Toys for Tots Race 2017 at Thunder Alley RC Raceway

On December 9th 2017 I attended the Annual Toys for Tots Race at Thunder Alley Raceway. I want to start by thanking Oscar Lopez for helping me set up my buggy the night before this race, I cant thank you enough sir! Thank you Buddy Blacksmith for the help in the pits, I am looking forward to the DNC!

The track was very high speed and required you to flow with the many ruts  and Gale force winds. It was a packed house with over 100 entries, and there was plenty of competition. 

Here is a shot of the drivers stand!

I had the privilege of pitting with the Buddy Blacksmith, Ryan Taylor, Ryan Pavidis, and Don Vinkemulder. I was lucky enough to get a lesson on buggy set up and racing techniques. Turns out my late night wrenching caused me to assemble the rear hubs improperly...

This is what it looked like walking from the track to the pits.

As the day progressed the track started to smooth out and groove in more on the long straights and big jumps. Other parts of the track continued to deteriorate and larger ruts formed.

Here is a shot from the top of the track.

There where two Double Doubles and a triple. This shot shows the straight leading up to the top of the track. At the top you would have to Double and then accelerate to make the massive step down Double that followed.

Here is a shot of some serious acceleration. This buggy was fully loaded and ready to launch!

After rounding the corner of the step down, you would immediately approach the Double to Triple. Here is a top down view of the section!

After all the huge jumps, you had this little berm into some double doubles and then a single double to a tabletop. The tabletop actually led to the straight away that was very high speed.

Here is a shot of the straight away and the pits. Everyone was very focused on their pit duties! You can see a couple buggies pushing hard down this section of the track.

Here is a video of my TLR 8ight 4.0 buggy in the C main. The buggy was super dialed all day long. The Oscar Lopez set up had the buggy performing great! I used AKA Soft Long wear Gridiron II tires on all 4 wheels.

Overall I had a great time at the Toys for Tots race. I got some valuable testing in and learned some important set ups. I only raced gas buggy this race and ended up getting 4th in the C main. I made some really dumb mistakes while trying to play the bump game and it cost me. I will be ready to crush it at the next race!

Thank you AKA and Team Trinity for all of your support with keeping my tires, motor, and batteries dialed.

-Matthew Garcia