2022 Southern Indoor Championships

This past weekend we headed to Autaugaville, AL for the Southern Indoor Championship race. We got to the track Thursday, setup our pits and got the cars ready for practice the next day. The layout looked like it would be pretty challenging with a cool looking rhythmn section on the front which isn’t very common these days.

Friday was open practice all day, we tested tires and worked on our setup and I felt my cars and tires were working really well. The track did start to form a few bumps by the end of practice, but I was confident for qualifying on Saturday.

Saturday we would run 3 rounds of qualifying, 5 minutes each. The first round of qualifying my cars and tires were good, I just made some mistakes and would end up with a 4th in nitro buggy, and 8th in ebuggy and 12th in nitro truggy. We tried different tires and different setup changes to get the most out of the cars as the track was getting rougher each round. Round 2 I felt that my cars were improving, in truggy with a mistake I was still able to improve and get a 7th for the round, nitro buggy even though my car was better I just made the wrong tire choice and I would take 9th for the round, ebuggy I was able to get a clean run and even though I wasn’t super fast I was able to get 4th for the round. By this time the track was getting extremely rough and it was crucial to be precise and pick your lines carefully to find the smoothest way around the track.

Round 3 was quite late at night and it was getting colder so we adjusted the setup accordingly, knowing that I needed good runs in all 3 classes to try and improve my starting position, I just went out and tried to put in clean runs while still going fast. I would get 5th in truggy, in nitro buggy making only 1 small mistake I was able to get 6th for the round, in ebuggy was really good, I was battling for the lead the whole qualifier but would come up just short and would finish 2nd for the round. After qualifying was over I would end up 9th overall in nitro truggy, 5th overall in nitro buggy and 4th overall in ebuggy.

Sunday my mains weren’t up until later in the day so it would give us time to rebuild the cars and prepare for the mains. It was quite cold, windy and rainy on Sunday so we weren’t sure how this would affect the track so we kept an eye on it as the day progressed and tried to make setup changes and tire selection accordingly.

Up first for me would be truggy, we made a choice to run the white V2 in the main for truck so we glued them up Sunday morning and the main started off really good, I was able to get around without mistakes and make my way up to 2nd, my truck felt awesome and was easy to drive and I felt like I would have been able to compete for the win, at that point the tires I mounted that morning started coming unglued. The only thing I can think of is that the low temperatures didn’t let the glue set like it should have, so after a couple of pit stops for fuel and tire changes, I would be at the back of the pack, I would just continue putting in laps but being that far back I was unable to better my position.

Ebuggy A1 would be next for me, also started off good, I would just follow around and was able to make up a position or two but then had a crash coming onto the straightaway which set me back quite aways, but I was able to catch all the way back up to 2nd but just came up just short and would finish 2nd. Again my car felt amazing and if I hadn’t made that mistake I feel I would have been in a better position at the end.

Nitro buggy would be up next, since my ebuggy felt really good, I would run that same set of tires on nitro buggy, which were super soft Amazzonia as they had lots of life left. The main started off good and I just followed around but would eventually make a mistake in the whoops section and would drop me back, I worked my way back up and would battle between 3rd, 4th, and 5th. I would eventually finish in 4th after a late race pass.

Ebuggy A2 was the last race of the day, it was around 11pm, as the temperature fell even more I switched to white compound Ammazzonia, again the start of the main went well, again my car felt amazing. I was able to make some passes, but would have a mistake in the rhythm section and needed a marshall which would put me back again. I charged hard and got back up to 2, and battled for the lead for a few laps, I was able to make a pass and take over the lead for the last 3rd of the race and would finish 1st. For this race even though there is 2 A mains, the winner is the driver with the faster run, due to the track getting rougher and rougher throughout the day the second A main was slower, so I would end up 2nd overall.

Thanks to Jason and Ethan Mackanick for the chauffeur services and for helping to test stuff throughout the weekend.

I want to thank my sponsors for giving me the best products to compete at the highest level Xray, RC America, Hobbywing, FX Engines, Hot Race Tires, MKS, A Main Hobbies, HUDY, VP fuels, Protek Rc, EZ Customs, Stickit1, Lunsford, Avid rc, and 110% Racing.

Thanks to my family for all their support, help and the sacrifices they have made throughout my career, my Dad for always being at the races, knowing I can count on him is a huge blessing, thanks to my wife and

most importantly I would like to thank my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, without him I would not be where I am