Left & Middle: Our New York Asian connection - great drivers, great guys! Right: Bryan F. gets ready to race!
Left: The Guzman clan. Middle: The Keech Clan. Right: Sean M. and Mark T. having a blast!
It's tough getting 130 drivers and cars to stand still long enough to get a shot - but we tried!
Visit Tamiya America's TCS Qualifier Official Results Page for (Race #89) Hobby Works - Laurel, MD
Hobby Works is the proud host of the Tamiya Championship Series, this is the amazing 7th year we have hosted this event and it continues to be one of the best attended in the USA!
First off, I would like to thank all the racers who attended this years event. I know it was extremely hot this year, but everyone kept their cool about the racing. This year we had 131 racers signed up to race. The practice and racing went very smoothly, thanks to the cooperation of all the racers and their families.
The morning starts very early on this race day. The set up crew arrived at 5 am, and there were already racers practicing! Once those guys finished up, the track was set up for practice. Imagine about 25 cars on the track at one time to try and get a clean practice lap - it was enjoyable to watch! While practice was open, registration was open also. The track was converted to the rally course at 9:30am. Time for the much anticipated Rally and Monster Truck practice. This was a crowd favorite! Cars flipping here and there, landing on top of one another, skidding on their roofs. Fortunately, very few broke (body damage not included!).
Left: More of the lineup of cars. Right: Check out the detail on the Formula 1 cars - now that's realism!
After practice, it was on the the driver's meeting and the concours judging. Every year it just keeps getting tougher to pick a winner, there are SO many fine looking cars. After much deliberation the winners were decided upon.
Concours Winners: Mike Masters, Julian Campbell, Fernando Requejo, Frank Vacek, Sean McDevitt, Austin Keech.
Qualifying went off with out a hitch. All cars started own their own clocks at the beginning of the race to insure they got the cleanest run possible. Traffic played a major role in qualifying, the really fast out of control guys went blazing down the straight away, but would then get passed by the cars that handled the scorching heat. In the Rally class, it was a little more like the tortoise and the hare. Slow and steady driving. Taking it easy on the jumps and hitting them square was the fast way around the track. A lot of time was lost by drivers who kept landing on their lids !
Left, Middle, Right: The new Rally class added some high-flying excitement to this years racing!
Left, Middle: Even with the added rally challenges, racing was tight. Right: Sean M. catches BAD air!
Middle & Right: Amazing shots from photographer Dimitre Avramov - what shock compression?!
After the qualifying sessions there was a short break - then on to the mains.
There was great sportsmanship shown throughout the whole day of racing, including the mains. That doesn't mean that there were not any big battles. There was door to door racing in all classes, including the jumping, flipping, rolling, Rally cars!
I am just so pleased that we continue to have such a great group of racers to race with. No matter how far they travel to make this race, everybody always seems to have a great time. And to all the of our local drivers: THANK you for making this race run smoothly and making our visitors feel welcome year after year!
Here is a list of the final finishing order. Hope to see you all next year!
See you at the races,
Casey.
Left: Setting the Grid. Middle: Mike and Casey sweat it out. Right: Late registrations!
Left: Billy Jr. and partner. Middle: Tamiya reps Cort & Dave. Right: Budda & Angelo - ready to rumble.
Photo Credits: Doug Mertes, Dimitre Avramov, Joseph Digiovanni. Thanks guys!
Hobby Works Parking Lot Racing Series -- 07-28-2002 -- TCS Qualifier
-- FORMULA - 1 - A MAIN --
pos Car Laps time name
1 1 16 5:02.97 BRUCE HICKMAN
2 5 16 5:05.22 SANFORD BRADBY
3 2 15 4:59.84 STEVE HICKMAN
4 3 15 5:07.34 JULIAN CAMPBELL
5 4 15 5:16.60 GREG KLOTEN
6 6 15 5:20.77 WILMONT EARLE
7 7 14 5:06.38 BENNET LO
8 8 12 5:04.07 PAUL CARRINGTON
9 0 12 5:12.22 JOSEPH BLANCH
10 9 8 4:56.60 ANDREW EARLE
-- MINI - A MAIN --
pos Car Laps time name
1 1 15 5:04.62 CASEY YOUNG
2 2 15 5:05.97 WILLY WONG
3 4 15 5:13.30 ALAN MOK
4 0 14 5:00.72 TOMMY BROWN
5 8 14 5:05.35 BILL VACEK
6 6 14 5:08.53 INESSA JACOBS
7 5 14 5:18.98 JOHN BROWN
8 9 13 5:15.30 STEVEN VACEK
9 3 4 1:35.73 MICHAEL MASTERS
-- 7 --- DNS --- DOC MERTES
-- MINI - B MAIN --
pos Car Laps time name
1 1 15 5:11.14 BRIAN CIANFRONE
2 2 15 5:18.05 CAROL BROWN
3 4 14 5:13.36 FRANK VACEK 111
4 3 14 5:15.19 RAY ELDREDGE
-- 5 --- DNS --- JOSEPH F. BLANCH
-- 4 WD STOCK ( GT-2 ) - A MAIN --
pos Car Laps time name
1 3 17 5:02.04 MIKE DUNNIGAN
2 4 17 5:02.47 RYAN SPRENKLE
3 9 17 5:15.48 JOHN BROWN
4 1 17 5:16.98 BILLY VACEK JR.
5 2 16 5:04.97 ISAAC WILSON
6 8 16 5:08.14 BILL JACOBS
7 6 16 5:11.07 BRIAN CIANFRONE
8 7 14 4:22.26 MARK TIAMSON
9 0 5 1:38.13 ED RATLIFF
-- 5 --- DNS --- BRYAN FUNG
-- 4 WD STOCK ( GT-2 ) - B MAIN --
pos Car Laps time name
1 4 16 5:07.35 STEVEN VACEK
2 3 16 5:10.22 CRAIG SANTRY
3 2 16 5:11.36 WILLY WONG
4 9 16 5:12.21 SEAN MCDEVITT
5 5 16 5:13.46 BILL VACEK
6 0 16 5:26.80 AVI GUZMAN
7 8 15 5:18.74 BENNETT LO
8 6 15 5:21.26 GREG KLOTEN
9 1 9 2:44.29 DOC MERTES
10 7 8 2:38.84 SEAN BRANDON
-- 4 WD STOCK ( GT-2 ) - C MAIN --
pos Car Laps time name
1 2 16 5:09.88 ANDREW SPRENKLE
2 4 16 5:17.01 EVANGELOS KOUTRAS
3 5 15 5:00.41 JOEY TONG
4 6 15 5:01.25 TOMMY LIM
5 3 15 5:03.88 ALEX KIKEL
6 0 15 5:15.34 ANTHONY MARTELL
7 7 15 5:21.35 JOSE GUZMAN
8 8 14 5:03.16 MICHAEL F. CHEONG
9 1 6 2:44.69 TOMMY BROWN
10 9 2 0:48.82 WING LUM
-- 4 WD STOCK ( GT-2 ) - D MAIN --
pos Car Laps time name
1 5 16 5:16.75 FRANK VACEK 111
2 1 15 5:06.85 ZACK JARRETT
3 2 15 5:18.74 BOB KACZMAREK
4 6 15 5:20.66 JEFF VAN WEEPENG
5 9 14 5:15.45 GABRIEL G. CAICEDO
6 4 12 4:15.11 RODENY DAVIS
7 0 12 5:12.55 SHAUN HOFFMAN
8 3 6 2:20.78 RAY ELDREDGE
