A long trip back and forth to Texas for the US Open Fuel Championships is over. What a race put on by Tim Lime and hosted by Sun City RC in Canutillo. Thanks again to Joey and Christian Showers for making this another great RC facility. Anthony Westergard built another great track and is turning into one of the best track builders we have in the U.S.

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I chose to race 1/8th Nitro Buggy and E-Buggy to continue working on the settings for upcoming events and AMS 11.0 in just a few weeks. It wasn’t an easy start as the new layout was tough and took some adjustments to get up to speed. The Mugen MBX8 and Eco got going late in qualifying but I could feel there was potential even though I didn’t qualify my best.

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Overall, the E-Buggy main didn’t go that well. Mistakes on my part and not quite the speed needed to make it all up in a single main. Congrats to Ty, Jared and Tanner on some good pace and finishing positions.

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One of the reasons I attend this event is because of the ladder format and the ability to run Semi-Finals and a 60 minute final. We only get the opportunity to run this format twice per year and if you want to be a better worlds driver, you need to be able to do an hour and a half of solid racing and the wrenching in-between with quality and speed.

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With Tanner Stees and Chris Denney helping in the pits, I was able to run a solid Semi-Final and only 1 second behind Jared to start the main in the 2nd position. The main went well, I felt out the car and knew what I could and couldn’t do from the semi-final. I made a tread pattern change to Detox for the long 60 minutes and it was the right choice. The tires just kept getting better as they broke-in and I was able to stay comfortable and actually stay consistent in speed for the majority of the race. Once again I was quickly in and out of the pits and kept the mistakes to a minimum and was able to win the super long main.

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I’m really happy with the entire race package at the moment with the Mugens being very consistent track to track, the Hobbywing E-power is always tops in electric and the MX power is always perfect for the nitro vehicles. Turning and burning with ProTek Servos and of course, JConcepts keeping me hooked up and planted no matter the conditions or aerodynamic situation.

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Next event, AMS 11.0 in Cullman, Alabama.