Hey, hey what’s going on Pro-Liners?! So we are officially 54 days into 2010 and my question is, where you at? What has been good so far?
For myself it’s been a pretty packed last two months. It started off in January with some racing in sub 20-degree temperatures. It was absolutely the most miserable I have ever been at an R/C track in the last 14 years. I know, I know, I live in Florida how cold could it be but I am telling you that it was 22 degrees out with 10+ mph winds in Miami of all places. I ended up finishing 3rd so it wasn’t too terrible
However, it has been away from the track where all the action has been happening lately. If you have read some of my other blogs you probably know this already but I started back at the University of South Florida here in the beginning of February. I am going back for my master’s degree in entrepreneurship. Although I am only 3 weeks in, it has already been an awesome experience. It is really neat to be in a class with people who actually want to be there and want to be better. I am learning a ton and working on some awesome projects. In my New Product Development class we have to redesign a Dental Prop for pediatric dentistry and if the design is good enough the school is actually going to patent and license the design. In my Strategic Market Assessments class we are working on a marketing plan for a LIDAR system that detects audio sources below ground like electronic mines and stuff like that. So all really neat stuff and if you cant tell I’m pretty excited.
Hey Pro-Liners hope all is going well this holiday season for everyone! We just had the Clash race here in Tampa at the infamous Lake Park Track and it sure was a good one. Drivers from all across the country showed up to do battle in both electric and nitro classes. For this race I ran Super Stock 2wd and Truck and 1:8th Nitro Expert….. Ya ya I know I should have run modified but due to bogus controlled tire rules for the modified class I ran super stock …… but it was awesome to get back to the grass roots of racing and having fun. It was all about carrying speed and not making mistakes. I managed to grab the TQ spot in both classes and run pretty outstanding mains. In truck I stuck to my trusty Holeshot T’s the whole weekend on the front and rear with stock foams and as always it was untouchable but what I am super excited about is the new Holeshot 2.0 for the 2wd buggies.
Guys… I am here to tell you that this tire is sooo freakin good it’s like cheating. It provides gobs of forward traction, a ton of side bite for fast consistent cornering, and wear that is unparalleled by any other 1/10th scale tire on the market! The pair of Holeshot 2.0’s that I ran in the 10 minute Super Stock 2wd main has well over 50% tread left on them after running on what is probably one of the most abrasive tracks in the country. When everyone else was running their version of a “scrub” tire, I was running the new holeshot and running laps that were almost a half a second faster each lap.
I won truck and finished 2nd in 2wd because of a last lap incident that happened while I was leading. In 1:8th expert my car was great, I qualified 4th overall, tied in points with fellow Pro-Line racer Ryan Cavaleri who qualified 3rd and went on to finish second. In the main I had a radio issue that took me out of the running but I ran an M3 Revolver with the Blue Closed Cell Foam and Ryan ran the M3 Holeshot with the new EVO Black Foam. Both combos seemed to work very well. Ryan Also Won Truggy using M3 VTR Holeshot Truggy tires mounted on LPR wheels. (Another bogus tire rule for a 09 race)
Other than that guys nothing else is going on, just getting ready for Santa and the New Year. We have a gas state race in the early part of January and then I start Grad School in February so we are going to be coming out of the gate quick. Talk to you then!
On another amazing weekend here in the sunshine state, Pro-Line tires were used to dust the competition. On October 10th and 11th the first race of the new Florida State Off-Road Series took place at Triple Nickel Raceway in Bartow, Florida. As usual the Sun was blazing hot and the competition even hotter. 130+ entries showed out for the race and it was destined to be one for the ages. The Bartow track is one of the most challenging tracks in the state of Florida because it takes both a driver that can adapt to lap-to-lap track changes and the right tire choice. The track is made of clay with a high sand content so it gets grooved up but quickly disintegrates causing holes to form in the faces of jumps, braking zones, and other random potholes sprinkled in.
In the most prestigious class of the series, 1/8th Pro Buggy, Pro-lines own Billy Easton laid the wood from the very first tone. Billy TQ’d every round of qualifying and won the main by an astonishing 3-Laps over the next closest competitor. Not only did he win but he did it with an 11 year old Thunder Tiger S2. After the race Billy attributed his win to picking the right tire for the conditions and using pro-lines new closed cell foam technology.
Recent news here in the state of Florida has been about how great the new VTR Caliber Truggy tires are. In the Pro truggy A-Main there were more trucks on Pro-Line Calibers than any other manufacturer. Bart Collins and Sean Kersten used theirs to put in fantastic drives giving them podium finishes to start of the year off right. The truggy race came right down to the last lap of the 30 minute final and in the end Sean and Bart finished a respectable 2nd and 3rd respectively. Also of great note, truggy newcomer Louis Perez used the new caliber tires to vault his Mugen to the lead in the early goings of the race. He lead for 3 minutes before motor issues ensued.
All in all it was another great race by one of the largest series here in the United States. Everyone had a great time and the FSORS crew did a great job keeping everything moving throughout the weekend
Look out for results from the next race on November 7th and 8th at the infamous Lake Park track in Tampa, FL
Hola fellow Pro-Liners! Hope all is well and that everybody is starting his or her Monday off right. I never thought I would say this but holy crap am I happy it’s Monday. I personally had a week last week that I would like to forget.
It started off with just your regular trials and tribulations at work trying to put “fires” out with customers and what not but it really got kicked up around Wednesday when I had a run in with the receptionist in the graduate office at the university I want to go to. I get it, when you hate your job you take it out on everyone around you but I really think this lady has some sort of Napoleon complex. I have never been talked down to in the way she did! Not by anybody! So as much as I wanted to get “crunk” in the office at that moment I just thanked her and went on my merry way. This was all before 10:30 mind you, so my way back to the office I get angrier phone calls and have to put more fires out until about 3:30 where I start heading to my second job. Well I turn out of my first job and get going down the street. All of the suddenly I realize “shoot I need change for the toll road” so I look down and not 2 seconds after I look down I hit a freakin sewer in the side of the road, one of those ones that’s built into the curb ya’know.
So long story short it was a $250 mistake in a matter of 2 seconds. AWESOME!
However, all was not lost last week. Larry over at Kustom R/C Graphix painted me up a bug body for my Slash that is freakin sweet!! It’s going to look good with my new Pro-Line bumpers
And for those of you who have seen my last funny videos this one surely won’t disappoint.
So instead of working this week I decided to take a trip with my good buddy Jon Faulkner up to Charlotte, North Carolina for the NHRA drag racing event at Charlotte Motor Speedway. However, the event doesn’t actually start until Friday so we are going to do a little R/C racing at Carolinas R/C indoor facility tonight and maybe hit up a driving range tomorrow.
But one of the raging debates across the country and on every food channel known to man is, who really makes the best BBQ food? I don’t know but we stopped at one of the best-known places in the Charlotte area for their take on the popular genre of food. It’s called Lancaster’s and buddy was it finger lickin’ good. It also is pretty dope restaurant. Obviously it’s all NASCAR themed since we are in the capitol of stock car racing. For those of who aren’t familiar with the area but familiar with The Farm 2 racetrack, it’s only 15 minutes from the track.
Also another pic of the international man of mystery from our trip up.
Soooo its been a little longer than I would like since my last post but that’s because as a budding 23 year old with a severe case of A.D.D. (self diagnosed) I am constantly starting projects, not finishing them, and starting new ones, all of you fathers out there know what I am talking about or soon will J
As I sit here right now and count, it takes both hands to count everything that I would like to FINISH by the end of this month. This includes, but isn’t limited to, working my butt off everyday cold calling to get new customers, trying to find a new freakin job, studying 2-3 hours every night for the ridiculous GMAT test to get into grad school, working on a marketing research report for a local business, wrenching on my 1:8th scale car, working on an idea I have for a company I race for (cough..PL…cough), and a new hobby that I picked up recently. I really enjoy being super busy and not having any down time, I really do but now I’m just to the point where I have to much going on. So this Labor Day weekend I’m going to do absolutely nothing and watch all the college football I can.
But here’s a sneak peak of what my next post is going to be about as soon as I finish it
As far as racing goes, things have still been crazy here in Florida with the rain. It almost rained out our Region 4 Championship but the weather held off for Saturday and Sunday letting us get in the full program. I had a miserable qualifying effort but was able to bump up from the B, and battle in the top 3 in the A for the entire 45 minutes. I ended up 3rd with Billy Easton taking the win using M3 Revolvers and the new closed cell foam. His car was awesome and no one had anything for him. Next up for me is a club race in Charlotte, NC at NASCAR star Kyle Busch’s home track. Going up there for the NHRA drag races and to do a little indoor electric racing.
So it’s that time of year when the sun is suppose to be shining, the beaches are suppose to be packed, and you should spend the days outdoors taking in all the great weather. However, that clearly has not been the case lately here in the good ole’ sunshine state. There has been crazy bad thunderstorms just hanging around for days at a time and then once it does clear up we get the normal 3 o’clock shower for an hour or so.
So like a marine you have to adapt and overcome the weather. What do we do you may ask????? Here’s a random short vid, except we go up and down the sidelines of the local high school football field:
On the racing front, we haven’t been able to do whole lot because of the rain. There have been a few races washed out completely but we did manage to get a Florida State Series Race and a RC Pro EAST race in at the famous lake park track. For me the state series race didn’t go very well as I flamed out on the first lap and had to come from 3 laps down. I managed to get back into the top 5 but that was it. At the pro series race local fast guy and former WC Billy Easton laid it on everybody leading from wire to wire.
Coming up in the next couple months for us Floridians is our Nitro Regionals at the end of August, some race in Alabama in the middle of August, and an Electric race in the beginning of September. So stay tuned for some updates.
Soo…… Everyone has their normal routine at work right? You get up at the same time, check your messages first then your email and go on with the rest of your pre-lunch time routine but come lunch time you bolt outta dodge like the last train already blew its whistle. Well, not me, I like to sit in my office and listen to the greatest sports talk radio show that has ever graced the radio waves, The Jim Rome show. Like clock work, exactly at 12 p.m. eastern time I go in to complete shutdown mode at work and start streaming the show over the internet with an amazing PB&J sandwich in hand. Well Friday May 8ths show was a pretty special one because it was the annual “SMACK-OFF” where you have to be invited to call in, he promotes clone-on-clone crime, and you have to have an awesome take and not suck! It is 3 hours of solid callers trying to outwit one another with some of the most hilarious “SMACK” you’ll ever hear. This years Smack-Off was definitely one of the better ones I have heard in my last 4 years of listening and you gotta give props to Brad in Corona who dominated the competition. I personally thought that Mike in Indy was the best but after hearing Brads call again I think the right decision was made. So congrats Brad you were heard by over 2 million listeners and are now crowned king of the Jungle for a year, it won you 10 steaks and place in jungle infamy but beat it now weakling because I am working on my game and will be the Bernard Hopkins of the 2010 “Smack-Off”:-)
What’s goin on guys welcome to another installment to the wild world of all that is Leon. Going to start off today with a little racing stuff so we can get that out of the way. First off, the super cool neobuggy race is this week so check that out. Next weekend is another Florida State Off-Road Series Nitro races being held at 555 raceway in Bartow, FL and the weekend after that is an RCSignUp.com SUPERCUP electric race being held at the infamous lake park track in Tampa, FL. Lots of great racing going on across the whole spectrum of classes so check it out.
So now back to the real reason why you’re here, ME! For all of you who have been following my posts, you are aware that I have embarked on this journey of enlightenment by learning new skills and encountering new experiences. My latest installment to this ordeal is learning how to make BEER!! That’s right just start calling me Brewmaster Leon.
So in my latest quest for finding out the secrets of the world I figured I would do what the rest of my technology driven generation is doing, Tweet about what I do everyday!! or at least that’s what the latest craze, Twitter.com, calls it. I’m still pretty undecided on whether I like it or not though, because all your doing is telling people what your doing at that moment and really other than your closest friends….WHO CARES??? but I guess its pretty cool if you want to know that your homie is dropping the kids off, gorging themselves on Del Taco, or doing keg stands J. In the meantime, I’m still gonna do it. I am going to tweet every chance I get from my awesome iPhone and let everybody know what I am doing in hopes that somebody out there in internet land is interested. By the way it’s Leonmac24 if you find your self-perusing the site.
