Revo Sweeps 2006 R/C Pro Nitro Off-road Finals
Rockford Metro Centre – Rockford, IL
11-9-06 thru 11-11-06

Photos courtesy of Deron Neblett 2006

Tim Roberts' winning Revo!

 

 

National-caliber arena-style monster truck racing is what the R/C Pro Series offered at the 2006 finals in Rockford, IL. The top 50 R/C Pro monster truck drivers from around the country assembled at the Rockford Metro Centre for what would be the first ever national championship race held inside an arena. Race fans were treated to some incredible indoor nitro off-road R/C racing on an awesome MX Arenacross-style track. It was exciting for all of the racers as well, being the first time racing in this type of environment. Not only did Carlton Eppes (owner/operator of R/C Pro Series) decide to take the finals to the next level by hosting it in an arena, but he also invited the local news stations to come out and cover the event and he had Doc Love host of the R/C Racin’ Radio show airing Wednesday nights on RaceTalkLive.com on hand to do live Internet announcing. You can actually hear some of the commentary from Saturday’s mains on RaceTalkLive.com’s archives page, here. Scotty Ernst was the man behind the microphone for most of the program providing excellent play-by-play of each main final.

The arena made for a great venue for this type of an event for many reasons. Not only was the track and racing atmosphere very cool to race in, but the location provided a neutral place for competition with no one having any kind of home-track advantage. This seemed to make for a more relaxed mood around the pits. We had many people come by the Traxxas pit to chat and discuss setups and such. I want to say thanks to everyone who had a chance to do so. We really enjoy talking R/C with everyone, and helping with tech questions or tuning assistance. You’re the reason we go to these races. We appreciate you.

 

 

The Track

The weather may have been wet and nasty outside, but it would have no affect on the race inside. The track surface packed fast and stayed very clean throughout the entire event. This made setup choices more stable and driving consistency very important. The groove was wide, so making passes wasn’t too difficult. There were plenty of tight turns, but the lanes were wide enough to swing around tangled traffic if necessary. There were a couple of step-ups that could have come up and surprised you if you weren’t paying attention.

 

There were several other sections, however, that seemed to separate the fast from the faster. The very long washboard section up front only had one real fast line through it, so if you weren’t doing exactly what you were suppose to be doing you would find yourself cart wheeling past the next turn. The most important section to get down was the triple-double rhythm section. This was a very fun section if you got it right. If you didn’t, you were struggling to get out of it without colliding with oncoming traffic. If you cased the last double, your truck would slide past the next corner on its lid. The sweeper coming off the straight was another section that allowed you to reel in the competition if you nailed it right. The faster drivers were coming in hot while maintaining much of their speed around the entire sweeper. You had to have your truck set up properly to avoid traction rolling in this corner. If your truck couldn’t do this you had to slow down to make the corner without flipping.

There was also a large triple jump in the middle of the track, but it didn’t pose a great benefit to the monster truck class. It was just as fast to come in tight from the first corner and backside the first double, then single the third jump with good balance to setup for the next turn. Clearing the triple required swinging a little wide to hit second gear and then landing just right to setup for the next turn. This jump was not a high-percentage jump so many racers did not attempt it.

 

 

The Competition

There were over 50 monster truck racers, most of which were driving Traxxas Revos, entered into the R/C Pro finals. The top 20 drivers from each region were invited to compete at the finals. Nearly all of the top MT drivers from each division were represented. Division leader from the east, J.J. Turk, was there with an excellent chance to win the title starting the event with a perfect score of 460. Point leaders from the northeast, Brian Wynn (460-perfect score) and Mark Cordeiro (436), were also there with their sights on the top spot. Derek Guidry (445) and Traxxas driver Mike Battaile (441) leading the southern division made it out along with fellow Traxxas drivers, Tim Roberts (437) and myself, Steve Slayden (428), all with good points to contend for the national title. Bobbo Profeta represented the Midwestern division holding onto 450 divisional points. West division hot shoe, Dan Gavere, was also there to throw it down with 431 points of his own. This was looking to be a great weekend of racing. Let’s get on with the action.

 

 

Tim Roberts nails down a third straight
R/C Pro National Title for the Traxxas Revo

After four rounds of qualifying, Mike Battaile secured the overall TQ with me in the second spot and Tim Roberts (2005 USMT MT Champion, 2006 Maxx Challenge Big Block MT TQ) in third. J.J. Turk had an excellent qualifying finish of fourth on the grid, and Mark Cordeiro (the 2006 RCCA Monster Madness Small Block Champ) placed his Revo in the fifth starting position. Mike started off clean, but was set back early with servo trouble. I managed to put up a great start and had a good battle with teammate Tim Roberts in the main, but eventually found trouble staying consistent with my lines. This allowed Tim to gain a bit of a lead, and charge on for the win. Tim drove a great race and stayed on his wheels for nearly the entire run. That’s what you have to do to win, and he nailed it. Tim’s been a force all year in the south. I should know, since I’ve battled with him all season. Tim has had his Revo dialed all season, and he took home a divisional win in the third round in Oklahoma City, OK. He always keeps his Revo in the podium hunt, and he came to the finals with a great chance of bringing back some hardware. His win in the A-final solidified his national title. Great job Tim! Congratulations on the win and the national title. Tim used a TRX 3.3-equipped Revo 3.3 burning Traxxas Top 33% nitro racing fuel.

 

Set-up Sheets:

Tim Robert’s winning Revo set-up sheet

Steve Slayden’s Revo set-up sheet

If you want to read more about how qualifying and all the
racing action went down from the mains, check out the links below.

Recap Links:

Qualifying  |  A-Main  |  B-Main

 

 

 

 

For more information and all of the results from the
R/C Pro Finals, check out the links below. Thanks again.

 

Set-up Sheets:

Tim Robert’s winning Revo set-up sheet

Steve Slayden’s Revo set-up sheet

 

Links:

Complete Results

R/C Pro Series Website

RaceTalkLive.com

Video Coverage via RevoRacer.com

 

 

 

Qualifying

 

 

Mike Battaile started off very strong by TQ’ing the first two rounds. If no one else could achieve TQ runs in both the third and fourth rounds, then Mike was going to get pole position and the bonus points that go along with it. I stepped it up in the third round battling with J.J. Turk for the TQ. I managed to just edge him out by one second on the last lap. This run was actually faster than both of Mike’s times, so if I could TQ the fourth (and final) round, then I could get those valuable bonus points. I needed them badly as I came into the finals a bit low on divisional points. The fourth round started off great, but a small change to my ride height made jumping a little more difficult, which made it hard to backside the jumps properly. I ended up killing my run with a few crashes toward the end, which gave Tim the lead and a shot at the TQ for the round. Tim finished strong and secured the TQ. This meant that I would have to run a very strong race in the main to have a chance now. However, this gave the overall TQ to Mike Battaile increasing his overall points closing in on the lead.

 

 

A-Main

The 45-minute A-main started off like a freight train. Mike got the early lead with me right behind him, J.J., Tim, and Brian dicing it out right behind us. I began to push Mike for the lead, but I got a little too close to him toward the end of the triple doubles. This forced me to case the last double in effort to avoid contact with Mike’s truck. My truck flipped onto its lid, as so many had before in this spot, and gave up my second position to J.J. dropping me back to fourth. After catching back up to Mike and J.J., we all three rounded the sweeper off of the straight and crossed the line one, two, and three. Just after Mike crossed the line to make the first right hand turn over the table, his truck went over the inside pipe losing all steering. J.J. got hung up with Mike’s truck as it went off the track. This opened up the door for me to take over the lead.

In the meantime, Tim was recovering from some early race traffic troubles and was coming on strong. Tim had fallen to the seventh spot, and charged back up to the third position pressing hard on J.J. I started to separate a bit from the pack with about a 15-second lead. I stretched my first pit out to the ten-minute mark to get on an alternate pit cycle. This helped me to settle down a bit by giving me an extra lap or two on my own before pitting. Tim was still driving fast and was swapping positions with J.J. for the second spot. Tim finally covered the second position with a good cushion on J.J., and started to reel me in. All it took was a few bobbles on my part, and Tim was breathing down my neck.

Tim came in for his next pit just as he was on my back bumper, which gave me a little breathing room, but I would need to come on the very next lap. Tim’s pitman got him in and out in a very fast time, so I knew that I would have to make a clean lap before my pit, and have a smooth pit to stay ahead. Well, it didn’t start off too well I caught my truck on a pipe around a corner and lost a few seconds, so this put extra pressure on my pit crew. They got me in and out in decent time, but the mistake I made on the track allowed Tim to swing right by and take the lead as I exited pit lane. This was getting exciting, and reminded me of a few battles we’d had during the season. I stayed just seconds behind Tim until the next round of pits. I snuck around for the lead and Tim took it back after another lap. It was getting time for Tim to come in, so I took over the lead once again, until my pit stop. This pit didn’t go as smoothly as before and I lost some time once I came back out. I now found myself about six seconds down and only about 12 minutes left to go. I started pushing hard to gain every little bit I had, but I found myself pressing too hard and I started losing consistency and fell out of my groove.

Tim started to stretch his lead out to 12 to 15 seconds as I found more trouble in the middle of the track. After running through the big triple I setup for the hump on the inside of the next hairpin, and my truck just stopped at the top of the hump and slid down. I had no throttle response. My first thoughts were that I had flamed out and would lose a lap or so to restart, but as the marshal got over to my truck he lifted it up as if whatever had stopped the drivetrain from turning had freed itself. All of a sudden I had power back to my truck. It was a weird thing, but I assume something got lodged in the drivetrain for a moment. This was pretty much the final blow for me, and I just needed to salvage a second place finish. Tim finished off strong with the win and the bonus points for most laps led in the final. This would give him enough to secure the national title.

Mark Cordeiro battled JJ for that third podium spot all the way up until the end, just beating out JJ by six seconds. Mark Holloway and Mark Krumme had a battle of their own for fifth place. Mark just squeezed by for one final lap as the buzzer caught Krumme, and he would have to settle for the sixth position. Derek Guidry, Brian Wynn, Mike Battaile, and Tyler Burgess would round out the top ten respectively.

 

 

2006 R/C Pro Series National Champion, Tim Roberts & Traxxas Revo 3.3!

 

 

 

B-Main

The B-main was scheduled for 20 minutes, and it was the last chance for the remaining monster truck racers to make it to the A-final. Pete Mavromatis, Bobbo Profeta, and Dan Gavere led the charge to the top three bump positions. Gabe Guild, Steve Gelling, and Jason Tate took the 13th, 14th, and 15th positions, respectively, on the grid by bumping up from the 15-minute C-main.

The main started off with Pete and Bobbo taking an early lead. Matt Hardin charged to an early third spot. Dan had a horrible start and fell way back to the 12th position after the first lap, but he got things together and made a tremendous effort to regain his 3rd spot in the field. This wouldn’t last long though, as Dan suffered from a flameout, and dropped a couple more spots.

Pete and Bobbo continued to duke it out for the remainder of the race putting on a great show. Bobbo swung out a little and launched over the triple to take the lead, while Pete would lay low, and duck in tight around the next corner to get it back. It was awesome to watch. Bobbo managed to take over the lead for good, and put a little distance between Pete and himself to take the first bump position. Pete held on for the second spot, as Mark Constantino held off Matt Hardin for the third bump position. The top three bumped-up into the A-main. Fourth, fifth, and sixth positions took home the first, second, and third B-main trophies, respectively.

 

 

Set-up Sheets:

Tim Robert’s winning Revo set-up sheet

Steve Slayden’s Revo set-up sheet

 

Links:

Complete Results

R/C Pro Series Website

RaceTalkLive.com

Video Coverage via RevoRacer.com