2004 TCS North Ameri

Welcome TCS race fans! This is the page were you will see all the drama and excitement of the TCS North American Finals. There are four Tamiya National Titles at stake.

GT-1 Champion GT-2 Champion Formula 1 Champion Mini Sports Champion

There is also a grudge match to behold and see. Ten past champions from previous years will do battle to see who is the best of the best. Last year was the first year that this was done and Canada's Martin Crisp took 1st place. Can he repeat this feat? Nine past winners will try their best to de-throne him. The ten past champions will be racing head to head in what is known as the Reedy Race format. Points will be awarded for each round and a overall winner will be declared. These past champions will be racing Tamiya TA04's with spec tires provided by Schumacher USA (CS-27's) and spec motors provided by Novak Electronics (Super Sport Brushless Systems). This will be spec racing at its best. Driving skill and set-up will be key. The TCS Finals racers will be going through four rigorous rounds of qualifying to compete their way into the "A" main. The "A" main finalists will race 3 times to determine the overall champion. Stay tuned here as we will be posting standings on Saturday and Sunday as well as pictures of all the action and excitement. This year is not to be missed as there will be many close battles on the race track.

8/24/04 Update 3:30 pm PST. By popular demand, the entries are in and the heats are posted! Keep in mind that this is a preliminary heat set up as there could be changes during practice week.

Thursday Practice 8/26/04 Well, it's Thursday mid afternoon and it looks like everyone is trying to get their cars all dialed in. We have the guys from Michigan, Mark Rodney and Brad Palmer working hard to make sure their cars are fast. The Wisconsin crew led by Scotty Ernst and Marty Hageman are working hard to get their sons and daughters to the podium. The past champions, Rod Canare, Martin Crisp, Steve Williams and Scotty Ernst are plotting against 96 champ Fred Medel. The locals are also feverishly trying to figure what Tamiya Tire will work best. Stayed tuned as tomorrow the excitement is sure to intensify.

8/29/04 The Results are in!!!!!!!!! After Two exciting days of racing, we have four brand new TCS North American Finals Champions and a successful defending past Champion!

GT-1: Ling-Kang Tong GT-2: Ian Aquino F-1: Niel Rabara Mini: Troy Crabtree Past Champion "Throw-down winner": Martin Crisp

The racing Breakdown The qualifying and racing this year was a site to behold. On Saturday evening after three rounds of qualifying the guys on top were Ling-Kang Tong in GT-1, Ian Aquino in GT-2, Niel Rabara in F-1, Troy Crabtree in Mini and Martin Crisp in the "Past Champs grudge match Throw-down". Sunday saw one more qualifier, but it was not to be as no one in any of the classes mentioned above could beat the times set forth by the fast guys on Saturday. Many drivers were close as Deven White had the fastest mini in a straight line, Corey Lewis had the best handling GT-1 car, Juan Aveytia had the desire, George Canare had an equally fast BMW F-1 car and none of the past champs including yours truly had nothing for last years past champ thrown-down winner.

By far the best moment of the weekend was the fact that 10 year old Christian Lopez stunned the field as he willed his Ferrari F201 into the "A" main. Christian is the youngest driver ever to qualify into the "A" main in TCS Finals history. The first "A" main saw Neil Rabara and George Canare dual it out for the top spot, but the best part of the race was watching the crowd cheer on Christian Lopez into a third place finish. Christian put moves on people that just should not have been possible. Christian proved that he was going to be a factor and the field would have to get by him, which turned out to be no easy task. In the end after the three "A" mains had been run Christian finished 8th and we thank him for giving us a memory that will never be forgotten.

There were many other great moments this year and for now we will leave you with all the winners and a gallery of memorable pictures. We would like to thank all the racers for coming out this year as well as thank them for supporting the TCS Racing Series. We had racers come from Wisconsin, Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Washington, Michigan and Oklahoma as well as our own sunny state of California.

A special thanks goes to Novak Electronics, Scumacher USA, KO PROPO and Nissan of North America for sponsoring this fun filled event with their generous support.

A equally special thank you goes to Charlie Suangka for announcing a great race as well as to Scotty Ernst for stepping in and making the F1 "A" main a classic.

GT-1 Winners 1st: Ling-Kang Tong 2nd: Orlando Sherman 3rd: Corey Whiteman

GT-2 Winners 1st: Ian Aquino 2nd: Juan Aveytia 3rd: Kevin Michellich

F-1 Winners 1st: Niel Rabara 2nd: George Canare 3rd: Mark Tveten

Mini Winners 1st: Troy Crabtree 2nd: Deven White 3rd: Jarod Leis

Final Standings

Past Champion Throw-Down Standings 1st: Martin Crisp 2nd: Dan Garber 3rd: Rod Canare 4th: Fred Medel 5th: Scotty Ernst 6th: Derek Hung 7th: David Beale 8th: Steve Williams