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Sept. 12-14, 2003
(In case of rain the race will be held the following
weekend) Hah!
Sponsored by
 and
Trackside Hobbies and Cafe
Day One
Rain, rain, go away...
Or, Ma Nature said "No", we
said "Yes"
(Guess who won. He, he)
Click
here to go see
the pics we have up so far.
Mother Nature once again put up her dukes and gave it
her best shot. We'd been sparring with her all spring and summer long, but
by now she'd had enough and decided it was time to stop pulling her
punches and let us really have it. After dumping thousands of gallons of
rain Friday night and submerging 90% of the track under one inch or more
of water, the JRC Crew just laughed. "Ha!" we said. If she thought that
was gonna stop us, as she's tried many times this past season, she should
have known better. We had racers coming from all over the east coast to
run in this race, and we weren't about to let them down. So... we busted
out the brooms, shop vacs and sump pumps and whipped that track back into
shape in just a few short hours. It never ceases to amaze me just how much
water can be removed from the track with just a few push brooms! Well,
after a few hours long delay we finally got to the point where the drivers
could hit the track and start burning up the asphalt. When qualifying on Saturday
finally got under way,
it became obvious that the racing was going to be fast, close and furious.
When all was said and done, TQ for the day was set by
Trackside Hobbies sponsored
Chris Palermo at
the helm of a brand new Nova Rossi powered Trinity G4. After four rounds
of qualifying (on a green track no less), here's how the top ten positions were set:
TQ - Chris Palermo (Trinity G4)
2nd - Angelo D'Alessandro (Trinity G4)
3rd - Bill Rondeau (Trinity G4)
4th - Ed Delahanty (Trinity G4)
5th - Russ Giandomenico ( Mugen MTX)
6th - Jeff Cuffs (Associated NTC3)
7th - Juan Carlos Buenano (Associated NTC3)
8th - Eric Jones (Mugen MTX)
9th - Tony West (Mugen MTX)
10th - Jose-Luis Izursa (?)
Day two results to follow later
tonight...
Day Two
As the dust begins to
settle...
Click
here to go see
the pics we have up so far.
As if arriving at the track on Saturday and seeing a ton of water on the
track wasn't enough, getting there on Sunday to find the crack JRC water
removal crew already hard at work seemed par for the course. Yup, you
guessed it. Saturday night the clouds above had over-stuffed themselves
and felt the need for relief right over the entire town of Jackson.
Fortunately for us it was just a minor shower, and it didn't take us more
than a few hours to get the track dry and jump right into the next round
of qualifiers.
It was apparent that as soon as the sun came out and the track started to
come around that the lap times would start to fall, and fall they did.
When all was said and done and the sixth and final round of qualifying
came to an end, Eric Jones (who at the very
last minute made the decision with Tony West
and Jermaine Gartell
to endure the long and tiring drive all the way up from Washington, D.C.),
earned TQ honors with a blistering track-record setting 23 lap blast.
As qualifying finished up for the weekend, here's the way things looked for the top
ten hot-shoes:
TQ-Eric Jones (Mugen MTX)
2nd-Bill Rondeau (Trinity G4)
3rd-Chris Palermo (Trinity G4)
4th-Angelo D'Alessandro (Trinity G4)
5th-Tony West (Mugen MTX)
6th-Jeff Cuffs (Associated NTC3)
7th-Ed Delahanty (Trinity G4)
8th-Russ Giandomenico (Mugen MTX)
9th-Jammin' Jeff Jones (?)
10th-Juan Carlos Buenano (Associated NTC3)
As the start of the main events quickly approached, so were the rain
clouds that were blowing in from the east. At that point we decided to
jump right into the mains and get the show on the road before any more of
that stuff fell from the sky. We immediately got all of the
D-Main drivers out onto the track, fired 'em up and set them loose.
When the last drop of nitro was burned and the dust finally settled at the
end of the day, here's how the whole shindig turned out:
|
Nitro Touring Car
Championship A-Main |
|
Name |
Laps/Time |
|
1.
Eric Jones |
86/20:04.42 |
|
2.
Jeff Cuffs |
84/20:02.35 |
|
3.
Bill Rondeau |
84/20:12.18 |
|
4.
Tony West |
83/20:13.06 |
|
5.
Juan CArlos Buenano |
81/20:04.35 |
|
6.
Chris Palermo |
78/20:09.78 |
|
7.
Russ Giandomenico |
78/20:10.98 |
|
8.
Jammin' Jeff Jones |
77/20:07.13 |
|
9. Ed
Delahanty |
58/20:05.83 |
|
10.
Angelo D'Alessandro |
DNS |
|
Nitro Touring Car
Championship B-Main |
|
Name |
Laps/Time |
|
1.
Jammin' Jeff Jones |
60/15:01.17 |
|
2.
Juan Carlos Buenano |
60/15:04.70 |
|
3.
Jermaine Gartell |
60/15:15.64 |
|
4.
Deogracias Rodil |
57/15:06.27 |
|
5.
Dennis Treyes |
57/15:06.55 |
|
6.
Jose-Luis Izursa |
57/15:12.05 |
|
7.
Patrick Piasecki |
49/15:05.89 |
|
8.
Barry Lofton |
42/11:40.65 |
|
9.
Duwahn Lee |
25/9:55.64 |
|
10.
Joe Distefano |
DNS |
|
Nitro Touring Car Championship C-Main |
|
Name |
Laps/Time |
|
1.
Dennis Treyes |
38/10:01.38 |
|
2.
Patrick Piasecki |
34/10:14.40 |
|
3.
John Micalizzi |
33/10:15.66 |
|
4.
Ryan Noonan |
32/10:03.52 |
|
5.
Guillermo Mendez |
32/10:12.37 |
|
6.
Frank Schinchirimini |
32/10:18.10 |
|
7.
Omar E. Rosales |
29/10:04.45 |
|
8.
Ryan S. Magat |
14/10:13.86 |
|
9.
Dennis Rodil |
DNS |
|
10.
Shane White |
DNS |
|
Nitro Touring Car
Championship D-Main |
|
Name |
Laps/Time |
|
1.
Frank Schinchirimini |
32/10:05.53 |
|
2.
Omar E. Rosales |
29/10:02.93 |
|
3.
Diana Mendez |
23/10:18.52 |
Congratulations to Eric Jones, who came with
his race-face on and was determined to make that long drive up from D.C.
worth his while. Not only did he take the overall win, but he was also TQ,
setting a qualifying record of 23 laps in the process, and is the
first person to turn a sub 13 second lap, hitting a 12.94 during the
A-Main. What can I say Eric, except that
you're just way too fast. :-)
Local home town hero Jeff Cuffs put up a hard
fought battle to secure second place, but unfortunately
Jeff kissed the pooch early on and chunked a
tire, effectively putting an end to any chance he might have had to
threaten Eric for the win. A very impressive
outing for a guy with virtually no nitro TC experience. I've always said
that a good driver can drive anything, and Jeff
just proved my point.
Bill Rondeau tore up the track and drove a
fast and consistent race to finish third, just a few seconds behind
Jeff. After 20 minutes of racing, it was
exciting to see two racers of their caliber running nose to tail, battling
it out for a top three finishing position. One slip by either one of them
could have meant disaster, but they remained cool and calm, showing true
grace under pressure, all the while putting on one heck of a show.
After the awarding of the trophies
it was time for the drawing for a brand new Trinity G4 Pro kit, graciously
provided by the fine folks at Trackside Hobbies.
Eric Jones
dipped his hand into the pail, dug deep and a big round of applause
emerged as he called the name of Diana Mendez.
The look on Diana's face was utter surprise
when Eric called her name, but she was all
smiles as she graciously accepted her new toy. Congratulations
Diana, and we hope once you get the car
finished that you come back and race it with us. :-) And thanks again to
Greg and the guys at
Trackside Hobbies for that great G4 kit.
We'd also like to extend a heart felt thank you to
Joel Johnson from Team Trinity for
helping us allocate the extra transponders we so desperately needed.
Joel was hoping to come out and join us for
the race, but unfortunately scheduling conflicts prevented him from
attending. Sorry you missed it Joel, we had a
great time!
All of us from the JRC Crew would once again like to thank each and every
one of you that braved the weather to take the time to come out and spend
the weekend with us. Many of you drove great distances to make this event,
knowing that at any moment it could be rescheduled due to the rain, but
decided to make the trip anyway. It was also a blast being able to see
some old friends again, (Hey Jammin'!) and to
finally meet many of you that we've been corresponding with over the
internet for some time now; Barry,
Russ, Frank and
all the others, you know who you are!
Oh yeah, one more thing. A special howdy-do goes out to
Russ Giandomenico for launching his car the
farthest I've ever seen one fly here. Blew the sweeper at the end of the
straight, nailed the curb and absolutely sailed it right over the hay
bales and past the wooden fence. Hey Russ,
did it make it as far as the chain link fence? LOL
Final Score: JRC-2; Ma Nature-0
The entire JRC Crew
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