WC5S

On a picture perfect weekend in Southern California that was missing the recent Heat Waves it produced a great weekend of racing. Everyone adapted to the track and the surface. Special attention was needed by mid Saturday as the traction level was so high cars were getting on two wheels into the sweeper. The surprise of the weekend had to be Robbie Cerrato having the TQ for two rounds of the STC qualifying but even he had to know that was going to be short lived as the last round of the day Markus Feldman laid down the law and improved on that time by three laps bringing Arnaldi and Weigerding in tow. That lead into the evenings events and the meet and great social at Buffalo Wild Wings, everyone one enjoyed themselves that night. The STC main would not disappoint in excitement either (watch and enjoy). The usual suspects in the US were present for F1 with a great battle between Southern and Northern California drivers. The GT Race had a new first time racer take the win and Lito Reyes upstaged Dwayne Lawler to grab the TQ in the Super Bike category but could not bring home the trophy.

Race Organizers would like to thank the following sponsors: FG Supply.com, VSpeed Racing, Goodwine Racing, Genius, Samba, Mecatech, WC5S.com (West Coast 5th Scale), PMT, RC Modelsport, Killam Racing, Feldman Racing, Brooks Racing and the RAMS.

1st Markus Feldman 2nd Robbie Cerrato 3rd Marco Weigerding 4th Frank Killam 5th Tony Vega
6th Carlos Cartagena 7th Craig Kaplan (not pictured) 8th B A Arnaldi 9th Arnold Mercado 10th Joel Abreu

1st Francisco Hernandez 2nd Hau Ching Liao 3rd Frank Pena 4th Bob Sarnelle 5th Alan Trump (NP)

6th - Tom Wong 7th - James Stuard 8th - Tony Faskett 9th - David Bellenger (NP) 10th - Brian Tucker

Bob Sarnelle TQ and 1st Place 2nd Bryn Faskett 3rd Steve Sanchez 4th Haun Ching Liao 5th Mark Brennen

1st - Robbie Cerrato 2nd - Dan Almario 3rd - Mike Solis 4th - Moto Ishibashi 5th - Francisco Hernandez

1st - Dwayne Lawler 2nd - Lito Reyes 3rd - Ian Francisco 4th - Craig Kaplan (not pictured) 5th - Kevin Hicks

Hot, Hot, Hot... To say the least. And that was the competition. The weather was also on the steep end of the gauge as some of the beginnings of the storm to the south started to make its way in on Sunday and the humidity went up. There was no issue with grip as an abundance of rubber was being put down. Cars could traction roll if not carefull. Track temp on Sunday was 140+. Awesome layout with a high speed sweeper and curbs to keep you honest. Kudos to the RAMS, Warm Springs Raceway and the whole crew that put on this great event.

Arnold Mercado (3) - Frank Killam (1) - Victor Garcia (2) - Tony Vega (4) - Mike Tollner (5) - Cedric Collins (6) - Steve Gerace (8) - Daniel Colhour (Bump) Tony Nguyen (Bump)

The STC main started with pole sitter Frank Killam laying down the law early to get clear of what was expected to be a hard charging pack. Frank got a break when Victor Garcia went wide in Turn 1 and confused the pack a little which gave Frank the break he needed to begin his check out run. At that point it was the back and forth battle with Victor, Arnold Mercado and Tony Vega. Victor began to have issues with his ride and that allowed Arnold and Tony through. Between the two Arnold was on a career run and posed a threat to Frank if he even thought about a bobble. But for Over Killam that wasn't going to happen. Lap after Lap ever consistent with feedback from Sarnelle during the race Frank dialed it back a little with a few minutes till the end to make sure he made it on gas as he had the field covered with laps.

Hau-Ching Liao (5) - Steve Sanchez (7) - Anthony Varvare (8) - Bryn Foskette (1) - Fernando Jose (9) - Robert Sarnelle (2) - Hugh Lawson (4) - Steve Gerace (3) - Al Gerace (6)

The F1 race started with Bob Sarnelle leading the way for the first 7 corners until the curbs in corner 8 sent him flying into the catch fence. Going from first to last and handing the lead over to Hugh Lawson followed by Team Gerace, Hau-Ching Liao in 4th and Bryn Foskett in 5th. Gerace would get by Lawson and lead for a while. Bob would play the catch up game while Lawson, Gerace and Foskett traded places with Foskett mounting his ultimate charge for the top spot. As the announcer commented with his Duck Tail wing he had his car hooked up and worked his way speedily to the top spot. But maybe too speedily. As the race time came to an end, Bryn ran out of gas at the 29 minute mark. But he had done enough damage to the field that he still finished 1 lap ahead of second place finisher Bob Sarnelle. Hau-Ching Liao would finish 3rd. Steve Gerace 4th and Al Gerace 5th.

Ty Lam (5) - Huan-Ching Liao (8) - Robert Sarnelle (3) - Dan Kim (1) - Terry Campbell (Bump) - Larry Bani (4) - Daniel Colhour (6) - Tony Nguyen (Bump)

The 4WD race started with pole sitter Dan Kim leading the first part of the race and looked like he was going to be untouchable for the win. As Dan had issues and Bob having a similar start he had in the F1 race it was up for grabs for the end of this race. As Dan's issue mounted Larry Bani got closer to number one and Bob Sarnelle mounting another run from the rear got closer. Larry and Bob got closer and Dan continued to have issues. Huan-Ching Liao ran his pace and let the race come to him. Your top five in the 4WD A Main were Larry Bani, Robert Sarnelle, Huan-Ching Liao, Tony Nguyen and Daniel Colhour.

4WD		F1		STC

Dan Kim	16.901	Hugh Lawson	18.189	Frank Killam	16.843
Larry Bani	17.466	Bryn Foskett	18.271	Victor Garcia	17.022
Todd Rizzo	17.504	Robert Sarnelle	18.426	Arnold Mercado	17.123
Robert Sarnelle	17.780	Steve Gerace	18.631	Tony Vega	17.228
Eric Vasutin	18.005	Steve Sanchez	19.029	Cedric Collins	17.451
Tony Faria	18.151	Hau-Ching Liao	19.201	Mike Tollner	17.590
Jojo Bayabo	18.614	Jose Fernando	19.224	Bryn Foskett	17.700
Huan-Ching Liao	18.678	Tim Gerace	19.602	Todd Rizzo	17.853
Tony Foskett	18.834	Al Gerace	19.888	Dan Kim	18.211
Ty Lam	18.897	Anthony Varvare	20.721	Hugh Lawson	18.286
Kenny Kimbrow	19.086			Steve Gerace	18.329
Daniel Colhour	19.140			Charlie Mostek	18.481
Terry Campbell	19.269			Daniel Colhour	18.864
Byron Soublet	19.385			Hau-Ching Liao	18.950
Henry Cruz	19.487			Tony Nguyen	18.982
Tony Nguyen	19.802			Huan-Ching Liao	19.603
Marc Drennen	20.074			Steve Sanchez	19.679
Jo Montes	20.837			Al Gerace	20.258
Bill Margolis	20.939

The track conditions for the 5th scalers was not the greatest. The combination of the overcast day, all the foam and oil from the Nitro guys (plus the early morning mist) made for and interesting event. Round 2 Victor got the TQ and couldn't better the run in round 3 or 4. Frank Pena and James Stuard continued to make adjustments to their cars but it was Tom Wong that came out of no where in Round 2 to grab the second place on the grid. Completing the top 5 was Cedric Collins (4th) and James Stuard (5th).

The race would start off with a bang, literally as Tom got into the back of Victor which bottled up Frank and let Cedric and James through. Cedric hounded leader Tom trying to get by for the first three laps until something started not feeling right. The car was good in the infield but down the straight it began to lose power at the halfway mark. This allowed Victor and Frank to catch up quickly. After both got by he retired the car. Victor now on a mission seeking out his punter...lol. The track was still a handful and Victor made quick work of getting by Tom. Frank ran a consistent 2nd place for the latter half of the race. James and Kenneth Watkins would finish on the same lap with James getting 3rd.

What you never want to happen to your 5th scale....Check it out Same as above but you can expand

Everyone is starting to put in the work to get ready for the International Challenge. This year will have its biggest contingent of Euro's, South American's and Dominican Republicans. Victor Garcia had his Mecatech dialed in and running his new tuned pipe and was on fire but failed to make the distance of the 20 minute main. Maybe the extended warmup came into play but that didn't hurt him from taking the win. Ced Collins (Mecatech) starting last came back to pass Frank Pena (Mecatech) at the line to take second. Craig Kaplan (FG Evo), who was running solidly in second the first half of the race would come home in fourth. James Stuard would come home in 5th in his new Mecatech.

The So Cal rematch of the No Cal race the RAMS Club came to establish their dominance in the West Coast 5th scale area. But a few So Cal drivers had a say in the matter. Victor Garcia was TQ in the STC class Tom Wong TQ in the GT class and Cedric Collins TQ in the F1 class. Now TQ doesn't always translate to a win. Frank Killam won STC, David Bellinger won GT and Hau-Ching Liao (No Cal) won F1.

The IGT class was won by Robbie Corrato and the unlimited Bikes by Litto Reyes and the Stock Handout as well.

IGT F1 STC GT Unl / Handout
Robbie Corrato Hau-Ching Liao Frank Killam David Bellinger Lito Reyes