St. Charles Racers Club hits the track in 2009 race car challenge

Courtesy photo

ST. CHARLES PARISH RACE CLUB. (standing) Dennis “DJ” Van Dyke, Todd Vierra, Tommy Talbot, Al Prieto Sr., Tyson Buras, Eric Hanson, Ronnie LeBlanc and James Scott. (kneeling) Alan Morton, Al Prieto Jr. and Mike Sheilds.

The 11-man St. Charles Parish Race Club just wrapped up the second of five racing events for the Louisiana R/C Challenge 2009.

The group, which is celebrating its twelfth year, has maintained the race remote-controlled car track at the East Bank Bridge Park in Destrehan ever since the club first formed.

“The track is taken care of by member of the SCR Club,” said member Tyson Buras. “We take pride in our track and in our club. And we thank St. Charles Parish for allowing us to have such a nice place to race.”

Buras and his team compete in both local and statewide competitions, and says that the most demanding part of racing is the actual maintenance of the cars and the track.

“The hardest part of racing would be setting up the cars, tuning the nitro motors and choosing proper tires,” he said. “And keeping effective hand-eye coordination while keeping the car on track and following the same line every lap.”

Buras says that the easiest part of the race-car world be purchasing supplies, building the cars and making new friends.

Here’s a man-to-man rundown of how the June 13 competition at the Finish Line Raceway in Lafayette panned out.

Al Prieto Jr.

Running in both “Expert Buggy” and “Truggy” classes keeps Prieto Jr. busy. He spent most of the morning in Lafayette breaking in his new Reedy .21 power plant and fine tuning his new RC8B.

After three 5-minute heats with both cars, he qualified for the “A-Main” in both classes - which basically adds up to 30 minutes of racing against the top 12 drivers.

Prieto Jr. finished second in “Expert Buggy” behind pro-driver Derek Guidry and finished third in “Truggy” behind Guidry and Cody Fruge.

James Scott

Scott has found his calling with “1/8 Electric Buggy” and “Truggy.” In Lafayette he was able to finish every qualifier and mains - a feat he hadn’t been able to accomplish in his nitro vehicles.

Scott’s smooth driving allowed him to finish in the top four in each class.

Eric Hansen

Running in both “1/8 Buggy” and “Truggy” class with his Hot Bodies D8 vehicles, Hansen was able to qualify in the “Buggy B-Main” and “Truggy A-Main.”

Mike Shields

Shields’ HB D8T Truggy ran great, but it just wasn’t dialed in for the Lafayette competition.

Traction was a problem for everyone, and Sheilds’ car wasn’t helped by all the hack abuse he was dealt, although he had a good showing in the “Truggy” main.

Dennis “DJ” Van Dyke

Van Dyke, who was running his pair of HB D8s - buggy and truggy, just couldn’t find the right set-up. He was still set-up for the Destrehan track. However the OPS engines ran great in the 95-degree heat.

Tyson Buras & Todd Vierra

Both ran their Electric Losi 8ight-Buggies and Electric 4-wheel drive buggy classes.

Allen Morton

In a very competitive “1/8 Expert Buggy” class, Morton was able to qualify in the “B-Main” and if not for a couple unfortunate breaks, he would have bumped to the “A-Main.” Good job Morton, driving a HB D8 Buggy.

Ronnie LeBlanc

LeBlanc ran two classes, “1/8 Electric Truggy” and “Spec Slash” class. LeBlanc held off a fierce group of guys in the “Slash” class to take third place.

Traig Clark

Clark proved that you can teach an old dog new tricks.

Upgrading to “1/8 Electric Buggy” was a good choice for him. Clark took the lead in the “A-Main” and never looked back with Losi 8ight-B winning the race wire-to-wire. Clark also won in the 4-wd Buggy too.

Bubbie Q.

Bubbie Q. is another old timer trying out 1/8 Electric Buggy (RC8e). This was his first time out with the 1/8 Buggy.

Tommy Talbot

This was Talbots’ first time out with his RC8Te and he ran great. He was once a fierce competitor in 1/10 scale electric.

Al Prieto Sr.

Running both “1/8 Electric Buggy” and “Truggy” Prieto Sr. finished in the top five “A-Main” in both classes. I had a great time with all the SCR racers, if you weren't there you missed a great time.