Thunder R/C in Nashville Tennessee held their Winter Champs race last weekend, April 5-7 (!) and X Factory Team drivers and Family members took home most of the coveted hardware. X Factory trophies included the mod buggy A main and well as the B and C mains, and the stock buggy A. X Factory also won the 2WD short course A. Main day started out on a high note as Family member Damon Crawford TQed stock buggy and took a wire-to-wire win, finishing just under a lap ahead of second place. Two races later Gavin Glasgow, who had qualified third in the C main, finished lap one in second, passed into first on lap two, and never looked back, taking a 6-second win.
One race later it was time for the B main, and qualifying third was the place to be again. Just as Gavin had done, Brandon Giles finished the first lap second, took the lead on lap two, and was never headed, finishing 1 ½ seconds ahead of Jason Fisher and setting fast lap in the process. All four drivers were running the X – 6 Squared.
Now it was time for the A main, the Team drivers Paul Sinclair TQ and Dan Reino just a tick behind. Both were driving new X – 6 Cubed prototypes, and the cars looked unstoppable in qualifying, as Sinclair and Reino took three of the four rounds. Sinclair had the only sub-17 second laps during 2WD qualifying, with a total of three 16.9s.
Sinclair had almost a 1-second lead after lap one, then hit a pipe and was marshaled out 5th, handing the lead to Reino’s Cubed. Paul finished lap two in fourth, took third on the next lap, and set sail for the two leaders turning a string of low 17s. Reino led laps two through eight before a small bobble let Jackie Woodard through, with Paul remaining just a second behind in third. The front three were steadily pulling away from the pack in some exciting close racing. Five laps later Dan made another slight bobble, letting Paul through into second, and with about two minutes to go in the 6-minute race, Sinclair steadily closed the gap to Woodard. In the last four laps Paul was right there with the nimble Cubed looking for any way past, and Jackie made a mistake on lap 20 to let Paul and Dan both by. Paul finished with the only 21-lap run and the tall trophy, with Dan Reino second.
In 2WD short course Paul TQed three rounds of qualifying to sit on the pole. He was not involved in the first-lap pile-up and simply motored off into the sunset to take the win. Second place was Scott Fuller in his SCX – 60CF, also on 19 laps with Paul. There were a total of five SCX – 60CF trucks in the short course A main!
Many thanks to track owner Robert Dirla for putting on another great race at Thunder. The track was well prepared, announcer Dirla ran a smooth program, and all who attended had a blast!