three classes, the end of the year awards were presented highlighting the accomplishments of racers that did not make the podium. Although he only competed in three events before exiting the series to start a new career, Eric Myers had a spectacular rookie season and was on pace for a top-10 finish and was the clear 2022 Rookie of the Year.
The Young Guns Award was presented to Georgia Smallwood and Taylor Clarke to recognize young racers in the series and their improvements in their first year racing.
Ryler Powell would receive the “Wow Moment of the Year” from Round 4 when he had a huge leap with “The Mage” and came down and completed a front flip all as one continuous combination.
Finally, Kirk Noakes would take home the “Most Improved” award which was only further solidified by his incredible day of racing and finishing in the top-10 in all three classes.
With that, the 2022 season is a wrap. A big thank you to all the racers who made it out this season for making this the most competitive to date. We would also like to send a heartfelt thank you to our sponsors JConcepts, AMain Hobbies, ProTek RC, Bee Line Trucking, BlackMarket RC, Nor Cal Performance Diesel, Insano Industries, WrenchHead RC, ZWShobbies and Blu-Chrush Mega Truck for all of the support and contributions to the series. We’ll be catching up on YouTube highlights and planning for next season, in the meantime make sure to take our end of the year survey so we can continue to improve for 2023: https://forms.gle/4qvRwbHxzG2qDPko9
