J concepts Clash
Lake Park
Lutz,Florida

The J concepts clash has become an annual event now in Lutz Florida for I think the 2nd year. I was unable to attend last year’s event due to trips to China, however this year I was ready to do some racing. The event is held in a State Park in Lutz, Florida. The surface is Georgia red clay, and if the sun comes out the traction is insane. This year though, we were faced with overcast, so there was very little sunlight and the track had a slick groove.

Practice:
Thursday was open practice and many top drivers showed up to run their cars. Ryan Maifield, Gene Hickerson, Jr Mitch, Ryan Eckert, Andy Smolnik, Tanner Denney, were all in attendance. I ran my Cobra car a couple times and overall the feel was pretty good. It had a slight push, but if the grip comes up it would come into its own. I was unable to run the Serpent Cobra truggy simply because it was not ready. I still have to put it back together from my local guys doing the durability testing.

Qualifying:
As qualifying rounds started I ran 2 flawless runs, however the M4 hole shot tires were working good, but lacked just a little steering and traction. In the first qualifier I ran my car exactly from the worlds and found it worked quite nicely. In the 2nd round I went to less anti squat and found that the car had a little better corner rotation.

As the third round came along the track really was not improving a whole lot, however I was going to try a set of m4 revolvers. This tire worked well but I do not feel it was as good as the hole shot. I finally had the truggy together and was ready to race it. I put it down with setup the local guys thought worked well. Unfortunately I had to use M3 tires cause that is all I had so I was already looking at a disadvantage there in traction. I put in a good solid run to make the top 5.. In the 4th round of buggy I went back to the holeshots and was able to put in another good run to give me 2nd qualifying position on the grid..In the truggy I ran again, but still had the m3 tires. I was able to put in another top 5 run and place myself on the grid in 5th position.

As main day came around we were plagued with rainy weather and unfortunately the track became so saturated with water , they had to call the race.

Overall I feel really good about the Cobra buggy and Cobra truggy. The Cobra truggy could have been better with softer tires, and in the end, the Cobra buggy was super stable, but could have used a little more steering.

Billy Easton
Team Serpent