Masters Of Dirt Indoor Championships – Report
The first ever Masters of Dirt Indoor Championships were held at BeachRC’s legendary Carolina indoor clay track and the storyline became immediately obvious; could local rising star Griffin Hanna hold off the proven talents of former world champion Steven Hartson to earn the first ever Master of Dirt title. Just a week prior the layout was flattened, as the ever evolving venue played host to a dirt oval race, The Dixie Nationals. However a fast and flowing off-road layout had been carved out with plenty of whip worthy features available for the racers to test their equipment and skills. In Saturday’s qualifying Griffin Hanna’s feverish pace proved too much for the traveling Hartson to deal with. Griffin’s Serpent kits on JConcpet rubber were able to clinch top honors in Pro 2WD Buggy, 4WD Buggy, and Stadium Truck. Hartson would settle to start in the 2nd spot in those three classes, but with double 10 minute A-mains on the menu for Sunday everything was still up for grabs.
Prior to the start of the A-Mains on Sunday a Bash 4 Cash sprint race was held between the top 8 qualifiers in 2WD buggy. To add to the excitement just prior to setting the starting grid BeachRC’s CEO Brent Densford informed the racers that the grid would be determined by drawing numbers. Eddy Cordoba was last to draw and the wait paid off as he drew the 1st spot on the grid. However even starting off in the middle of the pack wasn’t enough to deter the young Hanna as he picked up right where he left off taking the big check in dominating fashion.
In all six of their shared mains Griffin Hanna used his TQ advantage and blazing speed to jump out to early leads. However Hartson’s rock solid consistency proved to be the winning recipe. It seemed like Hanna had more speed, however minor miscues were all the former World Champ needed to take the wins, sweeping the three premier classes of Pro 2WD Modified Buggy, 4WD Buggy and Modified Stadium Truck to take the first ever Masters of Dirt title.
The Stock 17.5 Buggy had Rudy Rico and Matt Olsen finishing first and second in all three qualifiers and they backed it up finishing in the same order in the mains. Local racer Austin Odum was able to win the battle with the rest of the field for third place honors.
In the 4WD SCT class it was all Matt Olsen who finished head of the pack with his highly modified truck.
The 2wd SCT class came down to a battle between young Alex Mueller and Florida’s Landon Lewis. Lewis held the lead through the early part of both races, but surrendered it at some point to Mueller in both mains giving Mueller the overall victory in this class.
The 2WD Open Modified Buggy class had a strong entry base and was defiantly going to be a show for all the spectators to see. These are the up and coming racers who are striving to make it to the top but just haven’t broke through yet. Walterboro South Carolina’s Austin Odom set the tone taking the TQ and then sweeping both A-mains.
As always the Novice class was fun to watch as it features the fun in RC and the newly involved racers to the hobby. Young Alyssa Garcia took her bone stock buggy and drove her way to an overall victory with a 1st and 3rd place finish.
Source: BeachRC [beachrc.com]
