Region 6 Web Report #12
May 31, 2011
The strangest thing happened in our region. The region 6 Off-Road 1/10th Scale Championships were scheduled to be held at Nitro Toys and Hobbies in Flowood, Mississippi. Lee Collins, the owner of this racing facility, had voiced concern about rain. Here in Mississippi the "normal" annual average rain fall is 60 inches. Sometimes it's more, but seldom it is less. When Lee found that there was warehouse space coming available in his complex, he grabbed it. The next thing you know there were many truck loads of high quality clay being delivered to the building. Nitro Toys now has a small but very technical "blue groove" indoor off-road track. But, I digress, as to the strange part - when the Region 6 Off-Road 1/10th Scale Championships drew near, Lee began to receive a lot of pressure, not to race on the large outdoor track as expected, but to race on the new smaller but much more technical indoor track. A vote was taken and the results were unanimous. All wanted to try the new track.
The day of the FIRST EVER Region 6 INDOOR Off-Road 1/10th Scale Championships arrived. Although the day was beautiful, no one cared because we were racing under roof! Lee Collins, Rocky Burney and Terry Vaughn put on a great event and played to a packed house. I was surprised to see so many wives and kids in attendance. Speaking of kids, a "Novice" class was held with the only restriction being age. A ceiling of 12 years old was made. The youngest driver was 6 years old. All drivers except 1 stood on chairs to drive. Let me tell you, this was the most serious class of the entire event. There was no giggling, cutting up, or even trash talk. These kids had something to prove. If nothing else, they wanted to prove that they were truly "big enough" to race. When the kids raced, everyone stopped what they were doing and came to cheer them on. It was almost as bad as parents at a Little League baseball game.
"Novice Class" - notice the high level of concentration.
Final results for the day were as follows:
Novice - "the pros of tomorrow"
TQ - G. Gatewood (the son); 1st - G. Gatewood (the son); 2nd - R. Hulett; 3rd - C. Copley; 4th - K. Irvin; 5th - E. Childers; 6th - S. Sawaya
Stock Short Course Truck
TQ - E. Hill; 1st - E. Hill; 2nd - K. McCoy; 3rd - T. Camp; 4th - M. Harmon
10.5 Stadium Truck
TQ - E. Hill; 1st - E. Hill; 2nd - K. McCoy; 3rd - E. Irvin; 4th - P. Ables; 5th - J.D. Thomas; 6th - S. Childers
10.5 Buggy B Main
1st - D. Pendarvis; 2nd - M. Knox; 3rd - G. Evans; 4th - J. Lutz; 5th - T. Camp; 6th - E. Irvin
10.5 Buggy A Main
TQ - D. Bates; 1st E. Hill; 2nd - J. Masse; 3rd - D. Bates; 4th - W. Ables; 5th - R. Burney; 6th - K. Hawkinson; 7th - G. Gatewood (the father)
Mod 4wd Buggy
TQ - E. Hill; 1st - E. Hill; 2nd - K. McCoy; 3rd - S. Small; 4th - J.D. Thomas; 5th - S. Childers; 6th - E. Irvin; 7th - J. Lutz
One thing that I noticed was that throughout most of the races, the majority of racers were on the lead lap or very close to it at the finish. This kind of competitiveness made for a much more exciting race to watch. You were never quite sure who would win until the very last moment. A racer commented to me that he needed to find more speed. I told him to slow down and make fewer mistakes. In his next race he did just that and picked up almost 2 laps.
All in all I enjoyed the day very much. My congratulations to Lee Collins of Nitro Toys and Hobbies along with Rocky Burney and Terry Vaughn for an event well run.
A portion of "The Biggest Little Track in the South"
That's all for now.
Yours in racing, Ed Hill
