What a great weekend of racing!!! We had perfect weather both Saturday and Sunday out at Boulder City R/C Raceway. The wind picked up a bit like usual on Saturday, but Sunday was absolutely PERFECT!!! All the racers had a great time as I was seeing smiles all weekend long, the racing on the track was a blast to watch as I was announcing and running the show. (Yes, this is Denny Andrews) I can’t thank the board enough for asking me to be R/D for the weekend, I might not have a ride anymore to race, but I love hanging out with my Qsac West family, and maybe have a little fun and giving some of them a hard time while announcing. As for the racing, the track was perfect! The new barriers and tires put up around the corners are great! No lies, I counted a minimum of 5 cars that would have been hung up on a wall and never be used before if it weren’t for them!
In Limited Sportsman we had 3 drivers for the weekend, 2 of which were brand new, Johnny Houston and Larry Wormsbecker, the 3rd made his debut last month at Tucson, Peter Hauer. On Saturday Peter with the extra experience was showing the other 2 how its done at the get go, Johnny was still trying to get a hang of the truck and would finish 3rd for the day, but Larry was doing great and staying on the track throughout the race. Well that would prove to be the winning combination as the faster/better truck would have an issue and need to pull off early, allowing Larry to take the win in his very first race out! Awesome job Larry! That unfortunate luck for Peter would not come back and bite him again on Sunday though as he would lead the race wire to wire! This time Larry found himself with the bad luck and collecting the wall in turn 3 taking him out a bit early.
Open Wheel was a small class as well, with 3 showing up. But these 3 cars were as close as you could get to be equal out there. It just came down to who made the least mistakes! Saturday that was Dave Hart! Showing Jeff Spruitenberg and Rudy Flores how to get it done who finished 2nd and 3rd respectively. Sunday it was Rudy showing off with Dave getting 2nd, and unfortunately Jeff finding out where the softer barrier wasn’t at on the back straightaway and had to pull it off…
The Super Trucks had 3 on Saturday and 4 on Sunday. Our web-master / resident photographer Jose “Tito” Torres stepped up from the Limited Sportsman ranks this weekend and decided to be a Truck driver now! He showed he belonged there by qualifying 2nd on day 1 right out of the box! Still has a little ways to go, but he will be a force to be reckoned with before this season is over for sure! Mike Wright was the star of the class this weekend though as he TQ’d and won the main both Saturday and Sunday! Awesome racing Mike! Mike “Animal” Fenicchia was the 3rd entry on Saturday, had some issues his truck all day taking 3rd. On Sunday Mr Mike Sheehan decided to join the fun, qualified 2nd for the main and him and Animal had a great race, with Tito keeping pace with them, just went a lap down early, but with about 25 laps left in the 150 lapper, Sheehan got too wide coming out of 4 and snagged the pit entrance with his right rear, and lets just say, the pit entrance wall won! That left Animal to take 2nd, and Tito 3rd… As stated Mike Wright was in a diffent time zone and won by multiple laps both days…
Sportsman had a good 5 car field this weekend, with a couple “Winter Time Only” regulars Randy Brown and John Pipchok making the trip. It was great racing all weekend in this class, with Maggie Turner, Tony Evans, and Todd Understiller rounding out the class. John and Randy split the TQs for each day, but at the end we saw Randy hold on to the win both days, as that makes it 4 in a row for him this season so far. Saturday had Maggie 2nd, followed by Evans, Pipchok, and Understiller… Only difference on Sunday was Maggie and Evans swapping positions… Sundays highlight was the last lap dive into turn 3 of Evans on Randy, which ended up with Evans being a turtle in turn 4 and Randy taking the checkered flag!
Then it was Grand National! We had 6, super fast cars over the weekend. Great racing as well in this class! Again it was who made the least amount of mistakes throughout the mains. Jim Turner would TQ for both days, but Saturday did not work out for him, he definitely was the one to beat, but had motor/fuel issues the first segment that took him out of the running. But what we did see was Jeff Spruitenberg (who stepped up to GN this year) staying out of trouble and taking his first GN win! I’m sure we will see more from him in the future, and no one can deny he was the “King of Sending It In to Turn 3!!!” Robert Kennedy was fast all weekend as well finished 2nd on Saturday, followed by Alan Lay, Mike Lubanovich, Jim Turner, and Rudy Flores… Sunday we thought the same issues were going to take Turner out of it, he would find himself down 2 laps in the first of 4 50 lap segments, but that didn’t deter him, knowing he had more yellows coming, he put down some fast laps and found himself on the lead lap by the final segment. Thats where he would go on to pass the field and end up with the win on Sunday! Followed by Mike L, Jeff S, Alan L, Rudy F, and Robert K…
So all in all I had a blast announcing these races. Again it was great seeing my racing family again and especially awesome to see all the smiles ALL weekend! Thank you all for having me, and I will see you all again at the OrangeShow race for Memorial Weekend! Good luck to all at the next race in Tucson in April!!! Dennis Andrews
