2017 BGRC Spring Classic [VIDEO]

This past weekend the 6th annual Spring Classic was held in the greater Des Moines area, and for the 3rd consecutive year it was held at its new location, Bluegroove Hobbies and Raceway in West Des Moines. This three day event started with open practice on Friday, three rounds of qualifying on Saturday, and then on Sunday there was a last chance qualifier followed by all the mains. For this year’s event there were eight classes to compete in, and for the weekend we saw 171 entries spread out over 24 heats, with racers competing from not only Iowa but also Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, Illinois, and Michigan.

The layout for this year’s event featured a long straight away that transitioned to a sweeper, followed by a table top.

Then there was a small rhythm section, a short straight, another table top, a wicked off-camber section, then finally a small chicane.

The track layout was a good mix of features that was fun and challenging for everyone that competed.

Practice kicked off on Friday from noon to 9pm and the track and the pits were busy with action as drivers arrived, setup their pit space, and then prepped their vehicles to hit the track.

As drivers checked in they were also able to pick up their event decals courtesy of one of our sponsors, Stickit1Racing.

These decals featured a mini version of the event flyer and were found on driver’s rides, tool boxes, etc.

On Saturday the track opened bright and early at 7am for open practice till 8:30am. Then the track crew did some quick track maintenance followed by a driver’s meeting around 8:45am. Then shortly after 9am the first round of qualifying began for the weekend!

As qualifying got underway drivers were also able to pick up their raffle ticket for the large prize drawing later that day, plus their FREE event t-shirt courtesy of the event’s title sponsor, JConcepts!

Our generous sponsors not only provided some great door prizes to hand out (more on that in a bit) but many also send some of their decals to hand out as well.

These were set out in the hobby shop for racers, customers, and spectators to check out, and some of the racers got creative in how they were used too!

Since there were four rounds of qualifying for this race, to become the overall TQ for a class you have to finish as the top qualifier in three rounds, or have the best combined score after all of your drops.

By drops I mean that only your best two finishes out of four attempts were used for seeding your vehicle for the mains on Sunday. So after three rounds were in the books on Saturday, in a few classes we were able to determine the overall TQ already.

In the 17.5 2wd & 13.5 4wd Buggy classes, Team Associated/JConcepts driver Dreighton Stoub locked down the double TQ by finishing as the top qualifier in all three rounds that day.

In the Mod 2wd & 4wd Buggy classes, Team Associated/AKA driver Tom Rinderknecht also had a great of qualifying as he finished on top for all three rounds in both classes too.

And not to be outdone, in the Novice class driver Lucas Baker was able to capture the TQ by finishing first in all the qualifiers that day as well.

Between rounds two and three of qualifying, the racers gathered in the hobby shop to see what items matched up to their raffle ticket.

 

Many drivers received some awesome gear thanks to the event’s many generous sponsors!

After all the qualifying had finished for the day the track promptly closed by 8pm, and many racers went out for a late dinner and tuned in to watch the Supercross race that night in Seattle.

On Sunday the doors opened again at 7am for practice till 8:45am, and at 9am the fourth round of qualifying (called the last chance qualifier) began. Once qualifying was complete the sheets were printed for all the mains.

Each class featured a single A Main that consisted of 10 drivers. The top 8 were determined from qualifying that weekend and 9 and 10 seeds were the top two finishers in the previous lower main. The lower mains and the Novice A main ran for 5 minutes, while all the A mains were 8 minutes long. So that meant the A Main drivers had to adjust their gearing and driving strategies since up till that point the most they ran their car was a 5 minutes in qualifying.

During the mains, the most exciting races were the lower mains as drivers battled on the track for those coveted bump spots. But when the A Mains rolled around, six of the eight top qualifiers would go on to take the title for the weekend!

So that wraps up another successful Spring Classic! Thanks to the entire BGRC crew for running a smooth event, the many event sponsors for the great door prizes and support, and of course all the racers who were in attendance! The final results, videos, podium and additional images will be listed below. Till next time!

Novice (Sponsored By Legit Lidz)

1. Lucas Baker [TQ]
2. Casen Keller
3. David Pezzetti

Stock 2WD SCT

1. Cole Henriksen [TQ]
2. Clynt Coburn
3. Lee Conley JR

Mod 4WD Buggy

1. Alex Vanderbeek
2. Derek Wood
3. Mason Fuller

Tom Rinderknecht [TQ]

Stock Truck

1. Phil Knol [TQ]
2. Bradley Peterson
3. Clynt Coburn

Stock 2WD Buggy (Sponsored by Maclan Racing)

1. Dreighton Stoub [TQ]
2. Cole Henriksen
3. Kyle Gannon

Mod Truck

1. Drew Rubenking [TQ]
2. Neil Feneis
3. Will Brinton

13.5 4WD Buggy

1. Dreighton Stoub [TQ]
2. Caden Shay
3. Kaden Fuller

Mod 2WD Buggy

1. Alex Vanderbeek
2. Drew Rubenking
3. Mason Fuller

Tom Rinderknecht [TQ]

Use this link for all the videos I shot: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhq2k5C5pTbRUnJo_djY8iD2-EJyrH1mT

Use this link to view the results from the mains: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7eZqgLkf4fENGFRekhlTEdrZzQ/view

Use this link to check out the event images that JConcepts posted on their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pg/JConcepts.Inc/photos/?tab=album&album_id=10155253513683216