After taking May off, we kicked off June with a bang as Round 2 of the JConcepts Points Series returned to the dirt oval at Rescue RC Raceway with a fast, but challenging “S Track” based off of the course recently run at the Monster Jam World Finals. The Novice Class kicked things off with first-timer Chuck Mefford making his series debut with a stock LMT called “Nemesis” and he would take the win over Jake Jensen in the finals.
In the 2.2 Mini Monster Class, Sundeep Khatri debuted his new “Raptor” truck for the class and would qualify in the middle of the pack but would knock off top-seeded qualifier Brian Romo and make it to the finals where he would square off with the fifth-seed Bob Tarvin and his “Copperhead”. After both trucks were smooth all day, the final round was chaotic as both trucks overshot the second jump into the corner and crashed! However, Sundeep was able to recover while Bob was turtled and completed his lap to take the racing bracket victory.
In freestyle, Dale Udell would set the high mark of 19 nearly filling the clock before rolling over. The score would hold until Brian Romo filled the clock without a rollover and would take the freestyle win and the Round 2 Overall Event Championship for the 2.2 Class putting the “Hater Maker” into the points lead after 2 events.
Isaac Soria put the Bee Line Trucking 2.6 Monster Truck Class on notice after sweeping the first round and looked to continue to increase his lead in Round 2. He would start the day by qualifying 3rd and 4th right behind Zac Soares and Jeremy Bunting. However Soares would get knocked out in the second round by Marc Detka in back-to-back races after having some close battles in the prior event in what may be a budding rivalry. Meanwhile, Bunting would be eliminated by David Heimbigner who along with Detka made it to the semi finals to take on both of Soria’s entries that were still alive in the bracket. However, neither would prevail and Soria’s “Lemon Lime Prime” remains undefeated heading into Round 3.
Freestyle would see the “Deepster Digger” come out first and put up a 19 which would be the score to beat until Bunting’s “Bad Company” filled the clock and would take the lead with a 23. However, Soares would blow into the lead with arguable the best freestyle run we’ve seen from him and his “Excaliber” Blackmarket RC FYTR chassis filling the clock with huge air and some wild saves pushing the score to beat to 27. Heimbigner’s “Flyin’ Hawaiian” would put up a valiant effort scoring a 23 and both of Soria’s runs were also solid, however, rollover deductions did not help his cause for a second straight sweep, but would be good enough to take home his second straight Overall Event Championship and added to his lead in the standings.
In the Blackmarket RC Retro Class, Soares would once again take the top qualifying position with an “Excaliber” truck. He had the ideal route to the finals with both of his trucks getting first round wins over Heimbigner’s “Bigfoot” and Jensen’s “Chevy Metal” and then both matching up in the semi-finals to have the top-seeded “Excaliber” advance to the finals. On the bottom half of the bracket, Bunting would knock out Jacob Smallwood’s “Blue Max” in a close rematch of the Round 1 finals while Detka’s “USA-1” would get the better of Bob Tarvin’s entry to advance. Bunting and Detka would meet in the semis with a wild finish that resulted in Detka getting a DQ for crossing the barricade and landing in Bunting’s lane as both trucks came to the final jump. In the finals, it was a close race between the two JConcepts Regulator chassis, but Soares had the inside lane for the final turn and executed to perfection while Bunting could not run him down taking the win by about a truck length. Soares and Bunting head into Round 3 tied for first place in the standings.
Finally, in the Brass Ring Fab Challenger Spec Class, Soares would enter the class with the all-new “Shamrock Shake” truck and get the second fastest qualifying time. Bunting would get TQ with “Crash Test Dummy” and “Titan” third while Heimbigner would round out the top five with his “Flyin’ Hawaiian” and “Son Uva Digger” entries. The semi finals would see “Flyin’ Hawaiian” advance to the finals after “Crash Test Dummy” lost the rear tire coming out of the first turn. Meanwhile, Soares had his own issues rolling over a barricade setting up a rematch of Round 1 between “Titan” and “Flyin’ Hawaiian”. In the finals, Heimbigner would spin out going into the first turn and Bunting would cruise to the win and extend the early lead in the standings.
The day ended with an awesome raffle courtesy of our fantastic sponsors: Blackmarket RC, AMain Hobbies, EcoPower, JConcepts, Gens Ace, and Flyin’ Hawaiian RC who donated prizes. Special thank you to Miguel Gonzaga from Gens Ace for coming out to the event and offering a special discount on their Redline batteries and donating some for giveaways as well. A big thanks to everyone who came out and those who were able to help out watering the track, judging, timing and helping setup and teardown. Finally, a shout out to Bob Tarvin for the great photos, the full gallery can be found here.
Make sure to join us for Round 3 back in Rescue for some good ol’ fashion straight line drags for all classes!