[Paul Onorato]

RAIN, RAIN GO AWAY!!!
It is the morning of Friday, June 29, and I am here in St. Louis, Missouri covering the ROAR 1/8-scale Off-Road Fuel Buggy Nationals, which is being hosted by the St. Louis Dirtburners. Unfortunately the weather has not been cooperating as you can see by the pics. The track has been hit each day, including early this morning with a deluge of rain. Right now the track is completely covered with tarps and if there is an opening in the weather they will try to get qualifying under way. If they have to, they plan to run qualify heats late into the night. Luckily the track is not located near any residential areas where the sounds of the nitro engines and PA would not disturb anyone. I was told that some club races have gone until 1 AM. The other side of this is that some of the Pro drivers that I spoke to, have only had 5 minutes on the track so there are still a ton of unknowns.


Here is the tarp covered track with giant pools of water.


Chris Conwell and other members of the Dirtburners work to clear a jammed water pump that they are using to dry out the pit area.


How do you kill time at a race when it rains?
Easy, buy a RC boat at the local WalMart and tear around in the giant puddles of rain water.


Check out the frog getting in on the action!

Paul Onorato
Senior Editor
paul0@airage.com

[FLYBOY7]

looks like they've been getting a ton or rain all week long.... i've been following the earlier days reports at www.rcspeedrun.com/main.html ..... hasn't this race been nearly rained out the last 2 years? is ROAR ever going to use an indoor track for any of these big off-road races? all those racers are spending a ton of money to just sit around and drive boats in the mud puddles....

[fuzzychickens]

Hey, at least the toad is enjoying himself.

[LD3Furious]

Starting heat 11 of Rd 1 about now. Last I heard, R.Mayfield was TQ, as reported on SGrid. Here's a few pics. Note, these are not mine. These were posted on the Grid by Chris Allison.

[Paul Onorato]

The rain finally stopped and the Dirtburners pulled the tarp off the soaked track at around 12 noon and by 3 PM, the buggies were tearing down the front straight. Loads of people volunteered to get the track back to racing condition. Quite impressive!

[Paul Onorato]

They ended up getting one round of practice followed by one round of qualifying on Friday. Some of the standout drivers were Ryan Maifield, Richard Saxton, Mark Pavidis, Billy Easton and Jeremy Kortz.

[LD3Furious]

Top 40 after yesertday's Rd 1.

Rd 1 Driver Laps Time Fast Lap
1 Maifield, Ryan 10 05:01.7 29.349
2 James, Taylor 10 05:04.2 29.942
3 Pavidis, Mark 10 05:04.9 29.788
4 Robbers, Jesse 10 05:05.5 29.531
5 Bradley, Chad 10 05:06.8 29.902
6 Hughes, Scott 10 05:08.9 29.997
7 Easton, Billy 10 05:09.2 29.645
8 Saxton, Richard 10 05:09.9 30.312
9 Drake, Adam 10 05:09.9 29.789
10 Cavalieri, Ryan 10 05:12.0 29.814
11 Truhe, Mike 10 05:12.8 30.023
12 Amezcua, Travis 10 05:13.2 30.574
13 Korn, Marty 10 05:13.9 30.524
14 Fischer, Billy 10 05:14.4 30.543
15 Tebo, Jared 10 05:14.8 29.424
16 Wheeler, Josh 10 05:15.3 29.842
17 Montgomery, Dave10 05:16.5 30.802
18 Kortz, Jeremy 10 05:16.8 29.451
19 Wheeler, Justin 10 05:17.2 30.009
20 King, Cody 10 05:17.2 29.667
21 Weatherholt, Derek 10 05:17.3 30.993
22 Rossetti, Ron 10 05:17.3 30.604
23 Dupree, Travis 10 05:18.0 31.021
24 Guest, Gary 10 05:18.5 30.343
25 McIntosh, Leon 10 05:18.9 30.437
26 Smolnik, Andrew 10 05:19.5 30.996
27 Crews, Chris 10 05:19.7 30.739
28 Guest, Jeff 10 05:19.7 30.294
29 Ashton, Jason 10 05:20.3 29.462
30 McBeth, Sean 10 05:20.3 30.88
31 Moore, Kris 10 05:20.5 30.854
32 Skidmore, Kyle 10 05:20.7 30.728
33 Horne, Allen 10 05:21.0 31.096
34 Burch, Ralph 10 05:21.4 30.072
35 Wilson, Kevin 10 05:21.7 30.985
36 Atondo, Phillip 10 05:22.3 29.87
37 Henry, Dave 10 05:22.6 31.189
38 Crosley, Cory 10 05:22.6 30.838
39 Waldron, Aaron 10 05:22.6 30.713
40 Petersen, Taylor10 05:22.7 30.348

[LD3Furious]

Some more pics and some video, Thx to Trace McRae

http://www.dirtburners.org/images/Gallery062907/


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMx5yHpbaRU

More pics coming....

[LD3Furious]

Pics thx to Phil @ NeoBuggy

Pics from Phil @ Neo Buggy

[dallasv8]

whats billy easton drive these days?

[LD3Furious]

And yet more ...From Chris Allison

[LD3Furious]

OCM Kaos DT 19 for Billy E

[dallasv8]

cool, one of the OCM just took out a big race in Aussie land

the RC8 looks good

[LD3Furious]

www.liverc.com for up to date scoring and audio. Video is said to be in the works

[Paul Onorato]

Golf carts are fun!!! Some of the guys from the track kill time on Friday while the race was on hold due to rain.

[PeterV]

Hey Paul, got any good body-off shots of Ashton's Sidorf or Easton's Kaos?

[T-Maxxahol]

Originally Posted by PeterV

Hey Paul, got any good body-off shots of Ashton's Sidorf or Easton's Kaos?

Was'nt ashton running for CEN?

[Bigedmond]

Originally Posted by T-Maxxahol

Was'nt ashton running for CEN?

Not anymore. I want to see the car Amezcua is driving. Since he left losi.

[ex rcer]

Who are the drivers for the A-Team?

[LD3Furious]

Congrats to The Drake 2007 ROAR Nat'l Champ. He ran a smooth race to claim the title. Sour luck for TQ Ryan Mayfield. Not entirely sure what happened, but he was almost a full lap up on the field 1/2 way into the race. Word has it that his battery became disconnected at one point. He got that fixed and was back on, clicking off the fastest laps, then I hear a servo went out, relegating him to an 11th place spot. Jared Tebo with the OD buggy also ran a fairly smooth race and took second on the podium. I believe Mike Truhe was 3rd. Mayfield and R Cav (AE) had the only 28 second laps of the race.

[LD3Furious]

Wow...I made quite a few mistakes in that post.
Cav driving a Losi 8 picked up 3rd. That should cover them. Sorry for any confusion.

[Bigedmond]

Originally Posted by LD3Furious

Wow...I made quite a few mistakes in that post.
Cav driving a Losi 8 picked up 3rd. That should cover them. Sorry for any confusion.

CAV DRIVING A LOSI?????? i think that made me even more confused

[LD3Furious]

Lol...to be honest, Im still not 100 %. Im reading different things from several different sources and probably having brain farts in between. He did finish 3rd though

[RD Racing]

Cav's driving an RC8

[Paul Onorato]

After a full day of incredible racing, Adam Drake ends up on top as the 2007 ROAR 1/8-scale Off-Road Buggy National champ. Drake took the lead with 20 minutes to go with his Team Losi 8IGHT and never let go of first place. Jared Tebo had a few good looks at Drake but could not make the pass and the third place position was hard fought between Ryan Cavalieri and Mike Truhe with Ryan winning out.

A Main results:
1 Adam Drake -- Team Losi
2 Jared Tebo -- O’Donnell
3 Ryan Cavalieri -- Team Associated
4 Mike Truhe – Team Losi
5 Jesse Robbers – Team Losi
6 Josh Wheeler -- XRAY
7 Jeremy Kortz -- Hobao
8 Cody King -- Kyosho
9 Mark Pavidis -- Kyosho
10 Billy Easton -- OCM
11 Ryan Maifield – Team Associated
12 Chad Bradley -- Jammin
13 Taylor James -- Jammin
14 Scott Hughes – Mugen

The A Main contenders


Adam Drake the National Champ


Jared Tebo (left), Adam Drake (center), Ryan Cavalieri (right)


Drake’s Losi


Drake’s Losi


Tebo’s O’Donnell


Tebo’s O’Donnell


Cavalieri’s Associated


Cavalieri’s Associated










Ryan Maifield controlled the first 30 minutes of the main, in fact at one point he had 23 seconds over second place until he had problems with his buggy.