Many of the best off-road drivers in the world convened at Hot Rod Hobbies, the site of the 11th annual Hot Rod Hobbies Shootout in Saugus, CA.  The annual race held June 27th-29th was this years warm up to the 2008 ROAR Electric Off-Road National Championships which will be held in August.  The Slingshot Batteries team was in full force for this event and withstood sweltering heat to bring home the following impressive results…....

Qualifying

Friday and Saturday consisted of 2 qualifying rounds and position was determined by qualifying points.   This meant that fast and consistent lap times were needed in order to ensure a spot in “The Show”.

When the dust had settled at the end of Saturday’s qualifiers, 2 Slingshot Batteries drivers had secured the TQ spot on the grid and looked good going into Sunday’s main events.

Stock Buggy Top Qualifier—Jeff Nicol
Stock Truck Top Qualifier—Nick Lasley
Super Stock Buggy Top Qualifier—Nick Lasley

Main Events  

Stock Buggy

Just as he had done in qualifying, Slingshot Batteries driver Jeff Nicol skillfully guided his Kyosho RB5 buggy to victories in the first two legs of the triple A-main event.  Casper was in contention for a podium finish in the class but suffered a break in leg two which ultimately cost him a spot in the top 3.  A 2nd in leg number 1 and 3rd in leg two were only enough for 4th place in this extremely competitive class.

Stock Truck

With Nick Lasley starting in the TQ position, it looked like Slingshot Batteries could wrap up 2 of the Spec Classes early with a strong performance from Lasley.  However a break in leg number two of the triple A-main event would cost Nick as he ended up 2nd overall.  Other notable finishes in this class were Jeff Nicol finishing 5th and Keith Whisler in 7th.

Super Stock Buggy

Lasley was again the TQ in this class and was hoping he could make quick work of the class.  However a rough go of things in leg one put Lasley in an early deficit.  He was able to recover and take 4th overall.  Jeff Nicol put in a victory in leg 1 and a third in leg three to take 2nd overall in a class featuring several top level drivers.  Ryan Dunford had a difficult time in the mains finishing 10th overall.

Super Stock Truck  

Lasley was hitting on all cylinders in this class. Victories in mains one and two allowed Lasley to watch his fellow Slingshot Batteries driver’s battle for top 5.  After 3 mains, a tie breaker put Chris Van Air in the last podium spot and Nicol in a respectable 4th overall.  Van Air and Nicol had almost identical times in this close main event battle. 

Super Stock 4 Wheel Drive

The Super Stock 4 wheel class was a battle from the start.  Lasley again put himself on the podium.  After a rough first leg, he was able to put in two second place runs to secure 2nd overall.  Ryan Dunford also had a rough first round with a DNS but made up for it with a 2nd and a win in the remaining legs to finish in 3rd.  Casper started strong but ran into heavy traffic in the remaining mains to finish with 6th overall.  Chris Van Air rounded out the class with a 10th place finish.

Modified 2 wheel

For those of you not familiar with Dustin Evan’s, now is the time to become accustomed to seeing him in “the show” at the big events.  In a class filled with World and National Champions, Dustin was able to come away with a very respectable 7th overall.  The competition was fierce in all the Mod classes with some of the best in the business not even making the A mains.  Well done Dustin!

Modified Truck

Once again Dustin put himself in a great position to take the main events.  However a bad run in the second main would end up hurting Evans.  A third place finish in both the 1st and 3rd mains was only enough for 4th place overall. 

Notable Mentions

Greg Hodapp—Greg has 2 races now under his belt since making his comeback.  Greg had good finishes in both the 2 and 4 wheel Modified B mains.  His pace is right where he needs it to be.  He is definitely on the prowl for the A mains at this years Nationals.

Bryan Duncan—Duncan traveled from his home in Florida only to find that his equipment did not arrive.  This was not the way he wanted start the weekend, but fellow racers were able to come up with the equipment so that he could compete in the event.  Duncan had some impressive finishes and promises to be a threat in the Spec classes at the ROAR Nationals this summer.

Mike Truhe—Having just won ROAR’s 8th Scale Buggy Nationals earlier in the month, Mike was hoping for another great showing.  However the gods were not with him on this weekend.  A few breaks and some bad luck cost Mike a chance at the A mains this year.  He was able to salvage things with a B main win in Truck and B main appearance in the Buggy class. 

Kyle Boice—Kyle had very little practice time on the blue groove track but was able to finish a very respectable 3rd place in the Modified Truck B main.  Kyle was making great strides in his racing with a Cactus victory and National Championship last year.  However his local track closed and school activities took priority over Kyle’s racing.  Watch out at Nationals as I heard Kyle will be getting lots of practice this summer………..

See you all again next year to do it all over again……………