The final round of the 2023 Nor Cal RC Monster Trucks JConcepts Points Series is in the books and champions have been crowned. After a couple weeks of “False Fall”, we got treated to arguably the warmest day of racing of the year on the first weekend of October in Rescue, CA. The warm weather made for an exciting day of racing with plenty of surprises on the fast J-hook style track for all classes.
After a season of running exhibition races, things got real for the Scale Spec Challenger Class as the class sponsor Mike Bufka of Brass Ring Fab came back out from Missouri with the goal of winning his set of custom welded headers back and qualified second. Sam Elliott had other plans and showed that his “Ragnarok” was going to be the truck to beat taking the top qualifying spot pulling a wheelie off the line. Elliott would eliminate Bufka with his “Torque” entry and “Ragnarok” took out David Heimbigner’s “Flyin’ Hawaiian” to have both of his entries meet in the finals and securing the coveted set of headers and laying the groundwork for what should be another exciting class to be part of next year’s Points Series.
In the 2.2 Mini Monster Class, Jeremy Bunting came into Round 5 battling with Brian Romo hoping to accomplish a three-peat championship in the class. Bunting’s “Bad Company” would set the top qualifying time with Romo’s “Hater Maker” right behind. In the semi-finals, Bunting’s two entries would meet advancing “Bad Company” to the finals while Romo’s “Hater Maker” got the best of Jacob Smallwood’s “El Matador”. The final round would be a dandy with Romo making the better turn and taking the racing win.
The final round of freestyle kicked off with Jordan Jensen getting the early lead posting a 19 with the “Thicc Blue Line” entry. Bunting then took the lead posting a 24 with “Crash Test Dummy” filling the clock despite a broken steering tie rod. While Romo would make up some ground in the standings taking the racing win for the day, Bunting would cap off the day taking the freestyle win filling the clock and getting some of the biggest jumps of the day in the class taking the freestyle and overall event win to secure the series championship for the third time with “Bad Company”. Romo finished second in the class and Bunting’s “Crash Test Dummy” rounded out the podium.
In the Bee Line Trucking 2.6 Class, Romo would keep the momentum going with “Da Beast” setting the fastest time of the day in qualifying with Elliott and his top ranked “Saigon Shaker” right behind. Marc Detka finished third with “Snap On” and Bunting and Smallwood rounded out the top 5 in the 23-truck field. Any chance of Heimbigner overtaking Elliott for the championship was crushed in the quarter finals when “Flyin’ Hawaiian” was eliminated by “Saigon Shaker” setting up a final four of both of Elliott’s entries along with Romo and Bunting. On this day, Romo would keep his unbeaten streak going and took the close final round racing victory over Elliott to sweep the 2.2 and 2.6 class racing brackets and solidify a spot on the podium. Elliott then took the top prize money for the Bee Line Trucking Podium Payout and put it towards the 2024 season’s pot!
After getting the controls to the “Redeemer” rental, Bufka would be the first truck out for freestyle and set the bar high with a heavenly score of 22. That score would stand until Bunting and Zac Soares both scored 23’s later in the field. Soares would then top himself with an incredible run sending his truck onto the track with just 3 wheels after blowing the bearing in racing and burned it down nearly filling the clock with a wild run that was definitely one of the biggest “Wow Moments” of the whole season. But in the end, it’s just been Elliott’s year in freestyle and he would cap off 2023 with a stellar run from the “Saigon Shaker” filling the clock without a rollover to take the win and seal not only the Round 5 overall championship, but take home first place for the 2023 season. Heimbigner would hold on for second place on the podium and Romo would get third.
In the Blackmarket RC Retro Class, Soares would take the top qualifying spot in the field with “Excaliber” which sealed the championship regardless of how he finished in the racing bracket. However, the rest of the podium was far from settled and the parody of the Retro Class never disappoints! Heimbigner came into the final round in second place with his “Bigfoot II”, but would end up matched up with his “Flyin’ Hawaiian” which had a faster qualifying time and would be eliminated automatically in the quarter finals. Meanwhile, Smallwood came from the eighth seed and knocked out Soares in one of many photo finish races that were in store for this bracket. After weeks of building, Bob Tarvin debuted his all-new “Tarvinator” BMRC Shaftsquatch chassis and pulled off a photo finish win eliminating Bunting. Finally, Detka, who joined the class mid-season and won round 4 would put his second seeded “USA-1” into the semis knocking out Soares and “Samson”.
In the semi finals, Heimbigner would advance over Smallwood with a chance to take both second and third on the podium while Detka ran a smooth race eliminating Tarvin to set up a shafy vs. clod final with the winner getting the final spot on the podium! Both trucks were even down the stretch, but Heimbigner gave a little too much rear steer and spun out in the last turn and Detka sailed to the finish getting back-to-back wins to end the season and securing third place for the year.
Every year, we like to recognize the Most Improved Driver as well as award a Rookie of the Year. After rising from the Novice Class at the beginning of the year to going deep into race brackets including the final four at this year’s Showdown and putting on some high flying freestyle runs in his first year in the Points Series, the 2023 Most Improved Driver award went to Jordan Jensen. And had it not been for Marc Detka, Jordan may have won Rookie of the Year as well. However, Detka proved early on that he would be a force to be reckoned with as both of his 2.6 entries finished in the top 10 for the year after making final round appearances and setting fast qualifying times while finishing 3rd in Retro running just half the season. We look forward to seeing what both of these racers have in store in the future!
The event was capped off by a big raffle of prizes generously donated from our awesome Points Series sponsors: JConcepts, BlackmarketRC, AMain Hobbies, ProtekRC, EcoPower, Bee Line Trucking, Brass Ring Fab, Wine Country RC Monster Trucks, and Insano Industries. A big thank you to Bob Tarvin for all of the photos from this event, the full gallery in which you can purchase all of the photos is available here.
With that the 2023 season is in the books and planning is underway for next year. You can be part of this by letting us know what you thought of the events as we greatly appreciate constructive feedback to continue to improve our events for racers of all levels by filling out our end of the year survey.
Make sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube @norcalrcmt and we’ll be reaching out for some Racer Recaps to end the season and get ready for 2024!