After rain postponed plans to race in Chico earlier in the month, we were fortunate enough to be able to reschedule Round 2 of the JConcepts Points Series at Rescue Community Center RC Track for a beautiful day of racing. With the roomy oval track still available, we decided to run the 2022 Monster Jam World Finals crossover track layout for racing in the 2.2 and 2.6 classes while switching it up to the longest Retro Class drag racing track we have done to date.
Things kicked off with the Novice Class and in the finals, it was Brian Romo piloting his “Hater Maker” SMT10 to a victory over Marc Detka and his “Red Bull” LMT. With how well these two drivers did the rest of the day, they may soon be “graduating” from eligibility to run in the Novice class.
2.2 Mini Monster Results
In the 2.2 Mini Monster Class, Romo would set the top qualifying time of the day putting “Hater Maker” on the pole position with a 12.91 followed by Jeremy Bunting in 2nd and 3rd and Jacob Smallwood in 4th. Bunting’s 3rd place “Crash Test Dummy” truck was out for the rest of the day with its servo sacrificed for another class, so it would be an 8-truck bracket with new-comers Jordan and Jake Jensen entering the class for the first time this season. In the semi-finals, Romo would knock out Dale Udell’s “Lost Cause” after a rollover and Smallwood put “El Matador” into the finals eliminating Bunting and “Bad Company”. In the finals, both trucks were even after the first crossover, but Romo would go too hard into the 4th turn rolling it over and Smallwood took home the racing win and threw down some victory donuts for good measure.
Freestyle would see new-comer Jake Jensen take the former “Old Skool” soon to be “Redneck Limo” truck to an early lead filling the clock without a rollover and scoring a 22 midway through the pack. The rest of the field suffered from rollover deductions and breakage and could not match the high mark giving Jensen his first win in the series!
And for the first time in series history, we had an overall winner who did not win a competition, but whose consistent performance netted the overall high score and Brian Romo took home the overall event win and closed the gap to just two points in the overall standings.
Bee Line Trucking 2.6 Monster Truck Results
The Bee Line Trucking 2.6 Monster Truck Class kicked off as it did in Round 1 with David Heimbigner taking the top qualifying spot with “Flyin’ Hawaiian” setting the pace at 13.62. Right on his heals by .04 seconds was Detka’s “Red Bull” and then both of Sam Elliott’s entries recorded nearly identical times to round out the top four times. These four would march through the bracket all the way to the semi-finals with “Flyin’ Hawaiian” eliminating “Shaker” and “Red Bull” taking out “Fenrir” setting up a 1 vs 2 final round matchup. In the end, Heimbigner would stay undefeated for the season putting “Flyin’ Hawaiian” into the winner’s circle for the second straight round.
In freestyle, Bunting would set the high mark with a full run from “Carnage” earning a 26, and then top that with a 27 from “Bad Company”. Elliott would then tie for the lead with “Shaker” scoring identical marks from the judges filling the clock without rollover deductions. Heimbigner gave a valiant effort to break the tie as the final truck out, but rolled over before time was filled and received a 24 from the judges meaning we had to go to the tie-breaker. Using the same method as Monster Jam, if the freestyle scores are tied after all other factors are considered, the truck that scored the high score first wins since the score was only matched, giving Bunting the victory. Both trucks receive the same amount of points towards the overall standings.
Heimbigner’s TQ, racing win, and fourth place freestyle score was more than enough to earn him another overall event win and keep his lead going into Round 3.
Blackmarket RC Retro Results
As mentioned above, the Blackmarket RC Retro Class was treated to a 4 jump straight line drag race with two big jumps sandwiching the classic race lanes leading to some big bounces and all sorts of chaos. Elliott, filling in for Zac Soares, would pilot the “Excaliber” to a top qualifying spot and take the win over Heimbigner’s “Bigfoot” and then meet “Flyin’ Hawaiian” for the finals. In a wild final race where Heimbigner rolled over and Elliott simultaneously ran over a barricade and had to circle back around to finish the course and to make it two straight victories for the “Excaliber” truck.
A big thank you to everyone who made it out to Round 2, make sure to join us for Round 3 at Auburn RC on June 17th under the lights. Thank you to our sponsors JConcepts, AMain Hobbies, Protek RC, EcoPower, Blackmarket RC, Bee Line Trucking, Insano Industries, and Brass Ring Fab as well as Rescue Community Center RC for the hospitality. Also a special thank you to Bob Tarvin for taking the great photos seen in this recap, you can check out the full gallery here.