R/C Monster Motorsports Regional Championship a Huge Success at the Osceola Sportsmen’s Show!

Once again, R/C Monster Motorsports put on an R/C Monster Truck World Finals caliber event. No not at Digger’s Dungeon, this time it was in our home state of Florida at the Osceola Sportsmen Show. Thousands of spectators were in awe of R/C Monster Truck racing, truck pulling, and freestyle at its best. Drivers and their families were treated to “Real” Monster Truck performances by Monsters on a Mission, “Real” Tractor Pulls, and anything to do with outdoor sporting and survival.

Friday’s event started out with Show n’ Shine competition. Chris Wolfe of 97 Country’s Overnight show w/ Jesse James www.wpcv.com was our celebrity judge. Chris was amazed at the designs and craftsmanship put into the R/C Monsters. Chris chose the following trucks as the top three winners in Friday’s Show n’ Shine: Gene Foust, 1st place with Team Magic I topped with the R/C Monster Motorsports body, Rip Koepke’s Wolf truck took second place and Ralph Wentworth took third place with Brutus. Thanks Chris!

Saturday’s Show n’ Shine was judged by the Stephan family. Ken, Cole, and Wyatt Stephan had the difficult task of picking the top three winners. After analyzing all of the trucks our three guest judges awarded 1st to Gene Foust and his Team Magic I truck. Rip Koepke took second place with his Wolf truck and Paul Montecalvo took third with his JConcepts bodied Jammin truck. Thank you Stephan family!

Side by Side Racing featured our most difficult track to date. What better place to feature a track of this difficulty other than the Regional Championship. Named the “Bicycle Mustache” course, drivers staged their trucks back to back at the starting line. Once the stage lights were lit it was time to go racing! When the lights turned green drivers launched in opposite directions over a small roller made of Ten-Eighty ramps. After the trucks settled it was a forty foot dash to the first turn. Left lane would turn right and the right lane would turn left. Both trucks making their way around the outside lanes of the track would have to tackle our big air Ten-Eighty ramps. After the jump left lane trucks had to make another right turn to the backside of the oval, right lane had to make another left turn. Now with both trucks facing each other it was a 50 foot dash back to the center of the outside oval. Drivers had to make sure their brakes were in check in order to avoid over shooting the turn into their competitor’s lane. At the center of the track left lane turned right and right lane turned left. Both trucks would now make a twenty foot dash down the middle of the course towards the drivers. After the twenty foot straight away it was another right turn for the left lane and another left for the right lane. With both trucks facing in opposite directions once again it was another short burst of power to set up for the final 145 degree turn. Again left lane turns right and right lane turns left. Around the final turn drivers mashed the throttle for a spectacular finish over our big air Ten-Eighty ramps with both trucks on a 45 degree angle towards the center of the race course. Confused yet? Just think of the name “Bicycle Mustache”, get the picture?

In order to accurately time a course of this difficulty, R/C Monster Motorsports developed a new cabling system for our RaceAmerica R/C Pro Tree System. Instead of only running drag and u-turn courses with this system, we can relocate our start / stage sensors anywhere on the race course, same goes for the finish line sensors. Now with the flexibility of placing sensors anywhere we want, the courses which can be designed are endless without sacrificing timing accuracy.

Friday, Small Block side by side racing, Hunter Parrish took the first place spot with his Hillbilly Deluxe Traxxas T-Maxx. Mike Parrish took the second place spot driving his Big Dude Traxxas T-Maxx and Eddie Inman took third driving Bubba T-Maxx. Saturday, Small Block racing we saw the return of JD Kelly to the RCMM circuit. JD was back and put his Superman Traxxas Revo in the first place spot. Eddie Inman took second place driving his Bubba T-Maxx and Hunter Parrish took third.

Buggy/Truggy racing on Friday had Tyler Koepke taking the first place spot. Paul Montecalvo took second place driving Jammin and Rip Koepke took third. Saturday’s Buggy/Truggy Racing had Paul Montecalvo taking the first place win over Tyler Koepke who took second and Austin Koepke took third.

Big Block racing on Friday had the return of our 2006 R/C Monster Motorsports Champion in Small block racing and pulling, Dustin Kelly taking the first place spot and track record of 10.40 seconds driving his HPI Savage King Krunch. Tony Chaney took the second place spot driving his Gone Stupid Associated MGT. Paul Montecalvo took third driving his HPI Savage. Saturday’s Big Block Racing had new comer Ralph Wentworth taking the first place spot driving his Rough and Ready HPI Savage. Paul Montecalvo took second place with his HPI Savage and Tony Chaney took Third with his Gone Stupid Associated MGT.

After all thee classes had their respective first place winners, it was Throw Down time! Friday’s Throw Down was between Tyler Koepke representing Buggy/Truggy, Dustin Kelly for Big Block, and Hunter Parrish representing Small Block. Tyler Koepke would win Friday’s Overall Racing Champion Throw Down against Dustin Kelly in the finals. Saturday’s Overall Racing Champion Throw Down was for the 2.5 foot tall eXtreme Hobby Zone trophy. Paul Montecalvo representing Buggy/Truggy would win the eXtreme Trophy over Ralph Wentworth representing Big Block in the final. JD Kelly took third representing Small Block.

Challenger Sleds debuted their new track pack that includes distance markers which shows spectators the distances from: Start, 10’, 20’, to Full Pull. Challenger’s track pack also includes padded start and finish line poles with the Challenger’s logo silk screened to a high quality sleeve. Go to www.teammagicracing.com to find out more about the Challenger Pull Track Pack.

Drag Pulls took place on Friday. Small Block Drag Pulls had “Wild Cat” Rachel Jones taking the first place win and top qualifier with a time of 2.681 seconds driving her Wild Cat T- Maxx. Van Parrish took second place driving his Hillbilly Deluxe T-Maxx and Eddie Inman took third driving Bubba. Big Block Drag Pulls had Bruce Talley taking first and second place! Bruce put his Bad Habit pull truck in the first place spot and his Reason for Divorce truck in second. Tony Chaney’s Ghost Rider Associated MGT 8.0 took third.

Heavy Weight Truck Pulls took place on Saturday. First through third place winners were awarded trophies sponsored by Challenger Sleds. Rachel Jones once again dominated Small Block class. Rachael’s Wild Cat T- Maxx pulled 30lbs. 24’10” for first place in a pull off against Rip Koepke’s Puller which suffered engine problems. Eddie Inman’s Bubba T-Maxx took the third place spot with a pull of 28’8” @ 25lbs. Big Block Truck Pulls had the “DOC” of truck pulls, Shannon Jones taking the first place win with a full pull @ 40lbs with his “DOC” Traxxas Revo. Second place went to Bruce Talley driving his Bad Habit Traxxas Revo. Bruce’s Bad Habit pulled 29’3” @ 40lbs. Brian Macumber took the third place spot with a pull of 21’7” driving his Grim Reaper Associated MGT.

Gene Foust brought Team Magic I out to represent the Unlimited Pulling Class. Team Magic I had a good pull going until something let go in the trucks rear differential. Team Magic I made a pull of 16’2” @ 40lbs. Shannon Jones won the 2.5 foot tall eXtreme Truck Pullers trophy, sponsored by eXtreme Hobby Zone. Shannon’s “DOC” truck came back and pulled 45lbs 27’1” for the win. Great Job Shannon!

Friday’s event featured Long Jump Competition. Each driver had one chance to launch their trucks off our Ten-Eighty big air ramps with approximately 100’ of runway. Tyler Koepke launched his Ofna buggy into the first place spot with a distance of 39’3”. Van Parrish and his Hillbilly Deluxe T-Maxx flew into the second place spot with a distance of 36’5”. Dustin Kelly driving KAOS took the third place spot at 36’4”.

Saturday’s feature event for spectators and drivers was the Last Truck Standing Battle Royal Freestyle. Ten trucks entered but there could only be one survivor. For eight minutes there was Freestyle Madness as all ten truck battled to the finish. When the dust settled, Paul Montecalvo was the soul Survivor driving his Jammin truck earning him the 2.5 foot tall eXtreme Freestyle Champion trophy, sponsored by eXtreme Hobby Zone. Tyler Koepke took the second place spot and Dustin Kelly driving King Krunch took third.

Team Associated R/C Monster Truck Raffle Winners

Associated Mini MGT 3.0 Winner - As if the Freestyle wasn’t enough, the excitement ran wild as we got ready for the Team Associated R/C Monster Truck Raffle.

Anthony Chaney was the lucky winner of the Associated Mini MGT 3.0. Anthony can now run an Associated product in Small Block competition. Congratulations Anthony!

Associated MGT 8.0 Winner - Spectators had a chance to win an Associated MGT 8.0 courtesy of Team Associated. Lamartine Costa from Brazil was the lucky winner of the Associated MGT 8.0!

Lamartine commented that he has always been interested in R/C and has wanted to get into the hobby. Winning this truck now gives him that opportunity. Congratulations Lamartine! Thank You Team Associated!

Monsters on a Mission Truck Show

For the grand finally of the Osceola Sportsmen Show it was time to fire up the “real” Monsters. Fred Reep President of R/C Monster Motorsports had the honor of announcing the “Real” Monster Truck Freestyle event. Monsters on a Mission brought out three race trucks and one ride monster truck.

Joe Stathas did a great job piloting Monster Bucks around the course catching big air off of a van stacked with a pile of cars.

Next up was Melissa Stathas behind the wheel of Rock Solid. Melissa is only one in a hand full of women Monster Truck drivers in the world. Melissa did a superb job driving the 10,000 lbs. monster and received many cheers from her female fans in the crowd.

Last but not least was Nick DiGuilo driving Nail It. Nick rolled the truck in Friday’s show performing a wheel stand off of the crushed cars. Nail It went vertical and in slow motion fell backwards onto its roof. Nick wasn’t hurt and damage wasn’t anything that couldn’t be fixed with tie straps a duct tape. Nick did a great job driving Saturday catching 20-30 feet of air off of a crushed van receiving many cheers from the crowd.

R/C Monster Motorsports would like to thank the Osceola Sportsmen’s Show for providing a wonderful venue for our Regional Championship. Team Associated for sponsoring a Mini MGT 3.0 and MGT 8.0 for our raffle. eXtreme Hobby Zone for their continued support and sponsoring the eXtreme Champion trophies. Challenger Sleds for their continued support and sponsoring the Truck Pull trophies. JConcepts for their continued support and sponsoring the first place gift certificates and tee shirts. B&C; Mowers for grounds prep. Monsters on a Mission. Last but not least our Drivers and fans.

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