After months of waiting, the 6th season of the Nor Cal RC Monster Trucks JConcepts Points Series kicked off at the Rescue RC Raceway dirt oval with over 50 entries on hand. A fast, but technical track would deliver some of the closest racing we’ve seen.
Starting with the 2.2 Mini Monster Class, Bob Tarvin would be the TQ for the day with the only sub 8-second pass in the class. He would advance through the bracket and meet last year’s runner-up Brian Romo and his “Hater Maker” who qualified second-fastest. In the finals, Tarvin would make the better final turn and send his “Copperhead” to the winner’s circle taking the first bracket of the year.
In freestyle, the challenging track led to early rollovers and breakage for much of the field that chose to take on the obstacles. In the end, the 2023 Most Improved Driver of the Year Jordan Jensen and his “Thicc Blue Line” SMT10 would take advantage with some big air and backflips getting him a score of 26 which would be more than enough to take the win. With his combined scores from finishing third in the bracket as well as the third fastest qualifier, he would take the overall class title for Round 1 and the points lead going to Round 2.
The Bee Line Trucking 2.6 Monster Truck Class would see 26 entries battle it out with some intense and close racing. Marc Detka and Zac Soares would meet in the first round as the second race of the day between the 9th ranked “Prospector” and 24th ranked “Joker” and the race was too close to call. In the rematch, the race was again too close to call on the spot and after intense video review, it was determined that Soares and “Prospector” crossed the line first. The second round would see a major upset as series rookie Dave Lucas would come from the 15th spot and knock off the second-seeded Isaac Soria’s “T-Maxx”.
Detka and Soares would meet again in the third round with an old-school matchup of “Outlaw” vs. “Excaliber” and Soares would again pull off a close victory to advance. The top-seeded “Lemon Lime Prime” piloted by Soria would then eliminate Excaliber to move on to the finals. On the other side of the bracket, it would be Romo and “Da Beast” going against Jensen’s “Son Uva Digger” who would take the win and make it to the finals as the 14th seed bringing back memories of the Summer Showdown from last August. However, Soria would not be stopped and secured the racing win in his first Points Series event.
In freestyle, many of the trucks to go out first would have issues filling the clock with Jacob Smallwood setting the score to beat at 17 with his all-new “California Kid Crusher”. David Heimbigner would be the first competitor to fill the clock as he finished the end of his run on three wheels after sheering the front right completely off and take the lead with a 23.
Jensen’s big day would continue as he would then raise the bar with an impressive run that would make Ryan Anderson proud including a front-flip for good measure that would get him a 25 and the lead with half the field still to go. The score would stand until Jeremy Bunting took to the track with “Bad Company” and would have a high-speed run with big jumps, combinations, and a big save, but a rollover during a donut attempt would leave some time on the clock and net 26 points from the judges with some heavy hitters still to go. An early rollover deduction would give Soares and “Excaliber” a 21 point score while electrical issues cut Heimbigner’s run short leaving only Soria’s entries and two shots to get the win. His first run with “TMaxx” would end early only filling a little over a minute before the second rollover, however his “Lemon Lime Prime” was a statement that he came all the way from the South Bay to take all of the trophies nearly filling the clock with big air, multiple backflips, and incredible saves, he would receive all 9’s and get the win sweeping the day and scoring 2 bonus points for being the top qualifier, winner of racing, and freestyle on the day. The 80-point day was the second highest scoring day in the six years of holding Points Series events. Not a bad way to start the season!
In the Blackmarket RC Retro Class, Bunting would set the fastest time in qualifying with his “Shotgun” Regulator chassis with Smallwood right on his heals with his “Blue Max” and Soares and Heimbigner rounding out the top 4 with “Excaliber” and “Bigfoot 2”.
With a 10-truck bracket, the top 6 advanced to round 2. In the first round, Tarvin would knock out “Bigfoot” piloted by Ryan Isbell who made his return to the series while Soares and his “Samson” would get the better of “Chevy Metal” driven by Jake Jensen. In the round of 8, Bunting would advance over Tarvin, while Detka and Soares would have yet another close race with “Excaliber” taking the win over “USA-1”. Smallwood knocked out “Samson” and Heimbigner had his trucks paired up so “Bigfoot 2” would advance.
In the semi finals, Bunting would win the battle of the Fords over Heimbigner while Smallwood eliminated Soares in back-to-back rounds to advance. In the final round, both trucks were even until the final turn when Smallwood executed a perfect, tight turn and would send “Blue Max” over the finish line first.
The final racing class of the day was the Brass Ring Fab Challenger class featuring full-caged shock on axle scaled out trucks running 3800kv motors. Heimbigner would take the top qualifying spot with his “Flyin’ Hawaiian” and fourth overall with his tube-framed “Son Uva Digger” while Bunting would qualify second with “Titan” and third with the “Crash Test Dummy”. In the final round, Bunting’s “Titan” would get the win over Heimbigner’s “Flyin’ Hawaiian” to take the early season lead. We anticipate many more competitors in the upcoming events as this should make for another exciting racing class.
The day ended with an awesome raffle courtesy of our fantastic sponsors Blackmarket RC, AMain Hobbies, EcoPower, JConcepts, and Flyin’ Hawaiian RC who donated prizes. A big thank you to everyone who came out and those who were able to help out watering the track, judging, timing and helping setup and teardown. A special shoutout to Marc Detka for helping get the track in shape and to Bob Tarvin for all of the great event photos, you can see the entire gallery here.