Motown Showdown 2015 Race Report
This wonderful race report comes to us from one of our local racers Eddie Alves. Thank you Eddie for taking the time to put this together for us.
The fifth annual Motown Showdown was held Saturday, May 9th at Modesto RC Raceway. The outdoor off-road facility had a new track layout for this special event. The showdown consisted of 10 different classes with 96 entries. There were 3 rounds of qualifying before the A Main’s on this one day event. A large raffle was held before the start of the mains with several items raffled off from race sponsors.
There were several 2WD buggies on hand in several classes. The expert stock buggy class had 8 entries but provided some of the closest racing of the night. Matt Burdic set TQ after winning heat number one. Greg Stephansen won heat two and Darren Stumpf taking the win in heat three. Burdic jumped out to an early race lead in the 8 minute race. Burdic nearly led all 22 laps but Stumpf made his way around him on the last lap taking the victory by 0.820 seconds. John Scott finished third followed by Stephansen, Bill Rainier, Tony Scripilliti, Ron Bickel, and Chris Jones.
The 4WD buggy class saw Derek Stephansen dominate the division. Stephansen won all three of his qualifying heats earning TQ honors. Rick Jenkins won two of his heat races with Ry Smith also earning a heat race win. Chris Jones and Jay Cheema transferred out of the B Main to make it into the A Main. Stephansen continued his dominance in the A Main. He immediately started turning laps that were at least 1 second faster than his nearest competitor. At the end of the race Stephansen had completed 23 laps as Rick Jenkins finished second and had completed 21 laps. Tony Scripilliti finished 4.4 seconds behind Jenkins, Tobias Diggs finished fourth, Casey Nydahl fifth, with Ry Smith, Sonny Lucchesi, Jay Cheema, Doug Frid, and Chris Jones rounding out the top ten.
Derek’s father Greg Stephansen swept all three rounds of qualifying in the 2WD Stock Short Course Division. The A main saw Stephansen take the early lead until lap four when Matt Murphy was able to get by Stephansen. That only lasted one lap as Stephansen re took the lead and never looked back. Murphy stayed right on his heels but came up short. Murphy finished 1.8 seconds back with John Harrison taking third, Kirk Baker fourth, and Sonny Lucchesi fifth. Just missing the top five were Eddie Alves, Shane Piatt, Trey Jones, Nate Holderbein, and Chris Jones.
Casey Nydahl set TQ in 4WD Short Course after winning all three qualifying heats. Nydahl led wire to wire to take the A Main win. He was challenged early by Doug Frid who qualified second but broke early in the race. Kirk Baker moved into second on lap seven and would go on to finish second. Ry Smith finished third, Ray Gong fourth and Patrick Carr fifth. Will Perry would take home seventh followed by Eric Todd, Jay Cheema, Saul Davis, Shane Piatt, and Frid.
Derek Stephansen continued to set the bar high in the 2WD Mod Short Course division. With 11 racers entered in this division the first two rounds of heats were split up into two different races. Stephansen took the wins in both of his heats. Matt Murphy took the two wins in the other heat. The third round of qualifying saw the division combined and Stephansen taking that win to earn TQ. Stephansen took the lead and never looked back. Any hope Murphy had of beating Stephansen ended on lap two after Murphy broke. This moved Casey Nydahl into second and Eddie Alves into third. Those two would go onto finish in those positions. Justin Johnson took fourth with Patrick Carr, Eric Todd, Nate Holderbein, Will Perry, Murphy, and Chris Jones rounding out the finishing order.
The novice division saw 11 up and coming drivers take to the track. Heather O’Connor took TQ honors after winning the first two rounds of qualifying. O’Connor who was the only female to participate at the 2015 Showdown. Steven Gilmore won all three of his heats with Julian Diggs also earning a win. This setup a much anticipated A Main. O’Connor took the early race lead but fell back to fifth on the second lap. This opened the door for Gino Dellanina to take the lead but that only lasted one lap as Gilmore took the top spot again. O’Connor did her best to try to get back to the top spot but came up about 8 seconds short. Gillmore took the win, O’Connor second, Dellanina third, Matt Galassi fourth, and Diggs fifth. Just missing the top five were Ed Alves, Bill Dascomb, Connor Harrison, Steve Viado, Gary Holderbein, and Chris Shaw.
The 40+ Stock Buggy saw Darren Stumpf take TQ after winning rounds two and three. Matt Burdic took the round one heat race win. The A Main saw a very close battle between Stumpf and Burdic as the two swapped the lead on at least four different laps. At the end it was Stumpf taking the win over Burdic with Bill Rainier finishing third. Greg Stephansen took fourth and Rick Jenkins fifth. Lance Taylor finished sixth followed by Ron Bickel, John Harrison, Doug Frid and Kirk Baker.
Derek Stephansen who had already set TQ in both 4WD Buggy and MOD 2WD Short Course also set TQ in 2WD Mod Buggy. Stephansen took the early race lead with Codey Hughey right behind. Stephansen slowly stretched his lead over Hughey during the 8 minute main. Stephansen took the victory with Hughey finishing second, Tony Scripilitti third, Michael Santiago fourth, Eddie Alves fifth, Nate Holderbein sixth, and Mike O’Connor seventh.
Codey Hughey dominated the Open Stadium Truck division by winning all three heats. Hughey bested Tobias Diggs who finished second in the A main. Justin Johnson took third, JB Barnick fourth and Cody Beccard fifth.
The Stock Buggy division had 7 racers on hand. Tobias Diggs took heat race wins in round 1 and 2 earning TQ. Sonny Lucchesi took the win in round three. Lucchesi took the early race lead and led the first few laps before Diggs got around him. A short time later Lucchesi took the lead back until the late stages of the race when Diggs got back around him. Diggs would take the victory with Lucchesi second, Ry Smith third, Ray Gong fourth, Kirk Baker fifth, Eddie Alves sixth, and JB Barnick fifth.
Modesto RC would like to thank the 2015 Motown Showdown sponsors which include Airtronics, Team Associated, Tekin, Hobbico, Hobbywing, Boca Bearing, AKA, TenShock, CRP Plus, & JConcepts. Also thanks to Ruben Benitez for announcing all the races and being the race director. Thanks to track owner Pickle, John Harrison, Doug Frid, and Casey Nydahl for their hard work in building the new track layout. Thanks to Randy Sysester for photographing the event.
http://www.teamassociated.com/
http://www.teamtekin.com/
Modesto RC Raceway will resume with club racing on Sunday, May 17th at 10:00AM. Be sure to check out Modestorc.com for race results, pictures, schedule, and additional information.
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