Since starting the points series in 2019, it’s always been a goal to run a Penda-style drag race track but the right circumstances had not materialized. When planning the schedule for this season was happening in the middle of Winter, it was guaranteed that August would be hot and so it would be in everyone’s best interest to have an event that would go faster to beat the heat. And that was before the River Fire popped up in the area 3 days before the event. Combine that with previously scheduled vacations and vehicle issues for some of the regular racers, along with two surprise guests who came all the way from Menifee to race and you have a recipe for a serious shakeup in the standings!
With drag racing, it was all going to come down to reaction times and a few hundredths of a second could make all the difference for valuable points and seeding. In the 2.2 class, Jacob Smallwood and “Outta Control” were in control and on the pole with a blistering 2.36 qualifying pass. With a 9 truck field, Sam Olson’s “Deep Blue” would face Connor Anapol’s “Overkill Evolution” to get into the second round with the remaining trucks advancing. Anapol would get the better jump off the light and secure the victory before falling to Smallwood in the quarter finals. Zac Soares and Kirk Noakes would meet up after qualifying .01 second apart with Soares getting the win to move on to the final 4. As luck would have it, Sam Elliott’s two entries ended up paired against each other with the higher seeded “Black Out” automatically advancing to face Bunting after taking out Noakes’ “Solenya” truck. In the semis, Smallwood took out Soares while Elliott advanced over Bunting. The finals would end up going to video review with Elliott getting the victory by inches over Smallwood.
The MT Class would prove to be wide open after qualifying with all 22 entries being less than a second apart with Round 3’s racing winner Wes Harriger setting the fastest two times of the day of 2.35 with “Bigfoot” and 2.36 with “Taurus” with Bunting’s “Sinistar” in 3rd and “Excaliber” and “Dragon Slayer” both with a 2.46 second pass rounding out the top 5. The second round of racing would really shake things up as not only were three pairings between trucks owned by the same drivers, the top seeded “Bigfoot” was knocked out by 16th ranked Jessica Dahl and her “Team Fat Cat” truck. Bunting, Soares, and Noakes would all advance eliminating their lower seeded trucks and Michael Letcher’s “Bounty Hunter” knocked out Elliott’s “Ragnarok” that came into the event 3rd in points setting up a matchup in the quarter finals with Harriger’s “Taurus”. That race would end controversially as Letcher crossed the finish line first but video review determined that he did not get two tires up the ramp and would be DQ’d.
Meanwhile, Dahl continued to march to the finals knocking out Smallwood’s “Turd Wrassler” while Soares eliminated Elliott’s Hell Raiser to move on to the semi finals. And after 3 rounds, Bunting and Noakes finally would race their trucks due to the bye and then their trucks matched against each other with “Sinistar” advancing over “Fat & Nasty” setting up a final four of the second, third, fourth, and sixteenth fastest qualifiers.
In the semi-finals Dahl took out Soares while Bunting got the best of Harriger setting up a Team Fat Cat finals. The finals did not disappoint resulting in a photo finish with Dahl taking the upset win crossing the line in a sky wheelie and tumbling across the line while Bunting nose-dived and rode a slap wheelie. This was not only her first win in the Nor Cal series, but of her racing career.
The Retro class would get their turn to take on the two-jump drags as well but with the second ramp metal ramp removed and just dirt and crush cars as the second obstacle. The racers from So Cal came prepared bringing two entries each to fill out a 10 truck field. The first round would feature two races to get to an 8 truck bracket with Harriger’s “Coors Extra Gold” taking out “Beast” in a rematch of just about every first round race we’ve had this year despite random seeding. This time, Harriger would advance to round 2 along with Letcher’s dual-tractor tired “Krimson Krusher” knocking out Soares and “Excaliber”.
The quarter finals would see Dahl’s “Bearly Tame” eliminate Harriger to meet Bunting’s “Shotgun” who eliminated Smallwood’s “Jus Showin’ Off”. On the other half of the bracket, both of Letcher’s entries would advance to the semi-finals with “Outlaw” eliminating Dahl’s “Heartbeat” and the “Krimson Krusher” taking out “Freedom”. In semi-final action, Letcher chose to advance his “Outlaw” to the finals where he would meet Dahl after “Bearly Tame” advanced from Bunting jumping the starting light. Letcher would add to the trophy haul making the drive worth it as “Outlaw” would finish the day in the winner circle.
In freestyle, the 2.2 class would get things started back-to-back solid runs from Noakes and Elliott both receiving 20’s for their efforts with “Soleyna” and “Get-Er-Done”. Bunting would take the lead with a 22 but left plenty of room for Smallwood and Elliott’s other entry. Smallwood’s run with “Outta Control” ended only filling half the clock and scoring 16 and Elliott would capitalize putting the LMT on 2.2’s to work filling the clock and earning a 24 for the freestyle and overall event win for “Black Out”. Bunting and Smallwood tied for second overall while Soares and Elliott’s other entry tied for third.
The MT Class would get started in a big way as Ryler Powell would go out 5th and fill the clock without rolling over with some great moves and saves and put up a huge score of 27 blowing into the lead early. Powell would stay in the hot seat for 13 straight trucks as the closest anyone got was a 24 from Letcher’s “Big Chief” who filled most of the clock before electing to end the run after a rollover. It was not until Harriger would take to the track with his “Taurus” that Powell would start to sweat throwing down arguably the best freestyle run since joining the series last year with wheelies, saves, and big air filling the clock without rolling over for a 29. Letcher’s “Bounty Hunter” looked poised to match the run early before the nuts came off the spur gear about a minute in to his run and the truck would not go any further. A valiant effort from Soares and “Excaliber” filled the clock, but the truck was broken and limping around the track without steering for the final 30 seconds or so. Bunting and Dahl’s runs were cut short by rollovers and Harriger would secure the freestyle and overall win for the event with Soares and “Excaliber” finishing second and Bunting in third.
Due to David Heimbigner’s absence, the MT Class standings shook up quite a bit with Bunting re-taking the lead with “Sinistar” and Soares jumping up to second place passing Elliott in the standings with Heimbigner still well within striking distance only two points out of third and 33 out of first going into the final round on October 16th in Rescue which promises to be a dog fight for the podium. Before that happens, we will be putting on the Monster Truck Showdown as part of the ASD Autism Crawl on August 21st in Patterson, CA at Frank Raines OHV Park. Then on September 11th, we will be hosting the largest solid-axle monster truck race west of the Mississippi River in Chico for the North vs. South Showdown between the Nor Cal and So Cal Points Series.
Thanks again to Rescue Community Center RC Track for the hospitality, our great series sponsors who help make this possible, all the racers who came out in the less than ideal conditions, and a special thanks to Ray Johnson and Ryler Powell for the thoughtful wood carving presented before the race and to Michael and Jessica for making the long drive up and surprising us with your attendance. Also, want to give a shoutout to Jaime Cabrera for coming out last minute to get photos of the event. The full gallery can be found here.
Make sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram @norcalrcmt and subscribe to our YouTube channel for full event coverage of all of our races.