The Story
This year’s PN Racing Mini-Z World Cup was held at R/C Madness, in Enfield CT. Over 50 racers from different locations in all over the United States and Europe showed up, providing over 130 entries in 5 different racing categories. The classes available to compete this year were 2WD stock, AWD Stock, F1 Stock, Pan Car Modified, and the cream of the crop, Touring Modified which was a mix of 2WD and AWD modified cars.
Meet the Contestants
Early on in practice it was apparent the Spaniards were quick. Spain and Portugal have some of the best organized and largest Mini-Z racing clubs in the world. From the United States, we had Houstonians Cristian Tabush and Jacob Feinstein, from Team AtomicMods.com. It was obvious from the start that the Team AtomicMods cars were totally dialed in.
Slippery Track
Most drivers, especially those running Touring Modified with the MR02 had a lot of trouble hooking up on the brand new RCP track. This is because RCP tracks have a lot of fine foam particles when new that reduce grip. After you drive on it a while the track will improve, which was apparent over the weekend.
Qualifiers Round 1
Saturday came along and qualifying started. Early on Noe Miralta was the pace setter in 2WD stock, AWD stock and Touring Modified. In F1 it seemed Bill Crotty Jr, with his MR02 tire set-up was the man to beat. In Pan Car Modified, Jacob Feinstein dominated from the start and never let-up. Other quick vehicles, but with some bad luck were Cristian’s modified Touring car and Miguel Carvalho, from Portugal in Modified as well.
Qualifiers Round 2
In the second round of qualifying, things started to get shaken up a bit. Cristian Tabush managed to turn a very fast qualifier in AWD stock, which would put him second on the grid while still having a lot of trouble during the race. In Touring Modified, Miguel Carvalho managed to run a 47 lap run in 8:08, followed by Uri Valde with a 47/8:09 and Cristian with a 47/ 8:10, very close racing indeed. In the other 3 categories, nothing really changed. So at the end of the first day it was Noe Miralta, top qualifier for 2WD stock and AWD stock, Jacob Feinstein in Pan Car Modified, Bill Crotty Jr. TQ in Formula 1 and Miguel Carvalho in Touring Modified.
Team AtomicMods Top Qualifiers
The final round of qualifying was still to be run, and with the ever-increasing grip, lap times were dropping and TQ’s being shaken up. In 2WD stock, Jacob Feinstein, the 15 year old hot-shoe from AtomicMods.com found his groove and shattered the current TQ of 45/8:06, with a blistering 45/8:01. In Stock AWD the black Mclaren GTR of Cristian Tabush was on a mission, turning fast lap after fast lap nearly lapping the field during the qualifying run. After the dust had settled, Cristian had TQ’d the very competitive AWD stock class by nearly a lap. His time 46/8:05. In Pan Car Modified, Jacob Feinstein continued to dominate, turning a high 47 lap run, about 4 laps above second place; while in touring Modified, it was again AtomicMods's very own Cristian Tabush setting the pace, running nearly 48 laps finishing with a 47/8:03, about 5 seconds above second place, Miguel Carvalho, the Portuguese young gun. After the dust settled it was 4 out of 5 TQ's for Team Atomicmods, not bad for a first outing.
Rotten to the Core
Lots of trouble with the Core lap timing system caused severe delays and forced Phillip Ng, from PN Racing to go without triple A-mains. Although a bit controversial, it provided for some exciting racing all day on Sunday. Not having triple A-mains provided some great results for some, and disappointing ones for others.
F-1
The first A main to be run was the F1 stock main. Of the buzzer, Bill Crotty Jr. took the holeshot and started to check out. A little bit of trouble a couple of minutes in to the race allowed New York’s Sai Tam to take over the lead, followed by Bill and Carlos Conceicao from Portugal. In the meantime, second qualifier, Cristian Tabush, who had a horrible start worked his way through traffic. About halfway through the race all 4 front runners were separated by a matter of seconds, all freight-training down the straightaway. Cristian managed to make a couple of clean passes and found himself running down top Qualifier, Bill Crotty Jr, who had inherited the lead. Just as Cristian was on his bumper a corner marshall threw a lapped car right in front of Cristian, tangling both cars for about 10 seconds, dropping Cristian down to fourth place again. Bill Crotty then checked out and cruised in for an easy one lap win. It should be noted that Cristian sacrificed his position by allowing the field to pass him after bumping a couple of them, had it not been for this display of sportsmanship, he would have finished second.
2WD Stock
The 2WD stock class A-main was fairly uneventful, with our very own Jacob Feinstein running away with the race from the beginning. A Couple of swapped spots in the back led to Mikel Angulo, from Vitoria to secure the second spot followed by Mr 3rd place, Noe Miralta in 3rd. Jacob proved unflappable over the weekend, and the results showed.
AWD Stock
The AWD stock class was probably the most exciting one to watch. Pole sitter Cristian Tabush took off with the holeshot, easily opening up the gap. About 5 minutes into the race, Cristian lost a front tire, and had to get repaired. Cristian had managed to build a ¾ lead over 2nd place, Bill Crotty Jr. who had come from 4th on the grid to second. After Cristian re-joined the race, he found himself a full lap behind Bill Crotty Jr, and Noe Miralta, who had now taken over second. Cristian did some impressive driving, turning laps as fast as the modified touring cars in the A main had turned. He quickly got on Noe’s rear bumper and made a super clean pass in the center chicane to get his lap back. Next was Bill Crotty Jr. He saw Cristian coming and simply got out of the way, stating “ get your lap back, you are flying”. Cristian then ran down Spain’s Uri Valde, a very clean, very defensive driver to take over third. There was only a couple of minutes left and he still found himself about 8 seconds out of first. Lap after lap, he blistered the track, and eventually, with thirty seconds left in the race, caught up Noe Miralta passing him like he was parked. With 30 seconds left, Bill had a comfortable 4 second lead, which meant only a mistake would cost him the lead. Sure enough he drove steady and captured his second title of the day, and for Cristian, who was obviously the fastest guy out there, it was the second of his amazing come from behind runs, in which he just ran out of time. Cristian had gone from 3/4ths of a lap up, to a lap and a half behind, to finish only 2 seconds behind the winner.
Pan Car Modified
Pan car Modified was probably the least exciting of the classes, but not because of lack of action but rather because Jacob was so far out front that there was no contest. Jacob had dominated this class during the qualifiers and continued to do so in the main. He won by about 4 or 5 laps, it was an amazing display of driving. Jacob was simply in a class of his own. With 2 TQ's and 2 World Cup trophies, Jacob made Team AtomicMods proud. Not bad for a 15 year old huh?
Touring Modified
Touring Modified was the final A-main. Pole sitter Cristian Tabush was looking for a break, but this turned out to simply not be his weekend. After running blistering laps and Top Qualifying AWD stock and Touring modified in dominating fashion the mains proved to be something different. The buzzer went off and Cristian jumped out to an early lead. Coming around the lap counter, on to the main straight, Noe Miralta nudged Cristian in the back and flipped him over, leading to the whole freight train of cars to run over the top qualifier. Uri Valde inherited the lead and started pulling away, with Noe in tow. In the meantime, Miguel Carvalho, started creeping up catching the two leaders. Easily, Miguel found a way around both Uri and Noe, pulling away slowly. In the back Cristian Tabush was playing catch-up again, which seemed to be his theme for the weekend. Slowly picking off cars one by one in an amazing display of control at high speeds. It took a little bit longer than usual, with everybody running really clean laps. Cristian eventually managed to get up top fourth right behind Noe, Uri and Miguel. Carefully, he managed to get around Noe, with sounds of "ooohhs" and "ahhhs" in the audience. Running down Uri was a different story, with Cristian behind him, Uri began driving to protect his position instead of running down the leader. This seemed to cost both dearly as they both committed a couple of mistakes trying to claim second place. Miguel managed to pull away, running smoothly and consistently and although not as fast as Cristian established a commanding lead, too large to overcome. Cristian finally got around Uri, but on the last lap, the tire trolls struck again, costing him over a lap again making him finish in 5th overall. In the end, the young Portuguese star, Miguel Carvalho finished first, followed by Uri Valde from Spain and Noe Miralta in Third.
Single A Mains
This years’ race was a bit chaotic, but the racing was very intense. The decision to go single A mains proved controversial as it gave the element of chance much more sway than the standard triple A-main format. This greatly affected the outcome for the racers; some for good, and some for bad. Overall, it was a good weekend though, providing some good drama, unexpected results and a lot of fun. Rob was up to his usual antics, pulling pranks, helping racers in the pits and talking tech. He also brought 3 video cameras and shot a lot of footage of the race. The level of mini Z driving skill that European drivers displayed was impressive, and we all got a kick out of their boisterous camaraderie. Although the absolutely fastest guys and winners of the majority of the classes were American, the A-mains were filled with European drivers from top to bottom.
Team AtomicMods
AtomicMods' Jacob Feinstein brought home 2 first place trophies in an amazing display of composure and driving skills, and unfortunately some tough luck in the mains cost Cristian dearly, however it didn’t keep him from setting absolutely the fastest laps in each class he entered as well as being the top qualifier in the 2 of the 3 most competitive classes; Touring Modified and AWD Stock. His AWD Modified, AWD Stock and F-1 cars were the fastest on the track, hands down. In the end we captured 4 out of 5 TQ's and took 2 of the 5 classes, all in all it was a good event for Team AtomicMods.