27.01.2025

I guess everyone loves big jumps because SD2 has a huge back straight jump section and we had 13 drivers out this week!
Spec had a ton of close racing top to bottom, as Kevin Tyler and I battled it out in spec for the first position. John Blakley joined the spec racing and easily finished 3rd with a slower lap 14 keeping him from really pushing the top 2. Mr "Sunday Night" Jonathan Gagnon held off our lone racer from Belgium, Kevin Geeraerts, to finish 4th as Dave Walker just couldn't get past those wide elbows on his car finishing just .8 seconds back of the Belgium racer with a slow last lap otherwise he might have had him. After Joel Lagace and Jonathan Hylton finished their IRL racing they had a close 'e' battle as well. Lap 5 hurt Joel early on but after gaining the lead back on lap 13 he held on to finish 7th overall. Marc-Olivier Duceppe had an 18 second lead over Bailey Humphries by lap 9 but don't look away just yet, he tried to give it up with a few bad laps near the end and while Bailey was only 1.2 seconds back going into the final lap he ran his slowest lap to finish 5 secs back, Marc-O took this one in 9th overall. Welcome to Ian Cyr who ran his first week, a good first showing but I suspect it won't be long before he starts moving up the standings, finishing 11th overall this week. Nolan Manty and Fadi Salibi rounding out 12th and 13th !
I don't like the start of this race as its the only time you hit the last jump starting from the end of the straight (ask Dustin Evans how he feels about weird start positions from the last World's in 4wd!!). I am not sure how, but the really fast guys run consistent 28s on this track! I was able to find enough 29s to hold off KT$ for top spot. Tight battle for the 3rd podium position as Hylton had a 3.8 second lead 13 laps in with 6 laps to go... Mr Otter trying to keep it tight and coming on strong. Blakely getting his fast lap on #17 hitting his stride at the right time makes the pass and finishes .8 up at the end and taking that final podium position. Gagnon just back from those two just not able to keep it clean enough to get into that battle. In the next group of racers Joel Lagace and John Kennedy battle it all while trying not to let the "self-proclaimed" cookie monster into the mix. Joel keeps 6th overall while a late charge from DW had him within .5 seconds with 2 laps to go but ultimately Netcruzer would hold onto 7th, DW to finish 8th. Marc-O and Ian had a nice battle swapping positions twice in the last 2 laps! Ken Doelman rockin' those laps... nothing beats practice practice practice and watching replays, ask me how I know! To give some perspective I can grab my remote and after about 10 laps on any track I am pretty close to my fastest laps... but I still ran over 750 laps this week to find some consistency (please don't look at my profile! haha).
Its going to be hard to top that week of close racing, tons o' battles on the track, but this week we are back indoors on a good size dusty track, Nitro Blast 1.... its going to get a little Psycho!

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