After a wild first round in Rescue, Round 2 would set the bar even higher with a crossover track replicating the RC Monster Jam World Finals course in Orlando later this month and a whopping 52 entries! With a dirt pod that racers have become accustomed to for racing and freestyle, Round 2 of the JConcepts Points Series at AMain Silver Dollar RC Raceway was going to be one for the books.
In the Nor Cal Performance Diesel 2.2 Mini Monster Class, Jeremy Bunting and “Crash Test Dummy” set a blistering qualifying time of 15.59 earning a first round bye, nearly 2 seconds faster than the number 2 seeded David Heimbigner and “Flyin’ Hawaiian”. Sam Elliott’s “Hell Raiser” and “Get Er Done” would round out the top 5 with Zac Soares sandwiched between them with “Excaliber”. In all, 15 trucks would compete, nearly doubling the turnout from Round 1.
In Round 1, there were two upsets, both with Kirk Noakes as Soares would take his 9th seeded “Prospector” to the winners circle over “Old Skool” while “Soleyna” knocked out Jacob Smallwood who debuted his new “Max D”. The track proved to be a challenge early on as the crossover claimed some victims and the track began to dry out.
In Round 2, the “Prospector” would keep the streak going taking out top seeded Bunting after getting crossed up in the chicane. He would then knock out Elliott’s “Get Er Done” setting up a semi-final matchup with his two entries with the higher seeded “Excaliber” automatically advancing to the finals. Meanwhile Elliott’s “Hell Raiser” eliminated Ryan Isbill’s “Zombie” and Heimbigner made easy work of “Soleyna” setting up a battle of the 2 and 3 seeds in the semi finals.
In the semi-finals, Heimbigner would get lane choice which was becoming crucial as it started to become apparent that the yellow lane was where the faster times were coming from and presented a favorable return lap after the crossover jump. The “Flyin’ Hawaiian” would cruise to victory setting up an all BMRC chassis final. Unfortunately for Soares, “Excaliber” was the higher seeded truck, but was not running at 100% by the finals with only front wheel drive. Despite a valiant effort, Heimbigner would cruise to a win and take home the first trophy of the day.
In the Bee Line Trucking 2.6 Monster Truck Class, qualifying was more important than ever with lane choice being such a huge factor in the 28 truck field. Qualifying had some penalties assessed for not completing the track correctly and some early carnage with trucks failing to clear the crossover jump. Wes Harriger came into the event with his “Taurus” second in points, but two rough qualifying passes had him near the bottom in the bracket. Points leader Soares would take the pole position with his “Excaliber” Warpath making a 15.47 pass for the fastest time of the day. Harriger was right on his heels with “Bigfoot” who would join Soares as well as Heimbigner’s “Flyin’ Hawaiian” and Elliott’s “Saigon Shaker” with automatic byes into the second round of racing. Bunting would round out the top 5 with “Titan”.
Round 1 would be kicked off with a major upset as Bunting’s 5th seeded “Titan” would be eliminated after hitting a turn barrier and rolling over giving the win to the 28th seeded “Obsessed” of Donny Clarke. Soares would advance with “Prospector” over Harriger’s “Taurus” putting Round 1’s runner up out early. Other notable races included Smallwood’s all-new “Hot Shot” advancing over Ryler Powell’s “Mage”, Taylor Underhill avenging his 2.2 class loss to Isbill putting his “Freedom” truck into the second round, and the battle of father and son as our two favorite Reno racers returned with 2021’s Young Gun Award winner Haidyen Steinert being eliminated by Rich Steinert and “Avenger” after making a comeback from a rollover only to miss the racing lane and send his “Backwards Bob” LMT into orbit.
Round 2 would prove to be “chalk” as all of the higher seeded trucks would advance to the quarter finals. One of the surprises would be event photographer Eric Myers who qualified 6th with a “rental” LMT and his “Blue Thunder” body who would make another smooth pass and eliminate Steinert’s “Avenger” and move on to the quarter finals to face Heimbigner’s “Flyin’ Hawaiian”. Soares and “Excaliber” eliminated Underhill, then lost with “Prospector” to Steinert’s “Wild Side”. Bunting’s “Bad Company” would make easy work of “Obsessed” setting up a matchup against Elliott’s “Saigon Shaker”. Heimbigner’s “Son Uva Digger” took out Elliott’s “Ragnarok” and Harriger advanced as “Bigfoot” ended the day for “Hot Shot”.
The quarter-finals were set and only Heimbigner still had two entries alive with 7 of the top 8 seeded trucks still in contention. Soares continued his dominating ways eliminating “Wild Side” where he would once again face Elliott’s “Saigon Shaker” after he would eliminate “Bad Company” in one of the closer races of the day. Myers’ racing campaign would come to an end as Heimbigner advanced his “Flyin’ Hawaiian” where he would get a rematch with Harriger after “Bigfoot” took out “Son Uva Digger”.
After one of the closest races we’ve ever had in the semi-finals of Round 1, Soares and Elliott once again squared off. This one would not be as close as Elliott struggled on the course and some wondered if he was more focused on taking out the newly printed roll bar on “Excaliber” as both trucks collided after the crossover and Soares advanced to the finals. Would we see another rematch of Harriger and Soares or would Heimbigner continue his hot streak and pick up his second race win of the day? Despite not having lane choice, Heimbigner would get the small upset victory over Harriger to advance to the finals after Harriger collided with a chicane lane barrier.
The final race would be the closest of the day with both trucks even to the crossover. Heimbigner had a slight bobble after the jump pulling a wheelie into the turn, however both trucks were neck and neck down the straight away to the final turn. In the end Soares would execute the tighter turn and go 2 for 2 in 2022 2.6 MT class racing brackets.
In the Black Market RC Retro Class, Soares would once again put an “Excaliber” in the number 1 spot for qualifying followed closely by Smallwood debuting a brand new “Hawaiian Punch” Regulator chassis whose “creative” route around the turn car of rolling and continuing to go would land him in 2nd.
Only .6 seconds separated second through sixth in qualifying on the fast, modified “Tampa-style” down and back track. With a 9 truck field, it would be a battle of the “Bigfoots” as Isbill and Noakes squared off to advance to Round 2 to face Soares and it would be Isbill “cruising” to victory.
In the quarter finals, Soares would continue to look fast taking out Isbill’s “Bigfoot Cruiser” while Heimbigner’s “Bigfoot II” eliminated Round 1 winner Harriger’s “Coors Extra Gold”. The bottom half of the bracket would see Bunting knock out Elliott’s “Beast” and Underhill’s “Freedom” get the upset win as Smallwood once again rolled in the corner, but this time would not recover.
In the semi-finals, it would be Heimbigner getting the victory over the top-seeded Soares for the second time today advancing “Bigfoot II” to the finals where he would face the winner of Underhill’s “Freedom” and Bunting’s “Shotgun”. For the second round in a row, Bunting would eliminate Underhill to advance to the finals.
In the finals, both trucks were even down the straight away, however Bunting started to pull away coming out of the turn and Heimbigner clipped a lane barrier and rolled giving Bunting the win for the day. The win moved Bunting into the points lead in the class after being runner up in Round 1.
After a full day of racing, additional obstacles were brought onto the track and ramps were cut for freestyle. One of the best parts about having events in Chico at AMain Silver Dollar RC Raceway is the ability to create tracks with large, dirt obstacles that can be hit multiple ways adding not only more variety, but also challenges to the track for the competitors. With the more narrow tires and width, the 2.2 class struggled early on with early rollovers. Connor Anapol held the early lead after the first six entries failed to last a minute on the track.
Bunting would be the first to break into the 20’s with “Crash Test Dummy” but only filled a minute of clock. It was not until Soares took to the track with his new “Prospector” that we would get a full run. After having to eliminate the truck due to his “Excaliber” being the higher seed when they were paired, Zac was ready to cut loose and go big. Not even half way into the run, the steering arm broke but that was not stopping him from filling the clock, however it would limit the air and stunts he could perform receiving a score of 21.
Elliott would match the 21 point score with his “Get Er Done” before Heimbigner would cap off his day with a hard charging run full of big air and receiving a 10 for momentum and track use in just over a minute of track time getting a 23 and securing both the freestyle win and event championship moving him into a tie with Bunting for first place in the series standings going into Round 3.
On to the final class of the day with the big 2.6 Monster Trucks getting their turn. It would be Powell and “Shadow Hunter” along with Harriger and “Taurus” setting the early high marks both filling the clock putting Harriger in the hot seat with a 23 which would stand until Smallwood brought out the “Live Wire” getting 8’s across the board to become the new leader with 24.
Smallwood would remain in the lead until Haidyen Steinert took to the track with “Backwards Bob” that was running big power and was a trip to watch with the body on backward and tires mounted two different ways. Proving that the air he got after taking the wrong jump in racing was no fluke, he filled the clock with some massive leaps before losing a tire and took the lead with a 25. The score would stand for a while as many heavy hitters in the lineup fell short from breakage and early rolls trying to match.
Elliott would finally dethrone Steinert with a classic “Sam run” that nearly filled the clock without rolling scoring 9’s across the board leaving little room for error with 9 trucks still to go. Myers would set the camera down and continue his impressive day sending “Blue Thunder” all over the track and tying for the lead with a 27 as well. Elliott would back this up with a 26 for “Saigon Shaker” gaining valuable points in the standings.
Three trucks remained with Harriger having a very uncharacteristic run with two early rollovers for “Bigfoot” and only getting a 3. After only scoring a 6 with his “Son Uva Digger”, Heimbigner took to the track and burned it down despite losing a rear end in the process, kept up incredible momentum for a broken truck filling the clock without a rollover to get a 28. Soares would fire his last bullet with “Excaliber” after a disappointing showing for his “Prospector” and would put up a valiant effort, but fall short scoring a 19.
Heimbigner would take home his second freestyle win of the day and secure the Round 2 event championship moving into second place overall behind Soares. Elliott remains in third, but things are very tight between 4th and 10th place with past champions Harriger and Bunting lurking with four events to go and the Bee Line Trucking Podium Pool on the line.
The JConcepts Points Series resumes on June 18th at Auburn RC for the first of three night races. Make sure to follow along all the action on our YouTube channel and our social media pages @norcalrcmt. Special thanks go out to Kevin Jelich, Sam Elliott, and Jacob Smallwood for helping build the dirt pod on Friday afternoon and to Taylor Underhill for painting the track. A big thanks as always to our sponsors JConcepts, AMain Hobbies, and ZWS Hobbies for providing great raffle swag. And finally, to Eric Myers Photography for doing double duty racing and capturing these awesome photos. Full gallery can be found here.