Region 2 On-Road Carpet Championships
February 19, 2013
The on-road carpet warriors took to the battlefield this weekend on Saturday February 9th, 2013 at the Middle River Hobbies indoor carpet racing facility, located on the banks of the Middle River just outside Baltimore, Maryland. Unlike the previous weekends off-road championships, the ride heights were slammed to ground for the touring car tuners. While the Ravens were crowned the NFL champions just weeks prior, racers from Region 2 were out to contend for their own titles of regional champions in anticipation as a prelude to upcoming ROAR Carpet National Championships on March 16th in Horsham, PA. Five classes were up for regional titles with an additional F-1 exhibition class out for bragging rights. Those classes up for regional titles include both 1/12th stock and super stock, 1/10th 17.5 touring car, WGT, and VTA.
The father and son duo of Michael Herald Jr and Michael Herald Sr would dominate the 1/12th super stock and stock classes respectively. WGT showed some of the tightest competition of the day, with the top four drivers exchanging the top spots through out the A-main and Perry Caswell finding his way to the podium in the number one position for the class. Mike Gee running the Awesomatix touring car easily held off the competitors sporting their Team X-ray and Team Associated entries in the field. The engineering of the Awesomatix touring car is far from conventional and really appears to be a mechanical work of art from it's open gear box design to the hydraulic rotary shock absorbers. Be sure to check this one out at next months Nats. The final class of the day bringing the most entertainment and excitement to the field was the Vintage Trans-AM (VTA). The racers were thrown a left turn while lining up on the starting grid when the race director lined the cars up in reverse order facing the opposite direction. Yes, it was time to run the track in reverse direction. This proved to be a problem for many of the guys in the first few laps of the race. The reverse direction of the track proved to be challenging for all but the number four qualifier of Clayton Young. Young participated in four classes through out the event and placed on the podium in at least two them. His best driving skills appeared to be while driving in the reverse direction during the VTA class.
