Event: AARCMCC 1/8th Off-Road Victorian State Titles
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Dates: February 7th-9th, 2009
Classes: 1/8th Buggy
Race Reporter: Andrew Moore

This past weekend featured one of the largest races in Australia, the Victorian State Titles at the Melbourne Off-Road RC Club. The track conditions were rutted, loose, and rather rocky, with the ambient temperature being around 100 degrees during some of the days. JConcepts young driver Kyle McBride had a fantastic first practice run setting the fastest time of the round. The second round was a totally different story as the track blew out beyond belief, there were ruts that were up to half a foot high.

Drivers were frantically chasing a set up that would be capable of handling these massive ruts, but some teamwork helped get the JC guys dialled in. Matt Griffin put in a 14 lap qualifying effort which resulted in the quickest run of the weekend as well as overall TQ for the event. Kyle set the fastest time for the 5th round beating the current FEMCA champion Wayne Walker by 5 seconds.

The last round was the most exciting race to end the qualifying sessions. Matt Griffin was quick once again, setting the quickest time for the round, with Kyle 10 seconds behind. It was a fantastic result for JConcepts to be setting the quickest times before heading into the finals.

Heading into the finals Kyle decided to change the tyres from Double Cross to Hitmen as they would be a better option as the track was getting even worse. McBride had a fantastic start in the final grabbing the lead on the first lap only to have issues with traffic. After settling down and getting into a groove Kyle fought his way back into second place about 10 seconds behind Wayne Walker. After Wayne came in for Fuel, Kyle took the lead for a short time, until he broke the rear sway bar link. Kyle drove a fantastic race holding down second position for around 40 minutes. Matt Griffin was chasing hard and it was an awesome battle to the end with Kyle finishing 11 seconds behind Matt in the 45 minute main. JConcepts ended up with 2 of the 3 podium spots, at one of the largest races in Australia!

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Online News Editor
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http://forums.radiocontrolzone.com/showthread.php?p=2390776#post2390776

The Psycho Nitro Blast race was held last weekend in Atlanta Georgia, and the crew presented the racers with another crazy and challenging layout. In the 1/8th truck class it was top qualifier Adam Drake, running the Losi 8ight T 2.0, that took the win from CEN racer Gene Hickersen, with Losi team mate Mike Truhe in 3rd. Mike Truhe had a better time in the buggy class, taking the TQ spot and going on to win from Ryan Lutz, who was running the prototype 801X, while Berry Pettit finished 3rd for Mugen.